Page:Edward Ellis--Alden the Pony Express Rider.djvu/172

 Accordingly Jethro held his peace, though he often muttered to himself. He was silent, however, when the circle of Conestogas, with the men, women and children moving outside and among them came in sight. Shagbark had kept to a bee line from the last starting point to the emigrant camp.

The forenoon was not half gone, but Shagbark decided that the party should rest until after the midday meal. As has been explained, there was no need of haste, and the occasional halts did the oxen and horses good. They could crop the grass at their leisure, and though capable of long continued strain, the cessation was none the less grateful to the patient, plodding animals.

Shagbark dressed and roasted the two carcasses. No chef could have done the work better. The odor of the broiling meat whetted every appetite and the meal was one of the most satisfying of which they had partaken since crossing the Missouri. Enough “fragments” remained to serve quite well for a lighter feast, and they were carefully laid aside for that purpose. It was about two o’clock when the yokes were adjusted to the necks of the oxen, the horsemen swung into their