it. "Try again; it's not so bad as you think."

"Ho-o-o-o-o!" cried Henri, after the second mouthful. "Tis vinegre.
All de sugare in de pack would not make more sweeter one bite of it."

Dick was obliged to confess the dish a failure, so it was thrown out
after having been offered to Crusoe, who gave it one sniff and turned
away in silence. Then they mounted and resumed their journey.

At this place mosquitoes and horse-flies troubled our hunters and
their steeds a good deal. The latter especially were very annoying to
the poor horses. They bit them so much that the blood at last came
trickling down their sides. They were troubled also, once or twice, by
cockchafers and locusts, which annoyed them, not indeed by biting,
but by flying blindly against their faces, and often-narrowly missed
hitting them in the eyes. Once particularly they were so bad that
Henri in his wrath opened his lips to pronounce a malediction on the
whole race, when a cockchafer flew straight into his mouth, and, to
use his own forcible expression, "nearly knocked him off de hoss." But
these were minor evils, and scarcely cost the hunters a thought.

CHAPTER XII.

_Wanderings on the prairie_--_A war party_--_Chased by Indians_--_A
bold leap for life_.

For many days the three hunters wandered over the trackless prairie in
search of a village of the Sioux Indians, but failed to find one, for
the Indians were in the habit of shifting their ground and following
the buffalo. Several times they saw small isolated bands of Indians;
but these they carefully avoided, fearing they might turn out to be
war parties, and if they fell into their hands the white men could not
expect civil treatment, whatever nation the Indians might belong to.

During the greater portion of this time they met with numerous herds
of buffalo and deer, and were well supplied with food; but they had to
cook it during the day, being afraid to light a fire at night while
Indians were prowling about.

One night they halted near the bed of a stream which was almost dry.
They had travelled a day and a night without water, and both men and
horses were almost choking, so that when they saw the trees on the
horizon which indicated the presence of a stream, they pushed forward
with almost frantic haste.

"Hope it's not dry," said Joe anxiously as they galloped up to it.
"No, there's water, lads," and they dashed forward to a pool that had
not yet been dried up. They drank long