they would have scattered on us like partridges. At this stage of the
run, we had no idea where the rest of the outfit were, but both of us
were satisfied the herd had scattered on leaving the mesquite thicket,
and were possibly then running in half a dozen bunches like the one we
were with.

Stallings's horse was badly winded, and on my suggestion, he dropped
out on one side to try to get some idea how many cattle we were
leading. He was gone some little time, and as Nigger cantered along
easily in the lead, I managed to eject the shells from my six-shooter
and refill the cylinder. On Joe's overtaking me again, he reported
that there was a slender column of cattle, half a mile in length,
following. As one man could easily lead this string of the herd until
daybreak, I left Stallings with them and rode out to the left nearly a
quarter of a mile, listening to hear if there were any cattle running
to the left of those we were leading. It took me but a few minutes to
satisfy myself that ours was the outside band on the left, and after I
rejoined Joe, we made an effort to check our holding.

There were about fifty or sixty big steers in the lead of our bunch,
and after worrying them into a trot, we opened in their front with our
six-shooters, shooting into the ground in their very faces, and were
rewarded by having them turn tail and head the other way. Taking
advantage of the moment, we jumped our horses on the retreating
leaders, and as fast as the rear cattle forged forward, easily turned
them. Leaving Joe to turn the rear as they came up, I rode to the
lead, unfastening my slicker as I went, and on reaching the turned
leaders, who were running on an angle from their former course,
flaunted my "fish" in their faces until they reentered the rear guard
of our string, and we soon had a mill going which kept them busy, and