gic. Against
the shining silver of the cliffs the pines showed dark and somber, and
when the branches stirred, the bright light danced on the ground
making it appear like a sheet of molten metal.

It was like a country seen in a dream.

The next morning all was changed. A wild gale was blowing and rain
beat about them in level sheets. A wet fog came and went and gave
place at last to a steady rain, as the gale gave place to a hurricane.
They spent a miserable day and night shifting from shelter to shelter
with the shifting wind; another day and another night. Their
provisions were almost gone, the fire refused to burn in the fierce
downpour, the horses drifted far off before the storm....

"Fortunately," remarked Roosevelt later, "we had all learned that, no
matter how bad things were, grumbling and bad temper can always be
depended upon to make them worse, and so bore our ill-fortune, if not
with stoical indifference, at least in perfect quiet."

The third day dawned crisp and clear, and once more the wagon lumbered
on. They made camp that night some forty miles southwest of Lang's.
They were still three days from home, three days of crawling voyaging
beside the fagged team. The country was monotonous, moreover, without
much game.

"I think I'd like to ride in and wake the boys up for breakfast,"
remarked Merrifield.

"Good!" exclaimed Roosevelt. "I'll do it with you."

Merrifield argued the matter. Roosevelt had been in the saddle all day
and it was eighty miles to the Maltese Cross.

"I'm going with you. I want to wind up this trip myself," said
Roosevelt, and there the argument ended.

At nine o'clock they saddled their tough little ponies, and rode off
out of the circle of firelight. The October air was cool in their
faces as they loped steadily mile after mile over the moonlit prairie.

Roosevelt later described that memorable ride.

The hoof-beats of our horses rang out in steady rhythm
through the silence of the night, otherwise unbroken save
now and then by the wailing cry of a coyote. The rolling
plains stretched out on all sides of us, shimmering in the
clear moonlight; and occasionally a band of spectral-looking
antelope swept silently away from before our path. Once we
went by a drove of Texan cattle, who stared wildly at the
intruders; as we passed they charged down by us, the ground
rumbling beneath their tread, while their long horns knocked