gon was a drawback, but
on reaching Ogalalla, an emigrant outfit offered me a fair price for the
mules and commissary, and I sold them. Lashing our rations and blankets
on two pack-horses, we turned our backs on the Platte and crossed the
Arkansaw at Dodge on the seventh day.

But instead of the remainder of the trip home by rail, as we fondly
expected, the programme had changed. Lovell and Flood had arrived in
Dodge some ten days before, and looking over the situation, had come to
the conclusion it was useless even to offer our remudas. As remnants
of that year's drive, there had concentrated in and around that market
something like ten thousand saddle horses. Many of these were from
central and north Texas, larger and better stock than ours, even though
care had been used in selecting the latter. So on their arrival, instead
of making any effort to dispose of our own, the drover and his foreman
had sized up the congested condition of the market, and turned buyers.
They had bought two whole remudas, and picked over five or six others
until their purchases amounted to over five hundred head. Consequently
on our reaching Dodge with the Pine Ridge horses, I was informed that
they were going to send all the saddle stock back over the trail to the
ranch and that I was to have charge of the herd. Had the trip been in
the spring and the other way, I certainly would have felt elated over my
promotion. Our beef herd that year had been put up in Dimmit County,
and from there to the Pine Ridge Agency and back to the ranch would
certainly be a summer's work to gratify an ordinary ambition.

In the mean time and before our arrival, Flood had brought up all the
stock and wagons from the settlement, and established a camp on Mulberry
Creek, south of Dodge on the trail. He had picked up two Texans who
were anxious to see their homes once more, and the next day at noon we
started. The herd numbered a thousand and sixty head, twenty of which
were work-mules. The commissary which was to accompany us was laden
principally with harness; and waving Flood farewell, we turned homeward,
leaving behind unsold of that year's drive only two wagons. Lovell had
instructed us never to ride the same horse twice, and wherever good
grass and water were encountered, to kill as much time as possible. My
employer was enthusiastic over the idea, and well he might be, for
a finer lot of saddle horses were not in the possession of any trail
drover, while th