The Great Lakes of the United States--yes, and even some of the smaller ones--are often the scenes of storms as terrible as those which occur on the broad bosom of any ocean on the face of the globe. But there was never a worse storm on any of them than that which raged one night, soon after Buffalo Bill’s return to Fort McPherson, on the dark waters of a large lake on the edge of the great plains. Driving before the squall which had come down with awful suddenness was a schooner containing the surveying party that had been sent out from Fort McPherson to make surveys and take soundings of the lake. The party was under the command of our friend Captain Meinhold, and with him on the _Enterprise_ was his old and trusted friend, Buffalo Bill, who had been requested, at the last moment, to accompany him. There were several surveyors in the party, and their assistants, besides the sailors of the vessel and a few soldiers from Captain Meinhold’s company, who acted as an escort. Terrified almost out of their wits by the violence of the wind and the fearful height to which the waves ran, tossing the craft up and down as if it were a mere cockleshell, were also three women, wives of three of the surveyors. Suddenly, when the storm was at its height, a wave swept over the quarter of the schooner, washing away a deck house and carrying five men with it. To save them was impossible. Even if the skipper could have worn schooner, instead of merely driving helplessly before the wind, they could not have been found and picked up on such a stormy night in such a raging sea. A few minutes later the mainmast went by the board, killing two more men and leaving the vessel a helpless wreck. The skipper was one of the two men killed by the fall of the mast. His mate had been washed overboard. There was no one left who was competent to navigate the vessel, even if she had been navigable. The well had been sounded a little while before, and it had been found that the craft was leaking badly. Captain Meinhold ordered one of the seamen to find out if the water was gaining. The man did so, and returned with the terrible news that it was simply pouring in and the schooner was fast settling down. “She’s nothing but a sieve now,” said the man. “The fall of the mainmast just racked her to pieces and opened the seams.” It was not necessary, indeed, to sound the well; for it was obvious to the veriest landsman that the schooner was sinking, and must soon disappear beneath the raging billows. “We must take to the boats at once,” said Captain Meinhold to Buffalo Bill, who was standing calmly by his side, as fearless on sea as on land. “There is no other course,” the scout agreed. “The schooner is evidently doomed.” Having anticipated the order which was now given to them, the sailors who survived had already commenced to cut loose the boats, ready for launching.