know," answered Jack. "Varmints about, I
suppose."

In a few minutes we came to a man working beside the road,
and asked him what it all meant. He looked around in a very
mysterious manner, and then half whispered the one word
"Vigilantees!" with a strong accent on each syllable.

"Oh!" said Jack, "vigilance committee."

"Correct," returned the man.

"After horse-thieves, I suppose?" went on Jack.

"Exactly," replied the man. "Stole two horses at Black Bird
last night at ten o'clock. Holt County Anti-Horse-thief
Association after 'em this morning at four. That's the way we do
business in this country!"

We drove on, and Jack said:

"What the Association wants to do is to buy Old Blacky and
put him in a pasture for bait. In the morning the members can go
out and gather up a wagon-load of disabled horse-thieves that
have tried to steal him in the night and got kicked over the
fence."

We either met or saw a dozen other men on horseback, always
in pairs; but whether or not they caught the thief we never
heard.

[Illustration: Jack Shoots a Grouse]

So far we had had very poor luck in finding game; but in the
afternoon of this day Jack shot a grouse, and we camped rather
earlier than usual, so that he might have ample time to cook it.
There were also the plums and grapes to stew. We made our camp
not far from a house, and, after a vast amount of extremely
serious labor on the part of the cook, had a very good supper.

The next day passed with but one incident worth recalling. In
the afternoon we crossed the Niobrara at Grand Rapids on a
tumbledown wooden bridge, and turned due west through the Keya
Paha country. This is so called from the Keya Paha River
(pronounced Key-a-paw), a branch of the Niobrara which comes down
out of Dakota and joins it a few miles below Grand Rapids. The
country seemed to be much the same as that through which we had
travelled, perhaps a little flatter and sandier. Just across the
river we saw the first large herd of stock, some five or six
hundred head being driven east by half a dozen cowboys.

A short distance beyond the river we came to a little
blacksmith shop beside the road. As soon as Jack saw it he said:

"We ought to stop and get the horses shod. I was looking at
the holes the calks of Old Blacky's shoes made in the wagon-box
last night, and they are shallow and irregular. He needs new
shoes to do himself justice. If this blacksmith seems like a man