e was too wise to take
any thing for granted.

He saw the buffaloes cropping the grass with the same vigorous
persistency which they will show for hours, while the prairie, extending
far to the right and left, failed to show any other living creature upon
it. So far as he could tell, there was no cause for fear.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A STRANGE RIDE.

When the boys had eaten their fill, there was a quantity of meat left.
This was cooked still more over the coals, wrapped about with the
greenest leaves that could be got, and then packed in the bundle which
Terry Clark strapped to his back.

"There's enough of the same," he explained, "to presarve us from pinin'
away with starvation, which reminds me now that I promised ye that I'd
show ye the properest way in which to bring down a buffalo."

"I'm willing to wait until some other time," said Fred, who feared there
would be dangerous delay; "I am more anxious to get forward than I am to
see you make an exhibition of yourself."

"It will not take me long," replied Terry, who was sure there could be
no miss where the animals were so plentiful, while of course the delay
ought to be slight.

"If thim Winnebagos that we obsarved last night have started this way,
they ain' t any more than fairly goin', which puts thim at the laast
calculation a dozen good miles behind us; they won't walk any faster
than we do, so we'll git to the camp a long ways ahead of 'em."

"All this sounds reasonable, but you know we have learned that they are
not the only Winnebagos in these parts; but then they are under the eye
of Deerfoot and he would give us warning."

"That sittles it, as I previously remarked some time ago, in token of
which we will shake hands on the same."

The Irish lad had made such an enjoyable meal that he was in the highest
spirits. He extended his hand to his friend and shook it warmly, as he
was inclined to do for slight cause.

"Now stand still, obsarve, admire and remimber."

And with this high flown counsel, Terry with his gun in position began
moving toward an enormous bull. The latter really was not so close to
him as was a cow, but he thought it beneath his dignity to spend his
ammunition on such game as had served for their dinner.

Although Terry Clark's natural love of humor often led him to assume
what he failed to feel, he was hopeful in the present instance that he
would be able to carry out the little scheme in mind. He knew that the
weapon