Among the High Hills. 105 



1 walked back to camp in the gloaming, taking care 

 to reach it before it grew really dark ; for in the Bad 

 Lands it is entirely impossible to travel, or to find any 

 given locality, after nightfall. , Old Manitou had eaten 

 his fill, and looked up at me with pricked ears, and wise, 

 friendly face as I climbed down the side of the cedar 

 canyon ; then he came slowly towards me to see if I had 

 not something for him. I rubbed his soft nose and gave 

 him a cracker ; then I picketed him to a solitary cedar, 

 where the feed was good. Afterwards I kindled a small 

 fire, roasted both prairie fowl, ate one, and put the other 

 by for breakfast ; and soon rolled myself in my blanket, 

 with the saddle for a pillow, and the oilskin beneath. 

 Manitou was munching the grass nearby. I lay just out- 

 side the line of stiff black cedars ; the night air was soft 

 in my face ; I gazed at the shining and brilliant multitude 

 of stars until my eyelids closed. 



The chill breath which comes before dawn awakened 

 me. It was still and dark. Through the gloom I could 

 indistinctly make out the loom of the old horse, lying 

 down. I was speedily ready, and groped and stumbled 

 slowly up the hill, and then along its crest to a peak. 

 Here I sat down and waited a quarter of an hour or so, 

 until gray appeared in the east, and the dim light-streaks 

 enabled me to walk farther. Before sunrise I was two 

 miles from camp ; then I crawled cautiously to a high 

 ridge and crouching behind it scanned all the landscape 

 eagerly. In a few minutes a movement about a third of 

 a mile to the right, midway down a hill, caught my eye. 

 Another glance showed me three white specks moving 



