d
returned to the herd, leaving three of us behind to bring in this last
contingent of our stampeded cattle. This squad were nearly all large
steers, and had run fully twenty miles, before, thanks to an angle in
a fence, they had been checked. As our foreman galloped away, leaving
us behind, Bob Blades said,--

"Hasn't the boss got a wiggle on himself today! If he'd made this old
world, he'd have made it in half a day, and gone fishing in the
afternoon--if his horses had held out."

We reached the Atascosa shortly after the arrival of the herd, and
after holding the cattle on the water for an hour, grazed them the
remainder of the evening, for if there was any virtue in their having
full stomachs, we wanted to benefit from it. While grazing that
evening, we recrossed the trail on an angle, and camped in the most
open country we could find, about ten miles below our camp of the
night before. Every precaution was taken to prevent a repetition of
the run; our best horses were chosen for night duty, as our regular
ones were too exhausted; every advantage of elevation for a bed ground
was secured, and thus fortified against accident, we went into camp
for the night. But the expected never happens on the trail, and the
sun arose the next morning over our herd grazing in peace and
contentment on the flowery prairies which border on the Atascosa.

CHAPTER V

A DRY DRIVE

Our cattle quieted down nicely after this run, and the next few weeks
brought not an incident worth recording. There was no regular trail
through the lower counties, so we simply kept to the open country.
Spring had advanced until the prairies were swarded with grass and
flowers, while water, though scarcer, was to be had at least once
daily. We passed to the west of San Antonio--an outfitting point which
all herds touched in passing northward--and Flood and our cook took
the wagon and went in for supplies. But the outfit with the herd kept
on, now launched on a broad, well-defined trail, in places
seventy-five yards wide, where all local trails blent into the one
common pathway, known in those days as the Old Western Trail. It is
not in the province of this narrative to deal with the cause or origin
of this cattle trail, though it marked the passage of many hundred
thousand cattle which preceded our Circle Dots, and was destined to
afford an outlet to several millions more to follow. The trail proper
consisted of many scores of irregular cow paths,