AMONG THE COWBOYS 269 



cope with them, while at the other wagons riders were 

 saddling in hot haste and spurring off to their help 

 through the blinding rain. Some of us at once ran out 

 to our own saddle-band. All of the ponies were stand- 

 ing huddled together, with their heads down and their 

 tails to the wind. They were wild and restive enough 

 usually, but the storm had cowed them, and we were 

 able to catch them without either rope or halter. We 

 made quick work of saddling, and the second each man 

 was ready away he loped through the dusk, splashing 

 and slipping in the pools of water that studded the 

 muddy plain. Most of the riders were already out when 

 we arrived. The cattle were gathered in a compact, 

 wedge-shaped, or, rather, fan-shaped, mass, with their 

 tails to the wind that is, towards the thin end of the 

 wedge or fan. In front of this fan-shaped mass of 

 frightened, maddened beasts was a long line of cowboys, 

 each muffled in his oilskin slicker, and with his broad 

 hat pulled down over his eyes, to shield him from the 

 pelting rain. When the cattle were quiet for a moment 

 every horseman at once turned round with his back to 

 the wind, and the whole line stood as motionless as so 

 many sentries. Then if the cattle began to spread 

 out and overlap at the ends, or made a rush and broke 

 through at one part of the lines, there would be a 

 change into wild activity. The men, shouting and 

 swaying in their saddles, darted to and fro with reckless 

 speed, utterly heedless of danger now racing to the 

 threatened point, now checking and wheeling their 

 horses so sharply as to bring them square on their 

 haunches, or even throw them flat down, while the hoofs 

 ploughed long furrows in the slippery soil, until, after 

 some minutes of this mad galloping hither and thither, 



