ed across to
the Nueces. We also learned that the attendance on San Jacinto Day had
been extremely light, not a person from Las Palomas being present, while
the tournament for that year had been abandoned. During our ride up the
river before darkness fell, we passed a strange medley of brands, many
of which Deweese assured me were owned from fifty to a hundred miles to
the north and west. Riding leisurely, it was nearly midnight when we
sighted the ranch and found it astir. An extra breeze had been blowing,
and the vaqueros were starting to their work at the wells in order to
be on hand the moment the wind slackened. Around the two wells at
headquarters were over a thousand cattle, whose constant moaning reached
our ears over a mile from the ranch.

Our return was like entering a house of mourning. Miss Jean barely
greeted Deweese and myself, while Uncle Lance paced the gallery without
making a single inquiry as to what had become of the horse herd. On the
mistress's orders, servants set out a cold luncheon, and disappeared,
as if in the presence of death, without a word of greeting. Ever
thoughtful, Miss Jean added several little delicacies to our plain meal,
and, seating herself at the table with us, gave us a clear outline of
the situation. In seventy odd miles of the meanderings of the river
across our range, there was not a pool to the mile with water enough for
a hundred cattle. The wells were gradually becoming weaker, yielding
less water every week, while of four new ones which were commenced
before our departure, two were dry and worthless. The vaqueros were then
skinning on an average forty dead cattle a day, fully a half of which
were in the Las Palomas brand. Sympathetically as a sister could, she
accounted for her brother's lack of interest in our return by his
anxiety and years, and she cautioned us to let no evil report reach his
ears, as this drouth had unnerved him.

Deweese at once resumed his position on the ranch, and the next morning
the ranchero held a short council with him, authorizing him to spare
no expense to save the cattle. Deweese returned the borrowed horses by
Enrique, and sent a letter to the merchant at the ferry, directing him
to secure and send at least twenty men to Las Palomas. The first day
after our return, we rode the mills and the river. Convinced that to
sink other wells on the mesas would be fruitless, the foreman decided
to dig a number of shallow ones in the bed of the rive