both moving out for Dodge City.
This left me with fully eight thousand miscellany on hand, with
nothing but my ranch outfit to hold them, close-herding by day and
bedding down and guarding them by night. Settlements were made with
the different sellers, my outstanding obligations amounting to over
one hundred thousand dollars, which the three steer herds were
expected to liquidate. My active partner and George Edwards took train
for the north. The only change in the programme was that Major Hunter
was to look after our deliveries at army posts, while I was to meet
our herds on their arrival in Dodge City. The cows were sold to the
firm, and including my individual cattle, we had twelve herds on the
trail, or a total of thirty-nine thousand five hundred head.

On the return of the first outfit from the west, some three weeks
after leaving, the herd of stock cattle was cut in two and started.
But a single man was left on the Clear Fork, my ranch foreman taking
one herd, while I accompanied the other. It requires the patience of
a saint to handle cows and calves, two wagons to the herd being
frequently taxed to their capacity in picking up the youngsters. It
was a constant sight to see some of the boys carrying a new-born calf
across the saddle seat, followed by the mother, until camp or the
wagon was reached. I was ashamed of my own lack of patience on that
trip, while irritable men could while away the long hours, nursing
along the drag end of a herd of cows and their toddling offspring.
We averaged only about ten miles a day, the herds were large and
unwieldy, and after twelve days out both were scattered along the Salt
Fork and given their freedom. Leaving one outfit to locate the cattle
on the new range, the other two hastened back to the Clear Fork and
gathered two herds, numbering thirty-five hundred each, of young
cows and heifers from the ranch stock. But a single day was lost in
rounding-up, when they were started west, half a day apart, and I
again took charge of an outfit, the trip being an easy one and made in
ten days, as the calves were large enough to follow and there were no
drag cattle among them. On our arrival at the new ranch, the cows
and heifers were scattered among the former herds, and both outfits
started back, one to look after the Clear Fork and the other to bring
through the last herd in stocking my new possessions. This gave me
fully twenty-five thousand mixed cattle on my new range, relievin