conclusion that the impelling motive was not a search for new pastures.
He listened a long time until the last rumble of the hundred thousand
died away in a faint echo, and then he awakened his comrades.

"I'm thinkin'," he said, "that the presence of Urrea's band made the
buffaloes move. Now I'm not a Ring Tailed Panther an' a Cheerful Talker
for nothin', an' we want to hunt that band. Like as not they've been
doin' some mischief, which we may be able partly to undo. I'm in favor
of ridin' south, back on the herd track an' lookin' for 'em."

"So am I," said Obed White. "My watch says it's one o'clock in the
morning, and my watch is always right, because I made it myself. We've
had a pretty good rest, enough to go on, and what we find may be worth
finding. A needle in a haystack may be well hid, but you'll find it if
you look long enough."

They rode almost due south in the great path made by the buffalo herd,
not stopping for a full two hours when a halt was made at a signal from
the Panther. They were in a wide plain, where buffalo grass yet grew
despite the winter, and the Panther said with authority that the herd
had been grazing here before it was started on its night journey into
the north.

"An' if we ride about this place long enough," he said, "we'll find the
reason why the buffaloes left it."

He turned his horse in a circuit of the plain and Ned and Obed followed
the matchless tracker, who was able, even in the moonlight, to note any
disturbance of the soil. Presently he uttered a little cry and pointed
ahead. Both saw the skeleton of a buffalo which evidently had been