"Why, bless me, Haller!" cried he, reining up, and bending from his saddle to get a better view of me, "is it you or your ghost? As I sit here, it's the man himself, and alive!" "Never in better condition," I replied. "But where did you come from? the clouds? the sky? where?" And his questions were echoed by the others, who at this moment were shaking me by the hand, as if they had not seen me for a twelvemonth. Gode seemed to be the most perplexed man of the party. "Mon Dieu! run over; tramp by von million buffles, et ne pas mort! 'Cr-r-re matin!" "We were hunting for your body, or rather, the fragments of it," said Saint Vrain. "We had searched every foot of the prairie for a mile round, and had almost come to the conclusion that the fierce brutes had eaten you up." "Eat monsieur up! No! tre million buffles no him eat. Mon Dieu! Ha, Sleep-head!" This exclamation of the Canadian was addressed to Hibbets, who had failed to warn my comrades of where I lay, and thus placed me in such a dangerous predicament. "We saw you tossed in the air," continued Saint Vrain, "and fall right into the thick of them. Then, of course, we gave you up. But how, in Heaven's name, have you got clear?" I related my adventure to my wondering comrades. "Par Dieu!" cried Gode, "un garcon tres bizarre: une aventure tres merveilleuse!" From that hour I was looked upon as a "captain" on the prairies. My comrades had made good work of it, as a dozen dark objects that lay upon the plain testified. They had found my rifle and blankets, the latter trodden into the earth. Saint Vrain had still a few drops in his flask; and after swallowing these, and again placing the guard, we returned to our prairie couches and slept out the night. CHAPTER FIVE. IN A BAD FIX. A few days afterwards, another adventure befell me; and I began to think that I was destined to become a hero among the "mountain men." A small party of the traders, myself among the number, had pushed forward ahead of the caravan. Our object was to arrive at Santa Fe a day or two before the waggons, in order to have everything arranged with the Governor for their entrance into that capital. We took the route by the Cimmaron. Our road, for a hundred miles or so, lay through a barren desert, without game, and almost without water. The buffalo had already disappeared, and deer were equally scarce. We had to content ourselves with the dried meat which we had brought from the settlements. We were in the deserts of the artemisia. Now and then we could see a stray antelope bounding away before us, but keeping far out of range. They, too, seemed to be unusually shy.