the pass was so clogged with drifts and their horses were so weak that the march took them only out to the edge of the bottom-land.
It was the fifth day without sight of game. The lieutenant ordered a hunt, before dark; but not even a rabbit was found. There was nothing but snow, snow, snow.
"My belt's twice around me already, an' is startin' on the third lap," declared Alex Roy.
However, the horses were in luck, at last—and they needed it. John Sparks and Tom Dougherty reported a fine big patch of long grass down near the river. In the morning the lieutenant sent Baroney and Stub, with the wretched animals, to set them to grazing and herd them—and a long cold task this proved to be.
Still, as Baroney said, as he and Stub trudged about or squatted with their backs to the squalls:
"If we cannot eat, ourselves, it is a great pleasure to watch the horses eat; hein?"
Late in the afternoon Corporal Jerry Jackson came down.
"You're to fetch the horses in with you, at dusk," he said. "Never a trace of game, all day, so we'll pull out in the mornin'."
"Down the Red River, mebbe, Jerry?" Stub asked.
