them at the store. Then I sent three of my men back to the store to
have the boxes ready and dig the graves. Before these three rode away,
I said, aside to Jim, who was one of them, 'Don't bother about any
whiskey; branch water is plenty nourishing for the wounded. It would
be a sin and shame to waste good liquor on plafry like them.'

"The balance of us went over to the field of carnage and stripped the
saddles off their dead horses, and arranged the departed in a row,
covering them with saddle blankets, pending the planting act. I sent
part of my boys with our wagon to look after our own cattle for the
day. It took us all the afternoon to clean up a minute's work in the
morning.

"I never like to refer to it. Fact was, all the boys felt gloomy for
weeks, but there was no avoiding it. Two months later, we met old man
Andy, way up at Fort Laramie on the North Platte. He was tickled to
death to meet us all. The herd had come through in fine condition. We
never told him anything about this until the cattle were delivered,
and we were celebrating the success of that drive at a near-by town.

"Big Dick told him about this incident, and the old man feeling his
oats, as he leaned with his back against the bar, said to us with a
noticeable degree of pride, 'Lads, I'm proud of every one of you. Men
who will fight to protect my interests has my purse at their command.
This year's drive has been a success. Next year we will drive twice
as many. I want every rascal of you to work for me. You all know how I
mount, feed, and pay my men, and as long as my name is Erath and I own
a cow, you can count on a job with me.'"

"But why did you take them back to the sand-hills to bury them?" cut