afternoon sun was sinking, and every dune cast a dark shadow on
the light yellow of the sand, making a great landscape of glaring
light covered with black spots. A coyote sat on a buffalo skull
on top of the next hill and looked at us. A little owl flitted by
and disappeared in one of the shadows.

"This is like being adrift in an open boat," I said to Ollie.
"We must hurry on and catch the Rattletrap."

"I'm in the open boat," answered Ollie. "You're just simply
swimming about without even a life-preserver on."

We turned and started for the trail. We found it, but we had
spent more time in the hills than we realized, and before we had
gone far it began to grow dark. We waded on, and at last saw
Jack's welcome camp-fire. When we came up we smelled grouse
cooking, and he said:

"While you fellows were chasing about and getting lost I
gathered in a brace of fat grouse. What you want to do next time
is to take along your hat full of oats, and perhaps you can coax
the antelope to come up and eat."

The camp was near another railroad station called Eli. We had
been gradually working north, and were now not over three or four
miles from the Dakota line; but Dakota here consisted of nothing
but the immense Sioux Indian Reservation, two or three hundred
miles long.

The next morning Jack complained of not feeling well.