Captain Saunders, feeling disposed to reward the two boys for taking care of our animals, offered each a silver half dollar. Their young eyes brightened at sight of the money, for they knew it would buy them something nice at the trader's store, but a hesitating glance at Lobo seemed to decide them to refuse the proffered gifts, and with a pleasant, "No quiero, señor" ("Don't want it, sir"), which their looks belied, they turned away.
"Give them to me, captain," I said, "and I'll place them where they won't reject the money." I carried the two silver pieces into the lodge and put them with the other things. No objection was made to my leaving these presents where they could be found, but Indian hospitality forbade them openly to accept gifts from a guest.
At dinner Jack proposed that Captain Saunders and he should go out that afternoon and kill some buffalo and put out some poison. The captain was eager to go, for he was quite without experience in this form of sport. After Saunders was armed, equipped, and mounted he and Jack rode away and I turned to and attended to the dinner dishes.
It was near sunset when they got back to camp, reporting that they had killed and poisoned some buffalo, and Captain Saunders had killed also an antelope, the carcass of which he had tied on behind his saddle and brought in.
"L'ave the captain alone for the makin's of a plainsman," exclaimed Jack as he dismounted and began unsaddling. "He'll need but little more instruction from any of us. He catches on quick. He'll soon be like an old hand at the business. An' that horse of his is all right, too. Ain't a bit afeard of a buffalo an' goes at 'em like he was used to it."
"Possibly the captain has had more experience of this kind," I suggested inquiringly, "than we have supposed."
"Not a bit of it," replied Saunders. "This is actually my first glimpse of frontier life; but I have always been interested in such matters and have read everything I could find on the subject and have talked to old plainsmen and in that way have acquired some ideas of such things. I wish I could stay with you a week or two and hunt buffalo and antelope, for it is noble sport; but this isn't what Uncle Sam is paying me for, and I must go back to Fort Larned to-morrow. Still, I consider this time well spent, for the experience I am getting out here is certainly valuable to one who expects to do service on the plains."
"We shall be sorry to lose your company, captain," I replied; "but, if you are going in to-morrow, why not take your antelope along as a trophy of the trip? The weight will not be much, and we can fit it behind the cantle of your saddle and tie it on so it will ride nicely."
"Yes," added Jack, "but that will have to be done to-night, for it'll freeze hard before morning, and then you can't fit it on. I'll fix it now."
He placed Saunders's saddle upon some sacks of grain, bent the antelope carcass to fit snugly behind the cantle, tying the feet down to the cinch rings, and left it to freeze in that position.