134 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



thought of giving up was horrible, so I made a prop- 

 osition: "Bezkya, you go out scouting on foot and 

 see if you can locate a band. I'll give you five dollars 

 extra if you show me one Buffalo." 



At length he agreed to go provided I would set out 

 for Fort Resolution at once unless he found Buffalo 

 near. This was leaving it all in his hands. While I 

 was considering, Preble said: "I tell you this delay 

 is playing the mischief with our Barren-Ground trip; 

 we should have started for the north ten days ago," 

 which was in truth enough to settle the matter. 



I knew perfectly well beforehand what Bezkya's 

 report would be. 



At 6.30 he returned to say he found nothing but old 

 tracks. There were no Buffalo nearer than two days' 

 travel on foot, and he should like to return at once to 

 Fort Resolution. 



There was no further ground for debate ; every one 

 and everything now was against me. Again I had to 

 swallow the nauseating draught of defeat and retreat. 



"We start northward first thing in the morning," 

 I said briefly, and our third Buffalo hunt was over. 



These, then, were the results so far as Buffalo were 

 concerned : Old tracks as far down as last camp, plenty 

 of old tracks here and westward, but the Buffalo, as 

 before on so many occasions, were two days' travel 

 to the westward. 



During all this time I had lost no good opportunity 

 of impressing on the men the sinfulness of leaving a 

 camp-fire burning and of taking life unnecessarily; 

 and now I learned of fruit from this seeding. That 



