There was no temptation to play the sluggard and I rose as soon as the first streaks of daylight tinged the blackness of the east. On my way to the camp fire I met Andy Phillips, trembling with excitement. He had been along the creek to look after his mules, which had been so badly tied up the night before by Mexico Bill that they had strayed. He had not found them, but he had seen a herd of buffalo. When he saw me he hurried up and hissed out laconically, “Bufflers t’crik!” “Do you think we can get at them?” “Guess we kin.” I ran back for my rifle and off we started. As we went along Andy told me that in the herd which he had seen there were several very fine old bulls; they had come down to the creek to drink at a point about a mile and a half off, and he did not think they would move far away. So we got down into the winding creek, which in most places was quite dry, the banks being high enough to hide us; so Andy felt confident that I should get a shot. I was by no means sure of myself, though, for I was nervous and in a fever of excitement, madly eager to get a head, and my hands were numbed and stiff from the blistering cold iron of the rifle. When we reached the spot indicated by Andy I could almost hear the beating of my own heart. Very cautiously we crawled up the bank and peered over. Not a sign of a buffalo to be seen! I was greatly vexed, not thinking for the moment of the inequality of the levels of the divides, and forgetting that the whole herd, not having been disturbed, could hardly be more than half a mile off at most. “The critturs is bound to be close by, anyways,” whispered Andy as he marched off again up the creek. He knew the sort of ground and stopped at a place where the bank commanded a view of the next divide, and sure enough there the herd was, thirty or forty great awkward, shaggy, black monsters, quietly feeding about five hundred yards off. Luckily the creek here took a sharp turn which enabled us to get within closer range, the wind not betraying us, and when next we put our noses over the bank the nearest beasts were not much more than a hundred and fifty yards from us.