ng furious war,
while the cows stood by and looked on. "Shall ve go an' chase dem?"

"No, Rollin; we have more important game to chase," said Victor, whose
conscience, now that he was free from the exciting influences of the
camp, had twinged him more than once for his delay--even although it was
partly justifiable--while the image of poor Tony, with outstretched,
appealing hands on a flying horse behind a savage, was ever before him.
"Come on come on!"

He switched his horse, and went skimming down the slope, followed by his
comrades.

Soon they came to a place where the ground was more broken and rocky.

"Voila! a bar! a bar!" shouted the excitable half-breed; "com, kill
him!"

They looked, and there, sure enough, was an object which Rollin declared
was a large grizzly bear. It was a long way off, however, and the
ground between them seemed very broken and difficult to traverse on
horseback. Ian Macdonald thought of the bear's claws, and a collar, and
Elsie, and tightened his reins. Then he thought of the risk of breaking
a horse's leg if the bear should lead them a long chase over such
ground, and of the certain loss of time, and of Petawanaquat pushing on
ahead. It was a tempting opportunity, but his power of self-denial
triumphed.

"No, Rollin, we have no time to hunt."

"Behold!" exclaimed Rollin again; "more buffalo!"

They had swept past the stony ground and rounded a clump of trees,
behind which a small herd of animals stood for a few seconds, staring at
them in mute amazement. These snorted, set up their tails, and tore
wildly away to the right. This was too much. With a gleeful yell,
Rollin turned to pursue, but Victor called to him angrily to let the
buffalo be. The half-breed turned back with a sigh.

"Ah, vell! ve must forbear."

"I say, Vic," remarked Ian, with a significant smile, "why won't you go
after the buffalo?"

Victor looked at his friend in surprise.

"Surely," he said, "it is more important as well as more interesting to
rescue one's brother than to chase wild animals!"

"True, but how does that sentiment accord with your wish that you might
spend eternity in hunting buffalo?"

"Oh, you know," returned Victor, with a laugh, "when I said that I
wasn't thinking of--of--"

He switched his horse into a wilder gallop, and said no more. He had
said quite enough. He was not the only youth in North America and
elsewhere who has uttered a good deal of nonsense without "thi