OUR TACTICS DEVELOPED. 285 



ing the direction of his finger, we saw some hairy 

 lumps, about the size of muifs, not fifty yards in 

 front of us, bobbing up and down just above the 

 line which defined the prairie's edge against the sky. 

 For an instant, we supposed them to be small 

 animals of some sort, playing on the slope, but the 

 low voice of the guide said, " Thar they hump, 

 gents ! " and we caught the word at once, just as the 

 whaler does the welcome cry of " There she blows," 

 from the look-out aloft. What we saw, of course, 

 were the humps of buffaloes moving slowly forward 

 as they fed. At a word from our guide, we halted 

 for last preparations. 



"Fire at the nearest cows, gents," he said, "and 

 if you get one down, and keep hid, you '11 have lots 

 of shots at the bulls gatherin' round." 



Muggs was continually getting his gun crosswise, 

 so that should it go off ahead of time, as usual, it 

 would shoot somebody on the left, and kick some 

 one on the right. Just ahead of us, a prairie dog 

 sat on his castle wall, and barked constantly. But, 

 fortunately, neither his signals nor our grumbled 

 remonstrances to the Briton seemed to attract the 

 attention of the herd in the least degree. 



A few more feet of cautious crawling, and several 

 buffaloes stood revealed, a cow and calf among the 

 number. The mother espied us, and lifting her un- 

 couth head, with its crooked, homely horns, regarded 

 us for an instant with a quiet sort of feminine 

 curiosity, and then went to feeding again. She 

 probably considered us a parcel of sneaking wolves, 

 and being conscious of having hosts of protectors 



