ent. This was hostile ground. The Wacoes, Panes, Osages, and
bands from the Cherokee, Kickapoo, and other nations to the east,
occasionally hunted there, and sanguinary conflicts occurred among them;
so that one party or another often lost their season's hunt by the
necessity of keeping out of each other's range; and the game was thus
left undisturbed. It is a well-known fact that in a neutral or "hostile
ground" the buffalo, as well as other game, are found in greatest
abundance, and are there more easily approached than elsewhere.

With a knowledge of these facts, Carlos the cibolero had determined to
risk an expedition to the Red River, whose head-waters have their source
in the eastern "ceja" of the Llano Estacado, and _not_ in the Rocky
Mountains as laid down upon maps.

Carlos was well armed for hunting the buffalo--so was the half-blood
Antonio--and two of the three peons were also experienced hunters.
Their arms consisted of the bow and lance, both weapons being preferable
to fire-arms for buffalo-hunting. In one of the carretas, however,
might be seen a weapon of another kind--a long brown American rifle.
This Carlos kept for other and higher game, and he well knew how to use
it. But how came such a weapon into the hands of a Mexican cibolero?
Remember Carlos was not of Mexican origin. The weapon was a family
relic. It had been his father's.

We shall not follow Carlos and his "caravan" through all the details of
their weary "journeyings" across the desert plain. At one place they
made a "Jornada" of seventy miles without water. But the experienced
Carlos knew how to accomplish this without the loss of a single animal.

He travelled thus. Having given his cattle as much as they would drink
at the last watering-place, he started in the afternoon, and travelled
until near daybreak. Then a halt of two hours was made, so that the
animals should graze while the dew was still on the grass. Another long
march followed, continuing until noon, then a rest of three or four
hours brought the cool evening, when a fresh spell of marching brought
the "Jornada" to its end, far on in the following night. Such is the
mode of travelling still practised on the desert steppes of Chihuahua,
Sonora, and North Mexico.

After several days' travelling the cibolero and his party descended from
the high "mesa," and, passing down its eastern slope, arrived on a
tributary of the Red River. Here the scenery assumed a new a