.

"But what good will that do? We might bubble over, but we should be just
as hungry as ever."

"It seems to me that when a fellow is chock-full of anything he oughtn't
to feel much hunger."

"I've often thought that, but you can't fool nature that way."

"If it gets any worse we can shoot the ponies and devour them."

"Why both of them?"

"Because it would take a whole one to satisfy me. I don't know how _you_
feel, Jack, but if we are to have appetites like this I shall go in for
buying a drove of cattle and spending the few weeks we have in these
parts in eating."

The youths looked in each other's face and laughed. Truly they were
ahungered, but could never quite lose their waggishness.

"I wonder what's become of Hank," suddenly exclaimed Fred, looking
beside and behind them; "the fire is nearly burned out, and he is
nowhere in sight. HALLOOH!"

The hail was uttered in a loud voice, and was responded to, but from a
point a considerable distance out upon the prairie, in the direction of
the foot-hills. The open nature of the wood permitted the boys to see
quite clearly in that direction.

"Yonder he comes," said Jack.

"And, by gracious, he's carrying something on his shoulders. I wonder if
it is that Indian you chatted with last night."

"Better than that. It's _something to eat_!"

Jack Dudley was right. The guide was laden with the carcass of some
animal. Its bulk was proof that he possessed an accurate idea of the
appetite of these young gentlemen.

"How careless in him to leave us thus alone," remarked Fred, with mock
reproof.

"Do you wish he hadn't done so?"

"Don't name it!" exclaimed Fred, with a shudder; "he knew the only way
of saving our lives. It wouldn't have done for him to postpone it
another hour."

Hank Hazletine was never more welcome than when he entered the grove and
let fall from his shoulders the carcass of a half-grown calf, plump,
juicy, tender, and in the best of condition.

"I don't s'pose you care much 'bout it, but I feel like having something
worth while for breakfast," he remarked, proceeding to prepare the
coals, for he had dressed the veal before starting on his return.

"Well," said Fred, with assumed indifference, "I suspect that since you
intend to partake of food yourself, we may as well join you for the sake
of sociability."

Men like the old hunter are adepts at preparing a meal. The smouldering
fire was in good condition for broiling, and when raked