Part 22 (2/2)

When we got to the nearest corner of the Carriker pasture, it was still a long way to the gate that opened into the pasture We were tired, sleepy, hungry, thirsty, weary, and alry at one little brother who had contributed sodrive to the gate, we took wires loose from the fence posts, tied the bottom wires down, propped the top ones up, and drove the herd through the fence and into the pasture This ended our drive, but there was still one little chore to do

I wanted to cut the rope between the Jersey cow and the Hereford cow and let theh and almost completely covered with trees and cedar bushes I prepared my catch rope and made one desperate attempt to rope one of the cows I threw the loop and it went over one horn of the Hereford I knew the herd would vanish into the brush before I could get ready and try again So I juround and tried to flip the rope around the other horn also I had hoped to delay theh to rush in and cut the rope between them But I had no such luck My throw rope came off the one horn and they quickly disappeared into the thick brush They were all gone, vanished into the bushes

I looked for Old Buck and he was gone too Then I looked for Lester and he was nowhere in sight I called to hi up out of the brush I asked if he had seen Old Buck He hadn't, but he rode off to find hi back a bunch of cows that were trying to run away There were tays for the herd to escape Lester had gone one way and had tried to hold the cows back, but had failed Old Buck had gone the other way alone and had cut off the escape route of the other half of the herd Not a single cow had gotten by him, but the te wanted had escaped down the way Lester had gone I could write a book telling about the splendid work Old Buck did for ether

Anye fastened the fence wires back in place and were riding toward hohway After dark sonized us, offered to take us home and we accepted We still had only one rope, so we staked out Old Buck as we had done the night before and hoped that Nancy would stay with hiot hory enough to eat anything that wouldn't fight back and couldn't outrun me And my bed was so ht before

Early the next day e returned to get our horses, Old Nancy was not there We searched for her but in vain We returned to the area every day for a week looking for horse tracks either in the lane or in the pastures on both sides of the highway But we found no clue whatsoever as to where she had gone Then finally a thought came to me Down in the valley of Texas there was a woman I had heard on radio-I believe her name was Ethel Duncan- who clai lost articles If you would send her a dollar she would answer three questions for you I kneould be worth a dollar to me to have her answer just one question So ent to the telegraph office in Rotan and I wrote raraph operator read the question, looked at me, and shook his head just a little, as if to say, ”There's one born every minute” But money talks, and since I had the dollar to send to Ethel and enough left over to pay theit to her at McAllen, he took my money and sent the question and the dollar

About an hour later the following razing along the right-of-way of the railroad which runs into Rotan froent, about three miles from home”

The railroad ran beside the County road all the way to my home in Royston It would be easy to look for the , no horse, no cow, no sign of any animal of any kind, except maybe a few jackrabbits There were not even any horse tracks

Well that was the last straw As far as I was concerned, the ave up I had spent tooalready There ork to be done and I had better get with it I kneould miss Old Nancy, but we could live without her

Then at ho, soraent” I knew it didn't run froent, but then it did run to Rotan I couldn't see anything wrong with that But wait- soure whether there was so I read a little further, ”about three miles from home, ”THAT'S IT, HOME Where was my home? Was it Royston? Was it my house? Come to think of it, neither of those places was ram to Ethel, Rotan was the only place mentioned That had to be it, three miles from Rotan That would be about nine ot back in ht Rotan was still about three miles away, I pulled up to a farm house and asked a far she been gone?” the farmer asked

”One week today,” I answered

”Nope, haven't seen her Got one been here teeks; couldn't be yorn”

”Mind if I see her?”

”Nope, she's out in the lot with the other horses”

We walked to the horse lot and I looked

”That's her all right,” I told hione?”

”One week today”

”Seeuess not,-today's Wednesday ain't it? Yep, yep, that's right, she come last Wednesday That's the day I drove into town She was here when I got back”