fallen before the rifles, but Dick had secured the fattest
and the tenderest. Albert, as proud as Dick himself of his
triumph, came down on the plain and helped as much as he could in
skinning and cutting up the cow. Dick wished to preserve the
robe, and they spread it out on the wagon to dry.

The train made no further attempt to advance that day, but
devoted the afternoon to a great feast. Bright Sun showed them
how to cook the tenderest part of the hump in the coals, and far
into the night the fires blazed.

"We will see no more buffaloes for a while," said Bright Sun.
"To-morrow we reach another little river coming down from the
hills, and the ground becomes rough."

Bright Sun told the truth. They reached the river about noon of
the next day, and, as it flowed between steep banks, the crossing
was difficult. It took many hours to get on the other side, and
two or three axles were broken by the heavy jolts. Conway raged
and swore, calling them a clumsy lot, and some of the men refused
to take his abuse, replying to his hard words with others equally
as hard. Pistols were drawn and there was promise of trouble,
but it was finally stopped, partly by the persuasion of others,
and partly of its own accord. The men were still feeling the
desire for gold too strongly to fight while on the way to it.
Dick and Albert kept aloof from these contentions, steadily
minding their own business, and they found, as others do, that it
paid.

They came presently into a better country, and the way led for a
day or two through a typical part of the Great Plains, not a flat
region, but one of low, monotonous swells. Now and then they
crossed a shallow little creek, and occasionally they came to
pools, some of which were tinged with alkali. There were
numerous small depressions, two or three feet deep, and Dick knew
that they were "buffalo wallows." He and Albert examined them
with interest.

"This is buffalo country again," said Dick. "Everything proves
it. The grass here is the best that we have seen in a long time,
and I imagine that it's just the sort of place they would love."

The grass was, indeed, good, as Dick had said, not merely clumps
of it, but often wide, carpeted spaces. It was somewhat dry, and
turning brown, but so big and strong an animal as the buffalo
would not mind it. In fact, they saw several small groups of
buffaloes grazing at a distance, usually on the crest of one of
the low swells. As