ained when one considers that in the
above year about four thousand men and over thirty thousand horses were
required on the trail, while the value of the drive ran into millions.
The history of the world can show no pastoral movement in comparison.
The Northwest had furnished the market--the outlet for Texas.

CONTENTS

I. OPENING THE CAMPAIGN

II. ORGANIZING THE FORCES

III. RECEIVING AT LOS LOBOS

IV. MINGLING WITH THE EXODUS

V. RED RIVER STATION

VI. CAMP SUPPLY

VII. WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK

VIII. EN PASSANT

IX. AT SHERIFF'S CREEK

X. A FAMILY REUNION

XI. ALL IN THE DAY'S WORK

XII. MARSHALING THE FORCES

XIII. JUSTICE IN THE SADDLE

XIV. TURNING THE TABLES

XV. TOLLESTON BUTTS IN

XVI. CROSSING THE NIOBRARA

XVII. WATER-BOUND

XVIII. THE LITTLE MISSOURI

XIX. IN QUARANTINE

XX. ON THE JUST AND THE UNJUST

XXI. FORT BUFORD

XXII. A SOLDIER'S HONOR

XXIII. KANGAROOED

XXIV. THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT

THE OUTLET

CHAPTER I. OPENING THE CAMPAIGN

"Well, gentlemen, if that is the best rate you can offer us, then we'll
drive the cattle. My boys have all been over the trail before, and your
figures are no inducement to ship as far as Red River. We are fully
aware of the nature of the country, but we can deliver the herds at
their destination for less than you ask us for shipping them one third
of the distance. No; we'll drive all the way."

The speaker was Don Lovell, a trail drover, and the parties addressed
were the general freight agents of three railroad lines operating in
Texas. A conference had been agreed upon, and we had come in by train
from the ranch in Medina County to attend the meeting in San Antonio.
The railroad representatives were shrewd, affable gentlemen, and
presented an array of facts hard to overcome. They were well aware of
the obstacles to be encountered in the arid, western portion of the
state, and magnified every possibility into a stern reality. Unrolling
a large state map upon the table, around which the principals were
sitting, the agent of the Denver and Fort Worth traced the trail from
Buffalo Gap to Doan's Crossing on Red River. Producing what was declared
to be a report of the immigration agent of his line, he showed by
statistics that whole counties through which the old trail ran had
recently been settled