eyes gazing on me with a look of eager curiosity. By the side
of the shaggy and brutish monsters before me, it seemed like some lovely
young girl wandering near a den of robbers or a nest of bearded pirates.
The buffalo looked uglier than ever. "Here goes for another of you,"
thought I, feeling in my pouch for a percussion cap. Not a percussion
cap was there. My good rifle was useless as an old iron bar. One of the
wounded bulls had not yet fallen, and I waited for some time, hoping
every moment that his strength would fail him. He still stood firm,
looking grimly at me, and disregarding Henry's advice I rose and walked
away. Many of the bulls turned and looked at me, but the wounded brute
made no attack. I soon came upon a deep ravine which would give me
shelter in case of emergency; so I turned round and threw a stone at
the bulls. They received it with the utmost indifference. Feeling myself
insulted at their refusal to be frightened, I swung my hat, shouted, and
made a show of running toward them; at this they crowded together and
galloped off, leaving their dead and wounded upon the field. As I moved
toward the camp I saw the last survivor totter and fall dead. My speed
in returning was wonderfully quickened by the reflection that the
Pawnees were abroad, and that I was defenseless in case of meeting with
an enemy. I saw no living thing, however, except two or three squalid
old bulls scrambling among the sand-hills that flanked the great ravine.
When I reached camp the party was nearly ready for the afternoon move.

We encamped that evening at a short distance from the river bank. About
midnight, as we all lay asleep on the ground, the man nearest to me
gently reaching out his hand, touched my shoulder, and cautioned me at
the same time not to move. It was bright starlight. Opening my eyes and
slightly turning I saw a large white wolf moving stealthily around the
embers of our fire, with his nose close to the ground. Disengaging my
hand from the blanket, I drew the cover from my rifle, which lay close
at my side; the motion alarmed the wolf, and with long leaps he bounded
out of the camp. Jumping up, I fired after him when he was about thirty
yards distant; the melancholy hum of the bullet sounded far away through
the night. At the sharp report, so suddenly breaking upon the stillness,
all the men sprang up.

"You've killed him," said one of them.

"No, I haven't," said I; "there he goes, running along the river.