Peering ahead in the gloom, nothing was to be seen that explained the singular sound.
"Did you hear that ?" asked Jack of Hazletine.
"I s'pose you mean that laugh?
Not being deaf, it would have been cur'us if the same hadn't reached my ears." "What was the meaning of it ?" "It meant, I s'pose, that somebody was pleased." The lads had to be satisfied with this indefinite answer, but they did not have to wait long for the explanation.

Suddenly, from the obscurity ahead, loomed the outlines of a building.

It was long, low, and flat, consisting of a single story, like most of the structures in that section of the country.
At the same moment that it was observed, a tiny point of light shone through the gloom, and some one called to them: "Is that you, Hank ?" "I reckon," was the reply.
At the same moment a tall man, rising from the stool on which he had been seated, came forward.

He was smoking a pipe, and the gleam of the fire in the bowl was what had been noted before he became visible.
"These are the younkers we expected," explained Hazletine, "and, if I ain't mistook, they've brought a purty healthy appetite with 'em." "I've heard of such things afore.

Howdy ?" The man, who was known as "Kansas Jim," his full name being James Denham, extended his hand to each boy in turn, and they dismounted.
"I'll look after the animals," he explained.