Honeyman wave his hat to me in congratulation. On reaching their
wagon, I found the herd was swinging around about a mile out from the
river, in order to get a straight shoot for the entrance at the ford.
I hurriedly swallowed my dinner, and as we rode out to meet the herd,
asked Flood if Scholar were not going to send his wagon up to the
ferry to cross, for there was as yet no indication of it. Flood
replied that Scholar expected to go with the wagon, as he needed some
supplies which he thought he could get from the sutler at Fort
Laramie.

Flood ordered me to take the lower point again, and I rode across the
trail and took my place when the herd came within a quarter of a mile
of the river, while the remainder of the outfit took positions near
the lead on the lower side. It was a slightly larger herd than
ours,--all steers, three-year-olds that reflected in their glossy
coats the benefits of a northern winter. As we came up to the water's
edge, it required two of their men to force their _remuda_ into the
water, though it was much smaller than ours,--six horses to the man,
but better ones than ours, being northern wintered. The cattle were
well trail-broken, and followed the leadership of the saddle horses
nicely to the first island, but they would have balked at this second
channel, had it not been for the amount of help at hand. We lined them
out, however, and they breasted the current, and landed on the second
island. The saddle horses gave some little trouble on leaving for the
farther shore, and before they were got off, several hundred head of
cattle had landed on the island. But they handled obediently and were
soon trailing out upon terra firma, the herd following across without
a broken link in the chain. There was nothing now to do but keep the
train moving into the water on the south bank, see that they did not
congest on the islands, and that they left the river on reaching the
farther shore. When the saddle horses reached the farther bank, they
were thrown up the river and turned loose, so that the two men would
be available to hold the herd after it left the water. I had crossed
with the first lead cattle to the farther shore, and was turning them
up the river as fast as they struck solid footing on that side. But
several times I was compelled to swim back to the nearest island, and
return with large bunches which had hesitated to take the last
channel.

The two outfits were working promiscuously tog