Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 18:52:11 -0700
From: dbrown@ggu.edu
Subject: Staking a Claim

STAKING A CLAIM

It was funny. somehow.  He was still a good-looking fellow, or so he'd been
told often enough, even if he was pushing forty so hard it was about to
turn around and hit him back.  But being butch and good-looking and a nice
guy didn't seem to make it any easier to find a friend.  There was only the
one saloon in town where men like him went, and he'd either been with every
guy who'd offered, or not been because he didn't want to.  New men came in
all the time, new hires on the surrounding ranches, or drifters from the
mines in the mountains, but Bill often wasn't interested in fellows of
their sort.  Most of them were young kids, and he didn't have much of a
hankering for the young ones, or else they were broken old buggers who
wanted the kids and would settle for him, and he didn't want that any more
than he did the other.  So when this older fellow, looking hale and
handsome and like he had a brain somewhere other than his pants came in
tonight, well, he'd been real watchful for a while.
	And the guy was a looker, at least in Bill's eyes.  Tall, taller
than Bill himself, with a shock of white hair and a thick, well trimmed
beard that was white on his jaws but still grizzled dark in his moustaches,
and grey eyes set deep under thick grizzled brows.  He was dressed like a
miner, boots to his knees, worn denim pants and shirt, a brown leather vest
under his dun- colored wool coat, a big faded blue bandanna knotted around
his neck, and a broad-brimmed brown hat slouched over his face.  He'd
ordered a drink and then taken a chair at a table in the back, watching the
crowd as it gathered for Saturday night.  He'd taken off his hat and
dropped it on the table in front of him, and his coat he slung over the
back of his chair.  The table where he sat was under the shadow of the
balcony above the main room, and he sat quietly, nursing his drink and
studying the crowd.
	Bill had felt an instant interest in the other man.  He had been
standing at the bar, and he had watched in the great mirror on the wall
behind it as the fellow came in and took his place.  Now he had turned to
stand with his back to the bar, one leg bent, boot up on the brass rail.
The man was off to his left, and Bill was careful not to look too often in
his direction.  He saw others among the regular crowd note the fellow's
presense, but nobody took the trouble to go up and start a conversation
with him.  After a long while, the man got up, leaving his hat where it
was, and his coat, and returned to the bar for a second drink.  He came and
stood close to Bill, waiting his turn.  The cowboy got a closer look at him
then.  He looked weathered, no, seasoned was the word that came to Bill's
mind. His clothes were worn but clean, and the man himself looked and
smelled clean.  Bill wasn't keen on days' old sweat.
	When the fellow had his drink, he paused and looked at Bill
deliberately, taking him by surprise.  He hadn't thought the man had
noticed him much, but maybe, he thought, he'd been wrong.  The fellow
didn't smile, but there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth, and then
he gave the younger man a slow wink.  And went back to his seat.  Bill had
stood up straight from his slouch at the bar then, about to start wending
his way across to the man's table.  Just then, Jack and two of his friends
came in, and they stomped right over, slapping him on the back and
generally carrying on.  Bill hadn't known what to do.  They weren't friends
of his, really, but in a small town and a smaller group like this, it
didn't pay to be rude.  And Jack was all right, just a bit rambunctious for
his taste.  Besides, he thought the other fellow might be watching, and he
didn't want to look like some spoilsport or something.
	Just then, the place started to really fill up, and groups of men,
laughing and joking and drinking and occassionally singing along with the
music, packed what was only a small saloon, and the crowd blocked Bill's
sight of the fellow.  Jack and his friends saw more of their cronies, and
shouted them over, and it was near to ten minutes before he could ease
himself off and try to work through the other men towards the table the new
fellow sat at.  Through a gap in the crowd, he thought he saw the man, but
when he got there at last, it was somebody else, a whole other group of
fellows occupying the chairs, and the miner not to be found.  He spent near
a quarter hour moving from place to place in the room, but he never could
see the man again and concluded he must have gone.
	Bill was pissed with himself.  He wasn't sure what he should have
done else, but he felt he'd lost the chance to meet the man and done it to
himself.  He was disgusted, and he pushed his way through the crowd and out
the side door of the saloon.  It was suddenly cooler, in the night air, and
darker in the side alley.  The only light was what spilled through the open
door of the saloon, and his eyes, unaccustomed to the dark, saw things
dimly.  Still upset with himself, he started to stomp down the alley,
headed for the livery stable where he's stalled his horse.  He'd only gone
a few steps when he heard the doors behind him swing open with a bang.
Turning, he saw Jack and three of his cronies come stumbling down the side
steps, laughing and yelling.
	"Hey, Bill," Jack called, and Bill stopped, a grim look on his
face.  The four cowboys strode up to him, and Jack put a hand on his
shoulder.  "Where ya off to, so early?"
	"I'm tuckered out with the noise and such," Bill said glumly.  "I'm
goin' home.
	"Aw, com'on, Bill, " Jack said, "don't go and do that."
	Bill shook his head and turned to go, but Jack tightened his grip
on his shoulder and tried to pull him back.  Bill was annoyed, and tried to
shake the other man off, but Jack held on.  Bill reached up and shoved
Jack's hand away, but, to his surprise, one of the other men, who had
mostly been joshing and shoving among themselves, said angrily, "Don't do
that!"  Bill glared at him.
	"Buzz off, you," he said and turned once more to go.  He didn't
make even a full step, however, before he was grabbed from behind and
dragged back.  Suddenly he found himself spun around, two of the men
twisting his arms behind him, and Jack standing up close, the man's
dark-bearded, handsome face close to his own.  He grinned nastily.
	"I asked ya to stay, Billie boy."
	Bill jerked and struggled, but the two men held him tight.  "Let me
go, you damned skunks," he said hotly.
	Jack glanced at the other men, still with that nasty smile, and
nodded.  To his surprise and anger, Bill felt rope bite into his wrists,
and he realized that Jack's third companion was tying his hands.  He fought
and struggled, but it was three against one, and in a moment his wrists
were secured.  Then, to his increased indignation, rope was flipped over
his head, and pulled tight, drawing his arms close to his sides.  He
struggled, knowing it was useless, but unable to stop himself.  As the
coils were pulled tight and knotted, he glared at Jack.
	"You no-good, rock-headed, white-livered excuse for a
maaaagulummmmmph!  Mugulummmmmmph!!"  Jack cut off his curse in the middle,
snatching a big wadded bandanna from his hip pocket and stuffing it into
Bill's mouth.
	"Mmmmmululummmmph!  Mugulllllummmmmpghghhph!" Even as Bill fought
the gag, the hand of one of the other men appeared over his shoulder,
holding another big bandanna balled up into a soft wad, and Jack took that
and forced it into Bill's mouth in front of the first.
	"Mmmmmph!  Mmmmmmmmmph!"  Bill felt half-smothered by the double
wads of cloth and his desparate shouts were choked off into muffled grunts.
From behind his head, one of the other men brought down a bandanna rolled
into a thick bandage and pulled it hard between Bill's jaws, dragging the
long ends back to knot them tight at the base of his skull.  At a hurried
order from Jack, the men dragged the now helpless Bill back down the alley,
ignoring his useless struggles and choked moans.  Half-way back down the
building, a wooden staircase rose up to the second story, and they forced
Bill with his back up against one of the supporting posts and bound him
there.  When they had done, they stood around their captive, grinning, Jack
in front of him, his hands on Bill's either shoulder.
	Above the tight bandage holding in his gag, Bill glared at the
other man.
	"Mugulmmmmph!  Muggggggummmmmph!"
	He jerked at the ropes that held him, but he was tightly bound and
helpless.
	Jack dropped one hand down and thrust it into the other man's groin
as the others watched.  Taking Bill's balls in his fingers, he began to
squeese.
	"You boys having fun?" a deep voice asked.
	The Jack and his friends turned quickly and Bill twisted toward the
sound.  The big miner from the saloon stood a few yards away, watching.
	"What's it to you, old man?" Jack said.
	The other man shrugged.  "Nuthin', if yer friend there don't mind
being trussed up like a calf." He grinned suddenly.  "Seems to me I've
played with more than one cowpoke who liked to be hog-tied for fun." The
smile faded quickly.  "But I ain't sure this boy's one of'em, and even if
he is, it didn't look to me like ya guys played fair with"im.  Four boys
against one boy ain't too square, to my way of thinkin'."  Jack's friends
had exchanged glances while the big man spoke, and now they looked at Jack.
	Jack glanced at Bill, who glared at him impotently above his gag,
and then back at the miner.  "He's a stuck up bastard," he said sullenly.
"Thinks he's too good for the likes of us, always acts uppity, and like he
knows things we don't."
	The miner smiled grimly and shrugged.  "Maybe he does, ya know?
But either way don't give you rights to truss and gag the boy like you
done.
	"Hell," Jack said.  "We were just funnin' him.  We didn't hurt him
none."
	As the two men were speaking, Jack's friends had eased themselves
around behind Jack.  Now one of them pulled at Jack's arm.  "Com'on, Jack,"
he said in a low voice.  "Yeah," another chimed in, "let's get goin', Jack.
Com' on."
	Jack looked over at Bill and then allowed himself to be drawn off.
Muttering amongst themselves, and glancing back at the big miner as they
went, the little group moved off towards the front of the bulding.  By the
time they had reached the side door of the saloon, they were laughing at
some remark of Jack's, and they pushed each other up the steps and back
inside.  Before he was last in, Jack called back, "He's all yers, buddy,"
and then gave a mocking yip and jumped through the door.
	Bill had watched them leave.  Now he turned and found the big miner
standing beside him and looking at him with an odd expression on his face,
half-quizzical, half-sympathetic.
	"Mmmmph."  Bill mumbled into the soft wads of cloth stuffing his
mouth.
	The miner grinned.  "Got ya pretty well gagged up, don't they,
son?"  he said gently.
	Bill, to his atonishment, found himself nodding.  The miner nodded
in return, and then srorked Bill's cheek with a gentle hand.  He shook his
head.
	"There's somethin' about a big, nice-lookin' boy like you, all tied
up and gagged up and helpless-like that does somethin' to me." His fingers
continued to caress the younger man's face lightly, stroking his cheek, his
jaw, his chin, the thick roll of the bandanna tied so tightly through his
mouth.  Strangely, Bill found the touch of the big man's fingers soothing,
and he seemed to forget the discomfort of the ropes and the gag.  He was
hardly surprised at all when the miner moved in close to him and embraced
him, wrapping one long arm around his bound torso, stairpost and all, and
cradling his head against his shoulder with the other.
	"Ya know ya're all right with me, don't ya, son?  even tied and
muzzled like ya are, don't ya?"
	Bill tilted his head back and looked into the man's gray eyes.  He
suddenly realized that his sex was hardening in his jeans.  Jack and his
friends taking him by force that way had scared him, but to be bound and
gagged with this man was different.  He had been tied, and gagged as well,
for love-making many times in his life, and knew he liked it, when he
trusted the man who trussed and muzzled him.  He was being foolish, he
thought, with this man, with whom he'd not exchanged even one word, yet he
felt himself relaxing easily into submission with the tall miner.  As he
thought this, the other man reached behind his head, and he felt the knot
in the bandanna tied through his jaws loosen.  The thick roll of cloth fell
away, and the miner tucked it into a pocket of his coat.
	He grinned at Bill.  "Come in handy, latter."  Then he gently drew
out the wads of cloth from cowboy's mouth, letting the younger man ease his
jaws.  Despite the relief, Bill realized he wasn't entirely happy about
having the gag removed.  The miner moved behind him and he felt the rope
holding him to the stairpost loosen, and then the miner was back in front
of him again, coiling the rope to sling it up his arm and over his
shoulder.  He made no move to free the younger man's hands and arms,
however, as the he straightened up.  With a grin, the miner took him by the
shoulder and turned him toward the foot of the stairs.
	"I've got a room up there, for tonight.  Ya wanna see it, son?"
	Bill looked up at the taller man for a long moment.  Then, slowly,
he nodded.  The miner nodded in return, and then guided him up the stairs
to the second floor back door of the hotel.  He took a quick look down the
dimly lit hall before leading the bound man inside and in the first room at
the back.  The man took off his own broad-brimmed hat, and his companion's
as well, and took them with him to drop them with his coat on a chair near
the door. Then he struck a match and lit the kerosene lattern that stood on
a little table beside the iron bedstead.  He returned to draw the other man
into his arms.  Bending down slightly, he pressed a warm kiss onto Bill's
mouth, crushing the man to his broad chest in a bear hug.  When he pulled
away at last, Bill's cock was harder then ever, and he pushed up against
the miner, eager to stay in his strong arms.  The miner grinned down at
him.
	"Ya're a handsome cuss, cowboy.  And that was a sweet kiss.  But
now ya know what I'm gonna do, don't ya?"  As he spoke, he stroked the side
of Bill's neck slowly with the strong fingers of his right hand.
	Bill nodded.  "Yeah.  Ya're gonna gag me."
	"That's right, son," the man said in a low voice, "that's what I 'm
gonna do, son.  I'm gonna gag ya.  Ya want me to gag ya, don't ya?"
	Bill looked up at the older man and realized it was true.  He did
want this man to gag him, and to finish tying him, and to take him on that
bed across the room, all tied and gagged and helpless in his big arms.  He
nodded.
	"Yeah, I want ya to gag me."  He said it softly, his eyes dropping
from the other man's gaze, a little ashamed at saying it out loud.  But he
knew it was true.
	The man bent down and kissed him on the mouth again, cupping the
back of the younger man's head in one hand and ruffling the short hair
above his neck with his fingers.  Then he crossed over to where some
saddlebags hung over the the footstead of the bed.  He took out a couple of
big bandannas and returned to where the bound man waited.  The other man
stood docilely, as eager and excited, now that he had acknowledged it, to
be gagged by this man as he had been angry and frightened to be gagged by
Jack and his cronies.  The miner took the wads that the others had used to
gag Bill from his pocket, and wrapped them up together in one of his own
bandannas to make an enormous wad of cloth.  Cupping the back of the
cowboy's head in one big hand, he thrust the wad into the younger man's
mouth, stuffing it fully in to pack his mouth solidly from throat to lips.
	As the gag filled his mouth, Bill felt his cock stiffen.  He moaned
hopelessly.  The gag was enormous, a huge wad of soft cloth.  He was torn
between the heart-quickening excitement he always felt when another man
gagged him this way, and the suppressed panic he always felt at his
realization that he was truly gagged now, silenced and helpless.
 As he looked up at the big miner, his jaws distended around the big ball
of cloth, the soft lobe of it just thrusting out a little under his thick
mustache, the other man deftly rolled his other bandanna into a thick
bandage.  Bending close to the younger man, so close Bill felt his warm
breath on his eyes, in his hair, the man pressed the middle of the bandanna
roll between his jaws, forcing the huge gag in deeper.  He was looking down
at his companion with an expression that made clear to the yoiunger man
that gagging him like this was a fierce and overwhelming need for him.
Bill felt his own arousal rise in response to the strength of the other
man's desire.  As he gazed up at the big miner, he felt the man wrap the
long ends of the bandanna around his head and drag them into a hard,
unyielding knot at the back of his head.
	For a moment, then, the miner held him, one arm cradling him
closely against his chest, the other lifted, the fingers of his big hand
gently caressing the bandanna bound so tightly through the man's gag-filled
mouth.  Bill looked up at the other man, slipping deeper into his own
arousal at being so helpless, so tied, so gagged, so utterly at the other
man's mercy, At the same time, his own excitement was increased by his
amazed and wondering realization at how strongly just the act of gagging
him excited his big companion.  He was somehow not surprised when the older
man suddenly began to drag him towards the foot of the bed.
	"I got to do it, son, I just gotta," the miner said in hoarse
voice, He pushed Bill against the bedstead and reached into his saddlebag,
dragging out several more bandannas and dropping them on the bed.  The
bound man surrendered gladly as the big man tied them, all three of the big
squares of soft cloth, over his mouth. Before, the man had done his work
methodically, slowly, with careful attention to what he was doing.  Now the
big fellow was almost in a frenzy.  He snatched up each big bandanna,
hastily folded it on the diagonal into a broad bandage, and tied it tightly
over Bill's mouth, forming a thick, triple layer of soft cloth over his
lips and around his head, sealing his mouth from nose to chin.
	Though he had been gagged before by men who liked having him
thoroughly silenced for love-making, Bill thought he had never yet been
gagged so thoroughly and so lavishly, nor by a man who so obviously found
the very act of stuffing and tying a huge gag into his mouth so arousing.
As the big miner finished knotting the third bandanna around the cowboy's
head, he pulled the younger man tightly into his arms and held him there,
crushed against his broad chest, stroking the fellow's thick hair with one
calloused hand.
	"Mmmmmph.  Mugummmmmph.  Mmmmph."
	Bill moaned helplessly into the soft gag, his face pressed close to
the man's neck.  He was beginning to loose himself into the caresses of the
man, into his helpless submission to the fellow's attentions.  As if he
sensed that, the older man guided him to the side of the big bed and half
eased, half forced the man down onto it.  For a moment they stayed that
way, the cowboy lying back half on the bed, gazing up with an almost
puppy-dog look of grateful arousal on his handsome face, the big miner
looking down at him with a look of tenderness strangely mixed with triumph.
Then the older man reached down and took off the other man's spurs, letting
them drop with a jingle to the wooden floor.  He swung the bound man's legs
up onto the bed.  From the head of the bed, he took down some rope.
Working again with his former methodical manner, he bound the other man's
feet together, lashing the rope around his ankles and then down between
them and under his bootsoles close against the heels and back up once more,
repeating this several times before knotting it off tight.  Then he used
another length to bind Bill's legs together below and above the knees,
securing the man throughly.  When he was done, he stood for a moment
looking down at the younger man.
	Bill was utterly helpless now, at the man's mercy, and he knew it.
The ropes Jack and his cronies had used bound his hands and arms behind
him, and the ropes on his legs were tight and unyielding.  The gag was the
most effective gag he'd ever met with, filling his mouth with a huge,
packed in wad of soft cloth that was bound in securely by the multiple
bandages of the miner's big bandannas.  He tugged at the ropes, excited to
feel how they held him secure, hardly giving in response to his
struggles. He took a deep breath and tried to shout, but the gag defeated
him, smothering his cry into a choked grunt.  The miner looked down at him,
and there was something in the intensity of his gaze that told him that the
man found his struggles immensely arousing.
	With a movement that seemed surprisingly agile in so big a man, the
miner climbed onto the bed and over Bill, to stretch out beside the bound
man and take him gently into his arms.  The dimlit lamp was on the yonger
man's side, so that the light shone on him.  For a long while, the older
man did nothing but hold his bound and gagged companion in his embrace,
gently stoking him on his head, his jaw, his chest, his belly.  It seemed
to Bill that for now, the miner was content with this possession of him.
To have him helpless in his arms, tightly bound up with lashings of rope,
thoroughly gagged with the bandannas stuffed and tied into his mouth, and
to caress him gently wherever he pleased, that seemed enough.  Bill found
himself staring up at the man in a drifting state of arousal that demanded
for the moment nothing more than to be as he was, tied up, gagged, helpless
in the big man's arms, soothed and yet excited by his slow caresses.
	After a long while, the big miner began to speak, his deep voice
low and controlled.  Bill, pressed so close, could feel the fellow's voice
rumble in his chest.
	"I'm gonna have ya, cowboy," he said softly.  "Ya know that, don't
ya, son?  I'm gonna have ya.  I've got ya all tied up now, all roped up,
hands and arms and legs all bound up with that rope.  Ya can't get away
from me now, cowboy, even if ya'd a mind to, but I'm sure hoping ya don't.
Ya don't, do ya, son?" He bent close to the other man, his bearded face
inches from his, his gray eyes staring down intently into the younger man's
blue eyes.
	Bill sighed and moaned hopelessly into his huge gag.  He shook his
head slowly.  "Umm ummmmmmph.  Umm ummmmmph."
	The miner smiled, showing strong, clean teeth.  "I'm glad, son,
real glad.  I want ya so bad, cowboy.  Ya're such a handsome galoot, so
tall and strong, but there's something like a kid about ya, and I like
that, cowboy."  While he spoke, he went on stroking Bill, who lay in his
bonds close beside him, helpless, silenced by his gag.  "Ya got a nice head
a' hair, cowboy," the miner went on softly, "I noticed straight off in the
bar, and that nice mustache over that sweet mouth of yers.  God, I'd like
to kiss ya again, son, but I want ya gagged like ya are even more, son, oh
my yeah, I want ya gagged."  He ran his fingers gently over the thick swath
of bandannas that were bound over Bill's mouth and around his head, sealing
in his big gag.  "Ya really are gagged, aren't ya, cowboy, that's a gag and
a half, ain't it?"
	Bill moaned.  "Mmmmmph.  Mugulummmmmmph."  As he did, he felt the
miner's arms tighten around him, and the man moved against him caressingly.
	"O cowboy," the big man said in a voice that held a tremor in it,
"when ya moan like that, son, when ya make them muffled up, gagged sounds
like that, ya get me so hot, so hard feeling, so damned excited, son, it's
all I can do not to take ya right now, right NOW," and he squeezed him
tight, "but no, son, I wanna take this easy and slow, ya're too good to
waste on rushing fast, cowboy." He stroked the man's thick hair back from
his brow, and simply feasted his eyes on the bound and gagged fellow, a
glow of deep arousal lighting up his face.  Then he began his caresses once
more..
	After a long moment, Bill realized that the man's touch was more
directed now, that the man's hard fingers were still gentle, but they had
begun to pause over his nipples and to caress them through his clothes.
Then the miner would run his hand all over his shoulders and side again,
and then he would bring his hand back to his nipples.  A few moments later,
the bound cowboy felt the older man pushing his vest aside, and working
slowly at the buttons of his heavy denim shirt.  The man slipped his hand
inside, and he gently pinched Bill's nipples through the rough cloth of his
longjohns.  Then he drew his hand out and returned to caressing the younger
man all over, and he roughed up the fellow's thick hair, rubbing the
strands of it between his tough fingers.  A little while later, his hand
slipped inside Bill's shirt once more, pinching his nips, a bit harder this
time, and he repeated these motions for a long while.
 The cowboy writhed in his bonds and moaned into his gag, but he was
helpless to influence the other man's pace, could only lie there and allow
the miner to stimulate him or not, as he pleased.
	Some time went past, with Bill growing slowly more aroused, and the
miner undid the buttons of the bound man's longjohns and slipped his hand
inside against his naked skin.  He had been silent for some time, but now
he began to murmur at Bill's ear again.
	"Fuzzy, ain't ya, cowboy?  Got a nice little crop a' chest hair,
ain't ya, son?  I like that.  I like that ya're a man, cowboy, even if
there is that bit of a kid in ya.  I like the kid in ya, yeah, I do, son, I
really do, but I like that nice fuzzy chest a' yers, too."  As he spoke he
rubbed his rough palm against Bill's nips.  The younger man's nipples were
tender now, from all the attention they'd received before, and even just
that slide of rough palm against them touched him off, and he struggled in
his ropes and moaned.
	"Mmmmph.  Mugulummmmmmph.  Mummmmummph."
	"O yeah, son, ya just do that, son, ya just moan into that nice big
gag I've got in yer mouth, cowboy.  I like hearing ya do that, I do indeed,
cowboy."  He pinched the bound man's nipples with sudden ferocity, and he
jerked helplessly in his ropes and grunted.
	"Mugugggumph!"
	The miner went back to gently caressing the other man's nips for a
while, and then he drew out his hand and caressed Bill's hair and throat
and shoulders once more, stroking gently.  He followed this with a sudden
attack on the man's sensitive nipples, evoking the reponse of struggles and
grunts again.  For a while then, he followed this pattern, alternately
caressing and pinching, at uneven intervals, so that his bound companion
was unsure what to expect at any one moment.
	After a time, the miner started to let his hand roam far down
Bill's side, stroking and palpitating, and squeesing the firm flesh and
muscles of his waist and hip and flank.  Once in a while, he gave the man's
side a slap, and Bill saw, through half-closed eyelids, that the bearded
fellow was grinning down at him.  A slap was usually followed by a gentle
caress of his nipples, but sometimes it was followed by a firm pinch, and
Bill twisted in his ropes and moaned into his gag.  His cock had been
straining hard in his jeans for what seemed hours now, and the big man had
so far not even grazed it.  Suddenly, on one long sweep of his hand,
pressed hard down his side, the miner slipped his big fingers into Bill's
groin and palpitated the other man's hard cock for a moment.
	"Gettin' hard, cowboy, ain't ya?  It makes ya hard, don't it, my
tying ya up all helpless, and stuffin' a big gag in yer mouth, and playin'
with ya like this?  It gets me, hard, cowboy, I can tell ya, real hard."
	"Mmmmmmph.  Mmmmph!"
	"Yeah, son, ya just keep moanin' into yer gag like that."  The big
miner squeezed Bill's cock once more, and then went back to caressing his
head and chest.  And then was back at his groin once more, He was gentle
with the other man's cock at first, stoking it firmly but slowly through
the man's jeans.  But after a time, he began to squeeze harder, and Bill
found himself encouraging the man, striving to press his groin against the
fellow's fingers and moaning into his gag.
	"I got ya almost ready now, don't I, cowboy?  Yer're gettin' real
hot and bothered, ain't ya, son?"  Bill found himself moaning into his gag
and nodding.  He was hot, as the man said, hotter than he'd been in a long
time.  The way this big man had made him so helpless, had bound him and
gagged him so that he was utterly at the fellow's mercy, and then had made
such long and half rough, half tender love to him, it had all raised him to
the edge of excitement.  He felt the man's fingers working at the buttons
of his fly, and then at the buttons of his longjohns, and then the rough
fingers curled around his hot and aching cock and squeezed it, and he cried
out into his gag.
	"MMMMPH!"
	The miner jerked him harder into his embrace and he pressed his
bearded lips close to the bound man's ear.  "I'm gonna take ya now, son.  I
tole ya I was gonna have ya for mine, and I meant it, and I am.  Ya're such
a good-looking cowboy, son, such a handsome buckaroo, and ya're gonna be
mine, I'm gonna have that sweet ass a' yers for mine, son, just fer me."
As he crooned this and the cowboy thrashed helplessly in the hard circle of
his embrace, the older man was slowly winding his companion over onto his
side and pulling him in close.  Bill felt the man unbuckling his belt and
tugging at his jeans, and soon the miner had pulled the heavy denim pants
down towards his knees.  Then he felt the man working at the buttons on the
back of his longjohns, and soon the flap of them was pulled away and down.
	As he took the firm muscle of Bill's backside into one hand, the
miner sighed heavily into the fellow's ear.  "What a sweet ass, cowboy,
what a sweet round ass ya got, cowboy, and I'm gonna take that ass, ain't
I, son, yeah, I'm gonna take that sweet as a' yers, and ye're gonna let me,
huh, 'cause ya ain't got much choice, do ya?" He pressed even closer to
younger man, his lips right against the his ear.  "Ya want me to take yer
sweet ass, don't ya, son, ya want me to?"  His voice was almost a whisper,
low and crooning.  Bill nodded his head and moaned.  The man's firm lips
kissed his ear, and then he turned Bill's head towards his own, and he
kissed the other man all over the side of his face, his lips hard, his
tongue soft.  "That's my sweet cowboy, yeah, son, ye're my sweet cowboy,
all tied and gagged and helpless like a calf, ain't ya, and ye're mine,
ain't ya?" Bill nodded frantically and moaned his submission into his huge
gag.
	Suddenly but for half moment only, the miner was gone.  And then he
was back, and Bill heard the soft plop of a jar opening, and then he felt
the miner's fingers slipping something cold and slick against his asshole.
He struggled a little, and moaned into his gag, but the miner held him
close with one arm while he went on greasing his asshole with the other.
First he simply rubbed his finger agaisnt the tight seal, and then he began
gently to work one fingertip inside, lightly and then more firmly prodding,
pressing insistently but not forcing.  Bill let him in, and then the finger
eased in deeper, and came out, and probed deeper and then out, and then it
was two fingers, and the cowboy tightened a little and moaned softly into
his gag.  And then he eased again and the miner slide his two fingers in
deep and probed and rubbed and Bill moaned with pleasure now.  The miner
eased out and in and then it was three fingers, but that eased sooner than
before, and then Bill heard the miner whispering into his ear.
	"I'm gonna have ya now, cowboy, ye're gonna feel my hot cock in
that sweet ass of yers, cowboy," and as he spoke, the bound man felt the
firm tip of the man's cock pressing against his opening, and then suddenly
it was in, and he jerked and moaned, and then the man was slowly, so slowly
pressing his cock in farther, and pausing, and pressing, and pausing, and
the cowboy found he was pressing back, and he felt the miner's lips curve
in a smile against his ear, and the man whispered, "O son, yeah, now ya
give yerself to me, all tied and gagged and helpless, but ya give yerself,
don't ya, O migod, ya've got such a sweet ass, cowboy, O migod, cowboy, O
son, O yeah, let me into ya, son, O yeah."  And as he crooned into Bill's
ear, he brought his slick hand around and took Bill's stiff dick in the
curl of his hard fingers, and he began to run his tight hand up and down
the younger man's cock while his own dick thrust in and out of his ass.
Bill's moans began to fade into whimpers now, and he pressed back against
the older man, who used his free arm to pull him in close, pressing his
thrusting groin hard against Bill's tough ass.  He felt the big man begin
to pump harder, and he whimpered into his gag, and he felt his own desire
gathering to a head in his taut balls, and then it was coming.  The miner
pumped in a wild quick frenzy into his ass, and Bill felt the man's hot cum
spurting inside him, and almost at the same time, as the man's hand
squeezed convulsively around his cock, he felt his own gism shoot up and
burst in hot streams from his cock, and he cried out and whimpered into his
gag and twisted in his ropes and the man's tight arm, and then he jerked
and spurted again, and then he threw himself back against the man and lay
there, spent in the fellow's embrace.
	For a long while, the two men rested there, clasped close by the
miner's arms.  After a time, the miner slowly eased his embrace, and he
twisted himself up to bend close over his companion.  He gazed down at Bill
for a long moment, saying nothing, just looking, running his deep gaze over
the man who lay so docile beside him, spent, satisfied, still tightly
bound, still securely gagged.  Slowly he got up, dragging himself across
the room to where a little wash stand stood.  He wet a towel in the water
from the pitcher, and came back to the bed with it.  Tenderly, stroking the
other man even as he did so, he cleaned the cowboy, wiping his front, and
his ass, and then wiping himself up before throwing the towel back in the
direction of the washstand.  For a moment more, then, he stood looking down
at Bill, who lay looking up at him, lost in his cum daze still, half
asleep, stunned at what had happened, aching to be held close in the other
man's arms again, wanting and yet not wanting the big man to loosen his
ropes, to take out his gag.
	The miner bent over Bill and began to free him from his bonds.  He
started at his feet, and he worked slowly, methodically, neatly coiling the
ropes when he had unknotted them and unwound them from younger's feet and
knees and chest and arms and hands.  All the while he had a quiet smile on
his face, and he paused a few times just to look down at Bill where he lay.
When the ropes were untied, coiled, and hung on the bedstead, he sat down
on the edge of the mattress beside the other man's chest.  Gently he
reached behind the fellow's head and untied the outermost bandanna,
loosening it and laying it aside.  He did the same with the next, and the
next.  And then he loosened the bandanna that was dragged back between the
younger man's jaws.  Finally he put long fingers in the cowboy's mouth and
tenderly eased the huge gag out.  Bill swallowed and wet his lips with his
tongue.
	"Wait there," the older man commanded.  He crossed the room and
returned with a glass of cool water.  He batted Bill's extended hand away
and gently gave the younger man a drink, a few sips at first, and then a
long draught.  Finally, the cowboy let his head fall back and looked up
almost shyly at the big man.
	"Thanks," he said.
	The miner nodded, and stroked his hair.  "Thank you, son."
	Bill looked up at him and smiled.  For a long moment they simply
looked at each other.
	Suddenly the miner stood up and started stripping.  He did so with
the same slow surety he had done everything else, and in a few moments he
stood naked beside the bed.  He had a firm, muscled body, broad and strong,
with a thatch of graying hair on his wide chest, and fur on his thick,
strong-looking arms and legs.  He bent over Bill.
	"Com' on, son," he said, "let's get ya outa them duds."
	"Can I stay the night with ya, then?" Bill said quietly.
	The miner, who had been about to pull off Bill's right boot, looked
up at him.  "Ya just try and leave, cowboy," he said gruffly, "and if ya
think I tied and gagged ya tight before, ya'll see how tight I can tie and
gag ya if I've a real mind to makin' ya stay."  Then he jerked off first
one boot and then the other.  As the miner pulled off his socks, Bill
reached to finish unbuttoning his shirt, but the big man leaned over and
pushed his hands away.  "Leave off, son, that's my job."
	Bill was surprised, but lay docilely as the other man took off the
rest of his clothes.  He stripped off the younger man's jeans, got him out
of his vest and shirt, and untied and laid aside his big bandanna
neckerchief.  He gave Bill a wink doing that which told the younger man
that he saw it as another bandanna for a gag.  When he reached to undo the
buttons of the younger man's longjohns, Bill felt a little shy.  But the
man simply unfastened the long row and then stripped the top back off his
chest and down, and heaved at him to get him to lift up and let him get the
underwear down his legs and off.  Completely undressed, Bill lay back, his
eyes dropped down.  He felt the older man leaning close and he looked up at
last to meet his eyes.
	The miner shook his head with a smile.  "Such a sweet-lookin' cuss,
that's what ya are, cowboy."
	Bill stared at the man.  "Ya're so handsome.  O god, ya're
handsome," he said feelingly, now that he could speak.  "An' I don't even
know yer name."
	The man held out his hand.  "It's Tom, Tom Ryker.  What's yers,
son?"
	"Bill Toliver."
	The man nodded, not letting go of Bill's hand.  He reached calmly
to take up one of his folded bandannas.  "Put yer hands together, son."
Wondering, Bill obeyed him, and Tom used the rolled bandanna to tie his
hands in front of him.  Then he took up another of the folded bandannas and
this he pressed gently between Bill's lips and knotted behind his head.
 "OK, son, up so's I can get ya under the blankets." Bill tugged slightly
at the soft bonds of cloth on his wrists and mumbled into the snugly tied
bandanna between his jaws.  "I ain't letting you get away, son," Tom said
quietly, and he motioned for the other man to stand up.  A bit clumsily,
Bill followed his order, and soon he found himself under the blankets.  Tom
blew out the lattern and then crawled in beside him.  The big man wrapped a
long arm around his companion and pulled him into himself, the younger
man's rump tight into his groin.  He settled himself close, his head
pressed against the back of the other's neck.  He nuzzled and tongued his
ear.
	"Come mornin', cowboy," he whispered, "ye're gonna get hog-tied and
gagged real good again.  But that hobble and bit will keep my sweet-assed
cowboy where I want him for tonight, right, son?"
	Bill nodded and pressed himself back into the big man's arms.
	"Umm hugummmph!"  he said into his gag.
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