three thousand head for little more than three thousand dollars. And this is how we managed it. For some reason or other, perhaps because I had learnt a few words of Spanish, Bob had taken a fancy to me and was always willing to help me, except when he was mad with drink. He now assured me that if I would go with him down the Rio Grande a hundred miles or so, he'd get me a thousand head of cattle for nothing. I consented, for Bent, too, and Charlie were on Bob's side. The next morning before sunrise we started out and rode steadily to the southeast. We carried enough food for two or three days. Bob saw to that without any question, but generally he brought us about eight o'clock near some house or other where we could get food and shelter.
His knowledge of the whole frontier was as uncanny as his knowledge of cattle. On the fourth or fifth day about nine in the morning he stopped us by a little wooded height looking over a gorge of the river. To the left the river spread out almost to a shallow lake; and one did not need to be told that a little lower down there must be one or more fords where cattle could cross almost without wetting themselves. Bob got off his horse in a clump of cottonwood trees, which he said was a good place to camp without being seen. I asked him where the cattle were and he told me «across the river.» Within two or three miles, it appeared, there was a famous hacienda with great herds. As soon as it got dark, he proposed to go across and find out all about it and bring us the news. We were to be careful not to be seen and he hoped that we would not even make a fire, but would lie close till he returned. We were more than willing, and when we got tired of talking, Bent produced an old deck of cards and we would play draw poker or euchre or casino for two or three hours. The first night passed quickly enough. We had been in the saddle for ten hours a day for four or five days and slept a dreamless sleep. Bob did not return that day or the next and on the third day Bent began to curse him, but I felt sure he had good reason for the delay and so waited with what patience I could muster. On the third night he was suddenly with us, just as if he had come out of the earth. «Welcome back,»
I cried. «Everything right?» «Everything,» he said. «It was no good coming sooner; they have brought some cattle within four miles of the river; the orders are to keep 'em away seven or eight miles, so that they could not be driven across without rousing the whole country; but Don Jose is very rich and carefree and there is a herd of fifteen hundred that will suit us, not three miles from the river in a fold of the prairie guarded only by two men whom I'll make so very drunk that they'll hear nothing till next morning. A couple of bottles of aguardiente will do the buzness, and I'll come back for you tomorrow night by eight or nine o'clock.» It all turned out as Bob had arranged. The next night he came to us as soon as it was dark.
We rode some two miles down the river to a ford, splashed through the rivulets of water and came out on the Mexican side. In single file and complete silence we followed Bob at a lope for perhaps twenty minutes, when he put up his hand and we drew down to a walk. There below us, between two waves of prairie, were the cattle. In a few words Bob told Bent and Charlie what they were to do. Bent was to stay behind and shoot in case they were followed-unlikely but always possible.
Charlie and I were to move the cattle towards the ford, quietly all the way if we could, but if we were pursued, then as hard as we could drive them. For the first half hour all went according to program. Charlie and I moved the cattle together and drove them over the waves of prairie towards the river; it all seemed as easy as eating and we had begun to push the cattle into a fast walk, when suddenly there was a shot in front and a sort of stampede! At once Charlie shot out on the left as I shot out on the right, and using our whips, we quickly got the herd into motion again, the rear ranks forcing the front ones on; the cattle were soon pressed into a shuffling trot and the difficulty seemed overcome. Just at that moment I saw two or three bright flames half a mile away on the other side of Charlie and suddenly I heard the zip of a bullet pass my own head and turning, saw pretty plainly a man riding fifty yards away from me. I took very careful aim at his horse and fired and was delighted to see horse and man come down and disappear. I paid no further attention to him and kept on forcing the pace of the cattle. But Charlie was very busily engaged for two or three minutes because the fusillade was kept up from behind till he was joined by Bent and shortly afterwards by Bob. We were all now driving the cattle as hard as they could go, straight towards the ford. The shots behind us continued and even grew more frequent, but we were not further molested till three-quarters of an hour later, we reached the Rio Grande and began urging the cattle across the ford. There progress was necessarily slow. We could scarcely have got across had it not been that about the middle Bob came up and made his whip and voice a perfect terror to the beasts in the rear. When we got them out on the other side I began to turn them westwards towards our wooded knoll. The next moment Bob was beside me shouting: «Straight ahead, straight ahead; they are following us and we shall have to fight. You get on with the herd always straight north and I'll bring Charlie back to the bank so as to hold 'em off.» Boylike, I said I would rather go and fight, but he said: «You go on. If Charlie's killed no matter. I want you.» And I had perforce to do what the little devil ordered. When Texan cattle have been brought up together, the largest herd can be driven like a small bunch. They have their leader and they follow him religiously and so one man can drive a thousand head with very little trouble. For two or three miles I kept them on the trot and then I let them gradually get down to a walk. I did not want to lose any more of them; some fat cows had already died in their tracks through being driven so fast. About two o'clock in the morning I passed a log-house and soon an American rode up beside me and wanted to know who I was, where I had brought the cattle from and where I was going.
I told him the owner was behind me, that the boys and I were driving them straight ahead because some greasers had been interfering with us. «That's the shooting I heard,» he said. «You have driven them across the river, haven't you?» «I've driven them from the river,» I replied; «some of them were getting a drink.» I could feel him grin, though I was not looking at him. «I guess I'll see your friends pretty soon,» he said, «but this raiding is bad business.
Them greasers'll come across and give me trouble. We border-folk don't want a fuss hatched up by you foreigners!» I placated him as well as I could; at first was unsuccessful. He didn't say much, but he evidently intended to come with me to the end because wherever I rode, I found him right behind the herd when I returned. Day had broken when I let the cattle halt for the first time. I reckoned I had gone twelve miles from the ford and the beasts were foot-sore and very tired, more and more of them requiring the whip in order to keep up even a walk. I bunched them together and came back to my saturnine acquaintance. «You are young to be at this game,» he said. «Who is your boss?» «I don't keep a boss,» I answered, taking him in with hostile scrutiny. He was a man of about forty, tall and lean, with an enormous quid of tobacco in his left cheek-a typical Texan.
His bronco interested me; instead of being an Indian pony of thirteen hands or so, it was perhaps fifteen and a half and looked to be three-quarters bred. «A good horse you have there,» I said.
«The best in the hull country,» he replied, «easy.» «That's only your conceit,» I retorted. «The mare I am on right now can give him a hundred yards a mile.» «You don't want to risk any money on that, do you?» he remarked. «Oh, yes,» I smiled. «Well, we can try it out one of these days, but here comes your crowd,» and indeed, although I had not expected them, in five minutes Bent and Bob and Charlie rode up. «Get the cattle going,» cried Bob, as he came within earshot. «We must go on. The Mexicans have gone back but they will come right after us again. Who is this?» he added, ranging up beside the Texan. «My name is Locker,» said my acquaintance;
«and I guess your raiding will set the whole border boiling. Can't you buy cattle decently, like we all have to?» «How do you know how decently we paid for them?» cried Bent, thrusting forward his brown face like a weasel's, his dog teeth showing. «I guess Mr. Locker is all right,» I cried laughing. «I propose he should help us and take two or three hundred head as payment, or the value of them-» «Now you're talking,» said Locker. «I call that sense. There is a herd of mine about a mile further on; if two or three hundred of your Jose steers join it, I can't hinder 'em; but I'd rather have dollars; cash is scarce!» «Are they herded?» asked Bob. «Sure,» replied Locker. «I am too near the river to let any cattle run round loose, though nobody has interfered with me in the last ten years.» Bob and I began moving the cattle on leaving Bent with Locker to conclude the negotiations. In an hour we had found Locker's herd that must have numbered at least six thousand head and were guarded by three herdsmen. Locker and Bent had soon come to a working agreement.
Locker, it turned out, had another herd some distance to the east, from which he could draw three or four herdsmen. He had also a couple of boys, sons of his, whom he could send to rouse some of the neighboring farmers, if the need was urgent. It turned out that we had done well to be generous to him, for he knew the whole of the countryside like a book and was a good friend in our need. Late in the afternoon, Locker was informed by one of his sons, a youth of about sixteen, that twenty Mexicans had crossed the river and would be up to us in a short time. Locker sent him after the younger boy to round up as many Texans as possible, but before they could be collected, a bunch of greasers, twenty or so in number, rode up and demanded the return of the cattle. Bent and Locker put them off, and as luck would have it, while they were arguing, three or four Texans came up, and
