water were encountered, to kill as much time as possible. My
employer was enthusiastic over the idea, and well he might be,
for a finer lot of saddle horses were not in the possession of
any trail drover, while those purchased in Dodge could have been
resold in San Antonio at a nice profit. Many of the horses had
run idle several months and were in fine condition. With the
allowance of four men and a cook, a draft-book for personal
expenses, and over a thousand horses from which to choose a
mount, I felt like an embryo foreman, even if it was a back track
and the drag end of the season. Turning everything scot free at
night, we reached the ranch in old Medina in six weeks, actually
traveling about forty days.

But now, with the opening of the trail season almost at hand, the
trials of past years were forgotten in the enthusiasm of the
present. I had a distinct recollection of numerous resolves made
on rainy nights, while holding a drifting herd, that this was
positively my last trip over the trail. Now, however, after a
winter of idleness, my worst fear was that I might be left at
home with the ranch work, and thus miss the season's outing
entirely. There were new charms in the Buford contract which
thrilled me,--its numerical requirements, the sight of the
Yellowstone again, and more, to be present at the largest
delivery of the year to the government. Rather than have missed
the trip, I would have gladly cooked or wrangled the horses for
one of the outfits.

On separating, Lovell urged his foreman and myself to be at the
depot in good time to catch our train. That our employer's
contracts for the year would require financial assistance, both