had failed. The loss might prove a very
formidable one. I was too much rejoiced however at the recovery of the
animals to think much about it; and having made some tea for Raymond in
a tin vessel which we had brought with us, I told him that I would give
him two hours for resting before we set out again. He had eaten nothing
that day; but having no appetite, he lay down immediately to sleep. I
picketed the animals among the richest grass that I could find, and made
fires of green wood to protect them from the flies; then sitting down
again by the tree, I watched the slow movements of the sun, begrudging
every moment that passed.

The time I had mentioned expired, and I awoke Raymond. We saddled and
set out again, but first we went in search of the lost rifle, and in
the course of an hour Raymond was fortunate enough to find it. Then we
turned westward, and moved over the hills and hollows at a slow pace
toward the Black Hills. The heat no longer tormented us, for a cloud
was before the sun. Yet that day shall never be marked with white in my
calendar. The air began to grow fresh and cool, the distant mountains
frowned more gloomily, there was a low muttering of thunder, and dense
black masses of cloud rose heavily behind the broken peaks. At first
they were gayly fringed with silver by the afternoon sun, but soon the
thick blackness overspread the whole sky, and the desert around us
was wrapped in deep gloom. I scarcely heeded it at the time, but now
I cannot but feel that there was an awful sublimity in the hoarse
murmuring of the thunder, in the somber shadows that involved the
mountains and the plain. The storm broke. It came upon us with a zigzag
blinding flash, with a terrific crash of thunder, and with a hurricane
that howled over the prairie, dashing floods of water against us.
Raymond looked round, and cursed the merciless elements. There seemed
no shelter near, but we discerned at length a deep ravine gashed in the
level prairie, and saw half way down its side an old pine tree, whose
rough horizontal boughs formed a sort of penthouse against the tempest.
We found a practicable passage, and hastily descending, fastened our
animals to some large loose stones at the bottom; then climbing up, we
drew our blankets over our heads, and seated ourselves close beneath the
old tree. Perhaps I was no competent judge of time, but it seemed to me
that we were sitting there a full hour, while around us poured a deluge
of rai