less than a two hours’ ride to the ferry, and with the early start we expected Manuel to return before noon.  Making ourselves at home in a coffeehouse conducted by a Mexican, Deweese ordered a few bottles of wine to celebrate properly our drive and to entertain Cruze and our vaqueros.  Before the horses arrived, those of us who had any money left spent it in the cantina, not wishing to carry it home, where it would be useless.  The result was that on the return of Flores with mounts we were all about three sheets in the wind, reckless and defiant.

After saddling up, I suggested to June that we ride by the stage office and show Mr. Oxenford that we were independent of him.  The stage stand and office were on the outskirts of the scattered village, and while we could have avoided it, our segundo willingly led the way, and called for the junior member of the firm.  A hostler came to the door and informed us that Mr. Oxenford was not in.

“Then I’ll just leave my card,” said Deweese, dismounting.  Taking a brown cigarette paper from his pocket, he wrote his name on it; then pulling a tack from a notice pasted beside the office door, he drew his six-shooter, and with it deftly tacked the cigarette paper against the office door jamb.  Remounting his horse, and perfectly conscious that Oxenford was within hearing, he remarked to the hostler:  “When your boss returns, please tell him that those fellows from Las Palomas will neither walk with him nor ride with him.  We thought he might fret as to how we were to get home, and we have just ridden by to tell him that he need feel no uneasiness.  Since I have never had the pleasure of an introduction to him, I’ve put my name on that cigarette paper.  Good-day, sir.”

Arriving at Shepherd’s, we rested several hours, and on the suggestion of the merchant changed horses before starting home.  At the ferry we learned that there had been no serious loss of cattle so far, but that nearly all the stock from the Frio and San Miguel had drifted across to the Nueces.  We also learned that the attendance on San Jacinto Day had been extremely light, not a person from Las Palomas being present, while the tournament for that year had been abandoned.  During our ride up the river before darkness fell, we passed a strange medley of brands, many of which Deweese assured me were owned from fifty to a hundred miles to the north and west.  Riding leisurely, it was nearly midnight when we sighted the ranch and found it astir.  An extra breeze had been blowing, and the vaqueros were starting to their work at the wells in order to be on hand the moment the wind slackened.  Around the two wells at headquarters were over a thousand cattle, whose constant moaning reached our ears over a mile from the ranch.