So I come back yere to round up the rest o' ther bunch." "And brand a few outsiders." He grinned.
"Maybe I was n't over-particular, but anyhow I got a thousand head together by the last o' June, an' hit the trail with 'em.

Then hell sure broke loose.

'Fore we 'd got that bunch o' cattle twenty mile down the Cimarron we wus rounded up by a gang o' Cheyenne Injuns, headed by that ornery Koleta, and every horn of 'em drove off.

Thar wa'n't no fight; the damn bucks just laughed at us, an' left us sittin' thar out on the prairie.

They hogged hosses an' all." He wiped his face, and spat into the fire, while Hamlin sat silent, gun in hand.
"I reckon now as how Le Fevre put ol' Koleta wise to that game, but I was plum innocent then," he went on regretfully.