gh
one and all deeply regretted Sable Satan's sad end, though his death had
served a good purpose.

CHAPTER XII.

BOY TRAPPERS' ADVENTURES.

It was a proud day for Buffalo Billy when he returned home and was
welcomed by his mother and sisters, to whom he gave all of his earnings,
which were considerable, as his pay had been liberal.

The neighborhood, hearing from members of the train of Billy's exploits,
for he was very close-mouthed about what he had done, made a hero of
him, and many a pretty girl of seventeen regretted that the boy was not
a man grown, to have him for a lover.

But Billy's restless nature would not allow him to remain idle at home,
so he joined a party of trappers who were going to trap the streams of
the Laramie and Chugwater for otter, beaver and other animals possessing
valuable fur, as well as to shoot wolves for their pelts.

This expedition did not prove very profitable, and not wishing to return
home without enough furs to bring a fair sum, Buffalo Billy joined a
young man, only a few years his senior, by the name of Dave Harrington,
and the two started off for the Republican.

Their outfit consisted of a wagon and yoke of oxen, for the
transportation of their supplies and pelts, and they began trapping in
the vicinity of Junction City, Kansas, and went up the Republican to
Prairie Dog creek, where they found plenty of beaver.

While catching a large number of beavers, one day they returned to camp
to find one of their oxen had fallen over a precipice and killed
himself, and they were left without a team.

But the Boy Trappers, for Dave Harrington was not eighteen, determined
to trap on through the winter, and in the spring one of them would go
for a team to haul back their wagon.

Ill fortune seemed however to dog their steps as trappers, for one day,
while chasing elk, Buffalo Billy fell and broke his leg, and Dave
Harrington had to carry him to camp.

Here was a sad predicament, for the nearest settlement was one hundred
miles distant.

But Dave set the leg as skillfully as he could, built a "dug-out," for
the wounded boy to live in, filled it with wood and provisions, and then
set out to procure a yoke of oxen and sled to return for Billy and their
pelts.

The "dug-out," was a hole in the side of a bank, covered with poles,
grass and sod, and with a fire-place in one end, and a bunk near it, was
by no means uncomfortable; but the prospect of remaining there for a