Deerfoot checked his horse on the crest of the moderate elevation, with one of the brothers on either side of him, and Mul-tal-la farther to the left. All carefully scanned the horizon and the grand sweep of prairie that inclosed them on every side. “Do my brothers see anything more than the stretch of plain?” asked Deerfoot. Naturally one of the first things done by George Shelton at such times was to bring his spyglass to his eye. It was a good instrument and proved of value to all. He had been thus engaged for several minutes when the Shawanoe asked his question. “No,” was the reply. “There seems to be no end to waving grass and shining flower.” “Let my brother look to the northward,” said Deerfoot, pointing in that direction, “and tell me what he sees.” George did as directed. At first he saw nothing unusual, but as he peered he observed a change in the color of the landscape. Far off toward the horizon he noted, instead of the variegated hue, a dark sweep, as if the prairie ended on the shore of a dun-colored lake or sea. It covered thirty degrees of the circle. His first thought was that it was a large body of water, for as he studied it closer he perceived a restless pulsation of the surface, which suggested waves, though there was not a breath of wind where the company had halted. “It looks to me like a big body of water,” said the boy, lowering his glass. “Let me have a squint,” remarked Victor, reaching for the glass, which was passed to him. Deerfoot and Mul-tal-la did not speak, but exchanged significant looks. Victor held the glass to his eyes for several minutes, while the others waited for him to speak. “It looks like a body of water,” he finally said, without lowering the instrument, “but, if it is, _it’s coming this way_!” It was the Blackfoot who grinned and uttered the single word: “Buffaloes!” “So they are! You might have known that, George.” “_You_ didn’t know it till Mul-tal-la told you.” Very soon the animals were identified by the naked eye. Numbers had been seen before, but never so large a herd as that upon which all now gazed with rapt attention. There must have been tens of thousands, all coming with that heavy, plunging pace peculiar to those animals. Sometimes an immense drove would be quietly cropping the herbage, when a slight flurry would set several in motion. Then the excitement ran through the whole lot with almost electric suddenness, and all were soon plunging in headlong flight across the plain.