sted, so we left men to hold the
entrance securely and went back after the herd. When we got them
within a quarter of a mile of the creek, we cut off about two hundred
head of the leaders and brought them around to the rear, for amongst
these leaders were certain to be the ones which had been bogged, and
we wanted to have new leaders in this trial. Slaughter was on the
farther end of the bridge, and could be depended on to let the oxen
lead off at the opportune moment. We brought them up cautiously, and
when the herd came within a few rods of the creek the cattle on the
bridge lowed to their mates in the herd, and Slaughter, considering
the time favorable, opened out and allowed them to leave the bridge on
the farther side. As soon as the cattle started leaving on the farther
side, we dropped back, and the leaders of the herd to the number of a
dozen, after smelling the fresh dirt and seeing the others crossing,
walked cautiously up on the bridge. It was a moment of extreme
anxiety. None of us spoke a word, but the cattle crowding off the
bridge at the farther end set it vibrating. That was enough: they
turned as if panic-stricken and rushed back to the body of the herd. I
was almost afraid to look at Jacklin. He could scarcely speak, but he
rode over to me, ashen with rage, and kept repeating, "Well, wouldn't
that beat hell!"

Slaughter rode back across the bridge, and the men came up and
gathered around Jacklin. We seemed to have run the full length of our
rope. No one even had a suggestion to offer, and if any one had had,
it needed to be a plausible one to find approval, for hope seemed to
have vanished. While discussing the situation, a one-eyed, pox-marked
fellow belonging to Slaughter's outfit galloped up from the rear, and
said almost breathlessly, "Say, fellows, I see a cow and calf in the
herd. Let's rope the calf, and the cow is sure to follow. Get the rope
around the calf's neck, and when it chokes him, he's liable to bellow,
and that will call the steers. And if you never let up on the choking
till you get on the other side of the bridge, I think it'll work.
Let's try it, anyhow."

We all approved, for we knew that next to the smell of blood, nothing
will stir range cattle like the bellowing of a calf. At the mere
suggestion, Jacklin's men scattered into the herd, and within a few
minutes we had a rope round the neck of the calf. As the roper came
through the herd leading the calf, the frantic mother foll