We would probably have pulled through the winter all right had it not been for a very serious accident which befell me just at that time.  Spying a herd of elk, we started in pursuit of them, and creeping up towards them as slyly as possible, while going around the bend of a sharp bluff or bank of the creek I slipped and broke my leg just above the ankle.  Notwithstanding the great pain I was suffering, Harrington could not help laughing when I urged him to shoot me, as he had the ox, and thus end my misery.  He told me to “brace up,” and that he would bring me out “all right.”  “I am not much of a surgeon,” said he, “but I can fix that leg of yours, even if I haven’t got a diploma.”

He succeeded in getting me back to camp, which was only a few yards from the creek, and then he set the fracture as well as he knew how, and made me as comfortable as was possible under the circumstances.  We then discussed the situation, which to say the least, looked pretty blue.  Knowing that, owing to our mishaps, we could not do anything more that winter, and as I dreaded the idea of lying there on my back with a broken leg for weeks, and perhaps months, I prevailed upon Harrington to go the nearest settlement—­about 125 miles distant—­to obtain a yoke of cattle, and then come back for me.

This he consented to do; but before leaving he gathered plenty of wood, and as the ground was covered with snow, I would have no difficulty in getting water if I had a fire.  There was plenty of fresh meat and other provisions in the “dug-out,” so that I had no fears of starvation.  The “dugout,” which we had built immediately after we had determined to remain there all winter, was a very cosy hole in the ground, covered with poles, grass and sod, with a fireplace in one end.

Harrington thought it would take him twenty days or more to make the round trip; but being well provided for—­for this length of time—­I urged him to go at once.  Bidding me good-bye he started on foot.  After his departure, each day, as it came and went, seemed to grow longer to me as I lay there helpless and alone.  I made a note of each day, so as to know the time when I might expect him back.

[Illustration:  SAVED BY CHIEF RAIN-IN-THE-FACE.]

On the twelfth day after Harrington left me, I was awakened from a sound sleep by some one touching me upon the shoulder.  I looked up and was astonished to see an Indian warrior standing at my side.  His face was hideously daubed with paint, which told me more forcibly than words could have done that he was on the war-path.  He spoke to me in broken English and Sioux mixed, and I understood him to ask what I was doing there, and how many there were with me.