It was a hard night that followed for all. Half the gang had to
ride herd until daybreak to make sure that the nervous creatures
did not start again. The other men and ponies dragged the dead
beasts out of the throat of that gap between the two hollows.

More than a hundred were either dead or had to be shot. The bodies
had to be dragged out of the way on the hillsides. Otherwise the
steers remaining could not have been got out of the pasture.

Rhoda cried. Every carcass dragged out of the way meant a decided
loss for Rose Ranch. And the pity of it!

One puncher was sent to the ranch house to report and ask for a
beef wagon to come up. But not more than two carcasses could be
used by the whole ranch force at this time of year. The weather was
too hot.

By morning the path was cleared. Steve said:

"Get 'em out! Get 'em out as soon as possible. Before night the
heavens will be black with buzzards and the hills yellow with
coyotes. There will be some singing around this place for a day or
two."

They drove the exhausted cattle slowly into the outer pasture, and
from there headed them deeper into the hills to a larger valley
where the herbage was known to be good.

"I don't know who them Mexicans were. I don't believe it was the