ith the rest of us, and was the picture of despair, till Ollie
rubbed him with a dry corner of a blanket, and gave him a good
place beside the fire.

By the time two or three hours had elapsed we began to feel
partially dry, and decided to start on, relying on exercise to
keep ourselves warm. We had had breakfast in the meantime, and,
on the whole, were feeling rather cheerful again. We opened the
cover and spread out the bedding, inside and outside, and hung
some of it on a long pole which we stuck into the wagon from the
rear. Altogether we presented a rather funny appearance as we
started out along the trail, but no one paid much attention to
us. The freighters were already astir, and we were constantly
passing or meeting their long trains. Among others we passed
Eugene Brooks, the man with whom we had taken dinner. We told him
of our mishap, and he laughed and said:

"That's nothing in this country. Something's always happening
here which would kill folks anywhere else. You stay here awhile
and you'll be as tough as your old black horse."

Brooks had an outfit of five spans of mules and two wagons.
We stayed with him a half-hour, and then went on. As we could not
reach Deadwood that day, he advised us to camp that night where
the trail crossed Thunder Butte Creek, a branch of La Belle
Fourche.

The trail led for the most part through valleys or along the
sides of hills, and was generally not far from level, though
there was, of course, a constant though hardly perceptible rise
as we got farther into the mountains. We camped at noon at Elk
Creek, and made further progress at drying our household effects.
We pressed on during the afternoon, and passed through the town
of Sturgis, where we laid in some stores of provisions to take
the place of those spoiled by the water, and also a quantity of
horse-feed. Later we congratulated ourselves on our good-luck in
doing this.

As the afternoon wore away we found ourselves getting up
above the timber-line. The mountains began to shut in our view in
all directions, and the valleys were narrowing. As night drew
nearer, Jack said:

"Seems to me it's about time we got to this Thunder Butte
Creek. 'Gene said that if we passed Sturgis we'd have to go on to
that if we wanted water."

We soon met a man, and inquired of him the distance to the
desired stream. "Two miles," he replied, promptly. We went on as
much as a mile and met another man, to whom we put