pped down through sheer
weakness, a thing which I had never seen before except in wild horses.

A number of the boys were attacked by chills, and towards evening had
to be excused for fear of cramps. By six o'clock we were reduced to two
squads, with about fifty cattle still remaining in the river. Forrest
and I had quit the water after the fourth trip; but Quince had a man
named De Manse, a Frenchman, who swam like a wharf-rat and who stayed to
the finish, while I turned my crew over to Runt Pickett. The latter was
raised on the coast of Texas, and when a mere boy could swim all day,
with or without occasion. Dividing the remaining beeves as near equally
as possible, Runt's squad pushed off slightly in advance of De Manse,
the remainder of us riding along the bank with the horses and clothing,
and cheering our respective crews. The Frenchman was but a moment
later in taking the water, and as pretty and thrilling a race as I ever
witnessed was in progress. The latter practiced a trick, when catching a
favorable current, of dipping the rump of a steer, thus lifting his fore
parts and rocking him forward like a porpoise. When a beef dropped
to the rear, this process was resorted to, and De Manse promised to
overtake Pickett. From our position on the bank, we shouted to Runt to
dip his drag cattle in swift water; but amid the din and splash of the
struggling swimmers our messages failed to reach his ears. De Manse was
gaining slowly, when Pickett's bunch were driven inshore, a number of
them catching a footing, and before they could be again pushed off, the
Frenchman's cattle were at their heels. A number of De Manse's men were
swimming shoreward of their charges, and succeeded in holding their
beeves off the ledge, which was the last one before the landing. The
remaining hundred yards was eddy water; and though Pickett fought hard,
swimming among the Frenchman's lead cattle, to hold the two bunches
separate, they mixed in the river. As an evidence of victory, however,
when the cattle struck a foothold, Runt and each of his men mounted a
beef and rode out of the water some distance. As the steers recovered
and attempted to dislodge their riders, they nimbly sprang from their
backs and hustled themselves into their ragged clothing.

I breathed easier after the last cattle landed, though Forrest contended
there was never any danger. At least a serious predicament had been
blundered into and handled, as was shown by subsequen