The existing drouth promised a good schooling for the brothers.  Among the old philosophies, contact was said to be educational.  Wells Brothers were being thrown in contact with the most practical men that the occupation, in all pastoral ages, had produced.  The novelty of trailing cattle vast distances had its origin with the Texans.  Bred to the calling, they were masters of the craft.  In the hands of an adept outfit of a dozen men, a trail herd of three thousand beeves had all the mobility of a brigade of cavalry.  The crack of a whip was unheard on the trail.  A whispered order, followed by a signal to the men, and the herd turned, grazed to its contentment, fell into column formation, and took up its march—­a peaceful march that few armies have equaled.  Contact with these men, the rank and file of that splendid cavalry which once patrolled the range industry of the West, was priceless to the boys.

The lead herd reached the Beaver valley at noon.  When within a mile of the water, the point men gave way to the foremen and Joel Wells.  But instead of dropping back, the dust-covered men rode on into the lead, the action being seemingly understood by every one except the new hand on the point.  Joel was alert, felt the massive column of beeves yield to his slightest pressure, as a ship to the hand of the helmsman, as he veered the leaders out of the broken trails and guided the herd around the field to the upper pools.  On nearing the water, the deposed point men deployed nearer the lead, when the object of their position explained itself.  On sighting the ponds, the leaders broke into a run, but the four horsemen at hand checked the excited dash, and the herd was led up to the water in column formation.  It was the mastery of man over the creature.

The herds arrived in hit-and-miss class.  The destination of the pock-marked foreman’s beeves was an army post in Dakota.  The swarthy little man followed with a herd of cows for delivery at an Indian agency in Wyoming.  The different Running W herds were under contract to different cattle companies, in adjoining states and territories.  The tall foreman’s herd was also under contract, but the point of delivery was at Ogalalla, on the Platte, where a ranch outfit would receive the cattle.

The latter herd arrived late at evening.  The cattle were driven on speculation, there had been an oversight in mounting the outfit, and the men, including the foreman, were as good as afoot.

“This trip lets me out,” said the young Texan to the brothers, “of walking up the trail and leading fagged-out saddle stock.  A mount of six horses to the man may be all right on a ranch, but it won’t do on the trail.  Especially in a dry year, with delivery on the Platte.  Actually, this afternoon is the first time I have felt a horse under me since we crossed Red River.  Give me a sheet of paper, please.  I want to give you a bill of sale for these six drag ponies that I’m sawing off on you.  I carry written authority to give a bill of sale, and it will always protect your possession of the horses.  They wouldn’t bring a dollar a head in Ogalalla, but when they round into form again next summer, some brand ferret passing might want to claim them on you.  Any cattle that I cull out here are abandoned, you understand, simply abandoned.”