Then one afternoon a party of gentlemen hunters, as they called themselves, from the States, stumbled onto 'em.

Wal, as true as I'm a settin' here, they s'rounded that herd and never stopped shooting till they killed every one of 'em!" The cowman was so angry that he smoked savagely at his pipe for a minute in silence.

His friends shared his feelings, and Kansas Jim remarked: "Hank and me hunted two days fur them folks, and if we'd have got the chance to draw bead on 'em not all of 'em would have got home.

Why, the rapscallions just shot the whole twenty-four, and left 'em laying on the ground.

They didn't even take their hides.