Page:Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains.djvu/522

394 was "Hopkins' choice," that or none. Mounting my crow-bait, I struck out in a westerly direction to look for the stock.

Three days' ride from the fort I struck plenty of cat- tle sign. They were apparently heading for Wood river, and after following their trail about two miles, I discovered two horse tracks, which convinced me it was the stock I was looking

I discovered two horse tracks.

for. The next morning I found them and the cattle were all there with the exception of three. One of my horses was there, but the other one was missing; the wagon-master's horse was also there. I succeeded in catchingmy horse and turned loose the one I had bought and left him there for wolf-bait, provided they would eat him, mounted my saddle horse, and turned the stock in the direction of camp. It took me five days to drive them to our camp on the river, making ten days in all since I had started out. We stayed there three weeks longer, and