PREFACE THE OUTLET CHAPTER I. OPENING THE CAMPAIGN CHAPTER II. ORGANIZING THE FORCES CHAPTER III. RECEIVING AT LOS LOBOS CHAPTER IV. MINGLING WITH THE EXODUS CHAPTER V. RED RIVER STATION CHAPTER VI. CAMP SUPPLY CHAPTER VII. WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK CHAPTER VIII. EN PASSANT CHAPTER IX. AT SHERIFF’S CREEK CHAPTER X. A FAMILY REUNION CHAPTER XI. ALL IN THE DAY’S WORK CHAPTER XII. MARSHALING THE FORCES CHAPTER XIII. JUSTICE IN THE SADDLE CHAPTER XIV. TURNING THE TABLES CHAPTER XV. TOLLESTON BUTTS IN CHAPTER XVI. CROSSING THE NIOBRARA CHAPTER XVII. WATER-BOUND CHAPTER XVIII. THE LITTLE MISSOURI CHAPTER XIX. IN QUARANTINE CHAPTER XX. ON THE JUST AND THE UNJUST CHAPTER XXI. FORT BUFORD CHAPTER XXII. A SOLDIER’S HONOR CHAPTER XXIII. KANGAROOED CHAPTER XXIV. THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT THE OUTLET CHAPTER I. OPENING THE CAMPAIGN “Well, gentlemen, if that is the best rate you can offer us, then we’ll drive the cattle. My boys have all been over the trail before, and your figures are no inducement to ship as far as Red River. We are fully aware of the nature of the country, but we can deliver the herds at their destination for less than you ask us for shipping them one third of the distance. No; we’ll drive all the way.” The speaker was Don Lovell, a trail drover, and the parties addressed were the general freight agents of three railroad lines operating in Texas. A conference had been agreed upon, and we had come in by train from the ranch in Medina County to attend the meeting in San Antonio. The railroad representatives were shrewd, affable gentlemen, and presented an array of facts hard to overcome. They were well aware of the obstacles to be encountered in the arid, western portion of the state, and magnified every possibility into a stern reality. Unrolling a large state map upon the table, around which the principals were sitting, the agent of the Denver and Fort Worth traced the trail from Buffalo Gap to Doan’s Crossing on Red River. Producing what was declared to be a report of the immigration agent of his line, he showed by statistics that whole counties through which the old trail ran had recently been settled up by Scandinavian immigrants. The representative of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, when opportunity offered, enumerated every disaster which had happened to any herd to the westward of his line in the past five years. The factor of the International was equally well posted.