"Seems to me, Jim, that we're coming home. This valley has been waiting for us a great many years, but the true tenants have arrived at last." "That's the right spirit. Hark to Selim, now! He, too, approves." The great horse, probably moved by the sight of grass and water, raised his head and neighed. "If we had felt any doubts the horses would have settled it for us," said Will. "I understand their language and they say in the most correct English that here we are to bide and rest, as long as we wish. The presence of the lake indicates a running stream, an entrance and exit, so to speak. I think, Jim, it's about the most beautiful valley I ever saw." They descended the last slope, and came to the creek that drained the lake, a fine, clear, cold current, flowing swiftly over a rocky bottom. After letting the horses drink they forded it, and rode on into the valley. Will noticed something white on the opposite slope, and examining it through his glasses saw that it was a foaming cascade. "It's the stream that feeds the lake," he said. "It rushes down from the higher mountains, and here we have a beautiful waterfall. Nature has neglected nothing in preparing our happy valley, providing not only comfort and security but scenic beauty as well." The hunter looked a moment or two at the waterfall, and the tremendous mountains about them with a careful eye. "What is it, Jim?" asked Will. "I'm looking for tracks." "What tracks? You said we wouldn't find any Sioux in here." "Not the footprints of the Sioux." "It's not in the range of the Crows, Blackfeet or Assiniboines. Surely you don't expect them." "I don't expect Crows, Blackfeet or Assiniboines." "Then what do you expect?" "Wild animals." "Why bother about wild animals? Armed as we are we've nothing to fear from them." "Nothing to fear, but a lot to hope. I think we're likely to stay here quite a spell, and we'll need 'em in our business. Remember that for the present, Will, we're wild men, and we'll have to live as wild men have lived since the world began. We want their meat and their skins." "The meat I understand, because I'd like to bite into a juicy piece of it now, but we're not fur hunters." "No, but we need the skins of big animals, and we need 'em right away. This weather can't last forever. We're bound to have a storm sometime soon. We must first make a wickiup. It's quite simple. The Sioux always do it. A Sioux warrior never sleeps in the open if he can help it, and as they've lived this sort of life for more hundreds of years than anybody knows they ought to know something about it." "But I don't see that cloud you told me several days ago to watch for."