Hoping that the incoming administration would take favorable action permitting civilized Indian tribes to lease their surplus lands, we returned to our homes.  The Cherokee Strip Cattle Association had been temporarily organized some time previous,—­not being chartered, however, until March, 1883,—­and was the proposed lessee of the Outlet in which our beef ranch lay.  The organization was a local one, created for the purpose of removing all friction between the Cherokees and the individual holders of cattle in the Strip.  The officers and directors of the association were all practical cattlemen, owners of herds and ranges in the Outlet, paying the same rental as others into the general treasury of the organization.  Major Hunter was well acquainted with the officers, and volunteered to take the matter up at once, by making application in person for a large range in the Cherokee Strip.  There was no intention on the part of our firm to forsake the trail, this cattle company being merely a side issue, and active preparations were begun for the coming summer.

The annual cattle convention would meet again in Fort Worth in February.  With the West for our market and Texas the main source of supply, there was no occasion for any delay in placing our contracts for trail stock.  The closing figures obtainable at Dodge and Ogalalla the previous summer had established a new scale of prices for Texas, and a buyer must either pay the advance or let the cattle alone.  Edwards and I were in the field fully three weeks before the convention met, covering our old buying grounds and venturing into new ones, advancing money liberally on all contracts, and returning to the meeting with thirty herds secured.  Major Hunter met us at the convention, and while nothing definite was accomplished in securing a range, a hopeful word had reached us in regard to the new administration.  Starting the new company that spring was out of the question, and all energies were thrown into the forthcoming drive.  Representatives from the Northwest again swept down on the convention, all Texas was there, and for three days and nights the cattle interests carried the keys of the city.  Our firm offered nothing, but, on the other hand, bought three herds of Pan-Handle steers for acceptance early in April.  Three weeks of active work were required to receive the cattle, the herds starting again with the grass.  My individual contingent included ten thousand three-year-old steers, two full herds of two-year-old heifers, and seven thousand cows.  The latter were driven in two herds; extra wagons with oxen attached accompanied each in order to save the calves, as a youngster was an assistance in selling an old cow.  Everything was routed by Doan’s Crossing, both Edwards and myself accompanying the herds, while Major Hunter returned as usual by rail.  The new route, known as the Western trail, was more direct than the Chisholm though beset by Comanche and Kiowa Indians once powerful tribes, but now little