As we continued up the South Fork and its tributaries, passing through Buffalo Gap, which would later become a well-known monument on the Texas and Montana cattle path, there was no shortage of water. Indians attacked us again at Buffalo Gap, and while it was just as fruitless as the first, one of the horse wranglers was wounded by an arrow to the shoulder. Fort Concho, the closest location where medical assistance may be anticipated, was a hundred and twelve miles away from us at that time. There was a chance that a few heads may have gotten away from the Clear Fork range and found their way back to their old stomping grounds, but these would be identifiable by a tally mark that set them apart from those that weren't retrieved for the spring delivery. We endured the slaughter of cattle in isolated and inhospitable locations while the better-class Indians helped to stop the atrocities. Outlets pay the greatest and those sent to market second. The few that did survive were pathetic creatures without ears or tails, and their horns, both root, and base, had been frozen until they drooped in strange directions. The winter of 1885–1886 was the milder of the two, especially in comparison to the previous one.
Andy Adams was an American author of western literature who lived from May 3, 1859, to September 26, 1935. The son of Andrew Adams, who was of Irish origin, and Elizabeth Elliott, who was of Scottish descent, Andy Adams was born in Thorncreek Township, Whitley County, Indiana. He assisted with the cattle and horses on the family farm when he was a little boy. He moved to Texas in the early 1880s and lived there for ten years, spending a lot of that time moving cattle over the western routes. He attempted to become a merchant in 1890, but the endeavor was unsuccessful. He next tried his hand at gold mining in Colorado and Nevada. He relocated to Colorado Springs in 1894, where he remained until his death. His most popular work, The Log of a Cowboy, was published in 1903, when he was 43 years old and he starting to write. A Texas Matchmaker (1904), The Outlet (1905), Cattle Brands (1906), Reed Anthony, Cowman: An Autobiography (1907), Wells Brothers (1911), and The Ranch on the Beaver are some of his other books (1927).
