eggings were pinched and tight. Shirt, leggings,
and moccasins were evidently of the oldest kind, and as dirty as a
cobbler's apron. A close-fitting otter cap, with a Mackinaw blanket,
completed the wardrobe of Isaac Bradley. He was equipped with a pouch
of greasy leather hanging by an old black strap, a small buffalo-horn
suspended by a thong, and a belt of buffalo-leather, in which was stuck
a strong blade, with its handle of buckhorn. His rifle was of the
"tallest" kind--being full six feet in height--in fact, taller than he
was, and at least four fifths of the weapon consisted of barrel. The
straight narrow stock was a piece of manufacture that had proceeded from
the hands of the trapper himself.

Redwood's rifle was also a long one, but of more modern build and
fashion, and his equipments--pouch, powder-horn and belt--were of a more
tasty design and finish.

Such were our guides, Redwood and Bradley. They were no imaginary
characters these. Mark Redwood was a celebrated "mountain-man" at that
time, and Isaac Bradley will be recognised by many when I give him the
name and title by which he was then known,--viz. "Old Ike, the
wolf-killer."

Redwood rode a strong horse of the half-hunter breed, while the
"wolf-killer" was mounted upon one of the scraggiest looking quadrupeds
it would be possible to imagine--an old mare "mustang."

CHAPTER TWO.

THE CAMP AND CAMP-FIRE.

Our route was west by south. The nearest point with which we expected
to fall in with the buffalo was two hundred miles distant. We might
travel three hundred without seeing one, and even much farther at the
present day; but a report had reached Saint Louis that the buffalo had
been seen that year upon the Osage River, west of the Ozark Hills, and
towards that point we steered our course. We expected in about twenty
days to fall in with the game. Fancy a cavalcade of hunters making a
journey of twenty days to get upon the field! The reader will, no
doubt, say we were in earnest.

At the time of which I am writing, a single day's journey from Saint
Louis carried the traveller clear of civilised life. There were
settlements beyond; but these were sparse and isolated--a few small
towns or plantations upon the main watercourses--and the whole country
between them was an uninhabited wilderness. We had no hope of being
sheltered by a roof until our return to the mound city itself, but we
had provided ourselves with a couple of tents