was scouting for water for his herd, and, when our situation was
explained and he had been interrogated regarding loose cattle, gave us
the good news that no stragglers in our road brand had been met by
their outfit. This was welcome news, for we had made no count yet, and
feared some of them, in their locoed condition, might have passed the
water during the night. Our misfortune was an ill wind by which Straw
profited, for he had fully expected to keep on by the old route, but
with our disaster staring him in the face, a similar experience was to
be avoided. His herd reached the lakes during the middle of the
afternoon, and after watering, turned and went westward over the new
route taken by the two herds which preceded us. He had a herd of about
three thousand steers, and was driving to the Dodge market. After the
experience we had just gone through, his herd and outfit were a
welcome sight. Flood made inquiries after Lovell's second herd, under
my brother Bob as foreman, but Straw had seen or heard nothing of
them, having come from Goliad County with his cattle.

After the Ellison herd had passed on and out of sight, our squad which
had been working the country to the northward, over the route by which
the abandoned herd had returned, came in with the information that
that section was clear of cattle, and that they had only found three
head dead from thirst. On the fourth morning, as the herd left the bed
ground, a count was ordered, and to our surprise we counted out
twenty-six head more than we had received on the banks of the Rio
Grande a month before. As there had been but one previous occasion to
count, the number of strays absorbed into our herd was easily
accounted for by Priest: "If a steer herd could increase on the trail,
why shouldn't ours, that had over a thousand cows in it?" The
observation was hardly borne out when the ages of our herd were taken
into consideration. But 1882 in Texas was a liberal day and