ravines that skirted the Fork, prowling on their hands and
knees; but the watchers of the herd were too wary to let the hunters
get near enough for a good shot. They had fired several times, but had
brought down nothing. Sandy had heard the shots? Yes, Sandy had heard,
and had hoped that somebody was having great sport. After all, he
thought, as he looked at the fallen monarch of the prairie, it was
rather cruel business. Oscar did not think so; he wished he had had
such luck.

The rest of the party now came up, one after another, and all gave a
whoop of astonishment and delight at Sandy's great success as soon as
they saw his noble quarry.

The sun was now low in the west; here was a good place for camping; a
little brush would do for firing, and water was close at hand. So the
tired hunters, after a brief rest, while they lay on the trampled
grass and recounted the doings of the day, went to work at the game.
The animal was dressed, and a few choice pieces were hung on the tree
to cool for their supper. It was dark when they gathered around their
cheerful fire, as the cool autumnal evening came on, and cooked and
ate with infinite zest their first buffalo-meat. Boys who have never
been hungry with the hunger of a long tramp over the prairies, hungry
for their first taste of big game of their own shooting, cannot
possibly understand how good to the Boy Settlers was their supper on
the wind-swept slopes of the Kansas plains.

Wrapping themselves as best they could in the blankets and buffalo-robes
brought from home, the party lay down in the nooks and corners of
the ravine, first securing the buffalo-meat on the tree that made
their camp.

"What, for goodness' sake, is that?" asked Charlie, querulously, as he
was roused out of his sleep by a dismal cry not far away in the
darkness.

"Wolves," said Younkins, curtly, as he raised himself on one elbow to
listen. "The pesky critters have smelt blood; they would smell it if
they were twenty miles off, I do believe, and they are gathering round
as they scent the carcass."

By this, all of the party were awake except Sandy, who, worn out with
excitement, perhaps, slept on through all the fearful din. The mean
little prairie-wolves gathered, and barked, and snarled, in the
distance. Nearer, the big wolves howled like great dogs, their long
howl occasionally breaking into a bark; and farther and farther off,
away in the extremest distance, they could hear other wolves, w