Hunting in Many Lands 



them behind us on our horses, loped to the 

 wagon in the teeth of the cold storm. When 

 we overtook it, after some sharp riding, we 

 threw in the meat, and not very much later, 

 when the day was growing dusky, caught sight 

 of the group of low ranch buildings toward 

 which we had been headed. We were received 

 with warm hospitality, as one always is in a 

 ranch country. We dried our steaming clothes 

 inside the warm ranch house and had a good 

 supper, and that night we rolled up in our 

 blankets and tarpaulins, and slept soundly in 

 the lee of a big haystack. The ranch house 

 stood in the winding bottom of a creek; the 

 flanking hills were covered with stunted cedar, 

 while dwarf cottonwood and box elder grew 

 by the pools in the half-dried creek bed. 



Next morning we had risen by dawn. The 

 storm was over, and it was clear and cold. Be- 

 fore sunrise we had started. We were only 

 some thirty miles from my ranch, and I direct- 

 ed the Sheriff how to go there, by striking east 

 until he came to the main divide, and then fol- 

 lowing that down till he got past a certain big 

 plateau, when a turn to the right down any of 

 the coulees would bring him into the river 

 bottom near the ranch house. We wished our- 



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