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Imagine, my dear reader, riding your horse at the top of his speed
through torrents of rain and hail, and darkness so black that we could
not see our horses heads, chasing an immense herd of maddened cattle
which we could hear but could not see, except during the vivid flashes
of lightning which furnished our only light. It was the worst night's
ride I ever experienced. Late the next morning we had the herd rounded
up thirty miles from where they started from the night before. On going
back over the country to our camp of the night before, we saw the great
danger we had been in during our mad ride. There were holes, cliffs,
gulleys and big rocks scattered all around, some of the cliffs going
down a sheer fifty feet or more, where if we had fallen over we would
have been dashed to pieces on the rocks below, but we never thought of
our personal danger that night, and we did not think particularly of it
when we saw it further than to make a few joking remarks about what
would have happened if some one of us had gone over. One of the boys
offered to bet that a horse and rider going over one of those cliffs
would bring up in China, while others thought he would bring up in Utah.
It was our duty to save the cattle, and every thing else was of
secondary importance. We never lost a single steer during this wild
night--something we were justly proud of. This proved the last trouble
we were to have with the herd, and we soon reached the five mile divide,
five miles from Dodge City without further incident, and with our herd
intact. Here we were to hold them until turned over to their new owners.
This accomplished, our work was done and done well for this trip. Then
we all headed for Dodge City to have a good time, and I assure you we
had it. It was our intention and ambition to paint the town a deep red
color and drink up all the bad whiskey in the city. Our nearly two
months journey over the dusty plains and ranges had made us all
inordinately thirsty and wild, and here is where we had our turn,
accordingly we started out to do the town in true western style, in
which we were perfectly successful until the town had done us, and we
were dead broke. This fact slowed us up, because being broke we could
not get up any more steam and we had to cool down right there. We then
started out to find our boss, but that gentleman being wise in his time
and generation, and knowing we would soon all be broke, and would be
wanting more money