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784
In March, 1873, I was again employed by Read & O'Connor, this time at $125 per month. Mr. O'Connor and I gathered cattle around Matagorda Bay. There were a thousand head of beeves, and seven hundred of them had O'Connor's brand on them. We took them to J. D. Read's near Goliad, and put the road brand on them. The road brand was made in the shape of a horse shoe. We headed toward Yorktown, where we .struck the old trail and followed it all the way. Not a stampede occurred on the trip of over a thousand miles. We delivered these cattle to Shanghai Pearce at Wichita, Kansas. I had formerly worked for Pearce, and he induced me to deliver these same cattle down in Missouri. Now there was a law in that state against taking cattle through which had not wintered over, but we took the chance. When we got to Missouri with our old beef hide still hanging under the wagon it looked suspicious to a fellow who came out to our camp one evening. He asked me my name and a few fool questions, and then departed. Pretty soon this fellow came back to camp accompanied by several men riding longtailed horses, and carrying muskets. They served a writ on me and said, "E. P. Byler and crew, consider yourselves under arrest." And I did not resist. When we got to a little town I wired to Shanghai Pearce at Wichita about the mess I was in. They put a man to watch us and see that we didn't move the cattle, and we awaited Pearce's coming. He soon got there with a bunch of men, and we decided on a course of action. Pearce got very intimate with the guard and took him for a buggy ride. The hands he brought took charge of the cattle and told us to rattle our hocks and strike for an Indian reserve about ten miles away where we would be safe. When Pearce got back with the guard we were gone—"E. P. Byler and crew" could not be found. The guard was put in jail. Pearce got into a wrangle with the authorities about the cattle, but a compromise was effected and we returned and took them to where he