young fellow on my ranch, and he was placed in
charge of the last herd. Great Bend was his destination, I instructed
him where to turn off the Chisholm trail,--north of the Salt Fork in
the Cherokee Outlet,--and he started like an army with banners.

I rejoined my active partner at Fort Worth. The Hood County cattle had
started a week before, so taking George Edwards with us, we took train
for Kansas. Major Hunter returned to his home, while Edwards and I
lost no time in reaching the Medicine River. A fortnight was spent in
riding our northern range, when we took horses and struck out for Pond
Creek in the Outlet. The lead herds were due at this point early in
May, and on our arrival a number had already passed. A road house and
stage stand had previously been established, the proprietor of which
kept a register of passing herds for the convenience of owners. None
of ours were due, yet we looked over the "arrivals" with interest, and
continued on down the trail to Red Fork. The latter was a branch of
the Arkansas River, and at low water was inclined to be brackish,
and hence was sometimes called the Salt Fork, with nothing to
differentiate it from one of the same name sixty miles farther north.
There was an old Indian trading post at Red Fork, and I lay over there
while Edwards went on south to meet the cows. His work for the summer
was to oversee the deliveries at the Indian agencies, Major Hunter
was to look after the market at The Bend, and I was to attend to the
contracts at army posts on the upper Missouri. Our first steer herd to
arrive was from Hood County, and after seeing them safely on the Great
Bend trail at Pond Creek, I waited for the other steer cattle from
Coryell to arrive. Both herds came in within a day of each other,
and I loitered along with them, finally overtaking the lead one when
within fifty miles of The Bend. In fair weather it was a delightful
existence to loaf along with the cattle; but once all three herds
reached their destination, two outfits held them, and I took the Hood
County lads and dropped back on the Medicine. Our ranch hands had
everything shaped up nicely, and by working a double outfit and making
round-ups at noon, when the cattle were on water, we quietly cut
out three thousand head of our biggest beeves without materially
disturbing our holdings on that range. These northern wintered cattle
were intended for delivery at Fort Abraham Lincoln on the Missouri
River in what is no