oney or on other business.

Our capital stock was increased to two million dollars, in the latter
half of which, one hundred thousand was asked for and allotted to me.
I stayed on the range until the first of December, freighting in a
thousand bushels of corn for the horses and otherwise seeing that the
camps were fully provisioned before returning to my home in Texas.
The winter proved dry and cold, the cattle coming through in fine
condition, not one per cent of loss being sustained, which is a good
record for through stock. Spring came and found me on the trail, with
five herds on company account and eight herds under contract,--a total
of forty thousand cattle intended for the enlarged range. All these
had been bought north of the quarantine line in Texas, and were turned
loose with the wintered ones, fever having been unknown among our
holdings of the year before. In the mean time the eastern spur of
fence had been taken down and the southern line extended forty miles
eastward and north the same distance. The northern line of our range
was left open, the fences being merely intended to catch any possible
drift from summer storms or wintry blizzards. Yet in spite of this
precaution, two round-up outfits were kept in the field through the
early summer, one crossing into the Chickasaw Nation and the other
going as far south as Red River, gathering any possible strays from
the new range.

I was giving my best services to the new company. Save for the fact
that I had capable foremen on my individual ranches in Texas,
my absence was felt in directing the interests of the firm and
personally. Major Hunter had promoted an old foreman to a trusted man,
and the firm kept up the volume of business on the trail and ranch,
though I was summoned once to Dodge and twice to Ogalalla during the
summer of 1883. Issues had arisen making my presence necessary, but
after the last trail herd was sold I returned to my post. The boom was
still on in cattle at the trail markets, and Texas was straining every
energy to supply the demand, yet the cry swept down from the North for
more cattle. I was branding twenty thousand calves a year on my two
ranches, holding the increase down to that number by sending she stuff
up the country on sale, and from half a dozen sources of income I
was coining money beyond human need or necessity. I was then in the
physical prime of my life and was master of a profitable business,
while vistas of a brillian