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771
by advocating the scalp law against the predatory animals.
My first trip on the trail was made in the spring of 1874, with J. W. Allen as boss. The herd was owned by Lytle McDaniel, and was delivered at Dodge City, Kansas.
In 1874 we went from the Crouch ranch and shipped to Wichita Falls, Texas, then drove to Bingham, Nebraska, on the Republican River. A bad storm struck us on Smoky River, five herds being in sight, and we were the only boys that held our herd. George Wilcox, the boss, said it was the worst storm that he had ever seen and he had been on the trail thirteen years. Will King from Lockhart, Texas, came near being drowned that night, as the face of the earth was covered with water, and one could not distinguish ravines from level ground.
In June, 1873, during the light of the moon, while working on the Crouch ranch one of the sheep herders failed to show up. Some two weeks after he disappeared I found his remains about one mile and a half from the ranch, his body stripped and mutilated, hands tied behind and seven arrows sticking in his back.
In 1875 Indians made a raid on the Crouch ranch during the night and the next morning when we discovered their trail and missed the horses, seven of us .followed them. Nelse Brice, Jap Brice, Jim Crawson, T. W. Everete, L. L. Everete, Ben Steadman, M. W. Franke and myself. We overtok them at Loma Vista in Zavala county. The country being open, they discovered us when we were a half a mile behind them, so we had a running fight for a mile, until they took the brush. We captured sixty head of horses, twenty of them belonging to Rothe on the Hondo. There were nine Indians in this bunch. The horses they were mounted on were all they got off with. Quite a number of shots were exchanged, but I don't think any damage was done on either side.