“Can you suggest any better way?” asked Chet, stopping for breath. “You might set fire to it,” grinned his chum. “You keep still, or I’ll make you come here and spell me,” said Chet. “My goodness! but my hand is getting sore.” “You’ll have some pretty blisters before you get through with that stunt,” said Dig. And he was truly a prophet! Chet was more than an hour cutting down the tree, but he had used good judgment in placing it and when it fell the mouth of the gulch was so closed that no buffalo could get out. But Chet was lame, bruised, and blistered. “I declare you had the worst half of the job,” Dig said. “But just think, old man! we’ve captured eight buffaloes, including the king of them all.” “We have them cornered—yes. Now we’ve got to find somebody either to buy them just as they stand in there, or to help us get them out and to a market.” “Whew! That’s so. We’ve only begun the job, eh?” “That’s right, Dig,” Chet replied, nodding his head seriously. “At any rate,” the other boy said, “it’s an ideal corral we have ’em in. There is that trickle of water, and plenty of grass and green bushes. ‘All the comforts of home.’ What buffalo wouldn’t be content in such quarters?” The boys climbed up the hillside, after tethering their horses, and crept along over the rocks above the pocket until they could see the herd. Strangely enough the big buffalo and his seven companions were feeding quietly and whisking flies at the upper end of the gorge, their panic entirely departed. “Say! did you ever see a more peaceful scene?” chuckled Digby. “They look as tame as barnyard cattle, don’t they?” “That’s all right,” replied Chet, “but I’d hate to go down there and try to milk one of those bossies.” The beasts were corralled. Chet wasted little time in congratulating his chum and himself. Luck and foresight had brought about the capture; but it would take something more to make it of any value to the chums. Both the boys realised that. “We have to get to Grub Stake and interest somebody in our haul,” Dig said. “That’s the ticket for us.” “And we have something else to do first,” Chet replied, as they got back to the horses. “We’ve left those two rascals, Steve and Tony, too long by themselves. I bet they’ve hiked out after those lost deeds already.” “What? without their meat?” “Come on! I reckon the condition of that buffalo we shot will surprise you,” said Chet. And it did. Dig sputtered like an overfilled teakettle when they reached the place where they had dropped the young bull. No animal had been drawn to the kill, although several timid coyotes sneaked out of sight behind the nearest thicket. But the robe was ruined. The body had been slashed right into, without any pains being taken to butcher it properly. The better parts of the carcass had been taken, and the mess that had been made of the remainder sickened the two boys. They cut off a few shoulder steaks, and got away from the spot as soon as possible.