“They are not at war with the whites, as a nation,” replied Boone, ever and anon looking towards the only point from which the fire now approached; “but in thin settlements, where, they may easily be the strongest party, as roving brigands, they may be considered extremely dangerous. Your man’s advice is not bad.” “There! Don’t you hear that? Now, _do_ let’s go home!” continued Joe, with increased alarm. Fortunately, that portion of the plain over which the scathing element had spent its fury was the direction the party should pursue in retracing their way homeward. The light dry grass had been soon consumed, and the earth wore a blackened appearance, and was as smooth as if vegetation had never covered the surface. As the party rode briskly along, (and the pony now kept in advance,) the horses’ hoofs rattled as loudly on the baked ground as if it were a plank floor. The reflection of the fire in the distance still threw a lurid glare over the extended heath. As the smoke gradually ascended, objects could be discerned at a great distance, and occasionally a half-roasted deer or elk, was seen plunging about, driven to madness by its tortures. And frequently they found the dead bodies of smaller animals that could find no safety in flight. “What’s that?” cried Joe, reining up his pony, and gazing at a huge dark object ahead. “A prize, to which we are justly entitled!” exclaimed Glenn, riding forward, on discovering it to be the buffalo (now dead) that they had fired upon early in the evening, and which circumstance he was relating to Boone at the moment of the discovery by Joe. “You have not only been lucky as hunters,” said Boone, as they dismounted to inspect the animal, (which was an enormous bull,) “but, what is extraordinary indeed, when you find your fallen game, it is already cooked!” “Huzza for us!” cried Joe, momentarily forgetting the Indians, in his extravagant joy of having aided in killing the animal, and at the same time leaping astride of it. “The wolves have been here before us,” observed Boone, seeing a large quantity of the buffalo’s viscera on the ground, which he supposed had been torn out by those ravenous animals. “Oh! oh! oh! oh!” exclaimed Joe, leaping up, and running a few steps, and then tumbling down and continuing his cries. “What has hurt the fellow so badly?” inquired Glenn, walking round from the back of the animal to the front. The words were scarcely uttered before he likewise sprang away, hastily, as he beheld a pronged instrument thrust from the orifice in the body whence the bowels had been extracted! “Dod! I wonder if it’s wolves or Injins!” exclaimed a voice within the cavity of the huge body. “I’ve heard that voice before—it must be Sneak’s,” said Boone, laughing heartily.