OF A RANCHMAN 141 



with a rapidity which showed that the star- 

 light would last but a short while. The 

 light snow rendered the hoof beats of my 

 horse muffled and indistinct ; and almost the 

 only sound that broke the silence was the 

 longdrawn, melancholy howling of a wolf, 

 a quarter of a mile off. When we came to 

 the last crossing the pony was stopped and 

 watered; and we splashed through over a 

 rapid where the ice had formed only a thin 

 crust. On the opposite side was a large 

 patch of cotton-woods thickly grown up 

 with underbrush, the whole about half a 

 mile square. In this was the cowboy's 

 shack, but as it was now pitch dark I was 

 unable to find it until I rode clean through 

 to the cow-corral, which was out in the 

 open on the other side. Here I dismounted, 

 groped around till I found the path, and 

 then easily followed it to the shack. 



Rather to my annoyance the cowboy was 

 away, having run out of provisions, as I 

 afterwards learned; and of course he had 

 left nothing to eat behind him. The tough 



