CHAPTER XIII 

 KILLED BY THE INDIANS 



T?OR the next few days we were all very busy. 

 "*- Tom was putting the finishing touches on 

 our quarters, while Jack and I were doing the 

 trapping, baiting, and skinning. I assisted Jack 

 in trapping beaver and he helped me in killing 

 bufFalo and taking care of the wolfskins. 



While working at these tasks we were riding the 

 surrounding country, east and west, up and down 

 the creek, and north and south in open prairie. 

 At a distance of about three miles down the creek, 

 on the north side, we found a series of connected 

 sloughs leading off from the creek out into the 

 prairie bottom, through which a string of little 

 ponds ran for about a mile and then united with 

 the main stream again. 



These sloughs, bordered by a rank growth of 

 rushes, made excellent feeding-grounds for water- 

 fowl. It was easy here to procure all the ducks, 

 geese, brant, and sand-hill cranes that we wished. 

 On the prairie were plenty of antelope, with now 

 and then a few deer and elk in the timber along the 

 creek. Everywhere were seen bleached and bleach- 

 ing buffalo bones — too common a feature of the 

 landscape to attract more than a passing glance. 



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