To Will Banion the trainmaster assigned the most difficult and thankless task of the train, the captaincy of the cow column; that is to say, the leadership of the boys and men whose families were obliged to drive the loose stock of the train.
There were sullen mutterings over this in the Liberty column.

Men whispered they would not follow Woodhull.

As for Banion, he made no complaint, but smiled and shook hands with Wingate and all his lieutenants and declared his own loyalty and that of his men; then left for his own little adventure of a half dozen wagons which he was freighting out to Laramie--bacon, flour and sugar, for the most part; each wagon driven by a neighbor or a neighbor's son.

Among these already arose open murmurs of discontent over the way their own contingent had been treated.

Banion had to mend a potential split before the first wheel had rolled westward up the Kaw.
The men of the meeting passed back among their neighbors and families, and spoke with more seriousness than hitherto.