第15章 RECEIVING AT LOS LOBOS(5)

There was a possibility of fully a hundred more coming in with the neighboring cattle, and Dr.Beaver was delighted over the ranch delivery.The outside contingents were in four bunches, then encamped in different directions and within from three to five miles of the ranch.Taking Vick Wolf with me for the afternoon, I looked over the separate herds and found them numbering more than fifteen hundred.They were the same uniform Nueces Valley cattle, and as we lacked only a few over a thousand, the offerings were extremely liberal.Making arrangements with three of the four herds to receive the next day, Vick and I reached our camp on the county line about sunset.

The change was a decided advantage; wood, water, and grass were plentiful, and not over a mile farther from the branding-pens.

The next morning found us in our saddles at the usual early hour.

We were anxious to receive and brand every animal possible that day, so that with a few hours' work the next forenoon the herd would be ready to start.After we had passed on the first contingent of the outside cattle, and as we were nearing the corrals, Dr.Beaver overtook us.Calling me aside, he said:

"Quirk, if you play your cards right, you'll get a certificate of inspection for nothing and a chromo as a pelon.I've bolstered up the Lasalle man that he's better entitled to the work than the Dimmit inspector, and he'll wait until the herd is ready to start.Now, you handle the one, and I'll keep the other as my guest.We must keep them apart and let them buck each other to their hearts' content.Every hoof in your herd will be in a ranch brand of record; but still the law demands inspection and you must comply with it.I'll give you a duplicate list of the brands, so that neither inspector need see the herd, and if we don't save your employer a hundred dollars, then we are amateurs."Everything was pointing to an auspicious start.The last cattle on the delivery were equal to the first, if not better.The sky clouded over, and before noon a light shower fell, settling the dust in the corrals.Help increased as the various bunches were accepted, and at the end of the day only a few over two hundred remained to complete our numbers.The last contingent were fully up to the standard; and rather than disappoint the sellers, Iaccepted fifty head extra, making my herd at starting thirty-four hundred and fifty.When the last beef had passed the branding-chute, there was nothing remaining but to give a receipt to the seller for the number of head received, in behalf of my employer, pending a later settlement between them.

Meanwhile competition in the matter of inspection had been carefully nursed.Conscious of each other's presence, and both equally anxious for the fee, the one deputy was entertained at my camp and the other at Los Lobos.They were treated courteously, but given to understand that in the present instance money talked.With but a small bunch of beeves to brand on the starting day, the direction in which the herd was allowed to leave the bed-ground would be the final answer.If west, Dimmit had underbid Lasalle; if the contrary, then the departure of this herd would be a matter of record in the latter county.Dr.Beaver enjoyed the situation hugely, acting the intermediary in behalf of his guest.Personally I was unconcerned, but was neutral and had little to say.

My outfit understood the situation perfectly.Before retiring on the night of our last camp on the county line, and in the presence of the Dimmit inspector, the last relief received instructions, in the absence of contrary orders, to allow the herd to drift back into Lasalle in the morning.Matters were being conducted in pantomime, and the players understood their parts.Our guest had made himself useful in various ways, and Inaturally felt friendly towards him.He had stood several guards for the boys, and Burl Van Vedder, of the last watch, had secret instructions to call him for that guard.

The next morning the camp was not astir as early as usual.On the cook's arousing us, in the uncertain light of dawn, the herd was slowly rising, and from the position of a group of four horsemen, it was plainly evident that our guest had shaded all competition.

Our camp was in plain view of Los Lobos, and only some five or six miles distant.With the rising of the sun, and from the top of a windmill derrick, by the aid of a field-glass, the Lasalle inspector had read his answer; and after the work in the morning was over, and the final papers had been exchanged, Dr.Beaver insisted that, in commiseration of his departed guest, just one more mint-julep should be drunk standing.

When Don Lovell glanced over my expense account on our arrival at Abilene, he said: "Look here, Tom, is this straight ?--twenty dollars for inspection?--the hell you say! Corrupted them, did you? Well, that's the cheapest inspection I ever paid, with one exception.Dave Sponsilier once got a certificate for his herd for five dollars and a few drinks.But he paid for it a month in advance of the starting of the herd.It was dated ahead, properly sealed, and all ready for filling in the brands and numbers.The herd was put up within a mile of where four counties cornered, and that inspector was a believer in the maxim of the early bird.

The office is a red-tape one, anyhow, and little harm in taking all the advantage you can.--This item marked 'sundries' was DRYgoods, I suppose? All right, Quirk; I reckon rattlesnakes were rather rabid this spring."