rail _remuda._ Nancrede declined to stay at the
ranch and so joined our outfit on the down-river trip. We had postponed
the gathering until the last hour, for every day improved the growing
grass on which our mounts must depend for subsistence, and once we
started, there would be little rest for men or horses.

The younger cattle for the herd were made up within a week after the
invitations were sent to the neighboring ranches. Naturally they would
be the last cattle to be received and would come in for delivery between
the twentieth and the last of the month. With the plans thus outlined,
we started our gathering. Counting Nancrede, we had twelve men in the
saddle in our down-river outfit. Taking nothing but three-year-olds, we
did not accumulate cattle fast; but it was continuous work, every man,
with the exception of Uncle Lance, standing a guard on night-herd. The
first two days we only gathered about five hundred steers. This number
was increased by about three hundred on the third day, and that
evening Dan Happersett with a vaquero rode into camp and reported that
Nancrede's outfit had arrived from San Antonio. He had turned the
_remuda_ over to them on their arrival, sending the other two Mexicans
to join Deweese above on the river.

The fourth day finished the gathering. Nancrede remained with us to the
last, making a hand which left no doubt in any one's mind that he was
a cowman from the ground up. The last round-up on the afternoon of the
fourth day, our outriders sighted the vaqueros from Deweese's outfit,
circling and drifting in the cattle on their half of the circle. The
next morning the two camps were thrown together on the river opposite
the ranch. Deweese had fully as many cattle as we had, and when the two
cuts had been united and counted, we lacked but five head of nineteen
hundred. Several of Nancrede's men joined us that morning, and within an
hour, under the trail foreman's directions, we cut back the overplus,
and the cattle were accepted.

Under the contract we were to road-brand them, though Nancrede ordered
his men to assist us in the work. Under ordinary circumstances we should
also have vented the ranch brand, but owing to the fact that this herd
was to be trailed to Abilene, Kansas, and possibly sold beyond that
point, it was unnecessary and therefore omitted. We had a branding chute
on the ranch for grown cattle, and the following morning the herd was
corralled and the road-branding comm