ver, mother dear, and I'll be here again before night comes."

Dick was not as confident he could follow his father's trail as he
would have it appear to his mother; but he decided upon the direction
in which he would search, and set bravely out heading due west,
knowing he could hold such a course by aid of the sun's position, as
his father had often explained to him.

Dick was hungry, but scorned to let his mother know it, and tried to
dull the edge of his appetite by chewing twigs and blades of grass.

After walking rapidly ten minutes, more careful as to direction than
he ever had been, because of the responsibility that rested upon him,
he stopped and shouted his father's name; then listened, hoping to
hear a reply.

Save for the hum of insect life, no sound came to his anxious ears.

Once more he pressed forward, and again shouted, but without avail.

He continued on until, seeing the trail made by the wagon when they
had come in from the stream, he knew he was very near to the border of
the valley.

Surely his father would not have gone outside, because he had said
before they arrived that only in the Buffalo Meadows were they likely
to find game.

Then Dick turned, pushing on in a northerly direction at right angles
with the course he had just been pursuing, and halting at five-minute
intervals to shout.

His anxiety and hunger increased equally as the day grew older. Try as
he might, he could not keep the tears from over-running his eyelids.

The sun was sinking toward the west before he heard aught of human
voice save his own; and then a cry of joy and relief burst from his
lips as he heard faintly in the distance his own name spoken.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" he cried at the full strength of his lungs,
as he dashed forward, exultant in the thought that his father was
alive, for he had begun to believe that he would never see him again
in this world.

Mr. Stevens continued to call out now and then to guide the boy on the
way, and as he drew nearer Dick understood from the quavering tones
that his father was in agony.

"I'm coming, daddy! I'm coming!" he shouted yet louder, as if
believing it was necessary to animate the sufferer, for he now knew
that some painful accident had befallen his father; and when he
finally ended the search his heart literally ceased beating because of
his terror and dismay.

Dick believed he had anticipated the worst, but yet was unprepared for
that which he saw.