The excitement following the murder of Wicher was so great that the James Boys, Clell Miller, Arthur McCoy, and the three Younger brothers quit Missouri and again visited Texas. After carousing around through the State until their pecuniary means were well nigh exhausted, they determined upon the commission of a new crime, stealing a herd of cattle. It was in September, 1874, that the seven brigands rode into the southwestern part of the State, where they selected a herd of five hundred of the finest beef cattle in Starr county, which were being tended by three cow-boys. The herders were cruelly murdered and the robbers drove the cattle rapidly toward Mexico with the design of selling them to the Mexicans who cared little for the real ownership of the cattle after they were upon Mexican soil. On the extensive plains of Texas where the large herds are left in charge of cow-boys to roam from season to season, subsisting entirely upon the rich grasses of the prairies, the owners often do not see their cattle for months, trusting them to the care of the herders. It is due to this fact, perhaps, that the bandits, after killing the cow-boys, were permitted to drive the herd over sixty miles and into Mexico without being pursued. ............