The advice was acted on.  While convalescent, Sargent was installed as host on the Beaver, and the brothers took to their saddles.  The majority of the herds were met on the Prairie Dog, and after a consultation with the foremen their cattle were started so as to reach the tanks by day or the ranch at evening.  The month rounded out with the arrival of eighteen herds, only six of which touched at headquarters, and the fourth week saw a distinct gain in the water supply at the beaver dams.  The boys barely touched at home, to change horses, living with the trail wagons, piloting in herds, rich in the reward of relieving the wayfaring, and content with the crumbs that fell to their range.

The drouth of 1886 left a gruesome record in the pastoral history of the West.  The southern end of the Texas and Montana cattle trail was marked by the bones of forty thousand cattle that fell, due to the want of water, during the months of travail on that long march.  Some of this loss was due to man’s inhumanity to the cattle of the fields, in withholding water, but no such charge rested on the owners of the little ranch on the Beaver.

A short month witnessed the beginning of the end of the year’s drive.  Only such herds as were compelled to, and those that had strength in reserve, dared the plain between the Arkansas and Platte Rivers.  The fifth week only six herds arrived, all of which touched at the ranch; half of them had been purchased at Dodge, had neither a cripple nor a stray to bestow, but shared the welcome water and passed on.

One of the purchased herds brought a welcome letter to Joel.  It was from Don Lovell, urgently accenting anew his previous invitation to come to Dodge and look over the market.

“After an absence of several weeks,” wrote Mr. Lovell, “I have returned to Dodge.  From a buyer’s standpoint, the market is inviting.  The boom prices which prevailed in ’84 are cut in half.  Any investment in cattle now is perfectly safe.

“I have ordered three of my outfits to return here.  They will pass your ranch.  Fall in with the first one that comes along.  Bring a mount of horses, and report to me on arriving.  Fully half this year’s drive is here, unsold.  Be sure and come.”

“Are you going?” inquired Dell on reading the letter.

“I am,” answered Joel with emphasis.

“That’s the talk,” said Sargent.  “Whenever cattle get so cheap that no other man will look a cow in the face, that’s the time to buy her.  Folks are like sheep; the Bible says so; they all want to buy or all want to sell.  I only know Mr. Lovell from what you boys have told me; but by ordering three outfits to return to Dodge, I can see that he’s going to take advantage of that market and buy about ten thousand cattle.  You’ve got the range.  Buy this summer.  I’ll stay with Dell until you return.  Buy a whole herd of steers, and I’ll help you hold them this winter.”