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Show CHAPTER ONE: JOHN K Drawing his large bone-handled pocket knife from his right front overall pocket John K opened it and carefully sharpened his indelible lead pencil. Then he proceeded to find a writing tablet among his few personal possessions in camp. Bracing himself upon the high part of the sheep wagon tongue he settled down to serious figuring. Figures had been running through his head continually for the past day or two, and putting them on paper would help him reach a conclusion. No doubt the greatest decision of his life faced John K that day, in late 1909, when he was six months beyond his thirty-seventh birthday. Had he been a younger man he may have found it easy to decide whether he should bid on a flock of 400 purebred Rambouillet ewes that were to be sold via sealed bid. However, he was not a young man and even though debt was against his principles, he had, about ten years earlier, been forced to rely on borrowed money to obtain 27 |
