et sail, an' I've been
keepin' an eye on our course all the way. Make your mind easy, my boy."

So saying, the sailor pulled out the compass referred to, and consulted
it. Then he pulled out a watch of the warming-pan type, which he styled
a chronometer, and consulted that also; after which he looked up at the
clouds--seamanlike--and round the horizon, especially to windward, if we
may speak of such a quarter in reference to a day that was almost quite
calm.

"Now, Archie, boy, the upshot o' my cogitations is that with a light
breeze on our starboard quarter, a clear sky overhead, an' a clear
conscience within, you and I had better hold on our course for a little
longer, and see whether we can't overhaul the runners. If we succeed,
good and well. If not, why, 'bout-ship, and homeward-bound is the
sailin' orders. What say 'ee, lad?"

"I say whatever you say, Jenkins. If you're sure o' the way back, as
I've no doubt you are, why, there couldn't be greater fun than to go
after the buffalo on our own account. And--I say, look there! Isn't
that somethin' like them on the top o' the far bluff yonder? A fellow
like you, wi' sharp sailor-eyes, ought to be able to make them out."

"You forget, lad, that I ain't a buffalo runner, an' don't know the cut
o' the brutes' jibs yet. It does look like somethin'. Come, we'll go
an' see." Putting their horses to the gallop, the two curiously matched
friends, taking advantage of every knoll and hollow, succeeded in
getting sufficiently near to perceive that a small herd was grazing
quietly in a grassy bottom between two prairie waves. They halted at
once for consultation.

"Now, then, Archie," said the sailor, examining the priming of his gun,
"here we are at last, a-goin' to begin a pitched battle. There's this
to be said for us, that neither you nor me knows rightly how to go to
work, both on us havin' up to this time bin trained, so to speak, on
hearsay. But what o' that? In the language o' the immortial Nelson,
`England expec's every man to do his dooty.' Now it seems to me my
dooty on the present occasion is to lay myself alongside of a buffalo
an' blaze away! Isn't that the order o' battle?"

"Yes. But don't go for a bull, and don't go too close for fear he turns
sharp round an' catches you on his horns. You know the bulls are apt to
do that sometimes."

"Trust me, lad, I'll keep clear o' the bulls."

"And you understand how to re-load?" asked the boy.