" said our jovial
companion, Dick Buntin, who never allowed any matter to disturb him, if
he could help it, while engaged in stowing away his food.

Dick had been a lieutenant in the navy, and had knocked about the world
in all climes, and seen no small amount of service. He had lately
joined our party with Charley Fielding, a fatherless lad whom he had
taken under his wing.

We, that is Jack Story and myself, Tom Rushforth, had come out from
England together to the far west, to enjoy a few months' buffalo
hunting, deer stalking, grizzly and panther shooting, and beaver
trapping, not to speak of the chances of an occasional brush with the
Redskins, parties of whom were said to be on the war-path across the
regions it was our intention to traverse, though none of us were
inclined to be turned aside by the warnings we had received to that
effect from our friends down east.

We had been pushing on further and further west, gaining experience, and
becoming inured to the fatigues and dangers of a hunter's life. Having
traversed Missouri and Kansas, though we had hitherto met with no
adventures worthy of note, we had that evening pitched our camp in the
neighbourhood of Smoky-hill fork, the waters of which, falling into the
Arkansas, were destined ultimately to reach the far-off Mississippi.

We had furnished ourselves with a stout horse apiece, and four mules to
carry our stores, consisting of salt pork, beans, biscuit, coffee, and a
few other necessaries, besides our spare guns, ammunition, and the meat
and skins of the animals we might kill.

Having, a little before sunset, fixed on a spot for our camp, with a
stream on one side, and on the other a wood, which would afford us fuel
and shelter from the keen night air which blew off the distant
mountains, we had unsaddled and unpacked our horses and mules, the packs
being placed so as to form a circular enclosure about eight paces in
diameter.

Our first care had been to water and hobble our animals, and then to
turn them loose to graze, when we considered ourselves at liberty to
attend to our own wants. Having collected a quantity of dry sticks, we
had lighted our fire in the centre of the circle, filled our
water-kettle, and put on our meat to cook. Our next care had been to
arrange our sleeping places. For this purpose we cut a quantity of
willows which grew on the banks of the stream hard by, and we each
formed a semi-circular hut, by sticking the extremities