They menaced the cattlemen in the West and South, while the rancher made slow but inexorable advance on the East.

As the cattleman came to understand this his face grew dark and sullen, but thus far no herd had entered the Big Sandy Range, though Williams feared their coming and was ready to do battle.
At the precise time that Daniel Pratt was entering Cheyenne County from the East, a Mexican sheepman was moving toward the Cannon Ball from the Southwest, walking behind ten thousand sheep, leaving a dusty, bare and stinking trail behind him.

Williams' report drew the attention of the cattlemen, and the Pratts were for the time forgotten.
A few days after Daniel's assault on the fences of the big ranch, a conference of cattlemen met and appointed a committee to wait upon the owner of the approaching flock of sheep.

The Pratts heard of this, and, for reasons of their own, determined to be present.

Mose, eager to see the outcome of these exciting movements, accompanied the Pratts on their ride over the hills.
They found the man and his herders encamped on the bank of a little stream in a smooth and beautiful valley.