136 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



to bring us in, and as the country was monotonous, 

 without much game, we concluded we would leave 

 the wagon with the driver, and taking advantage of 

 the full moon, push through the whole distance be- 

 fore breakfast next morning. Accordingly, we at 

 nine o'clock again saddled the tough little ponies we 

 had ridden all day and loped off out of the circle 

 at firelight. For nine hours we rode steadily, gen- 

 erally at a quick lope, across the moonlit prairie. 

 The hoof-beats of our horses rang out in steady 

 rhythm through the silence of the night, otherwise 

 unbroken save now and then by the wailing cry of a 

 coyote. The rolling plains stretched out on all sides 

 of us, shimmering in the clear moonlight; and oc- 

 casionally a band of spectral-looking antelope swept 

 silently away from before our path. Once we went 

 by a drove of Texan cattle, who stared wildly at the 

 intruders; as we passed they charged down by us, 

 the ground rumbling beneath their tread, while their 

 long horns knocked against each other with a sound 

 like the clattering of a multitude of castanets. We 

 could see clearly enough to keep our general course 

 over the trackless plain, steering by the stars where 

 the prairie was perfectly level and without land- 

 marks ; and our ride was timed well, for as we gal- 

 loped down into the valley of the Little Missouri 

 the sky above the line of level bluffs in our front was 

 crimson with the glow of the unrisen sun. 



