I am so embarrassed! Shortly after I wrote that, I pulled an hd out of one of my old computers to get some data from it and the cable was very clearly labeled 'Master' on the end and slave in the...

There are usually 2 IDE connections on the motherboard; one cable connected to the motherboare can handle 2 hard drive - 1 master, 1 Slave - the slave being the farthest out from the MB connector. ...