"Hurro!" cried Barney. "Just the sphot Oi've been wantin' to see." "Yes, I'd like to see the park myself," said the professor. "We'll be safe there." But were they? Let us wait and see. CHAPTER XXIV. YELLOWSTONE PARK. "Hurro!" "What is it, Barney?" "Boofaloes, Frankie!" "Buffalo?" "Sure, me b'y!" "Where?" Frank scrambled eagerly to the crest of the ridge on which his friend was perched. They were in the heart of that picturesque wonderland about the head waters of the Yellowstone River, known as the National Park. Frank had a camera slung at his back, and for three days he had been trying to get a "shot" with it at a buffalo, having been told there was a small herd of the nearly extinct creatures somewhere in that region. Neither of the boys had the least desire to kill one of the animals, and a "shot" with the camera at close range would have satisfied them. And now, in the grassy valley below them, at a distance of half a mile, they could see five of the animals they sought. The creatures were grazing, with the exception of the largest of the herd, which seemed to be standing on guard, now and then snuffing the wind. The moment Frank saw them he clutched his companion, drawing him backward and down behind some bowlders. "Pwhat's th' matther wid yez?" spluttered Barney, in surprise. "If we expect to get near enough to photograph those creatures, we must get out of this right away." "Whoy?" "Did you observe the old fellow who is standing on guard? Peer out and you can see him. He is headed this way." "Pwhat av thot? He can't see us, me b'y." "He might not see us, but he is liable to smell us." "At this distance? Go on wid yer foolin', Frankie!" "I am not fooling; I am in earnest when I say he is liable to smell us. We are on the wrong side of that herd, if so few may be called a herd." "Whoy on th' wrong soide?" "We are to windward." "Not doirectly." "No, not directly. If we had been, those creatures would be scampering off already. Their sense of scent is remarkable." "Is it a jolly ye're givin' us?" "Not a bit of it, Barney; I am in earnest. Their power of sight is not particularly acute, but it is said that they 'can smell a man a mile.'" "Thin how can we ivver induce th' bastes to sit fer their photygrafs?" "We'll have to get on the other side of them, and creep up behind that small clump of timber." "It will take an hour to get round there, me b'y." "All of that; but I shall be well repaid if I can obtain a picture of some real wild buffalo. What a sight it must have been to behold one of those immense herds which once covered the plains 'from horizon to horizon,' as we are told. Now it is a known fact that there are less than fifty wild buffaloes in existence. A little more than fifteen years ago it was said that about three hundred thousand Indians subsisted almost entirely on the flesh of the buffalo." "An' is thot roight?"