Soon after this, and long before they had finished talking over the fight, the other men came back from camp, and Joe and Jack went in to get their supper. CHAPTER VIII A BUFFALO STORY Two days later Jack, pretty tired and riding a tired horse, came into camp after a long day, and was delighted to see Hugh standing by the cook fire, as usual smoking his pipe. Jack shouted a greeting and Hugh waved his pipe in salutation, and a moment later when the saddle had been thrown on the ground, and the tired horse was rolling, the two shook hands. "Well," exclaimed Jack, "what's the news? Did anything happen to you on your way back with the cattle?" "No," answered Hugh; "we just pushed 'em along as fast as we comfortably could, brought 'em to camp late at night, pretty tired, and didn't bother to bed 'em down or watch 'em. They got in hungry, and as soon as they had eaten a plenty they lay down and stayed down all night. When we got within five or six miles of the ranch I sent Rube in ahead and pushed the cattle on myself, and before very long your Uncle and Joe came out and we drove the herd down below the little lake and turned 'em loose there. That was yesterday afternoon pretty early. Rube and I went up to the bunk-house and gossiped a while with Mr. Sturgis, and then after we had had something to eat, we turned around and rode until dark and then camped, and came on here to-day." "That was a good quiet trip," said Jack. "I am glad that nothing bad happened. There was no reason why anything should happen, for these cattle are almost on their own range; and they shouldn't be wild or uneasy. What's the news back at the ranch, Hugh? Did Uncle Will, or Joe, have anything special to talk about?" "Not a thing," was the reply. "It's just as quiet there as can be. Joe's 'tending to his stock, what little of it there is there, and Mr. Sturgis, I reckon, just reads and writes. By the way, though, he did tell me that he went up on the mountains back of the house the other day and killed a yearling for meat. He said there were lots of elk there--big bunches of cows and calves. When I told him I was coming right back here, he sat down and wrote to you and asked me to take the letter along with two or three others that had come for you. You see, he sent Joe into the railroad for mail only two or three days ago." Jack took the letters, and presently went off to read them. Two were from his father and mother, in New York, and one from his uncle. By the time he had finished reading them, supper was ready and the boys were crowding around the fire, filling their plates and cups. After supper, Hugh, Joe and Jack were sitting together near the cook fire, Hugh smoking and the boys slapping viciously at the mosquitoes, which were pretty bad. "I saw one thing to-day, son," said Hugh, "that interested me a little, and that was a buffalo carcass."