ed me for my fears, referring to the time,
nineteen years before, when as common hands we fought our way across
the Staked Plain and delivered the cattle safely at Fort Sumner. He
even taunted me with the fact that our employers then never hesitated,
even if half the Comanche tribe were abroad, roving over their old
hunting grounds, and that now I was afraid of a handful of army
followers, contractors, and owners of bar concessions. Edwards knew
that I would stand his censure and abuse as long as the truth was
told, and with the major acting as peacemaker between us I was finally
whipped into line. With a fortune already in hand, rounding out my
forty-fifth year, I looted the treasury by contracting and buying
sixty thousand cattle for my company.

The surplus horses were ordered down from above, and the spring
campaign began in earnest. The old firm was to confine its operations
to fine steers, handling my personal contribution as before, while I
rallied my assistants, and we began receiving the contracted cattle at
once. Observation had taught me that in wintering beeves in the North
it was important to give the animals every possible moment of time to
locate before the approach of winter. The instinct of a dumb beast is
unexplainable yet unerring. The owner of a horse may choose a range
that seems perfect in every appointment, but the animal will spurn the
human selection and take up his abode on some flinty hills, and there
thrive like a garden plant. Cattle, especially steers, locate slowly,
and a good summer's rest usually fortifies them with an inward coat of
tallow and an outward one of furry robe, against the wintry storms.
I was anxious to get the through cattle to the new range as soon as
practicable, and allowed the sellers to set their dates as early as
possible, many of them agreeing to deliver on the reservation as soon
as the middle of May. Ten wagons and a thousand horses came down
during the last days of March, and early in April started back with
thirty thousand cattle at company risk.

All animals were passed upon on the Texas range, and on their arrival
at the pasture there was little to do but scatter them over the ranch
to locate. I reached the reservation with the lead herd, and was glad
to learn from neighboring cowmen that a suggestion of mine, made the
fall before, had taken root. My proposition was to organize all the
cattlemen on the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservation into an association
fo