He almost wished that the night might be interminable.
At last day broke upon the vast prairie, and found the fugitives still many miles from Fort Kearney.
Objects assumed shape gradually, and the first one to speak was Lina Aiken, who sat before the trapper on his old steed.
“We must hurry,” she said, her eyes riveted upon a dark mass which seemed to rest against the eastern horizon. “A storm will burst upon us soon.”
“A storm, girl? Why, where’s the clouds?”
“Yonder.”
“That’s buffalo.”
Lina uttered an exclamation of wonder.
Presently the thunder of hoofs was heard, and the army of buffaloes advanced directly toward the Platte, almost within sight of whose waters our fugitives were.
The herd contained thousands, and the noise of their feet as they rushed over the plain almost drowned the voice of the spectators.