nter, but a strong man with good tools might put it
in shape for future service.

"Now, if Al and I only had horses, we might get it out and take
away our furs in it," said Dick, "but I suppose I might as well
wish for a railroad as for horses."

He descended into the gully and found the tracks of wolves and
other wild beasts about the wagon. In their hunger, they had
chewed up every fragment of leather or cloth, and had clawed and
scratched among the lockers. Dick had searched those pretty well
before, but now he looked for gleanings. He found little of
value until he discovered, jammed down in a corner, an old
history and geography of the United States combined in one volume
with many maps and illustrations. It was a big octavo book, and
Dick seized it with the same delight with which a miner snatches
up his nugget of gold. He opened it, took a rapid look through
flying pages, murmured, "Just the thing," closed it again, and
buttoned it securely inside his deerskin coat. He had not
expected anything; nevertheless, he had gleaned to some purpose.

Dick left the wagon and went into the pass where the massacre had
occurred. Time had not dimmed the horror of the place for him
and he shuddered as he approached the scene of ambush, but he
forced himself to go on.

The wagons were scattered about, but little changed, although, as
in the case of the one in the gully, all the remaining cloth and
leather had been chewed by wild animals. Here and there were the
skeletons of the fallen, and Dick knew that the wild beasts had
not been content with leather and cloth alone. He went through
the wagons one by one, but found nothing of value left except a
paper of needles, some spools of thread, and a large pair of
scissors, all of which he put in the package with the history.

It was nightfall when he finished the task, and retiring to the
slope, he made his bed among some pines. He heard wolves
howling twice in the night, but he merely settled himself more
easily in his warm buffalo robe and went to sleep again.
Replenishing his canteen with water the next morning, he started
out upon the plains, intending to make some explorations.

Dick had thought at first that they were in the Black Hills, but
he concluded later that they were further west. The mountains
about them were altogether too high for the Black Hills, and he
wished to gain some idea of their position upon the map. The
thought reminded him that he had