Captain Bayley's Heir:

ling grouse. Occasionally, in the canyons, or wooded valleys, far away from the track, the hunters came across the trail of wild turkeys; then two of them would camp out for the ni

ck and white little animals. Frank was about to shoot the first

ldn't come near you. They are wuss than pizen, skunks. Why, I have seen dogs sit up and howl with disgust after interfering with one of them. I don't say as they can't be eaten, cos the Indians eat them; and, for th

ters; they had just scampered to the top of one of the swells, when they simultaneously reined in their horses, for the va

"there is meat for you-eno

to speak for a time; the

ul sight!" he e

stop 'em, and thar ain't. If it's a river, they pours into it; if it's a bluff, they goes over it, and tens of thousands of them gets killed. The Injins is mighty wasteful of thar flesh, but I doubt whether all the Injins in the continent kills as many as kills themselves in them wild stampedes. We will just wait where we are until they are past, and then we will drop down on 'em and cut three or four of

e of the presence of their enemies. The leisurely pace at which they were proceeding changed instantly into a gallop on the part of those con

swerved sharply round, and had not Frank been on the alert he would have lost his seat, so sharply did the horse wheel to avoid the animal's horns. The buffalo at once resumed its course behind the herd; but Frank was soon alongside again, and as he fired the last shot of his revolver had the

ken just the best bits, and left the rest for the coyotes; but I call it downright wicked to waste meat. Kill what you want-that's natural and right; but I am agin drawing a bead on an animal, whether he be buffalo or deer,

thing like having a supply of dried meat; I don't say it's as toothsome as fresh, but it ain't ter be despised, and the time may come, in fact it's pretty sure to come, when we shan't be able to do much hunting round the waggons. We

fifteen yards apart, and several cords stretched tightly between them; upon these was hung the flesh, which was cut in strips some four inches wide and half an inch thick. By the end of the third day the whole of the meat was dri

will keep as they are, and will do to chuck in the bottom of the waggons for the women and children to sit upon; besides, we shall find it cold at night as we get on, and a buffalo-robe ain't to b

ns. We war hunting with a party of Cheyennes, and had been with them well-nigh all the summer. One day we war in pursuit of buffalo-they were plentiful then; you think they are plentiful now, but you would see ten herds then for every one you see now. But they are going, and I expect in another twenty yea

s. The herd had rather separated as we got amongst them, making way for us right and left as we rode after the bull. As he fell we reined in our horses, and looked round. Not a Cheyenne was to be seen: five minutes afore they h

ng down across our rear. 'Utes,' says I, 'by thunder! They are after the C

hem. The brutes were packed so close together that they could hardly make room for us; but we managed to wedge ourselves in. Those next to us snuffed and roared, but they war too pressed by those behind to do much; but by shouting and waving our hats we managed to keep a clear space three or four yards on either side of us. All this time we war lying down on

a roar and plunged on ahead through the mass, and we followed close to their heels. It was tight work, I can tell you, for the buffaloes on both sides war touching one another. We kept going about half a length behind the beasts next to us, so that the horses' shoulders war just behind the

. What with us in the middle, and the Utes yelling behind them, the herd war fairly mad with fright; and there war no saying where they would go to, for, you know, a herd of buffaloes, when fairly stampeded, will go clean over a precipice a hundred yards high, and pile themselves up dead at the foot till there is not one left. It war a bad fix, you bet, for I war sure that the Utes war after us, and not after the

ntil we finds ourselves in front of the herd; then we spurred our horses on, and dashed out in front. Done as the horses were, they knew they had got to go, for, with the herd coming like thunder u

or half an hour we could hear the herd rushing along, and then it had pas

one horse between us, and he so done up tha

irly tired out they would lay down, and the Utes would see then as we warn't there. Then they would set out upon the back-trail, skirting along each side of the line trampled by the herd until they came upon our trail; the dead horse was a sign as they could see a mile away, so it was clear that we must foot it as soon as we cou

he stones on his ba

d wouldn't see ours, they would naturally come to the conclusion as we war both on his back. It warn't likely as the critter would go far before he laid down, perhaps not more than half a mile;

hey came up to the horse and found out the trick, they would gallop back again; at least half of them would go up the stream and half would take t

ear of bringing Utes down upon us. We had made up our minds to strike for the Cheyennes' country, that being the nearest where we could expect to find friends. For two

e fire, which was fortunately a small one. I knew, in course, if they came close that way, as they would see it; but if they passed at some distance they would not not

ir going on again; but no such luck, and after a quarter of an hour we knew as they were going to camp there. I felt pretty thankful as it was late in the afternoon,

ed as how most of those we had been with had been killed by the Utes; the others had taken the news home, and the whole tribe had been turned out. We war pretty well done up, but the chief dismounted two of his men and put u

w escape indeed,

e day nothing could have saved us-onless, of course, our horses had been fresh, and faster than

a horse, Abe. I seemed to keep up

d go well-nigh as fast too. I tell you you have to be pretty spry, even if you are well-mounted, when a downright big herd, well on the st

as bad as a

s just dried, and is breast-high; but, as I say, there ain't no cause to be afraid if you do but keep your head. You just pulls up a band of grass a couple of feet wide, and lights it ahead of you; the wind naturally takes it away from you, and you look sharp with blanket or leggings to beat it down, and prevent it working back agin the wind across the bit of ground you have stripped. As it goes it widens out right and left, and you have soon got a wide strip cleared in front of you. In course you don't go on to it a

nd to the place where they encamped, and when the caravan proce

, but as they know the caravans have all got to come across their ground, it don't stand to reason as they would take the trouble to travel very far east to meet 'em. I don't say as we won't knock down a stag, now and agin, if we comes across 'em, but the less firing the better. We have been hunting up till now, but we must calculate that for the r