ck, outside of what was stabled and grain-fed, braved
the winter, pawing away the snow and sleet in foraging for their
subsistence. A few weeks of fine balmy weather in January and February
followed the distressing season of wintry storms, the cattle taking
to the short buffalo-grass and rapidly recuperating. But just when
we felt that the worst was over, simultaneously half a dozen prairie
fires broke out in different portions of the pasture, calling every
man to a fight that lasted three days. Our enemies, not content with
havoc wrought by the elements, were again in the saddle, striking in
the dark and escaping before dawn, inflicting injuries on dumb animals
in harassing their owners. That it was the work of hireling renegades,
more likely white than red, there was little question; but the
necessity of preserving the range withheld us from trailing them down
and meting out a justice they so richly deserved. Dividing the ranch
help into half a dozen crews, we rode to the burning grass and began
counter-firing and otherwise resorting to every known method in
checking the consuming flames. One of the best-known devices, in short
grass and flank-fires, was the killing of a light beef, beheading and
splitting it open, leaving the hide to hold the parts together. By
turning the animal flesh side down and taking ropes from a front and
hind foot to the pommels of two saddles, the men, by riding apart,
could straddle the flames, virtually rubbing the fire out with the
dragging carcass. Other men followed with wet blankets and beat out
any remaining flames, the work being carried on at a gallop, with a
change of horses every mile or so, and the fire was thus constantly
hemmed in to a point. The variations of the wind sometimes entirely
checked all effort, between midnight and morning being the hours in
which most progress was accomplished. No sooner was one section of the
fire brought under control than we divided the forces and hastened
to lend assistance to the next nearest section, the cooks with
commissaries following up the firefighters. While a single blade of
grass was burning, no one thought of sleeping, and after one third of
the range was consumed, the last of the incendiary fires was stamped
out, when we lay down around the wagons and slept the sleep of
exhaustion.

There was still enough range saved to bring the cattle safely
through until spring. Leaving the entire ranch outfit to ride the
fences--several lines