The wagon was found encamped on the Prairie Dog.  An hour’s rest was allowed, fresh horses were saddled, when Joel turned to the cook and wrangler:  “Make camp to-night on the middle tank, below headquarters.  We’ll ride on ahead and drift all the cattle up the creek.  Our only round-up to-morrow will be well above the old winter corral.  It’s our last gathering of beef, and we want to make a general round-up of the range.  We’ll drift cattle until dark, so that it’ll be late when we reach camp.”

The outfit of horsemen followed the old trail, and only sighted the Beaver late in the afternoon.  The last new tank, built that spring, was less than a mile below the old crossing; and veering off there, the drag-net was thrown across the valley below it, and a general drift begun.  An immense half-circle, covering the limits of the range, pointed the cattle into the valley, and by moving forward and converging as the evening advanced, a general drift was maintained.  The pace was barely that of grazing, and as darkness approached, all cattle on the lower end of the range were grazed safely above the night camp and left adrift.

The wagon had arrived, and the men reached camp by twos and threes.  There was little danger of the cattle returning to their favorite range during the night, but for fear of stragglers, at an early hour in the morning the drag-net was again thrown out from camp.  Headquarters was passed before the horsemen began encountering any quantity of cattle, and after passing the old winter corral, the men on the points of the half-circle were sent to ride the extreme limits of the range.  By the middle of the forenoon, everything was adrift, and as the cattle naturally turned into the valley for their daily drink, a few complete circles brought the total herd into a general round-up, numbering over fifteen hundred head of mixed cattle.

Meanwhile the wagon and remuda had followed up the drift, dinner was waiting, and after the mid-day meal had been bolted, orders rang out.  “Right here’s where all hands and the cook draw fresh horses,” said Sargent, “and get into action.  It’s a bulky herd, and cutting out will be slow.  The cook and wrangler must hold the beeves, and that will turn the rest of us free to watch the round-up and cut out.”

By previous agreement, in order to shorten the work, Joel was to cut out the remnant of double-wintered beeves, Manly the Lazy H’s, while Sargent and an assistant would confine their selections to the single-wintered ones in the ——­ Y brand.  Each man would tally his own work, even car-loads were required, and a total would constitute the shipment.  The cutting out began quietly; but after a nucleus of beeves were selected, their numbers gained at the rate of three to five a minute, while the sweat began to reek from the horses.