lue sky, but the sun shone with undimmed splendor, the
warmth slightly increasing as the orb climbed the heavens. To the
northward the undulating plain was unbroken by hill or stream, so far as
the eye could note, while to the eastward the prospect was similar,
though they knew that the North Platte curved over in that direction,
and, after winding around the upper end of the Laramie Mountains, joined
the main stream far over in Nebraska.

To the westward the prospect was romantic and awe-inspiring. The Wind
River range towered far up in the sky in rugged grandeur, following a
course almost parallel with their own, though gradually trending more to
the left, in the direction of Yellowstone Park. The snow-crowned peaks
looked like vast banks of clouds in the sky, while the craggy portions
below the frost-line were mellowed by the distance and softly tinted in
the clear, crystalline atmosphere. The mountains formed a grand
background to the picture which more closely environed them.

As the three galloped easily forward they kept nearly abreast, with the
ranchman between them. He was in a pleasant mood, and seemed to have
formed a fancy for the youths, who felt a natural admiration for the
big, muscular veteran of the plains and mountains.

"Yes," said he, in answer to their inquiries; "I've spent all my life as
a cattleman, cowboy, hunter or trapper. I left the States with my
parents, when a small younker, with an emigrant train fur Californy.
Over in Utah, when crawling through the mountains, and believing the
worst of the bus'ness was over, the Injins come down on us one rainy
night and wiped out nearly all. My father, mother and an older brother
was killed, and I don't understand how I got off with my scalp, but I
did, with half a dozen others."

"Did you go on to California?"

"No; I've never been in that country, which I s'pose you'll think
strange; but I was on my way there, when I met the great scout Kit
Carson and several hunters. They took me along with 'em, and the next
twenty years of my life was spent in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.
Since then I've ranged from the Panhandle to Montana, most of the time
in the cattle bus'ness."

"At what are you engaged just now?" inquired Jack.

"The same--that is, the cattle bus'ness. You may know that after
thousands of the critters have spent the summer in Texas, New Mexico and
Arizona, they drive 'em north into Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas, to
git their fini