nto
a sound sleep from which I was aroused by a hand shaking me by the
shoulder. Looking up, I saw Tete Rouge stooping over me with his face
quite pale and his eyes dilated to their utmost expansion.

"What's the matter?" said I.

Tete Rouge declared that as he lay on the river bank, something caught
his eye which excited his suspicions. So creeping under the cart for
safety's sake he sat there and watched, when he saw two Indians, wrapped
in white robes, creep up the bank, seize upon two horses and lead them
off. He looked so frightened, and told his story in such a disconnected
manner, that I did not believe him, and was unwilling to alarm the
party. Still it might be true, and in that case the matter required
instant attention. There would be no time for examination, and so
directing Tete Rouge to show me which way the Indians had gone, I took
my rifle, in obedience to a thoughtless impulse, and left the camp. I
followed the river back for two or three hundred yards, listening and
looking anxiously on every side. In the dark prairie on the right I
could discern nothing to excite alarm; and in the dusky bed of the
river, a wolf was bounding along in a manner which no Indian could
imitate. I returned to the camp, and when within sight of it, saw that
the whole party was aroused. Shaw called out to me that he had counted
the horses, and that every one of them was in his place. Tete Rouge,
being examined as to what he had seen, only repeated his former story
with many asseverations, and insisted that two horses were certainly
carried off. At this Jim Gurney declared that he was crazy; Tete Rouge
indignantly denied the charge, on which Jim appealed to us. As we
declined to give our judgment on so delicate a matter, the dispute grew
hot between Tete Rouge and his accuser, until he was directed to go to
bed and not alarm the camp again if he saw the whole Arapahoe village
coming.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE CHASE

The country before us was now thronged with buffalo, and a sketch of the
manner of hunting them will not be out of place. There are two methods
commonly practiced, "running" and "approaching." The chase on horseback,
which goes by the name of "running," is the more violent and dashing
mode of the two. Indeed, of all American wild sports, this is the
wildest. Once among the buffalo, the hunter, unless long use has made
him familiar with the situation, dashes forward in utter recklessness
and self-abandonment. H