The Long Drift (Walker Western)

Casey Wills and Johnnie Lester had worked for most of the larger ranches in Texas at one time or another; both men had reputations as being great with horses and cattle. But like most cowboys, they tended to get into trouble whenever they were around women or liquor. As Casey put it, "We were better off once we got out of town because, as we had proven over and over, the battles we waged against the temptations of the flesh and demon rum were notably short and historically unsuccessful."
As much as Casey loved being a cowpuncher, drifting from one job to the next whenever he felt the urge to move on, he also had started to think seriously about putting down roots. So when Ike Holt offered Casey, Johnnie, and their friend Ab an opportunity to earn a lot of money, they jumped at it. All they had to do was round up about five hundred horses and get them up north by April - that's when the government was going to open up Indian Territory lands to settlers. The boys would sell them to the homesteaders, who would be desperate for livestock. They anticipated getting fifteen dollars a head with five dollars a head going to Ike.
The complexities of making hard choices - and living with the consequences - gives universal appeal to this funny, romantic, sometimes tragic look at life on the trail.