Wikiups were built as a shelter, for the cold nights were coming on, and the men made themselves most comfortable right near a large spring.
Leaves furnished good mattresses to spread blankets upon, the provisions were plentiful, and very little use had been made of the ammunition, save to kill game.
As there was no game near the spring, it was decided to send several scouts on a hunt the next day to get deer, and in the streams the fish were plentiful.
The scouts had realized the virtue of being blacked up in that country, and Don Miller had transferred himself also, in appearance at least, to a negro.
Without a guard, the scouts lay down to sleep, and nothing disturbed their slumbers.
The next morning Corporal Milk took a party hunting up the valley with him, and Buffalo Bill and Black Bill began their real search for the Lost Valley.
The hunters were gone all day, and when they returned to the camp at sunset they carried very heavy loads of game of various kinds.
But the scouts who remained in the camp could give no reply as to what had become of Buffalo Bill and the negro.
They had not put in an appearance, and it was certainly thought that they should have done so.