But this day the shot-gun was at home, so Injun bagged all the partridges they needed for food.
The prairie chickens have a peculiar call.

First the hens cry, in a high, treble, "Chuck-luck, chuck-a-luck!" and the male replies, in a deep, full sound, "Bomb-bombo-boo!" In that part of the country there was a rather eccentric character named Charlie Clark.

He had been creased on the head by a bullet sometime, somehow, and he was not exactly all there.

And Injun and Whitey used to interpret the calls of the prairie chicks to: "Char-lie--Clar-k--Char-lie--Clar-k--Char-lie--Clar-k--" for the hens, and: "Darn'd ol-fool--" for the males.
And so the boys went on their merry, heedless way.

They expected to camp in the foothills that night, and had made about ten miles in a leisurely way, when Injun happened to look back and saw an object approaching them in an uncertain and wobbly but determined manner.