and return with the meat, in case my friends should have been
less successful. Being also desperately hungry, I contemplated eating a
slice, even though I might not have time to cook it first. I had, of
course, flint and steel, and should not have been long in lighting a
fire.

I was first made aware of the storm which had for some time been
brewing, by a bright flash of lightning which almost blinded me,
followed quickly by a rattling peal of thunder; making my horse give a
start, which, had I not had a firm hold of the saddle with my knees,
would have unseated me. Another and still brighter flash was quickly
followed by a yet louder peal. My horse stood still, trembling
violently, and afraid to move. In a wonderfully short time the whole
sky was overcast with a dense mass of black clouds; and then, after a
succession of almost blinding flashes of lightning and terrific peals of
thunder, down came the rain in torrents, completely concealing from view
all objects at a distance.

Had I remained perfectly still, I might have ascertained the direction
in which I was going, but when I attempted to make my horse move on he
wheeled round and round, and the rain quickly obliterated the track I
had previously made. I was thus utterly unable to determine what course
to pursue. There was no wind, even, to guide me, and the rain came down
perpendicularly, so that I was in a few minutes wet to the skin. I
thought that perhaps my horse's instinct would lead him back to his
equine associates; or, if he was an old buffalo-hunter, that he might
follow the trail of the herd we had been pursuing.

I was anxious to obtain both food and shelter. If I could overtake the
buffalo, I might satisfy the cravings of hunger; but how to find
shelter, was a more difficult point to settle. I therefore gave my
steed the rein, and for some time he went in what I supposed was a
straight course. Again, however, the lightning burst forth, with even
more fearful flashes than before, while the thunder rattled like peals
of artillery fired close to my ears. My steed again stood stock-still;
and when I attempted to urge him on, he, as before, wheeled round and
round. Every moment I expected to be struck by the lightning, which,
coming down from the clouds in forked flashes, ran hissing over the
ground like fiery serpents.

I was aware, from the time I had been out, that evening must be
approaching, but, more suddenly than I had calculated on,