as found."

If there was any recovery in the feelings of the outfit after this
talk of Flood's, it was not noticeable, and it is safe to say that two
thirds of the boys believed we were in the Pan-handle of Texas. One
man's opinion is as good as another's in a strange country, and while
there wasn't a man in the outfit who cared to suggest it, I know the
majority of us would have indorsed turning northeast. But the fates
smiled on us at last. About the middle of the forenoon, on the
following day, we cut an Indian trail, about three days old, of
probably fifty horses. A number of us followed the trail several miles
on its westward course, and among other things discovered that they
had been driving a small bunch of cattle, evidently making for the
sand hills which we could see about twenty miles to our left. How they
had come by the cattle was a mystery,--perhaps by forced levy, perhaps
from a stampede. One thing was certain: the trail must have
contributed them, for there were none but trail cattle in the country.
This was reassuring and gave some hint of guidance. We were all
tickled, therefore, after nooning that day and on starting the herd in
the afternoon, to hear our foreman give orders to point the herd a
little east of north. The next few days we made long drives, our
saddle horses recovered from their scare, and the outfit fast regained
its spirits.

On the morning of the tenth day after leaving the trail, we loitered
up a long slope to a divide in our lead from which we sighted timber
to the north. This we supposed from its size must be the North Fork.
Our route lay up this divide some distance, and before we left it,
some one in the rear sighted a dust cloud to the right and far behind
us. As dust would hardly rise on a still morning without a cause, we
turned the herd off the divide and pushed on, for we suspected
Indians. Flood and Priest hung back on the divide, watching the dust
signals, and after the herd had left them several miles in the rear,
they turned and rode towards it,--a move which the outfit could hardly
make out. It was nearly noon when we saw them returning in a long
lope, and when they came in sight of the herd, Priest waved his hat in
the air and gave the long yell. When he explained that there was a
herd of cattle on the trail in the rear and to our right, the yell
went around the herd, and was reechoed by our wrangler and cook in the
rear. The spirits of the outfit instantly rose. We