250 EAMRLES ATTER SPORT. 



open country relieved occasionally by small prairies and 

 valleys along its water- courses ; it seemed a first-rate 

 place for stock-raising. We were now in tlie elk region. 

 We camped that night under what seemed to have been 

 a cattle shed, and my man, now he was sober, showed 

 himself a handy individual. He cut down firewood, 

 made up the beds, littered down the nags, got the last 

 of the beef frizzling over hot embers, set the boy to 

 work on some slapjacks and molasses, and made the 

 place as comfortable as a drawing-room in about half-an- 

 hour. About ten o^clock we were disturbed at a game 

 of poker by a most fearful squealing and stamping of 

 our usually sedate steeds who were tied up outside. 

 " Injuns V' said the boy, and we all grasped our rifles 

 and waited for a full minute, with our hearts in our 

 throats. '^Wolf, I reckon,^^ says the man, " let^s have 

 a try for him.^^ But a wolf is the wariest animal in 

 existence, and though I thought I caught sight of the 

 varmint once through the trees, he troubled us no more 

 that night. We had to make our breakfast on bread 

 and molasses, and in the middle of it we were rather 

 startled at suddenly finding a man standing over us. 

 He came so silently that he might have been dropped from 

 the clouds or anywhere else. He was over six feet high 

 considerably, and was clad from head to foot in beauti- 

 fully fringed deerskin, as soft as a lady^s kid glove ; 

 his coal-black hair fell in long raven tresses over his 

 shoulders, while his beard reached halfway down his 

 breast ; in the hollow of his right arm he carried a 

 heavy Kentucky rifle, at least five feet long. Altogether 

 a more romantic individual I never saw. I asked him 

 to sit down and have something to eat. I confess I 

 was really rather disappointed when he replied in most 



