At this place mosquitoes and horse-flies troubled our hunters and their steeds a good deal.  The latter especially were very annoying to the poor horses.  They bit them so much that the blood at last came trickling down their sides.  They were troubled also, once or twice, by cockchafers and locusts, which annoyed them, not indeed by biting, but by flying blindly against their faces, and often-narrowly missed hitting them in the eyes.  Once particularly they were so bad that Henri in his wrath opened his lips to pronounce a malediction on the whole race, when a cockchafer flew straight into his mouth, and, to use his own forcible expression, “nearly knocked him off de hoss.”  But these were minor evils, and scarcely cost the hunters a thought.

CHAPTER XII.

Wanderings on the prairie—­A war party—­Chased by Indians—­A bold leap for life.

For many days the three hunters wandered over the trackless prairie in search of a village of the Sioux Indians, but failed to find one, for the Indians were in the habit of shifting their ground and following the buffalo.  Several times they saw small isolated bands of Indians; but these they carefully avoided, fearing they might turn out to be war parties, and if they fell into their hands the white men could not expect civil treatment, whatever nation the Indians might belong to.

During the greater portion of this time they met with numerous herds of buffalo and deer, and were well supplied with food; but they had to cook it during the day, being afraid to light a fire at night while Indians were prowling about.

One night they halted near the bed of a stream which was almost dry.  They had travelled a day and a night without water, and both men and horses were almost choking, so that when they saw the trees on the horizon which indicated the presence of a stream, they pushed forward with almost frantic haste.

“Hope it’s not dry,” said Joe anxiously as they galloped up to it.  “No, there’s water, lads,” and they dashed forward to a pool that had not yet been dried up.  They drank long and eagerly before they noticed that the pool was strongly impregnated with salt.  Many streams in those parts of the prairies are quite salt, but fortunately this one was not utterly undrinkable, though it was very unpalatable.

“We’ll make it better, lads,” said Joe, digging a deep hole in the sand with his hands, a little below the pool.  In a short time the water filtered through, and though not rendered fresh, it was, nevertheless, much improved.

“We may light a fire to-night, d’ye think?” inquired Dick; “we’ve not seed Injuns for some days.”

“P’r’aps ’twould be better not,” said Joe; “but I daresay we’re safe enough.”

A fire was therefore lighted in as sheltered a spot as could be found, and the three friends bivouacked as usual.  Towards dawn they were aroused by an angry growl from Crusoe.