the outfit. That will be in addition to regular trail herd
wages."

"That's mighty white of you, Boss. But I reckon there'd be no
back-slidin'. The boys ain't admirin' the deal you're gettin'. I'm
tellin' them."

He took a step away from Lawler, and then halted, uncertainly.

"Lawler," he said; "you've been over the Tom Long trail--you know what
it is. There's places where we'll find eight thousand head to be a
mighty big herd. A herd that big will be powerful hard to handle in some
of them long passes. An' if they'd get in some of that timber we'd never
get them out. We've got twenty-eight men. If we'd have an open winter
we'd likely be able to take care of about three thousand head by
watchin' them close. Now, if we'd leave about three thousand head at the
Circle L--with four or five of the boys to keep an eye on them, that
would leave us about twenty-three or twenty-four men for trail herd
work. That won't be any too many for five thousand head of cattle on the
Tom Long trail. Unless you're figgerin' to hire some hands from another
outfit?"

"We're asking no favors," said Lawler. "We're driving five thousand, as
you suggest. I'm leaving the selecting of the trail crew to you--you
know your men."

At dawn the following morning the big herd was divided into about the
proportions suggested by Blackburn. The smaller section, escorted by
five disgruntled Circle L cowboys, moved slowly southward, while the
main herd headed eastward, flanked at the sides by grim-faced Circle L
riders; at the rear by a number of others and by Lawler, Blackburn; the
"chuck-wagon" driven by the cook--a portly, solemn-visaged man of forty
with a thin, complaining voice; the "hoodlum" wagon, equipped with
bedding and a meager stock of medicines and supplies for
emergencies--driven by a slender, fiercely mustached man jocosely
referred to as "Doc;" and a dozen horses of the _remuda_, in charge of
the horse-wrangler and an assistant.

It was the first trail herd that had been started eastward since the
coming of the railroad. To some of the Circle L men it was a novel
experience--for they had begun range work since the railroad had
appeared. There were several others, rugged, hardy range riders of the
days when the driving of a trail herd was an annual experience, it was a
harking back to the elemental and the crude, with the attendant
hardships and ceaseless, trying work. The younger men were exultant,
betraying their exuberance in variou