a smile.

"What's that?" roared Jerry, springing to his feet.

"Oh, you needn't get excited about it. Do you see the dull spots on my
knife? Well, I bled my game, all right, just as I wanted to do with that
bully good blade that was left behind; and if Reddy will only go back
with me, we can bring the old fellow in on a horse," said Bluff coolly.

"Count me in on that!" exclaimed Will, rushing out of his impromptu
dark-room, and waving the bottle in which he was making a solution of
hypo.

"I think I'll go along, too," remarked Frank, appearing from some other
place.

When the party started forth presently, there were six of them with the
horse--the chums, Reddy, and Mr. Mabie himself.

"I am beginning to believe you boys will corral everything in sight if
you keep on the way you've started. A grizzly, a sheep, and now an elk;
and only thirty hours with me! H'm! Perhaps I may not be able to show
you as much about big-game hunting as I expected," said the stockman,
who seemed vastly amused at the energy shown by his young guests at the
ranch.

"Oh, we can pull a trigger, all right, sir, but there are a thousand
things we want to know about these natives that books never teach. I'm
like a sponge, and can keep on soaking up information all the time,"
laughed Frank.