266 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



we were all naturally interested in the results. When 

 the meeting did take place, quite unpremeditated, no 

 doubt, each man saw the other about the same instant, 

 but one of them was just a little the quicker, and put 

 a bullet through his enemy's heart. It was a mortal 

 wound, of course ; but before the unlucky man fell 

 he was also able to ' get his work in,' and both fell 

 dead at the same instant. This was no duel. The first 

 to fire had the advantage, but the ' dead ' man was 

 too quick for him and he did not escape." 



Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, who was for eight years 

 President of the United States of America, knows from 

 personal experience the arduous life of a cowboy. 1 

 That it is anything but the easy, romantic one writers 

 of fiction love to depict will be seen from his descrip- 

 tion of a cattle " round-up " : " Usually the night 

 watch passes off without incident, but on rare occasions 

 the cattle become restless and prone to stampede. Any- 

 thing may then start them the plunge of a horse, the 

 sudden approach of a coyote, or the arrival of some 

 outside steers or cows that have smelt them and come 

 up. Every animal in the herd will be on its feet in an 

 instant, as if by an electric shock, and off with a rush, 

 horns and tail up. Then, no matter how rough the 

 ground nor how pitchy black the night, the cowboys 

 must ride for all there is in them, and spare neither 

 their own nor their horses' necks. Perhaps their 

 charges break away and are lost altogether ; perhaps 

 by desperate galloping they may head them off, get 

 them running in a circle, and finally stop them. Once 

 stopped, they may break again and possibly divide 

 up, one cowboy, perhaps, following each band. I have 

 1 See Bibliography, 47. 



