e surface, and the little hollow I was able to make filled up
almost as soon as it had been formed. A thought occurred to me. My rifle
might support me, placed horizontally. I looked for it. It was not to be
seen. It had sunk beneath the sand. Could I throw my body flat, and
prevent myself from sinking deeper? No! The water was two feet in depth.
I should drown at once. This last hope left me as soon as formed. I
could think of no plan to save myself. I could make no further effort. A
strange stupor seized upon me. My very thoughts became paralyzed. I knew
that I was going mad. For a moment I was mad.

After an interval, my senses returned. I made an effort to rouse my mind
from its paralysis, in order that I might meet death, which I now
believed to be certain, as a man should. I stood erect. My eyes had sunk
to the prairie level, and rested upon the still bleeding victims of my
cruelty. My heart smote me at the sight. Was I suffering a retribution
of God? With humbled and penitent thoughts, I turned my face to heaven,
almost dreading that some sign of omnipotent anger would scowl upon me
from above. But no! The sun was shining as bright as ever; and the blue
canopy of the world was without a cloud. I gazed upward with earnestness
known only to the hearts of men in positions of peril like mine.

As I continued to look up, an object attracted my attention. Against the
sky, I distinguished the outlines of a large bird. I knew it to be the
obscene bird of the plains, the buzzard vulture. Whence had it come? Who
knows? Far beyond the reach of human eye, it had seen or scented the
slaughtered antelopes; and, on broad, silent wing was now descending to
the feast of death. Presently another, and another, and many others,
mottled the blue field of the heavens, curving and wheeling silently
earthward. Then the foremost swooped down upon the bank, and, after
gazing around for a moment, flapped off toward its prey. In a few
seconds, the prairie was black with filthy birds, who clambered over the
dead antelopes, and beat their wings against each other, while they tore
out the eyes of the quarry with their fetid beaks. And now came gaunt
wolves, sneaking and hungry, stealing out of the cactus thicket; and
loping, coward-like, over the green swells of the prairie. These, after
a battle, drove away the vultures, and tore up the prey, all the while
growling and snapping vengefully at each other. "Thank heaven! I shall
at least be save