We were very tired and after the meal could hardly keep awake. We posted sentries in turn to watch the plain behind us, and kept lively by smoking and telling stories. Our cattle wanted sleep more than grass, and we were sorry at being obliged to saddle them after a short rest, but Tiger and Owl insisted on our going on, as we were certainly pursued by the Pawnees, and could only escape them by keeping the start we had on them. It was hardly noon when we started again and spurred our horses on toward the southern prairie. They only moved because they felt the sharp steel in their sides, and we were obliged to lead the mules by lassos and appoint a man to drive them, as they refused to follow. The heat was oppressive, there was not a breath of air, and the plants on the plain we crossed hung their leaves in exhaustion, an incessant buzzing of the insects in the grass filled the motionless air, and a trembling dazzling light lay on the wide expanse around us. The sweat ran in streams from our cattle, and was mixed with the blood which the countless musquitos sucked from their coat, so that under their belly their colour could not be distinguished. But not noticing their sufferings or fatigue, we urged them on and looked back at the distant horizon to see whether our pursuers appeared on it, till the sun sank and in the distance a wood rose, which crossed the prairie to the east like a mist. Tiger said that we should be safe there; this was the wood running along the Arkansas, and the horses of the Pawnees could not go so far without a rest. The sun mercifully withdrew its beams, and the moon's cool light showed us our road, when we expended the last strength of our cattle and so reached the forest.