uneasy, returned to the fire. The
second shadow must certainly have been that of a stranger. What
did it mean?

He resumed his seat before the red glow, clasping his arms around
his knees, a splendid, resourceful youth whom nature and a hardy
life had combined to make what he was. His brother still slept
soundly and peacefully, but the procession of golden visions did
not pass again through Dick's brain; instead, it was a long trail
of clouds, dark and threatening. He sought again and again to
conjure the clouds away and bring back the golden dreams, but he
could not.

The fire fell to nothing, the triumphant darkness swept up and
blotted out the last core of light, the wind, edged with ice,
blew in from the plains. Dick shivered, drew a heavy blanket
around his own shoulders, and moved a little, as he saw the dim
figure of Bright Sun passing at the far edge of the wagons, but
quickly relapsed into stillness.

Sleep at last pulled down his troubled lids. His figure sank,
and, head on arms, he slumbered soundly.

Chapter II
King Bison

"Up! Up, everybody!" was the shout that reached Dick's sleeping
ears. He sprang to his feet and found that the gorgeous sun was
flooding the prairie with light. Already the high, brilliant
skies of the Great West were arching over him. Men were cooking
breakfast. Teamsters were cracking their whips and the whole
camp was alive with a gay and cheerful spirit. Everybody seemed
to know now that they were going for the gold, and, like Dick,
they had found it in fancy already.

Breakfast over, the train took up its march, turning at a right
angle from its old course and now advancing almost due north.
But this start was made with uncommon alacrity and zeal. There
were no sluggards now. They, too, had golden visions, and, as if
to encourage them, the aspect of the country soon began to
change, and rapidly to grow better. The clouds of dust that they
raised were thinner. The bunch grass grew thicker. Off on the
crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then.
"Antelope," said the hunters. Once they passed a slow creek.
The water was muddy, but it contained no alkali, and animals and
men drank eagerly. Cottonwoods, the first trees they had seen in
days, grew on either side of the stream, and they rested there
awhile in the shade, because the sun was now out in full
splendor, and the vast plains shimmered in the heat.

Albert resumed his place in the wago