about noon
He claimed to know the country along the Colorado , and unless it had changed recently , those hills to the westward harbored a good many of the worst rustlers in the State . He admitted it might have been wolves chasing the range cattle , but thought it had the earmarks of being done by human wolves . He maintained that few herds had ever passed that river without loss of cattle , unless the rustlers were too busy elsewhere to give the passing herd their attention . Straw had ordered his herd to drop back down the trail about ten miles from their camp of the night previous , and about noon the two herds met on a branch of Brady Creek . By that time our herd had nearly three hundred head of the Ellison cattle , so we held it up and cut theirs out . Straw urged our foreman , whatever he did , not to make camp in the Colorado bottoms or anywhere near the river , if he did n't want a repetition of his experience . After starting our herd in the afternoon , about half a dozen of us turned back and lent a hand in counting Straw 's herd , which proved to be over a hundred head short , and nearly half his outfit were still out hunting cattle .