e was
some way out of the difficulty without turning back. Dismounting from
his animal he groped around for a few minutes in the dark, and on every
occasion called out in an undertone that he had found the path. In this
manner they kept it up for a couple of hours, when the route became much
more easy to travel. Occasionally they paused and listened and looked,
but nothing threatening was discovered. Quite a distance on the left,
the twinkle of a camp fire was discerned, but it was so distant that it
gave no concern. All remained quiet in the rear, though pursuit from
that quarter was to be expected.

The three rode along in silence for something like half an hour longer,
when Hardynge, who was slightly in advance, abruptly reined up his steed
and said:

"We're through the mountains. There's the prairie afore us."

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE BUFFALOES.

The moon was now well up in the sky, and the members of the party were
enabled to discern objects at a greater distance than at any time since
starting. When Tom Hardynge announced that they had passed through this
spur of mountains, the three instinctively turned their eyes to the
westward, where the prairie stretched away until it vanished in the
gloom.

"There's a clean hundred miles or more of level plain," added the
hunter. "I've traveled it many a time and I ought to know."

"You're right," said Dick. "That's a good sweep of prairie, and we ought
to make good time over it, for our horses have had a long rest."

"There's only one thing that troubles me," ventured Ned Chadmund, when
the heads of all their animals were turned westward; "I'm so hungry and
faint that I can hardly sit on my horse."

"That's bad," said Tom, feelingly. "I never thought of that when we had
a good chance among the mountains to fetch down some game. We ain't apt
to run agin anythin' in the hash line while riding along on the prairie;
but we'll try it, and if we don't we'll turn off to a little spot where
I know we shall hit it."

Ned expressed his willingness to do this, and the company started.
Instead of going in Indian file, as they had done while among the
mountains, they rode side by side at an easy swinging gallop, the
prairie lightening up as they advanced, and the surface continuing of
the same impact character, which rendered it the most favorable possible
for horseback riding. To one who, like the boy, had tramped and trudged
along until scarcely able to stand, this cha