Fortunately a
firm, which was expecting our arrival, had a prospective purchaser from
Fort Worth for about our number. Making a date with the firm to show our
horses the next morning, our _segundo_ returned to the herd, elated over
the prospect of a sale.
On their arrival the next morning, we had the horses already watered and
were grazing them along an abrupt slope between the first and second
bottoms of the river. The salesman understood his business, and drove
the conveyance back and forth on the down hill side, below the herd,
and the rise in the ground made our range stock look as big as American
horses. After looking at the animals for an hour, from a buckboard, the
prospective buyer insisted on looking at the _remuda_. But as these were
gentle, he gave them a more critical examination, insisting on their
being penned in a rope corral at our temporary camp, and had every
horse that was then being ridden unsaddled to inspect their backs. The
_remuda_ was young, gentle, and sound, many of them submitting to be
caught without a rope. The buyer was pleased with them, and when the
price came up for discussion Deweese artfully set a high figure on the
saddle stock, and, to make his bluff good, offered to reserve them and
take them back to the ranch.
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