“Each day for the following week was a repetition of the first with varying incident.  But each day it was plain to be seen that they were fagging fast.  Toward the evening of the eighth day, the rider dared not crowd them for fear of their splitting into small bands, a thing to be avoided.  On the ninth day two riders took them at a time, pushing them unmercifully but preventing them from splitting, and in the evening of this day they could be turned at the will of the riders.  It was then agreed that after a half day’s chase on the morrow, they could be handled with ease.  By noon next day, we had driven them within a mile of our camp.

“They were tired out and we turned them into an impromptu corral made of wagons and ropes.  All but the chestnut stallion.  At the last he escaped us; he stopped on a little knoll and took a farewell look at his band.

“There were four old United States cavalry horses among our captive band of mustangs, gray with age and worthless—­no telling where they came from.  We clamped a mule shoe over the pasterns of the younger horses, tied toggles to the others, and the next morning set out on our return to the settlements.”

Under his promise the old ranchero had the camp astir over an hour before dawn.  Horses were brought in from picket ropes, and divided into two squads, Pasquale leading off to the windward of where the band was located at dusk previous.  The rest of the men followed Uncle Lance to complete the leeward side of the circle.  The location of the manada, had been described as between a small hill covered with Spanish bayonet on one hand, and a zacahuiste flat nearly a mile distant on the other, both well-known landmarks.  As we rode out and approached the location, we dropped a man every half mile until the hill and adjoining salt flat had been surrounded.  We had divided what rifles the ranch owned between the two squads, so that each side of the circle was armed with four guns.  I had a carbine, and had been stationed about midway of the leeward half-circle.  At the first sign of dawn, the signal agreed upon, a turkey call, sounded back down the line, and we advanced.  The circle was fully two miles in diameter, and on receiving the signal I rode slowly forward, halting at every sound.  It was a cloudy morning and dawn came late for clear vision.  Several times I dismounted and in approaching objects at a distance drove my horse before me, only to find that, as light increased, I was mistaken.

[Illustration:  UTTERING A SINGLE PIERCING SNORT]

When both the flat and the dagger crowned hill came into view, not a living object was in sight.  I had made the calculation that, had the manada grazed during the night, we should be far to the leeward of the band, for it was reasonable to expect that they would feed against the wind.  But there was also the possibility that the outlaw might have herded the band several miles distant during the night, and