anyway, whether it rains or snows, it will rain
or snow on the just and the unjust, and blankets and bearskin should
keep you dry. That growling in the bushes, too, has ceased, and our
friend, the Sioux, who sought your life, has found a dreadful grave."

Will shuddered once more, but when he crept between the blankets his
nerves were soothed rapidly and he soon fell asleep.

The three men kept watch and watch through the night, and they saw no
Indian foe. Once Boyd heard a rustling in the bushes, and he made out
the figure of a huge mountain wolf that stood staring at them for a
moment. The horses and mules began to stir uneasily, and, picking up a
stone, the hunter threw it with such good aim that the wolf, struck
smartly on the body, ran away.

The animals relapsed into quiet, and nothing more stirred in the bushes,
until the leaves began to move under the light breeze that came at
dawn.

CHAPTER IX

THE BUFFALO MARCH

Drawn by an impulse that he tried to check but could not, Will went in
the morning to the point in the bushes whence the growling had come the
night before, finding there nothing but the bones of the Sioux, from
which every trace of flesh had been removed. He shuddered once more. He,
instead of the warrior, might have been the victim. His eyes, trained
now to look upon the earth as a book and to read what might be printed
there, saw clearly the tracks of the wolves among the grass and leaves.
After finishing what they had come to do they had gone away some
distance and had gathered together in a close group, as if they had
meditated an attack, possibly upon the horses and mules.

Will knew how great and fierce the mountain wolves of the north were,
and he was glad to note that, after their council, they had gone on and
perhaps had left the valley. At least, he was able to follow their
tracks as far as the lower rocks, where they disappeared. When he
returned to the little camp he told what he had seen.

"We're in no danger of a surprise from the big wolves," said Brady.
"They'd have killed and eaten some of the horses and mules if we hadn't
been here, but wolves are smart, real smart. Like as not they saw Thomas
shoot the Sioux, and they knew that the long stick he carried, from
which fire spouted, slaying the warrior, was like the long sticks all of
us carry, and that to attack us here was death for them. Oh, I know I'm
guessing a lot, but I've observed 'em a long time and I'm convin