scorned at ten cents an acre but a decade before were eagerly
sought at two and three dollars, and the cattle that he had bartered
away he bought back at double and triple their former prices.

How I ever weathered those years without becoming bankrupt is
unexplainable. No credit or foresight must be claimed, for the
opinions of men and babes were on a parity; yet I am inclined to think
it was my dread of debt, coupled with an innate love of land and
cattle, that saved me from the almost universal fate of my fellow
cowmen. Due acknowledgment must be given my partners, for while I held
them in check in certain directions, the soundness of their advice
saved my feet from many a stumble. Major Hunter was an unusually
shrewd man, a financier of the rough and ready Western school; and
while we made our mistakes, they were such as human foresight could
not have avoided. Nor do I withhold a word of credit from our silent
partner, the Senator, who was the keystone to the arch of Hunter,
Anthony & Co., standing in the shadow in our beginning as trail
drovers, backing us with his means and credit, and fighting valiantly
for our mutual interests when the firm met its Waterloo.

The success of our drive for the summer of 1880 changed all plans for
the future. I had learned that percentage was my ablest argument in
suggesting a change of policy, and in casting up accounts for the
year we found that our heavy beeves had paid the least in the general
investment. The banking instincts of my partners were unerring, and in
view of the open market that we had enjoyed that summer it was decided
to withdraw from further contracting with the government. Our profits
for the year were dazzling, and the actual growth of our beeves in the
Outlet was in itself a snug fortune, while the five herds bought at
the eleventh hour cleared over one hundred thousand dollars, mere
pin-money. I hurried home to find that fortune favored me personally,
as the Texas and Pacific Railway had built west from Fort Worth during
the summer as far as Weatherford, while the survey on westward was
within easy striking distance of both my ranches. My wife was dazed
and delighted over the success of the summer's drive, and when I
offered her the money with which to build a fine house at Fort Worth,
she balked, but consented to employ a tutor at the ranch for the
children.

I had a little leisure time on my hands that fall. Activity in wild
lands was just beginning to