t that the
herd was not ready to pass upon. On his arrival, I was handling the
irons, and paid no attention to him until the branding was over for the
morning. When he introduced himself, I cordially greeted him, but at the
first intimation of disappointment from his lips, I checked him.

Using the best diplomacy at my command, I said, "Well, I'm sorry to
cause you this long ride when it might have been avoided. You see, we
are receiving cattle from both this and Dimmit County. In fact, we are
holding our herd across the line just at present. On starting, we expect
to go up the river to the first creek, and north on it to the Leona
River. I have partially promised the work to an inspector from Dimmit.
He inspected our herd last year, and being a personal friend that way,
you couldn't meet his figures. Very sorry to disappoint you, but won't
you come over to the wagon and stay all night?"

But Dr. Beaver, who understood my motive, claimed the privilege of
entertaining the deputy at Los Lobos, and I yielded. We now had a few
over twenty-four hundred beeves, of which nineteen hundred were in the
Los Lobos brand, the others being mixed. There was a possibility of
fully a hundred more coming in with the neighboring cattle, and Dr.
Beaver was delighted over the ranch delivery. The outside contingents
were in four bunches, then encamped in different directions and within
from three to five miles of the ranch. Taking Vick Wolf with me for the
afternoon, I looked over the separate herds and found them numbering
more than fifteen hundred. They were the same uniform Nueces Valley
cattle, and as we lacked only a few over a thousand, the offerings were
extremely liberal. Making arrangements with three of the four herds to
receive the next day, Vick and I reached our camp on the county line
about sunset. The change was a decided advantage; wood, water, and grass
were plentiful, and not over a mile farther from the branding-pens.

The next morning found us in our saddles at the usual early hour. We
were anxious to receive and brand every animal possible that day, so
that with a few hours' work the next forenoon the herd would be ready
to start. After we had passed on the first contingent of the outside
cattle, and as we were nearing the corrals, Dr. Beaver overtook us.
Calling me aside, he said: "Quirk, if you play your cards right, you'll
get a certificate of inspection for nothing and a chromo as a pelon.
I've bolstered up the Las