Range was becoming valuable, and at a meeting of the
directors that fall a resolution was passed, authorizing me to secure
a lease adjoining our present one. Accordingly, when paying the second
installment of rent money, I took the Indian agent of the two tribes
with me. The leading chiefs were pleased with my punctuality in
meeting the rental, and a proposition to double their income of
"grass" money met with hearty grunts of approval. I made the council
a little speech,--my maiden endeavor,--and when it was interpreted
to the squatting circle I had won the confidence of these simple
aborigines. A duplicate of our former lease in acreage and terms was
drawn up and signed; and during the existence of our company the best
teepee in the winter or summer encampments, of either the Cheyennes or
Arapahoes, was none too good for Reed Anthony when he came with the
rent money or on other business.
Our capital stock was increased to two million dollars, in the latter
half of which, one hundred thousand was asked for and allotted to me.
I stayed on the range until the first of December, freighting in a
thousand bushels of corn for the horses and otherwise seeing that the
camps were fully provisioned before returning to my home in Texas.
The winter proved dry and cold, the cattle coming through in fine
condition, not one per cent of loss being sustained, which is a good
record for through stock.
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