and thither,
and occasionally firing an ineffectual shot, until by degrees horseman
and herd became indistinct in the distance, and at length swelling
ground and strips of trees and thickets hid them entirely from sight.

By the time my friend, the amateur, joined me, the young count had been
long lost to view. We held a consultation on the matter. Evening was
drawing on. Were we to pursue him, it would be dark before we should
overtake him, granting we did not entirely lose trace of him in the
gloom. We should then be too much bewildered to find our way back to the
encampment; even now our return would be difficult. We determined,
therefore, to hasten to the camp as speedily as possible, and send out
our half-breeds and some of the veteran hunters, skilled in cruising
about the prairies, to search for our companion.

We accordingly set forward in what we supposed to be the direction of
the camp. Our weary horses could hardly be urged beyond a walk. The
twilight thickened upon us; the landscape grew gradually indistinct; we
tried in vain to recognize various landmarks which we had noted in the
morning. The features of a prairie are so similar as to baffle the eye
of any but an Indian or a practised woodsman. At length night closed in.
We hoped to see the distant glare of camp-fires; we listened to catch
the sound of the bells about the necks of the grazing horses. Once or
twice we thought we distinguished them: we were mistaken. Nothing was to
be heard but a monotonous concert of insects, with now and then the
dismal howl of wolves mingling with the night breeze. We began to think
of halting for the night and bivouacking under the lee of some thicket.
We had implements to strike a light; there was plenty of firewood at
hand, and the tongues of our buffaloes would furnish us with a repast.

Just as we were preparing to dismount we heard the report of a rifle,
and shortly after the notes of the bugle, calling up the night guard.
Pushing forward in that direction, the camp-fires soon broke on our
sight, gleaming at a distance from among the thick groves of an alluvial
bottom.

As we entered the camp, we found it a scene of rude hunters' revelry
and wassail. There had been a grand day's sport, in which all had taken
a part. Eight buffaloes had been killed; roaring fires were blazing on
every side; all hands were feasting upon roasted joints, broiled marrow
bones, and the juicy hump, far famed among the epicures of the pr