out and gather up a wagon-load of disabled horse-thieves that
have tried to steal him in the night and got kicked over the
fence."

We either met or saw a dozen other men on horseback, always
in pairs; but whether or not they caught the thief we never
heard.

[Illustration: Jack Shoots a Grouse]

So far we had had very poor luck in finding game; but in the
afternoon of this day Jack shot a grouse, and we camped rather
earlier than usual, so that he might have ample time to cook it.
There were also the plums and grapes to stew. We made our camp
not far from a house, and, after a vast amount of extremely
serious labor on the part of the cook, had a very good supper.

The next day passed with but one incident worth recalling. In
the afternoon we crossed the Niobrara at Grand Rapids on a
tumbledown wooden bridge, and turned due west through the Keya
Paha country. This is so called from the Keya Paha River
(pronounced Key-a-paw), a branch of the Niobrara which comes down
out of Dakota and joins it a few miles below Grand Rapids. The
country seemed to be much the same as that through which we had
travelled, perhaps a little flatter and sandier. Just across the
river we saw the first large herd of stock, some five or six
hundred head being driven east by half a dozen cowboys.

A short distance beyond the river we came to a little
blacksmith shop beside the road. As soon as Jack saw it he said: