Back of the pasture lay a range of low mountains, the Sweet Grass they were called, in which several high buttes towered like sentinels.
The Sweet Grass Mountains had the reputation of harboring a great many "bad men," both whites and Indians, who had forsaken the Blackfeet Indian reservation to the west.
The mountain valleys afforded a splendid protection for the cattle, as did the numerous coulees with which the country was seamed.
The big pasture of the Long Tom was reputed to be the best winter feeding ground in Montana. The grass was high and nutritious, and there were plenty of water holes.
Once on the pasture the cattle scattered into smaller herds, each under the leadership of a bull, while the steers drifted off by themselves.
All that was necessary to care for the herd was to ride the lines of the pasture, and keep the cattle on their own feeding grounds, prevent them from straying, and hunt down the packs of wolves which preyed upon the weak cows and young cattle.
At stated intervals along the lines of the pasture were cabins, known as "sign camps," in which the line riders lived.
The first sign camp out of the home pasture was eight miles distant, and the next was under the lee of the mountains, on the west line.
As Ted directed the drive of the herd to the big pasture, on the south and west line of which the first sign camp was situated, he cut out part of the herd and held it back, while the remainder of the cattle went forward.
At the first sign camp Bud and Carl were dropped, for they were to ride the line to the north and east from that point.