those calico lead mules belonged in his team last year, and he swore
he’d know them in hell, brand or no brand. When Archie announced the
outfit, lock, stock, and barrel, as belonging to Don Lovell, the old
buyers turned pale as ghosts, and the fat one took off his hat and
fanned himself. That act alone was worth the price of admission. But
when we boys were appealed to, we were innocent and likewise ignorant,
claiming that we always understood that the herd belonged to the
Marshall estate, but then we were just common hands and not supposed to
know the facts in the case. Tolleston argued one way, and we all pulled
the other, so they drove away, looking as if they hoped it wasn’t true.
But it was the sight of your life to see that fat fellow fan himself as
he kept repeating, ‘I thought you boys hurried too much in buying these
cattle.’”
The guards changed hourly. No fire was allowed, but Parent set out all
the cold food available, and supplementing this with canned goods, we
had a midnight lunch. Dorg Seay regaled the outfit with his recent
experience, concealing nothing, and regretfully admitting that his
charge had escaped before the work was finished. A programme was
outlined for the morrow, the main feature of which was that, in case of
pursuit, we would all tell the same story. Dawn came between three and
four on those June mornings, and with the first streak of gray in the
east we divided the outfit and mounted our horses, part riding to push
the cattle off their beds and the others to round in the remuda. Before
the herd had grazed out a half-mile, we were overtaken by half the
outfit on fresh mounts, who at once took charge of the herd. When the
relieved men had secured horses, I remained behind and assisted in
harnessing in the team and gathering the saddle stock, a number of
which were missed for lack of proper light. With the wagon once
started, Levering and myself soon had the full remuda in hand and were
bringing up the rear in a long, swinging trot. Before the sun peeped
over the eastern horizon, we passed the herd and overtook the wagon,
which was bumping along over the uneven prairie. Ordering the cook to
have breakfast awaiting us beyond a divide which crossed our front, I
turned back to the herd, now strung out in regular trailing form. The
halt ahead would put us full fifteen miles north of our camp on the Saw
Log. An hour later, as we were scaling the divide, one of the point-men
sighted a posse in our rear, coming after us like fiends. I was riding
in the swing at the time, the herd being strung out fully a mile, and
on catching first sight of the pursuers, turned and hurried to the
rear. To my agreeable surprise, instead of a sheriff’s posse, my
brother and five of his men galloped up and overtook us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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