ity occurred for a delivery of cattle to the
post. Ours were the only beeves in sight, those of Captain Burleson
not qualifying, and a round-up was made and the herd tendered for
inspection. Only eight hundred were received, which was quite a
disappointment to the drovers, as at least ninety per cent of the
tender filled every qualification. The motive in receiving the few
soon became apparent, when a stranger appeared and offered to buy the
remaining seven hundred at a ridiculously low figure. But the drovers
had grown suspicious of the contractors and receiving agent, and,
declining the offer, went back and bought the herd of Captain
Burleson. Then, throwing the two contingents together, and boldly
announcing their determination of driving to Colorado, they started
the herd out past Fort Sumner with every field-glass in the post
leveled on us. The military requirements of Sumner, for its own and
Indian use, were well known to the drovers, and a scarcity of beef was
certain to occur at that post before other cattle could be bargained
for and arrive. My employers had evidently figured out the situation
to a nicety, for during the forenoon of the second day out from the
fort we were overtaken by the contractors. Of course they threw on the
government inspector all the blame for the few cattle received, and
offered to buy five or six hundred more out of the herd. But the shoe
was on the other foot now, the drovers acting as independently as the
proverbial hog on ice. The herd never halted, the contractors followed
up, and when we went into camp that evening a trade was closed on one
thousand steers at two dollars a head advance over those which were
received but a few days before. The oxen were even reserved, and after
delivering the beeves at Sumner we continued on northward with the
remnant, nearly all of which were the Burleson cattle.

The latter part of April we arrived at the Colorado line. There we
were halted by the authorities of that territory, under some act of
quarantine against Texas cattle. We went into camp on the nearest
water, expecting to prove that our little herd had wintered at Fort
Sumner, and were therefore immune from quarantine, when buyers arrived
from Trinidad, Colorado. The steers were a mixed lot, running from a
yearling to big, rough four and five year olds, and when Goodnight
returned from Sumner with a certificate, attested to by every officer
of that post, showing that the cattle had winte