good drives the first two or three days; but after
clearing the first bottoms of the Rio Grande and on reaching the
tablelands, we made easy stages of ten to twelve miles a day. When near
enough to calculate on our arrival at Las Palomas, the old ranchero quit
us and went on into the ranch. Several days later a vaquero met the herd
about thirty miles south of Santa Maria, and brought the information
that the Valverde outfit was at the ranch, and instructions to veer
westward and drive down the Ganso on approaching the Nueces. By these
orders the delivery on the home river would occur at least twenty miles
west of the ranch headquarters.

As we were passing to the westward of Santa Maria, our employer and
one of the buyers rode out from that ranch and met the herd. They had
decided not to brand until arriving at their destination on the Devil's
River, which would take them at least a month longer. While this
deviation was nothing to us, it was a gain to them. The purchaser was
delighted with the cattle and our handling of them, there being fully
a thousand young calves, and on reaching their camp on the Ganso, the
delivery was completed--four days in advance of the specified time. For
fear of losses, we had received a few head extra, and, on counting them
over, found we had not lost a single hoof. The buyers received the
extra cattle, and the delivery was satisfactorily concluded. One of the
partners returned with us to Las Palomas for the final settlement, while
the other, taking charge of the herd, turned them up the Nueces. The
receiving outfit had fourteen men and some hundred and odd horses. Aside
from their commissary, they also had a calf-wagon, drawn by two yoke of
oxen and driven by a strapping big negro. In view of the big calf crop,
the partners concluded that an extra conveyance would not be amiss, and
on Uncle Lance making them a reasonable figure on our calf-wagon and the
four mules drawing it, they never changed a word but took the outfit.
As it was late in the day when the delivery was made, the double outfit
remained in the same camp that night, and with the best wishes, bade
each other farewell in the morning. Nearly a month had passed since
Deweese and I had left Las Palomas for the Rio San Juan, and, returning
with the herd, had met our own outfit at the Rio Grande. During the
interim, before the ranch outfit had started, the long-talked-of
tournament on the Nueces had finally been arranged. The date