leading into some hills, from which they returned after
darkness, having never seen a cow during the day. One trivial incident
after another interfered with seeing the cattle for ten days, when the
guest took his host aside and kindly told him that he must be shown
the cattle or he would go home.

"You're not in a hurry, are you, captain?" innocently asked the Texan.
"All right, then; no trouble to show the cattle. Yes, they run right
around home here within twenty-five miles of the ranch. Show you a
sample of the stock within an hour's ride. You can just bet that old
Tom Green County has got the steers! Sugar, if I'd a-known that you
was in a hurry, I could have shown you the cattle the next morning
after you come. Captain, you ought to know me well enough by this time
to speak your little piece without any prelude. You Yankees are so
restless and impatient that I seriously doubt if you get all the
comfort and enjoyment out of life that's coming to you. Make haste,
some of you boys, and bring in a remuda; Captain Stone and I are going
to ride over on the Middle Fork this morning. Make haste, now; we're
in a hurry."

In due time I suppose I drifted into the languorous ways of the Texan;
but on the occasion of Mr. Hunter's first visit I was in the need of a
moneyed partner, and accordingly danced attendance. Once communication
was opened with his Northern associates, we made several short rides
into adjoining counties, never being gone over two or three days.
When we had looked at cattle to his satisfaction, he surprised me
by offering to put fifty thousand dollars into young steers for the
Kansas trade. I never fainted in my life, but his proposition stunned
me for an instant, or until I could get my bearings. The upshot of
the proposal was that we entered into an agreement whereby I was to
purchase and handle the cattle, and he was to make himself useful
in selling and placing the stock in his State. A silent partner was
furnishing an equal portion of the means, and I was to have a third
of the net profits. Within a week after this agreement was perfected,
things were moving. I had the horses and wagons, men were plentiful,
and two outfits were engaged. Early in March a contract was let in
Parker County for thirty-one hundred two-year-old steers, and another
in Young for fourteen hundred threes, the latter to be delivered at my
ranch. George Edwards was to have the younger cattle, and he and Mr.
Hunter received the