A COLORADO SKETCH 43 



so little likely to be realised, and yet which is 

 at length fulfilled. 



It must not be supposed that, because we were 

 half asleep and wholly dreaming, we were not also 

 keeping a sharp look-out ; for in a man who is very 

 much accustomed to take note of every unusual 

 object, of every moving thing, and of the slightest 

 sign of any living creature — more especially if he has 

 roamed much on the prairies where hostile redskins 

 lurk and creep — the faculty of observation is so con- 

 stantly exercised that it becomes a habit uncon- 

 sciously used, and he is all the time seeing sights, 

 and hearing sounds, and smelling smells, and noting 

 them down, and receiving all kinds of impressions 

 from all external objects, without being the least 

 aware of it himself. However, none of our senses 

 were gratified by anything that betokened the 

 presence of game, and, after resting a little while, 

 we picked up our rifles and stole quietly on again. 

 So we crept and hunted, and hunted and crept, and 

 peered and whispered, and wondered we saw no- 

 thing, till the pine trees were casting long shadows 

 to the east, when suddenly Sandie, who was a pace or 

 two in front of me, became rigid, changed into a man 

 of stone, and then, almost imperceptibly, a hair's- 

 breadth at a time, stooped his head and sank down. 



