Yuh don't want to lose sight uh them nine hundred calves we've got to gather yet." It was all well enough for Billy to promise largely and confidently, but he failed to take into account one small detail over which he had no control.

So perfect was his system of gathering beef--and he gathered only the best, so as to catch the top price--that when Dill's message came, short and hurried but punctiliously worded and perfectly punctuated, that beef had raised to four-thirty and "Please rush shipment as per agreement," Billy had his trainload of beef in Tower, ready to load just three days after receiving notice.

But here interfered the detail over which he had no control.

Dill had remembered to order the cars, but shipping was heavy and cars were not to be had.
Two long, heartrending weeks they waited just outside Tower, held there within easy reach--and upon mighty short feed for the herd--by the promises of the railroad management and the daily assurance of the agent that the cars might be along at any time within four hours.

(He always said four hours, which was the schedule time for fast freight between Tower and the division point.) Two long weeks, while from the surrounding hills they watched long stock trains winding snakily over the prairie toward Chicago.