“Gone! I should have liked to shoot that bear.”
“And had his skin,” said Chris. “But look at Griggs,” he added, in a whisper; “he can see something.—What are you looking at?” cried the boy, aloud.
“That patch far away over the salt plain. You can’t see it with the naked eye.—Yes: I can, but it only looks like a shadow. Here, try the glass.”
He handed the binocular to the boy, who looked but could see nothing till his companion had given him a hint or two to follow an imaginary line upward from one of the eminences below.
Chris caught the object sought then.
“Yes,” he cried, “I see. Why, it’s a herd of buffalo!”
“Try again,” said Griggs.
“Yes: a herd of buffalo,” said Chris, lowering his glass and trying to fix the object with his eyes. “I can see it without the glass. Just like a cloud-shadow in the glistening, heaving plain, and moving slowly. I shouldn’t have thought that buffalo would be seen on a dry place like that.”
“Let me look,” cried Ned, and after a try or two he caught the object visible through the glass.
“Yes, buffalo,” he said, “and they’re moving slowly.”