70 The King of the Thundering Herd 



the emigrants ever forgot as long as he 

 lived, and an incident that filled one night 

 as full of excitement and peril as it could 

 well hold. 



They had been traveling for two days 

 over a nearly unbroken stretch of slightly 

 undulating prairie. The summer sun had 

 baked the earth till it was hard and lifeless. 

 Every tuft of grass was burned to a crisp. 

 Even the sage-brush that grew in all the 

 sandy spots seemed parched by the shim- 

 mering heat. The sky was a bright intense 

 blue, and each night the sunset was red and 

 the afterglow partially obscured by a cloud 

 of dust. 



The watercourses and the cottonwoods 

 were half a day's journey apart, and an 

 intolerable thirst was over all the land- 

 scape. 



The second day of this trying desert-like 

 prairie stretch of their journey was just 

 drawing to a close, when they noted upon 



