noon
As we rode the short distance between the two herds and I mentally reviewed the situation , I could not help but think it was fortunate for the alien outfit that their employer was a Northern cowman instead of a Texan . Had the present owner been of the latter school , there would have been more than one dead Mexican before a valuable herd would have been abandoned over an unavoidable accident . I kept my thoughts to myself , however , for the man had troubles enough , and on reaching his drifting herd , we turned them back on their course . It was high noon when we reached his wagon and found the Mexican outfit still keening over their dead comrade . We pushed the cattle , a mixed herd of about twenty-five hundred , well past the camp , and riding back , dismounted among the howling vaqueros . There was not the semblance of sanity among them . The foreman , who could speak some little English , at least his employer declared he could , was carrying on like a madman , while a majority of the vaqueros were playing a close second .