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Part 6: Blood, Mud, and Wasted Hides
Description
In episode 6 of Buffalo Days, the narrative opens with a sudden and intense prairie storm that triggers a massive buffalo stampede. As lightning strikes and kills a bull in the herd, the animals scatter in panic, threatening to crush the hunters and their heavily loaded supply wagons. The men are forced to make a desperate run through the blinding rain and mud, barely escaping the thundering herd when the storm runoff carves out a massive rut in the earth, redirecting the buffalo away from their path and slowing the animals down in a nearby river.
The following day, after the storm passes, the hunters venture out onto the prairie to survey the aftermath, following the winding, crooked trails left by the buffalo. Along the way, they witness the grim reality of the hide-hunting trade, coming across hundreds of decaying carcasses and spoiled hides left behind to rot by other hunters. After continuing their hunt for two more weeks to fulfill their quota of 557 hides, they haul their haul back to Fort Hays to collect their pay. The episode closes on a reflective note as the group splits up, leaving the narrator alone in a saloon to ponder his descent into becoming a hardened, cold-blooded "buffalo runner."