de in the transaction. According to contract,
everything was to be ready for final delivery on the twenty-fifth of
March. The contractors, Camp & Dupree, of Fort Worth, Texas, were to
send their foreman two weeks in advance to receive, classify, and pass
upon the cattle and saddle stock. They were exacting in their demands,
yet humane and reasonable. In making up the herd no cattle were to be
corralled at night, and no animal would be received which had been
roped. The saddle horses were to be treated likewise. These conditions
would put into the saddle every available man on the ranch as well as on
the ranchitas. But we looked eagerly forward to the putting up of the
herd. Letters were written and dispatched to a dozen ranches within
striking distance, inviting them to turn in two-year-old steers at the
full contract price. June Deweese was sent out to buy fifty saddle
horses, which would fill the required standard, "fourteen hands or
better, serviceable and gentle broken." I was dispatched to Santa Maria,
to invite Don Mateo Gonzales to participate in the contract. The range
of every saddle horse on the ranch was located, so that we could gather
them, when wanted, in a day. Less than a month's time now remained
before the delivery day, though we did not expect to go into camp for
actual gathering until the arrival of the trail foreman.

In going and returning from San Antonio my employer had traveled by
stage. As it happened, the driver of the up-stage out of Oakville was
Jack Martin, the son-in-law of Mrs. McLeod. He and Uncle Lance being
acquainted, the old ranchero's matchmaking instincts had, during the
day's travel, again forged to the front. By roundabout inquiries he had
elicited the information that Mrs. McLeod had, immediately after the
holidays, taken Esther to San Antonio and placed her in school. By
innocent artful suggestions of his interest in the welfare of the
family, he learned the name of the private school of which Esther was a
pupil. Furthermore, he cultivated the good will of the driver in various
ways over good cigars, and at parting assured him on returning he would
take the stage so as to have the pleasure of his company on the return
trip--the highest compliment that could be paid a stage-driver.

From several sources I had learned that Esther had left the ranch for
the city, but on Uncle Lance's return I got the full particulars. As
a neighboring ranchman, and bearing self-invented messages f