The Peril Finders Part 41

"Yes; keep quiet. More than twenty, my lads."

"Not Indians, are they?" whispered Chris with bated breath.

"Where?--where?" panted Ned.

"Over yonder--half-a-mile away. You can just see their black heads above the gra.s.s. They're watching us."

"What, in that open gra.s.sy piece with those trees? Yes, I see now.

I'll canter forward and tell them."

"No, no, sit still and go steadily on. I don't want 'em scared. It's a sight worth seeing. They're getting scarce now; nearly all have been shot up in the north."

"Yes, I know they're getting scarce up there," said Chris excitedly, while Ned's eyes began to open wider and wider. "But we ought to warn my father."

"Nay, I dare say he sees them by now."

"Shout to him in case he doesn't," said Chris excitedly.

"No, no," replied Griggs, who was shading his eyes to keep off the sun.

"They'd hear us if I shouted, and be off at once."

"But I'm afraid they'll begin shooting."

"Who'll begin shooting?"

"Those Indians."

Griggs turned in his saddle to look wonderingly at the speaker, and then his features began to relax, but grew hard again at once, and he said quietly--

"Oh, I see--shoot at us. Why, they're doing that now, and making bulls'-eyes."

"What do you mean?" cried Chris sharply. "What have I said? Here, Ned, he's laughing at us."

"That I wasn't," cried Griggs. "I only nearly smiled. Why, do you mean to tell me that you don't know what those are?"

"Indians, aren't they? Blackheads or blackfeet--I don't know."

"That's very evident," said Griggs grimly. "Why, they're buffaloes-- bisons, staring at us with their heads just above the gra.s.s."

"Oh-h-h!" cried Chris. "So they are."

"Then they mean beef," cried Ned excitedly.

"There, what did I say?" said Chris, laughing. "He's thinking about roast beef for dinner."

"Then he won't get any to-day," cried Griggs. "There they go; they've taken alarm."

"Oh!" cried Ned, as the black objects suddenly disappeared. "We ought to have shot one."

"They're all right," said Griggs coolly. "We know that there are buffaloes in this part of the country, and we can stalk one when we like. We don't want meat to-day. I say boys, we've only seen them, but we know now there's something else."

"What?" cried Ned.

"Wolves."

"How do you know?"

"Always are. They follow the bison-droves."

"But a great bull bison could easily kill a wolf."

"But a calf couldn't," said Griggs dryly. "They hang about after the droves so as to pull down the very young calves, and kill the mothers too, sometimes. Well, this is a good beginning, and I only hope we may find beef like this in our larder wherever we go, till we discover the old city."

"They haven't seen them," said Chris. "Shout and tell them, then, now."

Chris gave a hail, and made the announcement.

"Where?" shouted Wilton excitedly.

"Out of sight now, sir," replied Griggs. "The gra.s.s is very high down in that hollow, but if you look towards those trees you may see what I can now, the tall gra.s.s waving as if something was plunging through it."

"I see them," said Bourne directly after.

"And I," cried Wilton. "Let's ride hard and cut them off."

But a word from the doctor checked him.

"Why not?" he said. "We shall want the food."

"Yes, sometime," said the doctor. "The buffaloes will not go far from such abundant pasture, with water close at hand. We can pick up a few birds as we come back, I dare say, enough for this evening and to-morrow. I want to get on as far as we can to-day and see for a new camping-place, as we agreed."

"That's right, sir," said Griggs. "If we stop to get a shot or two at those fellows they may lead us another way, and what with the shooting, skinning, and cutting up, we shall make such a hole in the morning that we must put off our exploring till to-morrow."

"Oh, very well," said Wilton, rather ungraciously; "but when we do want our joints, mark my words, we shall not be able to get a shot."

Griggs laughed and shook his head.

"Don't agree with you, Mr Wilton," he said. "There goes something else."

"Eh? Where?" cried Wilton.

"Through the tall gra.s.s yonder. I fancy it's deer of some kind; something small, but I can't see what it is."

"Whatever it may be," said the doctor, "it's running through the gra.s.s in the direction we are going. Look at the gra.s.s yonder, it's waving as something pa.s.ses through."

But whatever it was they could not get a glimpse of it, though time after time, when they felt that the game had either been pa.s.sed or had gone off to right or left, they saw the gra.s.s in motion again.

Then it stopped altogether, and the gra.s.s began to grow shorter before them, the longer beds being down to their right where the land sloped down, and they here and there caught the glint of water.

"Why, we must be following up the bed of an underground river," said Bourne, "and this keeps breaking out from time to time, forming quite a chain of little lakes. Yes, there, look; those must be ducks."