In justice to White Wolf, it should be stated that we afterward learned that while charging in such a mistaken direction after Pawnees that morning, he met two men from Hays City, out after buffalo meat. Finding that they were from the village which had been kind to him, he loaded their wagons with fat quarters, instead of filling their bodies with arrows, as they had first expected, and sent them home rejoicing. CHAPTER XIX. STALKING THE BISON--BUFFALO AS OXEN--EXPENSIVE POWER--A BUFFALO AT A LUNATIC ASYLUM--THE GATEWAY TO THE HERDS--INFERNAL GRAPE-SHOT--NATURE'S BOMB-SHELLS--CRAWLING BEDOUINS--"THAR THEY HUMP"--THE SLAUGHTER BEGUN--AN INEFFECTUAL CHARGE--"KETCHING THE CRITTER"--RETURN TO CAMP--CALVES' HEAD ON THE STOMACH--AN UNPLEASANT EPISODE--WOLF BAITING, AND HOW IT IS DONE. Breakfast over, the day's work was planned out. We were desirous of loading one of our wagons with game, and sending it back to Hays, from whence the meat could be forwarded by express to distant friends, and serve as tidings from camp, of "all's well." The other wagon we decided to keep with us. Horseback hunting, although fine sport, evidently would not, in our hands, prove sufficiently expeditious in procuring meat. Our guide adduced another argument as follows: "Yer see, gents, if yer want ter ship meat by rail, it won't do ter run it eight or ten miles, like a fox, and git it all heated up. Ther jints must be cool, or they'll spile." Stalking the bison was to be our day's sport, therefore, and we were speedily off, taking only the two wagons, the riding animals being all left in camp. Shamus prepared a lunch for us, as we did not expect to return for dinner before dusk. Following the same route as the day before, we soon ascended the Saline "breaks," and emerged on the plains above. Looking to us as if they had not changed position for twenty-four hours, the buffalo herds still covered the face of the country, busy as ever in their constant occupation of feeding. For animals which perform no labor, they have an egregious appetite, eating as if they were Nature's lawn-gardeners, and were under contract with her to keep the grass shaved.