I bent away back in the saddle, and though the horse almost went down he just recovered himself, and, plunging and struggling through water and quicksand, we made the other side.

Here I discovered that there was another cowboy with the same part of the herd that I was with; but almost immediately we separated.

I galloped hard through a bottom covered with big cottonwood trees, and stopped the part of the herd that I was with, but very soon they broke on me again, and repeated this twice.

Finally toward morning the few I had left came to a halt.
It had been raining hard for some time.

I got off my horse and leaned against a tree, but before long the infernal cattle started on again, and I had to ride after them.