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401
any more of it, as the river was wide, muddy and swift. I had carried three herds across the Rio Grande before that successfully, but this was the worst ever. We moved along slowly through the territory trying to fatten our stock on the fine range, but we had so many thunderstorms, hard rains and stampedes we did not make much progress. Ask Bob Ragsdale about it. When we got within eighty or one hundred miles of Caldwell, on the Kansas line, we butted into the Osage tribe, who demanded a good beef out of each and every herd passing their camp. About fifty of their ugliest bucks came to my camp where we were making dinner and took time to eat up everything the cook had and then made their wants known, and I said certainly I had one for them and asked the chief spokesman to please pick it out, as I was in a hurry, and at the same time told my men to "hook up" and move out, and they were ready to go. So the chief picked out a high-grade steer, very fat, about a fifteen hundred pounder, and was about to shoot him, when I tried to explain that he was a favorite of mine, but it was no use, as they thought that that would make no difference. I think a dozen of them shot him at once and killed him before I could say "scat." In less than ten minutes they had him skinned, cut up and packed on ponies and were gone to their camp. My friend, Mr. John Redus, with whom I had been traveling and who was camped close by, seeing what they were doing to me, had thrown his herd on the trail and was pushing them along pretty lively, when my men got my herd straightened out on the trail four or five hundred yards behind Redus' herd. By that time the Indians were coming like blackbirds. I, think they were one hundred strong, all well mounted and well armed with guns, pistols, bows and arrows. They were exceptionally friendly with me, and uncomfortably sociable, showing a great deal of the bulldog familiarity which I could not enjoy. They did not ask me for anything more, only invited me