way.

Upon leaving Firefly at his truly dirty work, I put Nigger to a gentle
canter, and soon passed several carcasses of the buffaloes stretched on
the greensward, where they had fallen dead, or been disabled by the
arrow, and subsequently lanced by the hunters who swept in the trail of
the bowmen.

Like flies collecting around carrion, so do the birds and beasts of prey
hover and slink toward a scene of carnage on the prairie from every
quarter, and with marvelous powers discover the spot where their feast
is prepared. In incredible numbers ravens, buzzards, crows, and others
of the same large family now wheeled screaming most discordantly in the
air, and packs of wolves appeared, howling with impatience for the
banquet. The appearance of these animals in the distance is that of a
flock of sheep, being generally perfectly white; but among some dozen or
fifteen occupying a bluff in the course I was taking, and howling a most
dismal chorus, I perceived a jet black member, whose skin I felt
desirous of possessing. It is not, however, an easy task to get on
close terms with a wolf, unless gorging himself, when so reluctant is he
to quit his meal, that, craven-hearted as he is, he can scarcely be
driven from it; but turning Nigger's head away from them, as if I
intended in no way to interrupt the assembly, I suddenly brought him in
an opposite direction, upon getting on a line with the yelling crew,
and, spurring hard, sent them scampering at their best speed. It was a
long, raking shot, but covering the knight of the sable hue, I pulled,
and dropped him with a shot through the spine. He grinned most horribly,
and snapped his teeth together like the rattle of castanets, as I rode
up close to his side, and gave him his quietus with a pistol.

There being an insurmountable difficulty in my marking the spot where he
fell, as neither tree nor bush was to be seen by which it was to be
retraced, I considered it advisable to make sure of my booty by carrying
it with me, and as I was not expert in flaying, I was compelled to lift
the carcass, and, bearing it before me across the pony's shoulders,
commenced a piece of diversion for my red-skinned friends, which lasted
as long as I was with them.

Seeing a group of hunters coming toward me, I advanced to meet them, and
among the foremost I distinguished the bold Hawkeye, who carried a large
bale of hides in front of him, and in the same manner that I was
conveying my treasure.