midnight
With a daybreak start and an abundance of help the last animal was ironed up before sundown . As a favor to Nancrede 's outfit , their camp being nearly five miles distant , we held them the first night after branding . No sooner had the trail foreman accepted our three-year-olds than he and Glen Gallup set out for the McLeod ranch on the San Miguel . The day our branding was finished , the two returned near midnight , reported the San Miguel cattle accepted and due the next evening at Las Palomas . By dawn Nancrede and myself started for Santa Maria , the former being deficient in Spanish , the only weak point , if it was one , in his make-up as a cowman . We were slightly disappointed in not finding the cattle ready to pass upon at Santa Maria . That ranch was to deliver seven hundred , and on our arrival they had not even that number under herd .