214 IN THE OLD WEST 



with handsome features ; the other, considerably 

 past middle age, was stark and stern. Months 

 of dire privation had brought them to this pass. 

 The elder of the two was Killbuck, of mountain 

 fame ; the other was hight La Bonte. 



The former opened his eyes, and saw the 

 buffalo feeding on the plain. " Ho, boy," he 

 said, touching his companion, " thar's meat a-run- 

 nin'." 



La Bonte looked in the direction the other 

 pointed, stood up, and hitching round his pouch 

 and powder-horn, drew the stopper from the lat- 

 ter with his teeth, and placing the mouth in the 

 palm of his left hand, turned the horn up and 

 shook it. 



" Not a grain," he said — " not a grain, old 

 boss." 



" Wagh ! " exclaimed the other, " we'll have to 

 eat afore long," — and rising, walked into the 

 prairie. He had hardly stepped two paces, when, 

 passing close to a sage-bush, a rattlesnake whizzed 

 a note of warning with its tail. Killbuck grinned, 

 and taking the wiping-stick from his rifle-barrel, 

 tapped the snake on the head, and taking it by the 

 tail, threw it to La Bonte, saying, " hyar's meat, 

 anyhow." The old fellow followed up his success 

 by slaying half-a-dozen more, and brought them 

 in skewered through the head on his wiping-stick. 

 A fire was soon kindled, and the snakes roasting 

 before it ; when La Bonte, who sat looking at buf- 



