"LX." "I hope another Christmas Day to help eat a plum pudding on the
banks of the Dee, and I don't want to be carrying any of your stray
lead in my carcass either. Did you hear me?"

"Yes; we're going to have egg-nog at our camp to-night. Come down."

The boys were being told off in squads of ten, when a suppressed shout
of welcome arose, as a cavalcade of horsemen was sighted coming over
the divide several miles distant. Before the men were allotted and
their captains appointed, the last expected squad had arrived, their
horses frosty and sweaty. They were all well known west end Strippers,
numbering fifty-four men and having ridden from the Eagle Chief,
thirty-five miles, starting two hours before daybreak.

With the arrival of this detachment, Miller gave his orders for the
day. Tom Cave was given two hundred men and sent to the upper end
of the grove, where they were to dismount, form in a half circle
skirmish-line covering the width of the thicket, and commence the
drive down the river. Their saddle horses were to be cut into two
bunches and driven down on either side of the grove, and to be in
readiness for the men when they emerged from the chaparral, four of
the oldest men being detailed as horse wranglers. Reese was sent with
a hundred and fifty men to left flank the grove, deploying his men as
far back as the second bottom, and close his line as the drive moved
forward. Billy Edwards was sent with twenty picked men down the river
five miles to the old beef ford at the ripples. His instructions were
to cross and scatter his men from the ending of the salt plain to the
horseshoe, and to concentrate them around it at the termination of the
drive. He was allowed the best ropers and a number of shotguns, to
be stationed at the cattle trails leading down to the water at the