A minute later the reports boomed out, starting several other animals up from the long grass of the glade where they had been lying. The young pioneers were gratified to see both buffaloes fall as though mortally wounded; for the boys were good shots, and seldom missed bringing down their quarry.
Still they knew better than to dash recklessly out in the open, so long as that grand old bull with the wicked-looking black horns ran bellowing about, snorting in his mad desire to do battle with the unseen foe that had brought confusion into his family.
Presently he, too, galloped after the other buffaloes. Then the boys dared stand up, and proceeded to reload their guns; after which they walked over to their game, with the intention of securing all they could carry of the choice portions.
An hour later they were headed for the spot agreed on as a general meeting-place for the various couples engaged in the hunt. Each of them was loaded down with meat, enclosed in the hides of the animals that had fallen to their guns.
"I hope the others have come in," remarked Bob as they drew near the spring that bubbled out from under the roots of a giant oak, and, being located on a little rise, was a prominent object for some distance around. "We ought to be starting homeward soon, you know."
"Yes," replied Sandy, "this load is going to fret my shoulders some, I fear, before I get rid of it. But it seems to me we ought to sight the oak spring about now, Bob!"
"And there it is," remarked his brother, as they suddenly came out of the dense brush into more open ground.
"Why they're all back but us, it seems," remarked Sandy. "Four, six—why, Bob, look, there's another one along now, seven, I count! Perhaps a messenger from the settlement! I hope it doesn't mean bad news. See, they're beckoning to us! Oh! hurry, Bob, hurry! What if it should be for us—what if—"
"There, that will do, Sandy; don't be silly enough to think up every awful happening before you know;" but, while Bob spoke thus bravely, his own heart was throbbing much faster than usual as he hastened his footsteps, and thus approached the spot where the seven men awaited them.