368 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



revisit the glimpses of the moon, "making night hideous," 

 I am sorry to say I shan't be here ! " Such sweet com- 

 pulsion doth in music lie," I shall be compelled to trav,el 

 away from yours ! Well, as the coast is clear, I'll go down ! 



A pretty muss they've made of it down here. Fur, and 

 blood, and bones ! That salient thief did get my tit-bits, 

 sure enough. Well, it is said there is such a thing as 

 starving possible ! I suppose I am beginning to feel some- 

 thing like the premonitories. I have tasted nothing since 

 daylight yesterday morning ; but they say an empty stomach 

 for long wind, and I am likely to need all the wind I can 

 raise before I get across this prairie. Some of the boys 

 will be in sight though, by the time I reach the mouth of 

 the gorge. It can't be that they are all scalped, and they 

 must know that I am here. Oh, yes, I shall see them, and 

 what a laugh we'll have comparing roosts. 



I set off down the valley, reached the prairie, strained my 

 eye over the desolate expanse, and not a living thing was to 

 be seen. I went to the tree where I left the Doctor dangling ; 

 the wolves had stripped the bones of the bear, and were still 

 lingering around them. That immortal spear was sticking 

 between the ribs, where he had driven it, no doubt, with 

 splenetic vigor. I looked around for some trace of his 

 bones, but none were to be seen. 



Great God, it can't be they are not coming ! Foolish 

 expletive ! when one neither believes in the greatness or 

 the Godship. Instinct of education ! Bah ! one needs 

 something more get-at-able and substantial than instincts 

 and old wives' tales at such times as this ! 



I climbed the tree to the top-most bough, and strained 

 my eyes till they ached again. Wide and terrible solitude ; 

 not an insect chirped, not a leaf stirred. The pulses of my 

 heart sounded like the throes of a mountain; I began to 

 imagine it the centre of all vitality — the only thing that 



