ghosts themselves , following herds that crossed the short-wire grass like the great clouds which cover the prairie with their shadows ; the clouds remain but the great herds are gone ... and so are the buffalo soldiers , madmen from wastes that had as yet never known a fence , men who came striding out of nowhere and went striding back into that same place , men with buffalo-hide moccasins on their feet and bones clicking about their necks ; ghosts out of time , out of a place that existed just before the whole country began to bleed .