women and girls and encouraged them: «Go right on, Madam, take all you want. This way, Missee, you won't be able to carry much, I'm afraid»-proof on proof, it seemed to me, of courage, good humor and high self- abnegation. I went into that bread line an Irish boy and came out of it a proud American, but I did not get any bread that night or the next. In fact, my first meal was made when I ran across Reece on the Friday or Saturday after: Reece, as usual, had fallen on his feet and found a hotel where they had provisions-though at famine prices. He insisted that I should come with him and soon got me my first meal. In return, I told him and Ford of the cattle I had saved. They were, of course, delighted and determined next day to come out and retrieve them. «One thing is certain,» said Ford; «six hundred head of cattle are worth as much today in Chicago as fifteen hundred head were worth before the fire, so we hain't lost much.» Next day I led Reece and the Boss straight to the farmer's place, but to my surprise he told me that I had agreed to give him two dollars a head, whereas I had bargained with him for only one dollar. His son backed up the farmer's statement and the Irish helper declared that he was sorry to disagree with me, but I was mistaken; it was two dollars I had said.
They little knew the sort of men they had to deal with. «Where are the cattle?» Ford asked, and we went down to the pasture where they were penned. «Count them, Harris,» said Ford, and I counted six hundred and twenty head. Fifty odd had disappeared, but the farmer wanted to persuade me that I had counted wrongly. Ford went about and soon found a rough lean-to stable where there were thirty more head of Texan cattle. These were driven up and soon disappeared in the herd;
Reece and I began to move the herd towards the entrance. The farmer declared he would not let us go, but Ford looked at him a little while and then said very quietly, «You have stolen enough cattle to pay you.
If you bother with us, I will make meat of you-see!-cold meat,» and the farmer moved aside and kept quiet. That night we had a great feast, and the day after Ford announced that he had sold the whole of the cattle to two hotel proprietors and got nearly as much money as if we had not lost a hoof. My five thousand dollars became six thousand five hundred. The courage shown by the common people in the fire, the wild humor coupled with the consideration for the women, had won my heart. This is the greatest people in the world, I said to myself, and was proud to feel at one with them.
Chapter VIII. Back on the Trail
Prompted by Dell, before leaving Chicago I bought some books for the whiter evenings, notably Mill's Political Economy; Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship and Latter Day Pamphlets;
Col. Hay's Dialect Poems too, and three medical books, and took them down with me to the ranch. We had six weeks of fine weather, during which I broke in horses under Reece's supervision, and found out that gentleness and especially carrots and pieces of sugar were the direct way to the heart of the horse; discovered, too, that a horse's bad temper and obstinacy were nearly always due to fear. A remark of Dell that a horse's eye had magnifying power and that the poor, timid creatures saw men as trees walking, gave me the clue and soon I was gratified by Reece's saying that I could «gentle» horses as well as anyone on the ranch, excepting Bob. As winter drew down and the bitter frost came, outdoor work almost ceased. I read from morning till night and not only devoured Mill, but saw through the fallacy of his wage-fund theory. I knew from my own experience that the wages of labor depended primarily on the productivity of labor. I liked Mill for his humanitarian sympathies with the poor; but I realized clearly that he was a second-rate intelligence, just as I felt pretty sure that Carlyle was one of the immortals. I took Carlyle in small doses:
I wanted to think for myself. After the first chapters I tried to put down first, chapter by chapter, what I thought or knew about the subject treated, and am still inclined to believe that that is a good way to read in order to estimate what the author has taught you.
Carlyle was the first dominant influence in my life and one of the most important: I got more from him than from any other writer.
His two or three books, learned almost by heart, taught me that Dell's knowledge was skimpy and superficial, and I was soon Sir Oracle among the men on all deep subjects. For the medical books, too, turned out to be excellent and gave me almost the latest knowledge on all sex-matters. I was delighted to put all my knowledge at the disposal of the boys, or rather to show off to them how much I knew. That fall brought me to grief: early in October I was taken by ague,
«chills and fever,» as it was called. I suffered miseries, and though Reece induced me to ride all the same and spend most of the daytime in the open, lost weight till I learned that arsenic was a better specific even than quinine. Then I began to mend, but, off and on, every fall and spring afterwards, so long as I stayed in America, I had to take quinine and arsenic to ward off the debilitating attacks.
I was very low indeed when we started down the trail; the Boss being determined, as he said, to bring up two herds that summer. Early in May he started north from near San Anton' with some five thousand head, leaving Reece, Dell, Bob, Peggy the Cook, Bent, Charlie and myself to collect another herd. I never saw the Boss again-I understood, however, from Reece's cursing that he had got through safely, sold the cattle at a good price and made off with all the proceeds, though he owed Reece and Dell more than one-half.
Charlie's love-ad venture that ended so badly did not quiet him for long. In our search for cheap cattle we had gone down nearly to the Rio Grande, and there, in a little half-Mexican town, Charlie met his fate. As it happened, I had gone to the saloon with him on his promise that he would only drink one glass, and though the glass would be full of forty-rod whisky, I knew it would have only a passing effect on Charlie's superb strength. But it excited him enough to make him call up all the girls for a drink: they all streamed laughing to the bar, all save one. Naturally Charlie went after her and found a very pretty blond girl, who had a strain of Indian blood in her, it was said. At first she didn't yield to Charlie's invitation, so he turned away angrily, saying: «You don't want to drink probably because you want to cure yourself, or because you're ugly where women are usually beautiful.» Answering the challenge, the girl sprang to her feet, tore off her jacket and in a moment was naked to her boots and stockings. «Am I ugly?» she cried, pushing out her breasts,
«Or do I look ill, you fool!» and whirled around to give us the back view! She certainly had a lovely figure with fair youthful breasts and peculiarly full bottom and looked the picture of health.
The full cheeks of her bottom excited me intensely, I didn't know why: therefore it didn't surprise me when Charlie, with a half-articulate shout of admiration, picked her up bodily in his arms and carried her out of the room. When I remonstrated with him afterwards, he told me he had a sure way of knowing whether the girl, Sue, was diseased or not. I contradicted him and found that this was his infallible test: as soon as he was alone with a girl, he pulled out ten or twenty dollars, as the case might be, and told her to keep the money. «I'll not give you any more in any case,» he would add. «Now tell me, dear, if you are ill and we'll have a last drink and then I'll go. If she's ill she's sure to tell you-see!» and he laughed triumphantly.
«Suppose she doesn't know she's ill?» I asked. But he replied:
«They always know and they'll tell the truth when their greed is not against you.» For some time it looked as if Charlie had enjoyed his beauty without any evil consequences, but a month or so later he noticed a lump in his right groin and soon afterwards a syphilitic sore showed itself just under the head of his penis. We had already started northwards but I had to tell Charlie the plain truth.
«Then it's serious,» he cried in astonishment, and I replied:
«I'm afraid so, but not if you take it in time and go under a rigorous regimen.» Charlie did everything he was told to do and always bragged that gonorrhea was much worse, as it is certainly more painful than syphilis; but the disease in time had its revenge.
As he began to get better on the trail, thanks to the good air, regular exercise and absence of drink, he became obstreperous from time to time and I at any rate forgot about his ailment. The defection of the Boss made a serious difference to us; Reece and Dell with three or four Mexicans and Peggy went on slowly buying cattle; but Bob and Bent put a new scheme into my head. Bent was always preaching that the Boss's defection had ruined Reece and that if I would put in, say five thousand dollars, I could be Reece's partner and make a fortune with him. Bob, too, was keen on this and told me incidentally that he could get cattle from the Mexicans for nothing. I had a talk with Reece who said he'd have to be content with buying three thousand head, for cattle had gone up in price twofold and the Boss's swindle had crippled him. If I would pay Bent's, Charlie's and Bob's wages, he'd be delighted, he said, to join forces with me; on Bob's advice, I consented and with his help I managed to secure
