That won't be any too many for five thousand head of cattle on the Tom Long trail.

Unless you're figgerin' to hire some hands from another outfit ?" "We're asking no favors," said Lawler.

"We're driving five thousand, as you suggest.

I'm leaving the selecting of the trail crew to you--you know your men." At dawn the following morning the big herd was divided into about the proportions suggested by Blackburn.

The smaller section, escorted by five disgruntled Circle L cowboys, moved slowly southward, while the main herd headed eastward, flanked at the sides by grim-faced Circle L riders; at the rear by a number of others and by Lawler, Blackburn; the "chuck-wagon" driven by the cook--a portly, solemn-visaged man of forty with a thin, complaining voice; the "hoodlum" wagon, equipped with bedding and a meager stock of medicines and supplies for emergencies--driven by a slender, fiercely mustached man jocosely referred to as "Doc;" and a dozen horses of the _remuda_, in charge of the horse-wrangler and an assistant.
It was the first trail herd that had been started eastward since the coming of the railroad.