nd once each foreman had taken his number, he was waved
out of the herd. I did the selecting of my own, and with the assistance
of one man, was constantly waiting my turn. With all the help he could
use, Tolleston was over half an hour making his selections, and took
the only blind horse in the entire herd. He was a showy animal, a dapple
gray, fully fifteen hands high, bred in north Texas, and belonged to
one of the whole remudas bought in Dodge. At the time of his purchase,
neither Lovell nor Flood detected anything wrong, and no one could see
anything in the eyeball which would indicate he was moon-eyed. Yet any
horseman need only notice him closely to be satisfied of his defect,
as he was constantly shying from other horses and objects and smelled
everything which came within his reach. There were probably half a dozen
present who knew of his blindness, but not a word was said until all the
extras were chosen and the culling out of the overplus of the various
remudas began. It started in snickers, and before the cutting back was
over developed into peals of laughter, as man after man learned that the
dapple gray in Tolleston's remuda was blind.

Among the very last to become acquainted with the fact was the trail
foreman himself. After watching the horse long enough to see his
mistake, Tolleston culled the gray back and rode into the herd to claim
another. But the drover promptly summoned his foreman out, and, as they
met, Lovell said to his trail boss, "Arch, you're no better than anybody
else. I bought that gray and paid my good money for him. No doubt but
the man who sold him has laughed about it often since, and if ever we
meet, I'll take my hat off and compliment him on being the only person
who ever sold me a moon-eyed horse. I'm still paying my tuition, and you
needn't flare up when the laugh's on you. You have a good remuda without
him, and the only way you can get another horse out of that herd is with
the permission of Quince Forrest and Tom Quirk."

"Well, if the permission of those new foremen is all I lack, then
I'll cut all the horses I want," retorted Tolleston, and galloped back
towards the herd. But Quince and I were after him like a flash, followed
leisurely by Lovell. As he slacked his mount to enter the mass of
animals, I passed him, jerking the bridle reins from his hand. Throwing
my horse on his haunches, I turned just as Forrest slapped Tolleston on
the back, and said: "Look-ee here, Arch; jus