Wild Cow Tales by Ben K. Green Page B

from a boulder or a bush when I gave the signal to start the cattle out of the corrals. I rode thepoint and had a man on each wing and the older and slower cowboy that I had hired to bring up the drags. We made it fine through the first pasture, and we were almost through the gate with the herd when the old cowboy bringin’ up the drags “accidentally” let about twenty head get away, but we couldn’t stop and make a drive for them so we started on down the canyon with what we had. The cattle bawlin’ and runnin’ down the canyon gave us a pretty wild ride, but while they were doin’ it, they attracted the attention of a lot of the cattle that were in this pasture that hadn’t been run the day before. So wild cattle like that began to run into and gather with the herd we were drivin’. Once, glancing over my shoulder, I saw the man ridin’ wing to the left almost tryin’ to keep some cattle from comin’ into the herd. This aroused my curiosity and immediately I began to wonder if these native cowboys were tryin’ to help me or maybe they were still tryin’ to help Scotty Perth.
    We were gettin’ to the end of the pasture, about an hour and a half later, and the cattle had settled down pretty good and didn’t appear to be mindin’ the drive too much. Since I was ridin’ point, I broke out ahead pretty fast and opened the big double gates that led out into the road. As I mounted my horse and turned back towards the herd, I noticed another one of my good cowboys droppin’ back like he intended to let the point of the herd turn back and start a run into the flat rock at the foot of the mountains. I squalled at him real loud and rode back hard to straighten up the point of the herd. When the herd started through the gate I glanced around and all three of my cowboys were more than a half mile back onthe side of the mountain settin’ in a little huddle and the cattle were followin’ each other and bawlin’ and comin’ on through the gate without any help drivin’ ’em from behind. This was all the proof I needed that I had a roadful of cattle started to the railroad twenty miles away without too much help!
    Directly they broke into a lope and caught up and hollered a few times and played like they was really busy, but the truth of the matter was these extra cattle that joined us in the second pasture was quite a surprise to ’em, and the drive was going to be far more successful than their original plans. It was a nice, cool mountain summer day. The cattle were fat and drifted along on the trail without much trouble and were coverin’ the distance to town better than any cowboy could have hoped that they would trail.
    We didn’t have any grub with us, and we had made the day without any dinner, but by three thirty in the afternoon I counted one hundred and forty-seven head of cattle through the gate and into the railroad shippin’ pens. I pulled the chain around the gate and locked it with the railroad lock and breathed a sign of relief. We had all acted pleasant all day, and I hadn’t gotten after anybody about their bad way of handlin’ cattle, so I told these native cowboys that I’d go by the depot and order some stockcars to ship in and then I’d meet them uptown in the dining room of the local hotel and we’d eat.
    We had a pretty silent kind of a dinner, for cowboys, and I didn’t notice too many of the natives tryin’ to be friendly with my help.
    These fellows had hired out to me and brought out their bedrolls and their extra horses and durin’ dinner they’d told me that they was gonna stay with me till I got those cows if “it took all winter.” Well, that might have been their plans, but I had a different idea about it.
    We spent the night in town, and by dark all three of ’em disappeared from the hotel and they didn’t show up at the stock pens until up in the middle of the mornin’ to start back to the ranch. I was real friendly and let on like the late start was all