the finish o' our big job."

Henry nodded and presently he and the shiftless one went away through the
woods. Paul, Ross, and Long Jim remained lying at ease in the forest--Paul
had learned the great wilderness lesson of patience--and about noon the
two returned. They had been spying upon the Spanish camp, and they
reported that Alvarez and his men had not moved.

"They seem to be waiting for something," said Henry. "Braxton Wyatt is
still with them, and they have posted more sentinels in a wider circle. I
don't believe they will move camp for several days. So long as they keep
theirs there, we'll keep ours here."

"O' course," said the shiftless one. "We must keep the watch."

Several days passed and there was little to do. One or another of the
five at times crept close to the Spanish camp, and always reported that
the men there were lounging at their ease and still waiting. Now and then
the Spaniards hunted in detachments, usually guided by Braxton Wyatt, and
brought in both deer and buffalo. On the fourth day Henry and Paul also
went hunting.

"The country west of here," said Henry, "opens out into a big prairie, and
we may see something worth seeing."

Paul did not ask what it was, content to go and see, and the two, rifle on
shoulder, slipped away through the woods, taking a direct, western course.

Paul noticed that the country soon became much less hilly, and that the
forest thinned. After a while hills and forest ceased altogether and the
two stood upon the edge of a wide sweep of gently rolling, open country,
extending so far that it met the horizon.

"Look," said Henry. "A great prairie!"

"And look what's on it!" exclaimed Paul.

Henry laughed and glanced at his comrade's pleased face. As far as the eye
could reach the prairie was covered with a multitude of great, dark
animals, grazing on the short, sweet grass. Near by these animals, as Paul
saw, were a few feet apart, but further on they seemed to blend into one
solid, black, but heaving mass.

"A real buffalo herd," said Henry.

Paul had seen buffaloes often in Kentucky, but there they were usually in
small groups of a dozen or so, owing to the wooded nature of the country,
and now he looked for the first time upon a great herd, twenty thousand,
thirty thousand, maybe more--one could not calculate. The spectacle
appealed greatly to his imaginative temperament.

"What a grand sight!" he said.

"Yes," said Henry, "it is wonderful, but, Pau