Bestiary! (41 page)

But there were near three thousand head of stock up there, and their care now became a part of his, Tim Conroy's, responsibilities. He'd sized up young Slim Raynard and agreed with Hastie; the man'd never be a cowboy. He took orders too easily, as if he knew no better than anyone what to do.

Tim shook his head again. But for the moment it wasn't the responsibility he regretted. It was the man.
There
was
a
man who walked like he had wings on his back and didn't need the earth. Strange how empty that quiet man had left the ranch.

"Too bad. They don't make men like that no more."

Tim heaved the rake's teeth up, dropped them. For a moment his gaze focused on the sunset sky. A large dark object with wings wheeled across its glory and gold. But Tim was a ranch hand, whose cows never died on distant ranges. "Tracks in the sky" meant nothing to him. He couldn't even have said whether or not it was a bird, though he never realised that.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

GARDNER DOZOIS was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, and now lives in Philadelphia. He is the author or editor of seventeen books, including the novel
Strangers
and the collection
The Visible Man.
He is the editor of
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine;
he also edits the annual series
The Year's Best Science Fiction.
His short fiction has appeared
in Playboy, Penthouse, Omni,
and most of the leading SF magazines and anthologies. His story "The Peacemaker" won the Nebula Award for the Best Short Story in 1984, and his short story "Morning Child" also won the Nebula Award in 1985. He has many times been a finalist for other Hugo and Nebula Awards. His critical work has appeared
in Writer's Digest, Starship, The Washington Post, Thrust, The Writer's Handbook, Science Fiction Chronicle,
and elsewhere, and he is the author of the critical chapbook
The Fiction of James Tiptree, Jr.
His most recent books
are Magicats!,
an anthology edited in collaboration with Jack Dann, and
The Year's Best Science Fiction, Second Annual Collection.
He is currently at work on another novel, tentatively entitled
Flash Point.

JACK DANN is the author or editor of seventeen books, including the novels
Junction
and
Starhiker,
and the collection
Timetipping.
He is the editor of the anthology
Wandering Stars,
one of the most acclaimed anthologies of the 1970s, and several other well-known anthologies, including the recently published
More Wandering Stars.
His short fiction has appeared in
Playboy, Penthouse, Omni,
and most of the leading SF magazines and anthologies. He has been a Nebula Award finalist ten times, as well as a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and the British Science Fiction Association Award. His critical work has appeared in
The Washington Post, Starship, Nickelodeon, The Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America, Empire, Future Life,
and
The Fiction Writer's Handbook,
and he is the author of the chapbook
Christs and Other Poems.
His most recent books
are Magicats!,
an anthology edited in collaboration with Gardner Dozois, and
The Man Who Melted,
a novel. He is at work on a new novel,
Counting Coup,
and is editing a Vietnam anthology entitled
In the Fields of Fire
with his wife, Jeanne VanBuren Dann. Dann lives with his family in Binghamton, New York.