occurred that threatened to precipitate the 
very catastrophe which I was so anxious to 
avert. For I had barely ceased congratulating 
myself on having performed the task so guard- 
edly, when my ears were assailed by the spite- 
tul and nerve-paralyzing rasp of an angry rat- 
tlesnake, which the skeleton’s plaintive music 
had enticed from its den among the rocks, and 
which, doubtless surmising that the concert 
was ended, was in the act of retiring, but, find- 
ing its progress opposed by my extended form, 
had suddenly thrown itself into coil and sounded 
that peculiar blast of warning which precedes 
the deadly stroke. The imminent peril that 
menaced me demanded immediate action, and 
once more the loud report of my gun startled 
the silent wilderness into a multitude of crash- 
ing echoes, the weapon’s entire charge passing 
through the convoluted tolds of the loathsome 
reptile and reducing it to a mutilated mass of 
writhing fragments. At the close of this tran- 
sient reign of confusion, however, I observed 
that the skeleton’s equilibrium was still un- 
ruffled. Indeed, a furious break-down, which 
had doubtless been started at the height of the 
uproar occasioned by the dispatching of the 
serpent, had just concluded, with a flourish 
worthy of a Bull or Paganini, and the exacting 
nicety of the preluding during the brief respite 
that followed betokened the forthcoming of a 
more elaborate effort. 
I now perceived for the first time that the 
apparition had discovered and likewise appro- 
priated my éye-glasses, which, adjusted before 
the unsightly port-holes in its skull, tended lit- 
tle to either soften its cadaverous physiognomy 
or to impart an air of becoming dignity to the 
wearer. 
But the demonstrations of mirth to which I 
was about giving way at the skeleton’s unique 
appearance were restrained, for, the music be- 
ing again resumed, the pleasant midnight air 
was pulsing with the melancholy grandeur of 
Beetheven’s moonlight sonata. The burden of 
this incomparable me!ody was so love-lorn and 
despairing, so appealingly tender and heart- 
breaking in its emotional sweetness and soft- 
ness, that a deep, delicious swoon of rapture 
overcame me; my senses floated away into 
dreamland and I heard no more. 
NATURE'S REALM. 15 
So potent, indeed, had been the spell thrown 
over me by the spectral serenade, that when I 
awoke late the following morning my spirits 
were yet drowsed with a dreamy and haunting 
sensation of exquisite languor. The singular 
and ethereal sublimity of the music discoursed 
by the skeleton had transported me in fancy to 
a realm so exalted that, to the peculiar desola- 
tion of my actual environments. | reconciled 
myself with the most profound regret. 
My scientific researches in the Bad’ Lands 
had thus far been exceedingly prolific. Among 
a variety of reptilean specimens I had exhumed 
a monster turtle, which had doubtless flourished 
and finally passed into its everlasting sleep 
ages before the green bowers of Eden were 
awakened with the morning hymn of Adam. 
The sun had well nigh reached the meridian 
when my guide put in appearance, bringing a 
goodly supply of provender for ourselves and 
ponies. The latter being somewhat jaded, the 
poor beasts, after devouring their allowance ot 
grain, were tethered in a little glade near our 
camp where the grass was most abundant. 
While partaking of our midday meal I pro- 
ceeded to regale my guide with an account of 
the skeleton visitor at our camp at the solemn 
hour of midnight. But before the recital was 
ended | perceived that I had fallen into an 
error sufficiently serious to preclude the possi- 
bility of prolonging my stay another night in 
the Bad Lands. To my intense vexation I dis- 
covered that iny story of the phantom had en- 
kindled all the superstition n his semi-Indian 
nature, for, in common with his Savage ances- 
tors, he had inherited the belief that the lonely 
fastnesses of the Bad Lands were the abode of 
all the demons known to their mythology. 
Hastily concluding his repast he announced his 
intention to decamp, avowing in his unheard-ot 
trepidation that if we remained the Wakan-we- 
Chash-e (the Sioux tor “Spirit Man”) would 
surely reappear at midnight with a ghostly 
band of followers, and, after charming us into a 
state of helpless insensibility with his danger- 
ous music, put us both to death by tortures fear- 
ful to imagine. 
Threats, bribes and expostulations were alike 
in vain. The conveyance and camp equip- 
ments being his own exclusive property, | was 
