hurried around to him and both rode up at the same time, when the
vaquero blurted out, 'There's my horse's track.'

"'What horse?' asked the owner.

"'My own; the horse we lost two days ago,' replied the Mexican.

"'How do you know it's your horse's track from the thousands of others
that fill the road?' demanded his employer.

"'Don Tomas,' said the Aztec, lifting his hat, 'how do I know your
step or voice from a thousand others?'

"We laughed at him. He had been a peon, and that made him respect our
opinions--at least he avoided differing with us. But as we drove on
that afternoon, we could see him in the lead, watching for that
horse's track. Several times he turned in his saddle and looked back,
pointed to some track in the road, and lifted his hat to us. At camp
that night we tried to draw him out, but he was silent.

"But when we were nearing San Antonio, we overtook a number of wagons
loaded with wool, lying over, as it was Sunday, and there among their
horses and mules was our Mexican's missing horse. The owner of the
wagons explained how he came to have the horse. The animal had come to
his camp one morning, back about twenty miles from where we had lost
him, while he was feeding grain to his work stock, and being a pet
insisted on being fed. Since then, I have always had a lot of respect
for a Greaser's opinion regarding a horse."

"Turkey eggs is too rich for my blood," said Bob Blades, rising from
the game. "I don't care a continental who wins the egg now, for
whenever I get three queens pat beat by a four card draw, I have
misgivings about the deal. And old Quince thinks he can stack cards.
He couldn't stack hay."

"Speaking about Mexicans and Indians," said Wyatt Roundtree, "I've got
more use for a good horse than I have for either of those grades of
humanity. I had a little experience over east here, on the cut off
from the Chisholm trail, a few years ago, that gave me all the Injun I
want for some time to come. A band of renegade Cheyennes had hung
along the trail for several years, scaring or begging passing herds
into giving them a beef. Of course all the cattle herds had more or
less strays among them, so it was easier to cut out one of these than
to argue the matter. There was plenty of herds on the trail then, so
this band of Indians got bolder than bandits. In the year I'm speaking
of, I went up with a herd of horses belonging to a Texas man, who was
in charge with us. When we came along