CHAPTER XXVIII

WITH HOPEFUL HEARTS

FORGOTTEN at that minute were all their other troubles, as each made hurried efforts to get away from the spot. The trembling of the rocks told plainly enough that some convulsion of nature was about to take place; and Dick's words gave evidence that he himself had discovered where the yawning crater of the boiling spring lay amidst the half melted snow.

Hardly had they gone back some thirty or forty feet when there burst forth a vast volume of spray and steaming water that ascended high into the air, reaching an altitude of possibly five score feet before it lost its velocity, and began to rain downward.

Immediately the snow around the entire vicinity commenced to melt with the heat of the falling water. With the sunlight falling on the wonderful fountain the two boys thought they had never in all their lives seen anything so sublime.

Mayhew was more alarmed than pleased by the spectacle. Its terror appealed more to his backwoods nature than any beauty connected with the display. Indeed, had he been there alone, the chances were Mayhew would have taken to his heels, not being desirous of such close acquaintance with things he could not comprehend.

After staring at the magical fountain for a brief time Roger once more allowed his other nature to have sway.

"We are losing precious minutes, Dick!" he called out, for the roar was so great that it was impossible to be heard unless the voice were elevated. "This may be all very fine, but it doesn't seem to satisfy the gnawing sensation inside me."

When Dick gave the word, Mayhew only too gladly once more led off.

"That buffalo must have known of this hot fountain, because he came straight up to where it is," Roger remarked, after they had left the spouting geyser behind them.

"Yes, but it seems that it rises only at long intervals," Dick explained. "It may be that days pass without an outburst. That accounts for the snow around, which disappeared so fast once the flow of hot water began."

Roger seemed content to accept this version of the strange happening. In fact it was now a past matter with him; his most urgent necessity did not concern wonderful fountains at all, but provender. He had a constant reminder with him that "nature abhors a vacuum," and that an empty stomach gives its owner no peace.

"If we had stood where we were," said Dick, "the chances are some of us might have been well cooked. My heart seemed to jump up in my throat when you stumbled, Roger; but you managed to recover your balance and come on."

"I confess that I was a bit worried myself about that time, Dick; but as a rule I'm not so clumsy. Just now my legs seem weak and wobbly. It must be that hunger is getting a good grip on me."

"All's well that ends well, they say," ventured Mayhew, stealing a backward look over his shoulder at the still spouting geyser that filled him with such uneasiness.

"When the buffalo found this place all covered with snow," continued Roger, "so he could get not a mouthful of grass or fodder, he started off again in the same general direction. Where do you reckon he is striking out for now, Dick?"

"Oh, I suppose he knows of other places where he can feed, and is headed for one of them," was the answer Dick gave.

"There, the noise is dying down back of us," Mayhew announced. "It seems as though the show is over for this time. Yes, the column of hot water and steam is only half as high, and getting less right along."

"It may lie quiet for another spell, perhaps days, before it breaks out again," suggested Dick, which remark proved that he was arriving at some conclusion respecting these remarkable geysers, in that he believed they all had regular cycles for displaying their activities, some frequent, others at much longer intervals, but all working with clock-like fidelity.

Roger had already quite forgotten all about the recent scare. Once more he was keeping his eyes on the alert for signs of that lone buffalo which would mean so much to them.

He had pictured the animal so many times in his fancy that pretty soon the tortured boy began "seeing things" that did not really exist.

"Look yonder, Dick," he would say huskily, "and tell me is that the old bull just alongside that rock? Seems as though I can make out his head as he stands there. Hadn't we better spread out, so as to surround him?"

When Dick assured Roger that what he took to be the head of the buffalo was only an outcropping of the massive rock the other seemed deeply disappointed.

"I was dead sure it must be our game, Dick, indeed I was. But now I see you are right, and it is a part of the rocky spur. How about that brush heap ahead there; I may have been mistaken, Dick, but I thought I could see something moving. It is too low down to hide a big buffalo, but Indians might be lying there, waiting to knock us over. I hope they have some pemmican along with them, for we could take it away, you see, Dick; and even dry pemmican would taste pretty good now."

Dick began to feel a little worried about his cousin. It seemed to him as though Roger was getting light-headed on account of his privations.

"Oh! if only we could catch up with that miserable buffalo bull," Dick muttered to himself as he tramped along. "Either that, or else run across an elk. Something has got to happen soon, or I'm afraid Roger will keel over, or perhaps go out of his mind."

The situation was getting more desperate. Try as he would, Dick could discover no way in which it might be alleviated. They must keep on constantly and hope that before long they would come up with the animal they had been tracking with the pertinacity of wolves.

He knew they were not making anything like the progress they could have had to their credit if they had partaken of their customary portion of food. Weakness had seized upon them, and, while the spirit was willing, the flesh seemed to be lacking in the power to obey as promptly as they would have liked.

Roger continued to discover suspicious objects from time to time. Then his mood would change, and he could be heard laughing softly to himself, as though the whole thing was appearing to him now in the guise of a great joke.

"Poor fellow!" muttered Dick, when one of these spasms had passed off, leaving Roger more morose than ever; "somehow he seems to feel it so much more than either of us. I've got to the last hole in my belt now, and I hope there may be no need of my making a fresh one."

When he looked toward Mayhew he saw that the scout's face had begun to show signs of renewed eagerness. This gave Dick a thrill, as hope once more commenced to flutter in his breast. Certainly Mayhew would not look like that unless he had good reason to believe they were now close upon the heels of the roving buffalo.

Then Mayhew raised a warning finger; at the same time he nodded his head toward the muttering Roger. Dick comprehended the action; it meant that some means should be taken to keep the other quiet, lest he warn their quarry of their coming long before there was any necessity of such a happening, and thus endanger the success of their stalking game.

Accordingly Dick hastened to get alongside his cousin. He laid a hand on Roger's arm, and the other, raising his head, turned a pair of red eyes upon Dick.

"Keep still, Roger!" hissed Dick, holding up a finger. "Mayhew says we are right on the heels of the game. You must not speak a single word above a whisper, or all may be ruined. Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Of course I do, Dick," began the other, cautiously, as though aroused by the joyous news, and coming back to his senses again. "I hope you are not thinking me silly just because I've been complaining of feeling hungry?"

"Never mind, now, it's going to be all right," said Dick, soothingly, for he was afraid Roger might want to argue the matter with him. "As you have an empty gun you must let us do the work."

"Oh, never fear about me, I understand!"

"Well, keep still now, Roger. Not another word, but hold yourself ready to start that fire soon. If you listen hard you may hear the horn blow for dinner like it does at home when we are out in the field. Silence now, Mayhew must think he sees our game."

Indeed, the actions of the guide would give any one to understand something like that. He was moving along with his body bent over, and gripping his faithful rifle in both hands. Although both of the boys used their eyes to the best advantage they could not see anything to hearten them; but then the strain on their nerves, because of all that blinding snow, may have had something to do with this failure.

Mayhew turned quickly toward them. He said not a word, but his lips moved, and he nodded his head in a manner that thrilled the boys.

It had long ago been decided just what their tactics should be in case they were so fortunate as to come up with the quarry. Neither of them meant to fire until they had managed to get so close to the game that one shot alone would be necessary to bring the animal down.

Of course, when their presence was discovered, the buffalo would start off at as brisk a pace as possible, in order to escape from his human enemies. They believed, however, the animal must be nearly tired out from breasting the deep drifts so long, and that its burst of speed could not last any great while.

If it became absolutely necessary, they were prepared to risk everything on a long-distance shot, and the hope of wounding the animal. This would hasten its halting at least, when it could be dispatched at their pleasure, even though they used knife and hatchet to accomplish this.

Roger must have been greatly impressed with what Dick had said to him, for he remained perfectly still after that, at least so far as giving voice to his feelings was concerned.

Dick had pushed on ahead of his cousin, as he had announced he intended to do on account of holding one of the loaded guns. Side by side with Mayhew he now advanced along the fresh trail. Even a novice could see that some animal must have passed only a few minutes before, for there were places where snow actually fell over into the tracks, as though it had been balanced on the edge of the depression.

The anxious waiting that almost made them sick at heart ended at last. Dick caught a scuffling sound that came from beyond the next line of bushes. Something was moving there, and he could easily imagine that the hungry buffalo, scenting some sort of grass under the snow, might be trying to get down to it.

Bending lower still, they pushed on, with eyes glued on the spot where those significant sounds came from. In another minute they would be able to look over the tops of the bushes and see what lay beyond. Then, if all was well, a lucky shot would procure them the meat of which they were in such desperate need.

No one made a sound so far as Dick could tell, so it could not have been that which gave warning to the suspicious buffalo. Perhaps a shift in the wind carried some taint of their presence to his sensitive nostrils and aroused his fears.

However that might be, Dick heard a sudden snort, and then there came a shout of dismay from Roger, who, standing more erect than the rest, must have been able to see what was going on beyond the bushes.

"He's on the run, Dick! Oh! hurry, and shoot, or he will get away from us!"

As Dick and Mayhew cleared the bushes with great bounds they saw the buffalo plunging into a deep drift and scattering the snow in every direction. But what thrilled the two hunters was the fact that, in dashing headlong into the drift, the beast had entered a trap from which escape would not be easy.