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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ross Grant Tenderfoot, by John Garland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ross Grant Tenderfoot
+
+Author: John Garland
+
+Illustrator: R. L. Boyer
+
+Release Date: November 12, 2010 [EBook #34296]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSS GRANT TENDERFOOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SLOWLY HE WAS LET DOWN]
+
+
+
+
+ROSS GRANT
+
+TENDERFOOT
+
+BY
+
+JOHN GARLAND
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+  "Ross Grant, Gold Hunter"
+  "Ross Grant on the Trail"
+
+Illustrated by R. L. Boyer
+
+THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+
+1917
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT 1915 BY
+
+THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+Ross Grant, Tenderfoot
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Tewksbury
+
+whose life in the Wyoming Mountains has
+made Ross Grant, Tenderfoot, possible, I
+cordially dedicate this book
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+WHEN I went over the same route, some time before Ross Grant traveled it,
+from Cody eighty miles into the snow-capped Shoshones, I found how
+welcome a "Doc Tenderfoot" would be in the gold mining camp at the end
+of the route. There was, in camp, the superintendent of one of the mining
+companies, a man who had never had any instruction in things medical
+or surgical, but who, with a steady hand and a cool head, and an acquired
+knowledge of "first aids," was often called on in case of sickness and
+accident, as there was no doctor nearer than Cody. Such a state of
+affairs greeted Ross Grant when he arrived with his medical "emergency
+chest" and his real knowledge of the use to which its contents should be
+put.
+
+Also, I found a certain "outfit" of men, not McKenzie in name but in
+nature, waiting to "jump" certain valuable "claims" provided the owners
+failed in any particular to measure up to the requirements of the law.
+Their intention was to do the "jumping" legally and not through "gun
+play," which is becoming an obsolete custom in that great state.
+
+Then, too, I discovered over on a real Meadow Creek Valley--exactly
+the same place that Ross found--a real "Dutch Weimer" afflicted with
+snow-blindness, imprisoned for months at a time in the little valley
+because of the danger from snowslides on the mountainsides.
+
+And, by the way, if you should ever follow this same interesting
+trail from Cody up into the mountains, you would find "Ross Grant,
+Tenderfoot" an accurate guide-book until you reached the end of the
+stage route. There you would find that Miners' Camp is a fictitious
+name applied to a real place. And if you should chance to be in camp on
+the Fourth of July, you would realize fully the difficulties that Ross
+had to contend against in the vast snowfalls. For the year I visited
+the mountains the glorious Fourth was celebrated by snow-shoe races down
+the mountainsides! There are snow-storms every month in the year there,
+but Miners' Camp is comparatively free from snow during August and
+September.
+
+These are the months, then, when gold hunters, "prospectors," are
+most numerous in the mountains. I saw them everywhere with their "pack
+outfits" bound on wooden saddles, seeking in the rocks for indications
+of a fortune that is as elusive in their business as the proverbial
+"pot of gold at the end of a rainbow."
+
+But, although Ross Grant did not immediately find a fortune, he found
+what is far more desirable, the development of muscle, quick wit and
+nerve in the situations which he was obliged to face and conquer in these
+adventure-breeding mountains.
+
+"Ross Grant, Gold Hunter" tells of the hero's further adventures in the
+mountains and of his hard won "find."
+
+In "Ross Grant on the Trail" he meets many discouragements, but finally
+conquers them.
+
+
+                                                        John Garland.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+       I. A BORN SURGEON                                        13
+      II. A STEADY HAND                                         34
+     III. DOC TENDERFOOT IN ACTION                              56
+      IV. THE FOURTH MAN                                        78
+       V. A MAN WHO NEEDED BRACING UP                           98
+      VI. THE MEN OF MEADOW CREEK                              121
+     VII. HALF-CONFIDENCES                                     140
+    VIII. ROSS'S "HIRED MAN"                                   159
+      IX. SURPRISES                                            176
+       X. A NEWCOMER ON MEADOW CREEK                           197
+      XI. MEADOW CREEK VALLEY MISSES LESLIE                    216
+     XII. A CALAMITY BEFALLS ROSS                              236
+    XIII. THE SEARCH                                           258
+     XIV. A PERILOUS JOURNEY                                   277
+      XV. A NEW CAMP                                           297
+     XVI. THE INGRATITUDE OF WESTON                            312
+    XVII. A RANDOM SHOT                                        330
+   XVIII. A HUMILIATING DISCOVERY                              348
+     XIX. AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY                                363
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+                                                              Page
+  SLOWLY HE WAS LET DOWN                              _Frontispiece_
+  MAP OF THE MEADOW CREEK TRAIL                                 59
+  "WHAT'S THE LATEST WORD?"                                    72
+  HE STRUCK THE TRAIL                                          134
+  BESIDE THE DYNAMITE BOX                                      203
+  THE SNOW HID IT FROM VIEW                                    309
+  MAP OF THE CROOKED TRAIL                                     359
+  "YOU'VE PAID FOR IT"                                        367
+ROSS GRANT, TENDERFOOT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A BORN SURGEON
+
+
+DR. FRED GRANT, recalled in haste from his daily round of professional
+visits by a telephone message from his nephew, leaped out of his carriage
+over the yet moving wheel, and, stuffing an open letter into his pocket,
+rushed up the walk and into his office, which occupied a wing of his
+commodious house.
+
+A sight met his eyes which was not uncommon, situated as he was in the
+midst of the coal fields of Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. Stretched
+out on the leather couch lay a man from the mines, black and grimy, his
+right arm crushed. Two other miners, also blackened with coal-dust, sat
+on the edges of their chairs, their eyes following the movements of Ross
+Grant, the doctor's nephew and self-constituted assistant.
+
+Those movements had been rapid and effective. Again and again had this
+seventeen-year-old boy been brought face to face with such cases as
+this, and he handled it promptly and wordlessly. Words, indeed, would
+have been wasted, as none of his callers spoke English. He had quieted
+the sufferer with a hypodermic injection of morphine, stripped the
+injured arm, cleansed it, and treated it with a temporary dressing.
+
+Then, with the bandages firmly in place, he had gone to the telephone
+and patiently called up house after house until he found his uncle.
+
+When Dr. Grant entered the office, he found Ross calmly taking the
+temperature of the wounded man.
+
+"He must have met with the accident at least an hour before they got him
+here," the boy explained, "for he was suffering awfully. I thought I
+ought to fix him up before trying to find you."
+
+His uncle nodded with satisfaction, and bent over the man. "All right,"
+he commended briefly, but his tone said more. Words were not always
+necessary to an understanding between uncle and nephew.
+
+The younger man was an abridged edition of the older in form and feature.
+In movements the two were alike only so long as Ross was aiding the
+doctor on such an occasion as this. Then there were in both the same
+alertness and quiet intentness, the same compression of the lips and
+narrowing of the eyes. But when the strain of the hour was past and
+the miners gone, the boy's manner changed. The alert quality which
+characterized the uncle at all times seemed to desert the nephew, and
+his movements became slow. From the born surgeon in embryo he became a
+rather awkward, self-conscious boy.
+
+Throwing himself into a chair behind the table, he drew toward him
+Gray's "Anatomy," and began reading at a line marked by a paper-cutter,
+his closely cropped head grasped in both hands.
+
+The older man moved around the room restlessly, occasionally glancing
+with troubled eyes at the figure behind the table. Standing finally in
+front of the window, he drew the letter from his pocket, smoothed it out,
+and read it again.
+
+In front of him, in the valley, lay Pittston and Wilkes-Barre, with
+Scranton in the distance, and beyond, the sun-burned hills, almost hidden
+now by the smoke from a hundred coal-breakers, and by the late August
+haze.
+
+"Ross," began Dr. Grant abruptly, without turning, "I'm afraid you are
+going to meet disappointment--to a certain extent. I have a letter from
+your father."
+
+The boy raised his head with a jerk. "Do you mean that he forbids----"
+
+"No,"--the doctor turned slowly,--"not exactly. He expects to send for
+you in a few days, and will tell you himself."
+
+Ross's chin came up. "And I shall not be twenty-one for nearly four
+years yet!" he exclaimed aggressively.
+
+His uncle looked at him with more sternness than he felt. "Remember,
+Ross, that he is your father and that you owe him----"
+
+Ross interrupted hotly, looking longingly at the letter. "I don't owe
+him as much as I do you and Aunt Anne."
+
+Dr. Grant made no reply, nor did he share the letter. Putting it into
+an inner pocket, he left the office, and presently Ross heard the sound
+of wheels on the drive. Dr. Grant was starting again on his interrupted
+round of calls.
+
+The boy leaned back and drew a deep breath. His father was going to
+send for him, and would then tell him--what? That he could not enter
+a medical college? That he could not become a surgeon? That he must
+fit himself for a business career? His chin came up again. He looked
+around the office lingeringly. It had been the heart of his home for
+seven years. It represented to him all that he wished to become. His
+father was almost a stranger to him; his uncle had stood in the place
+of a father since he, a sickly boy of ten, had been sent from the city
+to gain health on the hills which girdle Wyoming Valley.
+
+He had gained health. In so far he had fulfilled his father's wishes.
+But, in addition, he had gained a knowledge and been settled in a desire
+extremely displeasing to Ross Grant, Senior, who expected to train his
+only son to continue his own business.
+
+"Grant & Grant" was the father's ambition; "Dr. Grant" the son's.
+
+Presently Dr. Grant's wife appeared in the doorway of the office. She
+was a short, round woman, with a laughing face and a pretty, bustling
+air of authority. Stopping abruptly, she shook a chubby forefinger at
+Ross.
+
+"All day to-day," she accused, "you have bent over that book."
+
+Ross, his elbows planted on the table and his chin resting on his fists,
+shook his head. He did not look up.
+
+"I've been studying Gray on Anatomy, Aunt Anne. Got to master him."
+
+Aunt Anne bobbed energetically across the room, and slammed the volume
+shut. "There!" she cried triumphantly. "Get out and walk five miles, and
+strengthen your own anatomy!"
+
+Under her light tones and in the affectionate touch of her hand as she
+ran her fingers through his hair, Ross detected an undercurrent of
+solicitude, which brought forth a counter-accusation. Rising hastily, he
+laid both hands on her shoulders, and looked down from an altitude of
+five feet ten.
+
+"Aunt Anne, you know what father wrote to uncle, don't you?"
+
+Mrs. Grant's eyes fell. "Better take a good run over the mountain,
+Ross," she parried.
+
+Ross's hands slipped from her shoulders. "I see there's no use asking
+either of you what he wrote."
+
+Mrs. Grant flecked some dust from the table. "Sometimes, Ross," was her
+only reply, "disappointment is the very best and most strengthening tonic
+we can take."
+
+She turned away, adding without glancing back as she left the room: "I
+do wish, Ross, that you'd get out and exercise more. You would conquer
+Gray's 'Anatomy'--and all other difficulties--more quickly if you
+would."
+
+"I guess you're right, Aunt Anne," assented Ross.
+
+"Yes," scolded Aunt Anne to her sister in the living-room--but the
+scolding rested on a very apparent foundation of love--"Ross always
+agrees with me about taking vigorous exercise--and then never takes it.
+Now watch him walk, will you?" she fretted, looking out of the window.
+
+Her sister, busily sewing, paused with suspended needle, and glanced
+out. Ross was going slowly down the drive, his head bent forward, his
+youthful shoulders carelessly sagging, his long arms aimlessly hanging,
+giving him a curiously helpless appearance at variance with his large
+frame.
+
+"It's Ross's own fault," declared Aunt Anne. "He doesn't like to exert
+himself physically. Not that he's lazy," defensively, "for he isn't.
+He would work all night over a patient, and never think of himself; but
+to get out and exercise for the sake of exercising, and straightening
+himself up, and holding himself, somehow--well, I've talked myself
+hoarse about it, and then found that he had been reading some medical
+book or other all the time I was talking!"
+
+Here Aunt Anne laughed silently, and ran her shears through a length
+of gingham, adding, as if the addition were a logical sequence to her
+monologue:
+
+"It's a mystery to me how his father can feel so disappointed in him."
+
+"Disappointed in Ross?" exclaimed the sister in a tone of wonder.
+
+Mrs. Grant nodded. "His father sends for him once a year, sees him for a
+day or two when Ross is at the greatest disadvantage in unaccustomed
+surroundings--you know the stepmother is a woman of fashion; and the
+result is that he is so awkward and slow and tongue-tied that his
+father--well," Mrs. Grant bit off her thread energetically, "of course,
+we feel tender on the subject because we have had Ross now for seven
+years, and we think a better boy never lived. But now the time has
+come," her voice trembled, "when we must give him up."
+
+"Will his father forbid his going to medical college?" asked the sister.
+
+Mrs. Grant hesitated. "No, I don't think he will forbid it; but he will
+prevent it--if he is able," she added significantly.
+
+Two days later the summons from Ross Grant, Senior, arrived in the shape
+of a telegram brief and to the point. "Take night-train," it read,
+"September first. Reach office at nine."
+
+"Ross," worried Aunt Anne as she straightened his tie and hovered around
+him anxiously the afternoon of September first, "you'd better get a new
+hat in Scranton. This one is--well, I think you better appear before Mrs.
+Grant in a new one."
+
+"All right, aunt."
+
+Dr. Grant extended his hand, and gripped Ross's. "Remember, my boy, that
+the telegram appointed nine A. M. as the time for your appearing."
+
+Ross laughed. "Don't you worry, uncle," he returned confidently. "I
+shall be at the office before father gets there."
+
+But, despite his confidence, it was nearly ten the morning following
+before he stepped out of the elevator of a Broadway office building and
+presented himself hesitatingly before the clerk in his father's outer
+office.
+
+His hesitation was due to his appearance. His hat, new the afternoon
+before, was soiled and pierced by the calk of a horse's shoe. His
+shirtfront was also soiled and then smeared over by a wet cloth in a
+vain effort to remove the dirt. His right coat-sleeve was wrinkled, and
+bore marks of a recent wetting. About his clothes lingered a subtle
+"horsy" odor, which caused the clerk to sniff involuntarily as he
+curiously looked over the heir to the house of Grant before disappearing
+into the inner office.
+
+When he returned he bore the crisp message that Ross was to wait until
+his father had time to see him.
+
+Ross waited. He retreated to a window through which the sunshine
+streamed, and there sat, industriously drying his wet sleeve. He pulled
+it, and smoothed it, and stretched it, only to see it shrivel and shrink
+while he waited. The clerk occasionally glanced with no abating of
+curiosity from the boy to the clock. Two hours passed. Others waiting
+in that outer office grew restless. They read. They took quick turns
+about the room. They went out into the corridor, and returned. At
+last, one by one, they were ushered into the inner office, while Ross
+still waited.
+
+It was past twelve before his father sent for him, and the first glance
+the boy encountered was one of displeasure.
+
+"Did you come in on the night-train?" was the elder Grant's greeting.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+The father frowned, and looked up at a clock which ticked above their
+heads.
+
+"I telegraphed you that I could see you at nine."
+
+Ross sank into a great padded, leather-upholstered chair. All about him
+were evidences of luxury, but he was conscious only of his father's
+displeasure and of his own disreputable appearance. He studied his hands
+awkwardly, and stumbled in his reply.
+
+"I should have been here by nine, sir, but for an accident which occurred
+on the ferry----"
+
+"Accident?" His father's tone softened.
+
+Ross looked at his coat-sleeve. "There was a fine horse, a big bay that
+stood behind a truckster's cart. He took an apple. It lodged in his
+throat, and he nearly choked to death." The boy hesitated and glanced
+up. "I got it out," he explained simply, adding apologetically, "I got
+awfully mussed up doing it, though."
+
+"You!" Grant burst out, paying no attention to the apology. "You got it
+out!" He leaned forward, genuinely interested. "How did you do it?"
+
+Ross warmed under the interest in the tone. "I was standing in the
+bow of the boat, just over the rail from the horse, and I saw what
+the trouble was. There was no one else who seemed to know what to do."
+He spoke modestly. "The horse would have died before we reached the
+landing; and so," simply, "I ran my arm down his throat, and got the
+apple."
+
+"You did!" ejaculated Grant. He leaned further forward. "And what
+prevented the horse from chewing up your arm while you were after the
+apple?"
+
+"A bootblack's brush," Ross explained. "A boy was rubbing up a man's
+shoes near me; and I grabbed his brushes, and got busy. One of the deck
+hands helped me prop the horse's mouth open. I threw off my coat"--here
+Ross surveyed himself ruefully, and left the subject of the horse; "and I
+got pretty dirty all over. Couldn't help it. There wasn't any time to
+think of keeping clean. But after we got over on the New York side
+the owner of the horse took me to a stable, and helped me to clean
+up; but--I don't think it's much of a success."
+
+Mr. Grant leaned back in his swivel chair, rested his elbows on the arms,
+and fitted his finger-tips together. His imagination, country-trained
+in his youth, was supplying some of the details which his son had
+omitted. He nodded his iron-gray head, and narrowed his eyes, a trick
+common to all the Grants when intent on any subject.
+
+"Quick work," he remarked after a pause. His eyes were taking the measure
+of his son. "It had to be quick work," he added as if to convince himself
+that Ross could act swiftly.
+
+"Where did you get breakfast?" was his next question.
+
+"I haven't had any," Ross replied. "I tried to get here by nine
+o'clock."
+
+A low whistle escaped the father. He arose, and reached for his hat,
+which lay on the top of a safe behind him. "We'll go out to lunch now."
+
+Ross glanced doubtfully from his father's well-groomed person to his
+own dirty coat.
+
+"Perhaps, father, you'd like me to go out alone so long as----"
+
+"Nonsense!" interrupted Grant brusquely.
+
+As they left the room, he took his boy's arm. There was little
+resemblance between the two. Ross had his uncle's head with its
+high brow and well-shaped chin, lean cheeks, and prominent ears. He was
+taller than his father, but wholly lacked his father's energetic
+manner and erect carriage.
+
+"You graduated in June from Wyoming Seminary," the father stated as they
+entered a large Broadway restaurant and sat down near the door.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"No honors?"
+
+The boy's eyes fell. "No, sir. I stood tenth in a class of thirty-four."
+
+Evasion of the truth was not one of Ross's strong points.
+
+"And," stated his father, "it took you five years to do a four years'
+course."
+
+Ross looked his father squarely in the eyes, and lifted his chin a
+little. The father noticed for the first time that the boy's chin could
+indicate aggression.
+
+"I flunked on mathematics. But I made them up the next summer, and went
+on."
+
+Again Grant looked at his son attentively, the son who retrieved his
+failure and "went on."
+
+"You're seventeen," he said abruptly. "What's next?" The question, as
+both knew, was superfluous.
+
+"Medical college," Ross answered as abruptly as the question had been
+put. "I am preparing for the entrance examinations in the University of
+Pennsylvania. I want to go down and take them in January, and at the same
+time pass upon a couple of subjects in the freshman year."
+
+There was a gleam of curiosity in Grant's deep-set eyes as he put the
+next questions.
+
+"Haven't I told you repeatedly that I shall never advance one penny on a
+medical education for you?"
+
+"Yes, sir." Ross's eyes met his father's steadily but respectfully.
+"And I shall not ask you to advance a cent."
+
+"But haven't I forbidden your uncle, also, to help you out?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and Uncle Fred has no intention of helping me. He'll keep
+the letter and the spirit of the law you have laid down."
+
+"Well, then----"
+
+Ross smiled quietly. "But you have never forbidden my getting a medical
+education through my own efforts; and that, father, is what I intend to
+do."
+
+Ross Grant, Senior, found himself looking into eyes which he recognized
+as strangely like his own and shining with the same determination which
+in himself had established a thriving business and built up a moderate
+fortune. Never had he been so interested in his son. Never had he so
+coveted him for a business career. But, as he ate a moment in silence,
+young Ross's determined voice seemed to be repeating in old Ross's
+ears, "That, father, is what I intend to do."
+
+During the remainder of the meal the elder Grant listened attentively
+to the younger's plans. To Ross this was a new experience. After the
+first irritation over his tardiness, his father had not once oppressed
+him with that sense of disapproval and disappointment which usually sent
+him back to his uncle with a buoyant relief at his escape from New York.
+
+Still, he was not deceived. He knew that his father's summons had to do
+with the thwarting of his surgical career; and he was prepared to argue,
+persuade, do anything short of actual defiance, to gain permission to
+work for the object toward which all his inclinations pulled.
+
+As they made their way up Broadway through the noon-hour crowd, a
+feminine voice behind them suddenly piped out excitedly:
+
+"There he is, Kate, right ahead of you--that tall, round-shouldered young
+man. He's the one I told you about on the ferry this morning. I tell you
+what, he made all the men around step lively for a few minutes."
+
+Ross suddenly quickened his pace. His face flushed uncomfortably, but
+the voice of "Kate's" companion was still at his heels.
+
+"Why, he grabbed them brushes and was over the rail as quick as a cat,
+and had that horse's mouth open before its owner even knew that it was
+chokin'----"
+
+Ross, Senior, strode along behind Ross, Junior, now in a vain attempt
+to keep up. He chuckled in a sly enjoyment of the boy's embarrassment.
+
+"He certainly can move, I see," he muttered, "when he has something to
+move toward--or away from!"
+
+But the mutter was lost on Ross seeking an escape from that voice of
+praise by dodging in and out among the crowd until his father lost sight
+of him, and found him again only at the entrance to the office building.
+
+When the two were again seated in the private office, the father for
+the first time broached the matter which he had called the son from
+Pennsylvania to hear; and, had he studied the boy for months, he could
+not have overcome his opposition more tactfully and completely.
+
+"Ross," he began quietly, "I am not going to forbid your going to a
+medical college this year or any other year. To be honest with you, I
+admire your grit. I believe it will bring you success. And so, as I say,
+I am not going to forbid your entering the University of Pennsylvania.
+But--I am going to ask a favor of you."
+
+Ross's eyes sparkled. His father swung around, and, picking up a pencil,
+marked aimlessly on a pad lying on the big mahogany desk.
+
+"Well, father."
+
+"I am going to ask you to help me pay a debt which I owe--and the payment
+will certainly spoil this year so far as college is concerned."
+
+Grant paused. He did not look up, but he heard Ross draw a deep breath.
+Then there was silence.
+
+"Keep in mind," Grant began again, "that I am not requiring this of
+you--I am asking it."
+
+"Yes--sir."
+
+The tone gave the father the uncomfortable impression that he was
+assisting at a surgical operation on his son, but he bent his head a
+little lower over the pad, and traced figures more carefully as he
+began abruptly on a seemingly new subject.
+
+"Have I ever told you about my Western partner, Jake Weimer?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, I started business in the West without a cent, and it was Weimer
+who gave me my start. He was running a store in Butte, and took me with
+him. I have managed to get beyond a start, but Weimer never has. After I
+came East he lost his share of our earnings, and turned prospector. Ever
+since he has spent his life trying to squeeze gold out of the mountains.
+Again and again he has staked out claims, and I've grub-staked him to
+the finish. For twenty-five years this has gone on. So far, none of
+the properties have amounted to much; still, we hold them; there's
+always a chance of a rise in value."
+
+Grant drew straight, heavy lines on the pad as he told the story of
+his grub-staked partner. He fell easily into the vernacular of the
+gold-fields.
+
+"Four years ago Weimer went prospecting among the Shoshones in Wyoming
+over near Yellowstone Park. There he began development work on some
+deserted claims, a few miles from Miners' Camp."
+
+Here Grant pulled a letter from his pocket, and consulted it.
+
+"The claims, it seems," he continued, "had been originally worked by two
+men named Allen and Waymart McKenzie. They did the required work for
+three years, and then threw up their job and left Wyoming. Now they're
+back again, wishing, evidently, that they had never left."
+
+Ross nodded. His eyes had not left his father's face.
+
+"Weimer has felt from the first that he would make good on these claims.
+He has sent me quartz from time to time, and I've had it assayed.
+It carries moderately high values in gold, silver, and lead; but, as
+the camp is eighty miles from a railroad, up among almost impassable
+mountains, where it's impossible to get the quartz to a smelter, I
+confess I have paid but little attention to Weimer's work. It has
+seemed a waste of energy, despite his enthusiasm."
+
+Grant suddenly threw himself back in his chair. His manner took on a
+keener edge, and his tone became brisker.
+
+"But this year things bid fair to change there because the Burlington
+Railroad is surveying a line from Cody, and a boom is in prospect for
+next summer. Our claims have suddenly acquired a new importance; they
+promise to become valuable."
+
+"Then," commented Ross in a low, constrained tone, "Weimer will get
+beyond a 'start' at last."
+
+Grant regarded his son keenly. He did not answer the comment directly.
+
+"According to the law of Wyoming," he continued, "one hundred dollars'
+worth of work a year for five years must be done on a claim, or five
+hundred dollars' worth all together within five years, before the
+tract can be patented, by which I mean before the owners can receive a
+clear title to it. Now, Weimer has done four years' work all right;
+but this year, the fifth and last in which he can hold the claims without
+fulfilling the conditions of work to the full, he is failing because
+of snow-blindness. It seems he had an attack last spring, and was obliged
+to stay in his cabin for weeks at a time instead of working."
+
+Ross cleared his throat. "And if he fails----"
+
+"We lose the claims, and the McKenzies get them back." Grant again
+consulted the letter. "Weimer got a man named Steele to write this--an
+Amos Steele in Miners' Camp. He writes that the McKenzies are taking
+advantage of some technicalities in the law. They have already filed
+a claim on the tract based on their three years' former occupancy.
+This will clear the way for them to take possession in case Weimer
+fails with the work. Steele goes on to say that, if the claims are
+saved, some one must come out and look after them--preferably some one
+with a personal interest in the property."
+
+Mr. Grant laid the letter down, adding slowly, "If you go, I shall give
+you a substantial personal interest."
+
+There ensued a pause. Ross sat motionless. His gaze had left his
+father's face, and was fixed on the rug.
+
+"Now, knowing," Grant continued, "that Weimer has set his heart on these
+claims, I can't desert him. That work must be done and the claims
+patented."
+
+There was another pause. Grant looked at his son expectantly, but still
+Ross neither moved nor spoke.
+
+"Weimer is a good sort," Grant went on tentatively. "You'd like Weimer.
+He's a big man and jolly in every pound of his avoirdupois. Great
+story-teller--stories worth listening to, what's more. You wouldn't
+be dull with him."
+
+Grant leaned forward suddenly, and asked directly the question to which
+his son felt there could be but one reply in view of his father's appeal.
+
+"My boy, will you go?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A STEADY HAND
+
+
+IN the two weeks which elapsed between Ross's visit to his father and
+his start for Wyoming he planned hopefully for the year.
+
+"Father has given me a free hand," he told his uncle. "As soon as I can
+get the work done and the claims patented I am at liberty to come back
+home, and I tell you I shall hustle. I shall hire as many men as are
+necessary in Miners' Camp, and take 'em over to Meadow Creek, where
+the claims are located, and just rush that work through."
+
+"I wonder," remarked Dr. Grant thoughtfully, "why that man Weimer
+doesn't hire it done instead of sending East for some one to manage
+the matter."
+
+Ross frowned into the open grate before which the two were sitting.
+"Why, uncle, I never thought of that, and father didn't mention it. In
+fact, he knows but very little about Miners' Camp or Weimer's work,
+and you know he hasn't seen Weimer in years. All he knows about the
+business is contained in a letter that Weimer got a man named Amos Steele
+to write. Weimer, it seems, can't use his eyes to read or write. The
+letter is very short. That man Steele is a mine-superintendent out there.
+Father knows about the company which he works for."
+
+"The very idea," cried Aunt Anne a few moments later in tearful
+indignation, "of Ross Grant's sending that boy away out West to the
+jumping-off place into the wilderness without knowing the conditions
+into which he's sending him! It's a shame. He's our boy, and I
+don't want him to go."
+
+The doctor made no reply, but retired precipitately to the office, where
+he had occupied himself at intervals all day with fitting up an emergency
+chest for Ross.
+
+The chest was a little oblong, hair-covered strong trunk, which had held
+all of the doctor's worldly possessions when, thirty years before, he
+had started to the medical college just as his brother, Ross's father,
+had started West for his financial "start." Into this chest uncle and
+nephew fitted all sorts of objects medical, from books to bandages.
+
+"When you're eighty miles from a physician, Ross, and shut in by
+snow-drifted mountains at that, it's well to have a few remedies
+and appliances on hand."
+
+"And, when you're several Sabbath days' journey from civilization,
+with time to burn on your hands, it's also well to have some light
+literature along," laughed Ross, tucking into the chest Piersol's
+"Histology." "I intend to make my time count for myself, as well as
+for Weimer and father."
+
+Aunt Anne, meantime, was packing another and more modern chest, her tears
+besprinkling the contents.
+
+"I have put your winter shirts and chamois-skin vest right on top of the
+tray, Ross," she sobbed as she bade him good-bye. "You better put 'em
+on as soon as you reach the mountains, as it will be cold there."
+
+"All right, aunt; I shall." Ross's voice was a little husky as he turned
+to his uncle.
+
+Dr. Grant was standing beside the vacated breakfast table absorbed in
+filling a glass of water. Carefully he brimmed it drop by drop.
+
+Aunt Anne peered through her tears. "Why, Fred," she exclaimed, "what
+are you up to? Don't make Ross miss his train."
+
+Calmly the doctor added a few more drops, and then turned to his nephew.
+His eyes narrowed intently as he motioned toward the glass.
+
+"I want to test your nerves, Ross. Hold it out," he directed.
+
+The boy smiled confidently, raised the glass, carried it from him the
+length of a long, steady arm, and held it there. Then he returned it to
+the table without spilling a drop.
+
+The doctor grasped the hand that had held the glass, looking earnestly
+into the boy's eyes.
+
+"Ross, the hand that holds the surgeon's knife successfully must _keep
+as steady as this_."
+
+For a long, silent moment uncle and nephew looked into each other's
+faces as their hands gripped. Ross made no reply, but in the expression
+which leaped to his eyes the older man read the resolution which
+satisfied him, and which seemed a part of this slow, steady nephew of his.
+
+An hour later the boy was being borne westward on the way to Chicago and
+the "jumping-off place into the wilderness."
+
+At the same time his father sat behind his desk on Broadway reading a
+letter postmarked Cody, Wyo., and signed D. H. Leonard. It was written
+in reply to a recent communication from Ross Grant, Senior.
+
+"Of course I shall be glad to do anything in my power for your son,"
+the letter read, "along the lines you have suggested. I see the wisdom
+of your move, too. It doesn't always do to refuse a boy's demands
+point-blank. It's far better to turn him from his purpose as you are
+doing--or trying to do, I should say, because, if young Ross is anything
+like old Ross, he will not be so easily turned. Yet, as you say, a
+little stirring up and jostling out of his uncle's beaten tracks may
+put some new ideas into his head. This country certainly bids fair to
+be stirring enough now to fascinate any young man. It's a good idea
+also to give him a half-share in your share of the claims; and I'm
+sure, if the railroad makes good its promise of a way up to Miners'
+Camp, the claims will be worth working for. And, as a real estate
+dealer, I don't need to be urged to do my best to interest him in the
+business of this vast land, the country of the future."
+
+In Chicago a telegram overtook Ross. It was from his father. "Stop
+overnight at Hotel Irma, Cody," it read. "Leonard will meet you there."
+
+Two days later, early in the morning, the west bound express dropped
+Ross Grant and half a dozen other passengers at Toluca, in southern
+Montana, a station with a water-tank and some cattle corrals attached.
+Here stood the train which by day plied over the branch road to Cody,
+and by night returned to Toluca. It was a mixed train consisting of
+freight and express cars with a sleeper at the end.
+
+The half dozen passengers, reënforced by others left by the east bound
+express, all men, transferred themselves to this coach. Every one
+except Ross seemed to be more or less acquainted with every one else.
+Ross sat silent, listening and looking out on as much of the great
+West as was visible from the slowly moving car. Across the windswept,
+sun-cracked plain grumbled the old engine. On either side were herds of
+cattle fattening on the dusty dried grass, which looked to Ross dead
+and worthless. Not a tree met his eyes, and not a house.
+
+"Got the Western fever yet?" drawled a voice behind him finally, and Ross
+looked around into the good-natured face of a man who had boarded the
+north bound express at Omaha.
+
+Ross shook his head decidedly. "There's nothing here to give a fellow
+the Western fever," he returned, pointing to the flat yellow plain
+overlaid by the dull yellow sunshine.
+
+The man lounged forward, his elbows on the back of Ross's seat, and
+grinned. He was apparently about thirty, short and fair, with sandy
+hair and mustache. He wore corduroy trousers and coat, with a dark
+flannel shirt and turn-over collar under which was knotted carelessly a
+broad green silk tie. Hanging to the back of his head was a brown,
+broad-brimmed hat, the crown encircled with a narrow band of intricately
+woven hair dyed in all the colors of the rainbow.
+
+"I'll tell ye what's out there that gives most of us the Western
+fever," he declared; "and that's money prospects. Sort of a yellow
+fever, ye know, it is, except that no one wants to be cured."
+
+"Then I don't want to catch it in the first place," declared Ross,
+looking out of the window again.
+
+Presently some one in the rear of the car lowered a newspaper, and
+rumbled over the top of it:
+
+"You fellers rec'lect old man Quinn?"
+
+Some did; some did not. To the latter, the speaker explained.
+
+"Used to live in Cody. Friend of Buffalo Bill, old man Quinn was. Went
+down to Oklahomy five years ago, and bought a sheep ranch. He and some
+of the cattlemen around him got by the ears over how much of the range
+belonged to the sheep----"
+
+Here an inarticulate murmur sounded through the car. There was a "cattle
+war" on in Wyoming at that time.
+
+"Wall, one night two years ago about now, after a big round-up at
+North Fork, one thousand of old man Quinn's sheep was driven over the
+bluffs into North Fork River. All that old man Quinn could find out
+was that four men done it. But he kept a-tryin' to find out, and got
+a _de_tective down from Kansas City, feller who used to be a cow puncher
+himself; and he nabbed three of 'em. They had had the gall to stay right
+there on the range all this time."
+
+"Good reason," volunteered some one, "why it took so long to land 'em. I
+suppose old man Quinn was lookin' for 'em among the punchers that had
+left after the round-up."
+
+"Jest so," declared the informant. "He was tryin' to track up every one
+who cleared out after the round-up--jest so."
+
+"How long did they git?" asked some one further up the aisle.
+
+"Two years."
+
+"Sandy," some one across the aisle said to the man behind Ross, "wa'n't
+you down t' Oklahomy punchin' two year ago?"
+
+There was a perceptible pause. Then a note of irritation spoke through
+Sandy's drawl as he answered briefly, "No, north Texas."
+
+And, while the rest continued the discussion concerning old man Quinn,
+he leaned forward and devoted himself to Ross.
+
+Presently they came to the hills whose barrenness and sombreness were
+relieved at intervals by the brilliant coloring of the rocks.
+
+"Well," asked Sandy, "what do ye think of this? It ain't every day East
+that ye can walk around the crater of an old volcano."
+
+"Is this----" began Ross, his head out of the window.
+
+"This is!" chuckled he of the sandy hair.
+
+The train was crawling slowly around the edge of a wide, shallow well, on
+all sides of which the hills frowned darkly, stripped of every vestige
+of verdure.
+
+"An extinct volcano!" ejaculated Ross.
+
+"Yep,"--the other sagged forward until his laughing face was close to
+Ross's,--"but just let me tell ye right here, young man, that volcanoes
+is the only thing in the West that's extinct. Everything else is pretty
+lively."
+
+Ross joined in the laugh which greeted this sally all around him. The
+man opposite lowered his paper, and looked over his glasses.
+
+"Volcanoes _and_ hopes, Sandy," he amended quickly, instantly retiring
+again behind his paper.
+
+Ross did not understand the significance of the retort, but he noticed
+that several men around exchanged glances and that Sandy's face lost a
+fraction of its good nature. And when Sandy's face lost its humorous
+expression, it was not pleasing.
+
+Dusk and Cody drew near together. The train dropped over the "rim," and
+steamed along through the Big Horn Basin, coming to a final standstill in
+front of another station and water-tank.
+
+"Cody," announced the brakeman. "All out."
+
+Ross, suitcase in hand, his top-coat over his arm, stumbled out of the
+train, still swaying with the perpetual motion of the last few days. A
+big open wagon with side seats stood beside the platform. At the call of
+the driver Ross looked around interrogatively at Sandy, who was still
+beside him.
+
+"Oh, we're two miles from the town yet," Sandy replied to the look.
+"Pile in. Train can't make it over the shelves between here and
+Stinkin' Water."
+
+Ross silently "piled in." Sandy sat down beside him, and the wagon filled
+with the other passengers.
+
+Behind them, stretching back into the darkness, their heads sagging
+sleepily, was a row of teams, their neck-yokes joined by a chain, their
+heads connected by a single rein running through the ring at the left
+side of the bit.
+
+"Hey, there," called one of the men in the wagon, "does Grasshopper
+strike the trail to-night for Meeteetse?"
+
+"Yep," came a voice beside a lantern which was traveling to and fro.
+"There's a lot of freight to pack up to Miners' Camp; and, if it gits
+there ahead of the snow, these freighters have got to hit the pike more
+rapid than they have been doin'."
+
+A horseman dashed past the wagon and into the circle of light from the
+lantern hung in front of the station. Dropping the reins to the ground,
+he swung his leather-enveloped legs off the horse, and yelled at the
+station agent:
+
+"Have those boxes of apples come yet?"
+
+"Just here," replied the holder of the moving light.
+
+"Can't you start 'em up by the Meeteetse stage to-night?" demanded the
+newcomer. "The boys are about famished."
+
+"Them surveyors," complained the agent, "are always hollerin' for more
+grub. 'N' no matter how much ye fill 'em, they don't go faster than
+molasses in January. Ain't got beyond Sagehen Roost this minute, and
+they'll probably be a-quittin' in a month."
+
+Ross pricked up his ears. The same interest was manifested by Sandy.
+
+"Don't you worry about our quitting," the newcomer returned brusquely;
+"if the Burlington Railroad starts out to run a track up to Miners'
+Camp, why, it will run one, that's all, if the track has to go under
+snow-sheds all the way up from the Meadows."
+
+At this point the big open bus rumbled off over the dust-choked "shelf"
+toward Cody. An unwieldy swaying coach drawn by four horses passed them
+on its way to the station.
+
+"Meeteetse stage is late to-night," remarked Sandy.
+
+On rumbled the wagon. Its brake screamed against the wheel as the horses
+plunged down the steep inclines which marked the descent from one "shelf"
+to another. Presently a vile odor greeted Ross's nostrils, and at the
+same time the wagon struck the bridge over the sulphurated waters of
+the Shoshone, and began the climb on the other side.
+
+Ross was keenly alive to this strange new world in which the convenience
+of the East met the newness and crudeness of the West. Brilliant
+electric lights illuminated dust-deep, unpaved, unsprinkled streets.
+Tents stood beside pretentious homes, and stone business blocks were
+rising beside offices located in canvas wagons with rounded tops. And
+to and fro past the wagon flashed horsemen, cowboys dressed like Sandy
+except that their corduroy trousers were incased in leather "chaps."
+
+Sandy, watching Ross out of the corner of his eye, grinned at the boy's
+expression.
+
+"Buck up here, tenderfoot," he advised good-naturedly. "This here is
+'The Irma'; and, if you've got any better hotels in the East, why,
+don't tell Colonel Cody of it, at any rate, for 'The Irma' is the
+Colonel's pet."
+
+Then Ross found himself in the foyer of "The Irma," the hotel that
+"Buffalo Bill" erected to honor his home town, which bears his name,
+a comfortable, modernly equipped house decorated with hundreds of
+paintings, water colors, and etchings, all picturing the scenes in
+Colonel Cody's life as represented in his "Wild West Show."
+
+Sandy had registered in advance of Ross, and stepped to a swinging door
+at the end of the counter. There he stopped and turned back. "Come on
+and have a drink, tenderfoot," he invited good-naturedly.
+
+Ross was writing his name, and did not look up. "No, thank you," he
+returned quietly. "I don't drink."
+
+Several men lounging about glanced curiously at the boy. Sandy thrust
+his hands into his pockets, and, leaning against the counter, looked at
+him in open interest.
+
+After Ross had registered, he drew a nickel from his pocket and laid it
+on the counter. "A two-cent stamp, please."
+
+The clerk, impatient with the deliberation of his movements, cast the
+nickel hurriedly into the cash drawer and handed out a stamp. Ross
+waited for the change, while three men behind him pressed forward to
+the register.
+
+Sandy grinned broadly. "There's no change comin', tenderfoot," he said
+with a chuckle. "You've reached a land where nothin' less'n a nickel
+can be got outside a post-office."
+
+"Pennies don't grow in the Rocky Mountains," added the clerk in a tone
+which plainly invited the boy to move on.
+
+The tone brought the blood to Ross's cheek. His eyes suddenly narrowed.
+His head went up, and his voice quickened and deepened.
+
+"Very well, then," he returned coolly, "give me another two-cent stamp
+and a postal card."
+
+Sandy patted his thigh softly. "You'll pass, tenderfoot," he murmured.
+"No flies on you--at least, they don't stick there."
+
+Ross took his trophies, and retired to a desk beside the swinging door.
+Just as he had finished directing a letter to his Aunt Anne he noticed
+that his new friend was waiting again beside the counter.
+
+When the last man had registered, Sandy pulled the book toward him and
+leaned over it. Suddenly he bent lower, and jabbed hard on the page with
+his forefinger. When he turned, all the good humor had dropped out of
+his face. With a glance of keen interest at the boy beside the desk he
+passed on into the barroom.
+
+So marked was the change in his manner that Ross paused in the act of
+dipping his pen into the ink-well.
+
+"Guess I'll see who Sandy is," he thought, and, dropping his pen,
+crossed to the book.
+
+The name stared up at him in big bold letters directly above his own,
+but he had not noticed it at the time of registering.
+
+    _"Allen McKenzie, Miners' Camp."_
+
+Ross pursed his thin lips, and nearly whistled aloud as he returned to
+his desk.
+
+"It's one of the McKenzies who are after our claims," he wrote at
+the end of a long letter to his uncle and aunt; "but he is a funny,
+good-natured fellow. I partly like him and partly don't. He has no
+six-shooter in sight--in fact, I'm told that six-shooters have gone
+more or less out of fashion in Wyoming; and he doesn't look a bit as I
+had imagined a 'claim-jumper' would. But one thing he may reckon on;
+there will be no chance for him or any one else to jump the Weimer-Grant
+claims in a few months."
+
+And, sealing this confident declaration, he slipped the letter into the
+mail-box, ate a hearty dinner, and went to bed.
+
+The following morning at nine o'clock D. H. Leonard, his father's
+old-time friend, appeared, and greeted the son most cordially. Mr.
+Leonard was a man of middle age, hale, red-faced, bald-headed, and
+wearing a "boiled" shirt and collar. He was a dealer in real estate, with
+offices in both Cody and Basin. It was to his office that he first
+took Ross.
+
+"We'll go for a drive by and by," he began, throwing himself back in
+his chair and tossing a cigar across the desk. "We have the country of
+the future here, and I want you to see it. Perfect gold-mine in this land
+once it's irrigated."
+
+Ross picked up the cigar, played with it a moment, and laid it again on
+the desk, listening attentively.
+
+The older man drew a match across the woodwork beneath his chair, and
+lighted his cigar. "It's _the_ place for young men, Grant, a greater
+place than it was when Horace Greeley gave his advice to young men to
+go West--here's a match," he interrupted himself to say.
+
+Ross accepted the match, bit on the end of it a moment, and laid it
+beside the cigar.
+
+"Don't you smoke?" asked Leonard in some surprise.
+
+Before Ross could reply, some one called Mr. Leonard out into the hall.
+As the door closed behind him, Ross arose and stood silently in front
+of the open window. Beyond the little town and beyond the level stretch
+of "shelves" arose the Big Horn Mountains, miles away, but so sharply
+outlined in the clear air that they seemed only a short walk distant.
+
+As Ross leaned against the window-casing, some one in the room adjoining
+came to the open window. The stub of a cigar was thrown out, and a voice
+exclaimed:
+
+"But if Grant realized the situation, he'd never have sent a boy out
+here to look after those claims. And it looks as though it was his
+son--same initials. But with such a boy and Weimer you ought to be
+able----"
+
+The speaker left the window at this point, and Ross lost the rest of the
+sentence. In a few moments, however, some one clattered through the
+hall and down the stairs, with spurs jingling. A horse stood on the
+street below, tethered only by its bridle-reins dangling to the ground.
+From the entrance to the building Sandy McKenzie emerged, clad as on
+the previous day, except for a colored handkerchief knotted about his
+neck. Mounting his pony, he touched a spur to its flank, and galloped
+away in a cloud of dust just as Leonard returned.
+
+"Who's in the next room?" asked Ross.
+
+"Over on the right?" asked Leonard carelessly. "Oh, a lawyer has that
+office." He crossed to the window, and glanced out just as McKenzie
+disappeared. "Evidently Sandy's pulling out for the mountains," he
+observed. "Miners' Camp, that is."
+
+"Are there only two McKenzies?" asked Ross.
+
+Leonard shrugged his shoulders. "Two are all that have ever showed up
+around here--Sandy and Waymart; but they say there are half a dozen more
+brothers and cousins, some figurin' under names not their own; but where
+they put up I don't know."
+
+Here he turned and looked curiously at Ross. "I suppose your father told
+you that Sandy and Waymart are sitting up on Meadow Creek waiting to jump
+the Grant-Weimer claims."
+
+"Yes, he told me," answered Ross, and hesitated. "Do they use guns in
+the jumping process?"
+
+Leonard laughed. "Not much! They have other and safer methods of getting
+their own way in case Weimer doesn't do the work the law requires this
+year."
+
+Then he glanced at the unsmoked cigar, and repeated his question of some
+time before. "Don't you smoke?"
+
+Ross shook his head shortly.
+
+"Why not?" Leonard looked at his old friend's son in friendly interest.
+
+Ross stretched out his right arm in an unconscious imitation of the test
+his uncle had required of him only a few mornings before. "It's apt to
+get on a fellow's nerves," was all the reply he made.
+
+There was much to see during the day and much to hear. Leonard took the
+boy for a long drive up the cañon of the Shoshone, whose densely green
+waters have a background of brilliant reds and yellows in the sandstone
+sides of the wall through which the river has cut. Up and yet up the
+carriage went, with the walls rising higher and higher on either side,
+the road a mere thread blasted out of the rocks, up to the great dam
+which was beginning to raise its head across the river bed to hold back
+the water and distribute it over Big Horn Basin through irrigating canals.
+
+Ross's interest, however, during the drive was divided. He was glad to
+see the vast "Shoshone Project," as the government reservoir is called;
+but his most active thoughts were following Sandy McKenzie on his way
+to Miners' Camp, and his questions were of the Camp and Wyoming mining
+laws and the conditions he would meet in this new and strange land.
+
+But Leonard had never been up to Camp, and was not interested in mining,
+but in ranch lands; therefore, Ross got but little enlightenment from
+him, and finally, ceasing to question, listened in silence while the
+older man, in obedience to the senior Grant's request, did his best to
+interest the junior Grant in the business prospects of Wyoming.
+
+"I want you to come down to Basin at Christmas," Leonard said cordially
+as host and guest sat down to dinner in the dining-room of "The Irma" at
+six o'clock that night. "My home is in Basin. It's the county-seat of
+Big Horn County, you know; and I want you to come down there. I want to
+show you more of this magnificent country."
+
+Ross was grateful for this friendly invitation, but made no promises; and
+presently the two were eating in silence, Ross looking with interest on
+some of the contrasts which were too familiar for Leonard even to notice.
+
+Under elaborate and gaudy chandeliers was a bare and not overclean floor.
+Looking down on the thickest and heaviest of cracked china were pictures
+by well-known artists. Seated around the tables spread in linen, were
+bearded men in chaps and overalls, flannel shirts and spurs, together
+with those in tan oxfords and broadcloth.
+
+At the table opposite Ross, and facing him, was a man to whom his
+glance returned again and again. He sat alone. His square, unexpressive
+face was relieved by a pair of fine dark-brown eyes. The lower part of
+his face was covered by a stubby reddish beard. His hair was brown, and
+fell nearly to his eyes, giving him the appearance of having a low
+forehead. He wore a coat,--the first of its kind Ross had seen,--a short,
+bulky affair, with a high collar laid over the shoulders and lined
+throughout with lambskin, the wool badly worn on the collar. His chaps
+were of undressed leather, with the long hair trimmed short save from
+the thigh to the ankle. High riding boots, spurs, and a sombrero, which
+he wore low over his forehead while eating, completed his costume.
+
+"Who is he?" asked Ross.
+
+Mr. Leonard shook his head. "Man next to me here said he rode in this
+afternoon on the Yellowstone trail. Don't know who he is."
+
+As if he felt he was under discussion, the stranger raised his head, and
+his eyes met Ross's in a quick furtive glance.
+
+After dinner Leonard gripped Ross's hand in farewell, and left. An hour
+later there was a rattle of wheels in front of the hotel, the sound of
+horses's hoofs, and a rollicking voice called:
+
+"Meeteetse stage. All aboard!"
+
+Ross, with a glance around the office which he expected to see again
+before spring, picked up his bag, and went out on the piazza. Here he
+stood while his trunk and the emergency chest were swung up behind the
+stage and roped. Then he climbed up beside the driver, who was glad to
+have some one near to help him keep awake during the long night ride, and
+they were off, only to be stopped almost immediately by a man standing
+in the doorway of a store.
+
+"Hold up there!" shouted the man. "Steele is here, and wants to go on
+to-night."
+
+The name caught Ross's attention. "Is it Amos Steele?" he asked the
+driver.
+
+The driver assented. "Yep--superintendent of the Gale's Ridge Mine up
+in Camp."
+
+Ross leaned forward and surveyed with interest the pleasant-faced,
+well-dressed, squarely-built young man who came out of the store and
+climbed into the stage. In his pocket Ross had the letter Steele had
+written his father at Weimer's request.
+
+"Git out of this," the driver requested briefly of his four bronchos as
+the stage door slammed to, and the four obligingly "got out" on a run.
+
+Just as they left the last house behind them, a figure on horseback
+whirled by in a cloud of dust, and Ross recognized in the sheepskin coat
+and hairy chaps the stranger who had attracted his attention during
+dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DOC TENDERFOOT IN ACTION
+
+
+BESIDES Steele, there were three other passengers inside the stage
+that night. One was the assistant manager of the Embar Ranch, south of
+Meeteetse. He had been to Omaha with a car-load of cattle. The remaining
+two were miners whom Steele had picked up in Butte. This much Ross
+learned from the driver. He learned many other things by listening to
+the conversation between Hillis, the manager, and Steele, although
+all the while he was keenly observant of his surroundings.
+
+The stage was bowling along smoothly over a road as level as a floor and
+flooded by brilliant moonlight. Behind them Cody faded into silvery
+mist, guarded by the huge shadowy bulks of the Big Horn Mountains. Ahead,
+houseless and treeless, stretched the shelf until the shimmering mist
+cut off the sight. And in the distance, so far ahead that sometimes he
+blended with the mist, rode the horseman in the sheepskin coat.
+
+"Hi, there, Andy," called the ranch-manager; "who is that fellow ahead?"
+
+Andy, the driver, turned, and looked down through the open flap into the
+cavernous darkness of the stage. "Don't know. Didn't find out. I have
+seen fellers, though, that can give more information about themselves
+per square inch than that same chap ahead there."
+
+"I never saw 'im in these parts before," returned Hillis.
+
+"Nor I." The driver spat over the flank of the right wheeler. "Gid'ep
+there, Suke, ye slowmy, you! Hike it, old Blue! Git out of this!" And,
+having thus jogged the energy of the leaders, Andy gave his attention
+again to Hillis. "Hain't ever set eyes on that brown chap before. I
+guessed back there he was bound fer Embar. Looks like a puncher."
+
+"I wish"--the assistant manager of the Embar spoke forcefully--"that he
+and seven or eight more were bound for the Embar."
+
+"Short of hands, eh?" questioned Andy, whirling his "black snake" so
+skilfully that the lash missed the heads of the wheelers, and touched the
+flank of the nigh leader.
+
+"Short of hands?" Steele broke in. "Who isn't short of hands from Butte
+to Omaha--especially in Wyoming? I've been out two weeks advertising
+and hunting men, and here I am back again with two only."
+
+Ross turned half around in his high seat, and grasped the low back. "Is
+labor as scarce as that in Miners' Camp?" he burst out in a brusque,
+astonished tone which betrayed a personal interest.
+
+"As scarce as diamonds," returned Steele, adding with a laugh, "and
+almost as expensive."
+
+Andy pushed back his hat, and surveyed his young companion with
+curiosity. There was a little stir in the coach also.
+
+"It must be"--Amos Steele spoke as if the matter had been debated
+before--"that you are related to Ross Grant of New York."
+
+"Yes," returned Ross, "I am his son."
+
+He was conscious of becoming an immediate centre of speculation.
+
+"I wondered," remarked Steele, "when I saw your name on the hotel
+register. Going out to Camp, are you?"
+
+"Yes," Ross hesitated. "In answer to that letter you wrote father for
+Mr. Weimer."
+
+"Oh!" Steele's tone was edged with astonishment.
+
+"Come out to see to the work, did ye?" asked Andy.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Andy glanced sidewise, and Ross caught the look of incredulity.
+
+[Illustration: "Regular Trail from Miner's Camp to Weimer's, Etc."]
+
+"Expected to hire men to do it, did ye?" That Andy was a general
+information bureau was due to his faculty for asking questions.
+
+"Yes, I do," emphatically.
+
+The present tense of the reply did not escape the listener's attention.
+
+"Weimer has tried to hire," volunteered Steele; "but it's no use."
+
+"Why not?" demanded the boy.
+
+"Well, in the first place, as I said, there hain't enough men to supply
+the demand; and, in the second place, no man in his senses is going away
+over on the Creek, where he'll be shut in for months, when he can just
+as well stay down in Camp, and get the same wages."
+
+"Shut in for months?" repeated Ross slowly.
+
+Andy explained. "Along about first of February ye're shut in fer
+sartain. Trail fills up, and there's apt to be snowslides any time on
+old Crosby."
+
+Ross sat with widening eyes staring out into the moonlight, and wondering
+with tightening muscles what he was "up against." The vagueness of his
+father's knowledge concerning Weimer's work had not counted in New
+York. But here, swinging along toward Miners' Camp with two-thirds
+of the width of the continent between himself and his friends, Ross
+realized that this vagueness had put him at a disadvantage.
+
+The two men behind him began discussing the cattle market, and the
+stage slid down the side of the first mesa of the Wyoming bad lands
+and into the coulee, or dry creek, at the bottom. The level road was
+left behind. Up hill and down plunged the horses ahead of the rocking,
+tipping stage. There was no regular road. A dozen tracks showed the
+differing routes of as many drivers. To Ross it seemed as if destruction
+were imminent every time they came to the top of one of the short,
+steep hills. But Andy jammed on the brake hard, and, giving a peculiar
+little whistle, yelled carelessly, "Git out of this."
+
+Presently Andy took advantage of the rattle of wheels and hoofs to say
+to Ross: "Steele is boss of the Gale's Ridge work up to Camp. They keep
+open all winter; t'other company shuts down."
+
+"Shuts down?" repeated Ross.
+
+"Yep, has to. Men go down t' Cody t' work on the Project. Hard work to
+keep men in Camp through the winter. When the railroad goes up there,
+'twill be different."
+
+Some one inside the stage struck a match.
+
+"On time, ain't you, Andy?" asked Steele's voice; "it's twelve-thirty."
+
+"Yep," returned the driver. "Here's Dry Creek."
+
+The road, a well-defined track here, was hemmed in between a creek-bed
+on one hand and a hill on the other. On top of the hill, silhouetted
+against the star-studded sky, appeared a wagon with a white bellying
+canvas top. Around it, covering the hilltop and the side clear down
+to the track was a soft white moving mass that caused Ross to give a
+startled exclamation.
+
+"Why--that looks like--it _is_ sheep!" he ejaculated. "Sheep by the
+hundreds."
+
+"Sheep's the word!" returned the driver. "This is Sheepy's layout.
+That's his wagon up yon. He herds fer parties in Cody. There's nigh
+seven hundred of them sheep. Never seen such a flock before, did ye?"
+
+Before Ross could reply, the stage swung around a corner of the hill
+and Andy, with a sharp whistle, drew up the leaders abruptly. They were
+in an open space in front of the stage camp, half cabin and half dugout
+driven into the hillside. Beside the dugout was a low, stout corral,
+outside of which were a haystack and a jumble of bales of hay. As the
+stage stopped, the door of the dugout opened, and a man loomed large
+against a dim light within.
+
+But all this Ross did not notice at the time. His attention was riveted
+on the horse just ahead ridden by the stranger. Around and around it
+whirled, unmindful of the quirt and spur of the rider.
+
+"Pretty ridin'," remarked Andy, spitting appreciatively over the wheel.
+
+The men inside the stage clambered out with grunts at their stiffened
+limbs, and leaned against the wheels watching. The man in the doorway
+stepped out, and thrust his hands into his pockets, and looked calmly
+while the horse placed its four feet together and humped its back with a
+momentum which sent the rider high in the air.
+
+When he came down, he settled himself in the saddle, drew up on the
+reins, and dug his spurs into the horse's flank. The animal, his
+nostrils distended and the foam flying from his mouth, without any
+warning rose on his hind legs, and threw himself backward. The rider
+freed one foot from the stirrup; but the other caught, and horse and
+rider went down in a heap. There was a deep groan from both, and then
+silence. If the men had seemed indifferent before, they made up in
+activity now. With a flying leap Andy was down from his high seat. The
+stage-camp man rushed forward, and threw himself on the horse's head,
+while the others pulled the unconscious rider from beneath the animal's
+body.
+
+"Leg's done for," Ross heard Steele say as they carried the wounded man
+into the dugout.
+
+Ross clambered awkwardly down from his seat, and followed. He nearly fell
+over an empty chicken-coop and into the one little room of the dugout.
+
+"Put 'im here," directed the stage-camp man, whom the others called
+Hank. He pointed to the blankets in the corner from which he had crawled
+ten minutes before.
+
+"Here, boy," Steele said with pale-faced absorption, "smooth the blankets
+up."
+
+Ross, half dazed by his strange and unexpected surroundings, slowly and
+clumsily did as he was directed, and they laid the unconscious stranger
+down carefully, his left leg hanging limply from a point half-way
+between knee and hip. Then the men straightened up, and looked at one
+another.
+
+"A bad job," muttered Hank.
+
+"Take 'im back to Cody?" asked Steele.
+
+Hillis shook his head. "Doctor there went to Thermopolis this morning."
+
+Suddenly the daze which had beclouded Ross's brain cleared away. He woke
+up, and his whole attention focused itself on the prostrate man. In a
+moment he became alert, resourceful, and active. His boyish hesitation
+fell from him. He threw off his top-coat, tossed his cap with it to the
+uncovered board table, and, kneeling by the man's side, laid his ear
+on the heart.
+
+"Go out," he said authoritatively to the astonished men, "and bring in my
+smallest trunk. Hurry, for this chap will be conscious in just a moment."
+
+No one stirred.
+
+Whipping out his jack-knife, Ross cut a strap which secured the chaps,
+and caught one leg at the ankle. "Help me pull 'em off," he cried
+urgently.
+
+Some one stooped to the other foot, and the chaps were off. Kneeling
+beside the wounded leg, with his knife, Ross ripped the trousers from
+ankle to thigh, and exposed a bloody wound.
+
+"Compound fracture," he exclaimed after a brief examination.
+
+Then he looked up. "Where's that chest?" he demanded. "I must cleanse
+this and bandage it at once."
+
+The cock-sureness of the boy's tone and the sight of the skilful touch
+of his fingers on the wound galvanized the two miners into action, and
+in a moment the emergency chest was beside Ross.
+
+"Hot water," was his next command, as he fumbled with the key, "and a
+small dish"--his eye fell on the table--"that salt cellar, with every
+grain of salt washed out. Quick!"
+
+The wounded man had recovered consciousness now, and was groaning, and
+clinching his fists, and rolling his head from side to side in agony.
+
+"Are you a doctor?" asked Steele incredulously.
+
+"My uncle is," Ross returned briefly, "and I'm going to be."
+
+The answer, coupled with a view of the contents of the chest and Ross's
+manipulation of those contents, brought relief to the men.
+
+He had produced a hypodermic syringe, and with a tiny morphine tablet
+dissolved in the salt cellar he began operations which lasted the greater
+part of two hours, and employed every man present.
+
+"Bring in that hen-coop," directed Ross; "we can use that for a double
+inclined plane to stretch the leg over."
+
+Steele, who had so recently issued orders to a slow and clumsy boy, now
+quietly obeyed this embryo surgeon. Hillis was holding bandages, while
+Hank and Andy were doing something which filled their souls with wonder,
+namely, making long, narrow bags from grain sacks out of which wheat
+had been hastily dumped.
+
+"By the great horn spoon, what're these fer?" Andy demanded in an
+undertone, running the big needle deep into his thumb. "Jehoshaphat!"
+
+Hank shook his head helplessly. He plumped a stick of wood into his rusty
+old stove, and refilled a kettle from a water pail which stood on a box.
+Steele dragged in the triangular chicken-coop, and laid it beside the
+wounded man, who was moaning mechanically and drowsily now.
+
+Ross arose, and set a bottle of alcohol on the table. He looked
+critically at the coop. "The very thing," he muttered with eyes alight.
+"How fortunate that I fell over it coming in!" Then he paused in thought.
+
+Miners' Camp and Meadow Creek were forgotten. Forgotten were Weimer and
+the neglected work. A "case" lay before him, a man needing the help that
+it was life for the boy to give.
+
+When, at last, the belated stage was ready to move on, the men, again
+in their overcoats, lined up and looked down at the sleeping patient. He
+lay with the knee of the wounded leg over the peak of the chicken-coop,
+padded thick and soft with blankets, the leg held secure and motionless
+between heavy sand-bags. Down the leg from knee to foot on either side
+ran strips of adhesive plaster with loops protruding below the foot. And
+attached to the loops was a small bag loaded with stone.
+
+"To reduce the fracture," Ross explained briefly. He was on his knees,
+measuring the well leg with a tape measure from the haircloth trunk.
+"See, this leg is longer now because the broken parts of the thigh bone
+in the other have been driven past each other, and the muscles have
+contracted, shortening the leg. The weight on the foot will stretch
+the muscles and allow the ends of the bone to meet again."
+
+"Jehoshaphat!" exclaimed Andy softly. "He's lucky to have you come
+trailin' down the pike just behind 'im. But see here, fellers," the
+driver turned to the others; "yer Uncle Samuel will dock me this time
+sure, fer the mail won't reach Meeteetse in time fer the stage up to
+Miners' Camp!"
+
+"Miners' Camp!"
+
+The exclamation burst involuntarily from Ross. He arose. The tape measure
+dropped from his hands. He drew his hand across his wet forehead. He had
+seen the stage load prepare to go on without a thought that he ought
+to go also. His one idea had been the care of the nameless man on the
+blankets.
+
+"Miners' Camp," he repeated; "why, I ought to go on!"
+
+"Not much," cried Hank in lively alarm. "What 'ud I do with him and all
+that toggery?" jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the chicken-coop.
+
+"Of course," was Ross's decision in a low tone, "I can't desert
+him--but I ought to go on."
+
+A few moments later, Andy's four bronchos pounded up the hill beyond
+the stage camp and disappeared, leaving Ross standing beside the window
+watching. The man on the blankets breathed heavily. A big yellow cat
+purred around Ross's legs. Hank poked the fire.
+
+"Guess I'll rustle some grub now," the latter said in awkward
+solicitude. "Ye're all in, ain't ye, Doc?"
+
+Ross turned from the window wearily without replying, and for the first
+time looked about the cabin.
+
+It was roughly boarded, with a hard dirt floor. In addition to the
+bench, the only seats were boxes in which "canned goods" had been stored
+away. A pile of wood lay behind an old stove propped up on boxes in
+lieu of legs. A cupboard containing some tin cups and thick plates, a
+few pans and skillets, and a shelf heaped with magazines half a year
+old completed the furnishings of the room.
+
+Suddenly Ross's eyes lighted on the wounded man's sheepskin coat, which
+had been cast hurriedly aside on the floor. Lifting it, he stepped to
+the door, and commenced to shake it energetically. Out of the breast
+pocket fell a small object. It hit the stone in front of the door
+with a metallic ring. Ross picked it up, and looked down into the
+photographed face of a winning girl with smiling eyes, curved lips, and
+plump cheeks. The picture was a little oval set in a gilt frame. On the
+back in a girlish hand was written the inscription, "To Lon Weston."
+
+"Weston, huh?" came Hank's voice at Ross's elbow. "I never heard of Lon
+Weston before. Wonder where he hails from."
+
+Hank glanced speculatively at the sleeper, then took a deep earthenware
+dish from the cupboard, beat its contents with a spoon, greased a
+skillet, and set it on the fire.
+
+"Men fergot t' eat," he grumbled, "'n' fergot t' feed the horses.
+They fergot everything except him. They'll be one hungry lot when they
+land in Meeteetse."
+
+He raised the smoking skillet, and gave a deft toss, which sent the
+flapjack spinning into the air, turned it over, and settled it back with
+the baked side uppermost.
+
+"Nice-looking girl that!" he muttered absently, immediately adding, "Here
+ye are--flapjacks 'n' coffee!"
+
+Late in the afternoon the injured man aroused himself groaning. He
+stared at Ross with eyes which gradually cleared as a realization of
+his environment was borne in on him.
+
+"I say, Doc," he muttered, biting his lips with the pain, "I'm all to
+the bad, ain't I?"
+
+"Leg's used up for a few days, that's all, Mr. Weston," returned Ross
+cheerfully.
+
+The man turned his head quickly. His eyes widened and he seemed to
+forget his pain. For a long moment he lay motionless looking from Ross to
+Hank, who grinned hospitably at him from the stove.
+
+"Cheer up down there," said Hank in jovial strain, "the worst is yet
+t' come, fer I'm makin' ye some puddin', and even my mother 'ud
+say that puddin' ain't one of my strong pints!"
+
+The sick man did not smile. He merely stared at the speaker until Hank
+disappeared, a water pail in hand, bound for the spring. Then he threw
+out a hand toward Ross and asked abruptly:
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+Ross, turning a flapjack awkwardly, looked inquiringly over his shoulder.
+"Get what?"
+
+"The name--Weston?"
+
+Ross smiled and then, partly because he was embarrassed and partly
+because he thought the injured man would be, turned his back before
+answering, "A picture fell out of your coat and I--we--saw the name
+written on the back, 'Lon Weston.'"
+
+There was no reply, and presently Ross added, "I put the photo back in
+your pocket and hung the coat above your head there on the peg. Guess
+you can reach it."
+
+Still no reply, and Ross, looking around, found his patient with head
+turned away, eyes closed and lips pressed tightly together in his beard.
+
+Suddenly, in the open doorway appeared a figure that Ross had not seen
+before. A shaggy head was advanced cautiously within the cabin and the
+owner peered at Weston curiously. Then, evidently understanding his
+closed eyes to mean sleep, the stranger backed out precipitately and sat
+down on the bench outside the door. From this vantage point he peered
+around the jamb from time to time eyeing Ross and his patient in turn.
+
+"Good-evening," said the former as the stranger showed no signs of
+speaking.
+
+The shaggy head appeared in the doorway and nodding briefly, was
+withdrawn, just as Hank, coming with the water, called, "Well, Sheepy,
+what's the latest word up your way?"
+
+It was Luther, otherwise "Sheepy," the herder whose wagon crowned the
+adjacent hill. He was Hank's daily caller.
+
+"There ye are, Doc," exclaimed Hank entering with the water. "Puddin'
+fer Weston, and flapjacks 'n' coffee fer you and me with cabbage 'n'
+spuds thrown in. Fill up."
+
+It was a menu which was not varied to any great extent in the days which
+followed, strange days for "Doc Tenderfoot," as Hank called Ross.
+
+[Illustration: "WHAT'S THE LATEST WORD?"]
+
+Every night at midnight one of the two stages plying between Cody and
+Meeteetse stopped at the stage camp for supper and horse feed. Every
+noon the other stage stopped for dinner on its return trip. Between
+times, horsemen came and went, occasionally, men from the ranches on
+Wood River and the Grey Bull, miners "packing" their beds behind them,
+prospectors going out of the mountains for the winter, and every day
+during the first week there was Sheepy. Sheepy usually came toward night
+when his flock had been driven in from the range and rounded up by the
+faithful shepherd dog near the canvas-topped wagon.
+
+One day, the last of the week, after Ross had had a particularly trying
+time with his patient, he left the latter asleep, and going outside, sat
+on the bench in the sunshine watching Hank who was repairing the corral.
+Presently Sheepy joined him, first refreshing himself, as usual, with a
+long look at the snoring Weston.
+
+"Once I seen a feller that rode like him and looked like him, only his
+hair and beard," Sheepy announced finally in a hoarse whisper. "I seen
+'im ridin' in ahead of th' stage that night, and I thought 'twas
+th' other chap."
+
+Ross listened without interest. Sheepy filled a pipe with deliberation
+and lighted it. Then, clasping a worn knee in both hands he spoke again
+out of the corner of his mouth.
+
+"That feller had hair light as tow and his face clean of beard, but he
+rode the same and his eyes was the same. He was a puncher off the cattle
+ranges. Used to ride past my wagon alone about once a week headin' fer
+town. Went in the edge of the evenin' always."
+
+"And where were you?" asked Ross still without interest.
+
+"Down in Oklahomy. I was herdin' sheep fer old man Quinn."
+
+Ross looked at Sheepy with new interest. "I heard the men on the train
+talking about old man Quinn and the sheep that he lost. Were you there
+at that time?"
+
+Sheepy nodded. "I sartain was. That's two years gone by."
+
+"And did you see what was going on--driving the sheep into the river,
+I mean?" questioned Ross eagerly.
+
+The sheep-herder shook his grizzled head. "It wa'n't off my range that
+the sheep was drove, but another feller's called Happy. He seen there
+was four men done it. It was night--dark night, and they didn't stop to
+say howdy ner make any introductions. They shot Happy's dog and got
+away over the bluff with a thousand sheep. They was drunk, all of 'em,
+but not too drunk not t' know what they was doin'. Old man Quinn got
+three of 'em. He's been after the other ever since."
+
+"Do you think he'll be caught?"
+
+Sheepy moved his shoulders helplessly. "Don't know. Old man Quinn he
+never lets up on a thing. Took 'im two years t' find three. Bet he
+don't give t'other up."
+
+"Why did they drive the sheep over the bluff?" asked Ross.
+
+Sheepy frowned. "Cattlemen claimed the sheep had crossed the dead line.
+Cattlemen are always claimin' that, and they push the line further
+and further in on the sheep and claim more of the range every year.
+They do here. They did down in Oklahomy. The sheep owners and cattlemen
+had a row at the big cattle round-up on the North Fork. It was after
+the round-up, when the cow punchers was feelin' pretty gay and let
+themselves loose, that them four drove old man Quinn's sheep over
+the bluff."
+
+There was a pause, and then Sheepy went back to the original subject.
+"The feller that looked like him and rode like him," jerking his thumb
+over his shoulder, "used to ride past when I was shakin' grub in my
+wagon. He used t' go grinnin' mostly and starin' at his hoss'
+ears. And he alus went with his fixin's on, tan chaps and a red silk
+'kerchief 'round his neck and Indian gloves with these here colored
+gauntlets. Oh, he struck the trail in his good togs all right--bet he
+went t' see some girl 'r other!"
+
+This was the last information that Ross received from Sheepy for several
+months. The following morning there arrived from Cody a supply wagon
+which replenished the sheep-herder's larder, and then, the sheep having
+eaten the range bare for miles around the dugout, the canvas-topped
+wagon was attached to the supply wagon and drawn to another hilltop
+ten miles away. With it went Sheepy only faintly regretting the loss
+of companionship at the dugout. The seven hundred sheep that his dog
+rounded up and drove in advance of the wagons were the companions with
+which he was best acquainted.
+
+"It wouldn't ha' been a bad idee," Hank remarked when the last bleat
+died away in the distance, "if Sheepy could ha' stayed all winter. He
+ain't generally long on talk--none of them herders be--but he was some
+one t' have around, and once in a while his tongue breaks loose."
+
+Ross drew a long breath and thought of Meadow Creek.
+
+In the afternoon Hank resumed his repairs on the corral, leaving Weston
+asleep and Ross kneeling beside his medicine chest sorting its contents.
+
+The sorting done, the boy arose noiselessly and closed the lid of the
+chest. Then, turning, he looked down on the head of the sleeper. For
+the first time he noticed that Weston's hair, thick and unkempt, was
+dull in color and had a dead look at variance with its evident health.
+Tiptoeing across the floor he bent over the recumbent man and gently
+raising a lock of his hair looked wonderingly at the roots. The sight
+caused him to utter an exclamation which disturbed the sleeper. He
+straightened himself and stepped back precipitately.
+
+The hair was tow-colored at the roots.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FOURTH MAN
+
+
+ROSS stood motionless until Weston, muttering and turning his head from
+side to side, gradually came to rest again and fell into a deeper sleep.
+Then the boy went outside and sat down on the bench.
+
+"It's easy enough to put two and two together," he muttered.
+
+Leaning forward, he dropped his elbows on his knees and taking his head
+between his hands, proceeded to do some adding satisfactory in its
+results. He longed for the presence of Sheepy. Now he would question
+him with interest on the subject of the puncher whose face was free
+from a beard and whose hair was tow color. He wanted more information
+on the subject of that cattle round-up and of the process of getting
+those three guilty cow punchers. Still, he believed that Sheepy had
+told him enough to make it clear that Weston was the fourth that old man
+Quinn was after.
+
+"Some one that looked like Weston and rode like him," Ross enumerated
+the points in the evidence, "only the man in Oklahoma had no beard and
+his hair was tow color."
+
+What was easier than to grow a beard--the hair was already accounted
+for--it had been tow-colored before its owner stained it a chestnut
+brown. And why should he have colored it unless for purposes of disguise?
+And why a disguise unless he was guilty of a crime such as driving old
+man Quinn's sheep into the North Fork?
+
+At this point in his reasoning, another fact flashed into the boy's
+mind--the strange way in which Weston had acted about his name.
+
+"Ha, ha!" exclaimed Ross aloud and then checked his voice. "Probably he
+didn't want us to know his name, his real name," he thought. "How all
+that dovetails together. If I could only get hold of Sheepy now!"
+
+On further reflection, however, he decided that Sheepy could throw no
+more light on the subject. It was evident that the herder did not know
+the name of the puncher who had ridden alone past his wagon, for he had
+not connected Weston's name with the other. Nor would Weston, if he
+were the same puncher, be likely to recognize Sheepy who, as he himself
+said, was in his wagon preparing supper when the puncher, his eyes on
+his horse's ears, passed.
+
+That night, when Ross rolled up in his blankets beside Weston he was sure
+he was lying beside the fourth cowboy of old man Quinn's search. But
+in the cold clear dawn he was not so sure. It might have been vanity that
+had led Weston to stain his hair, tow not being a manly color. Then,
+too, even if he had been on the North Fork, so were dozens of other
+cow punchers. As to his name, Weston would naturally have been astonished
+at perfect strangers addressing him rightly where he believed himself
+unknown.
+
+Ross, eating his breakfast, and only half listening to Hank, looked down
+at the prostrate man speculatively, his mind full of suspicion, but not
+so sure as on the previous day that there was no flaw in his reasoning.
+He had not had an opportunity, the day before, of speaking to Hank about
+the matter, and now he decided to keep his suspicions to himself for
+the present.
+
+His suspicions, however, during the two weeks which followed, were
+swallowed up in the anxiety that attended this, the first "case"
+where he had been obliged to assume all responsibility. The care and
+interruptions to his rest wore on him. Never had one of Aunt Anne's
+hair mattresses invited sleep as did the blankets laid on the dirt
+floor when he found time to lie on them. Often he fell asleep sitting
+on the hard bench, his head on his arms crossed on the table, while
+Hank was frying flapjacks and boiling thick black coffee.
+
+As for the patient, he accepted Ross's ministrations with but few
+remarks. As his thigh bone began to knit, he became querulous, and
+finally passively enduring.
+
+"When you goin' to let me out of this?" he asked on the day when Ross
+last measured the injured leg.
+
+The boy settled back on his heels. "I have sent for some plaster of
+Paris," he explained, "and, by the time it gets here, your leg will be
+healed and ready for a cast. Then you can be taken back to Cody and
+let the doctor there see you. If it was not for that ugly fracture you
+would have been out of here before. If you'd only have the Cody doctor
+to look you over now----"
+
+The man grunted, and worked restlessly at the sand-bag, which, on the
+outside of his leg, reached his armpit.
+
+"Cody doctor be hanged!" he remarked unaffably. "He don't know half as
+much as you do."
+
+It was the nearest approach to thanks or praise he had given Ross.
+
+"That Cody doctor ain't worth shucks," confirmed Hank, who occupied a
+box beside the stove. "He tended a feller that I knew, and let 'im die."
+The speaker looked from Ross to his patient with an expression which
+plainly said that the former could not be guilty of any such charge.
+
+The brown eyes of the patient rolled slowly in their sockets until their
+gaze could rest on Ross. Then the lids dropped over them. "The Cody
+doctor be hanged!" he remarked again more affably, and fell asleep.
+
+Ross continued to sit on his heels until his patient commenced to snore.
+Then he glanced at the occupant of the box seat and asked softly:
+
+"Hank, has Weston ever told you where he came from?"
+
+"Nope," responded Hank absently. "Not where he hails from ner where
+he's started fer, ner why, ner what fer. That's nothin' though, Doc."
+Here Hank looked sidewise at Ross. "You'll find, if ye stay in these
+parts long, that there's lots of men who ain't partin' with every
+fact they know within ten minutes after ye're introduced to 'em. And
+you'll find, too, that it ain't always healthy to ask questions. Ye
+have th' sort of sense who ye can question and who ye can't."
+
+"And this fellow----" Ross jerked his head in the direction of the
+sleeper.
+
+Hank yawned and reached for the poker and a stick of wood. "I ain't
+aimin' to inquire fer into his history--unless I could inquire of
+some one else besides himself, that is. Hello!" he interrupted himself
+suddenly with the stick held over the stove. "Who's that hikin' over
+the Creek?"
+
+Ross arose with alacrity and went to the door. The first snow had fallen
+on the bad lands, but in an hour it had been whisked away by a warm
+northwest wind, leaving the ground soft and a little stream of water in
+Dry Creek across which rode a man who proved to be a prospector from the
+mountains.
+
+"Must have had a bit of snow here," he called as he turned his horse into
+the corral. "Up t' Miners' Camp it's two inches deep and driftin'."
+
+As this prospector was eating his dinner, he most unexpectedly gave Ross
+his first news of Weimer. The boy, finding Hank both intelligent and
+sympathetic, had talked freely concerning his mission in the mountains
+and his desire to return East at an early date. To the latter subject,
+in all its details of study and college-attendance, Hank listened and
+questioned in open interest. But, when Ross touched the subject of
+Weimer and the McKenzies, the other was non-committal and guarded,
+as became a landlord who might be called upon any day to serve flapjacks
+and coffee to all of the parties under discussion.
+
+"I hope," he had observed cautiously on two or three occasions, "that
+you'll get on all right with Uncle Jake Weimer."
+
+And, although his tone implied a doubt, Ross could not prevail on him
+to explain it.
+
+But the prospector, who had ridden through from the mountains, and knew
+nothing of Ross or of his origin, spoke more freely. He had passed along
+Meadow Creek but a few days before.
+
+"Dutch Weimer," he told Hank as he bolted boiled cabbage and flapjacks,
+"was settin' at the door of his shack, a-smokin' as though his claims
+was all patented and secure. He says that Eastern pal of hisn is
+a-sendin' some one t' help 'im out."
+
+Hank coughed behind his hand, and motioned toward Ross, busy with his
+patient; but at first the prospector was too intent on his food to notice.
+
+"And there," he observed with a chuckle, "are them two McKenzie boys
+a-settin' on their claims next door and waitin'." He gave another
+chuckle. "Curious how that snow-blindness should have touched Dutch
+Weimer."
+
+Then he saw Hank's restraining gesture, and paused. Glancing down, he
+met Lon Weston's veiled brown eyes and Ross's wide gray ones; but the
+prospector had suddenly become as non-committal as Hank himself, nor did
+Ross's persistent questioning wring from him any further details. He
+had but passed that way, he assured Ross, had stopped but a moment in
+front of Weimer's cabin and that was all.
+
+But what he had said was enough to leave Ross troubled, and impatient
+to start for Meadow Creek and his delayed work.
+
+Finally the plaster of Paris came. The stage from Cody brought it one
+noon, and Ross's spirits arose at the prospect of release from his
+unwelcome charge.
+
+"If it wa'n't fer yer Uncle Samuel's long arm of the law, Doc," the
+stage-driver informed him as he was disposing of potatoes and pork, "I'd
+leave my stage right here and see ye wind all them stiff rags around
+that there leg. I'd like t' see th' finish s' long as I seen the
+beginnin'. But the trouble with bein' stage skinner is, ye've got
+t' hike along no matter what shows ye come acrost on the trail. Hand
+them spuds acrost, Doc, will ye? Hank, if ye'd let 'em smell fire a
+minute 'r two mebby I could drive my fork int' 'em."
+
+A few minutes later, he arose from the bench, drew the back of his hand
+across his mouth and addressed Weston. "Wall, I suppose you'll be ready
+t' be boosted onto the stage when I come back in th' mornin'? S'
+long."
+
+Scarcely had his four bronchos topped the hill on the further side of Dry
+Creek before a procession, the like of which Ross had never seen,
+appeared on the trail the other side of the dugout. It was a pack
+outfit on horses accompanied by a man and a boy. It slowly rounded the
+shoulder of the hill behind the corral. The man rode ahead whistling
+gaily, his sombrero pulled low over his eyes, a purple tie knotted
+under the turn-over collar of his flannel shirt. His horse's tail
+was tied to a rope which, in turn, was tied loosely about the neck of
+the first pack animal. In similar fashion the five bronchos were held
+together on the trail, and after them came a horse ridden by a boy about
+Ross's height. On the pack animals were wooden saddles piled high
+with supplies for a camp, boxes and bags securely roped to the saddles.
+
+Hank, in the act of clearing the dishes from the bare board table,
+stopped with a platter of boiled turnip and pork suspended in the air.
+"By the great horn spoon!" he yelled, "if there don't come Wishin'
+Wilson! And a pack outfit! Is my eyes a-foolin' me? Doc, look out. Is
+it a five bronc outfit, or ain't it?"
+
+"It certainly is," confirmed Ross.
+
+He arose from his seat on the floor where he was working in the plaster
+and stepped to the door. But Hank was before him holding up the platter
+of food.
+
+"Hey, there, Wishin'! Here's some come-backs hot fer ye! Where'd ye
+come from? Where ye goin' and what fer and how long and why and all the
+rest?" Evidently the newcomer was one of the kind that could safely be
+questioned, for Hank turned himself into a great interrogation point as
+he set the platter down, and rushing out, pulled the stranger from his
+horse, shaking him in familiar bear play.
+
+Ross watched while the train filed slowly up to the dugout, bringing the
+boy's mount to rest in front of the door.
+
+The young rider wore a new brown corduroy suit, and a long fur coat, the
+skirts of which were drawn up awkwardly above a pair of high riding
+boots and tucked under the rider's legs. A pair of shining silver
+spurs adorned the heels of the boots, while a sealskin cap crowned a
+head covered with closely cropped hair darker than Ross's. His eyes
+also were darker and his figure, although of the same height, was more
+slender than Ross's. He was also, apparently, a couple of years younger.
+
+The two boys nodded at each other, Ross with awkward cordiality and
+interest, the stranger carelessly and with unmistakable condescension.
+Swinging himself out of the saddle he said pleasantly but commandingly:
+
+"Take my coat inside, please."
+
+He shed his fur coat and pulled off his fur-lined gloves and tossed both
+into Ross's arms, while Hank, watching the proceeding out of the tail
+of an amused eye, talked with Wilson.
+
+Ross, biting his lips, backed into the shack and tossed coat and gloves
+on the end of the table near Weston. The boy, following his moves from
+the doorway, pointed at the prostrate man, asking in a surprised and
+subdued voice:
+
+"What ails him?"
+
+"Broke his leg," responded Ross shortly, not relishing the touch of
+lordliness in the other's manner.
+
+"How did he do it?" demanded the stranger.
+
+"Horse fell on him," answered Ross, and returned abruptly to his work
+with the plaster.
+
+Weston lay with his blanket drawn up to his chin and one arm thrown over
+his face and ear, his face turned to the wall. He was breathing regularly
+as though in sleep, although Ross knew he was wide awake. This was a
+favorite position with him when Hank was entertaining guests. It saved
+him the trouble of responding to inquiries, and, as Ross had come to
+suspect, might also serve to avert a chance recognition.
+
+Presently Wilson approached the dugout, leaving the boy in the corral
+rubbing down his mount. One arm was thrown in rough affection over
+Hank's shoulder while the two pulled each other about like two boys
+at play.
+
+"I tell you, Hank!" Wilson exclaimed at the door, "this is what ye might
+call God's country, and I always have a feelin' of gettin' home in
+these parts. But, Jehoshaphat! it didn't look a spell ago as if I'd
+ever strike the trail to the mountains again. It looked like as if I'd
+have to throw up my claims and----"
+
+"Sh!" interrupted Hank tiptoeing into the shack. "Guess he's asleep,
+ain't he?" He explained over his shoulder in a hoarse whisper. "Chap
+named Weston that come this way three weeks ago and bust his leg out in
+front, here. Hoss fell on him."
+
+Wilson, who followed at Hank's heels, looked Weston over with friendly
+but detached interest. "On the mend, is he?" asked the newcomer subduing
+his voice with difficulty.
+
+Hank forgot to continue his whisper. "You bet!" he exclaimed heartily.
+"Doc here is a-mendin' him t' beat anything I ever seen from a full
+sized doctor." He jerked his thumb toward Ross. "Doc's goin' to have
+him all plastered up and out of here to-morrow."
+
+Wishing looked at Ross with a pleasant nod, stepped over the bench and
+was about to seat himself at the table when he bethought him suddenly
+of his riding companion. Leaning forward he looked out of the doorway.
+Then with a nod he sat down and forgetting that Weston was supposedly
+sleeping, raised his voice again to its normal high key.
+
+"Fetch on them come-backs, Hank. My pard'll be here in a minute. I need
+t' git the start of him in eating always, fer he ain't long on grub
+such as we shake out here. I expect," with an amused chuckle, "that it
+ain't exactly what he's used to."
+
+Hank slapped his knee and leaned forward. "Say, Wishin', how d'ye come
+t' be hikin' over the country with Queen Victory's youngest? My eyes!
+Ain't he a reg'lar ornament t' th' landscape?"
+
+Wishing Wilson laughed softly and then glancing hastily from Ross to
+Weston, shook his head at Hank. "Less is all right!" he declared
+cautiously. "He's young yet. Lots of time to learn--more time 'n
+you and me have, Hank."
+
+Hank set coffee before his guest, asking, "Who is he and where does he
+hail from?"
+
+Wilson squared himself before the table, both arms resting thereon and
+began to eat noisily, talking between knifefuls.
+
+"Luckiest thing for me that ever struck the trail, that young feller
+is," he began. "I was stranded down in Omaha without a red cent in my
+pocket and no way of raisin' one. If you'll believe me I couldn't
+find a man in Omaha with brains enough to believe in them claims of
+mine, no, not with the ore assay report before their eyes. I tell ye,
+Hank, times have changed down in Omaha. There wa'n't no grub-stakers
+waitin' around like there used to be fer prospectors to snatch up--no,
+not one. And just as I was gettin' plum used up talkin', this young
+feller, Less Jones, fell onto me outer a clear sky. It was in a hotel
+where I went t' talk with a drummer, but not t' eat. Why, Hank, yer
+Uncle Wilson didn't have the price of a hotel dinner handy, and that
+drummer never treated me! Well, I stood tryin' to persuade him that his
+salary was burning fer investment in my claims, when in comes Less
+and lined up 'longside me listenin'. I hadn't any kind of objection
+to his hearin', but he looked like such a cub that I never paid no
+attention t' 'im, but when the drummer said a final 'Nix,' Less he
+stepped up and asked me about the claims, and, t' make a long story
+short, before the end of the day I was hikin' over town hot footed on
+the trail of supplies with Less at my heels with an open pocketbook."
+
+"Does he stay up t' the Creek with you?" asked Hank wonderingly.
+
+"Says he will," laughed Wilson. "Says he's wanted for years t' try his
+luck with quartz!"
+
+"Must 'a' begun wantin' then when he was a baby," remarked Hank
+succinctly. "Where's his ma and pa?"
+
+Wishing shrugged his shoulders and balanced a quantity of pork and
+potatoes on the blade of his knife. "Search me! He says there's no one
+to hender him doin' what he pleases, and so I take it he's dropped
+out of some fairy orphanage som'ers where they have gold t' burn.
+I'm fallin' on his neck more'n I'm askin' him questions that he
+don't want t' answer. Less is an all right sort, you'll find, but
+he ain't long on information."
+
+At this point Wishing's garrulity suffered an interruption from the
+entrance of his young partner.
+
+Leslie Jones walked with the erect bearing that Aunt Anne coveted for
+Ross. Buttoning his short corduroy jacket over a soft flannel shirt,
+across the front of which was suspended a large gold chain, he ran his
+fingers around inside his collar and looked about impatiently.
+
+Ross, attending strictly to his work, did not look up. Hank, sitting on
+a bench opposite Wilson, spread his elbows yet further apart on the table
+and indicated a place beside him.
+
+"Set down and fall to, young feller!"
+
+"I'll wash up first," returned Leslie in a tone which had a decided
+edge. His manner plainly indicated his desire to be waited on.
+
+Hank raised his eyebrows and waved a hand vaguely toward the stove.
+"There's pans 'n' water. Help yerself. Guess there's a towel hikin'
+about som'ers in the corner. My dozen best handmade 'uns ain't come
+in yet from the laundry!"
+
+Every one laughed except Weston and Leslie. The former breathed
+regularly, apparently unconscious of all that was said and done in the
+room. The latter flushed, and plunging into the corner tumbled the pans
+about angrily like a spoiled child, spilling as much water on the
+floor as he could. Then he sat down beside his partner and asked
+shortly for some hot coffee, with an emphasis on the adjective.
+
+Hank leisurely pushed the coffee-pot across the table. "Help yerself.
+This was hot a spell ago and will be again at supper time." Hank's voice
+having acquired an edge by this time, "Victory's youngest" poured the
+coffee angrily but wordlessly into his thick cup and ate in silence,
+listening to Wilson, who was too much occupied with a vision of riches
+to come to allow such scenes to disturb his equanimity.
+
+"As I told Less," he went on, raising his voice to drown opposition,
+"we'll leave part of the sticks and the grub up the cañon to the coal
+claims and then when it comes winter and the mountains are impassable,
+we'll just strike the trail over from the Creek to the cañon and work
+the coal till things open up in the spring. That Creek is a mean place to
+drop into this late."
+
+"What Creek?" asked Ross, suddenly awakening to the conversation.
+
+"Meadow Creek," returned Wishing.
+
+"That's where Doc is bound fer, Wishing'," volunteered Hank. "Doc is
+come out t' help Jake Weimer."
+
+Wishing surveyed the boy with cordial eyes. "Jake Weimer, hey? We'll be
+neighbors, then. My claims ain't two miles up the Creek."
+
+"Doc, he's Grant's boy," supplemented Hank. "But I bet my last year's
+hat that he can't mine it as well as he can doctor."
+
+"Doctor!" exclaimed Leslie Jones curiously. "Are you a doctor?"
+
+"He's fixed him up all right," interrupted Hank pointing to Weston.
+"Stretched his leg over my best chicken-coop and needled his arm and
+made 'im walk a chalk line generally. Oh, I tell ye Doc is better than
+the Cody doctor."
+
+Ross laughed. "I know something about medicine and surgery," he
+confessed. "I've read and helped my uncle, Dr. Grant. That's all."
+
+"All!" echoed Leslie Jones. His manner was touched with disbelief as he
+looked from Weston to Ross. "And did you, alone, set a leg?"
+
+Ross sought to change the subject. "Aw--that's not much--when you know
+how. I'm glad I'm to have neighbors up on Meadow Creek. Hope I don't
+have to stay there any longer than you do."
+
+"Expect to clean up the title this year, do you?" asked Wilson.
+
+"That's what I came for."
+
+"Well, all I can say now is that you'll be mighty glad you come. I tell
+ye what, Doc, Meadow Creek is the mining deestrict of the future,"
+whereupon Wishing launched on a glowing account of the future of Meadow
+Creek claims as he saw the future. His eyes lighted up and he forgot
+to eat as he told of the wonderful value of the gold and silver that he
+expected to pull out of the claims he had staked the previous year.
+He believed so thoroughly in his own vision that even Ross, whose
+interests were far removed from gold mining, felt a thrill of expectancy
+as to the outcome of his work in Meadow Creek, while Leslie, whose
+appetite was slight for the coarse, ill-cooked food, dropped his fork
+to listen although he must have heard the recital many times before.
+
+Shortly after dinner, the two saddled up and departed in the order in
+which they had come.
+
+"So long!" yelled Wilson, waving his hat. "We expect t' strike it rich
+before a month."
+
+"Good luck!" shouted Hank and Ross together, the latter adding, "I'll
+see you again in a few days."
+
+Hank, stuffing his hands into his pockets, pursed up his lips and
+whistled shortly as the pack outfit disappeared in a cloud of dust.
+
+"If Wishin' is cal'latin' that he has enough there to last two men all
+winter he's about as far off in his cal'lations as--well, as Wishin'
+usually is. Wishin' ain't no lightnin' cal'later on any subject, but
+he's a mighty likely chap t' have around."
+
+"Judging from the small amount his pard ate to-day he has food enough,
+I should say," returned Ross, adding hastily, "but then I realize that I
+know nothing about it."
+
+"Huh!" laughed Hank, "he must know that when that there young chap
+has been in the mountings a few days he'll eat mulligan 'n' spotted
+pup 'n' bacon with the best of 'em. His will be a good, lively
+comin' appetite--but huh! I should hate mightily t' have t' feed
+'im. Wonder if Wishin' has packed some bibs along 'n' silk socks
+'n' hand-warmers! Huh!"
+
+When Ross reëntered the cabin he found Weston staring out of the doorway,
+his arm stretched by his side.
+
+"Guess you didn't sleep much," remarked Hank noisily gathering up the
+dishes.
+
+"All I wanted to," returned Weston shortly.
+
+Hank piled the dishes into a pan and poured boiling water over them.
+"M-m," he soliloquized, "all the time I was lookin' at him I was
+thinkin' I'd seen that young Jones before. M-m--where, I wonder?"
+
+No one answered, and he washed dishes in silence while Ross returned to
+his work and Weston lay staring out-of-doors.
+
+The following day Ross saw his patient depart on the stage headed toward
+Cody, and prepared to take the next one himself in the opposite direction.
+
+When he assisted Weston out of the door of the dugout, he knew exactly as
+much about him as when he followed his prostrate figure in at the same
+door three weeks before--and no more, unless the name be excepted.
+
+Hank watched the stage off with a scowl, and then departed from his usual
+custom of cautious speech, where possible customers were concerned.
+
+"Guess that feller must 'a' hailed from som'ers beside Wyoming," he
+grumbled. "Now, a Wyoming chap would 'a' paid his bill, or if he was
+on the hog's back, he'd owned up and passed his promise. But that
+there maverick never even said, 'Thank ye,' to you or me; and here
+you're knocked out of three weeks' work along of him, to say nothin'
+of the work day and night you've put in on 'im. Well, good riddance;
+'tain't no ways likely we'll set eyes on 'im again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A MAN WHO NEEDED BRACING UP
+
+
+THE road to Miners' Camp from Meeteetse, forty-five miles long, follows
+the Grey Bull to its junction with Wood River. Thence it wanders along
+through miles of fertile ranch lands; then, rising among the black
+foot-hills, up, up, it winds across the precipitous face of Jo-Jo Hill,
+and plunges among the snow-crowned Shoshones, crowded nearer and yet
+nearer to Wood River until finally there is but room for the narrow
+track and the narrow stream at the bottom of the deep cañon.
+
+This was the road which Ross traveled the day following Weston's
+departure for Cody, and traveled in increasing discomfort. The further
+they advanced among the mountains, the colder it became, until, finally,
+Ross was obliged to desert the high seat beside Bill Travers, the
+driver, and seek shelter inside the stage, but not until he had learned
+from Bill that there was no hotel in Miners' Camp.
+
+In talking with Hank he had taken it for granted that there was a lodging
+house of some description and so had asked no questions on the subject.
+
+"I pack my grub along," Bill assured him carelessly, "'n' roll up in
+a bunk in a shack that some one 'r other has left. If you've packed
+yer bed along, stay with me to-night. There's the floor," hospitably,
+"and I guess I can rustle grub enough fer both. Anyhow, there's two
+eatin'-houses where you could fill up."
+
+At five in the afternoon the stage crawled through the dusk over a
+yielding bridge built of hemlock saplings creaking under their coating
+of ice and snow, and stopped in front of a shack out of whose open door
+glinted a welcome light. Another light appeared high up on the side of
+the mountain.
+
+"Hold up there, Bill," was the shout which had brought the stage to a
+standstill. "Got a cold, hungry young chap inside there, name of Grant?
+Wishin' Wilson went through yesterday and said he'd be along with you
+to-day."
+
+Ross recognized the voice as belonging to Steele, and, opening the stage
+door, answered for himself in the affirmative.
+
+Steele shook hands cordially. "Better get out here, Grant," he invited in
+an offhand way; "I have some beefsteak ready to fry, and the spuds are
+bakin' in the oven."
+
+Ross climbed out with as much alacrity as his cold, benumbed limbs would
+permit. But no sooner was he on the ground than something queer occurred.
+His legs gave every indication of doubling up under him, while his head
+felt as large and airy as a balloon. He clutched the wheel, but not
+until Steele had clutched him.
+
+"Altitude!" exclaimed Steele. "Being a mile and a half above sea-level
+don't agree with most people just at first."
+
+Ross leaned against the wheel, looking up giddily at the strip of sky
+corralled between the towering summits of Dundee and Gale's Ridge.
+It seemed to him that it was the mountains and not the altitude which
+oppressed him, and bore down upon him, and shut off his breath.
+
+"My baggage," he began hesitatingly to the stage-driver, "where--if
+there's no hotel----"
+
+But Steele interposed. "Lend a hand here, Bill, with these trunks. I want
+Grant to put up at my hotel to-night, bag and baggage."
+
+Bill grinned, and laid hands on the emergency chest. "He'll git a better
+layout than at my old shack, I tell ye! Say! Is Uncle Jake in Camp?"
+
+Steele shook his head. "Nope. I'm going to see about packin' Grant over
+to the Creek myself in a few days," and a great wave of thankfulness
+surged over Ross.
+
+A few moments later Steele waved his hand around the one room of his
+little log shack. "This is the only kind of home you'll find up here,
+Grant, about the same as Weimer has over on the Creek. Things are rough
+and ready here, without any frills."
+
+As he spoke he glanced at the larger of Ross's trunks.
+
+If Amos Steele understood one subject better than mining operations, that
+one subject was men. He saw in Ross an overgrown, homesick boy, with a
+stout but untested "backbone."
+
+"And I wonder," thought Steele, "how far that backbone is going to take
+him when it gets a healthy development, and--how far is he goin' to
+develop it?"
+
+Furthermore, Steele concluded, Ross was more accustomed to bending over
+a book than over a shovel; and he shrugged his shoulders at the thought
+of the Weimer-Grant claims.
+
+"His backbone can't do everything," he decided, "no matter how stout
+it grows, especially when Weimer has lost his."
+
+Steele's shack was at the foot of Gale's Ridge. Half-way up the
+mountainside was another and larger shack, where his miners, thirty in
+number, ate. Above that was the "bunk-house" where they slept. And yet
+higher up was the mouth of the tunnel out of which the Gale's Ridge
+Mining Company expected to pull vast wealth when the Burlington Road
+had done its part.
+
+"I'd rather bach it," Steele explained to Ross as they sat down to
+beefsteak and baked potatoes, "than to be with the men. It's pleasanter
+for me--and," with a jolly laugh, "for them also, I expect."
+
+Ross liked this frank young superintendent who had so kindly taken him
+in. He felt that he must get his bearings in some way, and Steele was
+the man to set him right.
+
+Therefore quite early in the evening the boy burst out with:
+
+"Mr. Steele, I've come to the conclusion that I'm the greenest
+tenderfoot that ever came to Wyoming. Now, you know the ropes here, and I
+don't. Will you advise me?"
+
+"That is exactly what I've been wanting to do," assented Steele swiftly
+and heartily. "But I won't do it at all to-night. It'll take you a
+few days to get over your light-headedness, and until you do the trail
+around Crosby won't be healthy ridin' for you. Anyway, there's a lot
+to be done, for Uncle Jake Weimer hasn't laid in any winter supplies
+yet."
+
+Ross tipped his chair back against the unhewn logs, and thrust his
+hands into his pockets. Ever since the talkative prospector had passed
+through the stage camp he had wondered what manner of man Weimer was.
+But not until he was jolting along in the stage that day did one sentence
+especially recur to him in all its possible significance.
+
+The prospector had said, "'Curious how that snow-blindness should have
+touched Dutch Weimer.'"
+
+Therefore, Ross's first question was of the man he had crossed the
+continent to help.
+
+The answer reached far into the night; and when at last Ross, wrapped in
+his blankets, lay down in a bunk built against the wall, it was a long
+time before sleep came, tired as he was.
+
+The following evening, after a full day's work, he sat down beside the
+little home-made table to write to Dr. Grant and Aunt Anne while Steele
+washed up the supper dishes.
+
+"I should be worse than helpless, were it not for Steele," he wrote;
+"and even with him to help me I may as well own up I am in blue funk.
+Not a man is there to hire; so the programme for the next few months
+seems to be this: Yours truly has got to put on some muscle, and buckle
+down to pick and shovel. Where do you think Piersol's 'Histology' is
+coming in, uncle, or that man Remsen?
+
+"But that's not the worst. It seems that Weimer isn't as stout in
+his head as he was before he was stricken with snow-blindness, and,
+although he is as stout as ever in his muscles, he doesn't take kindly
+to work any more. Hasn't even taken the winter's supplies of food
+and dynamite over to Meadow Creek. He's just smoking his pipe in peace
+because of the man father is sending to help him out! But I can tell
+you that the peace is all on his side.
+
+"The mountains here are the original packages, all right. They're miles
+high, and look as if they'd topple over on a fellow with but half an
+excuse. And then the air--or the lack of it, rather! I've not been able
+to walk any distance without a cane, so uncertain does this rare air
+make me in my motions. But Steele says I'll get over that in a day or
+two. So, day after to-morrow he is going with me to Meadow Creek with
+the Gale's Ridge Company's horses--we 'pack' over the supplies for
+the winter, and the emergency chest just as it is; but, Aunt Anne, only
+a small portion of the contents of my big trunk can go. Over on the
+Creek Steele can explain to me about the amount of work to be done,
+for fear Weimer doesn't tell it straight----"
+
+Suddenly Ross stopped. He leaned back and bit his pencil, his eyes
+narrowing frowningly as he glanced over the letter. Then with a gesture
+of disdain he caught up the sheets, and tore them into fragments.
+
+Steele paused in the act of placing the dishes in the rough cupboard
+which was nailed to the logs behind the stove.
+
+"Well, I'd think twice before I tore up a letter--too hard work to write
+'em."
+
+"I have thought twice," returned Ross emphatically. "That's why I tore
+it up. No use piling up all my difficulties on them first thing. Aunt
+Anne worries enough over my being here, as it is."
+
+"So there's an 'Aunt Anne,' is there?" mused Steele to himself over
+the dishes. He glanced at the bits of paper in a heap on the table. "Good
+work she and that doctor uncle have done." He surveyed Ross's clean-cut,
+clear-eyed face as it bent above a second and brighter letter, one that
+ignored or made light of the difficulties oppressing the boy.
+
+In order to divert further the attention of the recipients, Ross also
+wrote divers pieces of information that he had learned from Steele.
+
+"I am trying to ferret out this gold mining business from the beginning,"
+he wrote. "I never got the hang of it before, and, if Mr. Steele wasn't
+everlasting patient with me, I wouldn't be getting much now, because
+everything is so new and strange here. I don't half understand the
+men's lingo, because they have a strange name for everything.... Well,
+it seems that a gold mine up here is started in some such a way as this:
+along comes a prospector--quartz crazy, he is called if he's in dead
+earnest--with a pick and shovel, a hammer and microscope, and a camp
+outfit. If some one else has provided him with food and the outfit he is
+'grub-staked' and his 'pard' is entitled to half of the results of
+his work. Father, for instance, has grub-staked Weimer for years. This
+prospector pegs away at the rocks, getting specimens of ore and
+examining them under his microscope. He goes right past rocks that
+look to me full of gold they glitter so. No gold in such! But when he
+finds some common, dull old stone that doesn't show up much to me but
+has all the earmarks of 'a high value' in gold, then he thinks he has
+found the outcropping of a good 'lead,' because all the rock that
+is behind that rock in the same strata is supposed to have that much
+gold in it or more. So there he 'stakes his claim.' You see I've
+got the hang of a few of the terms already. First, he drives a stake near
+the rock and leaves on it a paper with his name and the date and a
+notice that the land is his for so many feet each way. He can't take
+possession of more than six hundred feet one way and fifteen hundred
+the other in one claim, but he can stake off as many other claims
+right beside this first as he wants to. The staking is easy enough,
+but the tug of war comes in doing enough work to patent the claims! This
+means to get a deed of possession from the state. There is where Weimer
+and I are up against it--on the work side! But guess I'd better not
+make your heads ache any more with such an accumulation of learned facts.
+I'll just say good-bye now and continue the headache in my next."
+
+To his father he wrote a different kind of letter, a defense of his delay
+at Dry Creek.
+
+"I couldn't desert a man in that shape," he wrote, "although I have
+lost three weeks at exactly the season of the year, I find, when three
+weeks count for the most. I'm sorry it happened that way, but I shall
+try to put in good time now and make up. Anyway, I guess the delay is
+as broad as it is long, because, if that accident hadn't occurred,
+I shouldn't have known Steele; and it's his help that's smoothing
+things out here for me to begin work."
+
+Ross did not know that the way he had conducted himself at Dry Creek was
+the cause of the very practical interest which Steele was taking in him.
+
+But not all of Steele's influence in Camp had secured a single laborer
+for Meadow Creek. Ross found that Andy's explanation on the Cody stage
+held good. No one cared to go any further out of the world than Miners'
+Camp.
+
+"It's bad enough," one of the Mountain Company's men told Ross, "up
+here eighty miles from the railroad, with a stage only three times a
+week in summer and any time it can get through in the winter. But, when
+it comes to workin' on the Creek, _ex_cuse me! Seven mile over Crosby,
+and the trail shut up half the year. No, I'm goin' to Cody when the
+Mountain works shuts down."
+
+The Gale's Ridge Company worked all winter; but the Mountain Company
+dismissed its employees, twenty in number, when the deep snows came.
+
+To the twenty Ross applied in vain. Labor was dear and men scarce "Cody
+way," and the miners refused to be mewed up over on the Creek for five
+months at any price.
+
+"You see," Steele explained, "I'd be glad to employ all the twenty
+during the winter myself; but not many of 'em will ever stay up here
+in Camp--too much cut off. I shall run short of hands all winter. Of
+course, when the railroad gets up here, it will be different. They'll
+be willing to stay then."
+
+Ross checked a groan. "The railroad isn't here, but I am," he observed
+grimly.
+
+Steele looked at him curiously. "Why don't you strike the trail back
+East," he asked abruptly, "since you started out without understanding
+the situation?"
+
+Ross glanced up in surprise. "Why, I never thought of doing that!" he
+exclaimed, and dropped the subject.
+
+But Steele continued to look him over with a new interest; for the stage
+the previous evening had brought to Steele a letter from the elder Grant
+asking for private information concerning the situation Ross, Junior,
+was encountering. Ross's brief letters from Dry Creek had shown Ross,
+Senior, that he had no real knowledge of the nature of the difficulties
+into which he had sent his son.
+
+The morning of the third day, Ross, staggering around uncertainly without
+a cane, aided Steele in binding the supplies on the wooden saddles of
+the packhorses. From the Gale's Ridge Company's supply-shack they
+brought sacks of flour and cornmeal, boxes of canned vegetables and
+condensed milk, sides of bacon and hams, bags of coffee and tea, all of
+which Steele with many a twist of the rope and "half-hitch" secured to
+the clumsy saddles. The trustiest horse carried the emergency chest.
+On Ross's own horse, lashed behind his saddle, were his bed blankets
+and a bundle from the trunk Aunt Anne had packed with such care.
+
+"All ready?" called Steele, one foot in his stirrup.
+
+He looked back at Ross already mounted, bringing up the rear of the
+string of packhorses, standing in front of the company's store.
+
+"All ready," shouted Ross.
+
+Steele, about to swing himself up, hesitated. He glanced again at Ross.
+Then, dropping his bridle reins to the ground, he disappeared inside the
+store, emerging presently with a short rifle and a cartridge belt.
+
+"Ever use a gun?" he asked.
+
+Ross hesitated. "I've practiced target shooting a little, and gone
+hunting a few times; but," candidly, "I don't amount to shucks with a
+gun."
+
+Steele grinned, and handed it up. "Take it along," he advised, "and
+practice some more. It may bring you fresh meat. Sometimes elk and
+mountain sheep come down to the Creek to drink over there--won't come
+amiss, anyhow."
+
+Ross accepted the gun; and Steele, going back to the head of the
+procession, mounted, and led the way up the cañon, which presently
+broadened until it formed a snow-flecked valley a few rods wide. Here
+were a dozen shacks, another eating house, and the store of the Mountain
+Company. The mouth of its tunnel could be seen high on the side of the
+mountain above the store.
+
+Immediately beyond this valley the cañon was nearly closed by two great
+peaks. The one on the left was still Dundee; but on the right Gale's
+Ridge gave place to Crosby, behind which lay Meadow Creek Valley.
+
+Zigzagging across the face of this mountain wound a narrow trail
+gradually ascending. Up and yet up climbed the horses until Ross clung to
+his saddle involuntarily while looking down. Soon Wood River became
+a thread, and the shacks became black doll-houses set in patches of snow.
+
+On the trail the snow lay deep in the hollows, but was swept away
+wherever the east wind could touch it. But, snow-filled or black,
+the trail ever ascended. The peak of Dundee opposite, which had seemed
+from the cañon narrow and remote, stretched out now immense and so near
+that Ross felt he could hurl a stone across and hit it.
+
+He looked ahead. They were approaching the dizzy shoulder of Crosby.
+Steele rounded it, and disappeared. One by one the slow packhorses, their
+loads hitting against the rocks on the inside of the trail, crawled
+cautiously after, and also disappeared. Then before Ross opened a view
+of startling grandeur. He was looking out over the top of Gale's Ridge
+and down across Big Horn Basin, beyond Cody, eighty miles away and into
+the blue heart of the Big Horn Mountains. The sight brought with it a
+pang of homesickness. Eighty miles from a railroad! Eighty difficult,
+laborious miles! Ross felt helpless and small and decidedly shaky in
+this strange new world about which he had so much to learn.
+
+Clinching his teeth hard together, he looked up. Above were bowlders
+seemingly glued to the almost upright mountainside. Below--but Ross's
+head swam, and he turned his eyes to the inside of the trail, and clung
+to the saddle. Below was a sheer drop of a thousand feet down to the
+falls of Meadow Creek, which separated Crosby from Gale's Ridge. The
+mist came up in clouds rolling thick and frosty in the zero air. This was
+the quarter-mile of trail which cut Meadow Creek Valley off from Wood
+River Cañon for months during the year.
+
+"Well," laughed Steele as they stopped where the trail widened beyond
+the dangerous shoulder, "you didn't take a header, did you?"
+
+Ross passed his hand across his forehead. His face was pale. "No, but--I
+felt every minute that I'd go over."
+
+"You'll get used to that," returned Steele easily. "You see why that
+trail becomes impassable later, don't you? If it was just the snow on
+the trail, why, that wouldn't count. You could shovel it off around
+the shoulder, and go on snow-shoes the rest of the way. But, when the
+snow lodges up over the shoulder something like ten feet deep, and a
+chinook or warm wind comes along and loosens it, a footfall or a man
+calling might start it, and then----" Steele shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"And there is no other way you can get into the Creek valley?" asked Ross.
+
+"No other way with a horse. You can follow the Creek toward its source,
+they say, a few miles and then across. Hunters go that way sometimes,
+but on foot; and they have to scramble for it."
+
+On and on they went over a wide trail now beside the clear little Meadow
+Creek. Ross began to feel giddy again.
+
+"Of course you do," Steele explained the next time they made a stop,
+"because the Creek is half a mile higher than the cañon. But you get
+over that in a few days."
+
+"I wonder," exclaimed Ross suddenly, "how Leslie Jones stood that trail?"
+
+"About the same as the average and ordinary mortal," rejoined Steele
+sarcastically. "But you'll probably have a good many chances of finding
+out for yourself. You'll be glad to see anybody, even young Jones!"
+
+At last, after threading their way between spurs and over bowlders and
+through valleys, they emerged on the other side of Crosby, and found
+themselves in a bowl the sides of which were formed by mountains so high
+and grim that Ross gasped for the breath that he felt the peaks would
+eventually shut off.
+
+It was a queer and uncomfortable feeling, this which the mountains gave
+him, a sense of being shut in and overpowered and helpless.
+
+The peaks on all sides were snow-heaped; but the valley, protected as
+it was, showed patches of black earth. Sage-brush with scrub spruce and
+hemlock were the only vegetation of the valley visible, but the sides
+of the mountains showed a good growth of hemlock and pine trees reaching
+to timber line only a few hundred feet up.
+
+On the left at the foot of Crosby--whose back looked as high to Ross
+as its face, despite the fact that he was half a mile higher here than
+in the cañon--two columns of smoke were ascending from two clusters of
+hemlocks a quarter of a mile apart. Toward these, Steele, drawing in his
+horse, pointed.
+
+"The first is your layout," he called back over his shoulder, "the other
+is the McKenzies'!"
+
+"And where is Wilson's?" asked Ross, eagerly.
+
+Steele faced in the opposite direction and indicated a narrow trail that
+led to the right, disappearing in a forest of scrub pine which filled the
+ravine between two of the mountains that formed the rim of the bowl.
+"Follow that trail and you'll reach 'em. But ten to one, before you can
+do it they'll follow the trail this way and reach you!"
+
+"I hope so!" exclaimed Ross in a heartfelt tone.
+
+A few moments later he was face to face with Weimer.
+
+The latter stood in the doorway of a low log shack, his great hands
+cupped over large blue goggles through which his eyes showed dimly,
+the lids screwed together, leaving only slits for the admission of the
+dreaded glare of light from the snow. His hands were crusted with
+dirt. His face, bearded to the rim of the goggles, was grimy, and the
+beard matted. His hair hung uneven and uncombed to his thick rounded
+shoulders. He wore a colored flannel shirt, a sheepskin coat, and
+corduroy trousers thrust into the knee-high tops of old shoes.
+
+In response to Steele's greeting and introduction Weimer extended his
+hand, peered at Ross a moment, and then asked eagerly in a throaty, husky
+voice of Steele:
+
+"D'ye pack any tobac' over?"
+
+"Lots of it," cried Steele jovially. "Enough for your use and some for
+you to give to your neighbors."
+
+Immediately Weimer's sagging, middle-aged figure became straight and
+stiff, and his high forehead wrinkled in a heavy frown.
+
+"Give dem McKenzies anyting! Ven I do, it'll be ven my name ain't Shake
+Veimer."
+
+Steele stepped quickly in front of the older man, and spoke forcefully.
+"There's one thing, Uncle Jake, that you're givin' 'em as fast as
+you can, and that's these claims."
+
+"Nein! Nein!" Weimer shouted. "Das ist nicht so!"
+
+His uneven black hair bobbed wildly about his shoulders. He pumped his
+powerful arms up and down as if the McKenzies were beneath them.
+
+Steele thrust his face near that of the agitated man, and demanded
+roughly, "How many shots have you put since you were over to Camp to
+get me to write to young Grant's father? Say, now!"
+
+Weimer's manner became cringing. He backed into the cabin. "If your
+eyes----" he began, but Steele cut him short.
+
+"You know you've not taken one pound of ore out of your tunnel since.
+You know you have sat around here waitin' for Grant to send some one to
+help you out----"
+
+Weimer put up a great hand, and shrank back as a child would have
+retreated before his mother's upraised slipper. Steele followed him
+into the cabin, and Ross slowly followed Steele.
+
+"The snow ist come," whimpered Weimer; "und I can't see ven the snow
+comes, und the tunnel so far ist to valk----"
+
+But Steele cut short his complaints sternly. "Now," he declared, "all
+your excuses must come to an end. Here is some one to help. Young Grant
+here is going to put this work through, and you've got to brace up and
+help him. I should be ashamed to sit down and let a couple of McKenzies
+take away my claims."
+
+At once Weimer became alert and combative. The McKenzies should not take
+the claims.
+
+"You see how it is," Steele began as he and Ross were carrying the
+cases of dynamite "sticks" up the trail to the tunnel in which Weimer
+was doing the assessment work for the four tracts to which he had laid
+claim. "Mentally Weimer has become suddenly an old and childish man
+while retaining all his physical powers. He can do the work of two
+ordinary men if he can be made to work--and it's up to you to compel
+him. Otherwise, by the first of next July, at the time when these claims
+ought to be patented, you will have to forfeit 'em."
+
+Ross's heart sank. "The first of next July," and it was then but the
+middle of October! He laid the case of sticks down on the ore-dump, and,
+glancing up at the peaks which held him a prisoner, caught his breath
+in a gust of rebellion.
+
+At the mouth of the tunnel, some seven feet high and eight wide, was
+the "dump," to the edge of which ran a rusty track with a "bumper" at
+the end. The track extended into the tunnel. On it stood a lumbering
+vehicle, consisting of the trucks of a hand car, on which was fastened a
+home-made box to carry ore.
+
+"This," explained Steele, "is a remnant of Weimer's better days. There
+was no way to pack a regular car over here, and he devised this. He was a
+smart man until last year."
+
+After dinner, which Weimer prepared,--Ross found him always ready to
+prepare food and eat it,--Steele suggested that they "drop in" on the
+McKenzies.
+
+"Especially," he added, his eyes scanning Ross's face, "after your
+meeting Sandy on the way to Cody."
+
+Ross hesitated. "I don't know about that," he objected, surprised that
+Steele should suggest such a thing. "Wouldn't it be a bit queer for me
+to call on my 'friends the enemy'?"
+
+Steele laughed, but held strongly to his point. "Not queer at all.
+There's no object in not being on a speakin'-footing with 'em," he
+said. "There's nothing to be gained and a lot to be lost by openly
+recognizing what they're waiting for. You're goin' to get almighty
+lonesome up here,"--involuntarily Ross swallowed, and turned his face
+away,--"and that Sandy McKenzie is good company--on the surface. I
+can't say as much for the other, Waymart, but he'll pass."
+
+The sun was shining warmly when they left Weimer's cabin. The snow above
+the narrow loam-paved trail was melting and running in rivulets down to
+the creek. Overhead the spruce boughs met, and laced their green fingers
+together, sending down a damp, spicy odor.
+
+Near the McKenzie cabin Steele paused and looked up the mountainside.
+A few rods away the earth was thrown up around some tree stumps whose
+tops had been recently cut off.
+
+"You see," he explained in a low tone to Ross, "the McKenzies are
+supposed to be over here working some claims that they staked out last
+spring. But look there! They haven't got the discovery hole finished
+yet!"
+
+The "discovery hole," as Ross had learned, must be dug within thirty
+days after the staking of the claim, and is a name given to the ten
+feet of development work required by the law of Wyoming. This ten feet of
+digging may mark either the commencement of a tunnel if the claim is
+located on the side of a mountain, or, if the claim is on level ground,
+the hole takes the form of a shaft driven perpendicularly into the
+earth. With a claim thus staked and developed, the owner may rest secure
+for one year without further work. Then, in order to hold the claim
+against any covetous claim "jumper" he must do one hundred dollars'
+worth of development work a year for five years in order to obtain a
+patent. If he has staked several adjacent claims, work for all may be
+done in one shaft or tunnel.
+
+Ross, merely glancing at the incomplete discovery hole, looked at the
+cabin from which the sound of voices issued. His gaze was doubtful, and
+his footsteps lagged.
+
+Seeing this, Steele walked on briskly, rapped on the sagging door, threw
+it open, and brought Ross reluctantly face to face with his "friends the
+enemy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE MEN OF MEADOW CREEK
+
+
+SANDY MCKENZIE sat before a rough board table on which his elbows lazily
+rested, supporting half his weight. Sandy needed no gymnasium exercises
+to teach him relaxation. Before him were the remains of a hearty dinner,
+the chief dish of which smelled to Ross like beefsteak. From this dish
+from time to time Sandy forked bits of meat on which he leisurely chewed.
+
+He wore the same garb in which Ross had first seen him; but the corduroy
+trousers were much the worse for wear and dirt, and it had been weeks
+since his face had felt a razor. His sandy hair also had increased in
+length, one thick lock perpetually dangling over his forehead.
+
+Waymart, an older and darker man than Sandy, lay in his bunk smoking,
+his knees drawn up and his hands clasped around them. Waymart was clean
+shaven, and his black hair was closely clipped.
+
+Both Sandy and Waymart were surprised to see Ross at their cabin door,
+but Sandy favored him with a delighted grin. Rising without disturbing
+the box on which he had been sitting, he straddled across it, and held
+out a cordial hand.
+
+"Hello, Tenderfoot," he shouted. "I hear they've added Doc to that there
+name since I see you last."
+
+Waymart crawled slowly out of his bunk. His black eyes met Ross's an
+instant, and then slid away, the lids drooping. He held out a hand which,
+although larger than Sandy's, lacked its cordial grip.
+
+"Have some chairs," Sandy invited gayly, kicking forward a couple of
+boxes. "These here are our second-best plush, upholstered, _ma_hogany
+affairs. The best are coming from Chicago when the Burlington Road gets
+into Camp."
+
+There was about Sandy such an air of gay irresponsibility and cordiality
+that Ross brightened perceptibly. After all, his "friends the enemy"
+might not be bad neighbors, and he was glad he had allowed Steele to
+persuade him to come.
+
+Pushing his box away from the red-hot stove, he tipped it up on end, and
+sat down beside the only window the cabin afforded. Directly outside,
+hanging to a tree, were the hind quarters of a beef, as Ross supposed
+at first glance. But, chancing to glance down, he found himself looking
+at the head of an elk with great branching antlers, a head such as he had
+seen at "The Irma" in Cody, credited to the marksmanship of Buffalo Bill.
+
+"Last week," he heard Waymart saying to Steele, "we got him over near the
+Divide."
+
+Ross opened his eyes in astonishment. "A week!" he exclaimed, glancing
+from the table to the meat hanging uncovered and unprotected outside.
+
+Sandy caught the expression, and slapped his leg gleefully. "Think that
+there meat ought to be off color by this time, don't ye, Doc? Well, let
+me tell ye we'll be eatin' on it hangin' just where it is until it's
+gone; and the last bite will be as good as the first."
+
+Steele explained. "The air up here cures meat, Grant, quite as well as
+brine. It takes meat a mighty long time to spoil--in fact, if it's
+properly jerked, it never spoils."
+
+"'Jerked'?" interrogated Ross: but Sandy had launched into an account
+of their hunt over on the Divide, and no one explained the "jerking"
+process then.
+
+As Sandy talked, his manner lost its laziness. He became animated,
+laughing and gesticulating constantly, and occasionally running his
+fingers through his hair and throwing the stray front lock back among its
+fellows.
+
+Waymart had lain back in his bunk again, and unceremoniously elevated
+his knees, between which he glanced at Ross from time to time. He said
+but little, and smiled less.
+
+The two occupied a cabin similar to Weimer's except that it was cleaner.
+In one corner was a heap of supplies, boxes of canned goods, and sacks of
+flour. Seeing Steele's eyes on these, Sandy explained easily:
+
+"Hain't packed over our winter's supplies yet except the sticks. Got
+a plenty of them, but grub's gettin' pretty low."
+
+"Better hurry up, then," remarked Steele in a careless fashion. "All the
+horses in Camp will be sent below in a couple of weeks."
+
+By "below" he meant the ranches of Wood River Valley.
+
+Sandy pushed back his front lock. "Time enough," he returned lightly.
+"Everything can wait except game-huntin'. There's a flock of mountain
+sheep over on the north side of Crosby, and we're goin' to trail 'em
+to-morrow." Then he turned hospitably to Ross. "Want to go along?"
+
+Ross shook his head. "I've--I've got to work," he stammered,
+embarrassed at being obliged to introduce the subject of work on the
+Weimer-Grant claims.
+
+He might have saved himself all embarrassment, as the subject seemed to
+have no personal connection with the gay Sandy.
+
+"What," he cried, "in huntin' season? Wall, I've met other tenderfeet
+constituted like ye; but they soon git over the fit, and so will you, I
+reckon. Brought a gun?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You'll be out with us yet," declared Sandy.
+
+"Sure," came from the bunk in tones of certainty.
+
+Ross said nothing.
+
+"When you bring down your first buck," pursued Sandy, unruffled by the
+boy's silence, "you'll begin to git the Western fever that ye said ye
+didn't want." Here Sandy chortled. "Guess ye think ye're enough of a
+doctor t' cure that fever, but wait and see!"
+
+As he said this, there was in the speaker's manner, or in his blue eyes
+or sandy-bearded face, a return of that subtle something which had caused
+Ross to decide that he "partly liked him and partly didn't."
+
+"I expect," said Steele laughingly, "that Doc here will get as quartz
+crazy as Wishing Wilson is. Of course, you fellows have seen Wishing."
+
+"Wishin' Wilson!" exclaimed Sandy and Waymart in one breath, Sandy
+adding, "What do ye mean? Whereabouts is Wishin'?"
+
+"Well! Well! How comes it you didn't know?" exclaimed Steele
+wonderingly. "Wishing is right up here in your midst. He's holding
+down his claims this minute up yonder," jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder.
+
+Sandy sat up and threw the lock out of his eyes. "Back to stay?" he asked
+with his forehead puckering into a scowl.
+
+Steele nodded. "Stay till the trail is shut up."
+
+The scowl on Sandy's forehead deepened. "Thought Wishin' was on the
+hog's back. Last I knew he was tryin' to sell out to a party in Omaha.
+When did he come?"
+
+Waymart crawled out of his bunk again and lighted his pipe. "We've been
+hunting'," he explained, "ye know. Didn't git back 'til yesterday.
+Place may be full of folks and we none the wiser!"
+
+"I don't think you're crowded up here yet," Steele rejoined. "And
+Wishing didn't come until--when was it?--only a few days ago, he and his
+new partner."
+
+"Pardner?" cried Sandy.
+
+"Pardner!" echoed Waymart, holding his pipe in his hand. "What pardner?"
+
+"Young chap," replied Steele, "about Doc's height and--what age should
+you say, Doc?"
+
+"Probably seventeen," returned Ross. "Not much over," adding, "his name
+is Jones, Leslie Jones. He's from Omaha."
+
+"Grub stake?" asked Waymart succinctly.
+
+"More than that," answered Steele. "Jones is going to stay and help."
+
+The scowl on Sandy's forehead smoothed itself out. He grinned genially
+at Ross. "I wonder now," he mused, "if there's enough of us old goats
+up here in Meadow Greek to round up the kids and take care of 'em!"
+
+"What about the kids taking care of the goats?" laughed Steele.
+"Sometimes they're bigger hustlers."
+
+Sandy nodded lightly. "This air'll take the hustle out quick enough.
+Such high mountains as these hain't made fer hustlers."
+
+As Ross was returning with Steele to Weimer's shack, the superintendent
+glanced at him sidewise.
+
+"I don't believe," he said slowly, "that the McKenzies intend to winter
+here. Of course, there's no object in their stayin'. We all know
+they're not here to work their claims, and it isn't necessary to
+stay in order to watch yours; and they've no winter supplies, nor,"
+thoughtfully, "have they mud-chinked their cabin. You can see daylight
+anywhere between the logs. No, I don't think they have any intention
+of staying."
+
+Ross looked around the tiny valley, with its fringe of windy,
+inaccessible peaks, and thought of the long months ahead of him, shut
+in among those cruelly cold mountains.
+
+"I hope they stay!" he declared fervently.
+
+An hour later, having talked over the situation with Ross thoroughly,
+explained the amount of work necessary to be done in the tunnel, and
+given Weimer large chunks of advice, Steele rode away, driving his
+packhorses in front of him.
+
+Ross watched him out of sight and then entered the shack whistling to
+keep his courage up. Inside he surveyed his temporary home with a shiver
+which stopped the whistle. "Uncle Jake," he suggested, "let's clean
+house the rest of the day. Willing?"
+
+Weimer, sitting on a box in front of the stove, assented without removing
+the pipe from his lips. "Ja, clean up all you vant to. I tink your fader
+was alvays vantin' to clean mit der house."
+
+"Think of my father's ever cleaning out a cabin like this!" muttered
+Ross.
+
+He stood helplessly in front of the door looking from the complacently
+smoking Weimer to the bags and boxes heaped on the floor and then around
+the dirt-encrusted room. He thought of Aunt Anne and her perfectly
+kept house with a great throb of homesickness. Then he thought of his
+father, who had got his "start" under such conditions as these and
+suddenly threw off his coat.
+
+"It's got to be done," he said aloud, "and I've got to do it!"
+
+"Vat?" asked Weimer stupidly turning his goggles in Ross's direction.
+Weimer was hugging his knees in a state of blissful content, the smoke
+from his pipe curling about his head and almost shutting from view the
+big young man on whose shoulders he had already shifted all burdens
+connected with the Grant-Weimer claims.
+
+During the remainder of the day Ross worked cleaning up the cabin and
+packing away their winter supplies. When night came his bunk looked
+better to him than the supper which Weimer was preparing, and he dropped
+asleep sitting beside the table waiting for the flapjacks. But, instead
+of turning in directly after washing the supper dishes, as he had
+intended, he was forced to keep awake until nine o'clock entertaining
+the denizens of Meadow Creek Valley.
+
+The McKenzies came over first. Weimer, who, when night approached, had
+removed his goggles, saw them coming first and raised his voice in
+protest.
+
+"Ach! dem McKenzies! See here, poy, dey mustn't come mit my cabin. Dey
+ist after dese claims. Vorstehen sie nicht?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Uncle Jake, I understand," Ross returned soothingly. "But they
+can't carry the claims away in their pockets to-night, and to-morrow
+morning we are going to bone down to work at such a rate that they'll
+come up missing on their calculations altogether."
+
+At the mention of work, Weimer groaned and retiring precipitately to his
+bunk lay there regarding the doorway hostilely through the smoke from
+his pipe. The next minute the doorway framed Sandy with Waymart close
+behind.
+
+"Hello, Doc!" Sandy pushed his cap to the back of his head. "Mart and
+I, we've started out fer to pay our respects to Wishin' Wilson. Want
+t' hike along with us?"
+
+Ross shrugged his shoulders and sat down on one end of the table,
+dish-cloth in hand. "Guess I've had hiking enough for one day, McKenzie.
+Let's see. It's two miles up there, isn't it?"
+
+"Yep;" Sandy lounged in and sat down on a box. "And by th' same sign
+it's two miles back. But, gosh, young man, a matter of four mile ain't
+nothin' in this country!" He surveyed Ross curiously. "How d'ye travel
+East? In a push cart?"
+
+Ross grinned but flushed. "The trip over from Camp was on rather higher
+ground than I've ever seen before and it--well--it winded me," frankly.
+"And this afternoon I've been hoeing out here. So I'm not exactly as
+fresh as a morning glory to-night."
+
+Waymart came inside and looked around. Ross pushed a box in his direction
+and, after a moment's hesitation and a civil nod in the direction of the
+bunk, the older McKenzie sat down and pulled his pipe out of his pocket.
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Sandy. "When you're a few months further away from
+Pennsylvany you'll forgit that a shack needs a hoe, t' say nothin' of
+a broom." Then he addressed the bunk without looking toward it. "Uncle
+Jake, have you seen Wishin'?"
+
+"Ja," growled Weimer uncivilly, "dat I have."
+
+"How did he look?" smiled Sandy who seemed to enjoy the other's "grouch."
+
+"Look?" violently. "Vy, how should he look but shust like himself!"
+
+Waymart chuckled, and Sandy was about to reply when footsteps were heard
+drawing near. Heavy shoes were crunching the stones and pine needles
+under foot, and voices sounded louder and louder.
+
+"Must be Wilson and Jones," said Ross going to the door.
+
+The room was lighted by two miner's candlesticks driven into the side
+logs. One candle was near the door, and the light fell on the genial
+face of Wishing Wilson, who paused in the doorway to wring Ross's hand
+and shout his greetings at the other occupants of the room, before
+stepping in and allowing his young partner to enter. When Ross finally
+held out his hand to Leslie Jones he knew that he was facing a boy as
+homesick as himself, rather than "Queen Victory's youngest."
+
+Leslie gripped the other's hand as though its owner were a lifelong
+friend. "How do you make it up here?" he asked in a low tone.
+
+"Don't make it yet," responded Ross. "I just got here to-day. Steele
+came up with me."
+
+Then he turned to introduce Leslie to the McKenzies and saw a tableau
+which puzzled him.
+
+Waymart was staring at Leslie with amazed eyes and a lower jaw that
+slightly sagged. He held his pipe in front of his mouth surprised in
+the act of adjusting it between his lips. Sandy, rising, came blithely
+forward, and, in passing Waymart, stumbled and jostled against him.
+Waymart instantly recovered his lost poise. Lowering his pipe he slouched
+along behind Sandy and shook hands with Wilson's partner. Wilson
+himself was over beside Weimer's bunk telling at the top of his voice
+that he had come to a rock wall in his tunnel, and on the other side
+there must, without fail, be either a pocket of free gold or a lead
+that would make the claims among the most valuable in the Shoshones. To
+this optimistic talk Leslie did not listen with the same absorbing
+interest he had shown at Sagehen Roost, Ross noticed.
+
+In fact, a week of loneliness, coarse food and hard work had wilted
+Leslie Jones both physically and mentally. Abject weariness seemed to
+have robbed him of a part of his absorbing self-esteem. Furthermore,
+he appeared to Ross to be troubled as well as homesick. He looked at
+Sandy and Waymart unrecognizingly and sat down on a bench beneath the
+candle by the stove.
+
+"We shall stay," Ross heard Wishing tell the McKenzies, "till the pass
+over Crosby threatens. Then we'll hike it below to the coal claims."
+
+"Didn't know you had any," interrupted Sandy. "Where are they?"
+
+"Up Wood River, only about a mile or such a matter from Camp. Fine
+outcroppin' of coal. Best in the country. When the Burlington gits
+here they've got t' have coal and I says to myself, 'There's where
+you come up on top, Wishin', you'll have th' coal t' sell 'em,'
+me and my pard now," he added with a glance at Jones.
+
+The boy looked at him vaguely, as though he had not heard, and nodded.
+He sat with one knee thrown over the other, his back pressed against the
+side logs, his eyes so heavy that the lids kept drooping despite his
+efforts to keep awake. His hands were blistered, and his new corduroy
+suit dirty and torn. The air of newness which had characterized him when
+Ross first met him was gone. His hair had lengthened, and his cheeks
+revealed hollows. He said but little, being engaged in the absorbing
+effort to keep awake. Besides, Sandy and Wilson gave no one else a chance
+to talk. Waymart smoked stolidly staring at the candle above Leslie.
+
+Ross, sitting with his elbows on the table, ceased to struggle against
+weariness, and, with his head on his arms, fell asleep. He awakened just
+in time to see his callers depart, whereupon he threw himself, dressed,
+in his bunk and slept until late the next morning.
+
+During the next few weeks, all days seemed alike to Ross except Sunday.
+Early each Sunday morning he struck the trail for Miners' Camp, the
+post-office, and Steele's shack. At first he crept shudderingly over
+that quarter mile around the shoulder of Crosby. But soon his head
+lost every sense of giddiness, and his legs regained their accustomed
+strength, and his heart ceased to beat agitatedly at sight of the
+thousand-feet fall.
+
+On the third Sunday he came into Steele's shack with a brighter face
+than he had worn before.
+
+[Illustration: HE STRUCK THE TRAIL]
+
+"Things are sort of righting themselves," he reported over a hot elk
+steak. "I'm getting Weimer down to work in dead earnest," chuckling.
+"I hold the McKenzie boys before his mind's eye continually, and roll
+that car out, and dump it so quickly that he has to step lively to get
+enough ore picked out and blasted out to fill it."
+
+Steele whistled when Ross told him how many cubic feet had been taken
+out of the Weimer-Grant tunnel during the week. He took from his pocket
+a paper and pencil, and fell to figuring. Ross pushed aside the empty
+dishes, and, leaning across the table, looked on with interest. He, too,
+had figured extensively since work began on Meadow Creek, but only during
+the last week had the figures satisfied him.
+
+"Why, man alive!" cried Steele after a few moments' silent work,
+"you'll fetch it, at this rate." He stretched his hand across the
+table impetuously, and gripped Ross's, adding, "I thought you could
+never do it--even with a backbone."
+
+Ross's shoulders straightened, and his face flushed boyishly. "We _must_
+fetch it!"
+
+Steele leaned back, and drummed on the table. "What about the McKenzies?
+Of course they must know what progress you've made."
+
+"Well," exclaimed Ross, "I hope I can keep 'em so interested guessing
+that they'll stay all winter. They come over as socially as you please
+about every evening. Weimer doesn't like it much. He has no use for
+'em, but I have, you bet! I'm glad to have 'em around, especially
+now when I can estimate that at the present rate of speed the tunnel
+will be ready so we can apply for a patent by June."
+
+To Dr. and Mrs. Grant, Ross wrote: "It's going to be a long pull and
+a strong pull, but I shall stick to the ship and show father that I can
+do something else besides setting a bone.
+
+"And what's more and queerer, I'm in danger of getting interested in
+gold mining for itself. Every time I push our little car out to the end
+of the dump and unload the ore I wonder how much gold I'm watching
+roll away down the incline. Aunt Anne, you said in your last that it
+seems such a waste to throw away the ore. Well, if you were here you'd
+find it a greater waste of good money to try to get money out of the
+quartz under present conditions. You see there are only a few dollars'
+worth of gold in a ton of rock. That ton would have to be 'packed,'
+as they say here, eighty miles over the roughest of trails to Cody, and
+there loaded on cars and sent clear to Omaha, our nearest smelter. And
+I guess you know more than I do about the costly process of crushing ore
+and extracting gold from it in a smelter. It's not like mining for
+'pay dirt,' as the men here call placer mining, where you gather up
+sand and wash it out yourself and find the particles of gold in the
+bottom of your pan. This quartz digging is the most expensive kind of
+mining there is. But when the Burlington gets the branch road up into
+Miners' the ore can be loaded at the mines and unloaded in Omaha
+without change of cars. Then we'll dig out the dumps and send them
+to the smelter, and back will come the gold jingling into our pockets.
+But whenever I'm moved to give you information I feel small, for I
+believe, in spite of all you write, that you both know more than I do
+about it now.
+
+"I haven't had a book in my hand, Uncle Fred. When it comes night, I am
+too tired to understand the newspapers that I bring over from Miners',
+to say nothing of delving in histology. I expect I shall forget all I
+ever knew, but never mind! If I can get those claims patented, and so
+satisfy father, then next year I'll begin over again to fit myself
+for college--guess what I knew once will come back when I've studied a
+little. Anyway, I'm not going to worry about it now."
+
+Ross underscored those last words to convince himself that he was not
+worrying, and handed the letter over to Bill Travers to be mailed at
+Meeteetse.
+
+To his father Ross proudly wrote of the week's progress in the tunnel,
+adding in reply to a rather longer letter than usual, which he found
+awaiting him in Camp, "No, I have no intention of throwing up the job."
+
+His father had opened the way wide for him to "throw up the job"
+after receiving the letter he had requested Steele to fill with exact
+information. That part of the information which stated that Ross must
+necessarily be shut up in Meadow Creek Valley for months with a more or
+less weak-headed partner had led to the letter which Ross found awaiting
+him. But Ross, Junior, was not well enough acquainted with Ross, Senior,
+to understand that this letter was an invitation for him to return East.
+
+"He thinks I'm just chicken-hearted enough to be ready to cut and run at
+the first obstacle," was Ross's thought when he read what his father had
+written. His chin came up, and his eyes narrowed. "I'd stay and work
+here a year before I'd show the white feather now."
+
+Ever since his last visit to New York, Ross had dwelt with secret pride
+on the respect and confidence that his father had shown him, and the
+sensation was so new and pleasant that he had no intention of forfeiting
+it.
+
+And thus it happened that, with Grant, Senior, and Dr. Grant and Aunt
+Anne all desiring Ross's presence at home, and with Ross's wishes
+coinciding exactly with theirs, he remained at the "jumping-off place"
+into the wilderness.
+
+In his private office on Broadway, Grant, Senior, read and reread, "No,
+I have no intention of throwing up the job." He twisted uneasily in his
+swivel-chair. He pulled Steele's last letter out of a pigeonhole, read
+it, frowned, and replaced it. Then he leaned back and admitted aloud:
+
+"I wish the boy was safely entered in medical college."
+
+But, even as he considered the matter, "the boy" with a small pack on his
+back, candy and a few apples to eat as a relish with the canned stuff,
+was plodding through the snow, light and easily brushed aside as yet,
+over the trail between Miners' Camp and Meadow Creek. And the boy's
+heart was growing as courageous as his muscles were strong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HALF-CONFIDENCES
+
+
+IT was dark that night when Ross arrived at the Weimer shack. The
+candles were lighted, and as he passed the window, he saw Leslie Jones
+within, sitting on a box on the opposite side of the room. His elbows
+were on the table, and he was listening to Weimer, or rather, pretending
+to listen. At a glance, Ross saw that his thoughts were far afield,
+his eyes being fixed on the speaker with an absent stare. He appeared
+more unkempt than on the occasion of his first call, and his face was
+thinner. There was also about him an air of collapse that made him a
+different person from the overbearing young man who had issued lofty
+orders at Sagehen Roost.
+
+It was the second time that Ross had seen him since coming into the
+valley. The week before he had gone with the McKenzies one evening to
+the Jones claims, but the two boys had exchanged few remarks, both being
+too tired to talk.
+
+As Ross entered the shack a sudden thought struck him. He stopped in the
+doorway and greeted Jones with, "See here! Why haven't I thought to get
+your mail Sundays? You haven't been over to Camp at all, have you?"
+
+Leslie moved uneasily. He picked up his cap and pulled at the rim.
+"Aw--it's bully of you to think of my mail, but I'm not expecting--why,
+yes, you might inquire," he added lamely. Then, "What's going on in
+Camp? I'd like to hear something about people once more," with a wry
+smile.
+
+Ross unstrapped a pack from his back and threw the contents on the
+table. Sorting out the week's papers, he tossed them across the table.
+"'Omaha News.' Want to see it?"
+
+The blood came in an unexpected rush to Leslie's face and his hand
+trembled as he reached for the papers. Ross watched him as he took them
+and scanned the headings, column by column. Then he glanced keenly over
+the advertisements, and without reading further threw the papers aside
+and rested his elbows despondently on the table.
+
+Weimer, satisfied with the tobacco and candy that Ross had brought,
+retired to his bunk, dozing and smoking by turns. Ross had seated himself
+at the table opposite Leslie and reread his letters. Now, as the other
+cast the papers aside, he looked up and met misery in the eyes leveled
+at him from beneath his caller's lengthening hair.
+
+"Say!" ejaculated Ross impulsively, "I bet you find it as awful up in
+this country as I do!"
+
+"Awful!" echoed Leslie. "It's----" A sudden working in his throat
+stopped him. He turned his face away.
+
+"I wouldn't stay here for all the gold in these mountains if things
+weren't just as they are," Ross continued sympathetically, "and I
+presume you're caught in some such way, too, or you'd get out."
+
+Leslie hesitated, nodded and again faced Ross, "How are you caught?" he
+asked eagerly.
+
+Ross told him briefly about his father's interest in the claims and
+Weimer's appeal for help that had led to his, Ross's, coming.
+
+As he talked Leslie's eagerness evaporated. He evidently was looking
+for another sort of explanation, and his response was only half-hearted:
+
+"Then your father sent you. That's bad luck when you want to be in
+school." He hesitated and added: "It's not every fellow that wants to go
+to school. I hate it!"
+
+"You do!" exclaimed Ross. "Well, I can't say I waste any love on
+studying myself, that is, in most studies, but I'm after results.
+I'm willing to bone down to work because of where the work will take
+me. The only thing I really like to study is medicine, anatomy and
+all that sort of thing, you know. But in order to get anywhere in the
+profession, I have to take a lot of mathematics and language and things
+that I detest."
+
+Leslie's shoulders came up. "I won't study what I don't like," he
+declared arrogantly, "and I can't be made to--guess they're finding
+that out, too!" The last was under his breath.
+
+"Well," Ross began vaguely, "if you want to be a business man it's not
+necessary to go through college. Our most successful business men----"
+His voice trailed into silence as he saw that the other was not listening.
+
+There ensued a few moments of quiet. In the bunk Weimer snored gently. A
+nickel clock suspended on a peg from the side logs ticked loudly. The
+pine chunks in the sheet-iron stove cracked and snapped cheerfully.
+Leslie stared dejectedly at the table, while Ross, his forehead knit
+into a puzzled frown, stared at Leslie. What could have happened, he
+asked himself, to rob the other in four weeks of his former desire to
+turn prospector? Homesickness? Perhaps, but Ross decided the trouble
+lay deeper. If it were mere homesickness, the boy would be haunting
+Miners' Camp and the post-office or else clearing out of the mountains.
+
+"Where's Wilson?" Ross asked finally.
+
+Leslie aroused himself with difficulty. "He's over at the McKenzies'.
+I came here."
+
+"How's the tunnel going? Are you making headway?"
+
+This question opened the flood-gates of Leslie's misery. "Headway?" he
+burst out. "Yes, we're making headway, but toward what, I'd like to
+know!"
+
+It was an exclamation rather than a question, and the boy brought his
+clenched fist down violently on the table.
+
+"Why," stammered Ross, "toward getting the claims patented, I suppose.
+What else did you expect?"
+
+Leslie's excitement subsided. He folded his arms on the table. "I came
+expecting to find gold," he confessed. "I could hardly wait to get here
+and now--well, I'm here, that's all, and all my money is spent for
+supplies."
+
+"But didn't you understand," Ross began, "that the ore up here had to
+be smelted in order to release the metal, and that we can never pack the
+ore on horseback over these trails and----"
+
+"No," cried Leslie fiercely, "I didn't understand. I understood that I
+was coming to work claims that would surely prove a perfect Klondike in a
+short time--I thought in a few weeks."
+
+"Oh, that's Wilson," broke in Ross. "He's a perfect promoter, Steele
+tells me, because he believes in things himself so intensely that he
+makes you see his way in spite of yourself. Steele says he has been
+quartz crazy for years. Every claim that he stakes holds his everlasting
+fortune in prospect."
+
+"I've found that out," assented Leslie bitterly, "and yet I can't
+blame Wilson. I foisted myself on him at Omaha--he didn't get after
+me. And he has really been square with me. He simply made me believe in
+his claims as thoroughly as he does, and he believes in them yet, but I
+don't. You see," Leslie explained, "he keeps expecting to run across a
+pocket of free gold, and that he says he'll turn over to me so I can get
+back the money I put into the supplies. I've got to get that money
+back pretty soon," he added emphatically.
+
+Ross looked at him commiseratingly. "I'm afraid you can't."
+
+For a moment Leslie's lips worked miserably. He took no pains to conceal
+his emotion from Ross. Finally he burst out, "I must, Grant. I've
+simply got to have that money back." He held out his hands palms up.
+They were blistered and sore. "That doesn't matter," he declared.
+"I'd work 'em to the bone if the work would bring the gold. And a
+month ago I'd never done an hour's work in my life. I tell you,"
+in a burst of irrepressible confidence, "everything looks different to
+me to-day from what it did five weeks ago. I wish--I wish I could go
+back those five weeks--why, I'd almost be willing to go to school----"
+
+Approaching sounds stopped the confidence that Ross was so anxious
+to hear. The door opened unceremoniously, and the McKenzies entered,
+accompanied by Wilson. The latter was talking excitedly. With a nod
+at Ross he finished his speech while helping himself to a seat beside
+the stove.
+
+"I tell you there's every sign of free gold. Same kind of stun crops
+out there and in the same layers and at the same angle as when I was
+working up in Butte. My claims was right next door to a fellow's named
+Harrison. One mornin' he bust through a wall rock slam bang right onto
+two thousand dollars' worth of the prettiest yellow ye ever see. And I
+tell ye I shouldn't be a mite surprised if our next blast showed us a
+streak of yellow too."
+
+Sandy laughed unconcernedly. "A streak of yeller in a chap and in a rock
+mean two different things, I notice. And I've also seen more of the
+yeller in fellers than in rocks," easily dropping on a box and lighting
+his pipe.
+
+Young Jones, looking at his partner, brightened visibly, despite the
+knowledge he had recently acquired of Wilson's optimism. There was about
+the man such a cock-sureness, such simple sincerity and abiding faith in
+his own statements that Ross felt that he could not rest content the
+following day without knowing the result of that next charge of dynamite.
+
+Steele had told him about these "pockets" that occasionally are concealed
+in the heart of the veins or "leads" along which mining tunnels are
+driven. They are uncovered unexpectedly by a blast of dynamite. They
+consist of small quantities of quartz of such richness that it pays
+to transport the ore to the smelter. But every prospector dreams of
+uncovering a pocket of "free gold" ore, quartz through which the gold
+is scattered in visible particles or streaks and can be extracted in
+its pure state with the aid of a hammer and a knife blade.
+
+"Come down to-morrow night," Ross said in a low tone across the table,
+"and report."
+
+Leslie nodded, and Ross, going to his emergency chest, brought out a
+bottle of liquid and a box of salve. "Here," he said abruptly, "better
+take some care of those hands of yours if you don't want blood poisoning
+to set in. Soak 'em well in hot water with a teaspoonful of this
+added"--he shoved the bottle of liquid across the table--"and then rub
+in this salve. And don't work in the dirt without gloves till those
+sores are healed."
+
+Humbly and gratefully Leslie took his orders from "Doc Tenderfoot," while
+the men looked on with interest and many questions.
+
+"Tell ye what," said Sandy heartily, "if I intended t' winter here I'd
+feel easier about the trail bein' closed. If a stick should go off at
+the wrong time and blow ye int' pieces, Doc here could put th' pieces
+together and patch ye up as good as new. Doc's all right!"
+
+"I wish," thought Ross as he saw his guests depart, "that I could say
+the same about Sandy."
+
+But while he had no faith in the friendly pretentions of Sandy, he
+dreaded any mention of his leaving the mountains. To feel that he would
+be left alone with Weimer for months was maddening. If only Wilson and
+his partner were to remain on the Creek--but they too would go as soon
+as the trail threatened to become impassable. This careless speech of
+Sandy's concerning leaving the valley drove all other ideas out of
+Ross's head that night and persisted in the morning. To feel that Weimer
+and himself were the only human beings in Meadow Creek Valley, to know
+that there was no escape until the sun thawed away the barrier in
+the spring was a terrifying thought. It was present that day with Ross
+like a waking nightmare. As he pushed the little car out of the tunnel
+and dumped it, he looked up at the cold gray peaks with a wild desire to
+level them and bring Miners' Camp--Cody--Pennsylvania--nearer. So
+absorbing was this desire that he forgot the promised visit from Leslie
+and was surprised to see him at the door before he had finished washing
+the supper dishes.
+
+"You wanted to hear about that promised vein," explained the newcomer,
+reading Ross's surprise in his face.
+
+"Oh--why, yes! That pocket of free gold!" exclaimed Ross hastily picking
+up the thread of connection where it had been broken the previous
+evening by Sandy's reference to leaving the valley. "Did you uncover it?"
+
+"Uncover nothing!" returned Leslie. He sat on the table and swung
+his feet restlessly, adding despondently, "And what's more, we
+won't uncover anything in a lifetime up here, either. I've lost all
+hope--except," he added with a shrug of his shoulders, "just the
+minute that Wilson is talking."
+
+"I never had any hope," said Ross slowly, "but then, I have never given
+the ore more than a thought. With me it's simply to get the work done,
+satisfy my father and--clear out."
+
+"And with me," responded Leslie, "it's the money now--I've got to have
+the money. Only," he added, "I'll say this--that when I left Omaha
+there was more in it for me than the money. You see--I'll own up--I
+was crazy to get out of school and, well--see things and do 'em! If
+I'd gone to some other place, to Goldfield or even down to Miners' Camp
+it would be different. But I'm here and all my money's spent."
+
+Continually he came back to that last statement. That fact had evidently
+swallowed up all the lust for adventure, for "getting out and seeing
+things"--it was the only thing that young Jones could now see in the
+situation. Ross wondered why but did not like to ask. Finally he said
+hesitatingly, "I say, Jones, if you want to get out of here I'll--that
+is--I have enough on hand to let you have your car-fare back to Omaha."
+
+The blood rushed over Leslie's face. His head came up proudly. "See
+here, Grant," he exclaimed briskly, sliding off the table and stuffing
+his hands into his pockets, "it must sound as if I'm a low-down beggar,
+but I never thought of such a thing as getting hold of your money!"
+
+"And I never thought of it, either," declared Ross quickly. "I've made
+you the offer on my own hook. Come off your high and mighty perch and
+talk sense! Take the money and pay it back when you can. I'm a hundred
+dollars to the good here."
+
+Leslie "came off his perch" instantly and held out his hand repentantly.
+"Thank you, Grant. That's awfully white of you, but that won't do.
+It's not car-fare I want, and Omaha is the last place I want to
+strike--or next to the last, at least--without--well, a lot more than
+car-fare." After a moment he repeated, "I tell you it's white of you
+to offer it, though. It makes a fellow feel as if he'd fallen among
+friends."
+
+The latter expression reminded Ross of something about which he had not
+thought in three weeks, namely, the behavior of Waymart McKenzie when
+he first saw Leslie. With the water still dripping from the dish-pan the
+boy hung it against the logs, tossed the dish-cloth on top of the pan
+and rolling down his sleeves, asked:
+
+"Jones, do you know the McKenzies?"
+
+Leslie shook his head. "Before coming here, do you mean?"
+
+Ross nodded.
+
+"No, never saw them before. Why?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," returned Ross carelessly, "only when you came in here the
+first night I thought they acted as though they'd seen you before, or
+Waymart did, rather."
+
+The effect of this simple statement was unexpected. Leslie gripped the
+table excitedly. His face paled and he was obliged to clear his throat
+before asking: "What made you think that? I didn't--didn't notice
+anything. I never thought that they--he----"
+
+"It was just a trifle that made me think that," Ross hastened to assure
+his guest in confusion. "Just a little byplay when Waymart first saw
+you. Nothing to----"
+
+"Tell me exactly what it was," commanded Leslie, and all the boy's
+imperiousness leaped to the front. "I want to know all that you saw."
+
+Ross related the incident haltingly. "Sandy didn't act as though he had
+ever seen you before. It was only Waymart," he said consolingly, but it
+was plain to be seen that the other was not consoled.
+
+"It's possible, very possible that they may have seen me--I wouldn't
+have noticed them," he muttered, "if they were--that is, father hired
+any number of men--they might all see me and I not notice them."
+
+"Maybe I can find out," offered Ross promptly. "I'll ask them."
+
+"No, no!" hastily; "don't bother with the matter."
+
+Leslie crossed the room, threw open the door and stood staring across the
+valley at the McKenzie shack. When next he spoke he did not look around:
+
+"It will be just as well, Grant, if you don't mention me to 'em
+until----" There ensued a long pause. Then, "until I talk with you again."
+
+Just before he left he asked abruptly, "Do you bring the Omaha papers
+back with you every Sunday?"
+
+"I can," replied Ross, "if you want 'em. But, see here, Jones, why
+don't you go over to Camp with me next Sunday?"
+
+Leslie hesitated. "Guess I will. Good-night."
+
+A few steps from the door he turned back. "See here, Grant, don't wait
+for me Sunday. If I go I'll be here by eight o'clock. But if I don't
+go, I should like to see the Omaha papers."
+
+"All right, I'll fetch them," returned Ross.
+
+Sunday morning he postponed his start for Miners' Camp until past eight
+o'clock, hoping that Leslie would come, but no Leslie appeared. Sandy
+did, however. He came freshly shaved and combed, with a new kerchief
+knotted about his neck.
+
+"Want some good company over t' Camp?" he inquired jocularly. "If ye do,
+here it is, fer I'm goin' out."
+
+"Going to stay long or just for the day?" asked Ross.
+
+"Oh, I dunno how long," carelessly. "I've got t' see Cody again. Little
+old town couldn't fetch it if I didn't hang around it about once in
+so often."
+
+"Is Waymart going?"
+
+"Nope, Mart will hold the cabin and claims down here. Mart don't
+like t' hit th' trail as often as I do. He's fer his pipe and a soft
+bunk and a good meal. Mart 'ud be a failure as one of these here
+globe-trotters. He's what ye could call domestic in his tastes. The
+only thing he lacks," here Sandy chuckled at his own wit, "is a blamed
+thing to be domestic about!"
+
+As they were making their way cautiously around the shoulder of Crosby,
+Sandy asked suddenly, "Why don't that young Jones go t' Camp ever on
+Sunday? Guess they don't work Sundays up t' th' Wilson claims. I
+should think he'd be as wild as you be t' git over this side of Crosby
+where there's a post-office and newspapers and things."
+
+"I don't know," returned Ross in a general denial of knowledge of all
+Sandy had said.
+
+"I wonder about that young feller now," pursued Sandy affably.
+
+"So do I!" thought Ross. He said nothing.
+
+"I wonder how he come t' drop out of nowhere with money enough t'
+grub-stake the two of 'em fer six months--and then have nothin' further
+t' draw on!"
+
+Sandy, walking now shoulder to shoulder with Ross, looked at him keenly.
+
+"Don't know anything about it," returned Ross shortly, but he could not
+rid himself of the insinuation in Sandy's words.
+
+When he returned that night to Meadow Creek, Ross was disappointed at
+finding Wilson awaiting him as well as Leslie. He had hoped that Leslie
+would come for the papers alone and would continue the conversation of
+his previous visit.
+
+In a loud and jovial voice Wilson informed Doc that his pard had started
+out in good shape that morning to go over to Camp and had then backed out.
+
+"Must have got clean over here," Wilson added.
+
+Leslie gathered up the newspapers which Ross had brought and fitted them
+together without meeting Ross's eyes. "I found I was too tired to go
+on," was all the explanation he made. "I slept pretty much all day and
+am going to turn in early to-night."
+
+Ross nodded speechlessly, wondering how much Sandy's going had to do
+with Leslie's staying. Would the latter avoid the McKenzies now that he
+knew they had seemed to recognize him, and why? Before the evening was
+far spent Ross began to suspect that Leslie would like to avoid him also,
+if it were possible. The boy looked more despondent than ever, but he
+shielded his despondency behind a proud reserve that shut Ross out, much
+to the latter's disappointment.
+
+"Perhaps," Ross told himself, "if I hadn't been such an idiot as to
+offer him money, he wouldn't act so offish now. I never had any more
+tact than a goat, anyhow! Wish I had minded my own business and let him
+do all the talking!"
+
+"Vas ist de matter mit dot poy?" Weimer asked as soon as the door closed
+on their visitors. "He vas such a talker oder time he vas here und now
+he talks nicht at all."
+
+"Guess he's homesick."
+
+Weimer rubbed his great hands together thoughtfully. "Und sick of de
+mountains, I tink," he added shrewdly. "Ven dot poy come here he fooled
+himself!"
+
+The last of the week saw Sandy's return. He came strolling along the
+trail one night just as the sunlight was fading from the tops of the
+mountains. He was whistling, apparently in high spirits. Stopping at
+the door of Weimer's shack he paused to call:
+
+"Hi, in there, Grant! I saw your friend Leonard at Cody. I set you up
+in fine shape t' 'im. 'No grass,' says I, 'will turn t' hay while
+he's gittin' things done.'"
+
+Ross laughed. Despite the fact that he knew Sandy's praise covered an
+abyss of insincerity, it was pleasant, none the less.
+
+After the supper dishes were washed, he decided to visit the McKenzies.
+"Want to go along, Uncle Weimer?" he asked, well knowing what the reply
+would be.
+
+"Go mit dem McKenzies?" gesticulated Weimer. "Ven I do it vill pe ven my
+legs von't carry me avay from dem!"
+
+Ross laughed. "Well, Uncle Weimer, my legs seem to want to carry me where
+I can get the Cody news. I want to hear about Mr. Leonard. Perhaps he has
+heard from father more recently than I."
+
+There was no moon that night, and the sky had become suddenly overcast
+so that Ross faced a dense darkness pierced only by the candle-light
+from the window of the McKenzie shack. He stumbled toward this, feeling
+his way so slowly along the narrow trail that he unwittingly approached
+the cabin silently and surprised an altercation within. Sandy's voice
+was raised in vehement assertion and Waymart's lower rumble in protest.
+As he was groping for the door, he heard Sandy say:
+
+"I tell ye, Mart, wild hosses won't drag 'im up here s' long as that
+young feller is in these mountings, and we may want 'im here."
+
+Then Waymart's response, "Well, what be ye aimin' to do about it?
+Don't bite off more'n ye can swaller. Ye do that too often. He'll
+be out of here in a few weeks. What's eatin' ye? 'Let well enough
+alone.'"
+
+"Yes," scornfully from Sandy. "Ye maverick! They won't go till we----"
+
+Ross, his hand on the door, had stubbed his toe against a stone.
+
+"Sh," came Sandy's warning in lowered tones. "What's that?"
+
+There was a step across the floor. Ross instinctively fell back into the
+darkness and slipped behind a tree. The door was jerked open and Sandy's
+figure appeared. An instant he looked out and then turning back, said
+disgustedly, "Nobudy, but guess we don't need t' yell loud enough t'
+be heard up t' Wilson's."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ROSS'S "HIRED MAN"
+
+
+As the door closed on Sandy, Ross beat a hasty retreat. His first thought
+was that the brothers were discussing him. The fact that they were in
+the valley to watch the progress of work on the Weimer-Grant claims and
+that they were interested in his being there and not anxious to have him
+remain, all aided in the interpretation of the McKenzies' speeches.
+
+"But who on earth is it that won't come as long as I am here and why
+not?" he asked himself as he stumbled back in the direction of the light
+in Weimer's cabin.
+
+"Vat's you pack for alreddy?" demanded Weimer from his bunk as Ross
+opened the door. "Ist dem McKenzies mit Wilson, hein?"
+
+"No," returned Ross, "but I decided that I am tired enough to turn in
+instead of going visiting," and he forthwith "turned in," but did not go
+to sleep immediately.
+
+Truth to tell, he was uneasy. He felt that Sandy, behind that
+good-natured, friendly exterior, was full of schemes. The McKenzies
+wanted the claims, and Ross had unexpectedly interposed himself
+between them and their desires. Therefore, their schemes must include
+him. What was on foot now?
+
+He tossed restlessly in his bunk assailed with qualms of fear that he
+tried to conceal from himself. "Ah, what you afraid of?" he asked himself
+disgustedly. "They won't shoot you nor yet tie you hand and foot and
+throw you over the Crosby trail. As Steele says, I haven't a thing to
+fear personally from 'em. That's not their way. Go to sleep."
+
+This command he issued to himself in an angry mutter and at once
+scrambled up in his bunk wider awake than ever. His mental horizon
+unexpectedly cleared. "Of course he's the one they meant and not me!"
+he exclaimed aloud.
+
+"Vat's dat you say?" asked Weimer sleepily. "Hein?"
+
+"A waking nightmare," returned Ross and lay down again.
+
+Of course it was Leslie. "'He's to be here only a few weeks,'" Waymart
+had said. "'Let well enough alone.'" He, Ross, expected to winter
+in the valley, and the McKenzies knew it. Yes, they were referring to
+Leslie. That calmed Ross, but deepened the mystery.
+
+The following morning he thought over the situation while he was at work.
+It was a blind enough situation, but he felt that he ought to repeat to
+Leslie the scraps of conversation that he had overheard. They might mean
+much to the boy, and in spite of his reserve and his overbearing manners
+Ross liked Leslie.
+
+At noon he ate dinner hastily, and telling Weimer that he would be
+back in an hour, set out for the upper claims. Snow had fallen the
+night before and the trail had filled, making walking tiresome, for
+Ross had not yet accustomed himself to the use of snow-shoes. With his
+hands in his pockets and his cap drawn down over his eyes he plunged
+through the drifts in the teeth of a sharp east wind. Up the side of
+the mountains he struggled, through the pass between two peaks where
+Meadow Creek had cut a channel and into a hollow sheltered from the wind
+and exposed to the sun.
+
+"Hello, Grant!" A voice greeted him from the upper side of the trail.
+
+Ross pushed his cap back and looked up. In the sunshine, his back against
+a warm rock, his feet buried in the dry loam and pine needles, sat Leslie
+Jones. He had eaten his dinner and wandered along the trail until he
+had found a warm spot in which to spend the noon hour. Ross promptly
+climbed the steep mountainside and dropped down beside him.
+
+"The McKenzies say," began Leslie curiously, "that you don't stop work
+long enough to eat and sleep. Yet here you are two miles from home in
+the middle of the day."
+
+"It's because of what the McKenzies have said that I'm here now,"
+Ross returned swiftly. "It may not be worth a picayune to you, and then
+again, maybe, it will be," and he related the events of the previous
+evening.
+
+Leslie bent a troubled face over a stick that he was idly whittling.
+"Are you sure, Grant, that they meant me? I haven't an idea who they are
+nor who could be so afraid of me that he wouldn't come up here with me
+here. I don't know of a soul that's afraid of me, but," with a short,
+mirthless laugh, "I do know of some one that I'm afraid of. It's not
+the McKenzies, although they might--if they know me----"
+
+Suddenly he flung the stick from him and faced Ross impulsively. "Grant,
+did you ever do something that you'd give anything you possessed to
+undo--and that you'd just _got_ to undo?"
+
+Ross, startled at the sudden change in his companion, at the latter's
+intensity and evident unhappiness, merely shook his head awkwardly,
+avoiding the misery-filled eyes. He turned away and began piling up
+stones, bits of shining quartz that had been thrown, at some time, out of
+a discovery hole above them.
+
+Presently Leslie regained his self-possession. "I say, Grant," he began
+again abruptly, "to tell you the truth, I have started to go over to see
+you half a dozen times within a week and got this far every time. I'm
+going to ask a favor of you."
+
+"All right," said Ross with a gruffness that did not conceal his
+sympathy. "Fire ahead!"
+
+"The other day you--you offered me money," Leslie began with difficulty.
+
+"Yes, and I do to-day," Ross interrupted.
+
+Leslie shook his head. "Hold on till I get to it. I can't take your
+money--not that way. But the other day I heard the McKenzies tell Wilson
+that you tried to hire men in Miners' Camp. Will you hire me?"
+
+"Will I!" Ross leaped to his feet. He grabbed his cap and tossed it in
+the air and then fell to pommeling Leslie in pure exuberance of joy.
+"Hire you? I wish there were half a dozen of you to hire! Bully for you!
+But----"
+
+His exuberance died out. He replaced his cap and looked down on the
+other, his lips pursed ready for a whistle.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"See here!" Ross burst out. "What about Wilson?"
+
+"That's all right," Leslie answered quickly. "I told him a couple
+of days ago that I'd got to get money. I told him I'd leave him the
+grub, of course. I agreed to furnish it, and I'll stick to my word,"
+doggedly, "but I must also light out and earn some money. And all I can
+do is to work with my hands. I--well, I've always hated to make my head
+work, and I've never had to do any other kind until now. You'll find
+I'm soft yet, but I'll do my best."
+
+The boy spoke humbly.
+
+Ross sent his cap spinning into the air once more. "I'll risk you!
+You're not as soft as you were six weeks ago! Not by half! When can you
+come?"
+
+Leslie considered. "Wilson says he'll go below to the coal claims in a
+couple of weeks. I'll talk it over with him and let you know."
+
+"Come to-morrow, if you can," Ross shouted back as he slid down to the
+trail.
+
+Work went easily for a few days in view of Leslie's coming. The thought
+of his companionship robbed the prospective loneliness of Meadow Creek
+Valley of its terrors. He whistled and sang about the shack as he hunted
+up the material out of which to make a third bunk. He was hammering
+away on this the second evening after his talk with Leslie, when the
+McKenzies dropped in. They had been over on the Divide hunting and
+had been out of Ross's sight and mind since his talk with Leslie. Not
+until Sandy pushed the door open unceremoniously and walked in did Ross
+recall the comments that had so disturbed him and wondered once more
+to whom they had referred, himself or Leslie, and what the reference
+meant.
+
+"Hello, Grant!" Sandy exclaimed, stopping abruptly just inside the door.
+"What's up? Why another bunk? Goin' t' take boarders? Any relations
+droppin' in t' attend our festivities up here?"
+
+Ross looked over his shoulder laughingly. "Nope. Give another guess."
+
+Sandy came nearer. Waymart shut the door and sat down beside the stove.
+Weimer turned his back on "dem darned McKenzies," and put on his goggles
+that he might not be tormented by a view of their faces. It was a
+never-ending source of vexation to him that they came sociably to his
+shack.
+
+"I haven't any more guesses in stock," declared Sandy, but the smile on
+his face was succeeded by a frown and he bit his red beard restlessly.
+
+"Hired man is coming to-morrow," Ross formed him as the hammer sent
+another nail home in the side wall.
+
+"Hired man!" exploded Sandy. "Where the deuce will you get a hired man?"
+
+"Right here in the valley," exulted Ross. "Leslie Jones."
+
+"Leslie Jones!" repeated Sandy.
+
+"Leslie Jones," muttered Waymart.
+
+"By and by," Ross confessed, "when all you fellows go below, it will
+seem a little more livable up here to have a third one around. I'd pay a
+man wages just to stay here to say nothing of working for me."
+
+Neither Sandy nor Waymart made any comment. Sandy stood watching the
+work in silence, while Waymart allowed his pipe to go out. Then both
+departed. They said they were going up to see Wilson, but Ross noticed
+that they returned to their own cabin instead.
+
+"Something doesn't seem to please our friends the enemy," he chuckled
+after their departure. "They see the Weimer-Grant claims getting further
+and further from their reach."
+
+"Ve vill peat dem McKenzies yet," gloated Weimer rubbing his hands gently
+on his knees. "Ven dot oder poy comes de work vill run und jump!"
+
+Ross did not see the McKenzies again until Leslie was occupying the third
+bunk, Wilson having, good-naturedly, sent him down within a week after
+the boys had completed their bargain.
+
+"Clear out if ye want to," Wilson had said kindly. "It's white of ye
+t' leave the grub. I hain't a cent t' pay fer it. There's a fortune
+in these claims of mine, but it's too late t' dig it out this year.
+Next summer----" and he was launched on the glowing prospects for the
+next season.
+
+Leslie entered on his task with a grim determination which seemed foreign
+to his disposition.
+
+"I don't want you to get sick of your bargain the first week," he said
+one day in answer to Ross's remonstrance when he refused to stop work
+on account of a bruise on his wrist. "You open up that little emergency
+chest and I can go on digging just the same. I don't want any delayed
+wages in mine!"
+
+With the advent of Leslie, life fell into pleasanter grooves in Weimer's
+cabin. Despite the anxiety ever present with the newcomer, and despite
+his natural reserve, Ross's exuberance of spirits caused by his presence
+and work affected him, and after the supper dishes were washed, the two
+boys wrestled, chaffed each other or talked, Ross about his father and
+uncle and aunt, Leslie about his school life in Omaha.
+
+"It's a boys' school," he explained one day, "a military academy. I've
+had to go there ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Discipline
+is fierce. I hate it, and this year I made up my mind I'd not stand
+it, so I'm here."
+
+"And wish," ventured Ross, "that you were back in school again."
+
+"Yes--almost," Leslie began impulsively and then paused, adding quietly,
+"Lots of things I wish, and wish 'em hard."
+
+The following evening after supper, Weimer tumbled into his bunk at
+once and began snoring. The two boys washed the dishes, in silence at
+first. Outside, snow was falling heavily. Through the drifting flakes
+the McKenzies' light shone fitfully. The brothers had been away again
+hunting and had just returned.
+
+As Leslie set the dishes on their shelf above the stove he glanced
+uneasily out of the window. He had not seen the McKenzies for some time.
+Ever since they had crossed the valley that noon on their snow-shoes,
+their hunting trophies on their shoulders, he had watched their cabin
+with that same air of uneasy abstraction.
+
+"Ross," he broke out at last, "I've got to tell you something. I hate
+like a dog to tell it, but it's got to break loose some time and it may
+as well be right now."
+
+He turned from the shelf, glanced at the snoring Weimer, lowered his
+voice, and, standing beside the stove, worked restlessly at the damper in
+the pipe. Ross, without looking at him, slowly scrubbed the dish-pan
+and then the table.
+
+"It's like this," Leslie began. "When I met Wilson I had five hundred
+dollars in my pocket and a grouch against my father. Always before then,
+father had sent the Academy a check to pay for the semester--you have
+to pay there in advance for half the year--but this year he had business
+on hand that couldn't be interrupted and so he called me into his
+office in a great hurry the morning I left home and handed over the
+check to me. It was made out to me and it was for five hundred dollars.
+That's the price of the half year, you see. Dad handed it over and
+just said, 'Here, pay your own bill,' and got out. That's about
+all that's ever between us, anyway. Well, I went up to Omaha. We'd
+had it out about school all summer. I was bound not to go this year,
+and he swore that I should go and go through college if he had to rope
+me and tie me and take me himself, as he put it! Father is a whirlwind
+of a man. But I was bound not to go, and the money let me out. I took
+the check and cashed it at the bank and went to the 'Hill House,'
+where I met Wilson. I reasoned that the money was mine because it was
+to be spent on me. You see, Ross, I was mad enough to reason anything
+my way that I wanted."
+
+Leslie turned the damper absently, sending smoke in gusts into the room,
+but neither boy noticed it. Ross wiped out his dish-pan, hung it on its
+nail, and sitting down on a box, took his chin between his hands and
+stared at the fire.
+
+"I thought," Leslie went on, "that I'd invest that money and surprise
+dad. Well," grimly, "he's probably as surprised by this time as I am.
+You've heard Wilson tell about my meeting him and agreeing to go with
+him. I spent the entire five hundred on our outfit and car-fare in the
+expectation that in six weeks I could write to dad and tell him what a
+success I'd made of it! I had six weeks' grace."
+
+Ross looked up inquiringly. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Father and I never have corresponded extensively, but he always looks
+sharply after my reports. The first report goes out from the Academy in
+six weeks after school opens. I reckoned from what Wilson said that we'd
+strike it rich up here in a month more or less, and so about the time
+father would be looking into the reason why no report was sent from
+the Academy, he'd be receiving one from me up here and, you know,
+Ross, 'nothing succeeds as well as success,' and success of this sort
+would get dad right under the collar. Well, he probably knows by this
+time that I've turned up missing at school, and he has not received
+a letter from Meadow Creek telling about the discovery of free gold!"
+
+Leslie gave the damper a final twist and sat down on a pile of fire-wood.
+"Ross," he exclaimed violently, "I am about seven ways an everlasting
+fool!"
+
+Ross grinned cheerfully. "Aunt Anne always says that to find out that
+you're a fool 'is the best cure for the disease of foolishness.' So
+you see you're headed toward the cure already."
+
+Leslie shook his head. "There's that money, Ross. It wasn't mine, and
+you know it and I know it. I can't face dad again without it in my hand.
+Why, I wouldn't see him until I'd earned it for--well, wild horses
+wouldn't drag me," he concluded passionately. "I tell you, Ross, I've
+let myself in for a heap of trouble. I know father."
+
+"Now that he finds out you've skipped, Leslie, won't he be hunting you
+up?"
+
+Leslie stirred uneasily and turning stretched up and looked in the
+direction of the McKenzies. "That's what I'm expecting, or else he'll
+not think me worth while. I tell you, Ross, I've made dad no end of
+trouble both at home and in school. Things look sort of different up
+here. I've--well--I've never been up against it before."
+
+"Are you going to send your father word?"
+
+"Send him word before I get back that five hundred!" cried Leslie aghast.
+"You don't know dad. I can't face him without it. Not much."
+
+"But he'd see that you feel different----" Ross began.
+
+"You don't know dad," Leslie cut in harshly. "With the men it's just
+the same. It's 'stand and deliver' or get out, and he'd treat me just
+the same."
+
+The coming of the McKenzies put an end to further conversation. They came
+to announce their departure on the morrow.
+
+"Any little thing you'd like us t' git fer you?" Sandy asked the boys
+lazily. "Want us t' bring ye any biled shirts or one of these here coats
+with long handled tails? If you fellers lay out t' stay here all winter
+ye better lay in a stock of society rags, 'n' dancin' shoes."
+
+"About the most useful dancing shoes we'll need will be snow-shoes, I
+guess," Ross retorted.
+
+Leslie, from the wood-pile, said little but watched the brothers closely.
+Neither paid more than a passing attention to him, concentrating their
+remarks on Ross. They left early and went up the Creek with the intention
+of paying a farewell call on Wilson.
+
+"I don't believe," said Leslie the following morning as he watched them
+take the trail leading over Crosby, "that they have ever seen me before.
+They don't act as though they have, do they?"
+
+"Haven't seen a sign of it since that first night," declared Ross, "and
+yet what I overheard, you know----"
+
+"Must have referred to you," returned Leslie with conviction.
+
+The next three days passed quietly enough. The inhabitants of Weimer's
+cabin heard an occasional blast from Wilson's claims, but did not see
+Wilson. Steadily the two boys worked and steadily Ross held Weimer to
+his labors. Usually it was Weimer who got the meals, either Ross or
+Leslie leading him down to the shack, in case the sun shone, about
+half-past eleven. In three-quarters of an hour the boys would leave
+work and sit down to a substantial meal of hot bread, potatoes and all
+sorts of canned meats and vegetables. But the third day after the
+McKenzies' departure it chanced that when eleven o'clock came, Weimer
+and Leslie were in the far end of the tunnel drilling the "cut in" holes
+for a new blast, and Ross, pushing the little car back into the tunnel,
+sang out:
+
+"Hey, you fellows, keep on and I'll go down and shake up the grub this
+time."
+
+He ran down the trail to the cabin, and soon had a roaring fire in the
+heater. A kettle of beans had been left simmering on the back of the
+stove. This Ross pulled forward, and then, delving among the canned
+goods, he proceeded to set out various edibles, all the while whistling
+cheerfully.
+
+"M-m, tomatoes," he interrupted himself to mutter, "we haven't had
+tomatoes in two days. And corn--sweet corn. Guess Weimer has overlooked
+the corn entirely. We'll have corn. Soup! Jiminy! We haven't had soup
+in an age. Vegetable. That means a little of everything, and that taken
+boiling hot. Here goes soup."
+
+"Whoa!" came a deep voice from the trail outside the door, then the voice
+was raised, "Hello! Who's t' home?"
+
+Ross stepped to the door and faced a middle aged man, clad in leather
+"chaps" and short fur coat. A fur cap was drawn down over his ears and
+his hands were encased in huge fur gloves. He sat easily on a gray horse
+and was leading another, a mottled brown and white. As Ross appeared,
+he drew off one glove and slipped the hand carelessly under the tail
+of his coat at the same time squaring about in his saddle so that he
+faced the doorway.
+
+Ross, in his shirt sleeves, stepped out and greeted the newcomer
+hospitably. "Hello! Come in to dinner."
+
+"Had mine down in Miners' Camp," returned the other with a backward jerk
+of his head.
+
+He touched his mount with his spur and came close to Ross. The brown and
+white horse pulled back obstinately on the leading rope. The animal was
+saddled.
+
+"Are you the young chap that's workin' for Weimer?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"All right." The stranger withdrew his hand from the tail of his coat.
+It held a gun. "No monkey-shines now! You're the boy I'm after. I'm
+the sheriff of Big Horn County, and I have a warrant here for your
+arrest. Your father is honin' to meet up with you and settle a little
+account of money taken in Omaha."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+SURPRISES
+
+
+FOR a moment Ross was stunned. His hands fell nervelessly at his side,
+and he stared up at the stranger with expressionless eyes. Then, as
+the situation dawned on him, his eyes suddenly narrowed and into them
+leaped a light that caused the other to move the gun suggestively and say
+warningly:
+
+"No monkeying allowed, understand. Swallow a bite right now and climb
+up here on this other horse."
+
+Ross looked over his shoulder speculatively. From his position he could
+see the mouth of the tunnel on the mountainside behind the cabin. The
+mouth showed up black and empty and from its depth came the muffled
+sound of the hand drills wielded by Weimer and Leslie. The trail leading
+over the mountain to Miners' Camp was screened from the mouth of the
+tunnel by hemlocks. It could be seen only from the end of the dump.
+Ross thought fast.
+
+"All right," he said finally. "I'll go with you now--and quietly.
+There's no objection, I suppose, to my leaving a note for--Weimer?"
+
+No doubt existed in his mind as to the legality of the warrant and the
+seriousness of purpose in the man before him; therefore, he asked no
+further questions. Moreover, he wished above all things to avoid question
+and get off before Leslie appeared on the scene.
+
+"Leave a note, yes, or see 'im," assented the sheriff. "I'm willin'.
+Where is he?"
+
+"At work," hastily. "I'll just leave a note."
+
+The sheriff dismounted, dropped his bridle reins beside his horse's
+head, hitched the second animal's rope about the pommel of his saddle,
+and followed Ross into the shack, repeating, "Where at work?"
+
+"In the tunnel," mumbled Ross. "I would rather write a line than call
+him."
+
+He picked up some cold biscuits left over from breakfast and stuffed
+them into his pockets. Then, drawing a box up to the table, he sat down
+with paper and pencil to write a note. To his confusion, the sheriff
+stood over him looking on. He moistened the point of his pencil slowly.
+What on earth could he say that would make Leslie understand and yet
+not give the situation away to the sheriff? To gain time he gnawed on
+one of Weimer's hard biscuits.
+
+"Where is my--father?" he asked finally, stumbling guiltily over the word.
+
+The sheriff spat out of the doorway and twirled his gun impatiently.
+"You'll see 'im before I leave you, all right," was his ambiguous
+reply. "And the sooner that is the better it'll suit me. Git busy,
+young man, with that pencil. I don't aim to go int' winter quarters
+here. We've got to go on to Cody."
+
+Ross bit his lips and laid the biscuit aside. His eyes narrowed until
+they were mere slits. Grasping his pencil with a firmness he was far from
+feeling he began to write without preface.
+
+"The sheriff is here arresting me for stealing money from my father in
+Omaha. He is taking me to him in Cody now. I don't know when I can get
+back. Keep the work going sure, and don't worry. I think I will be
+able----"
+
+He paused and moistened the pencil again, then crossed out the last
+sentence and substituted:
+
+"I shall try to reason with him and make him see that he had better let
+me keep on doing what I am doing and earn the money to pay him back."
+
+Another instant Ross paused and thought. Then he added the singular
+explanation which he believed would make the foregoing more lucid to
+Leslie:
+
+"As I write the sheriff is standing over me," and then bethought himself
+just in time to avoid signing his name.
+
+"Huh!" grunted the sheriff reading the last sentence. "So he is; and now
+hustle!"
+
+Ross hustled most willingly. Seizing his top-coat and cap he was ready in
+a few moments for the perilous journey over the Crosby trail. Silently he
+mounted the brown and white horse, all the time glancing anxiously at
+the mouth of the tunnel. He rode in front of the sheriff and slyly urged
+his horse forward until the intervening trees hid the mouth of the tunnel
+from which still issued the steady grind and thud of the drills.
+
+It was not until the two horses were cautiously feeling their way down
+the perilous trail, and Ross saw far below him the shacks of Miners'
+Camp that some of the difficulties of his sudden venture began to present
+themselves to him. His decision had been made so hurriedly that he had
+had no time to think all around the subject of the arrest and his own
+action. It had seemed to him outrageous that a father should arrest his
+own son even though that boy had done wrong. Ross revolted at the idea.
+
+"I don't wonder," he thought, "that Less is afraid of his father. But
+his fear wouldn't sit so hard on his temper but what there'd be no end
+of explosions, and then where would they both get to?"
+
+It was the thought of this state of affairs that had led Ross to the
+impulsive determination to go to that father and ask for a few months
+of grace for the son. In this, as he acknowledged to himself, he had a
+mixed motive and part of the mixture was not unselfish.
+
+"If he'll only let Leslie stay and help me through the winter and earn
+the money," was his thought, "if I can make him see that Leslie's no
+quitter, and that he knows he has made a big mistake and is willing to
+bone down and undo it--if I can only make him see!"
+
+It was here that Ross's misgivings began. He knew he was no talker and
+evidently, as Leslie said, the father was a man of violent temper.
+
+"I'll probably have my little trip under arrest for nothing," Ross told
+himself as they reached the foot of Crosby. "Mr. Jones will blow my head
+off and send back for Leslie. Queer father not to come himself instead
+of sending a sheriff and a warrant and so disgrace his own son!"
+
+As to who was responsible for notifying the father of the whereabouts of
+his son, Ross did not for a moment doubt. Sandy's trip to Cody and the
+departure a few days before of both brothers answered that question to
+his satisfaction.
+
+At the foot of Crosby the trail of horsemen turned into the wagon trail
+leading past Gale's Ridge. On foot approaching them was a man whom Ross
+had met often in Steele's shack, and the sight of him awoke the boy
+with a shock to another phase of the situation that he had not, so
+far, had time to consider. Of course, it would not be possible for
+him to reach Cody and Mr. Jones without betraying his identity to the
+sheriff! There were the men of Gale's Ridge, the hotel at Meeteetse,
+and above all, there was Sagehen Roost and Hank. He turned in his saddle.
+It was a waste of time to go on. He might as well own up and let the
+sheriff go back after Leslie.
+
+"I was foolish to think of coming!" he muttered aloud and reined in his
+horse.
+
+The sheriff, coming on behind with his head bent, looked up questioningly
+and rode alongside. The two had not exchanged a word since leaving
+the Creek, the sheriff being silent by nature and Ross by choice. At
+that instant, the footman passed them. On the sheriff he bestowed an
+unrecognizing nod, on Ross a broad and cordial grin.
+
+"Hello, there, Doc!" he greeted and passed on.
+
+The sheriff glanced in surprise from the man to Ross. The latter drew
+a deep breath, and squaring about on his saddle shook the bridle reins.
+"That's a nickname they've given me," he muttered and rode on.
+
+The sheriff nodded and fell back, leaving Ross determined to play the
+game as far as he was able. He had forgotten that he was known from
+Cody to Meeteetse as "Doc Tenderfoot." In a few moments they had passed
+through camp and, rounding the shoulder of old Dundee, settled down
+to the eighteen mile ride to the half-way house between Miners' Camp
+and Meeteetse. This house, as Ross knew, had changed hands since his
+arrival in the mountains, and the change would lessen the chances that
+he would be recognized there. As it turned out, the sheriff was not
+recognized either, the family being newcomers in Wyoming, and the two
+ate in silence, the sheriff introducing neither himself nor Ross.
+
+"Luck is with me so far," Ross thought as they saddled and rode away from
+the ranch, "but how can I ever get past Meeteetse and Sagehen Roost?"
+
+The moon shone brilliantly, and they pushed ahead rapidly, Ross exulting
+over the sheriff's determination to get on to Meeteetse that night. They
+rode as silently as before, Ross in advance. The black hills met the
+trail on either side, and beside the trail flowed the shallow waters of
+Wood River until it merged into the Grey Bull. Half-way to Meeteetse,
+the sheriff's horse stumbled and limped thereafter, necessitating a
+slower pace, so that it was nearly midnight before they drew rein in
+front of the "Weller House."
+
+To Ross's relief, the place was dark with the exception of a single lamp
+in the office. Even the barroom was deserted. Ross left the sheriff to
+register for both, and then followed the sleepy clerk down to a lunch
+of cold "come-backs" which that individual "rustled" from the kitchen
+himself.
+
+"If fortune will favor me as well to-morrow as it did to-day," Ross
+thought as he listened to the sheriff's first snores, "I'll be next
+to Jones by this time to-morrow night and try to do some talking for
+Leslie!"
+
+He knew that his roommate was no wiser concerning him than when they
+started from Meadow Creek, and he most heartily desired a continuation
+of that ignorance.
+
+In the morning the two were up early and down to breakfast. Ross looked
+about apprehensively for some one who had seen him on his way into the
+mountains. He slunk into the dining-room in the wake of the bulkier
+sheriff and pushing himself unobtrusively into a corner seat bent low
+over his plate as befitted a young man under arrest. But no sooner was
+he seated than the proprietor of the house spied him from the other end
+of the dining-room, and with never a suspicion that he was talking to
+the sheriff's prisoner, strode across the room. He slapped the sheriff
+familiarly on the shoulder:
+
+"What the dickens are you doing up this way? Why don't ye stay in Basin
+where ye belong?"
+
+Then he grasped Ross's hand cordially:
+
+"Bless us if here ain't Doc back again. Got them claims cleaned up yet,
+Doc?"
+
+Ross, encountering the puzzled eyes of the sheriff, quaked. "No, we
+haven't yet," he muttered and glancing toward the dining-room door,
+exclaimed in sudden inspiration, "Wonder if that man is motioning to you?"
+
+The proprietor looked around. Several men were in the hall outside the
+dining-room. "I'll go and see," he exclaimed.
+
+The sheriff continued to look at Ross. "Bluff!" he announced briefly and
+understandingly.
+
+The blood flooded Ross's face guiltily. "It was," he confessed, adding
+quickly, "Say, don't give my arrest away where I'm known, will you?"
+
+His request and confusion satisfied the sheriff. The puzzled expression
+died out of his face. "All right," he assented and fell on his breakfast.
+
+The proprietor did not see Ross again until he was riding away. Then he
+ran out of the barroom bareheaded and called, "Steele's in Cody, Doc. He
+said you was pannin' out more like an old prospector than a tenderfoot."
+
+The sheriff rode up beside his prisoner with a quick inquiry: "How long
+have ye worked for Weimer?"
+
+"Long enough to be sick of it and want to quit," returned Ross gruffly,
+giving his horse a quick slap that set the animal to loping. It was no
+part of his plan to hold any unnecessary conversation with the sheriff
+that day.
+
+"I guess," the latter called as he came galloping after, "that you'll
+quit now all right, all right!"
+
+Ross made no reply, but took care to keep well in advance of his captor.
+Although his plan had, so far, succeeded, he was far from feeling
+triumphant because of a distressing sense of guilt at the deception he
+was obliged to practice. Nor was he able to dispel this sense by the
+knowledge that he was acting for the good of all concerned.
+
+"I may be only messing things up more than they are already," he thought
+dejectedly as they approached Sagehen Roost. "What under the sun led me
+to think I was equal to such a job, anyway?"
+
+Then, suddenly, his eyes narrowed, his chin raised itself determinedly
+and he turned his attention to the half-way house and the loquacious
+Hank. How could he ever get past Hank and remain Leslie Jones in the
+sheriff's eyes? If only he could get a moment's speech with Hank alone.
+But the sheriff was ever at his elbow. They had made good time from
+Meeteetse, and so approached Dry Creek and Sagehen Roost a full hour
+ahead of the stage from Cody. This fact gave Ross courage. With the
+stage-driver eliminated he had only Hank to deal with.
+
+"Hello, Hank!" shouted the sheriff as they dismounted in front of the
+corral. "Shake us up some grub right away, will ye?"
+
+Hank appeared at the door. Ross dodged behind the sheriff's horse, and
+stooping over noted the approach of Hank's legs. When they had borne
+their owner to the corral gate he straightened up and saying loudly:
+"Hello, Hank!" scratched the flank of the horse sharply with a pin he had
+found under the lapel of his coat.
+
+"Wall, if there ain't Doc Tenderfoot!" shouted Hank, but got no further.
+
+The horse leaped forward, and, as the sheriff sprang for its head, Ross
+managed to get Hank's ear for an instant:
+
+"Don't give me away, Hank. Talk to him and let me alone--understand--no
+names called. Don't talk to me nor about me."
+
+Hank stared his amazement, helped the sheriff catch his mount, scratched
+his head until Ross's words had soaked in, and then obeyed them so
+literally that when, half an hour later, Ross leaped to his horse's
+back, he was still Leslie Jones to the taciturn sheriff, and Hank,
+tongue-tied for once, was left standing beside the corral gate with a
+multitude of questions unasked.
+
+Ross's spirits arose. They were on the home stretch now to Cody. There
+was not a house on the way and only the stage to meet. Ross, forgetting
+his rôle as a shamefaced prisoner, began to whistle and plan what he
+should say to Leslie's father. His buoyancy was checked only when he
+chanced to look over his shoulder and discovered the sheriff looking at
+him not only with the puzzled air which he had worn at Meeteetse, but,
+Ross thought, with suspicion also.
+
+"I never seen a sober man arrested that took arrest as you do," the
+sheriff declared riding to Ross's side. "Think this is a little picnic,
+don't ye?"
+
+"I'm trying to think just how it will turn out," answered the boy
+seriously. "There's the Cody stage, isn't it?"
+
+The sheriff reined his horse back, and, with a flourish, the four
+horses swept past with Andy's foot jammed hard on the brake and Andy's
+whip cracking over the wheelers' heads. Just in the nick of time he
+recognized Ross.
+
+"Hi, there!" he shouted. "Doc, where's yer patient? And how is he?"
+
+Then, before any answer could be returned, the stage was beyond reach of
+Ross's voice, disappearing in a cloud of dust.
+
+"What patient does he mean?" asked the sheriff.
+
+"It's a fellow I helped when I first came out here," answered Ross
+frankly. He was afraid of the sheriff's suspicions. "He was hurt in
+front of Sagehen Roost, and as I know something about surgery
+I--helped--to fix him up."
+
+The sheriff studied his horse's ears. A look of perplexity overspread
+his face. "I heard of that down in Basin. But it seems to me that was
+before you come." He looked hard at Ross. "The McKenzies said----" He
+stopped suddenly, and bit his lips.
+
+Ross seized this pause to mutter, "It's not so long ago," and forged
+ahead on the trail, taking good care to keep ahead until the lights of
+Cody and the odor of the Shoshone River--"Stinking Water"--smote their
+senses together through the gathering darkness of the early December
+night. Then the sheriff, straightening in his saddle, said in a voice
+of authority:
+
+"Come back here. We'll ride neck and neck now."
+
+Ross fell back, and asked his first question, and no sooner was it out
+than he bit his lips savagely in vexation at his own thoughtlessness.
+
+"Is Mr. Jones stopping at 'The Irma'?"
+
+"Who?" exploded the sheriff.
+
+"Mr. Jones," murmured Ross in confusion.
+
+The sheriff looked the boy over silently but intently in the moonlight.
+The blood surged into Ross's face, and, despite the chill of the night
+wind, the perspiration broke out on his forehead.
+
+"Huh!" was the only response to his question. "Jones!"
+
+Then, with their horses neck to neck the two rode over the bridge
+together and for the second time entered the town to which Buffalo Bill
+has given his name, Cody. On the other side of the bridge, near the
+dust-deep road, stood a tent. The flap was fastened back, and, within,
+seated about a rough table, sat four men playing cards. When the sound
+of horses' hoofs reached the players, one of them arose and came to
+the tent's opening.
+
+It was Sandy McKenzie.
+
+The sheriff, still regarding Ross, did not look toward the tent, while
+Ross, excited over the prospect of meeting Leslie's father, and confused
+by his recent misspeech, scarcely bestowed a moment's thought on
+Sandy, whom he had known was in Cody and believed to be the instigator
+of the arrest. He glanced, however, within the tent as they passed
+and recognized Waymart. The man sitting next, his back to the open
+flap, his face bent over the cards in his hand, one leg stretched out
+under the table, looked strangely familiar to the boy, but he was too
+preoccupied to give him any attention. The fourth man, his face turned
+toward the riders, was a stranger.
+
+A moment later, a man took the horses in front of "The Irma," and the
+sheriff with his prisoner walked into the lobby and up to the desk.
+Picking up the pen, the sheriff thrust it into Ross's hand.
+
+"Register for yourself," he commanded briefly.
+
+Ross hesitated, glanced at the waiting clerk, glanced at the suspicious
+face of the sheriff and then, with a shaking hand, wrote: "Ross Grant,
+Junior," and laid the pen down.
+
+The sheriff drew the register toward him with a slowly purpling face.
+
+"That's my name," declared Ross. He spoke defensively, yet with a ring
+of exultation in his voice. "You haven't asked me for it before."
+
+The blood dropped out of the sheriff's face. The shivers ran down
+Ross's spine at the anger in his face.
+
+"What does this mean, you cub!" the sheriff demanded furiously.
+
+"It means that I want to talk to Leslie Jones' father before he sees
+Leslie," announced Ross boldly, "so I came with you. There was nothing
+to prevent my coming."
+
+A hand fell on the sheriff's shoulder. Sandy McKenzie stood at Ross's
+elbow. Sandy's face wore a curiously baffled expression, but he nodded
+to Ross in much his usual nonchalant manner.
+
+"Hello, Doc, you here? Didn't expect to see you. How'd you leave Leslie
+Jones?"
+
+There was an emphasis on the last name which Ross did not notice. Neither
+did he notice the shrewd observation in the questioner's eyes.
+
+"I left him busy," the boy returned glibly, "and so did the sheriff!"
+
+Once more the blood rushed into the sheriff's face, and in unselected
+language he had begun to tell Ross what he thought of him, when Sandy
+succeeded in drawing him aside and leading him into the barroom, followed
+by Waymart and a group that the conversation had attracted.
+
+After they had disappeared, Ross turned to the clerk. "Is Mr. Jones
+stopping here?" he asked confidently.
+
+"Nope," responded the clerk, leaning an elbow on the ledger. "What was
+it you put over the sheriff?"
+
+"Not here!" Ross exclaimed, not hearing the question. "Did you understand
+the name? I want to see Mr. Jones." In his anxiety he raised his voice.
+
+The clerk grinned. "There ain't no man here by the name of Jones."
+
+"But there must be," Ross insisted stupidly. "There's got to be! This
+is the only hotel in town, isn't it?"
+
+"Yep," grinned the clerk. "It's the original Waldorf-Astory all right.
+Where does this here Jones hail from?"
+
+"Omaha." There was unlimited dismay in Ross's tone.
+
+"Hain't got any one from Omaha here, and hain't had this winter."
+
+Ross pulled the register toward him and began to scan the names.
+Instantly he exclaimed, "Bully! Steele. I'd forgotten him. I'll see----"
+
+"Not this trip!" the clerk interrupted lazily. "Ye must 'a' met Steele.
+He went back on the stage to-night."
+
+"Leonard, then. He's here, isn't he?"
+
+"Nope," replied the clerk nonchalantly. "He's in Basin. Home's there,
+ye know."
+
+Baffled, perplexed, Ross turned again to the register. The clerk had
+told the truth. There had been no guest entered from Omaha or any place
+further away than Montana in weeks. "See here," he exclaimed finally,
+"do you know anything about Leslie Jones, that went over to Meadow Creek
+with a man named Wilson a few weeks ago?"
+
+The clerk leisurely turned the pages until he arrived at the entry
+sought. "Here they be," he pushed the book across the counter. "Wilson
+and Jones. They stayed here most a week. Knew Wilson and remember Jones
+when he was here."
+
+"And hasn't his father been here?" asked Ross eagerly. "Not at any time?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Haven't you--haven't you heard from him at any time or--or known
+about him? I've got to see the father," Ross burst out in irrepressible
+confidence born of his distraction. "I've stopped work and come all the
+way down from the Shoshones to talk with Jones."
+
+"Can't help it. Don't know anything about any Jones except this young
+one."
+
+At this point the clerk was called into the dining-room. He left Ross
+standing beside the desk staring at the register, confused and helpless.
+
+"And right here I got the big head over the way I had managed," he told
+himself in humiliation, "and at the very last minute gave the whole thing
+away!"
+
+Why couldn't he have had the sense to play the game far enough to
+see the end--and Leslie's father, he asked himself miserably. Now he
+had simply made a fool of himself and angered the sheriff and had not
+benefited Leslie. The sheriff would probably turn about and go back
+after the right boy. With this thought Ross straightened his shoulders
+determinedly and turned toward the barroom. As there was nothing to be
+gained by silence he was going to ask questions. As he turned, a man slid
+into the hotel in advance of him--the man with the oddly familiar back.
+
+The sheriff, Sandy and Waymart were standing together, and toward them
+Ross made his way through clouds of tobacco smoke and past groups of
+cowboys, railroad men and prospectors.
+
+"Hi, Doc!" called Sandy gaily. "Hump along here and be sociable. What'll
+you have? It's on me. Anybody," admiringly, "that's smart enough t'
+fool the sheriff of Big Horn County can have anything on me they'll
+take."
+
+The sheriff turned his back on Sandy and scowled. He did not glance at
+his late prisoner.
+
+"I don't want anything," declared Ross shortly. He planted himself
+resolutely in front of Sandy. "But I'd like to know where Leslie Jones'
+father is?"
+
+Sandy smiled easily, while the scowl faded from the sheriff's face.
+
+"I ain't no city directory, Doc," responded Sandy, "and what's more, I
+ain't knowin' of any Leslie Jones! His end name ain't any more Jones
+than yours is. He's fooled ye mighty bad--see?"
+
+The blood rushed to Ross's face. "N-not Jones?" he stammered. "Not
+Jones! What is it then?"
+
+"Why, Doc, if he don't want ye t' know I ain't got a call t' tell ye.
+Be reasonable." Sandy spoke with maddening pleasantry and condescension.
+"A feller's name is his own, and if he wants t' keep it kinda fresh
+and unused I ain't the one t' dig it up 'n' let it get covered with
+dust. Better go back t' Meadow Creek and have it out with Leslie."
+
+Ten minutes later, Ross, with a hot and angry face, was back in the
+lobby. His indignation burned against Leslie, who had, unconsciously,
+helped to put him in the hole in which he found himself. The subdued
+laugh which had marked his retreat from the barroom rang long in his
+ears. The sheriff's laugh was the loudest.
+
+"Arrest will serve him right!" muttered Ross as he entered the
+dining-room. "There isn't a reason on earth why he shouldn't have told
+me his right name when he told me the rest."
+
+Angrily Ross ate his supper, glowering down at his plate and not noticing
+the entrance of the McKenzies with the sheriff.
+
+After supper he went up to his room. The door was unlocked, the key
+having been long since lost. A single electric bulb swinging over the
+dresser was alight. Under the bulb lay a sealed and soiled envelope. Ross
+picked it up and turning it over came on the direction, "Doc Tenderfoot,"
+in a sprawling and carefully careless hand. Wonderingly he opened the
+envelope. Within was a note written with a lead pencil on the back of
+a yellow advertising sheet. It ran:
+
+"Leslie's name is Quinn, not Jones. His father is A. B. Quinn, North
+Bend, Okla., or 14 Castle Street, Omaha. He is in Omaha now waiting
+for Leslie. Sheriff is to send him there. Mum is the word about this
+note--to him or Leslie or the McKenzies. If I did not know you were on
+the square you would not get it to be mum about."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NEWCOMER ON MEADOW CREEK
+
+
+"'OLD man Quinn!'" Ross cried aloud. "'Old man Quinn' and the sheep
+war. And Leslie is his son!"
+
+It all came back, the story he had almost forgotten in the stress of
+events on Meadow Creek, the conversation on the train, old Sheepy's
+tale and, at last, his suspicions concerning Lon Weston with his dyed
+hair. And when his memory brought Lon into mental view, Ross's face lit
+up with a sudden flash of intelligence.
+
+"It was Weston that I saw in the tent, and it was Weston that went into
+the barroom ahead of me!"
+
+He laid the note on the dresser and, bending under the electric light,
+studied it. There was nothing to show who had written it except the
+caution at the end. That might have emanated from Waymart, but the
+language was better than he would have used. Ross felt that it was Lon
+Weston who had written that message. Of course, if such was the case, and
+Lon was the fourth whom old man Quinn was looking for, that warning not
+to give the unsigned writer away would be accounted for. It might, in
+some way, be the clew that would lead to Lon's detection. Ross now
+recalled how Lon had lain with one arm over his face all the time that
+Wilson and Leslie had been at the stage camp. He could not now recall
+whether or not the injured man's name had been spoken in Leslie's
+presence. But he did remember that Leslie had said of the McKenzies
+that perhaps they were men at some time in his father's employ, in which
+case he might not know them, but that they would probably recognize him.
+
+"Then if he had heard Weston's name it might not mean anything to
+Leslie," Ross concluded.
+
+He wondered why Lon had not made himself known that evening and wondered
+how he came to know the McKenzies. In fact, he sat on the side of his
+bed wondering about a dozen things until midnight, and then went to
+bed undecided what to do now that he had Quinn's address in his
+possession. His resentment kindled against Leslie whenever he thought of
+the latter's deception about his name. And the probabilities were
+that a letter from him, Ross, would not move the father to clemency.
+
+In this undecided state of mind, Ross strolled into the lobby the
+following morning, considering how he could best kill time until the
+stage started for Meeteetse that evening. As he was standing in front of
+a window, his hands deep in his pockets, the sheriff and Sandy rode past,
+followed by Waymart. Neither the sheriff nor Waymart looked his way.
+But Sandy did, and, grinning, raised his hand in a graceful salute.
+Ross, nodding, felt his anger at Sandy dying. Distrust him as he must,
+Ross could not dislike him. In this strange state of mind, however,
+the boy was by no means alone throughout the length and breadth of
+Big Horn County.
+
+"They're going now after the right chap," thought Ross, and a wave of
+sympathy for Leslie began to wash away his resentment.
+
+In the end, he spent the greater part of the day composing a letter to
+old man Quinn, wherein he set forth Leslie's position, prospects
+and altered feelings in bald statements containing but few adjectives. In
+explaining who the writer was he gave a brief account of his connection
+with the sheriff. Between the acts of composing, tearing up, and
+rewriting the composition, he searched Cody for Lon Weston, but could
+not find him.
+
+When, that evening, he climbed into the stage behind Andy, he had sent
+the letter to Leslie's father and had not caught a glimpse of Weston.
+
+At the stage camp he was the butt of much congratulation and derision
+from the hilarious Hank. "Say, you made the sheriff mad as a hornet,
+but he had t' own up ye cheated 'im out of a year's growth. Sandy
+set the hull thing out in good shape. But why didn't ye stick t' yer
+job instid of layin' down 'n' kickin' up yer heels before the time?"
+
+"Because I'm no good, Hank, this side of the Mississippi River,"
+returned Ross in humility of spirit. "Don't knock me--you can't get
+ahead of me in that respect! I've kicked myself all over Cody to-day."
+
+The following morning, at Meeteetse, he joined Bill Travers and the
+Miners' Camp stage and started on the all day's journey into the
+mountains. At noon, he began looking for the sheriff and Leslie. He
+had calculated that they would meet the stage at the half-way ranch
+and there he would tell Leslie what he had written his father. But no
+Leslie appeared. All the afternoon during the stage's progress into the
+mountains, Ross looked for the sheriff and his prisoner, but he looked in
+vain.
+
+At six o'clock, Bill Travers dropped his one passenger in front of
+Steele's shack, and Ross, climbing Gale's Ridge, opened the door on
+the superintendent in the act of sitting down to supper.
+
+"Hello, there!" cried Steele grasping the boy's chilled hand. "Here's
+the best elk steak you ever planted your teeth in. Draw up and tell me
+what you've been up to, skylarking off to Cody with the sheriff."
+
+Ross followed directions, and soon was giving Steele the entire story
+of his capture and failure.
+
+Steele, forgetting to eat, alternated between amusement and amazement.
+"By George, I don't wonder that sheriff was mad! You see, Doc, he's
+new to the business of being sheriff. You were his first arrest."
+
+"Probably if he were not so new he wouldn't have been so easily fooled."
+
+"I can't say," retorted Steele, "that he was easily fooled. Strikes me
+you were about as slow with him as greased lightning."
+
+Ross flushed at the praise. It was balm to his wounds in his self-esteem.
+
+Early the following morning, he started for Meadow Creek, and at the
+upper camp learned something for which he was unprepared and which was
+a source of temporary satisfaction to him.
+
+Leslie had disappeared.
+
+Until noon Ross lingered in camp watching the sheriff and Sandy pass and
+repass in their search for the runaway. Finally, just before noon, he saw
+them on snow-shoes striking out up Wood River cañon into the uninhabited
+wilderness beyond. Then he slowly mounted the dizzy trail leading to
+Weimer's shack and the interrupted work.
+
+"It must have been my note that warned him," Ross thought as he watched
+the figures toiling up Wood River cañon. "I hope they have the chase of
+their lives," he said aloud, "and then I can patronize Sandy and stroke
+him down as he did me at 'The Irma'--provided I dare!"
+
+He found Weimer sitting beside the fire smoking and growling over the
+absence of both his assistants.
+
+"Dot poy," he explained, "read dot paper you wrote and den vat does he
+do, hein? He says notings, aber he takes some tings and out he goes und
+leaves me mit der vork und mit mine eyes, und dey so pad!"
+
+This was the extent of the information he was able to give Ross
+concerning Leslie. Many grievances he had against the sheriff and "dem
+McKenzies" that had ransacked the premises and had ridden to and fro,
+over to Wilson's and round the mountains searching for traces of Leslie.
+
+As it turned out, they might have found a trace of him had they searched
+more thoroughly, for the following day, Ross, diving into the pocket of
+his slicker for some nails that he carried there, came on a folded note
+pinned in the bottom of the pocket.
+
+[Illustration: BESIDE THE DYNAMITE BOX]
+
+"All I understand from your letter," ran the note, "is that it has given
+me a chance to make my getaway. It was a mighty white thing of you to
+do, and I appreciate it, though I know I haven't acted that way. You've
+probably found out what my name is by this time. I didn't tell you,
+because I was so dead ashamed about the whole matter that I hated to
+face myself and disgrace the name. But I never thought father would do
+such a thing as he has, and so I shall clear out and stay cleared until
+he has stopped hunting. I know where I'm going, and you'll see me in
+Meadow Creek after father goes back and has given me up.--LESLIE JONES
+QUINN."
+
+Ross, standing on the dump beside the dynamite box, a hammer in one hand,
+read the letter. At once all his remaining resentment against Leslie
+disappeared. "I guess I would have done the same about the name in his
+place," he concluded.
+
+Pinning the note in his pocket again for safe keeping he repaired the
+dynamite box. Then he entered the tunnel, where Weimer was once more at
+work drilling for a blast.
+
+"Uncle Jake," he asked, "when did Leslie leave, what time in the day?"
+
+"It vas not day, it vas night," growled Weimer wrestling with the drill.
+"He vent avay mit darkness."
+
+"That accounts," said Ross, "for his not having been seen in camp."
+
+He felt certain that Leslie would take refuge in the shack up Wood River
+cañon where Wilson had stored some of the supplies in preparation for the
+winter's work on the coal claims. In this case he would be discovered,
+for it was in that direction that the sheriff and Sandy had gone as Ross
+was climbing the Crosby trail. Therefore, it was with anxiety that the
+boy looked for the return of the McKenzies.
+
+Darkness had fallen when he left the tunnel that night, and as he emerged
+from the trees that clustered about the dump, he saw a light in the
+McKenzie cabin. Without waiting for his supper, he crossed the little
+valley and rapped on the door.
+
+"Hello, Doc," came Sandy's voice from within. "Haul up the latch-string
+and show yerself. Comin' to crow over us, ain't ye?" he continued as
+Ross entered. "Well, that ye can, fer we can't find hide ner hair of
+Leslie, and the sheriff has hit the trail to Basin about as mad as they
+make 'em over the whole thing!"
+
+Here Sandy threw his head back and laughed as amusedly as though the
+entire affair were a joke of his own manufacture. He did not seem to
+harbor the least resentment against Ross for having blocked the wheels
+of his game. Rather, he applauded the blocking frankly, while Waymart
+smoked stolidly beside the table and said nothing.
+
+"That little note that you left for Less is what done the business,"
+Sandy went on cheerfully reviewing the situation. "The sheriff had forgot
+that note 'til we got up here and the bird wa'n't t' be found in
+the hand ner the bush neither. That was a neat little trick, Doc, almost
+as neat as the way ye come it over the sheriff on the trail to Cody.
+Guess he'll not fergit ye fer a spell! Mart, don't be s' stingy with
+that weed. Hand over some. My pipe is about as empty as the sheriff's
+head."
+
+"Why did you do it, Sandy?" Ross burst out. "What made you send word to
+Leslie's father that he was here?"
+
+Sandy composedly filled his pipe and lighted it. "It was cruelty t'
+little children not t', Doc. The very idee of Leslie Jones leavin'
+his pa and----"
+
+"His name isn't Jones, and you know it, and I know it!" interrupted
+Ross. He could not keep the ring of triumph from his tone. "He is Leslie
+Quinn."
+
+Sandy's hand traveled slowly to his pipe. "Is he? How'd you find out?"
+he asked quickly.
+
+"Easily enough," said Ross carelessly, "when you know how."
+
+Both Waymart and Sandy regarded the boy intently. "Been back here then,
+has he?" they asked in one breath.
+
+Ross arose. "'It would be cruelty to little children' to tell you!" he
+quoted boldly and opened the door.
+
+Waymart gave an exclamation and sprang to his feet. His hands were
+clenched. But Sandy, kicking him under the table, guffawed.
+
+"Give and take, Mart," he exclaimed. "I'm willin' t' chew my own
+words, and if I am willin' there ain't no kick comin' from you!"
+
+The following day Ross wrote another letter to Leslie's father and
+enclosed the note he had found pinned in his pocket. This letter he
+entrusted to Wilson to mail in Cody, for Wilson was going to Butte for
+a few weeks before beginning his winter's work on his coal claims. He
+stopped at noon to bid Weimer and Ross good-bye.
+
+"Nothin' would hire me t' stay over here all winter," were his last
+words to Ross.
+
+Although the latter had seen but little of the prospector, his departure
+made the valley seem lonelier than ever, and caused Ross to cling
+desperately to the idea of the McKenzies remaining. As the days passed,
+and more snow fell, the brothers began to get decidedly uneasy. They
+accounted for their uneasiness to Ross by telling him they were in need
+of supplies and saw no way of getting any over from Miners' Camp.
+Sandy was the informant, as usual, while Waymart's eyebrows were
+lifted in momentary surprise. By that time every horse in Miners' Camp
+had been sent "below." There was but little grass on the mountains
+during the brief summer; and through the winter, which occupied nine
+months of the year, every ounce of fodder must be packed over the
+difficult road from the ranches.
+
+"I don't see," quoth Sandy unconvincingly, "but what we'll have to
+strike the trail. Hain't no way, as I can see, to pack grub over except
+on our backs, and that's too slow."
+
+For a moment there was silence in Weimer's cabin. The wind moaned and
+wailed among the hemlocks, and whistled savagely past the cabin. In
+his bunk Weimer snored. Above them came the cry of the coyotes, like a
+child's long-drawn scream of pain and fear. The terror of loneliness
+among those overhanging mountains gripped at the boy's throat. For a
+moment he could not speak.
+
+Then, "If you could get provisions over easily, would you stay longer?"
+
+Sandy crossed his legs restfully. "Sure," he answered readily.
+
+That week, therefore, Ross used his spare time--and some time which
+he ought not to have spared--in making a sled. It was, when finished,
+a crude but efficient affair, the runners being surmounted by a
+double-decked box. This vehicle he exhibited one day to the McKenzies as
+the prospective conveyor of their supplies over the mountains.
+
+Sandy stood in front of the shack, his hands in his pockets, his cap
+pushed well back on his head and the front lock of hair falling over
+his forehead.
+
+"Doc, you're the stuff!" he cried warmly. "There's an idee or two
+floatin' around in yer tenderfoot brain, ain't there?"
+
+Tied to both front and rear of the sled were ropes, two in front, one
+behind. Those in front differed in length.
+
+"See?" explained Ross. "Two can't walk abreast on the trail, but still
+it's easier for each one to pull on his own rope. That's the reason
+I made 'em of different lengths. Then one of us behind can hold the sled
+from slipping off the trail with the rear rope. In this way we can bring
+up a big load of supplies."
+
+Sandy removed his cap, and pushed back his hair.
+
+"Doc, where was you raised? Guess I'll go back t' the same place, and
+be raised over agin. It might pay." His tone expressed an admiration that
+was almost genuine.
+
+Waymart said nothing. He scarcely glanced at the sled, but turned away
+scowling up toward the tunnel where, as he had informed himself, Ross
+and Weimer were doing an amazingly good piece of work.
+
+As they started back toward their own shack, Ross heard Waymart say
+angrily to Sandy, "Are you goin' to take the use of that sled?"
+
+And Sandy's answer, "For sure, now! What's eatin' you, Mart? Doc's
+got a good head on 'im."
+
+"Entirely too good fer us, mebby!" growled Waymart; and Ross smiled in
+satisfaction, thinking they referred to his work in the tunnel.
+
+Just before supper, the door of Weimer's shack unceremoniously opened,
+and Waymart's arm was thrust in. "Here," his voice said roughly, "take
+this here elk steak."
+
+Ross relieved the arm of its burden, and the door closed sharply. It was
+a sirloin steak, the juiciest and most tender in the animal which the
+brothers had brought into the valley the day before. Sandy had often
+brought them venison before, but never Waymart; and Ross was pleased.
+
+"While Sandy is entertaining," Ross had told Steele, "and Waymart seldom
+says two sentences at one sitting, and next to never meets my eye, yet,
+if it came right down to a choice, I believe I'd rather travel along
+with Waymart than with Sandy."
+
+"Your choice is all right," Steele had replied. "If Waymart would cut
+loose from Sandy, he'd earn an honest living. It's Sandy that's the
+head, though. It's Sandy that plans; Waymart furnishes the feet and
+arms. Sandy's good company, but I wouldn't trust him with my pocketbook
+around the corner. Not," Steele added, "that he'd steal it in such a way
+that the law could touch him. No, he'd have the pocketbook, but it 'ud
+leave him free to look any jury in the eye and to shake hands with me
+afterward."
+
+The new sled made its first journey down into Miners' Camp one Sunday in
+December two weeks after Ross had ridden down with the sheriff. Waymart
+went ahead with one of the leading-ropes over his shoulder, and Sandy
+behind, steadying the empty vehicle around the shoulder of Crosby.
+Waymart led because he was the heaviest, and there was a deep fall of
+snow to contend against except around the shoulder, where, fortunately,
+the wind had swept the mountain clean.
+
+As the trail broadened beyond, Waymart paused to survey the low-hanging
+clouds. Ross, in the rear, stopped and studied the mountains which Nature
+had in ages past taken in her gigantic hands and flung into the cañon
+between Dundee and Crosby, compelling Wood River to crawl and worm and
+wind and cut its way deep and narrow down into Miners' Camp.
+
+"I wonder," exclaimed Ross suddenly to Sandy, "what is beyond that
+conglomeration of peaks."
+
+"Wood River cañon still, clean over on top of the Divide, and you can
+follow it on horseback right through. Part of the time up there," waving
+his hand toward the jumble of mountains which seemingly ended the cañon,
+"it's pretty rocky trailin', especially in winter, but it can be done."
+
+Sandy rested one foot on the edge of the sled. Waymart glued his eyes
+on the Camp far below. From various projecting stovepipes volumes of
+smoke were curling straight up in the windless air. From the tunnel of
+the Mountain Company almost opposite them came a succession of blasts
+which stirred the echoes between Dundee and Crosby. The Mountain Company
+were no respecters of Sunday. They were also working day and night in
+view of the near shut-down of the works.
+
+But Ross's gaze was seeking to penetrate further toward the source of
+Wood River. "Any one living beyond there?" he asked.
+
+Sandy grinned. "Elk, mountain-sheep, coyotes, bears, and timber wolves."
+
+"But no people?"
+
+"Nope. There ain't a man livin' 'twixt here and the Yellowstone
+Park--now. Last summer a few prospectors sort of strolled up Wood River a
+few dozen miles, but they hiked it out, I tell ye, when snow come."
+
+"I wish," Ross said impulsively, "that I could go over there exploring."
+
+Waymart lifted his eyes the fraction of a moment, and encountered
+Sandy's. A peculiar expression passed between them. Then Waymart's
+gaze fell again on the Camp, and Sandy replied carelessly to Ross:
+
+"After you git the work done in your tunnel better strike some of these
+trails, but not in winter. They ain't safe, especially for a tenderfoot."
+
+"But in the summer," returned Ross absently, "I don't expect to be here."
+
+"Oh--that so?" and Sandy gave the sled a careless push.
+
+Waymart drew the rope over his shoulder, and once more the trio descended
+the trail.
+
+At the upper camp Ross left the brothers to purchase their supplies
+while he visited the post-office and Steele. At the former place he found
+a note to himself from Leslie's father and a bulkier letter addressed
+to Leslie in his care. Mr. Quinn had received both of Ross's letters, he
+wrote, the last with the enclosure from Leslie. He had taken the steps
+necessary to recall the warrant, which, he explained, had seemed to
+him the "surest and quickest way of fetching the boy home," and would
+allow Leslie to return to Ross as his note indicated that he desired.
+On his return Ross was to give up the letter put in his care. Mr. Quinn
+closed his communication with thanks to Ross for the trouble he had
+been to, also, for his assurance that Leslie was boning down to work!
+
+Two weeks had elapsed since Leslie disappeared. Nothing had been seen
+of him nor heard of him in either the upper or lower camps, and Ross
+returned to Meadow Creek troubled in spirit.
+
+"I'm afraid," he told himself as he helped the McKenzies haul their
+supplies up the trail, "that I've made even a bigger mess of it all
+the way around than I thought at first."
+
+Steele, from his doorway, watched Ross out of sight that afternoon, with
+a pleased smile on his bearded lips. He was a tanned and freckled Ross
+now. Sun and wind and work in the open for two months had left their
+marks on the boy. He stood straighter, walked more firmly, and had laid
+on pounds of muscle.
+
+"He's put himself through good and plenty, as well as holding Uncle
+Jake's nose to the grindstone," concluded Steele, turning back into the
+cabin. On the making of the sled he had commented but briefly to Ross,
+realizing how much the presence of the McKenzies meant to the boy. To
+himself he thought, however:
+
+"That Sandy McKenzie! How he does manage to make other folks do his work!"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the week which followed, a stranger passed through Miners' Camp.
+He was seen by only one man, "Society Bill," who belonged to the Gale's
+Ridge outfit.
+
+"He asked the way to the Meader Creek trail," Society Bill told Steele.
+"Now, I wonder if he's a new one of them McKenzies. I never set my two
+eyes on 'im before."
+
+"Horseback?" asked Steele.
+
+"Yep. Decent sort of bronc he rode. Told me to tell Bill Travers to drive
+it down below to-morrow if it got down this far."
+
+"That looks as if he knew what he was about, and intended to stay," mused
+Steele.
+
+Early the following morning the "decent sort of broncho," with its
+bridle reins tied to the pommel of the saddle, was discovered in front of
+Steele's shack, pawing the snow in an ineffectual attempt to get a
+breakfast. Bill Travers, returning with the stage, according to request,
+drove the beast ahead of him down to the first ranch, and, taking off
+saddle and bridle, turned it into a large corral with dozens of other
+horses to winter. In the spring one by one the owners would straggle
+along, identify their horses and saddles, pay their bills, and depart
+for the mountains.
+
+The owner of the ranch pitched the saddle under a shed, and thought no
+more about the transaction. Bill Travers, whirling his whip over the
+backs of his four stage horses, gave the stranger and his horse no more
+thought. Society Bill, having disseminated his news among the other
+miners, presently forgot it. But Amos Steele neither forgot nor ceased
+to speculate.
+
+"Who is he, and what is he doing on the Creek?" Steele asked himself.
+
+The first part of the question Ross answered the following Sunday. He
+could scarcely wait to open the door before announcing:
+
+"Lon Weston is over on the Creek. He is cousin to the McKenzies!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MEADOW CREEK VALLEY MISSES LESLIE
+
+
+ROSS could scarcely believe the evidence of his own senses when he saw
+Lon Weston riding along the trail below the dump. The boy had pushed the
+car with its load of ore out to the bumper and dumped it before he saw
+the horseman in the sheepskin coat, the hairy chaps, and a fur cap drawn
+over forehead and ears. The horse shied at the chunks of ore rolling
+almost to its feet, and Weston looked up.
+
+"Hello, there!" shouted Ross. "What on earth are you doing here?"
+
+Weston drew in his horse. "Hello, Doc!" he returned with gruff
+pleasantness without answering the question.
+
+"Doc" slipped and slid down the snowy path to the trail, and held out a
+cordial hand.
+
+"How's your leg?"
+
+"All right." Weston gripped the extended hand heartily. "Almost as good
+'s new."
+
+His brown eyes above his heavy stubby beard held a pleasanter expression
+than Ross had seen in them while nursing their owner. They were deep
+eyes, capable of mirroring accurately the varied moods of the man looking
+out of them.
+
+"I didn't recognize you in Cody three weeks ago," Ross was beginning
+when Weston interrupted him.
+
+Leaning down from his saddle he met the boy's eyes steadily. "Remember,"
+he said slowly and meaningly, "that you didn't see me--nor hear from
+me--in Cody."
+
+"All right," agreed Ross, embarrassed by the fixity of the other's
+stare. "I'll forget it hereafter, but I want to thank----"
+
+"Cut it out," commanded Weston briefly, straightening again in the saddle.
+
+"At least," invited Ross, "you'll come to dinner with me. Uncle Jake
+is frying ham and onions. Smell 'em? I got some onions and half a dozen
+apples over at Camp Sunday." His voice could not have been more eager had
+he been relating the finding of free gold. "Come on in, and have some."
+
+Weston's eyes slipped away from Ross's in a way which reminded the
+latter of Waymart's, and rested on the smoke from the cabin a quarter of
+a mile away.
+
+"Guess not, to-day. Thank you just the same. The boys are probably
+rustlin' grub this minute and they'll be expectin' me. See you again."
+
+Ross stood motionless, looking after him. Weston rode sitting straight,
+unlike the usual careless forward droop of the cow puncher. He was a
+well-built man, although his shoulders were rather narrow. But the only
+characteristic that Ross noticed was the grip of the left knee against
+the horse. For the strength of that grip he was responsible, but it was a
+responsibility which Lon did not seem to recognize.
+
+Suddenly the boy realized the newcomer's words. So Sandy and Waymart
+were expecting him, but had said nothing about it to Ross. And when Ross
+had told them about Lon Weston at the stage camp they had made no sign
+that they knew him. That was strange.
+
+He turned slowly toward the cabin, where Weimer was frying ham and onions
+and boiling coffee. Opening the cabin door he was met by a white gust of
+steam mingled with savory smoke. He propped the door open, and brought
+in an armful of wood.
+
+Weimer, in his shirt-sleeves, was bending his head over a little stove,
+which offered barely room for a small kettle and a skillet with a
+coffee-pot sandwiched in between. A sheet-iron oven stood on the floor,
+the top answering for a sideboard. When Weimer made biscuits and sour
+dough bread, the oven was placed on top of the stove.
+
+Ross threw his wood down on the hard dirt floor, and put a stick into
+the stove by way of the wide front door. The pine instantly blazed up,
+showing a wide crack which zigzagged across the side of the old stove.
+
+"Uncle Jake,"--Ross sat back on one heel, and looked up at his partner
+whose blinking eyes were in the gloom of the cabin unprotected now by
+goggles,--"Uncle Jake, a stranger has just come into Meadow Creek City
+on the Limited."
+
+Weimer chuckled. Before the advent of his youthful "pard" the old
+man--Ross always thought of him as old despite his black hair and great
+strength--had not laughed in months.
+
+"He stopped at the second station," pursued Ross.
+
+Weimer's face instantly darkened. "At the McKenzies'? One of dem
+consarned gang, he ist?"
+
+"That's what I want to know. It's Lon Weston, the fellow I told you I
+took care of at the stage camp."
+
+Weimer dumped ham and onions into an agateware basin, and set it on the
+table. "I don't know him, I don't. But he comes to der McKenzies, hein?
+Und after all dose days you spen' mit him!" Uncle Jack frowned heavily,
+and, sitting down, helped himself to boiled "spuds."
+
+"I tink I knew all dem consarned gang, but dere ist no Veston mit 'em."
+
+Ross dragged to the little bare board table a box marked in big letters,
+"Ruford's Canned Tomatoes, The Yellow Brand," and, turning the box on
+end, straddled it opposite Weimer.
+
+Weimer, eating and drinking noisily, found time to ask vindictively, "Ist
+he for more medicine come mit you?"
+
+Ross shook his head, and bent over his plate.
+
+The plate was tin. The cup out of which he drank his coffee was also tin.
+His knife and fork were steel, and his spoon was pewter. The place of the
+lacking milk pitcher was usurped by a tin can of condensed milk with the
+top bent back and the milk dried all over the sides. But Ross ate--how he
+ate! Potatoes followed ham, and coffee followed potatoes, and onions
+followed both, and then he began all over again. Never had eating been
+such serious work with him. But never, also, had his muscles been so firm
+and hard. As for a pickaxe, it was coming to feel no heavier than the
+baseball bat which he had always rather scorned.
+
+"I wonder," he began after a pause, "what Lon's up to here, anyway."
+
+The question started Weimer on his favorite topic, the claim jumpers
+and the injustice of the mining laws. He could not talk fast enough in
+English, and so dropped into his native German.
+
+Ross, accustomed to his tirades, cleared away the dishes, pushed the
+table back against the dirt chinked logs, and lay down on the blankets
+of his bunk for a few moments, his eyes glued on the little nickel clock.
+
+He broke into the other's scolding monologue. "In ten minutes we must
+go back to work."
+
+Weimer scowled darkly. His lids, red and swollen, almost obscured his
+pale-blue eyes. "Mine eyes ist too pad to-day," he declared. "I vill not
+to go out in de sun again."
+
+A few weeks before, this oft-repeated declaration had alarmed Ross. Now
+he made no reply. But, when the hands of the nickel clock indicated one,
+he arose and put on his oiled jumper and oilskin cap.
+
+"Come, Uncle Jake," he said in a strong, decided tone. "Here are your
+goggles. Get busy, or the McKenzie outfit will have our claims in spite
+of us. Now, when there are three to watch instead of two, we must show
+the mettle we're made of."
+
+Moved by the magic statement, ever new and ever powerful, that the claims
+might be jumped, Uncle Jake, forgetting that in substance he had made
+the same objection to work twice a day for weeks and that Ross had
+overcome his objections in substantially the same way, "got busy." And
+presently Ross led him out, his eyes not only securely goggled, but
+covered as well with a black cloth which he pressed fearfully against
+the goggles.
+
+The snow was Weimer's evil genius. He lived in dread of the sight of
+it. Without assistance he would not move a dozen paces away from the
+cabin after the sun had risen on Meadow Creek Valley. But the fear of the
+light had made as great an impression on his mind as the light itself
+had made on his eyes, and he had fallen into the habit, before Ross came,
+of staying in his cabin during cloudy days, lest, if he ventured out, the
+sun might break through the clouds.
+
+The old partner and the young went up the steep trail to the tunnel, Ross
+leading Weimer up over the side of the dump and into the mouth of the
+tunnel. In the shelter of its gloom the latter removed his goggles; and,
+stumbling along over the chunks of ore lying beside the narrow track,
+he reached the end of the short tunnel which had been blasted from the
+solid rock. Lighting a fresh candle, he set it in its socket at the end
+of a sharply pointed iron, a miner's candlestick, and, jabbing the
+point into a crevice, leisurely surveyed the wall before him. Behind him
+the little empty car filled the tunnel with sound as Ross pushed it
+rattling and jolting over the rusty rails.
+
+"Ready to drill for another shot, ain't we?" Ross asked. He pushed the
+car back out of the way. "Got to hustle to get it done this afternoon,
+too."
+
+Under the stimulus of Ross's presence and hustle the older man fell
+to work valiantly, but it was slow work. Down in Miners' Camp machinery
+performed the task which Weimer was doing laboriously with the aid
+of a hand drill. Before him, at the end of the tunnel, was a seamed
+and uneven wall of rock a little higher than his head and a little
+broader than his reach had he extended his arms on either side. In
+this wall he patiently drilled three sets of holes, into which the
+"sticks" were placed for the next "shot," as the explosion of dynamite
+was called. In mining terms the old man was "putting a shot." Near
+the top of the wall he made three holes. Half-way down were two more,
+long and inclined toward each other at the top. These were the "cut-in
+holes." Lastly, at the foot of the wall were three large holes called
+"lifters." The contents of the top holes and the cut-ins were set off
+first, splintering and cracking the rock. Then the lifters were
+exploded, actually lifting the loosened mass above it and hurling it
+into the tunnel.
+
+When quiet reigned again, and Ross had loaded his hand car with the
+débris, he pushed it out on the dump again through the moist, freezing
+atmosphere of the tunnel. There was water everywhere. Near the mouth
+of the tunnel it was frozen on the sides and the top, and carpeted the
+floor with slush. Further in it was unfrozen, oozing out of the sides,
+dripping from the roof, running along the track. It covered the oiled
+garments of the men at work. It put out their candles. It made muck of
+the quartz dust on the floor. It often destroyed the lighted fuses.
+
+There was something maddening to Ross in its incessant drip and drizzle,
+and he always emerged on the dump with a feeling of relief, especially
+when the sun shone as it did that day in dazzling brightness.
+
+He dumped the car, and was about to push it back when his eyes fell on
+Weston's horse journeying on the back trail riderless.
+
+"That means," thought Ross, "that he's going to stay. Why?"
+
+A feeling of relief was mixed with uneasiness. The relief was caused
+by this further link in the chain of evidence that when the trail to
+Miners' Camp was closed it would not close on Weimer and him alone. The
+uneasiness had to do with the mission of the McKenzie outfit in Meadow
+Creek Valley. Why were they reinforced by Weston?
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Ross aloud in sudden disgust with himself. "He's come
+to hunt, of course! His gun was strapped on behind. I never thought of
+that. If he belongs to the McKenzie outfit, he'd rather hunt than eat."
+
+It seemed to him that the "outfit" bore him not the slightest grudge or
+ill will. Sandy, indeed, seemed openly to like him, Waymart tolerated him
+with a surly good humor, while Weston--here Ross knit his brow--Weston
+baffled him completely; still, considering the incident of the note in
+Cody, the boy looked on him as a friend albeit one who evidently did
+not care to pose in that capacity before the McKenzies.
+
+From his position Ross could look down and across on the claims of
+the McKenzies and almost into the "discovery hole" in which they were
+supposed to be working. Waymart was leisurely drilling a hole in the
+rock to receive a stick of dynamite when Sandy came out of the cabin and
+walked rapidly toward him.
+
+The two talked together a moment, and then Weston joined them. In a
+moment the three fell apart, and appeared to be talking excitedly.
+Presently Waymart dropped the discussion, and turning his back walked
+away a few steps with his hands in his pockets and stood in a listening
+attitude. Ross watched with absorbing interest. Even at that distance
+he could see that the discussion between the other two was not amiable.
+The scene lasted but a few moments, and then all three descended to
+the cabin together.
+
+That evening after supper, Ross washed the day's dishes, brought in
+wood, and put the room to rights, while Weimer alternately smoked and
+snored in his bunk. The room was dimly lighted by candles in candlesticks
+thrust into logs. Ross, so tired and sleepy he could scarcely keep his
+eyes open, hung up the dish-pan on its nail beside the stove, and looked
+longingly toward the emergency chest pushed beneath his bunk. Not one
+word had he mastered of the contents of the books he had stowed away
+there with such high hopes.
+
+"I don't believe the McKenzies are coming over," he told Weimer, as he
+filled the stove and wound up the clock. "It's too late for them."
+
+Weimer made no reply. His pipe had fallen on his chest, and his
+hair-encircled mouth was wide open in a vacuous sleep. At that moment
+the rising wind beat the snow against the window, and Ross uttered an
+exclamation. He had forgotten to shut the tool-house door, and, fearing
+that with the wind in the south the little log house would be filled with
+snow before morning, he went back up the trail to the tunnel. Climbing
+noiselessly over the soft snow, he arrived at the ore dump, and was
+making for the tool house across the mouth of the tunnel when a light
+flickered in his path.
+
+Startled, he looked into the tunnel, and saw three figures at the end
+silhouetted against the dim candle-light.
+
+"Lon, Sandy and Waymart," he muttered.
+
+There was no danger of his being discovered, so dark was the night.
+Therefore, he sat down on his heels beside the tool house, and watched,
+puzzled at first to understand the movements of the men.
+
+"Oh," he muttered suddenly, "they're measuring to see how fast the work
+is going."
+
+With a tape line the men were estimating the cubic feet of rock excavated
+by Ross and Weimer.
+
+Ross hugged his knees, and exulted. His "friends the enemy" might measure
+all they chose, he thought; and every length of the tape line would
+reveal to them the futility of waiting to jump the Weimer-Grant claims.
+
+Presently the three started out of the tunnel. Ross, seeking a
+hiding-place, found it behind a clump of low spruce trees at the
+right of the tunnel's mouth. The intruders blew out their candles as
+they came out on the dump.
+
+"At this rate," Ross heard Waymart say, "they're solid on these here
+claims."
+
+But, although he strained his ears, he could hear nothing more. After a
+brief wait the last sound of twigs breaking under their shoes died away;
+and Ross, leaving his hiding-place, shut the tool-house door and went
+back to the cabin.
+
+He found Weimer awake and whistling in his bunk. Ross paused at the door,
+regarding him curiously. It was the first time he had ever heard the old
+man make this cheerful sound, although Steele had said he used to be
+called Whistling Weimer as well as Dutch Weimer.
+
+"Hello, Uncle Jake!" cried Ross. "Feeling pretty gay, aren't you?"
+
+Weimer stopped in the middle of his tune, and blinked at Ross. "Nein,"
+he denied, "I ain't feelin' gay. If your eyes vas----"
+
+Ross interrupted. "Now, see here, Uncle Jake; you know your eyes are
+better since I've taken to doctoring them."
+
+The last few weeks had certainly improved the old man. His eyes were
+better, owing to a cooling lotion which Ross had dropped under the lids
+twice a day. Weimer's mind was clearer because his growing confidence
+in his young partner had quieted his fears. Ross's cheerfulness was
+also contagious. Nor did the cleanliness on which the boy insisted lower
+Weimer's vitality. Soap became a known quantity to him.
+
+All these favorable circumstances reacted on Weimer's work. He was
+becoming more and more efficient, and Ross's spirits had risen as the
+days passed; and he saw the growing intelligence manifested by the other
+in regard to operations in the tunnel. This change for the better in
+Uncle Jake had not passed unnoticed by the McKenzies.
+
+Ross said nothing to the old man about the scene he had just witnessed
+in the tunnel. It would do no good, and would only inflame the other's
+wrath. Therefore, he snuffed the candles, repeating mechanically:
+
+"Don't believe the McKenzies are coming over to-night."
+
+But at that moment footsteps sounded outside the door. The snow creaked
+under the pressure of shoes, and Sandy and Waymart entered.
+
+Sandy was as gay and talkative as ever, but not Waymart. He sat down
+on a box, leaned back against the logs, turned up his coat collar to
+protect himself from the icy wind, which sought out the dirt-chinked
+crevices, and, pulling a mouth-organ from his pocket, began to play. Nor
+did he stop until Sandy rose to go. A sombre figure he made back among
+the shadows, his eyes resting vacantly on the floor at his feet. One leg
+was crossed over the other, the toe moving in time to the discordant
+music. Waymart's thoughts did not seem to be cheerful companions.
+
+But Sandy had drawn a box close up beside the roaring fire, and sat with
+his elbows on his knees and a pipe in his mouth. He paid no attention to
+Weimer nor to his musical brother, but told Ross yarns of the gold-fields
+of Montana and Nevada, tales concerning other men, Ross noticed; Sandy
+never talked about himself.
+
+The evening passed and the men rose to depart without having mentioned
+the newcomer; and Ross, with the thought of their previous reticence
+concerning him in mind, waited for them to speak first.
+
+It was Sandy who spoke, but not until his hand was on the door and
+Waymart stood outside the cabin. Then he said carelessly, as though Ross
+had never seen Weston before, and as though the coming of a relative
+was an every-day event in Meadow Creek Valley:
+
+"Cousin hiked it over the mountain to-day. We're goin' t' strike th'
+trail over t' the Divide to-morrow, huntin'. He's great on game."
+
+"So," thought Ross, "I'm right. It's hunting that has brought him here."
+
+The next morning at daylight, Ross, eating breakfast, chanced to glance
+out of the dirty west window. Up near the summit of Soapweed Ledge, which
+met Crosby at right angles, he saw three figures advancing single file.
+Each carried a gun, and had a small pack and snow-shoes strapped on his
+back.
+
+"Uncle Jake," asked Ross suddenly, "have you ever been over to the
+Divide?"
+
+Weimer shook his head. "No, I stay home and attend to pizness."
+
+"Haven't you ever crossed that mountain?" Ross indicated Soapweed Ledge.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What's beyond?"
+
+"More mountains," answered Weimer vaguely, "und peyond dem more und more."
+
+It was a week before the hunters returned, a long lonely week for Ross.
+Each morning he told himself hopefully that before night Leslie might
+return, but, to his increasing dismay, no Leslie came.
+
+"Can it be that an accident has happened to him, somewhere, alone, or
+has he changed his mind about coming and gone back home?"
+
+Ross asked himself this question as he stood at the mouth of the tunnel
+one morning staring in the direction of Soapweed Ledge. A heavy snowstorm
+had set in that morning, and in the afternoon the falling snow shrouded
+the Ledge in a white veil out of which the three men now emerged, moving
+slowly across the little valley. Their snow-shoes were on their feet,
+and in place of the light packs with which they had started their
+shoulders were bent under loads of venison.
+
+The McKenzies had returned.
+
+That evening Waymart appeared at Weimer's door with a goodly portion
+of meat, at which Ross looked dubiously.
+
+"You've given us so much already," he hesitated.
+
+Waymart interrupted. "Jerk it," he directed briefly. "Jerked meat makes
+a good stew when ye can't git no fresh meat." He turned sharply to
+Weimer in his bunk. "See here, Uncle Jake, have ye forgot how t' jerk
+venison?"
+
+Weimer crawled out of his bunk, scowling. "Vell, I haf nicht dat. I guess
+I jerk him so gud as anypody."
+
+"Get about it then!" retorted Waymart with rough kindness. "Here's a
+meat knife to shred it up with."
+
+He laid a large, sharp knife on the table, and cut Ross's thanks short
+by an abrupt departure.
+
+Weimer, grumbling at the interruption to his rest, cut the meat in long,
+thin strips, which, he told Ross, were to be nailed to the outside
+of the shack after the storm had passed. But in the morning, Ross,
+objecting to a process which brought the meat into contact with the
+dirty logs, stretched a cord between two trees, and over it, in the
+sunshine, folded the strips clothespin fashion, leaving them for the air
+to cure and dry.
+
+For two or three days the McKenzies did not visit their neighbors. Ross
+saw them outside their shack occasionally, and something in the air and
+attitudes spoke, even at that distance, of disagreement.
+
+One evening at six o'clock Weimer stumbled out of the tunnel alone
+and down the path, the darkness robbing the snow of its terrors. A few
+moments later, Ross, having laid the dry sticks in the drilled holes
+in the end wall of the tunnel, lighted the fuses, and, candle in hand,
+made for the mouth.
+
+He came out on Lon Weston sitting on a stump which projected above the
+dump.
+
+"Hello, Doc," greeted Lon Weston.
+
+"Hello, Weston." Ross was so astonished to see him there that he nearly
+forgot to count the explosions that just then thundered in the tunnel
+behind him.
+
+"One, two, three, four, five." That accounted for the five sticks.
+
+He leaned against the tool house, and looked at Lon through the dusk.
+Lon's cap was pulled down over his eyes. His sheepskin collar was turned
+up, meeting the cap. All that was visible of his face was a bit of beard
+protruding around the stem of the pipe. But the voice sounded a more
+amiable note than it ever had in the stage camp, although his manner
+revealed an uneasy embarrassment.
+
+"Well, Doc, how d'ye like minin'?"
+
+"I don't like it at all," replied Ross honestly.
+
+"Seems t' like you all right," returned Lon. "You're in better flesh
+and color than you was down on Dry Creek."
+
+"So are you," retorted Ross, laughing.
+
+Lon made no reply. He moved restlessly.
+
+"Done any studyin' in that pile o' books ye had along?" he asked
+abruptly after a time.
+
+"No." Ross's tone was crisp. "Haven't studied a word." The subject was
+a tender one with him.
+
+There ensued a pause. Ross opened the door of the tool house, and threw
+in his pick and shovel. He hitched the legs of his high rubber boots
+nearer his body; and then, as Lon made no move toward going, he swung
+his numbed hands briskly.
+
+"I thought," Lon began again in a constrained and hesitating way, "that
+you was mighty anxious about those books. I thought your goin' to some
+college or other depended on your gettin' outside of those books."
+
+Ross struck his hands rapidly together. "I can't study," he answered
+briefly. "I get too tired working."
+
+Weston arose and faced toward the cabin of the McKenzies.
+
+"Another storm comin'," he announced. "Get here day after to-morrow."
+
+"That's Christmas," muttered Ross. His heart contracted sharply, and
+a homesick pang assailed him. In his ignorance, before leaving home, he
+had set Christmas as the date of his return.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A CALAMITY BEFALLS ROSS
+
+
+ROSS was writing to Dr. and Mrs. Grant. He bent over the rough table
+under the light of two candles stuck into the logs above his head. Weimer
+slept in his bunk the sound and noisy sleep of a tired laborer.
+
+"At the rate we're going at present," Ross wrote, "we'll finish work
+by the middle of May.... We have at least one thing to be thankful for
+in our tunnel. We're not obliged to timber it. Of course, blasting
+through solid rock isn't easy nor fast work, but I guess in the long run
+we get along faster than we would through dirt. In this case, you see
+we should be obliged to snake logs down from the mountainside and build
+side walls and roof in the tunnel for our own safety. How's 'snaking'
+for you, Aunt Anne? First time I heard it I hadn't an idea what it
+meant, but it covers the process of cutting down trees and getting them
+to their destination. Tell you what! We speak some language up here.
+The King's English isn't always in it, but then every one understands,
+and I have fallen into using it as easily as a fish takes to water. And
+I am getting hardened to the work and the weather. I wouldn't mind the
+whole thing so much now if only the way to Miners' Camp would remain
+open. But any day it may become practically impassable, and then I cannot
+hear from you nor you from me for months. That--as I look ahead--is
+the tough part of it, being cooped up here with only five of us; and how
+the McKenzies can remain without laying in more provisions I don't
+see. They have meat enough, but that's all. With this letter I'm
+taking another over to Camp for Leslie's father. I ought to have sent
+him word before that Leslie hasn't been seen nor heard of since he
+disappeared, but every day I've looked for him back--the whole affair
+worries me a lot--I should think as soon as he gets my letter, old man
+Quinn would come and hunt Leslie up himself."
+
+At this point there was the sound of laughter outside, and Ross laid
+aside his pencil and pad.
+
+"Sandy," he muttered, listening.
+
+To his surprise it was not Sandy whom the opening door revealed, but Lon
+and Waymart, both in unprecedented high spirits.
+
+"We left Sandy snorin'," Waymart volunteered. "He and Uncle Jake ought
+to bunk in together. Lon, show Ross how Sandy talks in his sleep."
+
+Weston sat down, leaned his head back against the logs, gave one or
+two passes through his hair, which left it arranged like Sandy's with
+a lock falling over his forehead; and in an instant, although Weston
+was dark and Sandy fair, an excellent imitation of the latter mumbled
+and talked and snored against the logs. Weston accurately and easily
+imitated the voice and manner of Sandy with his laugh and every facial
+characteristic. Even Weimer rolled over in his bunk and laughed. Next,
+Weston, carried out of himself by an appreciative audience, imitated
+Waymart, the sheep-herder at Dry Creek, and finally Ross himself, and
+did it all with amazing success.
+
+Ross, convulsed with laughter, rocked back and forth on his box. It was
+the first real fun he had encountered since leaving Pennsylvania. It
+did not seem possible that this Weston was the same half-sullen, wholly
+silent man whom he had nursed at the stage camp.
+
+Ross sat opposite the window in front of which Weston was performing; and
+finally, just as Waymart had called for an imitation of Weimer, the boy,
+glancing up, encountered Sandy's face outside the dirty pane. It
+remained there but an instant while Sandy took the measure of the
+performer, but that instant was enough to show Ross the full expression
+of which he had caught glimpses before, and which revealed the side of
+his character that Sandy usually concealed. His blue eyes glinted
+angrily. His thin lips, tightly closed, wore a cruel expression, while
+every feature clearly showed a malignant disapproval of Weston's
+methods of entertainment.
+
+The laugh died in Ross's throat; but the next instant the door swung
+open and Sandy entered, gay and careless--except as to eyes. They still
+glinted.
+
+"Thought ye'd shook me, didn't ye?" he asked with a grin. "Wall, this
+racket would bring a feller up from his grave, to say nothin' of a
+little snooze."
+
+He pushed a box over on its side, and sat astride it; and at once
+the atmosphere in the cabin changed, and became frigid, despite the
+newcomer's gaiety. Weston slunk back to his seat, and all Ross's
+urging proved ineffectual to draw him out of his shell again. Waymart's
+face also lost its good humor.
+
+Presently the three left together.
+
+Weimer, wide awake, moved around the shack.
+
+"Dat Veston!" he chuckled. "How many kinds of beoples ist he? I could
+shut mine eyes and tink he vas dem all."
+
+The next day was Sunday, and early in the morning in the teeth of a mild
+wind and threatened storm Ross was off for Miners' Camp. As far as the
+shoulder around Crosby he went on snow-shoes. Arrived at the shoulder,
+and, making use of the long, sharp spike which he carried, he picked
+his way cautiously forward, pushing through the deep snow in the trail
+with his feet and knees, the spike set on the outer edge to prevent
+his slipping. Again and again a ledge of overhanging snow would break
+away and fall on him; and, light even as the snow yet was, its weight
+dropping on his shoulders caused him to stagger. The snow-shoes also
+became a burden, for they were a useless encumbrance until he reached
+the foot of the mountain and struck out for Steele's shack over two
+miles of snow already five feet deep.
+
+When he reached Gale's Ridge, he was almost exhausted, not only from
+pushing through the snow on the trail, but from the unaccustomed effort
+of walking on snow-shoes. Already he was dreading the most difficult task
+of all--the return journey.
+
+Steele met him with a manifest uneasiness.
+
+"Grant, your trips down to Camp this season are numbered," he cautioned
+as they sat down to an early dinner. "An old trailer could creep around
+the shoulder of Crosby for a little while yet, but neither you nor I
+could do it in safety. The snow's gettin' so almighty deep now, and
+blowin' up in ledges on the shoulder--you probably got a ducking coming
+over?" His tone arose inquiringly.
+
+Ross nodded. "Several times a lot of snow dropped on me; once I almost
+lost my balance."
+
+Steele moved uneasily. "That's the trouble with that trail even before
+there's danger of a regular avalanche. You're likely to get swept over
+when you least expect it, and going back is worse than coming."
+
+Directly after dinner Ross commenced to bind on his snow-shoes for an
+early departure, having filled his pockets with candy for Weimer. His
+heart was heavy, and he had a queer, choky sensation as he looked around
+the little shack, which he might not see again in months.
+
+Steele was adjusting the straps on his own snow-shoes.
+
+"Going up the cañon with me, are you?" asked Ross.
+
+Steele nodded, and got into his top-coat. "A little way," he answered
+briefly.
+
+Although it was only one o'clock in the afternoon, twilight had fallen.
+The clouds rolled up the cañon so low that they hung almost within
+reach of the men's hands, although not much snow was yet falling. An
+indescribable gloom filled the cañon, the gloom of utter isolation and
+loneliness. Not a breath of wind was stirring; not a movement of a tree
+was audible. Everywhere were the deep snow, the silent trees, the great
+white hulks of the mountains; and over all the clouds glowered sullenly.
+
+Nature had erected sudden and impenetrable barriers in all directions,
+and Ross felt as though he were striving against them all.
+
+In silence the two traveled the distance which lay between Gale's Ridge
+and the upper end of Miners' Camp, which was at present a deserted
+end. When they passed out of sight of the eating house on Gale's
+Ridge, they left behind them every sign of life. The Mountain Company had
+shut down two weeks before. A few men had gone to Steele, but the
+majority had betaken themselves "below." Their shacks stood as the
+owners had left them, with their stoves, their crude furniture, and in
+some cases provisions, intact.
+
+The stage was due now only once a week, and the post-office had been
+removed to Steele's cabin. The former postmaster had gone to work on a
+ranch on the Grey Bull, leaving the post-office doors wide open, the
+snow filling the cabin and banking up against the letter boxes.
+
+"By April," said Steele, "you can't see even the roof of a single one
+of these places down here next the river. They'll all be plumb covered
+with snow."
+
+Steele did not stop, as Ross supposed he would, at the foot of Crosby,
+but started up the trail.
+
+"Where are you going?" demanded the boy.
+
+The superintendent went on. His reply came back muffled by the heavy air.
+"Around the shoulder of this little hill."
+
+Nor could any protest from Ross restrain him.
+
+As they began the ascent, Ross found the moisture hanging in drops to
+his clothing, while his face felt as though it were being bathed in
+ice-water. At the same time the clouds settled all about them.
+
+"This is literally walking with our heads in the clouds," muttered Steele
+grimly. "And this is the weather that'll pack the snow in this trail
+with a crust as hard as earth--ugh!"
+
+They ascended the trail laboriously, Steele in the lead, Ross lagging
+behind, leg-weary, and heavy-hearted at the thought of the months to
+come. Around the shoulder of the mountain they cautiously felt their
+way, the thick clouds about them seeming to press back the banks of snow
+above.
+
+Once on the safe trail beyond the shoulder Steele turned, and held out
+his hand without a word. Also wordless, Ross gripped it. Then the older
+man took the back trail, and disappeared.
+
+The boy stood where the other left him, staring into the clouds which
+hid the shoulder. As he stood, a slight breeze touched his cheek and
+died away. He buckled his snow-shoes on again, and faced Meadow Creek
+Valley. As he did so, the breeze came again. Presently it turned into
+a wind, and the clouds retreated hastily up the mountainside. Great
+flakes of snow filled the air. Faster and faster they came swirling down
+until the air was thick with a storm which cut sharply against Ross's
+face. He hurried on, and in an hour was beyond the reach of the storm in
+Weimer's shack, drying his wet coat and cap.
+
+He found his old partner half wild with anxiety.
+
+"If you did not come pack to-night," he cried, "I thought you would
+never! A plizzard ist now."
+
+So rejoiced was Uncle Jake at Ross's return that he sat near the fire
+and waxed garrulous while the wind lashed the trees and drove the snow
+outside; and Ross, the other side of the stove, shivered and listened
+listlessly.
+
+"What ails you, hein?" Weimer finally demanded.
+
+And Ross, with a lump in his throat of which he was not ashamed, told him.
+
+"Ach!" exclaimed Weimer disgustedly. He snapped his thumb and finger
+together. "I vas here dree vinters alone mit no one near. Py day I
+vorked. Py night dem volves howl und cayotes; but," consolingly, "dey
+can't git in, und dey vant nicht to git in."
+
+Then for the first time he went on to relate to Ross in his quaint and
+broken English many stories of those lonely winters in this solitary
+valley, which had then held him as its only inhabitant.
+
+"No wonder," thought Ross, listening to the fury of the storm, "that the
+old man's mind was ready to give away under the additional trial of an
+attack of snow-blindness."
+
+The blizzard continued in unabated fury all the next day. Neither Weimer
+nor Ross visited the tunnel. They remained housed, watching the snow
+gradually pile itself around the little shack until the two small windows
+were obscured, and they were obliged to resort to candle-light.
+
+But during the night the wind changed, and the following morning the sun
+rose in a brilliantly blue sky. Directly after an early breakfast Ross
+started to shovel a way out of the cabin. He dug the snow away from the
+door and windows, and then turned his attention to the trail leading to
+the tunnel. Here he found that the wind had favored him, sweeping the
+path clean and filling up the hollows. In the valley the snow lay seven
+feet deep.
+
+Ross worked his way to the ore-dump, at the base of which he paused to
+look down on the McKenzies. Their cabin was also released from the snow
+as to door and window. The snow was also tramped and shoveled around the
+discovery hole, but no one was in sight, and Ross had turned again to
+his task when a yell caused him again to face the McKenzie cabin.
+
+Sandy was gesticulating frantically while he advanced rapidly on
+snow-shoes, dodging the trees as he came diagonally across the
+mountainside. He came on, talking at the top of his voice, but all
+Ross could catch was "sticks" and "thief" and "trail." Sandy was plainly
+excited. His neckerchief was knotted under one ear; his coat was
+buttoned up awry; his cap was on with one ear-flap dangling, and the
+other held fast by the rim of the cap. His ears and nose were scarlet,
+the thermometer registering, that morning, thirty below zero.
+
+"Our dynamite is gone," Sandy yelled when he was near enough to make Ross
+understand. "Gone--stolen."
+
+Ross stared at him stupidly. "Who is there to take it?"
+
+"Some one," panted Sandy with an oath, "must have come up the trail
+Sunday and taken the stuff, thinkin' that it 'ud storm right off and
+shut up the trail so none of us 'ud be such fools as t' go over t'
+Camp after more. That's the way I've figured it out, and I lay ye I'm
+right."
+
+"When did you find out the sticks were gone?" asked Ross with an interest
+which did not as yet reach beyond Sandy.
+
+"A few minutes ago," gasped Sandy. "I come as fast as I could to see if
+your----"
+
+Ross cut him short with a loud exclamation, and without waiting to hear
+the end of the sentence turned and plunged up over the dump, ploughing
+and fighting his way through the snow as though it were a thing of life.
+
+Sandy picked up the wooden shovel which the boy had cast away, and
+followed out of breath, but still talking.
+
+"You know we kept the sticks in a box under a hemlock right above the
+hole, and----"
+
+Ross, unheeding, floundered across the dump, and began to dig wildly at
+the tool-house door, only the upper part of which was visible. With set
+teeth he dug, forgetting Sandy, forgetting the shovel, his common sense
+swallowed up in a panic of fear.
+
+Weimer had always kept the dynamite sticks in a box, a large double
+boarded and heavily lidded affair which was set in the corner of the
+tool chest furthest from the door.
+
+At first Ross had raised the lid of this box with chills creeping down
+his spine. His hair had stirred under his cap when he first saw Weimer
+stuff the sticks carelessly into his pocket and enter the tunnel. But
+familiarity with the use of the sticks had robbed them of their terror,
+although Ross was always cautious in the handling.
+
+"Hold on, Doc." Sandy's voice at his elbow finally brought the frantic
+boy to his senses. "Ye can't do nothin' with yer hands. Stand aside
+there, and I'll shovel the snow away from the door."
+
+Ross stood back, unconscious of the nip of the cold on his nose and
+cheeks, and watched Sandy shoveling with a will, the while talking
+consolingly.
+
+"I don't believe the thieves have come anigh ye; don't look so, anyway.
+It's likely some one who's a grudge against some of us. There's plenty
+holds grudges agin Lon. Wisht he'd stayed in the valley--here ye be!
+Ketch a holt of this side of the door. Now, one, two, three!"
+
+The door yielded to their combined efforts, and Ross rushed in with Sandy
+at his heels. His fingers were so numbed he could scarcely raise the lid
+of the dynamite box. A film seemed to cover his eyes, and in the light
+which entered grudgingly only by way of the door he could see nothing.
+He bent his head further over the box, but it was Sandy's voice which
+confirmed his worst fears.
+
+"Not a stick left. They've made a clean sweep of Medder Creek Valley!"
+
+The film cleared from Ross's eyes, but not from his brain. The box was
+empty--the box which had contained the stuff absolutely necessary to the
+work in the tunnel.
+
+Ross glanced up and met Sandy's eyes. Sandy's eyes looked steadily and
+guilelessly into Ross's, and Sandy's face expressed all the sympathy
+and commiseration of which Ross stood in need.
+
+The boy sat down on the edge of the box. "What shall I do?" he asked,
+his thoughts in a whirl.
+
+"Do about th' same as we've got t'--git out!" quoth Sandy with a
+lugubrious shake of his head. "Here we got Lon up here t' help push
+our work, and now we're up a stump; for ye know"--here Sandy's eyes
+held Ross's while he spoke slowly--"there's no use thinkin' about
+gittin' any over from Camp. No one 'ud be crazy enough to resk packin'
+a load of sticks around the shoulder this time of year."
+
+Ross shivered as he thought of the shoulder under its body of snow.
+
+"When are you going?" he asked.
+
+"To-morrow," answered Sandy promptly. "We'll start then, but we'll have
+to shovel through. You'll have t' lead Weimer, won't ye?"
+
+Ross swallowed twice before he answered. "Yes, I suppose so."
+
+"We'll help ye." Sandy's tones were good-natured and soothing. He
+seemed suddenly to have lost all regret at the disappearance of his
+store of dynamite. "We'll break open the trail, and then we can rope
+ourselves together around the shoulder. That's safer."
+
+"All right," Ross heard himself say in an unnatural voice. He could not
+in an instant adjust himself to this radical uprooting of his plans.
+
+"It'll be a ticklish job," Sandy continued, "t' break through around
+the shoulder without bringin' down the hull side of old Crosby on us,
+includin' a few rocks; but every day now we put it off is so much the
+worse."
+
+He turned to go. "Then we'll pick ye up in the mornin'; will we?"
+
+"Why--I suppose so," returned Ross. "There doesn't seem to be anything
+else to do."
+
+"Better not load up much," warned Sandy; "and don't give Uncle Jake a
+load at all. All we're goin' to try to pack over is a little venison."
+
+Then Sandy disappeared, and Ross suddenly recovered from his mental
+numbness. It was the sting of anger which aroused him. So confused
+and disappointed had he been, and so well had Sandy played his part,
+that the true solution of the theft did not dawn on the boy until the
+other's departure. Then he stopped short on the downward trail and
+uttered an exclamation, his hands clinching inside his mittens, and
+his eyes narrowing and flashing.
+
+Of course, it was Sandy's own brain which had planned the matter and
+Sandy's own henchmen who had made off with the sticks. They had taken
+this way of stopping the progress of work in the tunnel. They had waited
+until no more dynamite could be brought over the trail, calculating that
+when the time came for the claims to be patented one half year's work
+would be undone, and then!
+
+Ross started blindly down the path. He would go over to the Camp with
+the McKenzies. He would go down to Meeteetse with them--no officer of the
+law could be found nearer, and there he would put them all under arrest.
+Here he stopped again. Arrest them on what evidence? Face to face with
+this question, he was obliged to acknowledge the neatness of the scheme
+which had for its first point the theft of their own sticks. Could he
+prove that no one had come over the trail after he reached the valley?
+And could he prove that the dynamite had not been taken by this mythical
+some one?
+
+Ross thought of what Steele had said concerning trusting Sandy with his
+pocketbook. Sandy would have the contents of the purse, Steele said,
+but he'd take care to get them in such a way that he could shake hands
+afterward with the owner, as well as face any jury.
+
+"And Steele," Ross muttered, drawing a long breath, "was right."
+
+The news of the loss seemed to jar Weimer back into a semblance of his
+former intelligence. Instead of ranting as Ross expected he would he sat
+down and talked over the situation reasonably with his young partner.
+It was Weimer, in fact, who restored something like hope to Ross.
+
+He objected to leaving the valley with the McKenzies. He had been over
+that valley and the surrounding mountains inch by inch, he told Ross.
+Let that "consarned gang" be gone. They two would stay and bring the
+dynamite to light. Then he told of place after place on the mountain
+which would make excellent hiding-places for the sticks. There were
+many caves, and some of them dry. Weimer reasoned the "gang" would cache
+the sticks in a dry place for their own future use.
+
+Temporarily the old partner and the young changed places, and, as Ross
+listened, he became stout of heart once more.
+
+"Of course," he exclaimed, "if dynamite can't be carried up the trail,
+neither can it be taken back into Camp. It's got to be somewhere around
+here; and, if we hunt for it a month, we can still get the work done in
+time."
+
+"Vy didn't I tink of dem sticks?" Weimer asked angrily. "I might know
+dem consarned gang pe up to somet'ing ven dey see our vork it vas
+gettin' fast! Vy didn't I tink?"
+
+Ross, having lapsed into his own thoughts, made no reply; and Weimer
+arose from the box where he had been sitting, and crawled into his bunk.
+
+Ross paced the floor slowly, his arms folded behind him. Ross's
+fighting blood was up. Before this he had looked at his work as the
+result of his father's request. It was not to his liking, and the only
+actual pleasure he took in it was the prospect of finishing it. He had
+believed before the theft of the sticks that he would welcome anything
+which really necessitated his leaving Meadow Creek Valley, although he
+would accept nothing less than necessity.
+
+But this theft seemed suddenly to have made the work his own and the
+failure to accomplish it a personal defeat. Instead of rejoicing over the
+prospect of leaving Meadow Creek Valley he welcomed eagerly Weimer's
+suggestion that they stay and hunt for the dynamite, even though the hunt
+meant that, dynamite or no dynamite, they must be shut up in the valley
+for months to come.
+
+Suddenly a new fear caused him to scramble hastily into his coat, cap,
+and mittens.
+
+"I'm going to fetch the tools down," he explained grimly. "I'm not
+going to risk having some one make off with them!"
+
+"Dat ist so," assented Weimer. "Ve vill need dose tools; ve vill. Dose
+McKenzie gang vill see. I can find dose sticks, und I know I can."
+
+None of the McKenzies came over that evening, to Ross's relief, for
+the events of the day had brought a new fear of that outfit. Sandy's
+good-natured neighborliness had deceived him. Now for the first time
+he realized that they were actual enemies, ready to stoop to any means
+within the law to baffle him.
+
+It was scarcely daylight the following morning, although breakfast in
+the Weimer cabin had been disposed of, before there was heard a tramp of
+feet outside through the creaking snow, and Sandy with a heavy pack on
+his back appeared at the door.
+
+"All ready t' strike the trail?" he asked, putting his head inside the
+shack.
+
+There was an instant's silence, during which Sandy's face changed as he
+looked quickly from Ross to Weimer. The latter sat beside the table, his
+head resting on his hand, his elbow on the boards.
+
+Ross answered, "We can't get ready to go so quickly."
+
+For a moment Sandy's face was the face which had appeared at the window
+the night Weston was indulging in mimicry, but for a moment only. Then
+he rallied and assumed an air of concerned astonishment.
+
+"What? Not ready? Why, man alive, yer chance may be gone if ye wait
+another day. Uncle Jake, you ought to know that, if Doc here don't.
+Why, we're afraid we can't come it even by ropin' together. Better
+hustle up and come."
+
+Both Weimer and Ross sat still, and after a little further parley Waymart
+called angrily:
+
+"Hike along here, Sandy. Guess they know what they want t' do better
+'n you do. Make tracks here!"
+
+The three "made tracks," while Ross stood and watched them out of sight.
+
+But after they had gone the boy, uneasy lest they should return to do the
+tunnel some damage, climbed the trail and entered the tool house. The
+house was fastened between two trees which grew at one side of the dump,
+the side furthest from the trail across the mountain toward Miners' Camp.
+
+Ross had entered aimlessly after assuring himself that the door at the
+mouth of the tunnel had not been opened. He stood silently looking out
+of a crack down on the mass of snow which glistened at the foot of the
+dump, when he was startled by seeing Sandy on snow-shoes creep around the
+dump and look up.
+
+Only a glance upward did Sandy give, and them, turning, disappeared. Yet
+his face had appeared anxious before that upward glance, while afterward
+there was on it a satisfied smile.
+
+The hours that followed were anxious ones for the two remaining in Meadow
+Creek Valley. They began a hunt for the dynamite as soon as the McKenzies
+had disappeared. Starting at the McKenzie shack and discovery hole they
+widened the search in a circle which finally included the valley and the
+sides of the adjoining mountains, with a single important omission; it
+did not occur to either of them to examine their own premises further
+than to assure themselves that neither tool house nor tunnel had suffered
+any damage from their "friends the enemy."
+
+At four o'clock came the first signs of dusk and, discouraged, the
+partners moved slowly across the valley. Half-way across, Ross chanced
+to glance up at the stovepipe projecting from the roof of their shack.
+
+"A fire!" he shouted. "Look there, Uncle Jake! Some one has built up the
+fire!"
+
+At that instant the door swung open and Leslie Quinn stood in the doorway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SEARCH
+
+
+OVER fried bacon, sour dough bread and varied "canned goods," Leslie
+told his story to an interested and excited audience of two. The day
+of Ross's arrest he had shouldered a pack of stuff selected from the
+trunk which still stood under the new third bunk, waited until twilight
+so that he could not be seen on the trail, and then, on snow-shoes, had
+made his way over Crosby and up Wood River cañon to Wilson's cabin on
+the coal claims.
+
+"You see," he said, a flush sweeping over his face, "I supposed father
+was at Cody, and I wouldn't have faced him without that five hundred
+dollars for all the gold that may be in these mountains, and, besides,
+the way he had taken to get even with me--well, I don't need to say how
+it cuts!" Here Leslie bent over his plate in shame. "Although--I--well,
+of course, I deserve it, but I didn't think he'd go as far as that."
+
+"Hold on, Less!" Ross jumped up from the table so suddenly that the box
+on which he had been sitting was knocked over. "Here's a letter to you
+in my care. It has been here so long I had forgotten it."
+
+He pulled the emergency chest from under his bunk and produced both of
+Mr. Quinn's letters--the one to himself and the one yet unopened.
+
+"There you are!" he exclaimed, tossing both across the table. "I take
+it from what your father says in mine that he thought of the arrest not
+as a punishment, but as the way in which he could be sure of getting his
+hands on you quickly in Omaha."
+
+Eagerly Leslie read both letters, his troubled face lighting and
+softening. "You're right," he said finally in a low tone. "I guess dad
+is--is more all right than--than I used to think. I've been no end of
+an idiot, frankly."
+
+He folded his letter and slipped it into his slicker pocket while Weimer
+urged:
+
+"You was mit dot shack, und dey found you not, hein?"
+
+"But I want to hear about Ross's----"
+
+"No, no," interrupted Ross. "Finish out your story first. Mine will look
+like thirty cents at the end of yours. I'm not exactly proud of myself."
+
+"Vilson's shack," prompted Weimer, pushing his plate back and planting
+both elbows on the table.
+
+Leslie continued his story in a new exuberance of spirits, occasionally
+fingering the letter in his pocket. He had foreseen that Wilson's shack
+would be searched, and so, trusting to the drifting snow to conceal
+his trail, he had, during the night, packed provisions into one of the
+many deserted shacks in the upper camp. He had selected one overlooking
+the trail up Crosby. It had two rooms, one behind the other, the back
+room having an outside door and but one small window. Leaving the first
+room undisturbed, he had stowed his provisions in the back room, which
+also contained a bunk.
+
+"I can tell you that it was hard sledding for me until after the sheriff
+and the McKenzies came and went that day," he continued ruefully. "I
+had brought along my blankets, but I didn't dare light a fire, and I
+nearly froze and nearly starved on cold canned stuff. But after the
+sheriff had gone back--you see I could watch the camp from the back room
+window--and the McKenzies had passed the shack on the trail over here, I
+hung blankets over the windows and had a fire nights when the smoke
+wouldn't be seen. I could cook at night and early in the morning and so
+got along fairly well. But I expected them all back again for another
+search, so mornings I used to vacate the outside room and leave it the
+same as it had been."
+
+"Why didn't you come over sooner?" asked Ross.
+
+"Don't you see that I couldn't," demanded Leslie, "so long as the
+McKenzies were here? I knew, though, that they had told Wilson that
+they were not going to stay all winter. They told him they would go
+to Cody as soon as they thought the Crosby trail was getting dangerous.
+So I watched that trail like a cat for them to go and for my chance to
+get here."
+
+"Vilson he vent out," interrupted Weimer.
+
+"Yes, Uncle Jake, I saw him go, but I lay low. I was afraid of the
+consequences of being seen. I had no idea that father had been put
+off. I was sure he would come on himself, and I knew that if father
+once struck my trail he'd unearth me. He never gives up."
+
+"Then, this morning----" prompted Ross.
+
+"Yes, this morning when I saw the McKenzies coming down the trail bag
+and baggage, I humped myself to get ready to get over here before their
+tracks got filled up. I knew that if they could get one way I could get
+the other way to-day, but maybe not to-morrow. And I tell you what," here
+Leslie arose and stretched out his arms, "I've been living these weeks
+as close and cramped a prisoner as I ever want to be. I could get out
+nights a little because the camp came to be about deserted, but I was
+cooped up all day in the shack."
+
+Far into the night the boys talked, while Weimer alternately listened and
+dozed. When Ross was well launched on the story of his arrest he became
+at once embarrassed, wondering how he was going to evade the matter of
+Lon Weston and the note. He finally compromised by ending the story
+of his capture in a partial account of his conversation with Sandy
+in the barroom of "The Irma," and Leslie, taking it for granted that his
+father's name and address came from Sandy, did not ask embarrassing
+questions.
+
+"It's as I suspected, then," he added slowly. "The McKenzies were
+probably employed on the ranches around home at some time. The cowboys
+and sheep-herders are always coming into the town, and probably they
+all knew me by sight, while I didn't know them one from another."
+
+Ross checked the question which arose to his lips concerning the fourth
+man that Mr. Quinn was after, and shortly after, the boys tumbled into
+their bunks, Ross with a feeling of deep relief that the third bunk would
+be occupied during the winter.
+
+"I didn't do so badly in Cody after all, as it has all turned out," he
+thought comfortably as he fell asleep.
+
+He was only half awakened a few moments later by an exclamation from the
+third bunk, and heard Leslie say, "By the way, Ross, who was----" then
+the question, "Are you asleep?"
+
+Ross, without replying, sank into a deeper sleep, and Leslie said no
+more. Weimer was already snoring.
+
+The following morning Ross tumbled out at daybreak and built a roaring
+fire in the old cracked heater. He glanced at the third bunk and began
+whistling cheerfully. Perhaps they could find the dynamite now that there
+was a second with sound eyes to aid in the search and a sound brain to
+help plan. If only the sticks could be found the early spring would see
+the work completed and the claims patented.
+
+The first thing Weimer did when he arose was to go to the door and survey
+sky and mountains with practiced eye, as he sniffed the bracing air.
+The sky was overcast and lowering, while a sharp wind drove the snow in
+eddies and drifts through the valley.
+
+"Der vill pe a pig storm mit us," he prophesied; "it ist on its vay. It
+vill get here in dree, four days."
+
+"Hear that, Less?" shouted Ross at the new bunk. "You turn out and we'll
+be off. We've got to unearth that dynamite before any more snow piles
+up here around us."
+
+Leslie left his bunk with a bound. "I'm good for it. How's breakfast?
+When I filled up last night I thought I'd never need anything more and
+here I am as hollow as a drum!"
+
+At the breakfast table, he suddenly bethought himself of the question he
+had meant to ask the previous night. "I say, Doc," he exclaimed, "who
+was the third man with the McKenzies yesterday? My cabin wasn't near
+enough the trail so that I could see."
+
+Ross hesitated and Weimer answered, "Dot vas a cousin of the McKenzies,
+name of Lon Veston."
+
+There was a clatter and a fall as knife and fork slipped out of Leslie's
+hands. "Lon Weston!" he ejaculated. "Lon Weston here? A cousin of the
+McKenzies?"
+
+"Know him?" asked Ross.
+
+Leslie picked up his fork. "Know Lon? Well, I should say so. He's made
+trouble enough at home----" He bit his lips suddenly and stopped, adding,
+"He was foreman on a ranch near North Bend for a couple of years. He--he
+used to come to our house a good deal."
+
+In a flash Ross recalled the photo that had dropped out of Weston's
+pocket at Sagehen Roost, the pretty girl face, and instantly he knew
+why Hank had said of Leslie when he rode away with Wilson, "Seems as
+if I'd seen that there young feller before."
+
+"Yes, they are surely brother and sister," Ross decided, his gaze fixed
+critically on Leslie's downcast face. "They look tremendously alike."
+
+"Veston, he vas de man dot Doc here mended," Weimer volunteered. "Doc
+vas at Dry Creek mit Veston."
+
+Leslie glanced quickly across the table. "Not the man who was there when
+I passed through--the day I was with Wilson--not that one, Ross?"
+
+"The same," nodded Ross. "He's the Lon Weston that I know."
+
+"Then he isn't the Lon Weston that I know," said Leslie with conviction
+and also relief. "That man at Dry Creek had dark hair, while the ranch
+foreman had hair as light almost as Sandy's. Not the same at all."
+
+And because of the note at "The Irma," Ross did not contradict Leslie,
+did not tell him that Weston's hair was still light beneath its dye of
+chestnut brown.
+
+"But some day," he thought, "I can ask him about the fourth man that his
+father is after, and so find out about Weston in a roundabout way."
+
+But the search for the dynamite soon proved so strenuous that all thought
+of the crime committed on the North Fork faded from Ross's mind. Day
+after day the boys continued the search while Weimer stayed in the cabin
+"rustling grub" and giving suggestions. The theft of the sticks seemed
+to have shocked the man into something of his former mental keenness
+and industry. Not once did Ross have to urge him to his household tasks.
+When the boys tramped into the cabin at noon or long after darkness
+had fallen, they found a hearty appetizing meal prepared, the cook even
+going to the length of objecting to their washing the dishes.
+
+"If you dem sticks find," he would say, "Ich vill stay mit dese dishes."
+
+"Uncle Jake," exclaimed Ross at noon the third day of the hunt, "I'm
+discouraged. We have poked into every spot for miles around where such a
+lot of dynamite could be hidden--and then have gone again."
+
+"I'm almost ready to believe," declared Leslie, "that the boys had the
+sticks in their packs when they left."
+
+Weimer shook his head. "No, never would dose poys pe so foolish. Dose
+sticks are here, hein? Somewhere in Meadow Creek Valley ve vill find
+dem," but the old man's voice broke on the declaration.
+
+"Of course it couldn't be that the McKenzies carried them away,"
+affirmed Ross. "If there had been six men of them they couldn't have
+carried away all the dynamite that we had and Wilson had and they had.
+In fact they couldn't have carried it all very far that night and in
+the teeth of the awful storm that howled among these peaks. I believe
+with Uncle Jake that the stuff is in this valley."
+
+"You see, Uncle Jake," Ross began after a pause, "we have gone on the
+supposition that they chose a spot under the cover of rocks or in hollow
+trees, some place where the dynamite would be kept dry. Now, it may be
+that they have dug a hole in the snow and ice, and buried it in the
+open, and the snow has drifted over its grave."
+
+"Maype! maype!" Weimer ejaculated. "Put, if dey haf, our goose, it ist
+cooked."
+
+He pushed the box on which he sat back against the wall.
+
+Ross opened the cabin door, and looked out. The weather had grown warmer.
+The blanket of clouds which had hovered over the earth for days had
+lifted and the snow lay dazzling in the strong light. When he closed
+the door, Weimer had donned his blue goggles.
+
+"Where's your big storm, Uncle Jake?" asked Ross.
+
+"Comin', comin'," answered Uncle Jake confidently. "It vill pe on us
+py mornin'. Dis light it vill not last."
+
+Ross sat down and took his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees.
+
+"Every fall of snow," he thought, "makes our work so much more hopeless."
+
+Presently Weimer broke the silence. "Vell," he began meditatively, "ve
+haf t'ings to eat fer de vinter, anyvay," and Ross understood the circle
+around which Uncle Jake's thoughts had been winding.
+
+"Yes, it's Meadow Creek for us now, whether the dynamite is found or
+not." Ross's voice was grim. "We went over on the trail as far as the
+shoulder of Crosby to-day and whew! Uncle Jake, it was a sight to see.
+The wind has packed the snow into that trail until it hangs over the
+gorge in great masses and curls."
+
+"Looks," added Leslie, "as though a thousand tons or so might sweep down
+over the shoulder any minute. The trail is closed all right as far as
+I'm concerned. If I hadn't come in the McKenzies' footprints that
+morning I wouldn't have come at all."
+
+After dinner the boys fastened on their snow-shoes outside the door and
+then looked questioningly at each other.
+
+"Well--where to now?" asked Leslie despondently.
+
+"Sure enough--where?" returned Ross equally despondent.
+
+Weimer had offered no suggestions, and the boys were at the end of their
+resources.
+
+"We've hunted every place," said Ross absently, adjusting a buckle on
+the strap of his snow-shoe, "except our own premises here."
+
+No sooner had he heard his own voice speaking these careless words than
+their possible significance struck him. He sprang up with kindling eyes.
+"Less, do you hear?" he shouted, his thoughts in advance of his tongue.
+"There's where it may be, and maybe that was the reason why Sandy came
+back and looked. Hurry! Hurry up!"
+
+"What are you talking about?" yelled Leslie as Ross raced awkwardly
+around the cabin on his snow-shoes.
+
+Weimer opened the door and peered out through his colored goggles. "Has
+dot poy gone crazy?" he asked.
+
+Leslie, without pausing to answer, hurried after Ross. "Where to?" he
+yelled.
+
+"The tool house," returned Ross over his shoulder. "It's fastened
+between two trees, and hangs out over the foot of the dump! See?"
+
+But, instead of taking the trail to the tunnel, Ross struck across the
+mounds and hillocks and drifts of snow that blocked the trail leading
+to Miners' Camp. Through the tangle of pines and hemlocks he led the
+way until he stopped at the foot of the snow-heaped dump and looked up at
+the tool house, one side of which rested on the dump, while the opposite
+side was fastened to sturdy hemlocks whose trunks arose from the débris
+heaped about them from the tunnel. The tool house was now a shapeless
+white form, while the dump was buried beneath tons of snow.
+
+"It was here," Ross explained breathlessly, "that Sandy stood. I was
+looking out at the McKenzies from a crack up in the house. He came back
+and looked up under the house and then grinned and went back to the
+others. They had started to leave, you know. Now why did he want to look
+under that house?"
+
+"That's it!" cried Leslie with excited conviction. "They had cached the
+stuff under the house and he wanted to make sure that their trail could
+not be seen. Ross, the sticks are up under there, high and dry."
+
+"You bet!" shouted Ross turning in his tracks. "We'll get shovels and
+dig for it. And, Less, if we find the cache, we'll let off one blast
+around here outside of the tunnel that 'ill show them, if they're still
+over in Camp, that we ain't dead yet."
+
+"Nor dumb and stupid, either!" cried Leslie delightedly as he legged it
+rapidly over the snow.
+
+In the door of the shack they found Weimer still standing, shielding his
+eyes with one hand and calling questions into space. The boys, appearing,
+stopped to answer, not only satisfying the old man but receiving a
+valuable suggestion.
+
+"Vat for you dig mit all dot vork? It vill dake you poys a day und a half
+to git up unter dot shack. Vy not go in und raise dot floor und find dem
+sticks unter?"
+
+Leslie tossed up his cap. "Three cheers for Uncle Jake!" he shouted.
+"That's the very thing to do. We'll get around to that signal blast
+sooner. Come on, Ross!"
+
+It was Leslie who led this time, axe in hand, while Ross followed with
+hammer and shovel. The trail to the tunnel had been unused for days and
+was so deeply drifted that the boys had difficulty in getting up to the
+dump even with the aid of the shovel. Once on top they were obliged to
+shovel their way slowly into the tool house.
+
+"Now," exclaimed Ross when they were fairly in, "now for work with these
+floor boards!"
+
+Leslie, with many grunts, fell to clearing away the snow from the floor,
+while Ross pulled the big box in which the dynamite had been stored from
+the center of the shack into one corner.
+
+"See here, Ross," cried Leslie excitedly as he bent to the last shovelful
+of snow. "We don't need axe nor hammer. The McKenzies have done the
+work for us. The floor has been taken up and just laid back again
+without being spiked down. That box held the planks down pretty firmly,
+you see."
+
+The floor consisted of halves of tree trunks, flat above and rounded on
+the under side. Eagerly Ross and Leslie raised the central plank and both
+cried out simultaneously, for the dynamite filled the space beneath up to
+the level of the floor.
+
+"And to think!" muttered Ross, "that I have not thought of this
+before--didn't think of it when I saw Sandy peering up here."
+
+Leslie sat back on his heels and mopped his face. "Pretty cute of 'em
+to think of a thing like this," he conceded. "I should have taken the
+sticks as far away as I could have carried them had I been doing it, and
+considered that the farther I went the better for my plans."
+
+"It's Sandy," declared Ross. "Steele has told me a dozen times that
+he's the brains of the clan."
+
+It did not take the trio long to restore the dynamite to its box, for
+Ross, going down to the cabin, led a delighted Weimer through the
+sunshine up to the tool house, and Weimer willingly devoted his great
+strength to the task.
+
+"And," insisted Leslie when their task was completed, "now for putting
+the shot that shall tell Miners' Camp that we're livelier than ever
+over here."
+
+As long as the trail was closed and the McKenzies could not return, the
+boys reasoned, it would be a lark to inform them in this way of the
+failure of their project.
+
+"Even if they have gone on to Cody," suggested Ross, "Bill Travers might
+get the news to 'em by way of the stages."
+
+"But you see," ruefully from Leslie, "probably there's no one except
+themselves that knows of our plight. They may not have told any one of
+the theft of the sticks."
+
+"Well, we'll set off a blast that will tell every one that they're
+found, anyway!" retorted Ross. "And we'll do it in the morning before
+the storm comes on," for the brilliancy of the sunlight had long been
+dimmed by heavy banks of clouds rolling in from the northwest.
+
+Weimer entered into the project with the abandon of a child, and it was
+he who suggested the location of the "shot."
+
+"Nicht on Crosby," he said shaking his head. "Dot might upset dot tunnel.
+Put it mit Soapweed Ledge und see vat comes."
+
+The boys did not ask what Weimer meant. Anything they did not understand
+they laid to his "Dutch lingo," but they immediately adopted the
+suggestion concerning Soapweed Ledge, and in the morning carried
+enough sticks across the valley to plant a respectable "mine," as
+Ross called it, beneath one of the huge rocks which jutted out from
+the side of the mountain that bounded the valley on the north. This
+mountain rose four thousand feet above Meadow Creek, its head lost in
+the snow clouds that now threatened to submerge the valley. On the
+face of the mountain lay a great body of snow, especially heavy above the
+timber-line, which here, because of the great elevation of the valley
+itself, was only a few hundred feet above the base of any mountain.
+
+Weimer, lured out of the shack by the dimness of the light and the
+enjoyment of the undertaking, went with the boys and did his share in the
+"packing" of the sticks unurged. It was he who, with an accession of
+unusual keenness, planted the charge in a shallow cave with a mass of
+rock perilously overhanging the entrance.
+
+"Ve vant ein noise," he chuckled, "ein pig racket. It shall pe heard in
+Miners'."
+
+A few moments later they had the noise, all they had planned for, and
+then a noise that no one had foreseen save Weimer, and he had not
+explained his expectations.
+
+While the long fuse was burning, the three spectators had retreated
+to the middle of the valley and faced about expectantly. There came a
+fearful detonation which awakened the echoes on every hand and the
+vast rock with a dozen of its neighbors was lifted like lumps of clay
+and hurled into the valley amid a cloud of snow and ice. Some of the
+fragments landed almost at the feet of the spectators.
+
+The echoes had not died away before Weimer, yelling, "Ve may not pe out
+of de vay far," turned and made his clumsy but rapid way on snow-shoes
+further from the scene of the explosion. The boys were following him
+blindly and excitedly when, in the clouds fairly over their heads, came
+a sound that neither had ever heard before, a wrenching, grinding,
+tearing sound which caused Ross's hair to stir under his cap.
+
+"Can th-that be thunder?" he stammered running.
+
+Weimer looked over his shoulder at the mountain. "You haf neber an
+avalanche seen, hein!" he cried, and stopping, faced the other way again.
+
+Down into view below the low hanging clouds it swept its terrible way,
+that avalanche which the trembling of the mountain had caused, the work
+of the dynamite. With a swift overwhelming rush it crumbled the rocks
+and, uprooting great trees, bore them easily on its bosom. Into the
+valley it debouched, carrying with it the wreckage from the mountainside.
+
+Ross and Leslie looked at each other with white faces when the roar and
+grind and rush finally ceased.
+
+"Suppose," suggested Ross huskily, "we had set that blast off on old
+Crosby."
+
+Both boys looked at the mountain overhanging the tunnel above their
+shack, and Ross shivered.
+
+"It would have been good-bye to the tunnel and the shack and us too, I
+guess," muttered Leslie.
+
+"I told you," declared Weimer, "vat vould happen, hein? I told you last
+nicht. Now ein avalanche you haf seen."
+
+Neither boy contradicted his first statement. With the last they agreed
+rather breathlessly, for an avalanche they surely had seen!
+
+"I hope," said Ross carelessly as they entered their shack, "that the
+McKenzies are still in Miners' and that they heard that blast!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A PERILOUS JOURNEY
+
+
+THE following morning the three inhabitants of Meadow Creek Valley began
+work again in the tunnel. The air was filled with a smother of snow which
+fell unaccompanied by wind. When, the following day, the sky cleared,
+over the path of the avalanche and over the ruins of Soapweed Ledge
+lay a concealing blanket of snow three feet deep.
+
+"Whew!" shivered Ross as he led the goggled Weimer over the snow to the
+tunnel that morning. "Wish we had a thermometer up here. This is some
+cold. Must be minus zero by a long way."
+
+"Mine nose ist my thermometer," complained Weimer, rubbing that whitening
+member. "Aber dis weather it holds nicht. Anoder snow falls in dree, four
+days."
+
+The third day proved the truth of this prophecy. The atmosphere became
+many degrees warmer and the sky lowering.
+
+"More snow," sighed Leslie, looking over the silent, white sheeted valley
+with homesick eyes.
+
+"Und den more," added Weimer complacently. "More und more till June."
+
+That noon it chanced that Weimer, being afflicted with a headache, left
+the tunnel early. A little later, Ross, pushing the little car out to
+the dump, called back to Leslie at work with the drill:
+
+"Guess I'll go down and rustle the grub for Uncle Jake. That headache of
+his is genuine."
+
+"All right," assented Leslie, "I'll be down in half an hour or so. I
+want to put this shot before I go."
+
+Ross found Weimer in a state of great excitement, the headache forgotten.
+He stood at the door of the shack, peering up toward the tunnel, both
+hands shielding his blinking eyes.
+
+"Who vas dot man?" he demanded in a high, eager voice.
+
+"What man, Uncle Jake?" Ross stopped short, staring at Weimer as though
+he were bereft of his senses.
+
+"I see him!" declared Weimer. "He vas shust startin' up dot trail py
+de tunnel. I see his pack. He vore ein pag on it. He vore ein cap mit
+goggles. I see him."
+
+Ross looked up the mountainside incredulously. "Why, Uncle Jake, I
+just left the tunnel and there was no one there but Leslie. I guess,"
+jocosely, "your headache has made you 'see things at night,' hasn't
+it? No one can get into the valley now, you know."
+
+Excitedly protesting and expostulating, half in English and half in
+German, Uncle Jake retreated inside the door, and taking up his position
+beside one of the little windows watched the trail to the tunnel while
+Ross, smiling at his partner's hallucination, built up the fire,
+cheerfully banging the covers of the stove as he filled the fire-box
+with dry pine sticks. In the midst of this racket there entered the
+sound of crunching footsteps on the side opposite the shack from that
+occupied by Weimer.
+
+"Hein!" yelled the latter springing up. "Was sagen sie? It ist somepody!"
+
+A rap thundered on the door, and it was thrust open at the same time
+unceremoniously, while a low, gruff voice inquired abruptly:
+
+"Is there a young doctor here?"
+
+A man a little above medium height stood on the threshold. He wore
+buckskin trousers and a buckskin coat over a heavy sweater, giving
+him a bulky appearance. He had on snow-shoes, and strapped over his
+shoulder, a large leather game pouch sagged. Behind smoked goggles
+his eyes were blinking, like Weimer's, almost closed. His head and
+ears were covered with a shaggy fur cap, which met his turned-up coat
+collar. His face was smooth above a fringe of black stubby whiskers,
+which ran from ear to ear under the chin. His voice, though gruff, was
+not unpleasant as he explained.
+
+"Of course 'twas a month and more ago since they told me over t'
+Red Lodge that----" His eyes fell on Ross. "You're him they call Doc
+Tenderfoot, ain't ye?"
+
+"Why--yes," answered Ross. There was a pause between the two words caused
+by the speaker's amazement at seeing a man drop in from--where?
+
+"Come in," invited Weimer, "und set down."
+
+"Don't care if I do," assented the stranger.
+
+He unbuckled his snow-shoes, and, leaving them outside, entered the
+shack. Turning down his coat collar, he loosened his cap, pushing it
+back on his head, thereby revealing the ends of short black hair.
+
+"Haf you peen up to dat tunnel, hein?" demanded Weimer with a triumphant
+glance at Ross.
+
+The stranger nodded, "Yep. Didn't see no signs of livin' here and I
+did see some signs up t' the mouth of the tunnel, but I didn't see no
+good way of gittin' up t' it. When I got there I was over t' other
+side of the dump and when I got up on top of it I heard voices down here,
+so down here I put agin!"
+
+"Did you come up from Miners' Camp?" asked Ross eagerly.
+
+The stranger shook his head. "No, I live toward the Divide on----" The
+stranger interrupted himself to ask, "Know the country over there, do
+you?"
+
+Weimer shook his head. "Only py hearsay."
+
+"Well, we located on Sagewood Run, my pal and me, and----"
+
+"Didn't know dere vas a soul livin' in dem parts," exclaimed Weimer.
+
+"Me and my pal," returned the stranger. "We hain't got no neighbor near
+enough to throw kisses to, that's sartain. You're the nighest."
+
+"Prospector?" asked Weimer.
+
+"Coal," returned the stranger. "We're tryin' to hold down half a dozen
+claims."
+
+He turned from Weimer, and changed the subject in his queer, abrupt way.
+
+"Pard's sick--hurt. Guess he'll pass up his checks afore long if he
+don't git help."
+
+He squinted through his goggles at Ross. "Over t' Red Lodge they said
+you fixed up a feller down in Dry Creek good's new. So I come after ye
+fer a couple of days."
+
+Instantly Weimer became alarmed. "Ross, he can't go und leave us, hein!
+When the sun pe shinin', I can't get 'round. Ross, he must pe here
+to work. He can't go mit you."
+
+Ross drew a long, perplexed breath, and said nothing. The stranger looked
+attentively at Weimer for the first time.
+
+"Got a touch of the sun, too, have ye?" he asked.
+
+Weimer removed his goggles, and pressed his hands over his eyes. "Yah,
+dot I has, a touch und more dan a touch. Ross here, he ain't leavin'
+us to go mit you."
+
+Still Ross stood silent. The stranger made no response to Weimer's
+protestations, but, bending forward, regarded him closely.
+
+"What?" he burst out. "Are you Dutch Weimer?"
+
+"Dot ist vat dey call me," assented Weimer, turning his bloodshot eyes
+on the stranger.
+
+The latter persisted in an incredulous voice, "The Dutch Weimer who used
+to run a miners' supply store down in Butte?"
+
+"Dot same," assented Weimer. "Und who might you pe?"
+
+The stranger grinned, a one-sided grin which sent his right cheek up
+under the smoked goggles. "Well, Uncle Jake, do you remember a little
+black-headed rascal that uster hang his chin on the edge of yer counter
+about once a day and get a nickel's worth of candy?"
+
+Weimer wrinkled his brow in perplexity. "Dere vas so many plack-heads,"
+he muttered, scratching his head.
+
+The stranger grinned delightedly, and again his right cheek was pushed
+up under the goggles. "Of course there was. I wa'n't the only calf
+running around loose, I know. Well, do you remember Marvin Miller?"
+
+"Hein!" cried Weimer. He held out his hand impulsively. "Und are you
+Marvin Miller's poy?"
+
+"The same," declared the stranger, grasping the hand. "And didn't you
+have a younger pard by the name of Grant?"
+
+"Yah!" Weimer fairly shouted. "Dot I did, and he's my pard yet."
+
+"Uster git his eyes about shut, and tighten his lips, when things didn't
+go to suit 'im," grinned Marvin Miller's son.
+
+"That's my father all right!" cried Ross.
+
+The stranger drew back and whistled. "Your dad!" he exclaimed. "Sho, now;
+that's not so?"
+
+"It ist so," Weimer broke in. "His fader sends him to help me mit der
+vork in dese claims, und den dis consarned gang of McKenzies go and
+pack off der sticks----" and Weimer was launched on an account of their
+troubles, feeling perfectly at home with the man who as a boy had hung
+over his counter in the old days when he was merchant and not prospector.
+
+Ross, too, felt his heart warm toward the man who had known his father;
+and for an instant the present faded, and he was back East again among
+the old familiar surroundings. He was being looked over by the father
+who "got his eyes about shut" when the son did not please him; he was
+being affectionately scolded by Aunt Anne and advised by Dr. Grant--but
+the thought of the doctor brought Ross up sharply against the purpose of
+the stranger's visit.
+
+A sick partner, Miller had said: but he, Ross, also had a sick partner,
+although the sickness was more of the mind than the body; and that
+partner objected to his going. What should he do? His training with
+his uncle would leave him no choice if he had only himself to consult
+in the matter. He was better than no doctor at all, and he was called
+on for help; therefore he must obey the call. But there was Weimer, who
+had learned to depend on him, and who, he feared, might relapse during
+his absence, however brief, into his former irresponsible state, for
+Leslie was, of course, a stranger to the methods which Ross had been
+obliged to employ to keep Weimer busy. Nor was Leslie, who had acted
+under Wilson's direction, accustomed to going ahead with the work as
+Ross had been obliged to do. But if the trip would occupy only a couple
+of days--well, he could not refuse to go.
+
+Here he became conscious that Miller was addressing him, and that Uncle
+Jake was leaning eagerly toward him.
+
+"If Doc here is willin'," Miller was saying, "we might go into cahoots
+this way: If my pard needs 'im longer than a day 'r two, I'll come
+along back and buckle down t' work here 'n' help you out while he's
+there a-nussin'----"
+
+"Yah, yah!" consented Weimer eagerly. "Den he may mit you go. You could
+do more vork dan Doc. You come pack und mit us vork."
+
+Ross, relieved, turned to the peg where hung his cap. "I'll go up to
+the tunnel and get Leslie, Uncle Jake, and you take hold of the dinner."
+
+"Leslie," repeated Miller carelessly. "Who's he?"
+
+Ross, leaving Weimer to relate Leslie's history, hurried up to the
+tunnel. He wanted to see Leslie alone and give him numerous suggestions
+and directions beyond the reach of Weimer's ears.
+
+"Of course, Less," he ended as the two finally started toward the shack
+together, "even if I do have to stay, and Miller comes back, he won't
+know how to manage Uncle Jake in case he has a relapse into the state
+that I found him in. And Miller looks like a strong willing fellow to
+work, so guess we won't lose anything by my going. Anyway I've got to
+go, for he says his partner is in a bad way." Miller's partner, it
+seemed, had been caught under a log they were "snaking" down to the
+cabin. His arm was crushed and in bad shape.
+
+"Some way, Ross," Leslie burst out uneasily, "I mightily hate to have you
+go. I'll be deadly lonesome up here without you even for a couple of
+days."
+
+"But if I'm not back then this Miller will be," returned Ross hopefully,
+"and he shows up rather agreeably."
+
+After a hasty dinner, Ross selected from his chest all that he
+considered would be required. Some of the articles Miller put into his
+game pouch, Ross making up a bundle himself to bind on his own back
+and so divide the load. At one o'clock they started, with Weimer and
+Leslie standing in the doorway, the former urging them on with many
+expressions of hope for a speedy return that they might get ahead of
+"dose consarned gang."
+
+Ross walked after Miller easily. Those past few days on the mountainsides
+had accustomed him to the use of snow-shoes. Almost in silence they
+crossed the valley and began the ascent of what remained of Soapweed
+Ledge.
+
+During the last hour the light had faded, and snow began to fill the
+air. From the base of the ledge the cabin on the other valley was barely
+visible, and Ross could scarcely make out the figures standing in front
+of the door.
+
+Suddenly Miller turned with an exclamation. "There! I forgot something
+that I wanted t' tell Uncle Jake. Wait here a minute, will ye? It'll
+not take me long t' go back."
+
+He walked rapidly over the snow across the valley, and disappeared into
+the cabin. Five minutes passed. He reappeared, and made his way more
+slowly back again.
+
+"All right," he shouted from the foot of the ledge. "Turn to the right,
+and go along above them rocks. That's the trail."
+
+At the top of the mountain Miller again took the lead. He had shifted
+the pouch to the front, and eased its weight with one hand. Ross noticed
+that it seemed much heavier than when he entered the cabin, but thought
+nothing further of the matter.
+
+Half an hour later he was on totally unfamiliar ground among a labyrinth
+of "sugar loaf" peaks which they skirted and climbed, Miller pushing on
+steadily and without words.
+
+"Hold yer wind," he directed Ross; "ye'll have need of it before we
+reach camp."
+
+The sky and earth were nearly blotted out now by the falling snow. Ross
+could see scarcely a dozen paces ahead. He could not tell whether they
+were headed east or west, north or south. They twisted and turned and
+turned again. The boy became leg-weary; but Miller pressed on, seemingly
+unexhausted, the heavy game pouch dragging at his shoulder.
+
+"We--we can't reach there to-night, can we?" Ross gasped at last.
+
+Miller turned his head but did not pause. "Yep," he answered, "about
+dark."
+
+Again in silence they went on.
+
+Finally, at five o'clock, they began to climb the gentle slope of a
+mountain which seemed to have no summit. Here for the first time his
+guide stopped to allow Ross to rest. Then he advanced slowly, step by
+step, prodding the snow deeply at the left of the blind trail he was
+following.
+
+"What's the matter?" Ross called the first time he saw Miller taking
+measure of the snow in this way.
+
+"Gorge somewhere here," Miller had replied. "Wind's filled it up even
+from bank t' bank. If we sh' step off--why, there's a hundred feet or
+so below made up of spruces and snow. I don't want t' go down int' no
+such landscape."
+
+Ross involuntarily hugged the upper side of the mountain. He longed for
+their journey's end. As they neared the top, the wind became active,
+cutting their faces and forcing Ross to turn his back and gasp for breath.
+
+Then came the descent, the storm thickening about them. Occasionally
+Miller threw a direction or a warning over his shoulder, which always
+caused Ross's heart to leap fearfully.
+
+"Don't go outside my tracks here. There's a flat rock on the down side
+that ends in a ledge. Not a pretty slide t' take," he shouted once.
+
+Again it was: "Be careful ahead here under that rock. Brace toward the
+inside of the trail. We may get a few pounds of snow on our heads."
+
+For half an hour longer they tramped on steadily. Ross ached in every
+muscle. His feet were beginning to cramp. They almost refused to raise
+the snow-shoes and push them forward. Miller slackened his speed when
+he saw that Ross was nearly played out.
+
+"A few minutes more, and we're there," he explained. "Keep up your
+courage."
+
+And at that moment Ross thought he had need of courage. They had been
+descending the mountain gradually above timber-line, zigzagging back and
+forth across the face in such a way as would enable them to use their
+snow-shoes to the best advantage. Now the storm lightened just enough to
+enable Ross to see they were traveling along the edge of a cliff with
+an overhanging fringe of trees, and the cliff appeared to the boy to be
+the jumping off place into space. Right and left as far as the falling
+snow permitted him to see the cliff extended. Above was the white bulk
+of the mountain; below was nothing but storm.
+
+Along this cliff Miller had walked slowly, pausing occasionally to look
+up into the trees. Finally he gave a grunt of satisfaction, and, throwing
+his staff and the heavy pouch on the rock, took from the snow-laden
+branches of a pine a coil of slender new rope.
+
+"Nerves good?" he asked jokingly.
+
+"For what?" was Ross's startled response.
+
+Miller explained. Ross saw that for the first time the colored goggles
+were no longer astride the other's nose. His cap was drawn down over
+his eyes, however, and his coat collar was turned up so that not much
+of his face was visible save his nose.
+
+"If it was summer," began Miller, busying himself with the rope, "we
+could get around this here little rock. But now there's nothin' t'
+do but go over it, because the mountain on each side shelves down so
+steep now we couldn't git down on snow-shoes or off 'em to save our
+necks. We'd bring down a load of snow on our heads if we should try."
+
+As he talked, he knotted the rope securely around a tree standing near
+the edge of the rock. "Right here the cliff slopes so I can just slide
+you down," Miller's gruff voice ran on in jerks, "and then I can slide
+after ye. But I take it you ain't used to mountains and this sort of
+game, and so I guess ye'd better hitch the end round yer waist."
+
+He tossed the end of the rope to Ross. "Take off yer shoes, and pack 'em
+in your hand," he directed when with numb, trembling fingers the boy had
+knotted the rope. "Forty feet down," Miller continued, "you'll come to
+a ledge. Stop there, and free the line."
+
+A moment more, snow-shoes in hand, Ross was on his back sliding down an
+almost perpendicular wall, his hair doing its best to raise his cap from
+his head. Slowly he was let down, down, so far as he could see, into
+space. Then suddenly, just as he had closed his eyes in dizzy terror,
+his feet struck snow into which he sank to his knees, and the rope above
+slackened.
+
+The ledge had stopped him, but it seemed to Ross but an insecure footing
+hung between heaven and earth. It was a mere path across the face of the
+cliff not more than three feet wide at the widest part.
+
+Ross untied the end; and then, as he felt it jerked from behind him, he
+covered his eyes with his hand and stood shivering, crowding back against
+the cliff.
+
+It was the work of a moment only for Miller to slide down the rope and
+stand beside him.
+
+"Hug the cliff," directed Ross's conductor shortly, "and follow me. No,
+don't put on your shoes. I'll break the trail fer ye."
+
+Slowly they crawled across the face of the cliff, the ledge leading
+downward. At the base they were in a winding cañon scarcely twenty yards
+wide. Here they buckled on their snow-shoes again.
+
+"If," said Miller, bending over the straps, "we see it's best fer you
+t' stay a few days with my pard and let me go back and help Uncle Jake,
+I wouldn't do much investigatin' of the premises around here if I was
+you."
+
+Ross shuddered, and looked up at the face of the cliff, obscured now not
+only by the storm, but by the coming darkness.
+
+"No investigating for me!" he exclaimed forcefully.
+
+Then they began the tramp up the cañon, the shadow from the wooded
+mountains deepening every moment. Finally, Miller made a sharp turn
+around a group of seven spruces standing at the foot of a peak, and
+cautiously approached a log shack that stood half buried in the snow, and
+had as its corner posts four tall trees. The snow was shoveled away from
+the door and window, and a light smoke arose from the joint of stovepipe
+projecting from the roof.
+
+At the door Miller stopped and listened. "Guess he's asleep," he
+whispered. "Take off yer shoes out here."
+
+Ross stooped, and unbuckled his snow-shoes.
+
+"Guess the fire must be low," whispered Miller. "Wisht you'd go round
+the corner there, and load up with wood while I go in and see what he's
+up to. But don't come in till I tell ye to. I'll sort of prepare him
+to see ye."
+
+Ross did as he was bidden. He found the path to the pile of pine chunks
+partly broken; but, with his numb fingers incased in huge mittens,
+it was not easy work to dig out the wood frozen under its covering of
+snow. But finally, his arms full, he staggered around the corner of
+the shack, and stood again in front of the door. So busy had he been at
+the wood-pile that he had not thought of listening for sounds within
+the shack.
+
+Now, as he stood in the dusk before the door, he was surprised at the
+stillness within, and also by the fact that the window beyond the door
+showed no light. With a growing but vague uneasiness he waited, chilled
+to the bone by the wind, which had begun to suck through the cañon and
+whistle along the sides of the mountains.
+
+The few moments during which he waited seemed to him like years. Then he
+raised the wooden latch softly, and opened the door. Darkness and silence
+greeted him.
+
+"Mr. Miller," he whispered.
+
+No reply.
+
+"Miller!" His voice rose sharply.
+
+The wind soughed through the branches over his head; and a sharp flurry
+of snow, forerunner of the blizzard, assailed him, while from the open
+door came a whiff of warmth.
+
+Ross dropped the wood outside, and, stepping within the shack, closed
+the door, and groped his way toward the stove, from the front of which
+came a faint glow.
+
+Pulling off his mittens, he held his hands over the heat, at the same
+time holding his breath that he might hear the breathing of the sick man.
+But all he heard was the beating of the blood in his own ears.
+
+Working some life into his fingers, he tore open the front of his
+fur-lined coat, and, pulling a match out of his pocket, lighted it,
+and held it above his head. In the further corner of the cabin was a
+bunk, from beneath the blankets of which the straw protruded. Trembling
+so that he could scarcely walk, Ross started across the floor. Half-way
+to the bunk his match burned out. He retreated to the stove, and lit
+another. This time he succeeded in reaching the bunk. Several blankets
+were spread over a foundation of straw. Otherwise the bunk was empty.
+
+A panic seized Ross. "Miller!" he shouted, "Miller!"
+
+The wind howled through the cañon. The trees above the shack swayed and
+grated their interlocked branches together.
+
+Striking a third match, Ross observed a candle stuck into a hole in a
+piece of wood which lay on the table. He lighted it, and sank into a
+chair beside the table.
+
+What had happened? Where was Miller? Where was the sick partner?
+
+Ross took off his cap, and laid it on the table. In bewilderment he ran
+his fingers through his hair.
+
+Suddenly his eyes fell on something in the shadow beside the door. He
+went to it. It was the heavily loaded game pouch. Evidently Miller had
+opened the door, dropped that inside, and vanished into the night.
+
+Ross was reaching for the pouch when another thought struck him so
+forcibly that he jerked himself to a standing posture with a loud
+exclamation. Hastily opening the door, he stopped and, throwing the
+wood about, peered through the darkness, searching the open space
+where he had parted from Miller.
+
+His snow-shoes were gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A NEW CAMP
+
+
+THE disappearance of the snow-shoes, instead of proving to Ross that he
+had been hoaxed, at first, only deepened his bewilderment. Finally,
+the idea found lodgment in his brain that Miller's partner had wandered
+off in the storm delirious, and Miller, having found him gone, had
+followed, forgetting Ross. The boy was too confused to weigh the
+probabilities of such forgetfulness, especially in view of the missing
+snow-shoes. Therefore, the moment the idea occurred to him he acted
+on it, hurrying out into the storm with the intention of going to
+Miller's assistance.
+
+But, without snow-shoes, he found himself helpless. He had not gone a
+dozen yards from the door before he sank half-way to his waist in the
+snow. Scrambling hastily back again, he ran around the cabin where the
+snow was not so deep, and struggled up the mountainside.
+
+"Miller!" he shouted desperately. "Miller, where are you?"
+
+Here and there among the trees he plunged frantically until the fear that
+he could not find his way to the shack drove him back.
+
+He filled the stove with wood, snuffed the candle mechanically, and
+looked about him. Then for the first time he realized that there was
+but one bunk.
+
+"If two men lived here, there would be two bunks," he said slowly;
+and then came the conviction that Miller had decoyed him here and
+deserted him, taking the snow-shoes along. But Ross's brain was too
+numb to pursue the thought. Exhausted by his long tramp and by his
+fruitless battle with the snow, he filled the stove with chunks, closed
+the draughts, and, without stopping to blow out the candle, rolled
+into the bunk, and was asleep before he had pulled all the blankets
+over him.
+
+When he awoke, the shack was filled with a light, which, although
+exceedingly dim, was unmistakably daylight. Outside, the snow was piled
+to the top of the window. The candle was burned out and the fire low.
+Ross crawled out stiffly, every muscle aching and sore. Filling the
+stove, he looked at his watch. Twelve o'clock! He had slept away the
+morning.
+
+Outside the blizzard raged in unabated fury, but so sheltered was the
+shack by scrub hemlocks and banks of snow roof-high, that but little wind
+found its way through the mud-chinked log walls.
+
+Standing over the fire, Ross looked at the dark outlines of the one bunk,
+and considered his situation. His heart sank when he thought of the miles
+which Miller and he had put between themselves and Meadow Creek Valley.
+
+And who was Miller?
+
+Ross's suspicions, of course, had fastened to the McKenzies. But why
+had they considered it necessary to have him marooned so far from Meadow
+Creek? How did they know that the dynamite had been found? When they left
+Meadow Creek----
+
+"Oh!" cried Ross aloud at this point. He brought the stove poker down
+vigorously on top of the stove. "That blast under Soapweed Ledge! I
+wanted 'em to hear it--guess they didn't fail!" Ruefully he turned
+from the stove. He was certainly paying for his little triumph.
+
+But who was Miller?
+
+The lack of wood in the cabin soon turned his attention from the
+answer to the necessity for immediate action. He found a large wooden
+snow-shovel behind the stove; and, opening the door cautiously in
+order to prevent a mass of snow from following it, he cleared away a
+space in front of the door and the two windows, and shoveled his way to
+the wood-pile.
+
+It was not until he was struggling around the corner of the shack with
+an armful of wood that he realized that his weakness and tremors were
+due not only to anxiety, but to hunger; and with that realization came
+a fear which nearly induced another panic. Was there food in the cabin?
+So great had been his absorption that he had not noticed the contents of
+the shack beyond those things which he had required for immediate use.
+
+Throwing the armful of wood down beside the stove, he proceeded to
+make a hurried search, the results of which quieted his fears. The
+cabin was as well stocked with provisions as Weimer's. A portion of
+these supplies, the canned milk, vegetables, and fruits, he found in
+boxes beneath the bunk. Sacks of flour and meal were suspended from
+the roof logs to protect them from the "pack" rats. Having investigated
+these provisions, Ross opened a second door at the back of the shack,
+supposing it led out-of-doors. But he was agreeably surprised to find
+it led to a little lean-to of logs, where were suspended a large ham,
+strips of bacon, jerked meat, and quantities of fresh venison all frozen.
+The door protected these from the heat inside the shack, while the
+logs, unchinked, gave protection from timber wolves and coyotes, but
+not from the snow, which had sifted in over everything.
+
+Ross at once set about getting breakfast. He found every necessary
+cooking utensil at hand. The cabin was--as such cabins go--completely
+furnished and, it appeared, must have been inhabited not long ago by a
+stout man; for in a box at the head of the bunk he found some clothing
+much too large for him or for the man who had brought him there.
+
+"But," he thought, as he sat down to venison steak and flapjacks,
+"whoever owns the cabin, Miller must have gone from here to Meadow Creek,
+because there was a fire here last night when I came in; and it was
+a fire fixed to keep some hours, too."
+
+As he finished eating, his eyes fell on the game pouch still bulging
+beside the door. He had not looked inside. With a piece of steak balanced
+on his fork he crossed the floor. Then:
+
+"Books!" he cried aloud. "_My_ books!"
+
+The fork fell from his hand. He dropped to his knees and emptied the
+pouch. Besides the appliances which he had given to Miller to carry
+there were all his books, the medical text-books which he had left in
+the emergency chest in Weimer's shack. He could scarcely believe his
+eyes. He sat back on his heels, and stared.
+
+"Weston!" he finally shouted. "Miller is Weston!"
+
+Suddenly rising, his eyes narrowed and his lips compressed, he kicked
+the game pouch across the floor in a gust of anger caused by an
+illumination of certain circumstances which explained the events of the
+previous day.
+
+"I'm slow," he muttered between clinched teeth. "Any one can get the
+better of me."
+
+He recalled Weston's imitation of different people the night he and
+Waymart had come to Weimer's together and Sandy's displeasure at
+the exhibition. Sitting down in an armchair beside the table--the only
+chair in the shack--he followed his chain of evidence link by link. The
+conversation which he had overheard between Waymart and Sandy the night
+of the latter's return from Cody was fully explained--the some one whose
+assistance they might need in Meadow Creek Valley, but who would not
+come unless some one else had left.
+
+"Weston would not come with Leslie there for fear he'd be recognized,"
+thought Ross. "Therefore, Sandy took steps to remove Leslie and--yes--in
+spite of the mess I made of it, I blocked the game!"
+
+Then, despite his anxiety, Ross grinned. Of course the McKenzies had
+not expected Leslie to return any more than they had expected the
+dynamite to be found. But after hearing his signal of discovery they
+had sent Weston, the skilful impersonator, to maroon him here--where?
+Ross dropped forward his head on the table and groaned.
+
+"They brought me here to get rid of me entirely," he finished; "and I
+came voluntarily!"
+
+Presently he picked up the pouch, intending to hang it on a nail in the
+logs beside the door. It was not quite empty; and, lifting the flap he
+looked in. At the bottom lay a few wads of newspaper. Ross concluded
+that the pouch had been stuffed with these when Weston came to Weimer's.
+Then, when he went back after the books, he had thrown out the paper,
+the presence of which had prevented his companion from noticing much
+difference in the pouch after the books were put into it. Ross picked
+up one of the pieces, and glanced at it listlessly. It was a page of the
+Cody "Gazette." He dropped it back into the pouch.
+
+"I wonder what he told Uncle Jake and Leslie when he got the books,"
+thought Ross, hanging up the bag.
+
+Leslie was the only comfort the situation held for him, and this merely
+came from the knowledge that Weimer was not alone. For, of course, Weston
+having seen the boy in Meadow Creek would return and block the work
+somehow, probably steal the dynamite again, and convey it farther than
+the tool house.
+
+Here Ross started up in a sort of frenzy, and, putting on his top-coat
+and cap, rushed out-of-doors. He would find a way out. There must be a
+way, for Miller had gone back--Ross felt sure he had returned--and if
+Miller had he could! He would save the claims yet. The first plunge into
+the snow, waist-deep now, with the whip-lash of the blizzard in his face,
+brought him to his senses.
+
+"This is folly," he thought as he dropped once more into the chair beside
+the table, "when I have no idea where I am."
+
+But, even if he did know, his snow-shoes were gone; and without them he
+could not safely venture--nor with them, either, he decided, recalling
+with a sick shudder the snow-filled ravines against which Miller had
+warned him--_Miller_, indeed!
+
+His bitterness came back with a rush. After all he had done for Weston
+this was the final reward. Weston had shaved his beard, recolored his
+hair and the fringe of whiskers left beneath his chin, covered his deep
+brown eyes with goggles, and brought his benefactor of Dry Creek here to
+spend months in this deadly loneliness! That was the thanks he gave "Doc
+Tenderfoot" for saving his life.
+
+That night the storm ceased and a warm wind arose. The next morning
+Ross again shoveled out the doorway, window, and wood-pile. The sky was
+clear, but the sun did not swing over the towering peak which rose
+almost perpendicular, opposite the cabin, until ten o'clock. But, when
+it did show its face, it looked down on a bewildering mass of snow.
+Ross gazed longingly down the cañon, which wound like a serpent between
+the overhanging mountains. Down there not half a mile away a ledge
+ran diagonally across the face of a cliff; and Ross felt impelled to
+go to the foot of that cliff, and find out whether or not the rope
+still dangled from its summit. But well he knew that even so short a
+journey would be impossible without the aid of snow-shoes. However,
+if the warm wind continued and the sky remained unclouded, perhaps in a
+day or two there would be a crust on the snow of sufficient strength to
+bear his weight. Then he would investigate.
+
+Meanwhile he tried to force himself calmly to the business of living
+and planning. He was there. So far as he could see there was no escape.
+He would make the best and the most of the months of his banishment.
+When he arrived at this conclusion, he found himself relenting a trifle
+toward Weston on account of the books. It had been no light load to pack
+across the mountains on a tramp which had lasted many hours.
+
+"Perhaps Weston has a piece of heart, after all," Ross mused the
+following morning, "but so thoroughly is he under Sandy's control
+that he dare not show it."
+
+Before him on the table lay Piersol's "Histology," although he was
+totally unable to focus his scattered thoughts on the contents. He was
+anxiously watching the weather. The warm wind had continued, but the
+sky was lowering. Another storm was brewing. Finally Ross left Piersol
+and going to the door, looked out anxiously over the cañon.
+
+"The snow is settling finely," he decided, "and if the cold comes before
+the storm the crust will hold me up."
+
+He went back to the armchair and began drumming nervously on the arms. He
+wondered how it had chanced to be packed so far over the narrow trails.
+A chair, a "store chair," that is, was an uncommon sight among the
+mountains. From which point had it been brought, Cody or Red Lodge? The
+latter, he knew, was more than one hundred miles from the Shoshones,
+while Cody was but eighty.
+
+However, nearness depended not so much on miles as on accessibility, and
+for the thousandth time Ross wondered where he was.
+
+He could not reason from the memory of the tortuous windings of that
+stormy afternoon's journey, with no view of the sun's face to guide
+him; but his strong impression was that he was many miles northwest of
+Meadow Creek, with at least three chains of peaks between him and Weimer.
+
+Then he fell to wondering again about the shack. Did it belong to one
+of the McKenzie relatives? Who had given it over to his use for the
+winter? He suspected that, while the furnishings and the clothing had
+been left there by the owner, the McKenzies had planned for his winter's
+residence, and had partially, at least, stocked his larder, as the owner
+would not be likely to desert such a supply of meat, especially the
+fresh venison. Perhaps the venison was due to Weston's forethought.
+Ross liked to think that Weston had done all that he dared do for the
+comfort of "Doc Tenderfoot."
+
+"He's a bigger man," mused "Doc"; "and yet he seems more than half
+afraid of Sandy. Wonder what the trouble is."
+
+That night the wind changed, the temperature dropped, and the next
+morning snow began to fall, lightly, however. Again and again Ross
+went out for trial trips on the fast freezing crust, but not until
+afternoon did he venture on the journey to the cliff.
+
+The shack stood among the trees on the mountainside about ten feet above
+the level of the cañon. Taking with him a long pole with a sharpened
+end, which he found in the shack, Ross slid from tree to tree until he
+gained the level of the cañon. Then, hugging the foot of the mountain
+closely, that he might judge of the lay of the land by the trees, and so
+avoid the dreaded creeks and gorges, he turned down the cañon toward
+the cliff.
+
+It was difficult walking, the crust being smooth and slippery. Several
+times one foot broke through, and each time Ross's heart seemed to
+rise in his throat when he considered that he was walking on a body of
+snow deeper than he was high. The cañon had no distinguishing features.
+It might have been any one of a dozen located among the Shoshones, and
+all of them unfamiliar to the young man lost in their midst. On either
+side, the mountains, dreary and lonely and lifeless, arose precipitately.
+It was windless in the cañon, but on top of the mountains a white, cold
+cloud of snow played perpetually.
+
+But Ross's eyes were eagerly searching the mountain at the left for
+the cliff; and presently he recognized it despite the curtain of snow
+drifting across its face. There it was, stretching up until his neck
+ached in the effort to scan the top, where in an unbroken line along
+the edge hung a great body of snow, the undisturbed accumulations of the
+last blizzard. The steep side of the cliff, however, was bare, and Ross
+failed to discover a rope dangling over its surface.
+
+[Illustration: THE SNOW HID IT FROM VIEW]
+
+He thought he had not expected to see it there, and so could not account
+for the sinking of his heart when he found it gone. For a few moments he
+stood looking down the cañon hemmed in by its great mountain barriers.
+He fully realized the fact that he was a prisoner within those barriers,
+perfectly helpless until released by the brief summer.
+
+With bent head he turned his back to the cliff and cautiously retraced
+his steps while a wildly whirling "squall" suddenly caught him in its
+clutches. He had gone but a short distance before a sound in the rear
+caused him to wheel about and listen sharply. Only a smother of snow,
+swirling up the cañon, met his eyes and a blast of the rising wind his
+ears. Hesitating, he struggled back a few steps and turned his face
+up toward the cliff. The snow hid it from view. He stood listening
+again, and, presently, the sound, above him and a little in advance,
+again mingled with the roar of the wind. Ross broke into a run, panting
+through the storm, breaking through the crust, struggling to his feet
+and tumbling on again. It was certainly the call of a human voice,
+although no words were distinguishable because of the noise of the wind.
+
+Ross, obsessed by one idea, raised his voice: "Miller--Weston!" he yelled
+frantically. "I'm here--below here! Where are you?"
+
+But the wind swooped down on him, seized his words and bore them down
+the cañon. Then it suddenly died away, and again the snow fell quietly,
+mistily, and Ross, looking up, saw, as in a nightmare, a rope dangling
+across the face of the cliff. In bewildered joyousness he pressed his
+hand against his eyes and looked again.
+
+"It's there!" he cried, "but it certainly wasn't ten minutes ago.
+That's the queerest--I know I saw straight before----"
+
+He opened his lips to call again, but the call was checked by the
+discovery of a man half-way down the cliff, creeping along on what
+looked to be a thread of snow fastened diagonally across the dark
+surface of the rock, but which Ross at once recognized as the narrow
+ledge he himself had trod only three days before. Slowly the figure
+was progressing, its feet kicking away the snow lodged on the ledge, its
+hands clinging to the bare face of the cliff. Then, faintly into the lull
+of the storm a nervous voice floated down to Ross from the thread-like
+path.
+
+"I'm almost down, I guess, Miller. Hope I can get to the cabin before
+another squall strikes us."
+
+Then, from the top of the cliff, the barely distinguishable words
+behind the veil of falling snow, "All right. Remember you'll find Doc
+not half a mile straight ahead. The cabin's on the right, as I've
+told ye. It's above a bunch of seven spruces. Ye won't need yer
+snow-shoes--crust'll hold down there."
+
+Ross waited to hear no more. "Leslie!" he yelled joyously. "Ho, Leslie!
+I'm down here. Come on! Hurray for that rope again!"
+
+But even as the hurray ascended the side of the cliff, so did the rope.
+Snakily, jerkily, the knotted end traveled upward until it disappeared
+in the cloud of snow that hid the mountain tops.
+
+From this cloud came a faint and far-away voice: "Good luck t' ye! Tell
+Doc ye're in the same boat as he is. He'll savvy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE INGRATITUDE OF WESTON
+
+
+THE presence of Leslie without snow-shoes, the disappearance of the rope,
+and Weston's voice caused Ross to "savvy" immediately in impotent anger
+and bitter disappointment. But not until the two boys had reached the
+cabin and Leslie was warming himself beside the hot stove, did he fully
+comprehend the trick that had been played on him.
+
+"Weston!" he exclaimed stupidly in answer to Ross's explanation. "Why,
+this isn't the man you told about at Sagehen Roost--it's the Miller
+that you went away with. I saw that Weston fellow, you know. They're
+not the same!"
+
+"It's evident that when you've seen Weston you've seen any number of
+men that he cares to imitate. This Miller is Weston, the McKenzies'
+cousin and the man you----" Here Ross checked himself, as Leslie had
+not yet connected the dark-haired Weston with the light-haired Oklahoma
+man of the same name.
+
+Finally, after supper, Leslie recovered from his bewilderment
+sufficiently to tell connectedly the story of the days that had
+intervened between Ross's departure from Meadow Creek and his own.
+
+"Begin at the beginning," urged Ross finally, putting a pine chunk in
+the stove and snuffing the candle.
+
+He had seated the newcomer in the armchair beside the fire, while he sat
+on an overturned box in front of the stove door and within reach of a
+heap of wood. On the table at his elbow lay the gun which Steele had
+insisted on adding to his equipment the day he arrived in Meadow Creek
+and which he had not since touched. Leslie had brought it strapped
+across his shoulders and with it all the ammunition which Steele had
+provided. This was another proof of Weston's strangely curious good
+will that continued to puzzle Ross. How the unsuspecting Leslie was
+prevailed on to bring the limited arsenal was a part of the story
+which Ross was demanding. While the storm raged outside and the dim
+candle-light flickered and cast long uncanny shadows within, and the
+pine chunk flamed and cracked cheerily filling the room with a warmth
+grateful to the chilled narrator, Leslie complied with the request to
+"begin at the beginning."
+
+"I'd no sooner seen your back, Ross, as you followed Miller out of the
+door, than I had an awfully uncomfortable feeling of responsibility.
+By the time the storm had swallowed you two up, the whole outfit there at
+Weimer's was sitting hard on my shoulders. We watched you out of sight,
+Uncle Jake and I, and then we went back into the cabin and, Ross, if
+that cabin seems to Uncle Jake now as--well--as--when you left----"
+
+Leslie paused and stared at the candle. Ross drew his seat nearer the
+stove and cleared his throat.
+
+"Uncle Jake has stayed there a lot in the winter all alone, you must
+remember. He was telling me about it not long ago, how the----"
+
+Above the cabin, through the roaring and soughing of the wind among
+the spruce, came the long drawn yelling, harassed, pitiful cry of a
+coyote. From the cañon the cry was answered. Again and again the two
+human-like voices wailed despairingly at each other while the boys
+involuntarily drew nearer together and Ross laid a caressing hand on
+the gun and finished his speech:
+
+"That's exactly what Uncle Jake told me--how the coyotes and wolves
+prowled around, and he didn't mind them nor the loneliness at all."
+
+Leslie nodded. "I noticed that he didn't seem to mind your being away in
+the same way I did. He just took to his pipe and his bunk and seemed
+settled for a rest until you got back again. That didn't add any to
+my restfulness, I can tell you, for what could I do up in the tunnel
+without him? I rustled around a bit trying to decide what to do when
+the door opened and there was Miller again, or Weston rather. I was as
+surprised as they make 'em until he said:
+
+"'Say, young feller, Doc he sent me back t' round up a book on medicine
+that he may need. It'll be layin' round loose som'ers, maybe in that
+hair covered chist of hisn.'"
+
+Leslie went on to say that when he had opened Ross's emergency chest
+Weston professed to have forgotten the name of the book he had been
+directed to fetch, and, consequently, had taken all the books, stuffing
+them carelessly into his game pouch. Then the storm had again swallowed
+him up.
+
+"After he went away," said Leslie, "I got to thinking pretty strongly
+about the dynamite. If it was so easy for one man to get into the valley
+from the land only knew where, why couldn't the McKenzies make their
+way back and spirit the dynamite off for good and all? We'd gone and
+touched off that charge under Soapweed Ledge to make 'em understand that
+we had it again, you know."
+
+"Yes, I know!" affirmed Ross grimly. "Geese that we were!"
+
+"Well, those sticks got on my nerves, and I made up my mind to fasten
+them up if such a thing were possible. So I put on my snow-shoes and
+began to rattle around in the storm to see what I could do. I thought
+no one could come up into the tool house from under because of the mass
+of snow all around, and because the dynamite box was so heavy with all
+of your and our and the McKenzies' sticks in it that it held the floor
+boards down with a vengeance. But I wasn't taking any chances after
+seeing what our 'friends the enemy' were capable of doing, so I got
+all the spike nails that Weimer had and nailed down the floor. Then I
+plowed through the storm up to Wilson's shack, shoveled my way in,
+collected all the tools that could be used to pry or hammer with and
+brought 'em back to our tool house. And with them, Ross, I brought a
+great padlock and chain that I recollected seeing up there rusty and
+unused. I oiled it and put a bar across the tool-house door and padlocked
+it. And if I do say it, it would cost a man some time and strength
+and racket to get into that shack. It would also take some tools, and
+there's none in the valley except what are behind that locked door,
+for before night came I had raided the McKenzie cabin and brought over
+all their tools. Then," continued Leslie, "I went to sleep feeling
+some better."
+
+"I'll bet you," cried Ross eagerly, "that it's because you fastened up
+the dynamite that you're here! I do believe that when Weston went back
+it would have been easier to cache that if he could have got it than to
+have brought you here."
+
+"I don't know, Ross." Leslie gave a short laugh. "It was easy enough
+to get me here, as easy as to get you. I--but you want the story as it
+comes."
+
+"Every word of it. Go on. The next day----"
+
+The next day, Leslie continued, so furious a blizzard was raging that he
+didn't work in the tunnel but spent the time keeping open the trails
+to the dump, the wood-pile and the spring. But the second day, the sky
+having cleared, he tried his best to get Weimer to work.
+
+"Ich vill vork mit Doc," was Uncle Jake's declaration of independence,
+"mit you, nein!"
+
+"You can imagine, Ross, how much work I did alone, not used to going
+ahead with the blasting. When I came down at noon the old fellow had
+dished up a capital dinner. He washed the dishes, but not one step would
+he budge to the tunnel. Said that you were likely to drop in any time
+that day and he'd stay in and watch for you. Said it would be work
+enough for him to do to fill you up after your long tramp through the
+snow! He simply boiled over with ready excuses. When I went up to the
+tunnel I left him with his goggles on, swinging open the door about once
+in two minutes for a look over on Soapweed Ledge. You know it was clear
+that day and----"
+
+Here Leslie suddenly paused and sat up with a jerk. He gripped the arms
+of the chair and gave a startled exclamation.
+
+"See here, Ross, that clearness business has reminded me of something
+that I noticed in the morning, and, because I thought it couldn't be
+true, I paid but little attention. But now I know--well, this is what
+it was: when I reached the dump I glanced across the valley at the
+McKenzie shack. It seemed completely buried in snow except the roof and
+the chimney stovepipe, and at first I imagined that I saw heat coming
+out of that stovepipe! You know how, after a hot fire, the heat will
+crinkle the air above a chimney and no smoke in sight?"
+
+"That's so!" exclaimed Ross. "And you think----"
+
+"At the time I thought it was a mere notion of mine, but now I believe I
+saw correctly, and that Weston was there waiting to dispose of my case."
+
+"That's the idea," agreed Ross excitedly. "There all the time after he
+left me, probably. He had likely got him a hot breakfast before you were
+up and then let the fire die."
+
+Leslie nodded. "Same as I did when I was hiding down in Miners' Camp.
+But, anyway, I didn't investigate and forgot all about that chimney
+until this minute."
+
+Here Leslie broke off to ask abruptly, "Another thing, Ross, right here
+before I forget. The day you left, you remember Uncle Jake was sick and
+you went down to get dinner and left me in the tunnel?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, only a few minutes after you left I looked out and you, as I
+supposed then, stood in the mouth of the tunnel----"
+
+"Nope, 'twas Weston," interrupted Ross. "He said he went up there first.
+He came to the shack from that direction."
+
+"Then he got a squint at the work and the dynamite and your assistant
+right then! I thought it was queer I didn't get an answer when I yelled
+to know if you had dinner ready. But just as I spoke, the figure took a
+sneak, and I supposed you had just stopped a bit to look things over."
+
+"Weston was attending to that, evidently," retorted Ross promptly. "But
+now let's see--you've brought the happenings up to to-day, haven't
+you?"
+
+"Not quite," Leslie answered. "I'll be there in a minute, though.
+Yesterday I got as uneasy as Weimer over your not getting back, and
+Miller, or Weston, I mean, not coming as he promised. I confess I was in
+a blue funk by afternoon, and I saw things were shaping for another
+storm. I went slipping and sliding out beside the dump a dozen times
+where I could look over to Soapweed Ledge while Uncle Jake tramped
+around outside the shack continually watching for you."
+
+"Poor Uncle Jake!" muttered Ross stirring uneasily.
+
+"Well, that brings me to to-day," Leslie began after a pause. "I was
+down beside the dump looking for you about eleven o'clock this morning
+when I saw him coming over the Ledge--Weston, I mean. Same goggles,
+same cap drawn down over his ears, same outfit except the game pouch.
+I noticed as soon as he came near that the pouch was gone. Tell you
+what, Ross, I made tracks down the trail, got my snow-shoes on and
+went to meet him. I would have hurried to meet a Hottentot! Uncle Jake
+stayed behind jabbering in German, and fairly dancing up and down in
+his excitement because you had not come with Weston."
+
+Ross, his elbows on his knees and his chin in his palms, staring at
+Leslie, saw in a flash the latter as he had appeared at Sagehen Roost,
+overbearing and dictatorial. Then he saw him running across the lonely
+valley of Meadow Creek eager to meet any one on a fraternal footing.
+
+"Weston must have left his shack and made a long trip behind it up the
+mountain and around over the summit to have come in on the Ledge; don't
+you think so?" asked Ross. "He probably didn't want to run any risk of
+being seen."
+
+Leslie assented and went on with his story. He had gone to meet Weston
+with a demand as to Ross's whereabouts and return.
+
+"Don't ye worry none about Doc," Weston declared heartily. "He's
+fixin' things fine over our way. Doc's all right!"
+
+"So he is," Leslie agreed, "and for that reason we want him right here,
+Uncle Jake and I!"
+
+"Wall," Weston drawled good-naturedly, "he says the same about you even
+t' wantin' ye where he is now for a day."
+
+"What do you mean?" Leslie asked.
+
+The two had been walking back toward the shack and the frantic Weimer,
+and Weston did not explain until he had assured Uncle Jake of Ross's
+safety and health, and was seated beside the stove.
+
+"Not once while he was there," Leslie told Ross, "not even when he
+was eating dinner, did he take off his cap--merely pushed it back a
+little. Uncle Jake urged him to shed it, but he just grinned and said he
+had a bald spot on the top of his head, and had got into the habit of
+wearing his cap all the time to keep that spot warm. Said he guessed
+he wouldn't 'bust into that habit now.' I thought he was an odd Dick
+to get into such a habit, and with a fur cap, too, but it was all so
+plausible, Ross, everything he said was said with such an air of truth,
+that I didn't once suspect."
+
+"No more did I," confessed Ross.
+
+"And then, of course, I was awfully interested in what he had to tell,
+and ask me to do. He told a clever lie, Ross. He said that you had
+brought down an elk with his gun and wanted me to come back with him and
+the sled you had made to help the McKenzies haul supplies, and help
+pack the venison over the mountains for our winter meat. It was all
+the more clever because I knew that meat was all we needed to make our
+winter's supplies good. The story hit Uncle Jake in the right spot,
+too. He hurried up dinner for us to be gone before the big snow came.
+Weston thought we could reach his cabin that night and make it back again
+to-morrow morning with the elk meat. He said it would be a pretty good
+pull for the three of us, but as there was a good crust we could make
+it with that sled. Why, Doc, there wasn't a suspicion of deceit in his
+manner. He said you had fixed his pard up all right and would leave
+some stuff for him, and so didn't need to stay any longer. So I went up
+to the tool house and got the sled out and we started----"
+
+"The gun," interrupted Ross. "Did you think of the gun?"
+
+"Not much I didn't! That was Weston. Just as we were starting off he
+turned back and said:
+
+"'See here, young feller. Doc said as how ye was t' bring his gun along
+and mebby he could bring down a mountain sheep as we come back. They is
+a lot of them animals over with us.'"
+
+So the two had turned back and Leslie strapped Ross's gun across his
+shoulders. He carried the ammunition. Weston insisted on taking all of it
+along as he and his partner had run short, and Ross had promised them a
+share of his! Then they had started out, and, screened by the veil of
+gently falling snow, entered on the same tortuous, winding, upward trail
+that Ross and Weston had taken a few days previously.
+
+"And all the way," Leslie continued, "whenever the trail let us walk
+together, he was telling me a long yarn about the day you and he had
+spent chasing that elk whose meat we were going after. I listened, Ross,
+with my mouth opened half the time, and wished a dozen times, if I did
+once, that I had been with you.
+
+"Well, as the afternoon passed, the storm became heavier, and part of
+the way we couldn't see a dozen feet before us, and finally I think
+Weston himself was uncertain of our way although he said he wasn't.
+It must have been about four o'clock when we came to the head of the
+ledge. Weston searched and groped along until he came to a tree where a
+rope was already tied.
+
+"'It's the one I used fer Doc and me,'" he explained and slung it over
+the cliff.
+
+"He had been hauling the sled along, while all I had to carry was the
+gun and ammunition. Now he said that I had better leave my snow-shoes
+on top of the cliff and tie the end of the rope around my waist and
+he would let me down to the ledge. That I was to kick clear of snow
+and then go up the cañon and get you to come down and help heave the
+sled over and get it down to the cañon. He said you would know better
+than I how to do that. He kept giving me directions about where to
+find the cabin, for the snow had thickened until we couldn't see the
+ledge, to say nothing of the cañon. You see, Ross, I'll confess I
+was too nervous about going over into space attached to that rope to
+think that his proceeding was queer. I just didn't question a thing,
+but shut my eyes and went over. It didn't occur to me to wonder why
+my snow-shoes, instead of that gun, weren't tied on my shoulders.
+Well, I struck the ledge and untied the rope and felt my way along that
+ticklish shelf until the squall lifted and then--you know the rest.
+If I live to be a hundred I'll never forget how I felt when that rope
+was drawn up and he yelled down that I was to tell you I was in the
+same boat that you were!"
+
+It was late and Leslie was too tired to talk longer. Ross gave him the
+bunk and, waiting only long enough to fill the stove with wood, close
+the draughts and blow out the candles, wrapped up in a blanket and lay
+down beside the stove, his coat for a pillow. He did not fall asleep at
+once, but lay staring up at the flicker of firelight dancing about on
+the mud-chinked logs overhead.
+
+After all his planning and working, he thought, his mission in the
+mountains was doomed to failure. The claims would pass into the
+McKenzies' hands, and, besides, he would have missed one year of the
+preparation for the work he had chosen. He rolled over and half groaned.
+
+"Awake, Ross?" came from the bunk. "I'm so tired I haven't dropped off
+yet and, besides--say, Ross, here I am and there's dad waiting for me
+to turn up with that missing five hundred--and then your claims--we're
+not exactly in luck, are we? I feel as though I'd like to get my hands
+on that Weston-Miller fellow's throat."
+
+"There's one thing I can do, though--study," muttered Ross. "That I've
+got to hold myself to."
+
+Conversation languished then, and both boys fell asleep, Ross's last
+thought being of Weimer watching for their return in the lonely valley
+of Meadow Creek.
+
+By daylight the following morning the two were up, full of plans for
+living and doing during the long months of their imprisonment.
+
+"There are some nails, but no hammer," said Ross. "But we can drive 'em
+with a stick of wood and fix up another bunk out of these two boxes.
+They're the longest, and I think they'll fill the bill for my five
+feet ten. Then we'll divide the straw and the blankets, and by keeping
+up the fire all night, I guess we won't freeze to death."
+
+On the floor in the corner back of the stove they built the bunk. There
+were not nails enough nor were the boxes strong enough to allow of
+making a substantial bunk such as the owner of the shack had built
+against the side logs.
+
+Until the bunk was completed, Leslie, while working docilely enough under
+the older boy's direction, regarded the more comfortable bunk as his
+permanent possession. He had never been taught to be unselfish. He had
+from his motherless childhood demanded what he wished and received it
+until the question arose of his continued attendance in school. There
+he had taken the course he wished and was now paying for it dearly.
+It was not until he was dividing the straw in his bunk and had come
+across Ross's watch and pocketbook that the idea smote him hard that
+the other had vacated the easier bunk in a wordless generosity that
+he, Leslie, had never practiced, and that he had not even thanked the
+bunk's former occupant.
+
+"See here, Ross," he began brusquely, "you needn't think that you're
+going to rest your old bones in the new bunk all the time, for you
+ain't! I shall try it myself half the time."
+
+"Week and week about, then," Ross agreed. "And this brings us up
+against a calendar. I brought my watch, thank fortune! But what about a
+calendar? I want to be sure that I know when the 4th of July gets
+here, for Steele says you'd never know it except by the calendar,
+there's so much snow."
+
+"Snow!" groaned Leslie. "Snow! There's never a time when there isn't
+snow in these mountains, it seems. Well, I know what day to-morrow is,
+and--have you a pencil?"
+
+Ross slapped the breast pocket of his slicker. "Yep, a long one. And
+there's one in the pockets of the trousers you'll find in that box,"
+nodding toward the repository of the shack owner's clothing. "Guess
+we will keep a record of the days up on the side logs. I know how many in
+each month when I say that old jingle, 'Thirty days hath September,'
+etc."
+
+But the need of a calendar was not so pressing as the need of wood.
+The few days that Ross had spent in the shack had caused an alarming
+shrinkage in the pile of chunks already cut; and Ross, commencing to
+shovel his way to the nearest pine tree, now ran across a number of logs
+which had been "snaked" down the mountainside before the snow came, and
+lay ready for the axe and saw.
+
+"I guess if Aunt Anne were here, she'd not complain that I took no
+exercise," he muttered grimly, shouldering a short cross cut saw.
+
+While he sawed Leslie got dinner. After dinner Leslie took his turn at
+the saw and axe while Ross considered the matter of the calendar. Looking
+about the shack, his glance fell on Weston's game pouch. He had hung
+it on a peg driven between two side logs and had forgotten it.
+
+"The very thing!" he exclaimed aloud. "We can mark the days on the margin
+of the old newspapers that are in the bottom of that pouch."
+
+Taking the bag down he dumped the crushed papers out on the table, and
+sitting down, began to smooth them out, glancing over the contents
+idly. He found nothing which interested him until he reached the last
+wad. When he spread this out, he found, stuck to the newspaper by
+candle-drippings, a scrap of coarse note paper which at once riveted his
+attention. It contained only the latter part of one sentence and the
+first part of another.
+
+"----come and help us out, and no fooling about it, either. If you back
+out I will turn you over to old man Quinn----"
+
+Over and over Ross read these words. They were few and short, but to him
+now they were the intelligible index to a whole volume. The scrap was
+stuck to a "Gazette" bearing a date which was just previous to Weston's
+appearance in Meadow Creek. There was no name to show that Sandy had
+written the letter, but Ross knew Weston had escaped from Oklahoma. No
+doubt Sandy possessed the knowledge that compelled his obedience.
+
+Ross drew a long breath. "Strange what parts of two sentences may tell a
+fellow!"
+
+"Tell a fellow what?" demanded Leslie's curious voice at his elbow. A
+hand came over his shoulder and pinned the paper down to the table while
+Leslie read the contents aloud.
+
+"'Old man Quinn,'" he finished excitedly. "Why, that is my father,
+but--Lon Weston--say, what does that mean, Ross?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A RANDOM SHOT
+
+
+FOR an instant Ross made no reply. He sat with his back to the door and
+had not heard Leslie enter. Turning slowly he looked up with puzzled eyes.
+
+"Less, there's something that I've not told you before--because--I
+guess because I've thought it wasn't fair to tell. But after Weston
+has brought us away off here and dumped us in this wilderness--even if
+he has done it out of fear of Sandy--well, it seems to me that about
+now he has forfeited all right to my silence."
+
+Leslie fell back in astonishment, the scraps of the letter still in his
+hand. "Doc, are you getting luny? What are you talking about?"
+
+Ross laughed ruefully. "Just thinking out loud, that's all. Now I'll
+get right down to business about Weston. You said you knew a fellow in
+Oklahoma by his name--Lon Weston."
+
+Leslie pursed his lips incredulously. "Yes, but as I said, our Lon Weston
+had light hair and didn't murder the King's English like this man, and
+he hadn't a husky voice."
+
+"Just so!" cried Ross triumphantly. "Neither does this Lon Weston murder
+the English language when he is talking like himself, nor has he a
+husky voice naturally nor has he dark hair! It's colored dark--near
+the roots, as I found out, it's light."
+
+"Jiminy crickstones!" cried Leslie excitedly. "If that's true, it's
+one on me! Come to think of it, Weston was forever imitating folks, but
+I never have seen him in such a serious imitation as this. How do you
+know all about him, anyway?"
+
+From this Ross proceeded to tell what he knew except Weston's connection
+with the note laid under the electric bulb in the bedroom of "The Irma."
+That much he felt himself pledged not to relate, but its omission,
+really, in no way detracted from the proof of Weston's identity.
+Furthermore, Ross, concerned only with that identity, began his recital
+with Sheepy's talk about Weston forgetting the photograph which had
+revealed the injured man's name.
+
+"You can see," Ross concluded, "by putting together all the evidence,
+that he is the fourth man your father is after, and that Sandy has come
+it over him completely, knowing that he is the fourth. The more I think
+of it the more I'm convinced of Sandy's power. Sandy holds this cudgel
+over his head and makes him do the dirty work. But, no matter how big
+the cudgel is, he had no business to play this low-down trick on us."
+
+"Wait till we get out of here!" declared Leslie wrathfully, "and I'll
+make him pay for his trick!" Suddenly his face lighted. "Ross, see
+here! Dad has been hunting for that fourth man for two years, and if I
+can go to him and tell him who it is and set him on the right track,
+well--I'll stand in better with dad, that's all! The five hundred
+that I can't begin to earn until next summer won't be in it beside that
+information!"
+
+Then, as suddenly as it had come, the light died out of the boy's face.
+He sat down on the table and rubbed his forehead in perplexity.
+
+"But, Ross, there's another side to this. For me to do that would knock
+things endwise with Sue."
+
+"Sue," repeated Ross, "who is Sue?"
+
+"I've got a sister," explained Leslie. "She's four or five years older.
+She keeps house for us. She's an awfully good girl, Sue is, although,"
+turning his head shamefacedly away, "she'd be surprised to hear me
+say so, for we, dad and I, have made her a lot of trouble. Dad's as
+up and down with her as with me and I--say, Ross, I've been a nuisance
+at home!"
+
+Leslie choked. He looked slowly around the cramped, dirty, ill-lighted
+room, so unlike the neat, pleasant home presided over by Sue, and
+swallowed hard. Ross industriously made notches in the edge of the
+table with his pocket-knife.
+
+Finally Leslie, clearing his throat, continued, "I guess all this serves
+me about right. I know I ought to be kicked--and I am being--in a way.
+Well, it's always been up to Sue to put up with us both, and she has.
+And then three years ago Lon Weston came. You see, Ross, dad is a sheep
+owner, and North Bend is on the edge of the range between sheep and
+cattle, and that always means war. About three miles away is a cattle
+ranch, and Peck, the owner, and dad are always by the ears. It was at
+Peck's that Lon was foreman, and he used to come over to North Bend
+to see my sister whenever dad would let 'im, but things were never
+very smooth for 'em. Of course, I didn't see much of him because I
+was off at school most of the year. I was away when the cattlemen had
+their big round-up two years ago in the fall. After each had cut out
+his own bunch of cattle and shipped 'em, a lot of the boys went on a
+drunk and dad lost his sheep. Naturally he went up in the air at the
+loss and was at the throat of every cattle owner and cowboy for miles
+around. And, first thing, of course he came down on Sue about Lon's
+coming to the house and forbid 'er to see him again, not because he
+suspected Lon, but just because he was Peck's foreman and a cowboy.
+
+"Well, Lon cleared out right off and Sue cried herself sick. She never
+said anything, but I've guessed that Lon never has written to 'er and
+I'm afraid she's foolish enough," tolerantly, "to think a lot of him.
+
+"But I never suspected that Lon was in the bunch that sent dad's sheep
+over, and I know that no one else around the ranch suspects it, because
+of Lon's coming to see Sue right along. Still--there were times when
+he was a pretty rough customer, and--it's a mixed up mess, ain't it,
+Ross, along with Sue?"
+
+Ross had been leaning forward on the table listening eagerly. Two or
+three times he had started to interrupt, and had checked himself with
+difficulty. Now he burst out:
+
+"I had forgotten the girl's photo in Lon's pocket, Leslie. I know now
+it's Sue's picture, because it looks like you. It fell out of his
+pocket at Sagehen Roost, and both Hank and I saw it, and then, when
+you came, you puzzled Hank because he thought he had seen you before!"
+
+"The very idea!" exclaimed Leslie indignantly when Ross had told him
+about the name on the photograph. "How dare he carry my sister's picture
+around with him after doing dad such a dirty trick. Oh, I have it in for
+him all right! I don't wonder the McKenzies knew they had to get rid
+of me before they could make Lon come over to Meadow Creek! I see now!
+I presume he thinks that dad has been on his track these two years. I
+wonder if Sandy and Waymart were with Peck at the same time Lon was?"
+
+For a long time the boys talked over the affair in all its bearings, and
+as the long lonely days passed, they recalled every incident that had
+occurred since they left Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Their conversations
+mostly took place in the evening by the light of one dim candle, or in
+the darkness relieved only by the flicker of the firelight, as candles
+were not plenty. It was at that dreary time between day and night with
+the wind and the coyotes howling outside that the homesickness that they
+could fight successfully in daylight had its inning.
+
+"But what if I were here alone!" Ross exclaimed periodically.
+
+His gratitude at having Leslie there softened his anger at Weston,
+although he knew that the bringing of Leslie had been no philanthropic
+move on Weston's part.
+
+Soon, however, the boys settled to a routine of work, exercise and study
+planned by Ross and acquiesced in by Leslie, all, at first, save the
+study. In that Ross began with no thought of aid from the other or
+partnership with him until one day when he sat with a book on anatomy
+before him industriously absorbing the pages. Presently, turning his book
+over on its face, he resolutely closed his eyes against the outer world,
+and his ears against Leslie's lively whistle, mentally reviewing the
+facts he had been conning. Suddenly Leslie, who had been lying in the
+bunk, came over to the table and, picking up the text-book, lazily bade
+Ross think aloud.
+
+"It's so deadly lonely, Ross, with you poring over those dull books,"
+complained Leslie, "that I'd rather hear you recite than not to hear
+anything at all!"
+
+From this trifling beginning, a student partnership grew up. At first
+the task meant to Leslie only a form of passing the time away, of hearing
+a human voice instead of the crackle of the fire and the sough of
+the wind. Then, gradually, his interest in the subject of anatomy was
+awakened. He began to look at himself with a new interest.
+
+"I say, Ross," he burst out one day when he was frying bacon, "I never
+have thought of myself before as being made up of parts that must work
+together smoothly--and I never considered how they must work and that
+some one or other must know just how they ought to work so that he can
+put 'em together if they fall out of place. Now, about that femur,
+and ball and socket joint at the hip here----"
+
+Immediately Ross plunged into a lively description which soon led both
+boys to the books for proof and illustration, and Leslie's interest
+grew. From being merely the holder of the book while Ross recited and
+explained what he had studied, Leslie, the "hater" of studies, began to
+study also, at first, in a fitful way, and then more steadily as Ross
+proved himself an enthusiastic teacher.
+
+Neither, however, became so absorbed in his studies as to become
+reconciled to his enforced residence above the seven spruces. Day
+after day they ventured out and up and down the cañon, or up the side
+of the mountain on the side of which their shack was located, but no
+discoveries resulted. The absence of snow-shoes made travel impossible
+except on top of a strong crust, and even then a realization of a
+constantly increasing danger resulted in making such trips shorter
+and shorter. The danger was this: blizzard succeeded blizzard until
+the willows, ten feet tall, which grew thickly in the cañon, were
+completely concealed, also the scrub hemlocks and quaking asp on the
+mountainside. The tops of the bushes, lashed by the wind until they
+became finally snow covered, formed each a dangerous hollow under a
+crust thinner and weaker than the surrounding surface. This painful
+discovery was made by Leslie.
+
+One bright day, leaving Ross to cut off the branches of a tree that he
+had felled for fire-wood, Leslie took the gun and started down the cañon
+on a tour of exploration.
+
+"The crust is stout enough to hold up an ox, Doc," he declared, bringing
+the butt of the gun down on it hard, "and I'm going out to see what
+there is to see--and shoot."
+
+"Shoot!" echoed Ross, poising the axe in air. "I'd like to see something
+shootable up here beside coyotes, and we never see them--only hear
+'em!" and the axe descended with a thud.
+
+Leslie laughed, shouldered the gun and tramped briskly down the cañon,
+while Ross wielded the axe and, whistling cheerfully, thought of the
+progress he was making in his studies.
+
+Presently, he rested on his axe handle and chafed his cheeks and nose
+briskly with the shaggy mittens he had found in the box of clothing left
+in the shack. "I don't want any more frost bites in mine!" he muttered.
+He had had several experiences of the kind that winter, the altitude
+being so great that he did not realize the intense cold until nose or
+cheek or ear had become frost nipped.
+
+He was resuming his axe when a faint sound traveled up the cañon on the
+wings of a slow south wind. Ross straightened himself and listened. Again
+came the wind and the sound. With the axe in his hand he slipped and
+slid down the mountainside until he stood in the cañon below the seven
+spruce trees. There he paused long enough to distinguish in the sound the
+faint muffled cry, "Ross!" and "Help!"
+
+"Coming!" yelled Ross frantically. "Where are you?"
+
+He did not await a reply but, slipping unsteadily along the icy crust,
+he hurried down the cañon in the general direction of Leslie's voice,
+yelling intermittently, "Coming--here I am! Where are you, Less?"
+
+As he came to the cliff over which he had been lowered into the cañon, he
+heard Leslie's voice again, still curiously muffled, although evidently
+only a little way in advance. It seemed to rise from beneath the ground.
+
+"Hold on, Ross. Don't come fast. I've fallen through among the willows."
+
+Cautiously Ross advanced toward the voice, testing the strength of the
+crust at every step until it gave under the stamping of his heel. Then he
+stopped and found himself looking down a section of shelving crust into
+a hole filled with loose snow, willow tops--and Leslie.
+
+"Great guns!" cried Ross. "What are you doing in there?"
+
+Leslie attempted to respond nonchalantly, but his face was nearly as
+white as the bed of snow he was occupying, and his teeth chattered with
+cold and fright.
+
+"I've been flopping around here for half an hour yelling," he explained
+jerkily, "and have only managed to sink deeper and break off more crust
+and more willow tops."
+
+"Rub your nose and face the next thing you do," advised Ross immediately,
+"or you'll be a mass of frost bite."
+
+He rubbed his own nose meditatively. Then grasping the axe he cried
+cheerfully, "Hold the fort a while longer down there, Less, and relief
+will arrive. See here! I hadn't finished the wood and I ran off with
+the axe. Now I'll skiddoo and cut a pole and help you out. And don't
+forget to rub your face!"
+
+Laboriously and fearfully--lest he meet with Leslie's fate--Ross
+climbed the side of the mountain until he stood among the branches of a
+sturdy spruce, the depth of snow raising him to that height. Cutting
+and trimming a long limb, he dragged it back to the cañon. Projecting one
+end over the hole he sat hard on the other. Then Leslie, by jumping
+and seizing the projecting end, and bracing against the sloping sheet
+of crust, climbed, breathless but relieved, to the surface of the snow.
+
+"I tell you what, Ross," he said emphatically as they made their way
+gingerly back to the shack, "I've done all the research work I want
+to in this cañon!" He shivered and slapped his hands smartly together.
+"Without snow-shoes we are helpless here, and the McKenzies know it!"
+
+To make snow-shoes without boards or small nails or a hammer was
+impossible to workmen of their inexperience. They broke up some boxes
+and put in all their spare time for days experimenting, but to no purpose.
+
+"Even if we did succeed, Less," Ross comforted himself one day as he
+looked gloomily at their latest failure, "we couldn't escape from here.
+We have no idea where we are, whether we are nearer Red Lodge or Cody or
+Timbuctoo. We would merely start out and leave a half-way comfortable
+certainty for a mighty ticklish uncertainty."
+
+"That's right," agreed Leslie, "and we couldn't pack enough food on
+our backs to last many days, nor can we tell when a storm is coming."
+
+In fact, storms were the order of the day. By the middle of February
+immense masses of snow curled out over the cliffs on the side of the
+mountain opposite the shack waiting for the warm chinooks of spring to
+send them hurtling down into the cañon. Fortunately, the mountain above
+the shack was lower than its neighbors, and the face, heavily wooded,
+sloped back more gently until it reached a great elevation.
+
+"The trees here prove that there have been no snowslides within the
+memory of this generation, at any rate," Ross broke out one day as they
+were sawing the branches from a spruce on the mountainside above the
+shack. "Now, if the shack were on the other side----"
+
+"But it wouldn't be built on the other side," interrupted Leslie. "No
+cabin builder would do such a thing unless he built when he first struck
+this country as young and green as we were!"
+
+Ross laughed and started the branch he had trimmed down the mountainside
+on the crust. It skidded along rapidly until it wedged itself into a
+great snow bank which had drifted from the shack to the trees on either
+side, and through which the boys had tunneled. With the last branch sent
+home in this convenient fashion, Ross shouldered the axe and picked up
+the saw, while Leslie took the gun from a near-by branch where it had
+been slung, and followed down the mountainside.
+
+With the increase in the depth of the snow, the coyotes and gray wolves
+had grown bolder, and without the gun the boys never went now outside
+of their dooryard, as they called the spaces they had cleared around the
+shack. So far, however, the coyotes had only skulked near the strongly
+built lean-to, attracted by the smell of the meat, while the wolves
+contented themselves by howling at night from the rocks far above the
+cabin, and being answered from the mountainside opposite.
+
+"I have always heard that the gray wolf is a coward," commented Leslie
+as the two entered the shack. "We have not had a glimpse of one yet."
+
+"Uncle Jake said they are far more afraid of people than sensible people
+are afraid of them," returned Ross, "but I'd rather not be called
+sensible than to meet one face to face!"
+
+That night the boys turned in early, tired with their exertions at the
+wood-pile. About midnight they were both awakened by a mysterious noise.
+Leslie, in the wall bunk, came up on his elbow before he was fairly
+awake. Ross, on the floor, sat up instantly, whispering sharply:
+
+"Leslie, is that you?"
+
+"What?" asked Leslie bewildered. "Is it you? What was that?"
+
+Before Ross could reply again, the noise was repeated. It came from above
+their heads, a soft padding and crunching on the roof logs. Suddenly
+there was added a whining sound and a scratching at the side and then
+an increase in the crunching on the roof.
+
+"Wolves!" cried Ross and Leslie simultaneously.
+
+"They smell the meat in the lean-to," added Leslie.
+
+"Tell you what, Less," said Ross, "I'm glad we're inside a stockade.
+I'll put my trust in logs rather than boards with those fellows around."
+
+Ross's voice was decidedly husky, Leslie was glad to note. His own was
+almost beyond control while cold chills ran up and down his spine. He
+grunted assent and tried to yawn aloud but was unsuccessful.
+
+Then, as the soft padding and eager sniffing continued, he found his
+voice in a frightened quaver, "Ross, can they get into the window, do you
+think?"
+
+"Or break into the door?" added Ross equally uncertain as to tone. "One
+thing I know, Less, they're afraid of fire."
+
+At that both boys came out of their bunks and began to fill the stove
+with wood. But at these sounds from below, the wolves departed hastily
+and put in the remainder of the night howling from the side of the
+mountain a safe distance away.
+
+"Guess Uncle Jake is right. They seem as afraid of us as we are of them!"
+exclaimed Leslie, lighting a candle and setting it in the window. Then
+he turned on Ross with a sheepish grin. "Say, Doc, is my hair standing
+straight up?"
+
+Ross passed his hand over his own. "I don't see it stand, but if it
+feels like mine it won't lie down again in a week. To-morrow, Less,
+we'll let studies go by the board and have that window and the door
+barricaded. Then, if a wolf or two chance to stumble against them we can
+turn over and laugh in our sleep."
+
+There was no more sleep in the shack that night, however, and before
+daylight the boys were up planning the proposed barricade. They
+finally hit on two cross poles for the door, fitted into crudely
+carved stanchions nailed to either side. These bars were removed by
+day, but when night came, it was with a feeling of relief that the boys
+dropped the bars into their stanchions and knew the device could foil
+any wolf that prowled about the mountains. The window, also, was
+similarly barricaded.
+
+But, secure behind these protections, the boys soon became accustomed to
+their midnight visitors, and even began to look eagerly for them during
+the day, Leslie being a fair shot.
+
+"I would like to get a skin or two, Ross," he said one evening. "Sue
+would like 'em as rugs, you bet!"
+
+It was after supper, and the boys, having washed the dishes, had blown
+out the candle and were sitting beside the stove. The draft in front
+was open, and the blazing chunks within sent a cheerful glow dancing
+past the window and flickering on the bunk and the side wall beyond.
+Outside, the wind soughed among the branches of the seven spruces,
+whipping them savagely. It was densely dark, darker than it would be an
+hour later when the moon swung over the tops of the mountain opposite
+the shack. There had been no storm for several days, but severe cold, so
+that on top of a strong crust a light snow drifted about continually.
+
+"I'm satisfied to leave the skin on the brutes if they'll agree to
+leave mine on me!" laughed Ross in answer to Leslie. "Guess you're a
+better sport, Less, than I am."
+
+Leslie shook his head. "Aw, I'm no sport," he disclaimed in a pleased
+tone. "If I ever think I am I shall remember the first night the wolves
+came."
+
+He was rubbing his head reminiscently when, suddenly, there came an
+unexpected sound from the neighborhood of the window. There was a thump
+against the outer logs, followed by the splinter of glass and the inward
+rush of cold air. This was immediately succeeded by a hasty scraping
+noise in the midst of which Leslie sprang to his feet shouting:
+
+"Wolves! Quick, Ross, the door!"
+
+While Leslie sprang to the gun hung on pegs against the logs near the
+door, Ross fumbled at the door fastenings and, in a moment, both boys
+were out in front in the clearing that they had shoveled in front of
+the door and window. The sound was rapidly retreating down the side of
+the slope toward the seven spruces. Eagerly the boys ran toward the
+spruces, which, in the darkness, merely made a darker spot below them.
+From the midst of the trees came the scratching sound on the crust.
+Throwing the gun to his shoulder Leslie excitedly fired again and again
+in the direction of the rapidly receding sounds.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed when the chambers of the gun were emptied. "Of
+course I haven't hit anything, but I have the satisfaction of knowing
+I've shot at a wolf, at least!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A HUMILIATING DISCOVERY
+
+
+RETURNING to the cabin, the boys excitedly split up a box and, binding
+the dry splinters together, thrust one end into the stove. A moment
+later, Ross, brandishing this improvised torch, and followed by Leslie,
+bearing the gun in hands none too steady, ran down to the seven spruces.
+
+This group of trees, full grown and broad limbed, interlocked their
+branches at the foot of the mountain in the path of the high winds which
+roared through the cañon as through a funnel between the high mountains.
+The trunks formed a windbreak for the storms that left their load of
+snow heaped to the branches on the upper side at the expense of the
+lower side where the crust was swept as clear of loose snow as though
+by a broom.
+
+Here, in the shadow of these trees, Leslie, despite his earnest protest
+to the contrary, half expected to see a wolf dead or wounded, but no
+wolf appeared. Lowering the torch, the boys made their way warily around
+the trees and the drifts heaped to leeward. The pile of snow had not
+been disturbed, nor did they discover any tracks.
+
+"Less, I'm not satisfied," exclaimed Ross finally. "Something broke that
+window and something ran down here. There's enough loose snow over this
+crust to show traces if----"
+
+Here the speaker hastily interposed his body between a gust of wind and
+the flaring torch.
+
+"That's true," asserted Leslie, "but the snow is so light that this wind
+has probably moved every particle of it since that window was broken,
+and this crust is too hard to show a track."
+
+Ross uttered a sudden exclamation and plunged forward, the torch's head
+flaming against the crust.
+
+"Quick, Less, see here!"
+
+Leslie sprang forward and bent over the torch. "Blood!" he shouted. "I
+did hit him for sure! There is a--no, see here, Ross, here are some more
+drops, a neat little collection! I must have hit hard. Oh, we can track
+him now easily!"
+
+The telltale drops were scattered on the glistening face of the crust
+just below the trees. There was one splash of red and a few inches
+further along scattering drops. Sweeping the crust with the torch the
+boys cautiously crossed the cañon taking care to test the crust with the
+heels of their shoes as they advanced. But, to their disappointment, no
+more blood appeared, and no further signs of life. Slowly they zigzagged
+back and forth, searching and listening, but to no purpose.
+
+"He got away all right," said Leslie in a voice of deep chagrin. "Guess,
+after all, I must only have scratched him."
+
+"Yes, but it's queer that a scratch would have produced that much blood
+and not another drop," returned Ross puzzled. "Such a wound would keep on
+bleeding for a few moments at least. We ought to find more traces right
+around here."
+
+Convinced of the soundness of this reasoning, Leslie urged another
+search. Stopping long enough to make a fresh torch they returned to the
+blood spots and with them as a center carefully enlarged the circle of
+their search until they had again covered the surface, inch by inch,
+for yards around.
+
+"He must have stopped and licked the wound clean right here and then
+streaked it for the mountains," said Leslie at last.
+
+Ross shook his head obstinately. "I don't believe it. With your shots
+pattering around him he'd likely streak it for the mountains and attend
+to his wounds later--only in that case there would be more blood."
+
+Discouraged and cold, the searchers returned to the cabin. Nailing a box
+cover over the window, and barring the door again, they went to bed.
+
+The following morning dawned bright and still in the Cañon of the Seven
+Spruces as the boys had named their home. Tired out with the excitement
+and exertion of the previous night they overslept, and not until the
+sun had appeared above the eastern peaks were they ready for a further
+examination of the neighborhood of the blood spots. They searched as
+they had the previous evening and with no better results, until noon.
+Then the unexpected happened!
+
+They had given up the hunt disgustedly and were returning to the shack
+for dinner, when passing to windward of the seven spruces, Leslie
+chanced to pause beside the trunk of the outermost sentinel in the
+group. Ross, in advance, turned and, simultaneously, the gaze of both
+boys fell on another evidence that Leslie's gun had drawn blood the
+night before. Half of each tree trunk was covered with snow and on
+the white envelope of the spruce beside which they stood appeared
+four red streaks lying parallel and a couple of inches away around the
+curve of the trunk a faint red blotch. The second of the four streaks
+contained the deepest stain.
+
+"I say, Ross!" cried Leslie.
+
+"Less, here you are again!" ejaculated Ross.
+
+For an instant they both stared at the tree trunk motionless. Then Ross,
+with a sudden narrowing of his eyes and upward tilt of his square chin,
+strode forward, drew off his mitten and extended his arm. The marks were
+shoulder high. Leslie gave an exclamation as Ross grasped the trunk, his
+four fingers covering the four streaks of blood, his thumb pressed on
+the fainter blotch. Then his hand fell to his side.
+
+"A man!" gasped Leslie. His face turned white. "Ross, did I shoot a man?"
+
+"That would account for things," said Ross slowly. He looked back. Only a
+few feet intervened between the tree and the blood on the crust. "If you
+hurt his hand--and he steadied himself here at this tree, and then ran
+on--perhaps before he realized that he was hurt--and then staunched the
+flow in his mittens or on his clothes--anywhere----"
+
+"It was Sandy!" exclaimed Leslie. His voice was weak, also his knees.
+
+"Or Weston," added Ross and scowled.
+
+"He--they were looking in the window----" began Leslie.
+
+"And slipped and fell against the glass," added Ross.
+
+Only one more proof was needed to convince them that Leslie had drawn
+human blood, and that proof they found where they had not thought to look
+previously--beneath the window. There, in the loose snow blown against
+the side of the shack, was the blurred impression of a snow-shoe.
+
+"I believe," said Ross with conviction that night as they sat beside
+the fire with their door barred and the window securely shuttered, "I
+believe, Less, that it was Sandy and perhaps Waymart, coming to see if
+Weston had done his duty by us."
+
+"But where did they come from?" questioned Leslie. "Where are we? Can
+they get over to Meadow Creek and from there here? Or is there another
+way of getting here?"
+
+It was months before that persistent question was answered, months of
+a dull routine wherein the boys turned with more and more zeal to their
+studies. Nights now, behind their barred door and shuttered window, they
+listened, not for wolves, but for the return of their human caller,
+but he did not come again. Day after day they looked sharply for prints
+of snow-shoes, but looked in vain. Gradually as the spring advanced, the
+wolves and coyotes retreated until the boys no longer carried the gun on
+their wood-cutting excursions.
+
+"I guess Sue will not see a wolf skin this year," Leslie complained in
+March. "Even in that I have failed."
+
+Ross, standing over the stove frying bacon, glanced over his shoulder.
+"Brace up, Less," he gibed. "There's one thing you haven't failed in,
+nor I either. We've got outside of more anatomy and physiology and----"
+
+"That's so," Leslie interrupted brightening. "I've found out what I
+want to do--after I've made my peace with father," soberly. "I guess
+he'll not make any objections to a doctor in the family. It strikes
+me," lugubriously, "that he'll be pleased to find out that I want to
+be anything!"
+
+March gave place to April, finally; but in the mountains April showers
+do not have the effect they are popularly supposed to have elsewhere,
+the showers being great downfalls of snow alternating with thaws which
+threatened to turn the entire cañon into a river and brought to their
+ears daily the thunder of the snowslides. By the first of May the tops
+of the tallest willows began to appear, but the boys knew that the roots
+would not be visible for six weeks yet, so long does winter linger among
+the Shoshones. On the mountainside above timber-line bowlders began to
+push aside their dense white covering.
+
+But with the softening of the great body of snow, the inhabitants of the
+cañon became more closely confined than ever. It was well that the hot
+sun did away with the necessity for a fire during the day, because the
+boys were able to cut and shovel their way only to the nearest trees.
+
+"Things are getting worse instead of better," said Leslie gloomily one
+day when May was two weeks old.
+
+The boys sat in the doorway in the red glow of a warm sunset. At their
+feet, only a few yards away, the narrow cañon was transformed into a
+river choked with ice and snow and mud flowing sluggishly among the
+willows. For weeks the boys had looked in vain for the subsidence of
+the water. On the steep slope of the mountain opposite lay a mass of
+wet heavy snow waiting for its turn to come to plunge into the cañon.
+
+Ross, his eyes on this slope, gave a rueful laugh. "Less, if only we had
+such a charge of dynamite now as we set off under Soapweed Ledge we might
+have a little fun across there."
+
+"Fun!" echoed Leslie miserably. "Never connect that piece of foolishness
+with the word 'fun.' If it hadn't been for that shot we probably would
+have been in Meadow Creek Valley now hard at work."
+
+Ross gazed gloomily up the river-like cañon. He wondered whether the
+trail from Miners' Camp to Meadow Creek was clear yet, and whether the
+McKenzies had returned to the valley; for in three weeks Weimer's fifth
+year of work on the claims would close. He chafed with impatience at the
+delay necessitated by that slowly moving stream. With the cañon clear,
+the boys had determined to start out and follow its windings until they
+came to--Somewhere.
+
+Late one afternoon of that same week Ross sat studying beneath the window
+while Leslie was out trying to force a path to a fine spruce tree that
+promised good fire-wood. The sun had long since hidden his face behind
+the mountain against which the cabin rested, but his rays turned the snow
+on the peaks opposite to gold. The day had been warm. The door stood
+open, and the fire was almost out. Near the doorway, and only a few
+feet from a solid bank of ice, blossomed a profusion of forget-me-nots
+and yellow wild asters. The breeze which rocked their petals was the
+breeze of summer that, nevertheless, carried the tang of the ice and
+snow over which it passed.
+
+Suddenly Ross, deep in his book, heard a sound, the crunching of the
+pine cones and boughs with which the ground was strewn. A moment later a
+shadow moved across his book. He sprang to his feet, the book falling to
+the floor, and confronted a man in the doorway.
+
+The man was middle-aged, large, and stoop-shouldered. His face was burned
+and bearded and furrowed, but astonishment was stamped on every feature
+and furrow.
+
+"Hello!" he greeted Ross, as one familiar with his surroundings greets
+a stranger.
+
+He stepped inside with that air of assurance which proclaims ownership.
+His eyes left Ross, and swept the shack.
+
+"What----" he began, and suddenly stopped, his gaze traveling back
+curiously to the boy. "What----" he began again, but got no further.
+
+Ross was the first one to complete a question, and it was an eager one.
+
+"Where did you come from?"
+
+"Cody," returned the stranger, reciprocating with "And you?"
+
+"Meadow Creek."
+
+"Meadow Creek!" in surprise. "Is the trail open now?"
+
+Ross shook his head. "I don't know. I came last January."
+
+"January!" The stranger stared, and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
+"Do ye mean t' tell me ye've been here sence January?"
+
+"Ever since then."
+
+Briefly but excitedly Ross told the story of his coming.
+
+The stranger, listening, leaned back against the door-post. Successively
+he removed his cap, scratched his head, and contracted his bushy
+eyebrows. When Ross finished he was grinning in grim humor.
+
+"Young man," he began slowly, "this here is Wood River cañon. Ye're only
+seven miles from Miners' Camp. Ye could 'a' hoofed it down t' Gale's
+Ridge in two hours on top of any crust that would 'a' held ye up."
+
+Stepping to the door Ross raised a chagrined voice, "Leslie, ho, Less!
+Come here!"
+
+The boy's unexpected and welcome visitor was Terry Brown, the owner of
+several adjacent coal claims. He had gone out of the mountains the first
+of December, his preparations for departure consisting merely in closing
+the door of his shack. He had expected to open it in June on the same
+furnishings and provisions which he had left.
+
+"I see how it was," Brown began as the three talked things over that
+evening. "That 'ere Weston waits fer a storm a-purpose. Then he takes
+ye a pretty chase around and up and among them little peaks over at the
+head waters of Meadow Creek until he gits ye so mixed up that ye don't
+know east from west. Then he slides ye over the cliff, and lands ye in
+here; and you, thinkin' ye're miles away from ye don't know where,
+with a heap o' danger spots between ye and anywheres, jest naturally
+sets down here and behaves yerself. It was the only sensible thing to
+do," added Brown approvingly.
+
+"But in the face of the facts it doesn't look sensible now!" Ross burst
+out.
+
+[Illustration: "The Crooked Trail that Deceived Ross"]
+
+"No," meditatively, "but without knowin' any of the facts, and with no
+way t' know 'em, you acted with sense, plain hoss sense. But that 'ere
+Weston, he sure done you dirt, all right."
+
+Ross's fists doubled involuntarily. Seeing this, Brown's voice changed.
+
+"Better fergit it, son. Chuck the hull matter. Ye've lost and they've
+won; and, if what I hear of the McKenzies is true, it won't do ye
+no good t' keep thinkin' of this. And when ye git down t' Camp I
+wouldn't tell the first man I seen about this, nuther----"
+
+"Because," Leslie broke in hotly, "they'd laugh at us for staying here
+so near Camp all winter."
+
+Brown made no reply, but a slow grin expressed his opinion.
+
+"I say, Less," Ross broke out, "we don't look any bigger to ourselves
+than we did when we found out what that blast under the Ledge had done
+for us, do we?"
+
+But Leslie did not hear. He sat with his elbows on his knees scowling
+down at the floor. "If we're that near Camp," he reasoned, "it was
+surely one of the McKenzies that came up to see if we were here yet that
+night that I fired. He chose a night, you remember, when the snow was
+light and the crust icy. No tracks left for us to follow."
+
+Their visitor asked for no explanation to this. He was studying Ross's
+face intently as the boy sat leaning forward, his hands clasped around
+his knees.
+
+"I say!" the older man broke out suddenly. "Ye look almighty like a
+feller that rode up in the stage from Meeteetse yisterday--almighty
+like 'im. They was two of 'em. They got out at Amos Steele's."
+
+"Where did they come from?" asked Ross absently.
+
+"I dunno. Sheepy Luther said they was Easterners."
+
+"Sheepy Luther!" exclaimed Ross. "I know Sheepy. His wagon set on the
+hill just back of the stage camp when I was there with Weston."
+
+"Is that so? Wall, Sheepy is down on his luck. He's too old t' chase
+sheep, and last winter he lost five hundred or thereabouts; so he got
+his walkin' papers. He come up yisterday. Stopped at Steele's t' try
+t' git a job with the Gale's Ridge Company. Steele may take 'im on to
+wrangle the hosses, but he can't do more'n a boy's work. He's done
+fer; only he don't know it."
+
+In the pause which followed Brown again studied Ross. "This feller," he
+began again suddenly, "was a bigger man than ye be; but I vum, ye're
+alike even t' the way ye squint up yer eyes and mouth, 'n'----"
+
+Ross came to his feet alertly, his interest at last aroused.
+
+"His name?" he demanded eagerly.
+
+Brown shook his head. "Didn't hear no names except the front ones. They
+called each other 'Ross' 'n' 'Fred.'"
+
+"Uncle Fred and father!" shouted Ross excitedly. "They came up yesterday,
+you say, and stopped at Gale's Ridge!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY
+
+
+THE boy's first feeling of joy was immediately succeeded by a deep
+chagrin. Probably his father had come on to complete the legal process
+for securing a clear title to the claims, and had brought Dr. Grant
+with him, and Ross must confront them with news of failure rather than
+victory. He winced when he thought of the expression of disappointment
+which he felt sure would sweep over his father's face, especially when
+his father learned that the way to failure had lain in part through the
+boy's exercise of his medical knowledge.
+
+"There's my snow-shoes," he heard Brown saying, and the words brought
+him out of his reverie back to the present at once. "To-morrer ye better
+hoof it down t' Camp and meet up with yer relation."
+
+"That's right, Ross," urged Leslie. "I'll stay here until you can bring
+more shoes back. In that case," cheerfully, "you see I'll get the better
+bargain because you'll have to take the brunt----" he paused abruptly.
+
+"Yes, the brunt of the ridicule," added Ross grimly. "We may as well look
+the thing squarely in the face. I'm pretty hot inside, and I shall
+probably boil over at sight of the McKenzies, but--they've made us
+ridiculous instead of laying themselves open to prosecution."
+
+"Except Weston," Leslie burst out significantly. "Wait till I get hold
+of father!"
+
+According to the plans laid, Ross set out the following morning on the
+snow-shoes. Following Brown's directions, to keep to the side of the
+mountain, he threaded the windings of the cañon on reluctant feet, past
+the cliff whose dark face mocked him, over the treacherous rotting ice
+and packed snow, and finally emerged into the broader portion of the
+cañon which contained Miners' Camp.
+
+The cabins, deserted the previous December, were inhabited again. The
+sound of the woodchopper was in the air; and, as Ross came into Camp, a
+dull reverberating boom from the heart of Dundee told that the Mountain
+Company's mining operations were resumed.
+
+But so intent was he on the thought of meeting his father and uncle that
+these sights and sounds did not fill him with the joy he had imagined
+they would give. He even failed to notice a man standing in the doorway
+of a shack, scanning Crosby, on whose steep face the snow still hung in
+loosening masses.
+
+Toward the shack came Bill Travers, the stage-driver between Meeteetse
+and Miners' Camp.
+
+"Wall, beat me," cried the man in the doorway, "if here ain't Doc!"
+
+Ross flashed around and faced Sandy McKenzie.
+
+Sandy's hands were rammed into his pockets; but his sun-burned face was
+smiling an unruffled welcome, and his voice rang pleasantly.
+
+"How," Sandy inquired, "did ye get over here from Medder Creek?"
+
+Ross instantly "boiled over" as he had feared he should, and said the
+very thing he had not intended to say. "You know how I got here! You know
+where I came from!"
+
+The stage-driver, joined by a second man, came nearer and paused. Sandy
+pushed his hands yet deeper into his pockets, and looked amazingly
+innocent.
+
+"Me!" he drawled. "What d'ye mean?"
+
+At the insolent tone Ross's blood boiled. It hummed through his ears,
+deafening him to the sound of his own voice. What he said he never
+could recall beyond the general knowledge that he accused Sandy of
+the theft of the dynamite and of his own and Leslie's abduction across
+the mountains.
+
+And, when he paused to catch his breath and steady his voice, Sandy was
+looking him over with an amused grin which maddened him.
+
+"Now, ain't that a likely story?" he inquired. "Kept ye a prisoner fer
+six months not five miles from Camp on a trail that can be follered at
+any time in the year! Ha, ha!"
+
+Bill Travers grinned faintly. The other man turned away with the corners
+of his mouth twitching, while Sandy went on:
+
+"And as fer Weston, he went to Missoury the day after we left Medder
+Creek, and there he is now fer all I've heard." Again Sandy's laugh
+rang out as he added: "That story won't hold water. Why didn't ye make
+up a----"
+
+Here Waymart appeared in the doorway of the shack. He scowled at Ross,
+but his peremptory words were aimed at Sandy:
+
+"See here! If we're goin' t' send that bundle down by Grasshopper
+we've got t' make lively tracks in here, and ye ought t' know it!"
+
+"Keep yer hair on tight, Mart," laughed Sandy.
+
+He turned, nevertheless, toward the door. As he did so, he mechanically
+withdrew his hands from his pockets and Ross saw something which at once
+arrested his attention. The middle finger of Sandy's right hand was
+gone! In a flash, memory showed Ross the four blood streaks on the trunk
+of the spruce with the second streak the deepest in color.
+
+[Illustration: YOU'VE PAID FOR IT.]
+
+With his anger still burning he snatched off his glove and held up his
+right hand triumphantly, the middle finger projecting. "Well, anyway,"
+he cried, "Leslie ain't a bad shot. We may never prove that you put us
+in that hole, but you've paid for it, nevertheless!"
+
+Sandy involuntarily doubled his right hand into a fist. He caught his
+under lip between his teeth and sent Ross a black look as, wordlessly,
+he entered the shack and slammed the door behind him, leaving Ross to
+tell the story of Leslie's shot to two interested and excited men.
+
+"That accounts fer it," confirmed Bill Travers. "Sandy and Waymart they
+come up from Cody along in February and when they clumb int' th' stage
+goin' back, Sandy's hand was tied up. Next thing I knowed when they
+come up with me t' other day, that finger was off clean to the hand,
+but Sandy hain't never spoken of it."
+
+Ross, leaving Bill to talk the matter over with his companions, went on
+rapidly now down the cañon, his eyes narrowed and his chin protruding
+doggedly. One disagreeable scene was ended, and he was, perhaps, facing
+another.
+
+"I ought to be sorry that Sandy lost a finger but--hanged if I am!" he
+burst out loud. He was anxious to have Leslie know the result of his
+random shot.
+
+Rounding a shoulder of Gale's Ridge, he came in sight of Steele's
+shack. Steele sat in the doorway. Beside him, leaning against the logs
+of the shack's side, was a man in shirt-sleeves and cap, beneath which a
+rim of woolly gray hair projected.
+
+Facing Steele were two well dressed men, one in a tall silk hat, which
+appeared incongruous against its background of log shack and pine tree.
+Ross, with narrowed eyes and compressed lips, plodded on.
+
+"I've done my best," he muttered defensively. "It's all a fellow can
+do; but, when that best is failure, why, it's not much consolation."
+
+Then he raised his head, squared his shoulders, and doggedly faced the
+four in front of Steele's cabin.
+
+Ross Grant, Senior, had not come West to look after his claims, but after
+his son, with whom he felt he had but just begun an acquaintance. He had
+no difficulty in getting Dr. Grant to accompany him, reënforced as he
+was by an anxious Aunt Anne. It was true that both Ross and Steele had
+written that all communications with the former would be shut off for
+months. But, when the hot days of June came and brought no letter from
+the boy, as Aunt Anne said, "something must be done."
+
+That something was represented in the persons of the Grant brothers in
+Miners' Camp.
+
+After the first greetings, tinged with amazement on the part of the four,
+Ross backed up against a spruce, and, facing the others, proceeded to
+answer the questions with which they bombarded him.
+
+In half an hour they were in possession of the main facts in his life
+during the last six months.
+
+"The McKenzies all through," commented Steele finally; "but--prove it!"
+
+"I've got to prove it!" declared Ross violently; "I shall!"
+
+"Ross,"--Dr. Grant's comment carried with it the pride and honor of his
+profession,--"if you're called upon to attend the sick, you must go.
+That's the duty of a physician, even before he receives his diploma. You
+did right."
+
+"I felt that way myself, uncle," returned Ross quietly. "As soon as
+Weimer opened the way, I never thought of not going, so long as there
+was no regular doctor within reach."
+
+Ross Grant, Senior, looked his son over. There was no expression of
+disapproval on his face as he took the measure of this full-blooded,
+broad-shouldered, erect young man whose muscles had been hardened by
+wind and sun and work in the open.
+
+Having completed his survey, Ross, Senior, smiled. "Well, my boy," he
+remarked characteristically, "it took three good sized men to down you
+two boys, didn't it? And it must have cost them a heap of thinking into
+the bargain. Shake, Ross; I'm proud of you!"
+
+And Ross, bewildered, shook hands with his father, his cheeks reddening
+with pleasure.
+
+"I--I never thought of it in that way before," he stammered. "But--that
+doesn't save the claims, and the fifth year is up next week, and Uncle
+Jake----"
+
+"Don't you worry about Uncle Jake," interrupted his father meaningly.
+"We may lose the claims, but Uncle Jake will be provided for."
+
+"The first thing to do," interpolated Steele, "is to root him out of
+Meadow Creek Valley. I've never known the snow to hang so late to the
+side of Crosby."
+
+That very night it ceased to "hang." At midnight every one in the
+shack was awakened. There was a cracking of trees, a long steady rush,
+and then a mighty and prolonged roar as the snow, under the influence
+of a swift warm wind, swept down the side of old Crosby, and took the
+thousand-feet plunge into the ravine at the foot of the falls. The roar
+echoed against the sides of Dundee and Spar and Sniffle, starting other
+though lesser slides until the cañon was filled with the confusion of
+sound.
+
+The following morning, Steele, after investigation, found the trail
+around the shoulder of Crosby swept clean, and at once proposed that
+they follow it to Meadow Creek. Ross objected to starting until Leslie
+reached them. Steele had sent Society Bill up the cañon the previous
+evening with snow-shoes for the boy. But neither Society Bill nor Leslie
+had appeared. Ross's objections were, therefore, overruled by the older
+men.
+
+"Leave word in the upper camp for him to follow us when he comes," Steele
+suggested, "and we'll start right away. We shall have to foot it, too,
+for no horse can make it yet."
+
+The sheep-herder, who had shared Steele's hospitality over night,
+shouldered his blankets, observing that he was going over with them
+to see his friend Weimer, and find out what was "doin' on the Creek."
+
+There were others of the same mind also, as the party from Steele's
+shack found when they reached the foot of Crosby. Just ahead of them,
+so engrossed in their climbing that they did not look back, were Sandy
+and Waymart.
+
+Slowly, to accommodate the older Grants, the party moved up the trail,
+slippery with mud and snow, their way obstructed by rocks and tree trunks.
+
+Sandy and Waymart, ahead, were obliged to move slowly also; for to their
+lot fell the removal of any obstacles too large to surmount, and the
+snow and landslide of the previous night had left many such. Around the
+shoulder, however, the trail was intact, the mountain being so steep
+at this point that the slide had leaped clear of the trail and projected
+itself headlong into the gorge below.
+
+An hour later Ross called back to his father and uncle, who were puffing
+along, breathless and tired and dizzy: "We'll be in sight of the dump
+in ten minutes. It's just around the spur of the mountain there."
+
+Then, unable to restrain his impatience and anxiety longer, he ran
+on ahead of Steele, keeping a short distance between himself and the
+McKenzies. The McKenzies, however, seemed no more anxious to enjoy his
+society than he did to enjoy theirs. Sandy, for once, omitted his usual
+pleasantries, an omission easy to account for whenever Ross thought of
+the missing middle finger of his right hand.
+
+Hearing footsteps behind him, Ross glanced around. Steele had left the
+others, and was following on a run. The McKenzies pushed on without
+looking back, and neither Steele nor Ross spoke.
+
+In silence, then, the four approached the spur. But before they reached
+the dump that silence was most unexpectedly broken. Out of the open mouth
+of the tunnel rolled a volume of sound, then another and another.
+
+Ross in his surprise, his head thrown back as he scanned the dump, nearly
+fell over a mass of newly mined ore which blocked the main trail.
+
+Then he caught a glimpse of Weimer shielding his eyes from the sun with
+both hands, waiting for the effects of the explosions in the tunnel to
+subside. And, leaning against the tool house, his hands in his pockets,
+his head bent forward, was another man, the sight of whom caused a
+great illumination in Ross's mind.
+
+"Weston!" he shouted. "Weston!"
+
+The two men on the dump came to the edge, and looked over. The McKenzies
+on the trail ahead halted. The Grants with the sheep-herder drew nearer.
+
+Weimer, squinting, recognized Ross. He took off his cap, and waved it
+as wildly as a boy.
+
+"The vork," he yelled, "ist done! It ist done dese two veeks. Me und
+Miller here, ve ist vorkin' now joost for de fun!"
+
+Weston gave one glance at Sandy and Waymart, and without speaking went
+back to the tunnel.
+
+Ross was after him with a bound, scrambling up over the dump, followed by
+the others, who were infected by his excitement. He ran to Weston with
+both hands outstretched.
+
+"Weston," he shouted, "you did this!"
+
+"Veston!" exclaimed Uncle Jake. "Dot ist Miller. He has been mit me all
+der spring."
+
+"I told him," muttered Weston, extending his hand to Ross, but turning
+away shamefacedly, "that you two boys had taken my place with my sick
+pard, while I was to stay by him."
+
+Ross pumped the big hand up and down.
+
+"Father," he cried excitedly, "he has saved our claims."
+
+Weston tried to liberate his hand. He stole a glance at Sandy and
+Waymart, who had stopped just beyond the dump.
+
+"Doc here"--he spoke to the group who surrounded him--"saved me first. I
+had that little business to pay for, but"--his tone sank to a mutter--"I
+thought I could pay it and git away to Missoury before Sandy found out
+what I was up to here----"
+
+He was interrupted by Sandy's voice from the trail, and the voice was
+harsh and vengeful. "Better come over to our shack, Lon. I want a little
+talk with ye about old man Quinn. He's wantin' t' see ye powerful bad."
+
+At the name the sheep-herder, who had been standing stupidly staring at
+Weston, woke up.
+
+"Old man Quinn," he began. "A feller in Cody told me----" but no one was
+paying any attention to him.
+
+Sandy and Waymart moved on slowly toward their cabin, talking and
+gesticulating excitedly, evidently in disagreement.
+
+For the present no one undeceived Weimer in regard to Miller.
+
+"He come pack in all dot storm," Weimer exulted, "und mit me vas."
+
+Weston looked away, but Steele cried, "Good work, man," clapping him
+warmly on the shoulder. Then he added boyishly: "I'm hungry as a bear!
+Got any grub left?"
+
+"Yes," answered Weston quietly, "plenty. Come on down all of you, and
+I'll rustle some flapjacks and coffee."
+
+They started down the trail, Weston and Ross in advance. At the mention
+of "old man Quinn" Ross's elation had subsided. He looked at Weston
+out of the corner of his eye. The other's eyes were downcast and his
+face pale beneath its sunburn. His hair was of a peculiar color, light
+at the roots and dark at the ends. He had evidently forgotten to bring
+his hair dye to Meadow Creek.
+
+The older man spoke first. His voice was low and his words halting. "I
+had to take you across the mountain and leave you there," he explained
+briefly. "Sandy was behind the cabin when we got there. I couldn't
+fool 'im about you, but I did about myself; and, if you all had put
+off comin' over a day longer, I could have got away out of Sandy's
+reach."
+
+As he spoke, Weston's hand involuntarily crept up to his breast pocket.
+It fell again, however, as he added in a mutter as though to himself:
+"And Less--I had to take 'im over too--for my own good. But it's all up
+now and I've got to face it out."
+
+Just behind them came the sheep-herder, his thoughts reverting to a
+subject on which he had tried once to speak. Now he saw an opportunity.
+
+"Ye must 'a' known of old man Quinn then," he called to Weston.
+"Didn't ye?"
+
+Weston stumbled. He caught himself, but the movement saved him from the
+necessity of an answer.
+
+"Wall," the sheep-herder went on, almost running in order to keep up with
+the pace Weston had set, "I met Happy in Cody t' other day, and Happy
+said old man Quinn had pinched the fourth puncher that druv his sheep----"
+
+"What?" shouted Weston. He swung around so suddenly that the sheep-herder
+ran full tilt against him.
+
+"What?" Weston shouted again. He seized the amazed and terrified Sheepy,
+and held him by the arms in a vise that made the man wince. "Say that
+again."
+
+"S-say what?" faltered Sheepy.
+
+"What about the fourth? Tell me!"
+
+With every word Weston, his eyes ablaze, his lips drawn back over strong
+white teeth, gave the old sheep-herder a convulsive shake.
+
+"W-why," the old man quavered, "Happy, he said that a feller down in
+Oklahomy, name of Burns, went and give himself up to old man Quinn. He
+said he was the feller the old man was after--that he was the fourth
+who done the business with the sheep. But because he owned up the jedge
+give 'im only six months----"
+
+Weston suddenly pushed the sheep-herder from him, his face working
+convulsively. "Then I wasn't in it!" he cried. "Sandy said I was,
+but I wasn't!"
+
+Offering no further explanation to his astonished hearers, he turned
+toward the McKenzie shack on a run; and for a couple of hours they saw
+no more of him.
+
+It was a busy time for Ross, who promptly took Weston's place "rustling
+grub." But, as he worked, his thoughts wonderingly circled around
+Weston's strange actions. The fourth man was found and it was not
+Weston--yet Weston, it would appear, had believed himself to be the
+guilty party! It was too deep a puzzle for Ross. As the boy worked he
+kept a watchful eye on the trail for Leslie. Surely the latter would
+come down to Camp that morning and receive the word Ross had left him at
+the post-office.
+
+Steele, who had stayed behind long enough to examine the tunnel,
+confirmed Weimer's statement that more than enough work had been done to
+cover the requirements of the law. Weimer, jubilant, sat and talked
+to his old-time "pard," whose voice answered him, but whose satisfied
+gaze followed Ross.
+
+But it was to the man who had stood in the place of a father to him that
+Ross's eyes turned most frequently. Dr. Grant sat, appropriately, on
+the emergency chest, looking affectionately at his energetic nephew.
+
+Suddenly Ross picked up a tin cup full of water from the table, and held
+it out at arm's length toward his uncle.
+
+Dr. Grant smiled. "All right, Ross," he said quietly.
+
+Ross, Senior, looked from one to the other inquiringly. Ross, Junior,
+answered; but he turned his back on his father, and spoke hesitatingly.
+"I was showing uncle, father, that my hand is still steady enough to be
+the hand of a first class--surgeon."
+
+Promptly and heartily came the unexpected response from the elder Grant.
+"I'm glad of that, Ross, for I shall look to see you as successful
+in your profession as you have been in my business," and he turned at
+once to Weimer, and went on speaking.
+
+"Suppose," he was saying, "as long as you want to stay here, you get your
+friend"--he indicated the sheep-herder--"to come and live with you. I'm
+going to buy out Ross's interest in the shares, and I'll look to you
+to keep 'em in good shape--you and your friend--until we get a chance to
+sell well. Of course," he added carelessly, "I'll grub-stake you and
+more, both of you."
+
+Sheepy's eyes lighted, and Weimer grinned and slapped his knee. They
+were the only signs necessary to complete the bargain.
+
+After dinner, as Ross arose from the table, he saw Leslie hurrying down
+the trail. Ross went to meet him.
+
+"Hello, Ross!" Leslie called in a voice which he tried to make
+matter-of-fact, but which bubbled over with jubilation. "I stopped in
+at the post-office and got your word and a letter from dad. It's only
+a month old! He thinks we're mewed up over here, you know, working your
+claims. And he says he and Sue want me to come home as soon as I get
+this letter. He says if I'm willing to work he'll give me better
+wages than I can get anywhere else! He doesn't know yet," here Leslie
+grinned broadly, "that I want to do now the very thing he has fought
+all my life to make me do--go to school. That doctor business has
+sort of sunk in. But say, Ross, here's a thing that bothers me." Leslie
+pulled the letter from his pocket and read:
+
+"'A few days ago I got hold of the fourth man that ran my sheep off into
+the river two years ago. The fellow came and gave himself up to me.'"
+
+The reader looked up tentatively. "Ross, if it was Weston dad would have
+said----"
+
+Ross's hand descended on the other's shoulder in a mighty whack as he
+shouted: "It isn't Weston. Now you listen and give me an inning on the
+talk!"
+
+For half an hour they stood outside the shack while Ross got his
+inning--Sandy's hand, the work, Weston's strange actions were all
+reviewed hurriedly and listened to excitedly. Then, seeing Weston
+approaching, the boys went inside.
+
+Weston crossed the valley slowly, looking down at something which he held
+in the palm of his hand, something in a small gilt frame that he slipped
+into his breast pocket when he entered the shack.
+
+Completely absorbed in his own thoughts--cheerful thoughts too,
+apparently--he went directly to his bunk, and began gathering his few
+possessions together not noticing that the group had been augmented by
+Leslie.
+
+"I guess," he explained abstractedly, "that I'll go on at once--I'm
+going to Oklahoma and not Missouri." Then he looked over his shoulder at
+the sheep-herder, adding abstractedly: "Waymart says I ain't the fourth,
+and never was. He's been makin' up his mind to tell me this good while."
+
+The blank expression on the sheep-herder's face brought Weston back to
+a sense of his surroundings.
+
+"I forgot," he muttered turning to Ross, who stood beside the bunk, "that
+you may not know about this Quinn business."
+
+Leslie stepped forward quickly, but paused as he saw Weston was oblivious
+of his presence.
+
+"I know a good deal about it," exclaimed Ross impulsively, "and I wish
+I knew the rest--your part of it."
+
+Weston leaned against the bunk, his back toward the silent room, his eyes
+downcast. He made the explanation with visible reluctance.
+
+"You see, Doc, I used to drink; and when I had two or three glasses down,
+I'd go out of my head; and when I had come to myself again I wouldn't
+know a blooming thing that had happened while I was drunk. But all the
+time I could ride straight and talk straight and shoot straight."
+
+He paused to moisten his lips. Leslie came a step nearer.
+
+"Well," Weston continued, "to make a long story short, I was foreman on
+a cattle ranch in Oklahoma two years ago. Sandy and Mart came around
+wanting a job, and I gave 'em one on the same ranch. Then came the big
+round-up at North Fork--and there was trouble between the sheep and
+cattle men."
+
+Weston hesitated and looked down. He raised his hand to his breast pocket
+and let it fall at his side.
+
+"The night the round-up ended most of us--got drunk."
+
+He paused, shook himself impatiently, and hurried on: "I didn't go
+with the rest intending to drink--but I did, what with treating and all
+that. And when I come to myself, Sandy told me I was one of the men
+who had done the job on the Quinn sheep. And, knowing what I am when
+drunk, I believed him and cleared out with him and Mart over the Texas
+line, and----" his hand traveled to his hair completing the sentence.
+
+"I see!" exclaimed Ross excitedly; "and since then Sandy has held that
+over you."
+
+Weston nodded. "I was sick of drink, but I got sick of it too late, you
+see. I'd put a lasso round my own neck just when I most wanted to be
+free."
+
+His hand again wandered toward his breast pocket.
+
+"But now," he added, "I am free."
+
+He lifted his head proudly and turning, was aware for the first time
+of Leslie's presence. As the hands of the two met Ross strode across
+the room and began speaking loudly and at random to the others, leaving
+Sue's lover and Sue's brother to talk alone.
+
+Presently, however, unable to restrain the question longer, Ross turned
+again on Weston.
+
+"Sandy stole our sticks, didn't he?" he demanded, "and planned the whole
+thing to get rid of me?"
+
+Weston turned slowly back to his bunk. For a moment he fumbled among the
+blankets in silence. Then he faced about again resolutely.
+
+"Say, Doc, you have your claims here secure, haven't you, and Sandy has
+lost 'em?"
+
+"Yes, thanks to you."
+
+"And you've got outside of enough of those books so you can go to
+college next year, eh?"
+
+"Yes, again thanks to you!"
+
+"And," here Weston glanced at Leslie, "Sandy has dropped a finger
+somewhere in the game."
+
+Leslie could not restrain a look of exultation. "Yes."
+
+"Well, then, let this thing drop, will you? Sandy hain't all to the
+bad. He's pulled me out of as many holes as he's chucked me into; and
+I--well, I--say, Doc, call it square, will you?"
+
+Ross glanced from his father to his uncle and then at Steele. A glance
+satisfied him. Stepping forward, he extended his hand.
+
+"It's square, Weston, and I'll let everything go except--I can't
+forget that you've pulled me out of a pretty big hole--the worst one I
+ever dropped into."
+
+
+The Books of this Series are:
+  ROSS GRANT, TENDERFOOT
+  ROSS GRANT, GOLD HUNTER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ross Grant Tenderfoot, by John Garland
+
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+        div.poetry              {text-indent:0em; margin-left:2em; margin-bottom:.7em; margin-top:.7em;}
+        div.poetry p            {margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;}
+        hr.tb                   {border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; margin-top:10px; margin-bottom:10px; text-align:center; width:40%;}
+        .mt40                   {margin-top:40px;}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ross Grant Tenderfoot, by John Garland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ross Grant Tenderfoot
+
+Author: John Garland
+
+Illustrator: R. L. Boyer
+
+Release Date: November 12, 2010 [EBook #34296]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSS GRANT TENDERFOOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i1'></a><img src='images/i-fpc.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+SLOWLY HE WAS LET DOWN
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+
+<div class='titlepage'>
+<p class='fs20 mb20'>ROSS GRANT<br />TENDERFOOT</p>
+<p class='mb20'>BY</p>
+<p class='fs12 mb05'>JOHN GARLAND</p>
+<p class='fs08 mb20'>AUTHOR OF<br />"<span class='sc'>Ross Grant, Gold Hunter</span>"<br />"<span class='sc'>Ross Grant on the Trail</span>"</p>
+<p class='fs08'>Illustrated by <span class='sc'>R. L. Boyer</span></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center; margin:50px auto;'>
+<img src='images/i-tpg.jpg' alt='' />
+</div>
+
+<p>THE PENN PUBLISHING<br />
+COMPANY PHILADELPHIA<br />
+1917</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+
+<p class='c fs08 mb20'>COPYRIGHT<br />
+1915 BY<br />
+THE PENN<br />
+PUBLISHING<br />
+COMPANY</p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center; margin:20px auto;'>
+<img src='images/i-em2.png' alt='' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='fs08 c'>Ross Grant, Tenderfoot</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+
+<p class='c'>To<br />
+<span class='fs12'>Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Tewksbury</span><br />
+whose life in the Wyoming Mountains has<br />
+made Ross Grant, Tenderfoot, possible, I<br />
+cordially dedicate this book</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+
+<p class='c fs12'>Introduction</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5'></a>5</span><span class='sc'>When</span> I went over the same route, some time
+before Ross Grant traveled it, from Cody eighty
+miles into the snow-capped Shoshones, I found
+how welcome a "Doc Tenderfoot" would be in the
+gold mining camp at the end of the route. There
+was, in camp, the superintendent of one of the
+mining companies, a man who had never had any
+instruction in things medical or surgical, but who,
+with a steady hand and a cool head, and an acquired
+knowledge of "first aids," was often called
+on in case of sickness and accident, as there was
+no doctor nearer than Cody. Such a state of affairs
+greeted Ross Grant when he arrived with his
+medical "emergency chest" and his real knowledge
+of the use to which its contents should be
+put.</p>
+
+<p>Also, I found a certain "outfit" of men, not
+McKenzie in name but in nature, waiting to
+"jump" certain valuable "claims" provided the
+owners failed in any particular to measure up to
+the requirements of the law. Their intention was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span>
+to do the "jumping" legally and not through
+"gun play," which is becoming an obsolete custom
+in that great state.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, I discovered over on a real Meadow
+Creek Valley&#8211;exactly the same place that Ross
+found&#8211;a real "Dutch Weimer" afflicted with
+snow-blindness, imprisoned for months at a time
+in the little valley because of the danger from
+snowslides on the mountainsides.</p>
+
+<p>And, by the way, if you should ever follow this
+same interesting trail from Cody up into the
+mountains, you would find "Ross Grant, Tenderfoot"
+an accurate guide-book until you reached the
+end of the stage route. There you would find that
+Miners&#8217; Camp is a fictitious name applied to a real
+place. And if you should chance to be in camp on
+the Fourth of July, you would realize fully the
+difficulties that Ross had to contend against in the
+vast snowfalls. For the year I visited the mountains
+the glorious Fourth was celebrated by snow-shoe
+races down the mountainsides! There are
+snow-storms every month in the year there, but
+Miners&#8217; Camp is comparatively free from snow
+during August and September.</p>
+
+<p>These are the months, then, when gold hunters,
+"prospectors," are most numerous in the mountains.
+I saw them everywhere with their "pack
+outfits" bound on wooden saddles, seeking in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span>
+rocks for indications of a fortune that is as elusive
+in their business as the proverbial "pot of gold at
+the end of a rainbow."</p>
+
+<p>But, although Ross Grant did not immediately
+find a fortune, he found what is far more desirable,
+the development of muscle, quick wit and nerve
+in the situations which he was obliged to face and
+conquer in these adventure-breeding mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"Ross Grant, Gold Hunter" tells of the hero&#8217;s
+further adventures in the mountains and of his hard
+won "find."</p>
+
+<p>In "Ross Grant on the Trail" he meets many
+discouragements, but finally conquers them.</p>
+
+<p class='tar sc'>John Garland.</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+
+<div class='toc'>
+<table summary='TOC'>
+<tr><td colspan='3' class='center fs12'>Contents</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan='3' class='center fs12'></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>I.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Born Surgeon</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_1'>13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>II.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Steady Hand</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_2'>34</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>III.</td><td class='tcol2'>Doc Tenderfoot in Action</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_3'>56</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>IV.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Fourth Man</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_4'>78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>V.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Man Who Needed Bracing Up</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_5'>98</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>VI.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Men of Meadow Creek</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_6'>121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>VII.</td><td class='tcol2'>Half-Confidences</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_7'>140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>VIII.</td><td class='tcol2'>Ross&#8217;s "Hired Man"</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_8'>159</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>IX.</td><td class='tcol2'>Surprises</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_9'>176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>X.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Newcomer on Meadow Creek</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_10'>197</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XI.</td><td class='tcol2'>Meadow Creek Valley Misses Leslie</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_11'>216</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XII.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Calamity Befalls Ross</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_12'>236</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIII.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Search</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_13'>258</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIV.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Perilous Journey</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_14'>277</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XV.</td><td class='tcol2'>A New Camp</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_15'>297</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVI.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Ingratitude of Weston</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_16'>312</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVII.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Random Shot</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_17'>330</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVIII.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Humiliating Discovery</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_18'>348</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIX.</td><td class='tcol2'>An Unexpected Victory</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_19'>363</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+
+<table summary='LOI'>
+<tr><td colspan='3' class='center fs12'>Illustrations</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan='3' class='center fs12'></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan='2' class='tar fs08'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'><span class='sc'>Slowly He Was Let Down</span></td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i1'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'><span class='sc'>Map of the Meadow Creek Trail</span></td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i2'>59</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'>"<span class='sc'>What&#8217;s the Latest Word</span>?"</td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i3'>72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'><span class='sc'>He Struck the Trail</span></td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i4'>134</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'><span class='sc'>Beside the Dynamite Box</span></td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i5'>203</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'><span class='sc'>The Snow Hid It from View</span></td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i6'>309</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'><span class='sc'>Map of the Crooked Trail</span></td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i7'>359</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tcol1i'>"<span class='sc'>You&#8217;ve Paid for It</span>"</td><td class='tcol2i'><a href='#link_i8'>367</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<h1>Ross Grant, Tenderfoot</h1>
+
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span><a id='link_1'></a>CHAPTER I<br /><span class='h2fs'><span class='sc'>A BORN SURGEON</span></span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Dr. Fred Grant</span>, recalled in haste from his daily
+round of professional visits by a telephone message
+from his nephew, leaped out of his carriage over
+the yet moving wheel, and, stuffing an open letter
+into his pocket, rushed up the walk and into his
+office, which occupied a wing of his commodious
+house.</p>
+
+<p>A sight met his eyes which was not uncommon,
+situated as he was in the midst of the coal fields of
+Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. Stretched out
+on the leather couch lay a man from the mines,
+black and grimy, his right arm crushed. Two
+other miners, also blackened with coal-dust, sat on
+the edges of their chairs, their eyes following the
+movements of Ross Grant, the doctor&#8217;s nephew and
+self-constituted assistant.</p>
+
+<p>Those movements had been rapid and effective.
+Again and again had this seventeen-year-old boy
+been brought face to face with such cases as this,
+and he handled it promptly and wordlessly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>
+Words, indeed, would have been wasted, as none
+of his callers spoke English. He had quieted the
+sufferer with a hypodermic injection of morphine,
+stripped the injured arm, cleansed it, and treated
+it with a temporary dressing.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with the bandages firmly in place, he had
+gone to the telephone and patiently called up house
+after house until he found his uncle.</p>
+
+<p>When Dr. Grant entered the office, he found
+Ross calmly taking the temperature of the wounded
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have met with the accident at least
+an hour before they got him here," the boy explained,
+"for he was suffering awfully. I thought
+I ought to fix him up before trying to find you."</p>
+
+<p>His uncle nodded with satisfaction, and bent
+over the man. "All right," he commended briefly,
+but his tone said more. Words were not always
+necessary to an understanding between uncle and
+nephew.</p>
+
+<p>The younger man was an abridged edition of the
+older in form and feature. In movements the two
+were alike only so long as Ross was aiding the
+doctor on such an occasion as this. Then there
+were in both the same alertness and quiet intentness,
+the same compression of the lips and narrowing
+of the eyes. But when the strain of the
+hour was past and the miners gone, the boy&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span>
+manner changed. The alert quality which characterized
+the uncle at all times seemed to desert the
+nephew, and his movements became slow. From
+the born surgeon in embryo he became a rather
+awkward, self-conscious boy.</p>
+
+<p>Throwing himself into a chair behind the table,
+he drew toward him Gray&#8217;s "Anatomy," and began
+reading at a line marked by a paper-cutter, his
+closely cropped head grasped in both hands.</p>
+
+<p>The older man moved around the room restlessly,
+occasionally glancing with troubled eyes at
+the figure behind the table. Standing finally in
+front of the window, he drew the letter from his
+pocket, smoothed it out, and read it again.</p>
+
+<p>In front of him, in the valley, lay Pittston and
+Wilkes-Barre, with Scranton in the distance, and
+beyond, the sun-burned hills, almost hidden now
+by the smoke from a hundred coal-breakers, and
+by the late August haze.</p>
+
+<p>"Ross," began Dr. Grant abruptly, without turning,
+"I&#8217;m afraid you are going to meet disappointment&#8211;to
+a certain extent. I have a letter
+from your father."</p>
+
+<p>The boy raised his head with a jerk. "Do you
+mean that he forbids<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No,"&#8211;the doctor turned slowly,&#8211;"not exactly.
+He expects to send for you in a few days,
+and will tell you himself."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span>Ross&#8217;s chin came up. "And I shall not be
+twenty-one for nearly four years yet!" he exclaimed
+aggressively.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle looked at him with more sternness
+than he felt. "Remember, Ross, that he is your
+father and that you owe him<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Ross interrupted hotly, looking longingly at the
+letter. "I don&#8217;t owe him as much as I do you
+and Aunt Anne."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grant made no reply, nor did he share the
+letter. Putting it into an inner pocket, he left the
+office, and presently Ross heard the sound of wheels
+on the drive. Dr. Grant was starting again on his
+interrupted round of calls.</p>
+
+<p>The boy leaned back and drew a deep breath.
+His father was going to send for him, and would
+then tell him&#8211;what? That he could not enter a
+medical college? That he could not become a
+surgeon? That he must fit himself for a business
+career? His chin came up again. He looked
+around the office lingeringly. It had been the
+heart of his home for seven years. It represented
+to him all that he wished to become. His father
+was almost a stranger to him; his uncle had stood
+in the place of a father since he, a sickly boy of
+ten, had been sent from the city to gain health
+on the hills which girdle Wyoming Valley.</p>
+
+<p>He had gained health. In so far he had fulfilled
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span>
+his father&#8217;s wishes. But, in addition, he had
+gained a knowledge and been settled in a desire
+extremely displeasing to Ross Grant, Senior, who
+expected to train his only son to continue his own
+business.</p>
+
+<p>"Grant &amp; Grant" was the father&#8217;s ambition;
+"Dr. Grant" the son&#8217;s.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Dr. Grant&#8217;s wife appeared in the doorway
+of the office. She was a short, round woman,
+with a laughing face and a pretty, bustling air of
+authority. Stopping abruptly, she shook a chubby
+forefinger at Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"All day to-day," she accused, "you have bent
+over that book."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, his elbows planted on the table and his
+chin resting on his fists, shook his head. He did
+not look up.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ve been studying Gray on Anatomy, Aunt
+Anne. Got to master him."</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Anne bobbed energetically across the
+room, and slammed the volume shut. "There!"
+she cried triumphantly. "Get out and walk five
+miles, and strengthen your own anatomy!"</p>
+
+<p>Under her light tones and in the affectionate
+touch of her hand as she ran her fingers through
+his hair, Ross detected an undercurrent of solicitude,
+which brought forth a counter-accusation.
+Rising hastily, he laid both hands on her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span>
+shoulders, and looked down from an altitude
+of five feet ten.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Anne, you know what father wrote to
+uncle, don&#8217;t you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grant&#8217;s eyes fell. "Better take a good
+run over the mountain, Ross," she parried.</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s hands slipped from her shoulders. "I
+see there&#8217;s no use asking either of you what he
+wrote."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grant flecked some dust from the table.
+"Sometimes, Ross," was her only reply, "disappointment
+is the very best and most strengthening
+tonic we can take."</p>
+
+<p>She turned away, adding without glancing back
+as she left the room: "I do wish, Ross, that you&#8217;d
+get out and exercise more. You would conquer
+Gray&#8217;s &#8217;Anatomy&#8217;&#8211;and all other difficulties&#8211;more
+quickly if you would."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you&#8217;re right, Aunt Anne," assented
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," scolded Aunt Anne to her sister in the
+living-room&#8211;but the scolding rested on a very
+apparent foundation of love&#8211;"Ross always agrees
+with me about taking vigorous exercise&#8211;and then
+never takes it. Now watch him walk, will you?"
+she fretted, looking out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>Her sister, busily sewing, paused with suspended
+needle, and glanced out. Ross was going slowly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span>
+down the drive, his head bent forward, his youthful
+shoulders carelessly sagging, his long arms
+aimlessly hanging, giving him a curiously helpless
+appearance at variance with his large frame.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s Ross&#8217;s own fault," declared Aunt Anne.
+"He doesn&#8217;t like to exert himself physically. Not
+that he&#8217;s lazy," defensively, "for he isn&#8217;t. He
+would work all night over a patient, and never
+think of himself; but to get out and exercise for
+the sake of exercising, and straightening himself
+up, and holding himself, somehow&#8211;well, I&#8217;ve
+talked myself hoarse about it, and then found that
+he had been reading some medical book or other
+all the time I was talking!"</p>
+
+<p>Here Aunt Anne laughed silently, and ran her
+shears through a length of gingham, adding, as if
+the addition were a logical sequence to her monologue:</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s a mystery to me how his father can feel so
+disappointed in him."</p>
+
+<p>"Disappointed in Ross?" exclaimed the sister
+in a tone of wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grant nodded. "His father sends for him
+once a year, sees him for a day or two when Ross
+is at the greatest disadvantage in unaccustomed surroundings&#8211;you
+know the stepmother is a woman
+of fashion; and the result is that he is so awkward
+and slow and tongue-tied that his father&#8211;well,"
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>
+Mrs. Grant bit off her thread energetically, "of
+course, we feel tender on the subject because we
+have had Ross now for seven years, and we think
+a better boy never lived. But now the time has
+come," her voice trembled, "when we must give
+him up."</p>
+
+<p>"Will his father forbid his going to medical
+college?" asked the sister.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grant hesitated. "No, I don&#8217;t think he
+will forbid it; but he will prevent it&#8211;if he is
+able," she added significantly.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later the summons from Ross Grant,
+Senior, arrived in the shape of a telegram brief
+and to the point. "Take night-train," it read,
+"September first. Reach office at nine."</p>
+
+<p>"Ross," worried Aunt Anne as she straightened
+his tie and hovered around him anxiously the
+afternoon of September first, "you&#8217;d better get a
+new hat in Scranton. This one is&#8211;well, I think
+you better appear before Mrs. Grant in a new one."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, aunt."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grant extended his hand, and gripped Ross&#8217;s.
+"Remember, my boy, that the telegram appointed
+nine <span class='sc'>a. m.</span> as the time for your appearing."</p>
+
+<p>Ross laughed. "Don&#8217;t you worry, uncle," he
+returned confidently. "I shall be at the office
+before father gets there."</p>
+
+<p>But, despite his confidence, it was nearly ten the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>
+morning following before he stepped out of the
+elevator of a Broadway office building and presented
+himself hesitatingly before the clerk in his
+father&#8217;s outer office.</p>
+
+<p>His hesitation was due to his appearance. His
+hat, new the afternoon before, was soiled and
+pierced by the calk of a horse&#8217;s shoe. His shirtfront
+was also soiled and then smeared over by a
+wet cloth in a vain effort to remove the dirt. His
+right coat-sleeve was wrinkled, and bore marks of
+a recent wetting. About his clothes lingered a
+subtle "horsy" odor, which caused the clerk to
+sniff involuntarily as he curiously looked over the
+heir to the house of Grant before disappearing into
+the inner office.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned he bore the crisp message
+that Ross was to wait until his father had time to
+see him.</p>
+
+<p>Ross waited. He retreated to a window through
+which the sunshine streamed, and there sat, industriously
+drying his wet sleeve. He pulled it,
+and smoothed it, and stretched it, only to see it
+shrivel and shrink while he waited. The clerk
+occasionally glanced with no abating of curiosity
+from the boy to the clock. Two hours passed.
+Others waiting in that outer office grew restless.
+They read. They took quick turns about the
+room. They went out into the corridor, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span>
+returned. At last, one by one, they were ushered
+into the inner office, while Ross still waited.</p>
+
+<p>It was past twelve before his father sent for him,
+and the first glance the boy encountered was one
+of displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you come in on the night-train?" was
+the elder Grant&#8217;s greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The father frowned, and looked up at a clock
+which ticked above their heads.</p>
+
+<p>"I telegraphed you that I could see you at nine."</p>
+
+<p>Ross sank into a great padded, leather-upholstered
+chair. All about him were evidences of
+luxury, but he was conscious only of his father&#8217;s
+displeasure and of his own disreputable appearance.
+He studied his hands awkwardly, and
+stumbled in his reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have been here by nine, sir, but for
+an accident which occurred on the ferry<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Accident?" His father&#8217;s tone softened.</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked at his coat-sleeve. "There was a
+fine horse, a big bay that stood behind a truckster&#8217;s
+cart. He took an apple. It lodged in his throat,
+and he nearly choked to death." The boy hesitated
+and glanced up. "I got it out," he explained
+simply, adding apologetically, "I got awfully
+mussed up doing it, though."</p>
+
+<p>"You!" Grant burst out, paying no attention to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span>
+the apology. "You got it out!" He leaned forward,
+genuinely interested. "How did you do it?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross warmed under the interest in the tone. "I
+was standing in the bow of the boat, just over the
+rail from the horse, and I saw what the trouble
+was. There was no one else who seemed to know
+what to do." He spoke modestly. "The horse
+would have died before we reached the landing;
+and so," simply, "I ran my arm down his throat,
+and got the apple."</p>
+
+<p>"You did!" ejaculated Grant. He leaned further
+forward. "And what prevented the horse
+from chewing up your arm while you were after
+the apple?"</p>
+
+<p>"A bootblack&#8217;s brush," Ross explained. "A
+boy was rubbing up a man&#8217;s shoes near me; and I
+grabbed his brushes, and got busy. One of the
+deck hands helped me prop the horse&#8217;s mouth
+open. I threw off my coat"&#8211;here Ross surveyed
+himself ruefully, and left the subject of the
+horse; "and I got pretty dirty all over. Couldn&#8217;t
+help it. There wasn&#8217;t any time to think of keeping
+clean. But after we got over on the New York
+side the owner of the horse took me to a stable,
+and helped me to clean up; but&#8211;I don&#8217;t think
+it&#8217;s much of a success."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grant leaned back in his swivel chair, rested
+his elbows on the arms, and fitted his finger-tips
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>
+together. His imagination, country-trained in his
+youth, was supplying some of the details which
+his son had omitted. He nodded his iron-gray
+head, and narrowed his eyes, a trick common to
+all the Grants when intent on any subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick work," he remarked after a pause. His
+eyes were taking the measure of his son. "It had
+to be quick work," he added as if to convince
+himself that Ross could act swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get breakfast?" was his next
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven&#8217;t had any," Ross replied. "I tried to
+get here by nine o&#8217;clock."</p>
+
+<p>A low whistle escaped the father. He arose,
+and reached for his hat, which lay on the top
+of a safe behind him. "We&#8217;ll go out to lunch
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Ross glanced doubtfully from his father&#8217;s well-groomed
+person to his own dirty coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, father, you&#8217;d like me to go out alone
+so long as<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" interrupted Grant brusquely.</p>
+
+<p>As they left the room, he took his boy&#8217;s arm.
+There was little resemblance between the two.
+Ross had his uncle&#8217;s head with its high brow and
+well-shaped chin, lean cheeks, and prominent ears.
+He was taller than his father, but wholly lacked
+his father&#8217;s energetic manner and erect carriage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span>"You graduated in June from Wyoming Seminary,"
+the father stated as they entered a large
+Broadway restaurant and sat down near the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"No honors?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy&#8217;s eyes fell. "No, sir. I stood tenth in
+a class of thirty-four."</p>
+
+<p>Evasion of the truth was not one of Ross&#8217;s
+strong points.</p>
+
+<p>"And," stated his father, "it took you five years
+to do a four years&#8217; course."</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked his father squarely in the eyes, and
+lifted his chin a little. The father noticed for the
+first time that the boy&#8217;s chin could indicate aggression.</p>
+
+<p>"I flunked on mathematics. But I made them
+up the next summer, and went on."</p>
+
+<p>Again Grant looked at his son attentively, the
+son who retrieved his failure and "went on."</p>
+
+<p>"You&#8217;re seventeen," he said abruptly. "What&#8217;s
+next?" The question, as both knew, was superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>"Medical college," Ross answered as abruptly as
+the question had been put. "I am preparing for
+the entrance examinations in the University of
+Pennsylvania. I want to go down and take them
+in January, and at the same time pass upon a
+couple of subjects in the freshman year."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26'></a>26</span>There was a gleam of curiosity in Grant&#8217;s deep-set
+eyes as he put the next questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven&#8217;t I told you repeatedly that I shall
+never advance one penny on a medical education
+for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir." Ross&#8217;s eyes met his father&#8217;s steadily
+but respectfully. "And I shall not ask you
+to advance a cent."</p>
+
+<p>"But haven&#8217;t I forbidden your uncle, also, to
+help you out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, and Uncle Fred has no intention of
+helping me. He&#8217;ll keep the letter and the spirit
+of the law you have laid down."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Ross smiled quietly. "But you have never forbidden
+my getting a medical education through my
+own efforts; and that, father, is what I intend to do."</p>
+
+<p>Ross Grant, Senior, found himself looking into
+eyes which he recognized as strangely like his
+own and shining with the same determination
+which in himself had established a thriving business
+and built up a moderate fortune. Never had
+he been so interested in his son. Never had he
+so coveted him for a business career. But, as he
+ate a moment in silence, young Ross&#8217;s determined
+voice seemed to be repeating in old Ross&#8217;s ears,
+"That, father, is what I intend to do."</p>
+
+<p>During the remainder of the meal the elder
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span>
+Grant listened attentively to the younger&#8217;s plans.
+To Ross this was a new experience. After the
+first irritation over his tardiness, his father had
+not once oppressed him with that sense of disapproval
+and disappointment which usually sent
+him back to his uncle with a buoyant relief at
+his escape from New York.</p>
+
+<p>Still, he was not deceived. He knew that his
+father&#8217;s summons had to do with the thwarting of
+his surgical career; and he was prepared to argue,
+persuade, do anything short of actual defiance, to
+gain permission to work for the object toward
+which all his inclinations pulled.</p>
+
+<p>As they made their way up Broadway through
+the noon-hour crowd, a feminine voice behind
+them suddenly piped out excitedly:</p>
+
+<p>"There he is, Kate, right ahead of you&#8211;that
+tall, round-shouldered young man. He&#8217;s the one
+I told you about on the ferry this morning. I tell
+you what, he made all the men around step lively
+for a few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Ross suddenly quickened his pace. His face
+flushed uncomfortably, but the voice of "Kate&#8217;s"
+companion was still at his heels.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he grabbed them brushes and was over
+the rail as quick as a cat, and had that horse&#8217;s
+mouth open before its owner even knew that it
+was chokin&#8217;<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span>Ross, Senior, strode along behind Ross, Junior,
+now in a vain attempt to keep up. He chuckled
+in a sly enjoyment of the boy&#8217;s embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"He certainly can move, I see," he muttered,
+"when he has something to move toward&#8211;or
+away from!"</p>
+
+<p>But the mutter was lost on Ross seeking an
+escape from that voice of praise by dodging in and
+out among the crowd until his father lost sight of
+him, and found him again only at the entrance to
+the office building.</p>
+
+<p>When the two were again seated in the private
+office, the father for the first time broached the
+matter which he had called the son from Pennsylvania
+to hear; and, had he studied the boy for
+months, he could not have overcome his opposition
+more tactfully and completely.</p>
+
+<p>"Ross," he began quietly, "I am not going to
+forbid your going to a medical college this year or
+any other year. To be honest with you, I admire
+your grit. I believe it will bring you success.
+And so, as I say, I am not going to forbid your
+entering the University of Pennsylvania. But&#8211;I
+am going to ask a favor of you."</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s eyes sparkled. His father swung around,
+and, picking up a pencil, marked aimlessly on a
+pad lying on the big mahogany desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, father."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span>"I am going to ask you to help me pay a debt
+which I owe&#8211;and the payment will certainly spoil
+this year so far as college is concerned."</p>
+
+<p>Grant paused. He did not look up, but he
+heard Ross draw a deep breath. Then there was
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep in mind," Grant began again, "that I am
+not requiring this of you&#8211;I am asking it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&#8211;sir."</p>
+
+<p>The tone gave the father the uncomfortable impression
+that he was assisting at a surgical operation
+on his son, but he bent his head a little lower
+over the pad, and traced figures more carefully as he
+began abruptly on a seemingly new subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I ever told you about my Western
+partner, Jake Weimer?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I started business in the West without a
+cent, and it was Weimer who gave me my start.
+He was running a store in Butte, and took me
+with him. I have managed to get beyond a start,
+but Weimer never has. After I came East he lost
+his share of our earnings, and turned prospector.
+Ever since he has spent his life trying to squeeze
+gold out of the mountains. Again and again he
+has staked out claims, and I&#8217;ve grub-staked him
+to the finish. For twenty-five years this has gone
+on. So far, none of the properties have amounted
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span>
+to much; still, we hold them; there&#8217;s always a
+chance of a rise in value."</p>
+
+<p>Grant drew straight, heavy lines on the pad as
+he told the story of his grub-staked partner. He
+fell easily into the vernacular of the gold-fields.</p>
+
+<p>"Four years ago Weimer went prospecting
+among the Shoshones in Wyoming over near
+Yellowstone Park. There he began development
+work on some deserted claims, a few miles from
+Miners&#8217; Camp."</p>
+
+<p>Here Grant pulled a letter from his pocket, and
+consulted it.</p>
+
+<p>"The claims, it seems," he continued, "had
+been originally worked by two men named Allen
+and Waymart McKenzie. They did the required
+work for three years, and then threw up their job
+and left Wyoming. Now they&#8217;re back again,
+wishing, evidently, that they had never left."</p>
+
+<p>Ross nodded. His eyes had not left his father&#8217;s
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Weimer has felt from the first that he would
+make good on these claims. He has sent me
+quartz from time to time, and I&#8217;ve had it assayed.
+It carries moderately high values in gold, silver,
+and lead; but, as the camp is eighty miles from a
+railroad, up among almost impassable mountains,
+where it&#8217;s impossible to get the quartz to a smelter,
+I confess I have paid but little attention to Weimer&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span>
+work. It has seemed a waste of energy, despite his
+enthusiasm."</p>
+
+<p>Grant suddenly threw himself back in his chair.
+His manner took on a keener edge, and his tone
+became brisker.</p>
+
+<p>"But this year things bid fair to change there
+because the Burlington Railroad is surveying a
+line from Cody, and a boom is in prospect for next
+summer. Our claims have suddenly acquired a
+new importance; they promise to become valuable."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," commented Ross in a low, constrained
+tone, "Weimer will get beyond a &#8217;start&#8217; at last."</p>
+
+<p>Grant regarded his son keenly. He did not
+answer the comment directly.</p>
+
+<p>"According to the law of Wyoming," he continued,
+"one hundred dollars&#8217; worth of work a
+year for five years must be done on a claim, or
+five hundred dollars&#8217; worth all together within
+five years, before the tract can be patented, by
+which I mean before the owners can receive a clear
+title to it. Now, Weimer has done four years&#8217;
+work all right; but this year, the fifth and last in
+which he can hold the claims without fulfilling
+the conditions of work to the full, he is failing
+because of snow-blindness. It seems he had an
+attack last spring, and was obliged to stay in his
+cabin for weeks at a time instead of working."</p>
+
+<p>Ross cleared his throat. "And if he fails<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span>"We lose the claims, and the McKenzies get
+them back." Grant again consulted the letter.
+"Weimer got a man named Steele to write this&#8211;an
+Amos Steele in Miners&#8217; Camp. He writes that
+the McKenzies are taking advantage of some
+technicalities in the law. They have already filed
+a claim on the tract based on their three years&#8217;
+former occupancy. This will clear the way for
+them to take possession in case Weimer fails with
+the work. Steele goes on to say that, if the claims
+are saved, some one must come out and look after
+them&#8211;preferably some one with a personal interest
+in the property."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grant laid the letter down, adding slowly,
+"If you go, I shall give you a substantial personal
+interest."</p>
+
+<p>There ensued a pause. Ross sat motionless.
+His gaze had left his father&#8217;s face, and was fixed
+on the rug.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, knowing," Grant continued, "that
+Weimer has set his heart on these claims, I can&#8217;t
+desert him. That work must be done and the
+claims patented."</p>
+
+<p>There was another pause. Grant looked at his
+son expectantly, but still Ross neither moved nor
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Weimer is a good sort," Grant went on tentatively.
+"You&#8217;d like Weimer. He&#8217;s a big man
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span>
+and jolly in every pound of his avoirdupois. Great
+story-teller&#8211;stories worth listening to, what&#8217;s
+more. You wouldn&#8217;t be dull with him."</p>
+
+<p>Grant leaned forward suddenly, and asked
+directly the question to which his son felt there
+could be but one reply in view of his father&#8217;s
+appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"My boy, will you go?"</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span><a id='link_2'></a>CHAPTER II<br /><span class='h2fs'>A STEADY HAND</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>In</span> the two weeks which elapsed between Ross&#8217;s
+visit to his father and his start for Wyoming he
+planned hopefully for the year.</p>
+
+<p>"Father has given me a free hand," he told his
+uncle. "As soon as I can get the work done and
+the claims patented I am at liberty to come back
+home, and I tell you I shall hustle. I shall hire
+as many men as are necessary in Miners&#8217; Camp,
+and take &#8217;em over to Meadow Creek, where the
+claims are located, and just rush that work
+through."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," remarked Dr. Grant thoughtfully,
+"why that man Weimer doesn&#8217;t hire it done instead
+of sending East for some one to manage the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>Ross frowned into the open grate before which
+the two were sitting. "Why, uncle, I never
+thought of that, and father didn&#8217;t mention it. In
+fact, he knows but very little about Miners&#8217; Camp
+or Weimer&#8217;s work, and you know he hasn&#8217;t seen
+Weimer in years. All he knows about the business
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>
+is contained in a letter that Weimer got a man
+named Amos Steele to write. Weimer, it seems,
+can&#8217;t use his eyes to read or write. The letter is
+very short. That man Steele is a mine-superintendent
+out there. Father knows about the company
+which he works for."</p>
+
+<p>"The very idea," cried Aunt Anne a few moments
+later in tearful indignation, "of Ross
+Grant&#8217;s sending that boy away out West to the
+jumping-off place into the wilderness without
+knowing the conditions into which he&#8217;s sending
+him! It&#8217;s a shame. He&#8217;s our boy, and I don&#8217;t
+want him to go."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor made no reply, but retired precipitately
+to the office, where he had occupied himself
+at intervals all day with fitting up an emergency
+chest for Ross.</p>
+
+<p>The chest was a little oblong, hair-covered strong
+trunk, which had held all of the doctor&#8217;s worldly
+possessions when, thirty years before, he had
+started to the medical college just as his brother,
+Ross&#8217;s father, had started West for his financial
+"start." Into this chest uncle and nephew fitted
+all sorts of objects medical, from books to bandages.</p>
+
+<p>"When you&#8217;re eighty miles from a physician,
+Ross, and shut in by snow-drifted mountains at
+that, it&#8217;s well to have a few remedies and appliances
+on hand."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span>"And, when you&#8217;re several Sabbath days&#8217;
+journey from civilization, with time to burn
+on your hands, it&#8217;s also well to have some light
+literature along," laughed Ross, tucking into the
+chest Piersol&#8217;s "Histology." "I intend to make
+my time count for myself, as well as for Weimer
+and father."</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Anne, meantime, was packing another
+and more modern chest, her tears besprinkling the
+contents.</p>
+
+<p>"I have put your winter shirts and chamois-skin
+vest right on top of the tray, Ross," she
+sobbed as she bade him good-bye. "You better
+put &#8217;em on as soon as you reach the mountains, as
+it will be cold there."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, aunt; I shall." Ross&#8217;s voice was a
+little husky as he turned to his uncle.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grant was standing beside the vacated
+breakfast table absorbed in filling a glass of water.
+Carefully he brimmed it drop by drop.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Anne peered through her tears. "Why,
+Fred," she exclaimed, "what are you up to?
+Don&#8217;t make Ross miss his train."</p>
+
+<p>Calmly the doctor added a few more drops, and
+then turned to his nephew. His eyes narrowed
+intently as he motioned toward the glass.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to test your nerves, Ross. Hold it
+out," he directed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span>The boy smiled confidently, raised the glass,
+carried it from him the length of a long, steady
+arm, and held it there. Then he returned it to
+the table without spilling a drop.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor grasped the hand that had held the
+glass, looking earnestly into the boy&#8217;s eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Ross, the hand that holds the surgeon&#8217;s knife
+successfully must <i>keep as steady as this</i>."</p>
+
+<p>For a long, silent moment uncle and nephew
+looked into each other&#8217;s faces as their hands
+gripped. Ross made no reply, but in the expression
+which leaped to his eyes the older man read
+the resolution which satisfied him, and which
+seemed a part of this slow, steady nephew of his.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later the boy was being borne westward
+on the way to Chicago and the "jumping-off place
+into the wilderness."</p>
+
+<p>At the same time his father sat behind his desk
+on Broadway reading a letter postmarked Cody,
+Wyo., and signed D. H. Leonard. It was written
+in reply to a recent communication from Ross
+Grant, Senior.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I shall be glad to do anything in
+my power for your son," the letter read, "along
+the lines you have suggested. I see the wisdom
+of your move, too. It doesn&#8217;t always do to refuse
+a boy&#8217;s demands point-blank. It&#8217;s far better to
+turn him from his purpose as you are doing&#8211;or
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span>
+trying to do, I should say, because, if young Ross
+is anything like old Ross, he will not be so easily
+turned. Yet, as you say, a little stirring up and
+jostling out of his uncle&#8217;s beaten tracks may put
+some new ideas into his head. This country certainly
+bids fair to be stirring enough now to fascinate
+any young man. It&#8217;s a good idea also to give
+him a half-share in your share of the claims; and
+I&#8217;m sure, if the railroad makes good its promise
+of a way up to Miners&#8217; Camp, the claims will be
+worth working for. And, as a real estate dealer,
+I don&#8217;t need to be urged to do my best to interest
+him in the business of this vast land, the country
+of the future."</p>
+
+<p>In Chicago a telegram overtook Ross. It was
+from his father. "Stop overnight at Hotel Irma,
+Cody," it read. "Leonard will meet you there."</p>
+
+<p>Two days later, early in the morning, the west
+bound express dropped Ross Grant and half a
+dozen other passengers at Toluca, in southern
+Montana, a station with a water-tank and some
+cattle corrals attached. Here stood the train which
+by day plied over the branch road to Cody, and
+by night returned to Toluca. It was a mixed
+train consisting of freight and express cars with a
+sleeper at the end.</p>
+
+<p>The half dozen passengers, reënforced by others
+left by the east bound express, all men, transferred
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span>
+themselves to this coach. Every one except Ross
+seemed to be more or less acquainted with every
+one else. Ross sat silent, listening and looking
+out on as much of the great West as was visible
+from the slowly moving car. Across the windswept,
+sun-cracked plain grumbled the old engine.
+On either side were herds of cattle fattening on the
+dusty dried grass, which looked to Ross dead and
+worthless. Not a tree met his eyes, and not a
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"Got the Western fever yet?" drawled a voice
+behind him finally, and Ross looked around into
+the good-natured face of a man who had boarded
+the north bound express at Omaha.</p>
+
+<p>Ross shook his head decidedly. "There&#8217;s nothing
+here to give a fellow the Western fever," he
+returned, pointing to the flat yellow plain overlaid
+by the dull yellow sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>The man lounged forward, his elbows on the
+back of Ross&#8217;s seat, and grinned. He was apparently
+about thirty, short and fair, with sandy
+hair and mustache. He wore corduroy trousers
+and coat, with a dark flannel shirt and turn-over
+collar under which was knotted carelessly a broad
+green silk tie. Hanging to the back of his head
+was a brown, broad-brimmed hat, the crown encircled
+with a narrow band of intricately woven
+hair dyed in all the colors of the rainbow.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span>"I&#8217;ll tell ye what&#8217;s out there that gives most of
+us the Western fever," he declared; "and that&#8217;s
+money prospects. Sort of a yellow fever, ye know,
+it is, except that no one wants to be cured."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I don&#8217;t want to catch it in the first
+place," declared Ross, looking out of the window
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Presently some one in the rear of the car lowered
+a newspaper, and rumbled over the top of it:</p>
+
+<p>"You fellers rec&#8217;lect old man Quinn?"</p>
+
+<p>Some did; some did not. To the latter, the
+speaker explained.</p>
+
+<p>"Used to live in Cody. Friend of Buffalo Bill,
+old man Quinn was. Went down to Oklahomy
+five years ago, and bought a sheep ranch. He
+and some of the cattlemen around him got by
+the ears over how much of the range belonged to
+the sheep<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Here an inarticulate murmur sounded through
+the car. There was a "cattle war" on in Wyoming
+at that time.</p>
+
+<p>"Wall, one night two years ago about now, after
+a big round-up at North Fork, one thousand of
+old man Quinn&#8217;s sheep was driven over the bluffs
+into North Fork River. All that old man Quinn
+could find out was that four men done it. But
+he kept a-tryin&#8217; to find out, and got a <i>de</i>tective
+down from Kansas City, feller who used to be a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span>
+cow puncher himself; and he nabbed three of &#8217;em.
+They had had the gall to stay right there on the
+range all this time."</p>
+
+<p>"Good reason," volunteered some one, "why it
+took so long to land &#8217;em. I suppose old man
+Quinn was lookin&#8217; for &#8217;em among the punchers
+that had left after the round-up."</p>
+
+<p>"Jest so," declared the informant. "He was
+tryin&#8217; to track up every one who cleared out after
+the round-up&#8211;jest so."</p>
+
+<p>"How long did they git?" asked some one
+further up the aisle.</p>
+
+<p>"Two years."</p>
+
+<p>"Sandy," some one across the aisle said to the
+man behind Ross, "wa&#8217;n&#8217;t you down t&#8217; Oklahomy
+punchin&#8217; two year ago?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a perceptible pause. Then a note of
+irritation spoke through Sandy&#8217;s drawl as he answered
+briefly, "No, north Texas."</p>
+
+<p>And, while the rest continued the discussion
+concerning old man Quinn, he leaned forward and
+devoted himself to Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they came to the hills whose barrenness
+and sombreness were relieved at intervals by
+the brilliant coloring of the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," asked Sandy, "what do ye think of
+this? It ain&#8217;t every day East that ye can walk
+around the crater of an old volcano."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span>"Is this<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" began Ross, his head out of the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>"This is!" chuckled he of the sandy hair.</p>
+
+<p>The train was crawling slowly around the edge
+of a wide, shallow well, on all sides of which the
+hills frowned darkly, stripped of every vestige of
+verdure.</p>
+
+<p>"An extinct volcano!" ejaculated Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep,"&#8211;the other sagged forward until his
+laughing face was close to Ross&#8217;s,&#8211;"but just let
+me tell ye right here, young man, that volcanoes
+is the only thing in the West that&#8217;s extinct.
+Everything else is pretty lively."</p>
+
+<p>Ross joined in the laugh which greeted this
+sally all around him. The man opposite lowered
+his paper, and looked over his glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"Volcanoes <i>and</i> hopes, Sandy," he amended
+quickly, instantly retiring again behind his paper.</p>
+
+<p>Ross did not understand the significance of the
+retort, but he noticed that several men around exchanged
+glances and that Sandy&#8217;s face lost a fraction
+of its good nature. And when Sandy&#8217;s face
+lost its humorous expression, it was not pleasing.</p>
+
+<p>Dusk and Cody drew near together. The train
+dropped over the "rim," and steamed along
+through the Big Horn Basin, coming to a final
+standstill in front of another station and water-tank.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span>"Cody," announced the brakeman. "All out."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, suitcase in hand, his top-coat over his
+arm, stumbled out of the train, still swaying with
+the perpetual motion of the last few days. A big
+open wagon with side seats stood beside the platform.
+At the call of the driver Ross looked around
+interrogatively at Sandy, who was still beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we&#8217;re two miles from the town yet,"
+Sandy replied to the look. "Pile in. Train can&#8217;t
+make it over the shelves between here and Stinkin&#8217;
+Water."</p>
+
+<p>Ross silently "piled in." Sandy sat down beside
+him, and the wagon filled with the other passengers.</p>
+
+<p>Behind them, stretching back into the darkness,
+their heads sagging sleepily, was a row of teams,
+their neck-yokes joined by a chain, their heads
+connected by a single rein running through the
+ring at the left side of the bit.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, there," called one of the men in the
+wagon, "does Grasshopper strike the trail to-night
+for Meeteetse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," came a voice beside a lantern which was
+traveling to and fro. "There&#8217;s a lot of freight to
+pack up to Miners&#8217; Camp; and, if it gits there
+ahead of the snow, these freighters have got to hit
+the pike more rapid than they have been doin&#8217;."</p>
+
+<p>A horseman dashed past the wagon and into the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span>
+circle of light from the lantern hung in front of
+the station. Dropping the reins to the ground, he
+swung his leather-enveloped legs off the horse,
+and yelled at the station agent:</p>
+
+<p>"Have those boxes of apples come yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just here," replied the holder of the moving
+light.</p>
+
+<p>"Can&#8217;t you start &#8217;em up by the Meeteetse stage
+to-night?" demanded the newcomer. "The boys
+are about famished."</p>
+
+<p>"Them surveyors," complained the agent, "are
+always hollerin&#8217; for more grub. &#8217;N&#8217; no matter
+how much ye fill &#8217;em, they don&#8217;t go faster than
+molasses in January. Ain&#8217;t got beyond Sagehen
+Roost this minute, and they&#8217;ll probably be a-quittin&#8217;
+in a month."</p>
+
+<p>Ross pricked up his ears. The same interest
+was manifested by Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t you worry about our quitting," the newcomer
+returned brusquely; "if the Burlington
+Railroad starts out to run a track up to Miners&#8217;
+Camp, why, it will run one, that&#8217;s all, if the track
+has to go under snow-sheds all the way up from
+the Meadows."</p>
+
+<p>At this point the big open bus rumbled off over
+the dust-choked "shelf" toward Cody. An unwieldy
+swaying coach drawn by four horses passed
+them on its way to the station.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span>"Meeteetse stage is late to-night," remarked
+Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>On rumbled the wagon. Its brake screamed
+against the wheel as the horses plunged down the
+steep inclines which marked the descent from one
+"shelf" to another. Presently a vile odor greeted
+Ross&#8217;s nostrils, and at the same time the wagon
+struck the bridge over the sulphurated waters of the
+Shoshone, and began the climb on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>Ross was keenly alive to this strange new world
+in which the convenience of the East met the
+newness and crudeness of the West. Brilliant
+electric lights illuminated dust-deep, unpaved, unsprinkled
+streets. Tents stood beside pretentious
+homes, and stone business blocks were rising beside
+offices located in canvas wagons with rounded
+tops. And to and fro past the wagon flashed
+horsemen, cowboys dressed like Sandy except that
+their corduroy trousers were incased in leather
+"chaps."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy, watching Ross out of the corner of his
+eye, grinned at the boy&#8217;s expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Buck up here, tenderfoot," he advised good-naturedly.
+"This here is &#8217;The Irma&#8217;; and, if
+you&#8217;ve got any better hotels in the East, why,
+don&#8217;t tell Colonel Cody of it, at any rate, for &#8217;The
+Irma&#8217; is the Colonel&#8217;s pet."</p>
+
+<p>Then Ross found himself in the foyer of "The
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span>
+Irma," the hotel that "Buffalo Bill" erected to
+honor his home town, which bears his name, a
+comfortable, modernly equipped house decorated
+with hundreds of paintings, water colors, and etchings,
+all picturing the scenes in Colonel Cody&#8217;s life
+as represented in his "Wild West Show."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy had registered in advance of Ross, and
+stepped to a swinging door at the end of the
+counter. There he stopped and turned back.
+"Come on and have a drink, tenderfoot," he invited
+good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>Ross was writing his name, and did not look
+up. "No, thank you," he returned quietly. "I
+don&#8217;t drink."</p>
+
+<p>Several men lounging about glanced curiously
+at the boy. Sandy thrust his hands into his
+pockets, and, leaning against the counter, looked
+at him in open interest.</p>
+
+<p>After Ross had registered, he drew a nickel from
+his pocket and laid it on the counter. "A two-cent
+stamp, please."</p>
+
+<p>The clerk, impatient with the deliberation of
+his movements, cast the nickel hurriedly into
+the cash drawer and handed out a stamp. Ross
+waited for the change, while three men behind
+him pressed forward to the register.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy grinned broadly. "There&#8217;s no change
+comin&#8217;, tenderfoot," he said with a chuckle.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span>
+"You&#8217;ve reached a land where nothin&#8217; less&#8217;n a
+nickel can be got outside a post-office."</p>
+
+<p>"Pennies don&#8217;t grow in the Rocky Mountains,"
+added the clerk in a tone which plainly invited
+the boy to move on.</p>
+
+<p>The tone brought the blood to Ross&#8217;s cheek.
+His eyes suddenly narrowed. His head went up,
+and his voice quickened and deepened.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," he returned coolly, "give
+me another two-cent stamp and a postal card."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy patted his thigh softly. "You&#8217;ll pass,
+tenderfoot," he murmured. "No flies on you&#8211;at
+least, they don&#8217;t stick there."</p>
+
+<p>Ross took his trophies, and retired to a desk beside
+the swinging door. Just as he had finished
+directing a letter to his Aunt Anne he noticed
+that his new friend was waiting again beside the
+counter.</p>
+
+<p>When the last man had registered, Sandy pulled
+the book toward him and leaned over it. Suddenly
+he bent lower, and jabbed hard on the page
+with his forefinger. When he turned, all the good
+humor had dropped out of his face. With a glance
+of keen interest at the boy beside the desk he
+passed on into the barroom.</p>
+
+<p>So marked was the change in his manner that Ross
+paused in the act of dipping his pen into
+the ink-well.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span>"Guess I&#8217;ll see who Sandy is," he thought, and,
+dropping his pen, crossed to the book.</p>
+
+<p>The name stared up at him in big bold letters
+directly above his own, but he had not noticed it
+at the time of registering.</p>
+
+<div class='poetry'>
+<p><i>"Allen McKenzie, Miners&#8217; Camp."</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ross pursed his thin lips, and nearly whistled
+aloud as he returned to his desk.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s one of the McKenzies who are after our
+claims," he wrote at the end of a long letter to his
+uncle and aunt; "but he is a funny, good-natured
+fellow. I partly like him and partly don&#8217;t. He
+has no six-shooter in sight&#8211;in fact, I&#8217;m told that
+six-shooters have gone more or less out of fashion
+in Wyoming; and he doesn&#8217;t look a bit as I had
+imagined a &#8217;claim-jumper&#8217; would. But one thing
+he may reckon on; there will be no chance for
+him or any one else to jump the Weimer-Grant
+claims in a few months."</p>
+
+<p>And, sealing this confident declaration, he
+slipped the letter into the mail-box, ate a hearty
+dinner, and went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning at nine o&#8217;clock D. H.
+Leonard, his father&#8217;s old-time friend, appeared,
+and greeted the son most cordially. Mr. Leonard
+was a man of middle age, hale, red-faced, bald-headed,
+and wearing a "boiled" shirt and collar.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span>
+He was a dealer in real estate, with offices in both
+Cody and Basin. It was to his office that he first
+took Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"We&#8217;ll go for a drive by and by," he began,
+throwing himself back in his chair and tossing
+a cigar across the desk. "We have the country
+of the future here, and I want you to see
+it. Perfect gold-mine in this land once it&#8217;s irrigated."</p>
+
+<p>Ross picked up the cigar, played with it a
+moment, and laid it again on the desk, listening
+attentively.</p>
+
+<p>The older man drew a match across the woodwork
+beneath his chair, and lighted his cigar.
+"It&#8217;s <i>the</i> place for young men, Grant, a greater
+place than it was when Horace Greeley gave his
+advice to young men to go West&#8211;here&#8217;s a match,"
+he interrupted himself to say.</p>
+
+<p>Ross accepted the match, bit on the end of it a
+moment, and laid it beside the cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t you smoke?" asked Leonard in some
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>Before Ross could reply, some one called Mr.
+Leonard out into the hall. As the door closed
+behind him, Ross arose and stood silently in front
+of the open window. Beyond the little town and
+beyond the level stretch of "shelves" arose the
+Big Horn Mountains, miles away, but so sharply
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span>
+outlined in the clear air that they seemed only a
+short walk distant.</p>
+
+<p>As Ross leaned against the window-casing, some
+one in the room adjoining came to the open window.
+The stub of a cigar was thrown out, and a voice
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"But if Grant realized the situation, he&#8217;d never
+have sent a boy out here to look after those claims.
+And it looks as though it was his son&#8211;same
+initials. But with such a boy and Weimer you
+ought to be able<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>The speaker left the window at this point, and
+Ross lost the rest of the sentence. In a few moments,
+however, some one clattered through the
+hall and down the stairs, with spurs jingling. A
+horse stood on the street below, tethered only by
+its bridle-reins dangling to the ground. From the
+entrance to the building Sandy McKenzie emerged,
+clad as on the previous day, except for a colored
+handkerchief knotted about his neck. Mounting
+his pony, he touched a spur to its flank, and galloped
+away in a cloud of dust just as Leonard
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Who&#8217;s in the next room?" asked Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Over on the right?" asked Leonard carelessly.
+"Oh, a lawyer has that office." He crossed to the
+window, and glanced out just as McKenzie disappeared.
+"Evidently Sandy&#8217;s pulling out for the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span>
+mountains," he observed. "Miners&#8217; Camp, that
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there only two McKenzies?" asked Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Leonard shrugged his shoulders. "Two are all
+that have ever showed up around here&#8211;Sandy and
+Waymart; but they say there are half a dozen
+more brothers and cousins, some figurin&#8217; under
+names not their own; but where they put up I
+don&#8217;t know."</p>
+
+<p>Here he turned and looked curiously at Ross.
+"I suppose your father told you that Sandy and
+Waymart are sitting up on Meadow Creek waiting
+to jump the Grant-Weimer claims."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he told me," answered Ross, and hesitated.
+"Do they use guns in the jumping process?"</p>
+
+<p>Leonard laughed. "Not much! They have
+other and safer methods of getting their own way
+in case Weimer doesn&#8217;t do the work the law requires
+this year."</p>
+
+<p>Then he glanced at the unsmoked cigar, and
+repeated his question of some time before. "Don&#8217;t
+you smoke?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross shook his head shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" Leonard looked at his old friend&#8217;s
+son in friendly interest.</p>
+
+<p>Ross stretched out his right arm in an unconscious
+imitation of the test his uncle had required
+of him only a few mornings before. "It&#8217;s apt to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span>
+get on a fellow&#8217;s nerves," was all the reply he
+made.</p>
+
+<p>There was much to see during the day and much
+to hear. Leonard took the boy for a long drive
+up the cañon of the Shoshone, whose densely green
+waters have a background of brilliant reds and
+yellows in the sandstone sides of the wall through
+which the river has cut. Up and yet up the
+carriage went, with the walls rising higher and
+higher on either side, the road a mere thread
+blasted out of the rocks, up to the great dam
+which was beginning to raise its head across the
+river bed to hold back the water and distribute it
+over Big Horn Basin through irrigating canals.</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s interest, however, during the drive was
+divided. He was glad to see the vast "Shoshone
+Project," as the government reservoir is called;
+but his most active thoughts were following Sandy
+McKenzie on his way to Miners&#8217; Camp, and his
+questions were of the Camp and Wyoming mining
+laws and the conditions he would meet in this new
+and strange land.</p>
+
+<p>But Leonard had never been up to Camp, and
+was not interested in mining, but in ranch lands;
+therefore, Ross got but little enlightenment from
+him, and finally, ceasing to question, listened in
+silence while the older man, in obedience to the
+senior Grant&#8217;s request, did his best to interest
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span>
+the junior Grant in the business prospects of
+Wyoming.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to come down to Basin at Christmas,"
+Leonard said cordially as host and guest sat
+down to dinner in the dining-room of "The Irma"
+at six o&#8217;clock that night. "My home is in Basin.
+It&#8217;s the county-seat of Big Horn County, you know;
+and I want you to come down there. I want to
+show you more of this magnificent country."</p>
+
+<p>Ross was grateful for this friendly invitation, but
+made no promises; and presently the two were eating
+in silence, Ross looking with interest on some
+of the contrasts which were too familiar for Leonard
+even to notice.</p>
+
+<p>Under elaborate and gaudy chandeliers was a
+bare and not overclean floor. Looking down on
+the thickest and heaviest of cracked china were
+pictures by well-known artists. Seated around the
+tables spread in linen, were bearded men in chaps
+and overalls, flannel shirts and spurs, together with
+those in tan oxfords and broadcloth.</p>
+
+<p>At the table opposite Ross, and facing him, was
+a man to whom his glance returned again and
+again. He sat alone. His square, unexpressive
+face was relieved by a pair of fine dark-brown eyes.
+The lower part of his face was covered by a stubby
+reddish beard. His hair was brown, and fell
+nearly to his eyes, giving him the appearance of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span>
+having a low forehead. He wore a coat,&#8211;the first
+of its kind Ross had seen,&#8211;a short, bulky affair,
+with a high collar laid over the shoulders and lined
+throughout with lambskin, the wool badly worn
+on the collar. His chaps were of undressed leather,
+with the long hair trimmed short save from the
+thigh to the ankle. High riding boots, spurs, and
+a sombrero, which he wore low over his forehead
+while eating, completed his costume.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he?" asked Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Leonard shook his head. "Man next to me
+here said he rode in this afternoon on the Yellowstone
+trail. Don&#8217;t know who he is."</p>
+
+<p>As if he felt he was under discussion, the stranger
+raised his head, and his eyes met Ross&#8217;s in a quick
+furtive glance.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner Leonard gripped Ross&#8217;s hand in
+farewell, and left. An hour later there was a rattle
+of wheels in front of the hotel, the sound of
+horses&#8217;s hoofs, and a rollicking voice called:</p>
+
+<p>"Meeteetse stage. All aboard!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, with a glance around the office which he
+expected to see again before spring, picked up his
+bag, and went out on the piazza. Here he stood
+while his trunk and the emergency chest were
+swung up behind the stage and roped. Then he
+climbed up beside the driver, who was glad to have
+some one near to help him keep awake during the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span>
+long night ride, and they were off, only to be
+stopped almost immediately by a man standing in
+the doorway of a store.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold up there!" shouted the man. "Steele
+is here, and wants to go on to-night."</p>
+
+<p>The name caught Ross&#8217;s attention. "Is it Amos
+Steele?" he asked the driver.</p>
+
+<p>The driver assented. "Yep&#8211;superintendent of
+the Gale&#8217;s Ridge Mine up in Camp."</p>
+
+<p>Ross leaned forward and surveyed with interest
+the pleasant-faced, well-dressed, squarely-built
+young man who came out of the store and climbed
+into the stage. In his pocket Ross had the letter
+Steele had written his father at Weimer&#8217;s request.</p>
+
+<p>"Git out of this," the driver requested briefly of
+his four bronchos as the stage door slammed to,
+and the four obligingly "got out" on a run.</p>
+
+<p>Just as they left the last house behind them, a
+figure on horseback whirled by in a cloud of dust,
+and Ross recognized in the sheepskin coat and
+hairy chaps the stranger who had attracted his attention
+during dinner.</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span><a id='link_3'></a>CHAPTER III<br /><span class='h2fs'>DOC TENDERFOOT IN ACTION</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Besides</span> Steele, there were three other passengers
+inside the stage that night. One was the assistant
+manager of the Embar Ranch, south of Meeteetse.
+He had been to Omaha with a car-load of cattle.
+The remaining two were miners whom Steele had
+picked up in Butte. This much Ross learned from
+the driver. He learned many other things by
+listening to the conversation between Hillis, the
+manager, and Steele, although all the while he was
+keenly observant of his surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>The stage was bowling along smoothly over a
+road as level as a floor and flooded by brilliant
+moonlight. Behind them Cody faded into silvery
+mist, guarded by the huge shadowy bulks of the
+Big Horn Mountains. Ahead, houseless and treeless,
+stretched the shelf until the shimmering mist
+cut off the sight. And in the distance, so far
+ahead that sometimes he blended with the mist,
+rode the horseman in the sheepskin coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, there, Andy," called the ranch-manager;
+"who is that fellow ahead?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span>Andy, the driver, turned, and looked down
+through the open flap into the cavernous darkness
+of the stage. "Don&#8217;t know. Didn&#8217;t find out. I
+have seen fellers, though, that can give more information
+about themselves per square inch than that
+same chap ahead there."</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw &#8217;im in these parts before," returned
+Hillis.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I." The driver spat over the flank of the
+right wheeler. "Gid&#8217;ep there, Suke, ye slowmy,
+you! Hike it, old Blue! Git out of this!" And,
+having thus jogged the energy of the leaders, Andy
+gave his attention again to Hillis. "Hain&#8217;t ever
+set eyes on that brown chap before. I guessed
+back there he was bound fer Embar. Looks like
+a puncher."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish"&#8211;the assistant manager of the Embar
+spoke forcefully&#8211;"that he and seven or eight more
+were bound for the Embar."</p>
+
+<p>"Short of hands, eh?" questioned Andy, whirling
+his "black snake" so skilfully that the lash
+missed the heads of the wheelers, and touched the
+flank of the nigh leader.</p>
+
+<p>"Short of hands?" Steele broke in. "Who
+isn&#8217;t short of hands from Butte to Omaha&#8211;especially
+in Wyoming? I&#8217;ve been out two weeks
+advertising and hunting men, and here I am back
+again with two only."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span>Ross turned half around in his high seat, and
+grasped the low back. "Is labor as scarce as that
+in Miners&#8217; Camp?" he burst out in a brusque, astonished
+tone which betrayed a personal interest.</p>
+
+<p>"As scarce as diamonds," returned Steele, adding
+with a laugh, "and almost as expensive."</p>
+
+<p>Andy pushed back his hat, and surveyed his
+young companion with curiosity. There was a
+little stir in the coach also.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be"&#8211;Amos Steele spoke as if the
+matter had been debated before&#8211;"that you are
+related to Ross Grant of New York."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," returned Ross, "I am his son."</p>
+
+<p>He was conscious of becoming an immediate
+centre of speculation.</p>
+
+<p>"I wondered," remarked Steele, "when I saw
+your name on the hotel register. Going out to
+Camp, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Ross hesitated. "In answer to that letter
+you wrote father for Mr. Weimer."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" Steele&#8217;s tone was edged with astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out to see to the work, did ye?" asked
+Andy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Andy glanced sidewise, and Ross caught the look
+of incredulity.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i2'></a><img src='images/i-059.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span>"Expected to hire men to do it, did ye?" That
+Andy was a general information bureau was due
+to his faculty for asking questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do," emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>The present tense of the reply did not escape the
+listener&#8217;s attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Weimer has tried to hire," volunteered Steele;
+"but it&#8217;s no use."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" demanded the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in the first place, as I said, there hain&#8217;t
+enough men to supply the demand; and, in the
+second place, no man in his senses is going away
+over on the Creek, where he&#8217;ll be shut in for
+months, when he can just as well stay down in
+Camp, and get the same wages."</p>
+
+<p>"Shut in for months?" repeated Ross slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Andy explained. "Along about first of February
+ye&#8217;re shut in fer sartain. Trail fills up, and
+there&#8217;s apt to be snowslides any time on old
+Crosby."</p>
+
+<p>Ross sat with widening eyes staring out into
+the moonlight, and wondering with tightening
+muscles what he was "up against." The vagueness
+of his father&#8217;s knowledge concerning Weimer&#8217;s
+work had not counted in New York. But here,
+swinging along toward Miners&#8217; Camp with two-thirds
+of the width of the continent between himself
+and his friends, Ross realized that this vagueness
+had put him at a disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span>The two men behind him began discussing the
+cattle market, and the stage slid down the side of
+the first mesa of the Wyoming bad lands and into
+the coulee, or dry creek, at the bottom. The level
+road was left behind. Up hill and down plunged
+the horses ahead of the rocking, tipping stage.
+There was no regular road. A dozen tracks
+showed the differing routes of as many drivers.
+To Ross it seemed as if destruction were imminent
+every time they came to the top of one of the
+short, steep hills. But Andy jammed on the
+brake hard, and, giving a peculiar little whistle,
+yelled carelessly, "Git out of this."</p>
+
+<p>Presently Andy took advantage of the rattle of
+wheels and hoofs to say to Ross: "Steele is boss
+of the Gale&#8217;s Ridge work up to Camp. They keep
+open all winter; t&#8217;other company shuts down."</p>
+
+<p>"Shuts down?" repeated Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep, has to. Men go down t&#8217; Cody t&#8217; work on
+the Project. Hard work to keep men in Camp
+through the winter. When the railroad goes up
+there, &#8217;twill be different."</p>
+
+<p>Some one inside the stage struck a match.</p>
+
+<p>"On time, ain&#8217;t you, Andy?" asked Steele&#8217;s
+voice; "it&#8217;s twelve-thirty."</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," returned the driver. "Here&#8217;s Dry
+Creek."</p>
+
+<p>The road, a well-defined track here, was hemmed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span>
+in between a creek-bed on one hand and a hill on
+the other. On top of the hill, silhouetted against
+the star-studded sky, appeared a wagon with a
+white bellying canvas top. Around it, covering
+the hilltop and the side clear down to the track
+was a soft white moving mass that caused Ross to
+give a startled exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&#8211;that looks like&#8211;it <i>is</i> sheep!" he ejaculated.
+"Sheep by the hundreds."</p>
+
+<p>"Sheep&#8217;s the word!" returned the driver.
+"This is Sheepy&#8217;s layout. That&#8217;s his wagon up
+yon. He herds fer parties in Cody. There&#8217;s nigh
+seven hundred of them sheep. Never seen such a
+flock before, did ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Before Ross could reply, the stage swung around
+a corner of the hill and Andy, with a sharp
+whistle, drew up the leaders abruptly. They
+were in an open space in front of the stage camp,
+half cabin and half dugout driven into the hillside.
+Beside the dugout was a low, stout corral,
+outside of which were a haystack and a jumble of
+bales of hay. As the stage stopped, the door of the
+dugout opened, and a man loomed large against
+a dim light within.</p>
+
+<p>But all this Ross did not notice at the time. His
+attention was riveted on the horse just ahead ridden
+by the stranger. Around and around it whirled,
+unmindful of the quirt and spur of the rider.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63'></a>63</span>"Pretty ridin&#8217;," remarked Andy, spitting appreciatively
+over the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>The men inside the stage clambered out with
+grunts at their stiffened limbs, and leaned against
+the wheels watching. The man in the doorway
+stepped out, and thrust his hands into his pockets,
+and looked calmly while the horse placed its four
+feet together and humped its back with a momentum
+which sent the rider high in the air.</p>
+
+<p>When he came down, he settled himself in the
+saddle, drew up on the reins, and dug his spurs
+into the horse&#8217;s flank. The animal, his nostrils
+distended and the foam flying from his mouth,
+without any warning rose on his hind legs, and
+threw himself backward. The rider freed one
+foot from the stirrup; but the other caught, and
+horse and rider went down in a heap. There was
+a deep groan from both, and then silence. If the
+men had seemed indifferent before, they made up
+in activity now. With a flying leap Andy was
+down from his high seat. The stage-camp man
+rushed forward, and threw himself on the horse&#8217;s
+head, while the others pulled the unconscious
+rider from beneath the animal&#8217;s body.</p>
+
+<p>"Leg&#8217;s done for," Ross heard Steele say as they
+carried the wounded man into the dugout.</p>
+
+<p>Ross clambered awkwardly down from his seat,
+and followed. He nearly fell over an empty
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>
+chicken-coop and into the one little room of the
+dugout.</p>
+
+<p>"Put &#8217;im here," directed the stage-camp man,
+whom the others called Hank. He pointed to the
+blankets in the corner from which he had crawled
+ten minutes before.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, boy," Steele said with pale-faced absorption,
+"smooth the blankets up."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, half dazed by his strange and unexpected
+surroundings, slowly and clumsily did as he was
+directed, and they laid the unconscious stranger
+down carefully, his left leg hanging limply from a
+point half-way between knee and hip. Then the
+men straightened up, and looked at one another.</p>
+
+<p>"A bad job," muttered Hank.</p>
+
+<p>"Take &#8217;im back to Cody?" asked Steele.</p>
+
+<p>Hillis shook his head. "Doctor there went to
+Thermopolis this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the daze which had beclouded Ross&#8217;s
+brain cleared away. He woke up, and his whole
+attention focused itself on the prostrate man. In
+a moment he became alert, resourceful, and active.
+His boyish hesitation fell from him. He threw
+off his top-coat, tossed his cap with it to the uncovered
+board table, and, kneeling by the man&#8217;s
+side, laid his ear on the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Go out," he said authoritatively to the astonished
+men, "and bring in my smallest trunk.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span>
+Hurry, for this chap will be conscious in just a
+moment."</p>
+
+<p>No one stirred.</p>
+
+<p>Whipping out his jack-knife, Ross cut a strap
+which secured the chaps, and caught one leg at the
+ankle. "Help me pull &#8217;em off," he cried urgently.</p>
+
+<p>Some one stooped to the other foot, and the
+chaps were off. Kneeling beside the wounded leg,
+with his knife, Ross ripped the trousers from ankle
+to thigh, and exposed a bloody wound.</p>
+
+<p>"Compound fracture," he exclaimed after a brief
+examination.</p>
+
+<p>Then he looked up. "Where&#8217;s that chest?" he
+demanded. "I must cleanse this and bandage it
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>The cock-sureness of the boy&#8217;s tone and the
+sight of the skilful touch of his fingers on the
+wound galvanized the two miners into action, and
+in a moment the emergency chest was beside Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Hot water," was his next command, as he
+fumbled with the key, "and a small dish"&#8211;his
+eye fell on the table&#8211;"that salt cellar, with every
+grain of salt washed out. Quick!"</p>
+
+<p>The wounded man had recovered consciousness
+now, and was groaning, and clinching his fists,
+and rolling his head from side to side in agony.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a doctor?" asked Steele incredulously.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span>"My uncle is," Ross returned briefly, "and I&#8217;m
+going to be."</p>
+
+<p>The answer, coupled with a view of the contents
+of the chest and Ross&#8217;s manipulation of those contents,
+brought relief to the men.</p>
+
+<p>He had produced a hypodermic syringe, and
+with a tiny morphine tablet dissolved in the salt
+cellar he began operations which lasted the greater
+part of two hours, and employed every man present.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring in that hen-coop," directed Ross; "we
+can use that for a double inclined plane to stretch
+the leg over."</p>
+
+<p>Steele, who had so recently issued orders to a
+slow and clumsy boy, now quietly obeyed this
+embryo surgeon. Hillis was holding bandages,
+while Hank and Andy were doing something
+which filled their souls with wonder, namely,
+making long, narrow bags from grain sacks out of
+which wheat had been hastily dumped.</p>
+
+<p>"By the great horn spoon, what&#8217;re these fer?"
+Andy demanded in an undertone, running the big
+needle deep into his thumb. "Jehoshaphat!"</p>
+
+<p>Hank shook his head helplessly. He plumped
+a stick of wood into his rusty old stove, and refilled
+a kettle from a water pail which stood on a
+box. Steele dragged in the triangular chicken-coop,
+and laid it beside the wounded man, who was
+moaning mechanically and drowsily now.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span>Ross arose, and set a bottle of alcohol on the table.
+He looked critically at the coop. "The very
+thing," he muttered with eyes alight. "How fortunate
+that I fell over it coming in!" Then he
+paused in thought.</p>
+
+<p>Miners&#8217; Camp and Meadow Creek were forgotten.
+Forgotten were Weimer and the neglected work.
+A "case" lay before him, a man needing the help
+that it was life for the boy to give.</p>
+
+<p>When, at last, the belated stage was ready to
+move on, the men, again in their overcoats, lined
+up and looked down at the sleeping patient. He
+lay with the knee of the wounded leg over the
+peak of the chicken-coop, padded thick and soft
+with blankets, the leg held secure and motionless
+between heavy sand-bags. Down the leg from knee
+to foot on either side ran strips of adhesive plaster
+with loops protruding below the foot. And attached
+to the loops was a small bag loaded with stone.</p>
+
+<p>"To reduce the fracture," Ross explained briefly.
+He was on his knees, measuring the well leg with
+a tape measure from the haircloth trunk. "See,
+this leg is longer now because the broken parts of
+the thigh bone in the other have been driven past
+each other, and the muscles have contracted, shortening
+the leg. The weight on the foot will stretch
+the muscles and allow the ends of the bone to meet
+again."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span>"Jehoshaphat!" exclaimed Andy softly. "He&#8217;s
+lucky to have you come trailin&#8217; down the pike just
+behind &#8217;im. But see here, fellers," the driver
+turned to the others; "yer Uncle Samuel will dock
+me this time sure, fer the mail won&#8217;t reach Meeteetse
+in time fer the stage up to Miners&#8217; Camp!"</p>
+
+<p>"Miners&#8217; Camp!"</p>
+
+<p>The exclamation burst involuntarily from Ross.
+He arose. The tape measure dropped from his
+hands. He drew his hand across his wet forehead.
+He had seen the stage load prepare to go on without
+a thought that he ought to go also. His one
+idea had been the care of the nameless man on the
+blankets.</p>
+
+<p>"Miners&#8217; Camp," he repeated; "why, I ought to
+go on!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not much," cried Hank in lively alarm.
+"What &#8217;ud I do with him and all that toggery?"
+jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the chicken-coop.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," was Ross&#8217;s decision in a low tone,
+"I can&#8217;t desert him&#8211;but I ought to go on."</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later, Andy&#8217;s four bronchos
+pounded up the hill beyond the stage camp and
+disappeared, leaving Ross standing beside the window
+watching. The man on the blankets breathed
+heavily. A big yellow cat purred around Ross&#8217;s
+legs. Hank poked the fire.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span>"Guess I&#8217;ll rustle some grub now," the latter
+said in awkward solicitude. "Ye&#8217;re all in, ain&#8217;t
+ye, Doc?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross turned from the window wearily without
+replying, and for the first time looked about the
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>It was roughly boarded, with a hard dirt floor.
+In addition to the bench, the only seats were boxes
+in which "canned goods" had been stored away.
+A pile of wood lay behind an old stove propped
+up on boxes in lieu of legs. A cupboard containing
+some tin cups and thick plates, a few pans
+and skillets, and a shelf heaped with magazines
+half a year old completed the furnishings of the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Ross&#8217;s eyes lighted on the wounded
+man&#8217;s sheepskin coat, which had been cast hurriedly
+aside on the floor. Lifting it, he stepped to
+the door, and commenced to shake it energetically.
+Out of the breast pocket fell a small object. It hit
+the stone in front of the door with a metallic ring.
+Ross picked it up, and looked down into the photographed
+face of a winning girl with smiling eyes,
+curved lips, and plump cheeks. The picture was
+a little oval set in a gilt frame. On the back in a
+girlish hand was written the inscription, "To Lon
+Weston."</p>
+
+<p>"Weston, huh?" came Hank&#8217;s voice at Ross&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span>
+elbow. "I never heard of Lon Weston before.
+Wonder where he hails from."</p>
+
+<p>Hank glanced speculatively at the sleeper, then
+took a deep earthenware dish from the cupboard,
+beat its contents with a spoon, greased a skillet,
+and set it on the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Men fergot t&#8217; eat," he grumbled, "&#8217;n&#8217; fergot t&#8217;
+feed the horses. They fergot everything except
+him. They&#8217;ll be one hungry lot when they land
+in Meeteetse."</p>
+
+<p>He raised the smoking skillet, and gave a deft
+toss, which sent the flapjack spinning into the
+air, turned it over, and settled it back with the
+baked side uppermost.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice-looking girl that!" he muttered absently,
+immediately adding, "Here ye are&#8211;flapjacks &#8217;n&#8217;
+coffee!"</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon the injured man aroused
+himself groaning. He stared at Ross with eyes
+which gradually cleared as a realization of his
+environment was borne in on him.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Doc," he muttered, biting his lips with
+the pain, "I&#8217;m all to the bad, ain&#8217;t I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leg&#8217;s used up for a few days, that&#8217;s all, Mr.
+Weston," returned Ross cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>The man turned his head quickly. His eyes
+widened and he seemed to forget his pain. For a
+long moment he lay motionless looking from Ross
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span>
+to Hank, who grinned hospitably at him from the
+stove.</p>
+
+<p>"Cheer up down there," said Hank in jovial
+strain, "the worst is yet t&#8217; come, fer I&#8217;m makin&#8217;
+ye some puddin&#8217;, and even my mother &#8217;ud say
+that puddin&#8217; ain&#8217;t one of my strong pints!"</p>
+
+<p>The sick man did not smile. He merely stared
+at the speaker until Hank disappeared, a water
+pail in hand, bound for the spring. Then he
+threw out a hand toward Ross and asked abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get it?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, turning a flapjack awkwardly, looked inquiringly
+over his shoulder. "Get what?"</p>
+
+<p>"The name&#8211;Weston?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross smiled and then, partly because he was
+embarrassed and partly because he thought the
+injured man would be, turned his back before
+answering, "A picture fell out of your coat and
+I&#8211;we&#8211;saw the name written on the back, &#8217;Lon
+Weston.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>There was no reply, and presently Ross added,
+"I put the photo back in your pocket and hung
+the coat above your head there on the peg. Guess
+you can reach it."</p>
+
+<p>Still no reply, and Ross, looking around, found
+his patient with head turned away, eyes closed and
+lips pressed tightly together in his beard.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, in the open doorway appeared a figure
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span>
+that Ross had not seen before. A shaggy head
+was advanced cautiously within the cabin and
+the owner peered at Weston curiously. Then, evidently
+understanding his closed eyes to mean
+sleep, the stranger backed out precipitately and
+sat down on the bench outside the door. From
+this vantage point he peered around the jamb from
+time to time eyeing Ross and his patient in turn.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening," said the former as the stranger
+showed no signs of speaking.</p>
+
+<p>The shaggy head appeared in the doorway and
+nodding briefly, was withdrawn, just as Hank,
+coming with the water, called, "Well, Sheepy,
+what&#8217;s the latest word up your way?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Luther, otherwise "Sheepy," the herder
+whose wagon crowned the adjacent hill. He was
+Hank&#8217;s daily caller.</p>
+
+<p>"There ye are, Doc," exclaimed Hank entering
+with the water. "Puddin&#8217; fer Weston, and flapjacks
+&#8217;n&#8217; coffee fer you and me with cabbage &#8217;n&#8217;
+spuds thrown in. Fill up."</p>
+
+<p>It was a menu which was not varied to any
+great extent in the days which followed, strange
+days for "Doc Tenderfoot," as Hank called Ross.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i3'></a><img src='images/i-072.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+"WHAT&#8217;S THE LATEST WORD?"
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span>Every night at midnight one of the two stages
+plying between Cody and Meeteetse stopped at the
+stage camp for supper and horse feed. Every noon
+the other stage stopped for dinner on its return
+trip. Between times, horsemen came and went,
+occasionally, men from the ranches on Wood River
+and the Grey Bull, miners "packing" their beds
+behind them, prospectors going out of the mountains
+for the winter, and every day during the
+first week there was Sheepy. Sheepy usually
+came toward night when his flock had been
+driven in from the range and rounded up by
+the faithful shepherd dog near the canvas-topped
+wagon.</p>
+
+<p>One day, the last of the week, after Ross had
+had a particularly trying time with his patient, he
+left the latter asleep, and going outside, sat on the
+bench in the sunshine watching Hank who was
+repairing the corral. Presently Sheepy joined him,
+first refreshing himself, as usual, with a long look
+at the snoring Weston.</p>
+
+<p>"Once I seen a feller that rode like him and
+looked like him, only his hair and beard," Sheepy
+announced finally in a hoarse whisper. "I seen
+&#8217;im ridin&#8217; in ahead of th&#8217; stage that night, and I
+thought &#8217;twas th&#8217; other chap."</p>
+
+<p>Ross listened without interest. Sheepy filled a
+pipe with deliberation and lighted it. Then, clasping
+a worn knee in both hands he spoke again out
+of the corner of his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"That feller had hair light as tow and his face
+clean of beard, but he rode the same and his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span>
+eyes was the same. He was a puncher off the
+cattle ranges. Used to ride past my wagon alone
+about once a week headin&#8217; fer town. Went in the
+edge of the evenin&#8217; always."</p>
+
+<p>"And where were you?" asked Ross still without
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Down in Oklahomy. I was herdin&#8217; sheep fer
+old man Quinn."</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked at Sheepy with new interest. "I
+heard the men on the train talking about old man
+Quinn and the sheep that he lost. Were you there
+at that time?"</p>
+
+<p>Sheepy nodded. "I sartain was. That&#8217;s two
+years gone by."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you see what was going on&#8211;driving
+the sheep into the river, I mean?" questioned Ross
+eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>The sheep-herder shook his grizzled head. "It
+wa&#8217;n&#8217;t off my range that the sheep was drove, but
+another feller&#8217;s called Happy. He seen there was
+four men done it. It was night&#8211;dark night, and
+they didn&#8217;t stop to say howdy ner make any introductions.
+They shot Happy&#8217;s dog and got away
+over the bluff with a thousand sheep. They was
+drunk, all of &#8217;em, but not too drunk not t&#8217; know
+what they was doin&#8217;. Old man Quinn got three
+of &#8217;em. He&#8217;s been after the other ever since."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he&#8217;ll be caught?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span>Sheepy moved his shoulders helplessly. "Don&#8217;t
+know. Old man Quinn he never lets up on a
+thing. Took &#8217;im two years t&#8217; find three. Bet he
+don&#8217;t give t&#8217;other up."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did they drive the sheep over the bluff?"
+asked Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Sheepy frowned. "Cattlemen claimed the sheep
+had crossed the dead line. Cattlemen are always
+claimin&#8217; that, and they push the line further and
+further in on the sheep and claim more of the
+range every year. They do here. They did down
+in Oklahomy. The sheep owners and cattlemen
+had a row at the big cattle round-up on the North
+Fork. It was after the round-up, when the cow
+punchers was feelin&#8217; pretty gay and let themselves
+loose, that them four drove old man Quinn&#8217;s sheep
+over the bluff."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, and then Sheepy went back
+to the original subject. "The feller that looked
+like him and rode like him," jerking his thumb
+over his shoulder, "used to ride past when I was
+shakin&#8217; grub in my wagon. He used t&#8217; go grinnin&#8217;
+mostly and starin&#8217; at his hoss&#8217; ears. And he
+alus went with his fixin&#8217;s on, tan chaps and a red
+silk &#8217;kerchief &#8217;round his neck and Indian gloves
+with these here colored gauntlets. Oh, he struck
+the trail in his good togs all right&#8211;bet he went t&#8217;
+see some girl &#8217;r other!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span>This was the last information that Ross received
+from Sheepy for several months. The following
+morning there arrived from Cody a supply wagon
+which replenished the sheep-herder&#8217;s larder, and
+then, the sheep having eaten the range bare for
+miles around the dugout, the canvas-topped wagon
+was attached to the supply wagon and drawn to
+another hilltop ten miles away. With it went
+Sheepy only faintly regretting the loss of companionship
+at the dugout. The seven hundred
+sheep that his dog rounded up and drove in advance
+of the wagons were the companions with
+which he was best acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn&#8217;t ha&#8217; been a bad idee," Hank remarked
+when the last bleat died away in the distance,
+"if Sheepy could ha&#8217; stayed all winter. He
+ain&#8217;t generally long on talk&#8211;none of them herders
+be&#8211;but he was some one t&#8217; have around, and once
+in a while his tongue breaks loose."</p>
+
+<p>Ross drew a long breath and thought of Meadow
+Creek.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon Hank resumed his repairs on
+the corral, leaving Weston asleep and Ross kneeling
+beside his medicine chest sorting its contents.</p>
+
+<p>The sorting done, the boy arose noiselessly and
+closed the lid of the chest. Then, turning, he
+looked down on the head of the sleeper. For the
+first time he noticed that Weston&#8217;s hair, thick and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span>
+unkempt, was dull in color and had a dead look
+at variance with its evident health. Tiptoeing
+across the floor he bent over the recumbent man
+and gently raising a lock of his hair looked wonderingly
+at the roots. The sight caused him to
+utter an exclamation which disturbed the sleeper.
+He straightened himself and stepped back precipitately.</p>
+
+<p>The hair was tow-colored at the roots.</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span><a id='link_4'></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE FOURTH MAN</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Ross</span> stood motionless until Weston, muttering
+and turning his head from side to side, gradually
+came to rest again and fell into a deeper sleep. Then
+the boy went outside and sat down on the bench.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s easy enough to put two and two together,"
+he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning forward, he dropped his elbows on his
+knees and taking his head between his hands,
+proceeded to do some adding satisfactory in its
+results. He longed for the presence of Sheepy.
+Now he would question him with interest on the
+subject of the puncher whose face was free from a
+beard and whose hair was tow color. He wanted
+more information on the subject of that cattle
+round-up and of the process of getting those three
+guilty cow punchers. Still, he believed that Sheepy
+had told him enough to make it clear that Weston
+was the fourth that old man Quinn was after.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one that looked like Weston and rode
+like him," Ross enumerated the points in the evidence,
+"only the man in Oklahoma had no beard
+and his hair was tow color."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79'></a>79</span>What was easier than to grow a beard&#8211;the hair
+was already accounted for&#8211;it had been tow-colored
+before its owner stained it a chestnut brown. And
+why should he have colored it unless for purposes
+of disguise? And why a disguise unless he was
+guilty of a crime such as driving old man Quinn&#8217;s
+sheep into the North Fork?</p>
+
+<p>At this point in his reasoning, another fact
+flashed into the boy&#8217;s mind&#8211;the strange way in
+which Weston had acted about his name.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha!" exclaimed Ross aloud and then
+checked his voice. "Probably he didn&#8217;t want us
+to know his name, his real name," he thought.
+"How all that dovetails together. If I could only
+get hold of Sheepy now!"</p>
+
+<p>On further reflection, however, he decided that
+Sheepy could throw no more light on the subject.
+It was evident that the herder did not know the
+name of the puncher who had ridden alone past
+his wagon, for he had not connected Weston&#8217;s name
+with the other. Nor would Weston, if he were the
+same puncher, be likely to recognize Sheepy who,
+as he himself said, was in his wagon preparing
+supper when the puncher, his eyes on his horse&#8217;s
+ears, passed.</p>
+
+<p>That night, when Ross rolled up in his blankets
+beside Weston he was sure he was lying beside the
+fourth cowboy of old man Quinn&#8217;s search. But in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span>
+the cold clear dawn he was not so sure. It might
+have been vanity that had led Weston to stain his
+hair, tow not being a manly color. Then, too, even
+if he had been on the North Fork, so were dozens
+of other cow punchers. As to his name, Weston
+would naturally have been astonished at perfect
+strangers addressing him rightly where he believed
+himself unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, eating his breakfast, and only half listening
+to Hank, looked down at the prostrate man
+speculatively, his mind full of suspicion, but not
+so sure as on the previous day that there was no
+flaw in his reasoning. He had not had an opportunity,
+the day before, of speaking to Hank about
+the matter, and now he decided to keep his suspicions
+to himself for the present.</p>
+
+<p>His suspicions, however, during the two weeks
+which followed, were swallowed up in the anxiety
+that attended this, the first "case" where he had
+been obliged to assume all responsibility. The
+care and interruptions to his rest wore on him.
+Never had one of Aunt Anne&#8217;s hair mattresses invited
+sleep as did the blankets laid on the dirt
+floor when he found time to lie on them. Often
+he fell asleep sitting on the hard bench, his head
+on his arms crossed on the table, while Hank was
+frying flapjacks and boiling thick black coffee.</p>
+
+<p>As for the patient, he accepted Ross&#8217;s ministrations
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span>
+with but few remarks. As his thigh bone
+began to knit, he became querulous, and finally
+passively enduring.</p>
+
+<p>"When you goin&#8217; to let me out of this?" he
+asked on the day when Ross last measured the
+injured leg.</p>
+
+<p>The boy settled back on his heels. "I have
+sent for some plaster of Paris," he explained, "and,
+by the time it gets here, your leg will be healed
+and ready for a cast. Then you can be taken back
+to Cody and let the doctor there see you. If it was
+not for that ugly fracture you would have been out
+of here before. If you&#8217;d only have the Cody doctor
+to look you over now<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>The man grunted, and worked restlessly at the
+sand-bag, which, on the outside of his leg, reached
+his armpit.</p>
+
+<p>"Cody doctor be hanged!" he remarked unaffably.
+"He don&#8217;t know half as much as you do."</p>
+
+<p>It was the nearest approach to thanks or praise
+he had given Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"That Cody doctor ain&#8217;t worth shucks," confirmed
+Hank, who occupied a box beside the stove.
+"He tended a feller that I knew, and let &#8217;im die."
+The speaker looked from Ross to his patient with
+an expression which plainly said that the former
+could not be guilty of any such charge.</p>
+
+<p>The brown eyes of the patient rolled slowly in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span>
+their sockets until their gaze could rest on Ross.
+Then the lids dropped over them. "The Cody
+doctor be hanged!" he remarked again more
+affably, and fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Ross continued to sit on his heels until his
+patient commenced to snore. Then he glanced at
+the occupant of the box seat and asked softly:</p>
+
+<p>"Hank, has Weston ever told you where he
+came from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," responded Hank absently. "Not where
+he hails from ner where he&#8217;s started fer, ner why,
+ner what fer. That&#8217;s nothin&#8217; though, Doc." Here
+Hank looked sidewise at Ross. "You&#8217;ll find, if
+ye stay in these parts long, that there&#8217;s lots of
+men who ain&#8217;t partin&#8217; with every fact they know
+within ten minutes after ye&#8217;re introduced to &#8217;em.
+And you&#8217;ll find, too, that it ain&#8217;t always healthy to
+ask questions. Ye have th&#8217; sort of sense who ye can
+question and who ye can&#8217;t."</p>
+
+<p>"And this fellow<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" Ross jerked his head
+in the direction of the sleeper.</p>
+
+<p>Hank yawned and reached for the poker and a
+stick of wood. "I ain&#8217;t aimin&#8217; to inquire fer into
+his history&#8211;unless I could inquire of some one
+else besides himself, that is. Hello!" he interrupted
+himself suddenly with the stick held over
+the stove. "Who&#8217;s that hikin&#8217; over the Creek?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross arose with alacrity and went to the door.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span>
+The first snow had fallen on the bad lands, but in
+an hour it had been whisked away by a warm
+northwest wind, leaving the ground soft and a
+little stream of water in Dry Creek across which
+rode a man who proved to be a prospector from
+the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"Must have had a bit of snow here," he called
+as he turned his horse into the corral. "Up t&#8217;
+Miners&#8217; Camp it&#8217;s two inches deep and driftin&#8217;."</p>
+
+<p>As this prospector was eating his dinner, he
+most unexpectedly gave Ross his first news of
+Weimer. The boy, finding Hank both intelligent
+and sympathetic, had talked freely concerning his
+mission in the mountains and his desire to return
+East at an early date. To the latter subject, in all
+its details of study and college-attendance, Hank
+listened and questioned in open interest. But,
+when Ross touched the subject of Weimer and the
+McKenzies, the other was non-committal and
+guarded, as became a landlord who might be
+called upon any day to serve flapjacks and coffee
+to all of the parties under discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," he had observed cautiously on two or
+three occasions, "that you&#8217;ll get on all right with
+Uncle Jake Weimer."</p>
+
+<p>And, although his tone implied a doubt, Ross
+could not prevail on him to explain it.</p>
+
+<p>But the prospector, who had ridden through
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span>
+from the mountains, and knew nothing of Ross or
+of his origin, spoke more freely. He had passed
+along Meadow Creek but a few days before.</p>
+
+<p>"Dutch Weimer," he told Hank as he bolted
+boiled cabbage and flapjacks, "was settin&#8217; at the
+door of his shack, a-smokin&#8217; as though his claims
+was all patented and secure. He says that Eastern
+pal of hisn is a-sendin&#8217; some one t&#8217; help &#8217;im out."</p>
+
+<p>Hank coughed behind his hand, and motioned
+toward Ross, busy with his patient; but at first the
+prospector was too intent on his food to notice.</p>
+
+<p>"And there," he observed with a chuckle, "are
+them two McKenzie boys a-settin&#8217; on their claims
+next door and waitin&#8217;." He gave another chuckle.
+"Curious how that snow-blindness should have
+touched Dutch Weimer."</p>
+
+<p>Then he saw Hank&#8217;s restraining gesture, and
+paused. Glancing down, he met Lon Weston&#8217;s
+veiled brown eyes and Ross&#8217;s wide gray ones; but
+the prospector had suddenly become as non-committal
+as Hank himself, nor did Ross&#8217;s persistent
+questioning wring from him any further details.
+He had but passed that way, he assured Ross, had
+stopped but a moment in front of Weimer&#8217;s cabin
+and that was all.</p>
+
+<p>But what he had said was enough to leave Ross
+troubled, and impatient to start for Meadow Creek
+and his delayed work.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span>Finally the plaster of Paris came. The stage
+from Cody brought it one noon, and Ross&#8217;s spirits
+arose at the prospect of release from his unwelcome
+charge.</p>
+
+<p>"If it wa&#8217;n&#8217;t fer yer Uncle Samuel&#8217;s long arm of
+the law, Doc," the stage-driver informed him as
+he was disposing of potatoes and pork, "I&#8217;d leave
+my stage right here and see ye wind all them stiff
+rags around that there leg. I&#8217;d like t&#8217; see th&#8217;
+finish s&#8217; long as I seen the beginnin&#8217;. But the
+trouble with bein&#8217; stage skinner is, ye&#8217;ve got t&#8217;
+hike along no matter what shows ye come acrost
+on the trail. Hand them spuds acrost, Doc, will
+ye? Hank, if ye&#8217;d let &#8217;em smell fire a minute &#8217;r
+two mebby I could drive my fork int&#8217; &#8217;em."</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later, he arose from the bench,
+drew the back of his hand across his mouth and
+addressed Weston. "Wall, I suppose you&#8217;ll be
+ready t&#8217; be boosted onto the stage when I come
+back in th&#8217; mornin&#8217;? S&#8217; long."</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had his four bronchos topped the hill
+on the further side of Dry Creek before a procession,
+the like of which Ross had never seen, appeared
+on the trail the other side of the dugout.
+It was a pack outfit on horses accompanied by a
+man and a boy. It slowly rounded the shoulder
+of the hill behind the corral. The man rode ahead
+whistling gaily, his sombrero pulled low over his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span>
+eyes, a purple tie knotted under the turn-over collar
+of his flannel shirt. His horse&#8217;s tail was tied
+to a rope which, in turn, was tied loosely about the
+neck of the first pack animal. In similar fashion
+the five bronchos were held together on the trail,
+and after them came a horse ridden by a boy about
+Ross&#8217;s height. On the pack animals were wooden
+saddles piled high with supplies for a camp, boxes
+and bags securely roped to the saddles.</p>
+
+<p>Hank, in the act of clearing the dishes from the
+bare board table, stopped with a platter of boiled
+turnip and pork suspended in the air. "By the
+great horn spoon!" he yelled, "if there don&#8217;t come
+Wishin&#8217; Wilson! And a pack outfit! Is my eyes
+a-foolin&#8217; me? Doc, look out. Is it a five bronc
+outfit, or ain&#8217;t it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly is," confirmed Ross.</p>
+
+<p>He arose from his seat on the floor where he was
+working in the plaster and stepped to the door.
+But Hank was before him holding up the platter
+of food.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, there, Wishin&#8217;! Here&#8217;s some come-backs
+hot fer ye! Where&#8217;d ye come from? Where ye
+goin&#8217; and what fer and how long and why and all
+the rest?" Evidently the newcomer was one of
+the kind that could safely be questioned, for Hank
+turned himself into a great interrogation point as
+he set the platter down, and rushing out, pulled
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span>
+the stranger from his horse, shaking him in familiar
+bear play.</p>
+
+<p>Ross watched while the train filed slowly up to
+the dugout, bringing the boy&#8217;s mount to rest in
+front of the door.</p>
+
+<p>The young rider wore a new brown corduroy
+suit, and a long fur coat, the skirts of which were
+drawn up awkwardly above a pair of high riding
+boots and tucked under the rider&#8217;s legs. A pair of
+shining silver spurs adorned the heels of the boots,
+while a sealskin cap crowned a head covered with
+closely cropped hair darker than Ross&#8217;s. His eyes
+also were darker and his figure, although of the
+same height, was more slender than Ross&#8217;s. He was
+also, apparently, a couple of years younger.</p>
+
+<p>The two boys nodded at each other, Ross with
+awkward cordiality and interest, the stranger
+carelessly and with unmistakable condescension.
+Swinging himself out of the saddle he said pleasantly
+but commandingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Take my coat inside, please."</p>
+
+<p>He shed his fur coat and pulled off his fur-lined
+gloves and tossed both into Ross&#8217;s arms, while
+Hank, watching the proceeding out of the tail of
+an amused eye, talked with Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, biting his lips, backed into the shack and
+tossed coat and gloves on the end of the table near
+Weston. The boy, following his moves from the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span>
+doorway, pointed at the prostrate man, asking in
+a surprised and subdued voice:</p>
+
+<p>"What ails him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Broke his leg," responded Ross shortly, not
+relishing the touch of lordliness in the other&#8217;s
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>"How did he do it?" demanded the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"Horse fell on him," answered Ross, and returned
+abruptly to his work with the plaster.</p>
+
+<p>Weston lay with his blanket drawn up to his
+chin and one arm thrown over his face and ear,
+his face turned to the wall. He was breathing
+regularly as though in sleep, although Ross knew
+he was wide awake. This was a favorite position
+with him when Hank was entertaining guests. It
+saved him the trouble of responding to inquiries,
+and, as Ross had come to suspect, might also serve
+to avert a chance recognition.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Wilson approached the dugout, leaving
+the boy in the corral rubbing down his mount.
+One arm was thrown in rough affection over Hank&#8217;s
+shoulder while the two pulled each other about like
+two boys at play.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, Hank!" Wilson exclaimed at the
+door, "this is what ye might call God&#8217;s country,
+and I always have a feelin&#8217; of gettin&#8217; home in these
+parts. But, Jehoshaphat! it didn&#8217;t look a spell
+ago as if I&#8217;d ever strike the trail to the mountains
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span>
+again. It looked like as if I&#8217;d have to throw up
+my claims and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Sh!" interrupted Hank tiptoeing into the
+shack. "Guess he&#8217;s asleep, ain&#8217;t he?" He explained
+over his shoulder in a hoarse whisper.
+"Chap named Weston that come this way three
+weeks ago and bust his leg out in front, here.
+Hoss fell on him."</p>
+
+<p>Wilson, who followed at Hank&#8217;s heels, looked
+Weston over with friendly but detached interest.
+"On the mend, is he?" asked the newcomer subduing
+his voice with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Hank forgot to continue his whisper. "You
+bet!" he exclaimed heartily. "Doc here is
+a-mendin&#8217; him t&#8217; beat anything I ever seen from a
+full sized doctor." He jerked his thumb toward
+Ross. "Doc&#8217;s goin&#8217; to have him all plastered up
+and out of here to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Wishing looked at Ross with a pleasant nod,
+stepped over the bench and was about to seat himself
+at the table when he bethought him suddenly
+of his riding companion. Leaning forward he
+looked out of the doorway. Then with a nod he
+sat down and forgetting that Weston was supposedly
+sleeping, raised his voice again to its
+normal high key.</p>
+
+<p>"Fetch on them come-backs, Hank. My pard&#8217;ll
+be here in a minute. I need t&#8217; git the start of him
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span>
+in eating always, fer he ain&#8217;t long on grub such as
+we shake out here. I expect," with an amused
+chuckle, "that it ain&#8217;t exactly what he&#8217;s used to."</p>
+
+<p>Hank slapped his knee and leaned forward.
+"Say, Wishin&#8217;, how d&#8217;ye come t&#8217; be hikin&#8217; over
+the country with Queen Victory&#8217;s youngest? My
+eyes! Ain&#8217;t he a reg&#8217;lar ornament t&#8217; th&#8217; landscape?"</p>
+
+<p>Wishing Wilson laughed softly and then glancing
+hastily from Ross to Weston, shook his head
+at Hank. "Less is all right!" he declared cautiously.
+"He&#8217;s young yet. Lots of time to learn&#8211;more
+time &#8217;n you and me have, Hank."</p>
+
+<p>Hank set coffee before his guest, asking, "Who
+is he and where does he hail from?"</p>
+
+<p>Wilson squared himself before the table, both
+arms resting thereon and began to eat noisily, talking
+between knifefuls.</p>
+
+<p>"Luckiest thing for me that ever struck the
+trail, that young feller is," he began. "I was
+stranded down in Omaha without a red cent in
+my pocket and no way of raisin&#8217; one. If you&#8217;ll
+believe me I couldn&#8217;t find a man in Omaha with
+brains enough to believe in them claims of mine,
+no, not with the ore assay report before their eyes.
+I tell ye, Hank, times have changed down in
+Omaha. There wa&#8217;n&#8217;t no grub-stakers waitin&#8217;
+around like there used to be fer prospectors to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span>
+snatch up&#8211;no, not one. And just as I was gettin&#8217;
+plum used up talkin&#8217;, this young feller, Less
+Jones, fell onto me outer a clear sky. It was in a
+hotel where I went t&#8217; talk with a drummer, but
+not t&#8217; eat. Why, Hank, yer Uncle Wilson didn&#8217;t
+have the price of a hotel dinner handy, and that
+drummer never treated me! Well, I stood tryin&#8217;
+to persuade him that his salary was burning fer
+investment in my claims, when in comes Less and
+lined up &#8217;longside me listenin&#8217;. I hadn&#8217;t any
+kind of objection to his hearin&#8217;, but he looked like
+such a cub that I never paid no attention t&#8217; &#8217;im,
+but when the drummer said a final &#8217;Nix,&#8217; Less he
+stepped up and asked me about the claims, and, t&#8217;
+make a long story short, before the end of the day
+I was hikin&#8217; over town hot footed on the trail of
+supplies with Less at my heels with an open
+pocketbook."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he stay up t&#8217; the Creek with you?" asked
+Hank wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Says he will," laughed Wilson. "Says he&#8217;s
+wanted for years t&#8217; try his luck with quartz!"</p>
+
+<p>"Must &#8217;a&#8217; begun wantin&#8217; then when he was a
+baby," remarked Hank succinctly. "Where&#8217;s his
+ma and pa?"</p>
+
+<p>Wishing shrugged his shoulders and balanced a
+quantity of pork and potatoes on the blade of his
+knife. "Search me! He says there&#8217;s no one to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span>
+hender him doin&#8217; what he pleases, and so I take it
+he&#8217;s dropped out of some fairy orphanage som&#8217;ers
+where they have gold t&#8217; burn. I&#8217;m fallin&#8217; on his
+neck more&#8217;n I&#8217;m askin&#8217; him questions that he don&#8217;t
+want t&#8217; answer. Less is an all right sort, you&#8217;ll
+find, but he ain&#8217;t long on information."</p>
+
+<p>At this point Wishing&#8217;s garrulity suffered an interruption
+from the entrance of his young partner.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie Jones walked with the erect bearing that
+Aunt Anne coveted for Ross. Buttoning his short
+corduroy jacket over a soft flannel shirt, across the
+front of which was suspended a large gold chain,
+he ran his fingers around inside his collar and
+looked about impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, attending strictly to his work, did not
+look up. Hank, sitting on a bench opposite
+Wilson, spread his elbows yet further apart on the
+table and indicated a place beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Set down and fall to, young feller!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ll wash up first," returned Leslie in a tone
+which had a decided edge. His manner plainly
+indicated his desire to be waited on.</p>
+
+<p>Hank raised his eyebrows and waved a hand
+vaguely toward the stove. "There&#8217;s pans &#8217;n&#8217;
+water. Help yerself. Guess there&#8217;s a towel hikin&#8217;
+about som&#8217;ers in the corner. My dozen best handmade
+&#8217;uns ain&#8217;t come in yet from the laundry!"</p>
+
+<p>Every one laughed except Weston and Leslie.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span>
+The former breathed regularly, apparently unconscious
+of all that was said and done in the room.
+The latter flushed, and plunging into the corner
+tumbled the pans about angrily like a spoiled
+child, spilling as much water on the floor as he
+could. Then he sat down beside his partner and
+asked shortly for some hot coffee, with an emphasis
+on the adjective.</p>
+
+<p>Hank leisurely pushed the coffee-pot across the
+table. "Help yerself. This was hot a spell ago
+and will be again at supper time." Hank&#8217;s voice
+having acquired an edge by this time, "Victory&#8217;s
+youngest" poured the coffee angrily but wordlessly
+into his thick cup and ate in silence, listening to
+Wilson, who was too much occupied with a vision
+of riches to come to allow such scenes to disturb
+his equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>"As I told Less," he went on, raising his voice
+to drown opposition, "we&#8217;ll leave part of the sticks
+and the grub up the cañon to the coal claims and
+then when it comes winter and the mountains are
+impassable, we&#8217;ll just strike the trail over from the
+Creek to the cañon and work the coal till things
+open up in the spring. That Creek is a mean place
+to drop into this late."</p>
+
+<p>"What Creek?" asked Ross, suddenly awakening
+to the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Meadow Creek," returned Wishing.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span>"That&#8217;s where Doc is bound fer, Wishing&#8217;,"
+volunteered Hank. "Doc is come out t&#8217; help
+Jake Weimer."</p>
+
+<p>Wishing surveyed the boy with cordial eyes.
+"Jake Weimer, hey? We&#8217;ll be neighbors, then.
+My claims ain&#8217;t two miles up the Creek."</p>
+
+<p>"Doc, he&#8217;s Grant&#8217;s boy," supplemented Hank.
+"But I bet my last year&#8217;s hat that he can&#8217;t mine
+it as well as he can doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor!" exclaimed Leslie Jones curiously.
+"Are you a doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"He&#8217;s fixed him up all right," interrupted Hank
+pointing to Weston. "Stretched his leg over my
+best chicken-coop and needled his arm and made
+&#8217;im walk a chalk line generally. Oh, I tell ye
+Doc is better than the Cody doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Ross laughed. "I know something about medicine
+and surgery," he confessed. "I&#8217;ve read and
+helped my uncle, Dr. Grant. That&#8217;s all."</p>
+
+<p>"All!" echoed Leslie Jones. His manner was
+touched with disbelief as he looked from Weston
+to Ross. "And did you, alone, set a leg?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross sought to change the subject. "Aw&#8211;that&#8217;s
+not much&#8211;when you know how. I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m
+to have neighbors up on Meadow Creek. Hope I
+don&#8217;t have to stay there any longer than you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Expect to clean up the title this year, do you?"
+asked Wilson.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span>"That&#8217;s what I came for."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, all I can say now is that you&#8217;ll be mighty
+glad you come. I tell ye what, Doc, Meadow Creek
+is the mining deestrict of the future," whereupon
+Wishing launched on a glowing account of the
+future of Meadow Creek claims as he saw the
+future. His eyes lighted up and he forgot to eat
+as he told of the wonderful value of the gold and
+silver that he expected to pull out of the claims he
+had staked the previous year. He believed so
+thoroughly in his own vision that even Ross,
+whose interests were far removed from gold mining,
+felt a thrill of expectancy as to the outcome
+of his work in Meadow Creek, while Leslie, whose
+appetite was slight for the coarse, ill-cooked food,
+dropped his fork to listen although he must have
+heard the recital many times before.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after dinner, the two saddled up and
+departed in the order in which they had come.</p>
+
+<p>"So long!" yelled Wilson, waving his hat.
+"We expect t&#8217; strike it rich before a month."</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck!" shouted Hank and Ross together,
+the latter adding, "I&#8217;ll see you again in a few days."</p>
+
+<p>Hank, stuffing his hands into his pockets, pursed
+up his lips and whistled shortly as the pack outfit
+disappeared in a cloud of dust.</p>
+
+<p>"If Wishin&#8217; is cal&#8217;latin&#8217; that he has enough
+there to last two men all winter he&#8217;s about as far
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>
+off in his cal&#8217;lations as&#8211;well, as Wishin&#8217; usually
+is. Wishin&#8217; ain&#8217;t no lightnin&#8217; cal&#8217;later on any
+subject, but he&#8217;s a mighty likely chap t&#8217; have
+around."</p>
+
+<p>"Judging from the small amount his pard ate
+to-day he has food enough, I should say," returned
+Ross, adding hastily, "but then I realize that I
+know nothing about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" laughed Hank, "he must know that
+when that there young chap has been in the
+mountings a few days he&#8217;ll eat mulligan &#8217;n&#8217;
+spotted pup &#8217;n&#8217; bacon with the best of &#8217;em. His
+will be a good, lively comin&#8217; appetite&#8211;but huh!
+I should hate mightily t&#8217; have t&#8217; feed &#8217;im. Wonder
+if Wishin&#8217; has packed some bibs along &#8217;n&#8217; silk
+socks &#8217;n&#8217; hand-warmers! Huh!"</p>
+
+<p>When Ross reëntered the cabin he found Weston
+staring out of the doorway, his arm stretched by
+his side.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess you didn&#8217;t sleep much," remarked Hank
+noisily gathering up the dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"All I wanted to," returned Weston shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Hank piled the dishes into a pan and poured
+boiling water over them. "M-m," he soliloquized,
+"all the time I was lookin&#8217; at him I was thinkin&#8217;
+I&#8217;d seen that young Jones before. M-m&#8211;where, I
+wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>No one answered, and he washed dishes in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span>
+silence while Ross returned to his work and
+Weston lay staring out-of-doors.</p>
+
+<p>The following day Ross saw his patient depart
+on the stage headed toward Cody, and prepared
+to take the next one himself in the opposite
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>When he assisted Weston out of the door of the
+dugout, he knew exactly as much about him as
+when he followed his prostrate figure in at the
+same door three weeks before&#8211;and no more,
+unless the name be excepted.</p>
+
+<p>Hank watched the stage off with a scowl, and
+then departed from his usual custom of cautious
+speech, where possible customers were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess that feller must &#8217;a&#8217; hailed from som&#8217;ers
+beside Wyoming," he grumbled. "Now, a Wyoming
+chap would &#8217;a&#8217; paid his bill, or if he was on
+the hog&#8217;s back, he&#8217;d owned up and passed his
+promise. But that there maverick never even
+said, &#8217;Thank ye,&#8217; to you or me; and here you&#8217;re
+knocked out of three weeks&#8217; work along of him,
+to say nothin&#8217; of the work day and night you&#8217;ve
+put in on &#8217;im. Well, good riddance; &#8217;tain&#8217;t no
+ways likely we&#8217;ll set eyes on &#8217;im again."</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span><a id='link_5'></a>CHAPTER V<br /><span class='h2fs'>A MAN WHO NEEDED BRACING UP</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>The</span> road to Miners&#8217; Camp from Meeteetse, forty-five
+miles long, follows the Grey Bull to its junction
+with Wood River. Thence it wanders along
+through miles of fertile ranch lands; then, rising
+among the black foot-hills, up, up, it winds across
+the precipitous face of Jo-Jo Hill, and plunges
+among the snow-crowned Shoshones, crowded
+nearer and yet nearer to Wood River until finally
+there is but room for the narrow track and the
+narrow stream at the bottom of the deep cañon.</p>
+
+<p>This was the road which Ross traveled the
+day following Weston&#8217;s departure for Cody, and
+traveled in increasing discomfort. The further
+they advanced among the mountains, the colder it
+became, until, finally, Ross was obliged to desert
+the high seat beside Bill Travers, the driver, and
+seek shelter inside the stage, but not until he
+had learned from Bill that there was no hotel in
+Miners&#8217; Camp.</p>
+
+<p>In talking with Hank he had taken it for
+granted that there was a lodging house of some
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span>
+description and so had asked no questions on the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>"I pack my grub along," Bill assured him carelessly,
+"&#8217;n&#8217; roll up in a bunk in a shack that some
+one &#8217;r other has left. If you&#8217;ve packed yer bed
+along, stay with me to-night. There&#8217;s the floor,"
+hospitably, "and I guess I can rustle grub enough
+fer both. Anyhow, there&#8217;s two eatin&#8217;-houses where
+you could fill up."</p>
+
+<p>At five in the afternoon the stage crawled
+through the dusk over a yielding bridge built
+of hemlock saplings creaking under their coating
+of ice and snow, and stopped in front of a shack
+out of whose open door glinted a welcome light.
+Another light appeared high up on the side of the
+mountain.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold up there, Bill," was the shout which had
+brought the stage to a standstill. "Got a cold,
+hungry young chap inside there, name of Grant?
+Wishin&#8217; Wilson went through yesterday and said
+he&#8217;d be along with you to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Ross recognized the voice as belonging to Steele,
+and, opening the stage door, answered for himself
+in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>Steele shook hands cordially. "Better get out
+here, Grant," he invited in an offhand way; "I
+have some beefsteak ready to fry, and the spuds
+are bakin&#8217; in the oven."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100'></a>100</span>Ross climbed out with as much alacrity as
+his cold, benumbed limbs would permit. But no
+sooner was he on the ground than something
+queer occurred. His legs gave every indication
+of doubling up under him, while his head felt
+as large and airy as a balloon. He clutched the
+wheel, but not until Steele had clutched him.</p>
+
+<p>"Altitude!" exclaimed Steele. "Being a mile
+and a half above sea-level don&#8217;t agree with most
+people just at first."</p>
+
+<p>Ross leaned against the wheel, looking up giddily
+at the strip of sky corralled between the
+towering summits of Dundee and Gale&#8217;s Ridge. It
+seemed to him that it was the mountains and not
+the altitude which oppressed him, and bore down
+upon him, and shut off his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"My baggage," he began hesitatingly to the
+stage-driver, "where&#8211;if there&#8217;s no hotel<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>But Steele interposed. "Lend a hand here,
+Bill, with these trunks. I want Grant to put up
+at my hotel to-night, bag and baggage."</p>
+
+<p>Bill grinned, and laid hands on the emergency
+chest. "He&#8217;ll git a better layout than at my old
+shack, I tell ye! Say! Is Uncle Jake in Camp?"</p>
+
+<p>Steele shook his head. "Nope. I&#8217;m going to
+see about packin&#8217; Grant over to the Creek myself
+in a few days," and a great wave of thankfulness
+surged over Ross.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span>A few moments later Steele waved his hand
+around the one room of his little log shack.
+"This is the only kind of home you&#8217;ll find up
+here, Grant, about the same as Weimer has over on
+the Creek. Things are rough and ready here,
+without any frills."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he glanced at the larger of Ross&#8217;s
+trunks.</p>
+
+<p>If Amos Steele understood one subject better
+than mining operations, that one subject was men.
+He saw in Ross an overgrown, homesick boy, with
+a stout but untested "backbone."</p>
+
+<p>"And I wonder," thought Steele, "how far that
+backbone is going to take him when it gets a
+healthy development, and&#8211;how far is he goin&#8217; to
+develop it?"</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, Steele concluded, Ross was more
+accustomed to bending over a book than over a
+shovel; and he shrugged his shoulders at the
+thought of the Weimer-Grant claims.</p>
+
+<p>"His backbone can&#8217;t do everything," he decided,
+"no matter how stout it grows, especially
+when Weimer has lost his."</p>
+
+<p>Steele&#8217;s shack was at the foot of Gale&#8217;s Ridge.
+Half-way up the mountainside was another and
+larger shack, where his miners, thirty in number,
+ate. Above that was the "bunk-house" where
+they slept. And yet higher up was the mouth of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span>
+the tunnel out of which the Gale&#8217;s Ridge Mining
+Company expected to pull vast wealth when the
+Burlington Road had done its part.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;d rather bach it," Steele explained to Ross as
+they sat down to beefsteak and baked potatoes,
+"than to be with the men. It&#8217;s pleasanter for me&#8211;and,"
+with a jolly laugh, "for them also, I expect."</p>
+
+<p>Ross liked this frank young superintendent who
+had so kindly taken him in. He felt that he
+must get his bearings in some way, and Steele was
+the man to set him right.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore quite early in the evening the boy
+burst out with:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Steele, I&#8217;ve come to the conclusion that
+I&#8217;m the greenest tenderfoot that ever came to
+Wyoming. Now, you know the ropes here, and
+I don&#8217;t. Will you advise me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly what I&#8217;ve been wanting to do,"
+assented Steele swiftly and heartily. "But I
+won&#8217;t do it at all to-night. It&#8217;ll take you a few
+days to get over your light-headedness, and until
+you do the trail around Crosby won&#8217;t be healthy
+ridin&#8217; for you. Anyway, there&#8217;s a lot to be done,
+for Uncle Jake Weimer hasn&#8217;t laid in any winter
+supplies yet."</p>
+
+<p>Ross tipped his chair back against the unhewn
+logs, and thrust his hands into his pockets. Ever
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span>
+since the talkative prospector had passed through
+the stage camp he had wondered what manner of
+man Weimer was. But not until he was jolting
+along in the stage that day did one sentence especially
+recur to him in all its possible significance.</p>
+
+<p>The prospector had said, "&#8217;Curious how that
+snow-blindness should have touched Dutch Weimer.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, Ross&#8217;s first question was of the man
+he had crossed the continent to help.</p>
+
+<p>The answer reached far into the night; and when
+at last Ross, wrapped in his blankets, lay down in
+a bunk built against the wall, it was a long time
+before sleep came, tired as he was.</p>
+
+<p>The following evening, after a full day&#8217;s work,
+he sat down beside the little home-made table to
+write to Dr. Grant and Aunt Anne while Steele
+washed up the supper dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be worse than helpless, were it not
+for Steele," he wrote; "and even with him to help
+me I may as well own up I am in blue funk. Not
+a man is there to hire; so the programme for the
+next few months seems to be this: Yours truly
+has got to put on some muscle, and buckle down
+to pick and shovel. Where do you think Piersol&#8217;s
+&#8217;Histology&#8217; is coming in, uncle, or that man
+Remsen?</p>
+
+<p>"But that&#8217;s not the worst. It seems that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span>
+Weimer isn&#8217;t as stout in his head as he was before he
+was stricken with snow-blindness, and, although
+he is as stout as ever in his muscles, he doesn&#8217;t
+take kindly to work any more. Hasn&#8217;t even taken
+the winter&#8217;s supplies of food and dynamite over to
+Meadow Creek. He&#8217;s just smoking his pipe in
+peace because of the man father is sending to help
+him out! But I can tell you that the peace is all
+on his side.</p>
+
+<p>"The mountains here are the original packages,
+all right. They&#8217;re miles high, and look as if
+they&#8217;d topple over on a fellow with but half an
+excuse. And then the air&#8211;or the lack of it,
+rather! I&#8217;ve not been able to walk any distance
+without a cane, so uncertain does this rare air
+make me in my motions. But Steele says I&#8217;ll get
+over that in a day or two. So, day after to-morrow
+he is going with me to Meadow Creek with
+the Gale&#8217;s Ridge Company&#8217;s horses&#8211;we &#8217;pack&#8217;
+over the supplies for the winter, and the emergency
+chest just as it is; but, Aunt Anne, only a small
+portion of the contents of my big trunk can go.
+Over on the Creek Steele can explain to me about
+the amount of work to be done, for fear Weimer
+doesn&#8217;t tell it straight<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Ross stopped. He leaned back and
+bit his pencil, his eyes narrowing frowningly as
+he glanced over the letter. Then with a gesture
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span>
+of disdain he caught up the sheets, and tore them
+into fragments.</p>
+
+<p>Steele paused in the act of placing the dishes in
+the rough cupboard which was nailed to the logs
+behind the stove.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I&#8217;d think twice before I tore up a letter&#8211;too
+hard work to write &#8217;em."</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought twice," returned Ross emphatically.
+"That&#8217;s why I tore it up. No use piling
+up all my difficulties on them first thing. Aunt
+Anne worries enough over my being here, as it is."</p>
+
+<p>"So there&#8217;s an &#8217;Aunt Anne,&#8217; is there?" mused
+Steele to himself over the dishes. He glanced at
+the bits of paper in a heap on the table. "Good
+work she and that doctor uncle have done." He
+surveyed Ross&#8217;s clean-cut, clear-eyed face as it bent
+above a second and brighter letter, one that ignored
+or made light of the difficulties oppressing
+the boy.</p>
+
+<p>In order to divert further the attention of the
+recipients, Ross also wrote divers pieces of information
+that he had learned from Steele.</p>
+
+<p>"I am trying to ferret out this gold mining business
+from the beginning," he wrote. "I never got
+the hang of it before, and, if Mr. Steele wasn&#8217;t
+everlasting patient with me, I wouldn&#8217;t be getting
+much now, because everything is so new and
+strange here. I don&#8217;t half understand the men&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span>
+lingo, because they have a strange name for everything....
+Well, it seems that a gold mine
+up here is started in some such a way as this: along
+comes a prospector&#8211;quartz crazy, he is called if
+he&#8217;s in dead earnest&#8211;with a pick and shovel, a
+hammer and microscope, and a camp outfit. If
+some one else has provided him with food and the
+outfit he is &#8217;grub-staked&#8217; and his &#8217;pard&#8217; is entitled
+to half of the results of his work. Father, for
+instance, has grub-staked Weimer for years. This
+prospector pegs away at the rocks, getting specimens
+of ore and examining them under his microscope.
+He goes right past rocks that look to me
+full of gold they glitter so. No gold in such!
+But when he finds some common, dull old stone
+that doesn&#8217;t show up much to me but has all the
+earmarks of &#8217;a high value&#8217; in gold, then he thinks
+he has found the outcropping of a good &#8217;lead,&#8217;
+because all the rock that is behind that rock in
+the same strata is supposed to have that much gold
+in it or more. So there he &#8217;stakes his claim.&#8217;
+You see I&#8217;ve got the hang of a few of the terms
+already. First, he drives a stake near the rock
+and leaves on it a paper with his name and the date
+and a notice that the land is his for so many feet
+each way. He can&#8217;t take possession of more than
+six hundred feet one way and fifteen hundred the
+other in one claim, but he can stake off as many
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span>
+other claims right beside this first as he wants to.
+The staking is easy enough, but the tug of war
+comes in doing enough work to patent the claims!
+This means to get a deed of possession from the
+state. There is where Weimer and I are up against
+it&#8211;on the work side! But guess I&#8217;d better not
+make your heads ache any more with such an
+accumulation of learned facts. I&#8217;ll just say good-bye
+now and continue the headache in my
+next."</p>
+
+<p>To his father he wrote a different kind of letter,
+a defense of his delay at Dry Creek.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn&#8217;t desert a man in that shape," he
+wrote, "although I have lost three weeks at exactly
+the season of the year, I find, when three
+weeks count for the most. I&#8217;m sorry it happened
+that way, but I shall try to put in good time now
+and make up. Anyway, I guess the delay is as
+broad as it is long, because, if that accident hadn&#8217;t
+occurred, I shouldn&#8217;t have known Steele; and it&#8217;s
+his help that&#8217;s smoothing things out here for me
+to begin work."</p>
+
+<p>Ross did not know that the way he had conducted
+himself at Dry Creek was the cause of the
+very practical interest which Steele was taking in
+him.</p>
+
+<p>But not all of Steele&#8217;s influence in Camp had secured
+a single laborer for Meadow Creek. Ross
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span>
+found that Andy&#8217;s explanation on the Cody stage
+held good. No one cared to go any further out of
+the world than Miners&#8217; Camp.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s bad enough," one of the Mountain Company&#8217;s
+men told Ross, "up here eighty miles from
+the railroad, with a stage only three times a week
+in summer and any time it can get through in the
+winter. But, when it comes to workin&#8217; on the
+Creek, <i>ex</i>cuse me! Seven mile over Crosby, and
+the trail shut up half the year. No, I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to
+Cody when the Mountain works shuts down."</p>
+
+<p>The Gale&#8217;s Ridge Company worked all winter;
+but the Mountain Company dismissed its employees,
+twenty in number, when the deep snows
+came.</p>
+
+<p>To the twenty Ross applied in vain. Labor was
+dear and men scarce "Cody way," and the miners
+refused to be mewed up over on the Creek for five
+months at any price.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," Steele explained, "I&#8217;d be glad to employ
+all the twenty during the winter myself; but
+not many of &#8217;em will ever stay up here in Camp&#8211;too
+much cut off. I shall run short of hands all
+winter. Of course, when the railroad gets up here,
+it will be different. They&#8217;ll be willing to stay
+then."</p>
+
+<p>Ross checked a groan. "The railroad isn&#8217;t here,
+but I am," he observed grimly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span>Steele looked at him curiously. "Why don&#8217;t
+you strike the trail back East," he asked abruptly,
+"since you started out without understanding the
+situation?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross glanced up in surprise. "Why, I never
+thought of doing that!" he exclaimed, and dropped
+the subject.</p>
+
+<p>But Steele continued to look him over with a
+new interest; for the stage the previous evening
+had brought to Steele a letter from the elder Grant
+asking for private information concerning the situation
+Ross, Junior, was encountering. Ross&#8217;s brief
+letters from Dry Creek had shown Ross, Senior,
+that he had no real knowledge of the nature of the
+difficulties into which he had sent his son.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the third day, Ross, staggering
+around uncertainly without a cane, aided Steele in
+binding the supplies on the wooden saddles of the
+packhorses. From the Gale&#8217;s Ridge Company&#8217;s
+supply-shack they brought sacks of flour and cornmeal,
+boxes of canned vegetables and condensed
+milk, sides of bacon and hams, bags of coffee and
+tea, all of which Steele with many a twist of the
+rope and "half-hitch" secured to the clumsy saddles.
+The trustiest horse carried the emergency
+chest. On Ross&#8217;s own horse, lashed behind his
+saddle, were his bed blankets and a bundle from
+the trunk Aunt Anne had packed with such care.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span>"All ready?" called Steele, one foot in his
+stirrup.</p>
+
+<p>He looked back at Ross already mounted, bringing
+up the rear of the string of packhorses, standing
+in front of the company&#8217;s store.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready," shouted Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Steele, about to swing himself up, hesitated. He
+glanced again at Ross. Then, dropping his bridle
+reins to the ground, he disappeared inside the
+store, emerging presently with a short rifle and a
+cartridge belt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever use a gun?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Ross hesitated. "I&#8217;ve practiced target shooting
+a little, and gone hunting a few times; but," candidly,
+"I don&#8217;t amount to shucks with a gun."</p>
+
+<p>Steele grinned, and handed it up. "Take it
+along," he advised, "and practice some more. It
+may bring you fresh meat. Sometimes elk and
+mountain sheep come down to the Creek to drink
+over there&#8211;won&#8217;t come amiss, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>Ross accepted the gun; and Steele, going back
+to the head of the procession, mounted, and led
+the way up the cañon, which presently broadened
+until it formed a snow-flecked valley a few rods
+wide. Here were a dozen shacks, another eating
+house, and the store of the Mountain Company.
+The mouth of its tunnel could be seen high on the
+side of the mountain above the store.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span>Immediately beyond this valley the cañon was
+nearly closed by two great peaks. The one on the
+left was still Dundee; but on the right Gale&#8217;s Ridge
+gave place to Crosby, behind which lay Meadow
+Creek Valley.</p>
+
+<p>Zigzagging across the face of this mountain
+wound a narrow trail gradually ascending. Up
+and yet up climbed the horses until Ross clung
+to his saddle involuntarily while looking down.
+Soon Wood River became a thread, and the
+shacks became black doll-houses set in patches
+of snow.</p>
+
+<p>On the trail the snow lay deep in the hollows,
+but was swept away wherever the east wind could
+touch it. But, snow-filled or black, the trail ever
+ascended. The peak of Dundee opposite, which
+had seemed from the cañon narrow and remote,
+stretched out now immense and so near that Ross
+felt he could hurl a stone across and hit it.</p>
+
+<p>He looked ahead. They were approaching the
+dizzy shoulder of Crosby. Steele rounded it, and
+disappeared. One by one the slow packhorses,
+their loads hitting against the rocks on the inside
+of the trail, crawled cautiously after, and also disappeared.
+Then before Ross opened a view of
+startling grandeur. He was looking out over the
+top of Gale&#8217;s Ridge and down across Big Horn
+Basin, beyond Cody, eighty miles away and into
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span>
+the blue heart of the Big Horn Mountains. The
+sight brought with it a pang of homesickness.
+Eighty miles from a railroad! Eighty difficult,
+laborious miles! Ross felt helpless and small and
+decidedly shaky in this strange new world about
+which he had so much to learn.</p>
+
+<p>Clinching his teeth hard together, he looked up.
+Above were bowlders seemingly glued to the almost
+upright mountainside. Below&#8211;but Ross&#8217;s
+head swam, and he turned his eyes to the inside
+of the trail, and clung to the saddle. Below was
+a sheer drop of a thousand feet down to the falls
+of Meadow Creek, which separated Crosby from
+Gale&#8217;s Ridge. The mist came up in clouds rolling
+thick and frosty in the zero air. This was the
+quarter-mile of trail which cut Meadow Creek Valley
+off from Wood River Cañon for months during
+the year.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," laughed Steele as they stopped where
+the trail widened beyond the dangerous shoulder,
+"you didn&#8217;t take a header, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross passed his hand across his forehead. His
+face was pale. "No, but&#8211;I felt every minute that
+I&#8217;d go over."</p>
+
+<p>"You&#8217;ll get used to that," returned Steele easily.
+"You see why that trail becomes impassable later,
+don&#8217;t you? If it was just the snow on the trail,
+why, that wouldn&#8217;t count. You could shovel it
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>
+off around the shoulder, and go on snow-shoes the
+rest of the way. But, when the snow lodges up
+over the shoulder something like ten feet deep,
+and a chinook or warm wind comes along and
+loosens it, a footfall or a man calling might start
+it, and then<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" Steele shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"And there is no other way you can get into
+the Creek valley?" asked Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"No other way with a horse. You can follow
+the Creek toward its source, they say, a few miles
+and then across. Hunters go that way sometimes,
+but on foot; and they have to scramble
+for it."</p>
+
+<p>On and on they went over a wide trail now beside
+the clear little Meadow Creek. Ross began to
+feel giddy again.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you do," Steele explained the next
+time they made a stop, "because the Creek is half
+a mile higher than the cañon. But you get over
+that in a few days."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," exclaimed Ross suddenly, "how
+Leslie Jones stood that trail?"</p>
+
+<p>"About the same as the average and ordinary
+mortal," rejoined Steele sarcastically. "But you&#8217;ll
+probably have a good many chances of finding out
+for yourself. You&#8217;ll be glad to see anybody, even
+young Jones!"</p>
+
+<p>At last, after threading their way between spurs
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span>
+and over bowlders and through valleys, they
+emerged on the other side of Crosby, and found
+themselves in a bowl the sides of which were
+formed by mountains so high and grim that Ross
+gasped for the breath that he felt the peaks would
+eventually shut off.</p>
+
+<p>It was a queer and uncomfortable feeling, this
+which the mountains gave him, a sense of being
+shut in and overpowered and helpless.</p>
+
+<p>The peaks on all sides were snow-heaped; but
+the valley, protected as it was, showed patches of
+black earth. Sage-brush with scrub spruce and
+hemlock were the only vegetation of the valley
+visible, but the sides of the mountains showed a
+good growth of hemlock and pine trees reaching
+to timber line only a few hundred feet up.</p>
+
+<p>On the left at the foot of Crosby&#8211;whose back
+looked as high to Ross as its face, despite the fact
+that he was half a mile higher here than in the
+cañon&#8211;two columns of smoke were ascending
+from two clusters of hemlocks a quarter of a
+mile apart. Toward these, Steele, drawing in his
+horse, pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"The first is your layout," he called back over
+his shoulder, "the other is the McKenzies&#8217;!"</p>
+
+<p>"And where is Wilson&#8217;s?" asked Ross, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Steele faced in the opposite direction and indicated
+a narrow trail that led to the right,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span>
+disappearing in a forest of scrub pine which filled the
+ravine between two of the mountains that formed
+the rim of the bowl. "Follow that trail and
+you&#8217;ll reach &#8217;em. But ten to one, before you can
+do it they&#8217;ll follow the trail this way and reach
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so!" exclaimed Ross in a heartfelt
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later he was face to face with
+Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>The latter stood in the doorway of a low log
+shack, his great hands cupped over large blue
+goggles through which his eyes showed dimly,
+the lids screwed together, leaving only slits for
+the admission of the dreaded glare of light from
+the snow. His hands were crusted with dirt. His
+face, bearded to the rim of the goggles, was grimy,
+and the beard matted. His hair hung uneven and
+uncombed to his thick rounded shoulders. He
+wore a colored flannel shirt, a sheepskin coat, and
+corduroy trousers thrust into the knee-high tops
+of old shoes.</p>
+
+<p>In response to Steele&#8217;s greeting and introduction
+Weimer extended his hand, peered at Ross a moment,
+and then asked eagerly in a throaty, husky
+voice of Steele:</p>
+
+<p>"D&#8217;ye pack any tobac&#8217; over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lots of it," cried Steele jovially. "Enough
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span>
+for your use and some for you to give to your
+neighbors."</p>
+
+<p>Immediately Weimer&#8217;s sagging, middle-aged figure
+became straight and stiff, and his high forehead
+wrinkled in a heavy frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Give dem McKenzies anyting! Ven I do, it&#8217;ll
+be ven my name ain&#8217;t Shake Veimer."</p>
+
+<p>Steele stepped quickly in front of the older man,
+and spoke forcefully. "There&#8217;s one thing, Uncle
+Jake, that you&#8217;re givin&#8217; &#8217;em as fast as you can,
+and that&#8217;s these claims."</p>
+
+<p>"Nein! Nein!" Weimer shouted. "Das ist
+nicht so!"</p>
+
+<p>His uneven black hair bobbed wildly about his
+shoulders. He pumped his powerful arms up and
+down as if the McKenzies were beneath them.</p>
+
+<p>Steele thrust his face near that of the agitated
+man, and demanded roughly, "How many shots
+have you put since you were over to Camp to get
+me to write to young Grant&#8217;s father? Say, now!"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer&#8217;s manner became cringing. He backed
+into the cabin. "If your eyes<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" he began,
+but Steele cut him short.</p>
+
+<p>"You know you&#8217;ve not taken one pound of ore
+out of your tunnel since. You know you have sat
+around here waitin&#8217; for Grant to send some one to
+help you out<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer put up a great hand, and shrank back
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span>
+as a child would have retreated before his mother&#8217;s
+upraised slipper. Steele followed him into the
+cabin, and Ross slowly followed Steele.</p>
+
+<p>"The snow ist come," whimpered Weimer;
+"und I can&#8217;t see ven the snow comes, und the
+tunnel so far ist to valk<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>But Steele cut short his complaints sternly.
+"Now," he declared, "all your excuses must come
+to an end. Here is some one to help. Young
+Grant here is going to put this work through, and
+you&#8217;ve got to brace up and help him. I should be
+ashamed to sit down and let a couple of McKenzies
+take away my claims."</p>
+
+<p>At once Weimer became alert and combative.
+The McKenzies should not take the claims.</p>
+
+<p>"You see how it is," Steele began as he and
+Ross were carrying the cases of dynamite "sticks"
+up the trail to the tunnel in which Weimer was
+doing the assessment work for the four tracts to
+which he had laid claim. "Mentally Weimer has
+become suddenly an old and childish man while
+retaining all his physical powers. He can do the
+work of two ordinary men if he can be made to
+work&#8211;and it&#8217;s up to you to compel him. Otherwise,
+by the first of next July, at the time when
+these claims ought to be patented, you will have
+to forfeit &#8217;em."</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s heart sank. "The first of next July,"
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span>
+and it was then but the middle of October! He
+laid the case of sticks down on the ore-dump, and,
+glancing up at the peaks which held him a
+prisoner, caught his breath in a gust of rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>At the mouth of the tunnel, some seven feet
+high and eight wide, was the "dump," to the edge
+of which ran a rusty track with a "bumper" at
+the end. The track extended into the tunnel.
+On it stood a lumbering vehicle, consisting of the
+trucks of a hand car, on which was fastened a
+home-made box to carry ore.</p>
+
+<p>"This," explained Steele, "is a remnant of
+Weimer&#8217;s better days. There was no way to pack
+a regular car over here, and he devised this. He
+was a smart man until last year."</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, which Weimer prepared,&#8211;Ross
+found him always ready to prepare food and eat
+it,&#8211;Steele suggested that they "drop in" on the
+McKenzies.</p>
+
+<p>"Especially," he added, his eyes scanning Ross&#8217;s
+face, "after your meeting Sandy on the way to
+Cody."</p>
+
+<p>Ross hesitated. "I don&#8217;t know about that," he
+objected, surprised that Steele should suggest such
+a thing. "Wouldn&#8217;t it be a bit queer for me to
+call on my &#8217;friends the enemy&#8217;?"</p>
+
+<p>Steele laughed, but held strongly to his point.
+"Not queer at all. There&#8217;s no object in not being
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span>
+on a speakin&#8217;-footing with &#8217;em," he said. "There&#8217;s
+nothing to be gained and a lot to be lost by openly
+recognizing what they&#8217;re waiting for. You&#8217;re
+goin&#8217; to get almighty lonesome up here,"&#8211;involuntarily
+Ross swallowed, and turned his face
+away,&#8211;"and that Sandy McKenzie is good company&#8211;on
+the surface. I can&#8217;t say as much for the
+other, Waymart, but he&#8217;ll pass."</p>
+
+<p>The sun was shining warmly when they left
+Weimer&#8217;s cabin. The snow above the narrow
+loam-paved trail was melting and running in
+rivulets down to the creek. Overhead the spruce
+boughs met, and laced their green fingers together,
+sending down a damp, spicy odor.</p>
+
+<p>Near the McKenzie cabin Steele paused and
+looked up the mountainside. A few rods away
+the earth was thrown up around some tree stumps
+whose tops had been recently cut off.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," he explained in a low tone to Ross,
+"the McKenzies are supposed to be over here
+working some claims that they staked out last
+spring. But look there! They haven&#8217;t got the
+discovery hole finished yet!"</p>
+
+<p>The "discovery hole," as Ross had learned, must
+be dug within thirty days after the staking of the
+claim, and is a name given to the ten feet of
+development work required by the law of Wyoming.
+This ten feet of digging may mark either
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span>
+the commencement of a tunnel if the claim is
+located on the side of a mountain, or, if the claim
+is on level ground, the hole takes the form of a
+shaft driven perpendicularly into the earth. With
+a claim thus staked and developed, the owner
+may rest secure for one year without further work.
+Then, in order to hold the claim against any
+covetous claim "jumper" he must do one hundred
+dollars&#8217; worth of development work a year for five
+years in order to obtain a patent. If he has staked
+several adjacent claims, work for all may be done
+in one shaft or tunnel.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, merely glancing at the incomplete discovery
+hole, looked at the cabin from which the
+sound of voices issued. His gaze was doubtful,
+and his footsteps lagged.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing this, Steele walked on briskly, rapped on
+the sagging door, threw it open, and brought
+Ross reluctantly face to face with his "friends the
+enemy."</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span><a id='link_6'></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE MEN OF MEADOW CREEK</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Sandy McKenzie</span> sat before a rough board table
+on which his elbows lazily rested, supporting half
+his weight. Sandy needed no gymnasium exercises
+to teach him relaxation. Before him were
+the remains of a hearty dinner, the chief dish of
+which smelled to Ross like beefsteak. From this
+dish from time to time Sandy forked bits of meat
+on which he leisurely chewed.</p>
+
+<p>He wore the same garb in which Ross had first
+seen him; but the corduroy trousers were much
+the worse for wear and dirt, and it had been weeks
+since his face had felt a razor. His sandy hair
+also had increased in length, one thick lock perpetually
+dangling over his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Waymart, an older and darker man than Sandy,
+lay in his bunk smoking, his knees drawn up and
+his hands clasped around them. Waymart was
+clean shaven, and his black hair was closely
+clipped.</p>
+
+<p>Both Sandy and Waymart were surprised to see
+Ross at their cabin door, but Sandy favored him
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span>
+with a delighted grin. Rising without disturbing
+the box on which he had been sitting, he straddled
+across it, and held out a cordial hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Tenderfoot," he shouted. "I hear
+they&#8217;ve added Doc to that there name since I see
+you last."</p>
+
+<p>Waymart crawled slowly out of his bunk. His
+black eyes met Ross&#8217;s an instant, and then slid
+away, the lids drooping. He held out a hand
+which, although larger than Sandy&#8217;s, lacked its
+cordial grip.</p>
+
+<p>"Have some chairs," Sandy invited gayly, kicking
+forward a couple of boxes. "These here are
+our second-best plush, upholstered, <i>ma</i>hogany affairs.
+The best are coming from Chicago when
+the Burlington Road gets into Camp."</p>
+
+<p>There was about Sandy such an air of gay irresponsibility
+and cordiality that Ross brightened
+perceptibly. After all, his "friends the enemy"
+might not be bad neighbors, and he was glad he
+had allowed Steele to persuade him to come.</p>
+
+<p>Pushing his box away from the red-hot stove,
+he tipped it up on end, and sat down beside the
+only window the cabin afforded. Directly outside,
+hanging to a tree, were the hind quarters of a
+beef, as Ross supposed at first glance. But, chancing
+to glance down, he found himself looking at
+the head of an elk with great branching antlers, a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span>
+head such as he had seen at "The Irma" in Cody,
+credited to the marksmanship of Buffalo Bill.</p>
+
+<p>"Last week," he heard Waymart saying to
+Steele, "we got him over near the Divide."</p>
+
+<p>Ross opened his eyes in astonishment. "A
+week!" he exclaimed, glancing from the table to
+the meat hanging uncovered and unprotected outside.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy caught the expression, and slapped his
+leg gleefully. "Think that there meat ought to
+be off color by this time, don&#8217;t ye, Doc? Well,
+let me tell ye we&#8217;ll be eatin&#8217; on it hangin&#8217; just
+where it is until it&#8217;s gone; and the last bite will
+be as good as the first."</p>
+
+<p>Steele explained. "The air up here cures meat,
+Grant, quite as well as brine. It takes meat a
+mighty long time to spoil&#8211;in fact, if it&#8217;s properly
+jerked, it never spoils."</p>
+
+<p>"&#8217;Jerked&#8217;?" interrogated Ross: but Sandy
+had launched into an account of their hunt over on
+the Divide, and no one explained the "jerking"
+process then.</p>
+
+<p>As Sandy talked, his manner lost its laziness.
+He became animated, laughing and gesticulating
+constantly, and occasionally running his fingers
+through his hair and throwing the stray front lock
+back among its fellows.</p>
+
+<p>Waymart had lain back in his bunk again, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span>
+unceremoniously elevated his knees, between
+which he glanced at Ross from time to time. He
+said but little, and smiled less.</p>
+
+<p>The two occupied a cabin similar to Weimer&#8217;s
+except that it was cleaner. In one corner was a
+heap of supplies, boxes of canned goods, and sacks
+of flour. Seeing Steele&#8217;s eyes on these, Sandy explained
+easily:</p>
+
+<p>"Hain&#8217;t packed over our winter&#8217;s supplies yet
+except the sticks. Got a plenty of them, but
+grub&#8217;s gettin&#8217; pretty low."</p>
+
+<p>"Better hurry up, then," remarked Steele in a
+careless fashion. "All the horses in Camp will be
+sent below in a couple of weeks."</p>
+
+<p>By "below" he meant the ranches of Wood
+River Valley.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy pushed back his front lock. "Time
+enough," he returned lightly. "Everything can
+wait except game-huntin&#8217;. There&#8217;s a flock of
+mountain sheep over on the north side of Crosby,
+and we&#8217;re goin&#8217; to trail &#8217;em to-morrow." Then
+he turned hospitably to Ross. "Want to go
+along?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross shook his head. "I&#8217;ve&#8211;I&#8217;ve got to work,"
+he stammered, embarrassed at being obliged to introduce
+the subject of work on the Weimer-Grant
+claims.</p>
+
+<p>He might have saved himself all embarrassment,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>
+as the subject seemed to have no personal connection
+with the gay Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>"What," he cried, "in huntin&#8217; season? Wall,
+I&#8217;ve met other tenderfeet constituted like ye; but
+they soon git over the fit, and so will you, I reckon.
+Brought a gun?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You&#8217;ll be out with us yet," declared Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," came from the bunk in tones of certainty.</p>
+
+<p>Ross said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"When you bring down your first buck," pursued
+Sandy, unruffled by the boy&#8217;s silence, "you&#8217;ll
+begin to git the Western fever that ye said ye
+didn&#8217;t want." Here Sandy chortled. "Guess ye
+think ye&#8217;re enough of a doctor t&#8217; cure that fever,
+but wait and see!"</p>
+
+<p>As he said this, there was in the speaker&#8217;s manner,
+or in his blue eyes or sandy-bearded face, a
+return of that subtle something which had caused
+Ross to decide that he "partly liked him and
+partly didn&#8217;t."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect," said Steele laughingly, "that Doc
+here will get as quartz crazy as Wishing Wilson is.
+Of course, you fellows have seen Wishing."</p>
+
+<p>"Wishin&#8217; Wilson!" exclaimed Sandy and
+Waymart in one breath, Sandy adding, "What do
+ye mean? Whereabouts is Wishin&#8217;?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span>"Well! Well! How comes it you didn&#8217;t
+know?" exclaimed Steele wonderingly. "Wishing
+is right up here in your midst. He&#8217;s holding
+down his claims this minute up yonder," jerking
+his thumb over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy sat up and threw the lock out of his eyes.
+"Back to stay?" he asked with his forehead
+puckering into a scowl.</p>
+
+<p>Steele nodded. "Stay till the trail is shut up."</p>
+
+<p>The scowl on Sandy&#8217;s forehead deepened.
+"Thought Wishin&#8217; was on the hog&#8217;s back. Last I
+knew he was tryin&#8217; to sell out to a party in Omaha.
+When did he come?"</p>
+
+<p>Waymart crawled out of his bunk again and
+lighted his pipe. "We&#8217;ve been hunting&#8217;," he explained,
+"ye know. Didn&#8217;t git back &#8217;til yesterday.
+Place may be full of folks and we none the
+wiser!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;re crowded up here yet,"
+Steele rejoined. "And Wishing didn&#8217;t come until&#8211;when
+was it?&#8211;only a few days ago, he and his
+new partner."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardner?" cried Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardner!" echoed Waymart, holding his pipe
+in his hand. "What pardner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Young chap," replied Steele, "about Doc&#8217;s
+height and&#8211;what age should you say, Doc?"</p>
+
+<p>"Probably seventeen," returned Ross. "Not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span>
+much over," adding, "his name is Jones, Leslie
+Jones. He&#8217;s from Omaha."</p>
+
+<p>"Grub stake?" asked Waymart succinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"More than that," answered Steele. "Jones is
+going to stay and help."</p>
+
+<p>The scowl on Sandy&#8217;s forehead smoothed itself
+out. He grinned genially at Ross. "I wonder
+now," he mused, "if there&#8217;s enough of us old goats
+up here in Meadow Greek to round up the kids
+and take care of &#8217;em!"</p>
+
+<p>"What about the kids taking care of the goats?"
+laughed Steele. "Sometimes they&#8217;re bigger hustlers."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy nodded lightly. "This air&#8217;ll take the
+hustle out quick enough. Such high mountains
+as these hain&#8217;t made fer hustlers."</p>
+
+<p>As Ross was returning with Steele to Weimer&#8217;s
+shack, the superintendent glanced at him sidewise.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t believe," he said slowly, "that the
+McKenzies intend to winter here. Of course,
+there&#8217;s no object in their stayin&#8217;. We all know
+they&#8217;re not here to work their claims, and it isn&#8217;t
+necessary to stay in order to watch yours; and
+they&#8217;ve no winter supplies, nor," thoughtfully,
+"have they mud-chinked their cabin. You can
+see daylight anywhere between the logs. No, I
+don&#8217;t think they have any intention of staying."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span>Ross looked around the tiny valley, with its
+fringe of windy, inaccessible peaks, and thought
+of the long months ahead of him, shut in among
+those cruelly cold mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope they stay!" he declared fervently.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later, having talked over the situation
+with Ross thoroughly, explained the amount of
+work necessary to be done in the tunnel, and
+given Weimer large chunks of advice, Steele rode
+away, driving his packhorses in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>Ross watched him out of sight and then entered
+the shack whistling to keep his courage up.
+Inside he surveyed his temporary home with a
+shiver which stopped the whistle. "Uncle Jake,"
+he suggested, "let&#8217;s clean house the rest of the
+day. Willing?"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, sitting on a box in front of the stove,
+assented without removing the pipe from his lips.
+"Ja, clean up all you vant to. I tink your fader
+was alvays vantin&#8217; to clean mit der house."</p>
+
+<p>"Think of my father&#8217;s ever cleaning out a cabin
+like this!" muttered Ross.</p>
+
+<p>He stood helplessly in front of the door looking
+from the complacently smoking Weimer to the
+bags and boxes heaped on the floor and then
+around the dirt-encrusted room. He thought of
+Aunt Anne and her perfectly kept house with a
+great throb of homesickness. Then he thought of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span>
+his father, who had got his "start" under such conditions
+as these and suddenly threw off his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s got to be done," he said aloud, "and I&#8217;ve
+got to do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Vat?" asked Weimer stupidly turning his goggles
+in Ross&#8217;s direction. Weimer was hugging his
+knees in a state of blissful content, the smoke from
+his pipe curling about his head and almost shutting
+from view the big young man on whose
+shoulders he had already shifted all burdens connected
+with the Grant-Weimer claims.</p>
+
+<p>During the remainder of the day Ross worked
+cleaning up the cabin and packing away their
+winter supplies. When night came his bunk
+looked better to him than the supper which Weimer
+was preparing, and he dropped asleep sitting
+beside the table waiting for the flapjacks. But,
+instead of turning in directly after washing the
+supper dishes, as he had intended, he was forced
+to keep awake until nine o&#8217;clock entertaining the
+denizens of Meadow Creek Valley.</p>
+
+<p>The McKenzies came over first. Weimer, who,
+when night approached, had removed his goggles,
+saw them coming first and raised his voice in
+protest.</p>
+
+<p>"Ach! dem McKenzies! See here, poy, dey
+mustn&#8217;t come mit my cabin. Dey ist after dese
+claims. Vorstehen sie nicht?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>"Yes, yes, Uncle Jake, I understand," Ross returned
+soothingly. "But they can&#8217;t carry the
+claims away in their pockets to-night, and to-morrow
+morning we are going to bone down to work
+at such a rate that they&#8217;ll come up missing on
+their calculations altogether."</p>
+
+<p>At the mention of work, Weimer groaned and
+retiring precipitately to his bunk lay there regarding
+the doorway hostilely through the smoke from
+his pipe. The next minute the doorway framed
+Sandy with Waymart close behind.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Doc!" Sandy pushed his cap to the
+back of his head. "Mart and I, we&#8217;ve started out
+fer to pay our respects to Wishin&#8217; Wilson. Want
+t&#8217; hike along with us?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross shrugged his shoulders and sat down on
+one end of the table, dish-cloth in hand. "Guess
+I&#8217;ve had hiking enough for one day, McKenzie.
+Let&#8217;s see. It&#8217;s two miles up there, isn&#8217;t it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep;" Sandy lounged in and sat down on a
+box. "And by th&#8217; same sign it&#8217;s two miles back.
+But, gosh, young man, a matter of four mile ain&#8217;t
+nothin&#8217; in this country!" He surveyed Ross
+curiously. "How d&#8217;ye travel East? In a push
+cart?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross grinned but flushed. "The trip over from
+Camp was on rather higher ground than I&#8217;ve ever
+seen before and it&#8211;well&#8211;it winded me," frankly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span>
+"And this afternoon I&#8217;ve been hoeing out here.
+So I&#8217;m not exactly as fresh as a morning glory to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Waymart came inside and looked around. Ross
+pushed a box in his direction and, after a moment&#8217;s
+hesitation and a civil nod in the direction
+of the bunk, the older McKenzie sat down and
+pulled his pipe out of his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha!" laughed Sandy. "When you&#8217;re a
+few months further away from Pennsylvany you&#8217;ll
+forgit that a shack needs a hoe, t&#8217; say nothin&#8217; of a
+broom." Then he addressed the bunk without
+looking toward it. "Uncle Jake, have you seen
+Wishin&#8217;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ja," growled Weimer uncivilly, "dat I have."</p>
+
+<p>"How did he look?" smiled Sandy who seemed
+to enjoy the other&#8217;s "grouch."</p>
+
+<p>"Look?" violently. "Vy, how should he look
+but shust like himself!"</p>
+
+<p>Waymart chuckled, and Sandy was about to reply
+when footsteps were heard drawing near.
+Heavy shoes were crunching the stones and pine
+needles under foot, and voices sounded louder and
+louder.</p>
+
+<p>"Must be Wilson and Jones," said Ross going to
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>The room was lighted by two miner&#8217;s candlesticks
+driven into the side logs. One candle was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span>
+near the door, and the light fell on the genial face
+of Wishing Wilson, who paused in the doorway to
+wring Ross&#8217;s hand and shout his greetings at the
+other occupants of the room, before stepping in
+and allowing his young partner to enter. When
+Ross finally held out his hand to Leslie Jones he
+knew that he was facing a boy as homesick as himself,
+rather than "Queen Victory&#8217;s youngest."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie gripped the other&#8217;s hand as though its
+owner were a lifelong friend. "How do you make
+it up here?" he asked in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t make it yet," responded Ross. "I just
+got here to-day. Steele came up with me."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned to introduce Leslie to the McKenzies
+and saw a tableau which puzzled him.</p>
+
+<p>Waymart was staring at Leslie with amazed eyes
+and a lower jaw that slightly sagged. He held his
+pipe in front of his mouth surprised in the act of adjusting
+it between his lips. Sandy, rising, came
+blithely forward, and, in passing Waymart, stumbled
+and jostled against him. Waymart instantly
+recovered his lost poise. Lowering his pipe he
+slouched along behind Sandy and shook hands with
+Wilson&#8217;s partner. Wilson himself was over beside
+Weimer&#8217;s bunk telling at the top of his voice that
+he had come to a rock wall in his tunnel, and on
+the other side there must, without fail, be either a
+pocket of free gold or a lead that would make the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span>
+claims among the most valuable in the Shoshones.
+To this optimistic talk Leslie did not listen with
+the same absorbing interest he had shown at Sagehen
+Roost, Ross noticed.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, a week of loneliness, coarse food and
+hard work had wilted Leslie Jones both physically
+and mentally. Abject weariness seemed to have
+robbed him of a part of his absorbing self-esteem.
+Furthermore, he appeared to Ross to be troubled
+as well as homesick. He looked at Sandy and
+Waymart unrecognizingly and sat down on a
+bench beneath the candle by the stove.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall stay," Ross heard Wishing tell the
+McKenzies, "till the pass over Crosby threatens.
+Then we&#8217;ll hike it below to the coal claims."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn&#8217;t know you had any," interrupted Sandy.
+"Where are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Up Wood River, only about a mile or such a
+matter from Camp. Fine outcroppin&#8217; of coal.
+Best in the country. When the Burlington gits
+here they&#8217;ve got t&#8217; have coal and I says to myself,
+&#8217;There&#8217;s where you come up on top, Wishin&#8217;, you&#8217;ll
+have th&#8217; coal t&#8217; sell &#8217;em,&#8217; me and my pard now,"
+he added with a glance at Jones.</p>
+
+<p>The boy looked at him vaguely, as though he
+had not heard, and nodded. He sat with one
+knee thrown over the other, his back pressed
+against the side logs, his eyes so heavy that the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span>
+lids kept drooping despite his efforts to keep
+awake. His hands were blistered, and his new
+corduroy suit dirty and torn. The air of newness
+which had characterized him when Ross first met
+him was gone. His hair had lengthened, and his
+cheeks revealed hollows. He said but little, being
+engaged in the absorbing effort to keep awake.
+Besides, Sandy and Wilson gave no one else a
+chance to talk. Waymart smoked stolidly staring
+at the candle above Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, sitting with his elbows on the table, ceased
+to struggle against weariness, and, with his head
+on his arms, fell asleep. He awakened just in
+time to see his callers depart, whereupon he threw
+himself, dressed, in his bunk and slept until late
+the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>During the next few weeks, all days seemed alike
+to Ross except Sunday. Early each Sunday morning
+he struck the trail for Miners&#8217; Camp, the post-office,
+and Steele&#8217;s shack. At first he crept shudderingly
+over that quarter mile around the shoulder
+of Crosby. But soon his head lost every sense of
+giddiness, and his legs regained their accustomed
+strength, and his heart ceased to beat agitatedly at
+sight of the thousand-feet fall.</p>
+
+<p>On the third Sunday he came into Steele&#8217;s shack
+with a brighter face than he had worn before.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i4'></a><img src='images/i-134.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+HE STRUCK THE TRAIL
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span>"Things are sort of righting themselves," he
+reported over a hot elk steak. "I&#8217;m getting Weimer
+down to work in dead earnest," chuckling. "I
+hold the McKenzie boys before his mind&#8217;s eye
+continually, and roll that car out, and dump it so
+quickly that he has to step lively to get enough
+ore picked out and blasted out to fill it."</p>
+
+<p>Steele whistled when Ross told him how many
+cubic feet had been taken out of the Weimer-Grant
+tunnel during the week. He took from his pocket
+a paper and pencil, and fell to figuring. Ross
+pushed aside the empty dishes, and, leaning across
+the table, looked on with interest. He, too, had
+figured extensively since work began on Meadow
+Creek, but only during the last week had the
+figures satisfied him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, man alive!" cried Steele after a few moments&#8217;
+silent work, "you&#8217;ll fetch it, at this rate."
+He stretched his hand across the table impetuously,
+and gripped Ross&#8217;s, adding, "I thought you could
+never do it&#8211;even with a backbone."</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s shoulders straightened, and his face
+flushed boyishly. "We <i>must</i> fetch it!"</p>
+
+<p>Steele leaned back, and drummed on the table.
+"What about the McKenzies? Of course they
+must know what progress you&#8217;ve made."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," exclaimed Ross, "I hope I can keep
+&#8217;em so interested guessing that they&#8217;ll stay all
+winter. They come over as socially as you please
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span>
+about every evening. Weimer doesn&#8217;t like it
+much. He has no use for &#8217;em, but I have, you
+bet! I&#8217;m glad to have &#8217;em around, especially
+now when I can estimate that at the present rate
+of speed the tunnel will be ready so we can apply
+for a patent by June."</p>
+
+<p>To Dr. and Mrs. Grant, Ross wrote: "It&#8217;s going
+to be a long pull and a strong pull, but I shall
+stick to the ship and show father that I can do
+something else besides setting a bone.</p>
+
+<p>"And what&#8217;s more and queerer, I&#8217;m in danger
+of getting interested in gold mining for itself.
+Every time I push our little car out to the end
+of the dump and unload the ore I wonder how
+much gold I&#8217;m watching roll away down the incline.
+Aunt Anne, you said in your last that it
+seems such a waste to throw away the ore. Well,
+if you were here you&#8217;d find it a greater waste of
+good money to try to get money out of the quartz
+under present conditions. You see there are only
+a few dollars&#8217; worth of gold in a ton of rock. That
+ton would have to be &#8217;packed,&#8217; as they say here,
+eighty miles over the roughest of trails to Cody,
+and there loaded on cars and sent clear to Omaha,
+our nearest smelter. And I guess you know more
+than I do about the costly process of crushing ore
+and extracting gold from it in a smelter. It&#8217;s not
+like mining for &#8217;pay dirt,&#8217; as the men here call
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span>
+placer mining, where you gather up sand and wash
+it out yourself and find the particles of gold in the
+bottom of your pan. This quartz digging is the
+most expensive kind of mining there is. But
+when the Burlington gets the branch road up into
+Miners&#8217; the ore can be loaded at the mines and
+unloaded in Omaha without change of cars. Then
+we&#8217;ll dig out the dumps and send them to the
+smelter, and back will come the gold jingling
+into our pockets. But whenever I&#8217;m moved to
+give you information I feel small, for I believe,
+in spite of all you write, that you both know more
+than I do about it now.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven&#8217;t had a book in my hand, Uncle Fred.
+When it comes night, I am too tired to understand
+the newspapers that I bring over from Miners&#8217;,
+to say nothing of delving in histology. I expect
+I shall forget all I ever knew, but never mind!
+If I can get those claims patented, and so satisfy
+father, then next year I&#8217;ll begin over again to fit
+myself for college&#8211;guess what I knew once will
+come back when I&#8217;ve studied a little. Anyway,
+I&#8217;m not going to worry about it now."</p>
+
+<p>Ross underscored those last words to convince
+himself that he was not worrying, and handed the
+letter over to Bill Travers to be mailed at Meeteetse.</p>
+
+<p>To his father Ross proudly wrote of the week&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span>
+progress in the tunnel, adding in reply to a rather
+longer letter than usual, which he found awaiting
+him in Camp, "No, I have no intention of throwing
+up the job."</p>
+
+<p>His father had opened the way wide for him to
+"throw up the job" after receiving the letter he
+had requested Steele to fill with exact information.
+That part of the information which stated that
+Ross must necessarily be shut up in Meadow
+Creek Valley for months with a more or less weak-headed
+partner had led to the letter which Ross
+found awaiting him. But Ross, Junior, was not
+well enough acquainted with Ross, Senior, to understand
+that this letter was an invitation for him
+to return East.</p>
+
+<p>"He thinks I&#8217;m just chicken-hearted enough to
+be ready to cut and run at the first obstacle," was
+Ross&#8217;s thought when he read what his father had
+written. His chin came up, and his eyes narrowed.
+"I&#8217;d stay and work here a year before I&#8217;d
+show the white feather now."</p>
+
+<p>Ever since his last visit to New York, Ross had
+dwelt with secret pride on the respect and confidence
+that his father had shown him, and the
+sensation was so new and pleasant that he had no
+intention of forfeiting it.</p>
+
+<p>And thus it happened that, with Grant, Senior,
+and Dr. Grant and Aunt Anne all desiring Ross&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span>
+presence at home, and with Ross&#8217;s wishes coinciding
+exactly with theirs, he remained at the "jumping-off
+place" into the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>In his private office on Broadway, Grant, Senior,
+read and reread, "No, I have no intention of
+throwing up the job." He twisted uneasily in his
+swivel-chair. He pulled Steele&#8217;s last letter out of
+a pigeonhole, read it, frowned, and replaced it.
+Then he leaned back and admitted aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish the boy was safely entered in medical
+college."</p>
+
+<p>But, even as he considered the matter, "the
+boy" with a small pack on his back, candy and a
+few apples to eat as a relish with the canned stuff,
+was plodding through the snow, light and easily
+brushed aside as yet, over the trail between Miners&#8217;
+Camp and Meadow Creek. And the boy&#8217;s heart
+was growing as courageous as his muscles were
+strong.</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span><a id='link_7'></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><span class='h2fs'>HALF-CONFIDENCES</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>It</span> was dark that night when Ross arrived at
+the Weimer shack. The candles were lighted, and
+as he passed the window, he saw Leslie Jones
+within, sitting on a box on the opposite side of the
+room. His elbows were on the table, and he was
+listening to Weimer, or rather, pretending to listen.
+At a glance, Ross saw that his thoughts were far
+afield, his eyes being fixed on the speaker with an
+absent stare. He appeared more unkempt than on
+the occasion of his first call, and his face was
+thinner. There was also about him an air of collapse
+that made him a different person from the
+overbearing young man who had issued lofty
+orders at Sagehen Roost.</p>
+
+<p>It was the second time that Ross had seen him
+since coming into the valley. The week before he
+had gone with the McKenzies one evening to the
+Jones claims, but the two boys had exchanged few
+remarks, both being too tired to talk.</p>
+
+<p>As Ross entered the shack a sudden thought
+struck him. He stopped in the doorway and
+greeted Jones with, "See here! Why haven&#8217;t I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span>
+thought to get your mail Sundays? You haven&#8217;t
+been over to Camp at all, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie moved uneasily. He picked up his cap
+and pulled at the rim. "Aw&#8211;it&#8217;s bully of you to
+think of my mail, but I&#8217;m not expecting&#8211;why,
+yes, you might inquire," he added lamely. Then,
+"What&#8217;s going on in Camp? I&#8217;d like to hear
+something about people once more," with a wry
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>Ross unstrapped a pack from his back and threw
+the contents on the table. Sorting out the week&#8217;s
+papers, he tossed them across the table. "&#8217;Omaha
+News.&#8217; Want to see it?"</p>
+
+<p>The blood came in an unexpected rush to Leslie&#8217;s
+face and his hand trembled as he reached for
+the papers. Ross watched him as he took them
+and scanned the headings, column by column.
+Then he glanced keenly over the advertisements,
+and without reading further threw the papers
+aside and rested his elbows despondently on the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, satisfied with the tobacco and candy
+that Ross had brought, retired to his bunk, dozing
+and smoking by turns. Ross had seated himself
+at the table opposite Leslie and reread his letters.
+Now, as the other cast the papers aside, he looked
+up and met misery in the eyes leveled at him
+from beneath his caller&#8217;s lengthening hair.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span>"Say!" ejaculated Ross impulsively, "I bet you
+find it as awful up in this country as I do!"</p>
+
+<p>"Awful!" echoed Leslie. "It&#8217;s<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" A sudden
+working in his throat stopped him. He
+turned his face away.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn&#8217;t stay here for all the gold in these
+mountains if things weren&#8217;t just as they are," Ross
+continued sympathetically, "and I presume you&#8217;re
+caught in some such way, too, or you&#8217;d get out."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie hesitated, nodded and again faced Ross,
+"How are you caught?" he asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Ross told him briefly about his father&#8217;s interest
+in the claims and Weimer&#8217;s appeal for help that
+had led to his, Ross&#8217;s, coming.</p>
+
+<p>As he talked Leslie&#8217;s eagerness evaporated. He
+evidently was looking for another sort of explanation,
+and his response was only half-hearted:</p>
+
+<p>"Then your father sent you. That&#8217;s bad luck
+when you want to be in school." He hesitated and
+added: "It&#8217;s not every fellow that wants to go to
+school. I hate it!"</p>
+
+<p>"You do!" exclaimed Ross. "Well, I can&#8217;t say
+I waste any love on studying myself, that is, in
+most studies, but I&#8217;m after results. I&#8217;m willing to
+bone down to work because of where the work will
+take me. The only thing I really like to study is
+medicine, anatomy and all that sort of thing, you
+know. But in order to get anywhere in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span>
+profession, I have to take a lot of mathematics and
+language and things that I detest."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie&#8217;s shoulders came up. "I won&#8217;t study
+what I don&#8217;t like," he declared arrogantly, "and I
+can&#8217;t be made to&#8211;guess they&#8217;re finding that out,
+too!" The last was under his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Ross began vaguely, "if you want to be
+a business man it&#8217;s not necessary to go through
+college. Our most successful business men<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"
+His voice trailed into silence as he saw that the
+other was not listening.</p>
+
+<p>There ensued a few moments of quiet. In the
+bunk Weimer snored gently. A nickel clock suspended
+on a peg from the side logs ticked loudly.
+The pine chunks in the sheet-iron stove cracked
+and snapped cheerfully. Leslie stared dejectedly
+at the table, while Ross, his forehead knit into a
+puzzled frown, stared at Leslie. What could have
+happened, he asked himself, to rob the other in
+four weeks of his former desire to turn prospector?
+Homesickness? Perhaps, but Ross decided
+the trouble lay deeper. If it were mere
+homesickness, the boy would be haunting Miners&#8217;
+Camp and the post-office or else clearing out of the
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"Where&#8217;s Wilson?" Ross asked finally.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie aroused himself with difficulty. "He&#8217;s
+over at the McKenzies&#8217;. I came here."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span>"How&#8217;s the tunnel going? Are you making
+headway?"</p>
+
+<p>This question opened the flood-gates of Leslie&#8217;s
+misery. "Headway?" he burst out. "Yes, we&#8217;re
+making headway, but toward what, I&#8217;d like to
+know!"</p>
+
+<p>It was an exclamation rather than a question,
+and the boy brought his clenched fist down violently
+on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," stammered Ross, "toward getting the
+claims patented, I suppose. What else did you
+expect?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie&#8217;s excitement subsided. He folded his
+arms on the table. "I came expecting to find
+gold," he confessed. "I could hardly wait to get
+here and now&#8211;well, I&#8217;m here, that&#8217;s all, and all
+my money is spent for supplies."</p>
+
+<p>"But didn&#8217;t you understand," Ross began, "that
+the ore up here had to be smelted in order to release
+the metal, and that we can never pack the ore
+on horseback over these trails and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No," cried Leslie fiercely, "I didn&#8217;t understand.
+I understood that I was coming to work
+claims that would surely prove a perfect Klondike
+in a short time&#8211;I thought in a few weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that&#8217;s Wilson," broke in Ross. "He&#8217;s a
+perfect promoter, Steele tells me, because he believes
+in things himself so intensely that he makes
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span>
+you see his way in spite of yourself. Steele says
+he has been quartz crazy for years. Every claim
+that he stakes holds his everlasting fortune in
+prospect."</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ve found that out," assented Leslie bitterly,
+"and yet I can&#8217;t blame Wilson. I foisted myself
+on him at Omaha&#8211;he didn&#8217;t get after me. And he
+has really been square with me. He simply made
+me believe in his claims as thoroughly as he does,
+and he believes in them yet, but I don&#8217;t. You
+see," Leslie explained, "he keeps expecting to run
+across a pocket of free gold, and that he says he&#8217;ll
+turn over to me so I can get back the money I put
+into the supplies. I&#8217;ve got to get that money back
+pretty soon," he added emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked at him commiseratingly. "I&#8217;m
+afraid you can&#8217;t."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Leslie&#8217;s lips worked miserably.
+He took no pains to conceal his emotion from
+Ross. Finally he burst out, "I must, Grant. I&#8217;ve
+simply got to have that money back." He held
+out his hands palms up. They were blistered and
+sore. "That doesn&#8217;t matter," he declared. "I&#8217;d
+work &#8217;em to the bone if the work would bring the
+gold. And a month ago I&#8217;d never done an hour&#8217;s
+work in my life. I tell you," in a burst of irrepressible
+confidence, "everything looks different to
+me to-day from what it did five weeks ago. I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span>
+wish&#8211;I wish I could go back those five weeks&#8211;why,
+I&#8217;d almost be willing to go to school<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Approaching sounds stopped the confidence that
+Ross was so anxious to hear. The door opened
+unceremoniously, and the McKenzies entered, accompanied
+by Wilson. The latter was talking excitedly.
+With a nod at Ross he finished his speech
+while helping himself to a seat beside the stove.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you there&#8217;s every sign of free gold. Same
+kind of stun crops out there and in the same layers
+and at the same angle as when I was working
+up in Butte. My claims was right next door to a
+fellow&#8217;s named Harrison. One mornin&#8217; he bust
+through a wall rock slam bang right onto two
+thousand dollars&#8217; worth of the prettiest yellow ye
+ever see. And I tell ye I shouldn&#8217;t be a mite surprised
+if our next blast showed us a streak of yellow
+too."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy laughed unconcernedly. "A streak of
+yeller in a chap and in a rock mean two different
+things, I notice. And I&#8217;ve also seen more of the
+yeller in fellers than in rocks," easily dropping on
+a box and lighting his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>Young Jones, looking at his partner, brightened
+visibly, despite the knowledge he had recently acquired
+of Wilson&#8217;s optimism. There was about
+the man such a cock-sureness, such simple sincerity
+and abiding faith in his own statements that Ross
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span>
+felt that he could not rest content the following
+day without knowing the result of that next
+charge of dynamite.</p>
+
+<p>Steele had told him about these "pockets" that
+occasionally are concealed in the heart of the veins
+or "leads" along which mining tunnels are driven.
+They are uncovered unexpectedly by a blast of
+dynamite. They consist of small quantities of
+quartz of such richness that it pays to transport
+the ore to the smelter. But every prospector
+dreams of uncovering a pocket of "free gold" ore,
+quartz through which the gold is scattered in visible
+particles or streaks and can be extracted in its pure
+state with the aid of a hammer and a knife blade.</p>
+
+<p>"Come down to-morrow night," Ross said in a
+low tone across the table, "and report."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie nodded, and Ross, going to his emergency
+chest, brought out a bottle of liquid and a box of
+salve. "Here," he said abruptly, "better take
+some care of those hands of yours if you don&#8217;t
+want blood poisoning to set in. Soak &#8217;em well in
+hot water with a teaspoonful of this added"&#8211;he
+shoved the bottle of liquid across the table&#8211;"and
+then rub in this salve. And don&#8217;t work in the
+dirt without gloves till those sores are healed."</p>
+
+<p>Humbly and gratefully Leslie took his orders
+from "Doc Tenderfoot," while the men looked on
+with interest and many questions.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>"Tell ye what," said Sandy heartily, "if I intended
+t&#8217; winter here I&#8217;d feel easier about the trail
+bein&#8217; closed. If a stick should go off at the wrong
+time and blow ye int&#8217; pieces, Doc here could put
+th&#8217; pieces together and patch ye up as good as new.
+Doc&#8217;s all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish," thought Ross as he saw his guests depart,
+"that I could say the same about Sandy."</p>
+
+<p>But while he had no faith in the friendly pretentions
+of Sandy, he dreaded any mention of his
+leaving the mountains. To feel that he would be
+left alone with Weimer for months was maddening.
+If only Wilson and his partner were to remain
+on the Creek&#8211;but they too would go as soon
+as the trail threatened to become impassable.
+This careless speech of Sandy&#8217;s concerning leaving
+the valley drove all other ideas out of Ross&#8217;s head
+that night and persisted in the morning. To feel
+that Weimer and himself were the only human
+beings in Meadow Creek Valley, to know that
+there was no escape until the sun thawed away the
+barrier in the spring was a terrifying thought. It
+was present that day with Ross like a waking
+nightmare. As he pushed the little car out of the
+tunnel and dumped it, he looked up at the cold
+gray peaks with a wild desire to level them and
+bring Miners&#8217; Camp&#8211;Cody&#8211;Pennsylvania&#8211;nearer.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span>
+So absorbing was this desire that he forgot
+the promised visit from Leslie and was surprised
+to see him at the door before he had finished
+washing the supper dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"You wanted to hear about that promised vein,"
+explained the newcomer, reading Ross&#8217;s surprise
+in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&#8211;why, yes! That pocket of free gold!"
+exclaimed Ross hastily picking up the thread of
+connection where it had been broken the previous
+evening by Sandy&#8217;s reference to leaving the valley.
+"Did you uncover it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uncover nothing!" returned Leslie. He sat
+on the table and swung his feet restlessly, adding
+despondently, "And what&#8217;s more, we won&#8217;t uncover
+anything in a lifetime up here, either. I&#8217;ve
+lost all hope&#8211;except," he added with a shrug of
+his shoulders, "just the minute that Wilson is
+talking."</p>
+
+<p>"I never had any hope," said Ross slowly, "but
+then, I have never given the ore more than a
+thought. With me it&#8217;s simply to get the work
+done, satisfy my father and&#8211;clear out."</p>
+
+<p>"And with me," responded Leslie, "it&#8217;s the
+money now&#8211;I&#8217;ve got to have the money. Only,"
+he added, "I&#8217;ll say this&#8211;that when I left Omaha
+there was more in it for me than the money. You
+see&#8211;I&#8217;ll own up&#8211;I was crazy to get out of school
+and, well&#8211;see things and do &#8217;em! If I&#8217;d gone to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span>
+some other place, to Goldfield or even down to
+Miners&#8217; Camp it would be different. But I&#8217;m here
+and all my money&#8217;s spent."</p>
+
+<p>Continually he came back to that last statement.
+That fact had evidently swallowed up all the lust
+for adventure, for "getting out and seeing things"&#8211;it
+was the only thing that young Jones could
+now see in the situation. Ross wondered why but
+did not like to ask. Finally he said hesitatingly,
+"I say, Jones, if you want to get out of here I&#8217;ll&#8211;that
+is&#8211;I have enough on hand to let you have
+your car-fare back to Omaha."</p>
+
+<p>The blood rushed over Leslie&#8217;s face. His head
+came up proudly. "See here, Grant," he exclaimed
+briskly, sliding off the table and stuffing
+his hands into his pockets, "it must sound as if
+I&#8217;m a low-down beggar, but I never thought of
+such a thing as getting hold of your money!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I never thought of it, either," declared
+Ross quickly. "I&#8217;ve made you the offer on my
+own hook. Come off your high and mighty perch
+and talk sense! Take the money and pay it back
+when you can. I&#8217;m a hundred dollars to the good
+here."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie "came off his perch" instantly and held
+out his hand repentantly. "Thank you, Grant.
+That&#8217;s awfully white of you, but that won&#8217;t do.
+It&#8217;s not car-fare I want, and Omaha is the last
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span>
+place I want to strike&#8211;or next to the last, at
+least&#8211;without&#8211;well, a lot more than car-fare." After
+a moment he repeated, "I tell you it&#8217;s white of you
+to offer it, though. It makes a fellow feel as if
+he&#8217;d fallen among friends."</p>
+
+<p>The latter expression reminded Ross of something
+about which he had not thought in three
+weeks, namely, the behavior of Waymart McKenzie
+when he first saw Leslie. With the water still
+dripping from the dish-pan the boy hung it against
+the logs, tossed the dish-cloth on top of the pan
+and rolling down his sleeves, asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Jones, do you know the McKenzies?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie shook his head. "Before coming here,
+do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"No, never saw them before. Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing," returned Ross carelessly, "only
+when you came in here the first night I thought
+they acted as though they&#8217;d seen you before, or
+Waymart did, rather."</p>
+
+<p>The effect of this simple statement was unexpected.
+Leslie gripped the table excitedly. His
+face paled and he was obliged to clear his throat
+before asking: "What made you think that? I
+didn&#8217;t&#8211;didn&#8217;t notice anything. I never thought
+that they&#8211;he<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"It was just a trifle that made me think that,"
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span>
+Ross hastened to assure his guest in confusion.
+"Just a little byplay when Waymart first saw you.
+Nothing to<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me exactly what it was," commanded
+Leslie, and all the boy&#8217;s imperiousness leaped to
+the front. "I want to know all that you saw."</p>
+
+<p>Ross related the incident haltingly. "Sandy
+didn&#8217;t act as though he had ever seen you before.
+It was only Waymart," he said consolingly, but it
+was plain to be seen that the other was not consoled.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s possible, very possible that they may have
+seen me&#8211;I wouldn&#8217;t have noticed them," he muttered,
+"if they were&#8211;that is, father hired any
+number of men&#8211;they might all see me and I not
+notice them."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe I can find out," offered Ross promptly.
+"I&#8217;ll ask them."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" hastily; "don&#8217;t bother with the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie crossed the room, threw open the door
+and stood staring across the valley at the McKenzie
+shack. When next he spoke he did not look
+around:</p>
+
+<p>"It will be just as well, Grant, if you don&#8217;t mention
+me to &#8217;em until<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" There ensued a long
+pause. Then, "until I talk with you again."</p>
+
+<p>Just before he left he asked abruptly, "Do you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span>
+bring the Omaha papers back with you every
+Sunday?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can," replied Ross, "if you want &#8217;em. But,
+see here, Jones, why don&#8217;t you go over to Camp
+with me next Sunday?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie hesitated. "Guess I will. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>A few steps from the door he turned back.
+"See here, Grant, don&#8217;t wait for me Sunday. If I
+go I&#8217;ll be here by eight o&#8217;clock. But if I don&#8217;t go,
+I should like to see the Omaha papers."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, I&#8217;ll fetch them," returned Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday morning he postponed his start for
+Miners&#8217; Camp until past eight o&#8217;clock, hoping that
+Leslie would come, but no Leslie appeared. Sandy
+did, however. He came freshly shaved and
+combed, with a new kerchief knotted about his
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Want some good company over t&#8217; Camp?" he
+inquired jocularly. "If ye do, here it is, fer I&#8217;m
+goin&#8217; out."</p>
+
+<p>"Going to stay long or just for the day?" asked
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dunno how long," carelessly. "I&#8217;ve got
+t&#8217; see Cody again. Little old town couldn&#8217;t fetch it
+if I didn&#8217;t hang around it about once in so often."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Waymart going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, Mart will hold the cabin and claims
+down here. Mart don&#8217;t like t&#8217; hit th&#8217; trail as often
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span>
+as I do. He&#8217;s fer his pipe and a soft bunk and a
+good meal. Mart &#8217;ud be a failure as one of these
+here globe-trotters. He&#8217;s what ye could call
+domestic in his tastes. The only thing he lacks,"
+here Sandy chuckled at his own wit, "is a blamed
+thing to be domestic about!"</p>
+
+<p>As they were making their way cautiously
+around the shoulder of Crosby, Sandy asked suddenly,
+"Why don&#8217;t that young Jones go t&#8217; Camp
+ever on Sunday? Guess they don&#8217;t work Sundays
+up t&#8217; th&#8217; Wilson claims. I should think he&#8217;d be as
+wild as you be t&#8217; git over this side of Crosby where
+there&#8217;s a post-office and newspapers and things."</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t know," returned Ross in a general
+denial of knowledge of all Sandy had said.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder about that young feller now," pursued
+Sandy affably.</p>
+
+<p>"So do I!" thought Ross. He said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder how he come t&#8217; drop out of nowhere
+with money enough t&#8217; grub-stake the two of &#8217;em
+fer six months&#8211;and then have nothin&#8217; further t&#8217;
+draw on!"</p>
+
+<p>Sandy, walking now shoulder to shoulder with
+Ross, looked at him keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t know anything about it," returned Ross
+shortly, but he could not rid himself of the insinuation
+in Sandy&#8217;s words.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned that night to Meadow Creek,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span>
+Ross was disappointed at finding Wilson awaiting
+him as well as Leslie. He had hoped that Leslie
+would come for the papers alone and would continue
+the conversation of his previous visit.</p>
+
+<p>In a loud and jovial voice Wilson informed Doc
+that his pard had started out in good shape that
+morning to go over to Camp and had then backed
+out.</p>
+
+<p>"Must have got clean over here," Wilson added.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie gathered up the newspapers which Ross
+had brought and fitted them together without
+meeting Ross&#8217;s eyes. "I found I was too tired to
+go on," was all the explanation he made. "I
+slept pretty much all day and am going to turn in
+early to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Ross nodded speechlessly, wondering how much
+Sandy&#8217;s going had to do with Leslie&#8217;s staying.
+Would the latter avoid the McKenzies now that
+he knew they had seemed to recognize him, and
+why? Before the evening was far spent Ross
+began to suspect that Leslie would like to avoid
+him also, if it were possible. The boy looked
+more despondent than ever, but he shielded his
+despondency behind a proud reserve that shut
+Ross out, much to the latter&#8217;s disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," Ross told himself, "if I hadn&#8217;t been
+such an idiot as to offer him money, he wouldn&#8217;t
+act so offish now. I never had any more tact than
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span>
+a goat, anyhow! Wish I had minded my own
+business and let him do all the talking!"</p>
+
+<p>"Vas ist de matter mit dot poy?" Weimer asked
+as soon as the door closed on their visitors. "He
+vas such a talker oder time he vas here und now
+he talks nicht at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Guess he&#8217;s homesick."</p>
+
+<p>Weimer rubbed his great hands together thoughtfully.
+"Und sick of de mountains, I tink," he
+added shrewdly. "Ven dot poy come here he
+fooled himself!"</p>
+
+<p>The last of the week saw Sandy&#8217;s return. He
+came strolling along the trail one night just as the
+sunlight was fading from the tops of the mountains.
+He was whistling, apparently in high
+spirits. Stopping at the door of Weimer&#8217;s shack
+he paused to call:</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, in there, Grant! I saw your friend
+Leonard at Cody. I set you up in fine shape t&#8217;
+&#8217;im. &#8217;No grass,&#8217; says I, &#8217;will turn t&#8217; hay while
+he&#8217;s gittin&#8217; things done.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>Ross laughed. Despite the fact that he knew
+Sandy&#8217;s praise covered an abyss of insincerity, it
+was pleasant, none the less.</p>
+
+<p>After the supper dishes were washed, he decided
+to visit the McKenzies. "Want to go along,
+Uncle Weimer?" he asked, well knowing what the
+reply would be.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span>"Go mit dem McKenzies?" gesticulated Weimer.
+"Ven I do it vill pe ven my legs von&#8217;t carry me
+avay from dem!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross laughed. "Well, Uncle Weimer, my legs
+seem to want to carry me where I can get the Cody
+news. I want to hear about Mr. Leonard. Perhaps
+he has heard from father more recently than I."</p>
+
+<p>There was no moon that night, and the sky
+had become suddenly overcast so that Ross faced a
+dense darkness pierced only by the candle-light
+from the window of the McKenzie shack. He
+stumbled toward this, feeling his way so slowly
+along the narrow trail that he unwittingly approached
+the cabin silently and surprised an
+altercation within. Sandy&#8217;s voice was raised in
+vehement assertion and Waymart&#8217;s lower rumble
+in protest. As he was groping for the door, he
+heard Sandy say:</p>
+
+<p>"I tell ye, Mart, wild hosses won&#8217;t drag &#8217;im up
+here s&#8217; long as that young feller is in these mountings,
+and we may want &#8217;im here."</p>
+
+<p>Then Waymart&#8217;s response, "Well, what be ye
+aimin&#8217; to do about it? Don&#8217;t bite off more&#8217;n ye
+can swaller. Ye do that too often. He&#8217;ll be out
+of here in a few weeks. What&#8217;s eatin&#8217; ye? &#8217;Let
+well enough alone.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," scornfully from Sandy. "Ye maverick!
+They won&#8217;t go till we<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span>Ross, his hand on the door, had stubbed his toe
+against a stone.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh," came Sandy&#8217;s warning in lowered tones.
+"What&#8217;s that?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a step across the floor. Ross instinctively
+fell back into the darkness and slipped
+behind a tree. The door was jerked open and
+Sandy&#8217;s figure appeared. An instant he looked
+out and then turning back, said disgustedly, "Nobudy,
+but guess we don&#8217;t need t&#8217; yell loud enough
+t&#8217; be heard up t&#8217; Wilson&#8217;s."</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span><a id='link_8'></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>ROSS&#8217;S "HIRED MAN"</span></h2>
+
+<p>As the door closed on Sandy, Ross beat a hasty
+retreat. His first thought was that the brothers
+were discussing him. The fact that they were in
+the valley to watch the progress of work on the
+Weimer-Grant claims and that they were interested
+in his being there and not anxious to have
+him remain, all aided in the interpretation of the
+McKenzies&#8217; speeches.</p>
+
+<p>"But who on earth is it that won&#8217;t come as long
+as I am here and why not?" he asked himself as
+he stumbled back in the direction of the light in
+Weimer&#8217;s cabin.</p>
+
+<p>"Vat&#8217;s you pack for alreddy?" demanded
+Weimer from his bunk as Ross opened the door.
+"Ist dem McKenzies mit Wilson, hein?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned Ross, "but I decided that I am
+tired enough to turn in instead of going visiting,"
+and he forthwith "turned in," but did not go to
+sleep immediately.</p>
+
+<p>Truth to tell, he was uneasy. He felt that
+Sandy, behind that good-natured, friendly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span>
+exterior, was full of schemes. The McKenzies
+wanted the claims, and Ross had unexpectedly
+interposed himself between them and their desires.
+Therefore, their schemes must include him.
+What was on foot now?</p>
+
+<p>He tossed restlessly in his bunk assailed with
+qualms of fear that he tried to conceal from himself.
+"Ah, what you afraid of?" he asked himself
+disgustedly. "They won&#8217;t shoot you nor yet
+tie you hand and foot and throw you over the
+Crosby trail. As Steele says, I haven&#8217;t a thing
+to fear personally from &#8217;em. That&#8217;s not their
+way. Go to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>This command he issued to himself in an angry
+mutter and at once scrambled up in his bunk wider
+awake than ever. His mental horizon unexpectedly
+cleared. "Of course he&#8217;s the one they meant
+and not me!" he exclaimed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Vat&#8217;s dat you say?" asked Weimer sleepily.
+"Hein?"</p>
+
+<p>"A waking nightmare," returned Ross and lay
+down again.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it was Leslie. "&#8217;He&#8217;s to be here only
+a few weeks,&#8217;" Waymart had said. "&#8217;Let well
+enough alone.&#8217;" He, Ross, expected to winter in
+the valley, and the McKenzies knew it. Yes, they
+were referring to Leslie. That calmed Ross, but
+deepened the mystery.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span>The following morning he thought over the
+situation while he was at work. It was a blind
+enough situation, but he felt that he ought to repeat
+to Leslie the scraps of conversation that he
+had overheard. They might mean much to the
+boy, and in spite of his reserve and his overbearing
+manners Ross liked Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>At noon he ate dinner hastily, and telling
+Weimer that he would be back in an hour, set
+out for the upper claims. Snow had fallen the
+night before and the trail had filled, making walking
+tiresome, for Ross had not yet accustomed himself
+to the use of snow-shoes. With his hands in
+his pockets and his cap drawn down over his eyes
+he plunged through the drifts in the teeth of a
+sharp east wind. Up the side of the mountains
+he struggled, through the pass between two peaks
+where Meadow Creek had cut a channel and into
+a hollow sheltered from the wind and exposed to
+the sun.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Grant!" A voice greeted him from the
+upper side of the trail.</p>
+
+<p>Ross pushed his cap back and looked up. In
+the sunshine, his back against a warm rock, his
+feet buried in the dry loam and pine needles, sat
+Leslie Jones. He had eaten his dinner and wandered
+along the trail until he had found a warm
+spot in which to spend the noon hour. Ross
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span>
+promptly climbed the steep mountainside and
+dropped down beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"The McKenzies say," began Leslie curiously,
+"that you don&#8217;t stop work long enough to eat and
+sleep. Yet here you are two miles from home in
+the middle of the day."</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s because of what the McKenzies have said
+that I&#8217;m here now," Ross returned swiftly. "It
+may not be worth a picayune to you, and then
+again, maybe, it will be," and he related the events
+of the previous evening.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie bent a troubled face over a stick that he
+was idly whittling. "Are you sure, Grant, that
+they meant me? I haven&#8217;t an idea who they are
+nor who could be so afraid of me that he wouldn&#8217;t
+come up here with me here. I don&#8217;t know of a
+soul that&#8217;s afraid of me, but," with a short, mirthless
+laugh, "I do know of some one that I&#8217;m afraid
+of. It&#8217;s not the McKenzies, although they might&#8211;if
+they know me<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he flung the stick from him and
+faced Ross impulsively. "Grant, did you ever do
+something that you&#8217;d give anything you possessed
+to undo&#8211;and that you&#8217;d just <i>got</i> to undo?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, startled at the sudden change in his companion,
+at the latter&#8217;s intensity and evident unhappiness,
+merely shook his head awkwardly,
+avoiding the misery-filled eyes. He turned away
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span>
+and began piling up stones, bits of shining quartz
+that had been thrown, at some time, out of a discovery
+hole above them.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Leslie regained his self-possession.
+"I say, Grant," he began again abruptly, "to tell
+you the truth, I have started to go over to see
+you half a dozen times within a week and got
+this far every time. I&#8217;m going to ask a favor of
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Ross with a gruffness that did
+not conceal his sympathy. "Fire ahead!"</p>
+
+<p>"The other day you&#8211;you offered me money,"
+Leslie began with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I do to-day," Ross interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie shook his head. "Hold on till I get to
+it. I can&#8217;t take your money&#8211;not that way. But
+the other day I heard the McKenzies tell Wilson
+that you tried to hire men in Miners&#8217; Camp. Will
+you hire me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will I!" Ross leaped to his feet. He grabbed
+his cap and tossed it in the air and then fell to
+pommeling Leslie in pure exuberance of joy.
+"Hire you? I wish there were half a dozen of
+you to hire! Bully for you! But<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>His exuberance died out. He replaced his cap
+and looked down on the other, his lips pursed
+ready for a whistle.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span>"See here!" Ross burst out. "What about
+Wilson?"</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s all right," Leslie answered quickly.
+"I told him a couple of days ago that I&#8217;d got to
+get money. I told him I&#8217;d leave him the grub, of
+course. I agreed to furnish it, and I&#8217;ll stick to my
+word," doggedly, "but I must also light out and
+earn some money. And all I can do is to work
+with my hands. I&#8211;well, I&#8217;ve always hated to
+make my head work, and I&#8217;ve never had to do
+any other kind until now. You&#8217;ll find I&#8217;m soft
+yet, but I&#8217;ll do my best."</p>
+
+<p>The boy spoke humbly.</p>
+
+<p>Ross sent his cap spinning into the air once
+more. "I&#8217;ll risk you! You&#8217;re not as soft as you
+were six weeks ago! Not by half! When can
+you come?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie considered. "Wilson says he&#8217;ll go below
+to the coal claims in a couple of weeks. I&#8217;ll talk
+it over with him and let you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Come to-morrow, if you can," Ross shouted
+back as he slid down to the trail.</p>
+
+<p>Work went easily for a few days in view of
+Leslie&#8217;s coming. The thought of his companionship
+robbed the prospective loneliness of Meadow
+Creek Valley of its terrors. He whistled and sang
+about the shack as he hunted up the material out
+of which to make a third bunk. He was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span>
+hammering away on this the second evening after his talk
+with Leslie, when the McKenzies dropped in.
+They had been over on the Divide hunting and
+had been out of Ross&#8217;s sight and mind since his
+talk with Leslie. Not until Sandy pushed the
+door open unceremoniously and walked in did
+Ross recall the comments that had so disturbed
+him and wondered once more to whom they had
+referred, himself or Leslie, and what the reference
+meant.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Grant!" Sandy exclaimed, stopping
+abruptly just inside the door. "What&#8217;s up?
+Why another bunk? Goin&#8217; t&#8217; take boarders?
+Any relations droppin&#8217; in t&#8217; attend our festivities
+up here?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked over his shoulder laughingly.
+"Nope. Give another guess."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy came nearer. Waymart shut the door
+and sat down beside the stove. Weimer turned
+his back on "dem darned McKenzies," and put
+on his goggles that he might not be tormented by
+a view of their faces. It was a never-ending source
+of vexation to him that they came sociably to his
+shack.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven&#8217;t any more guesses in stock," declared
+Sandy, but the smile on his face was succeeded by
+a frown and he bit his red beard restlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hired man is coming to-morrow," Ross
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span>
+formed him as the hammer sent another nail home
+in the side wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Hired man!" exploded Sandy. "Where the
+deuce will you get a hired man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right here in the valley," exulted Ross. "Leslie
+Jones."</p>
+
+<p>"Leslie Jones!" repeated Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>"Leslie Jones," muttered Waymart.</p>
+
+<p>"By and by," Ross confessed, "when all you
+fellows go below, it will seem a little more livable
+up here to have a third one around. I&#8217;d pay a
+man wages just to stay here to say nothing of
+working for me."</p>
+
+<p>Neither Sandy nor Waymart made any comment.
+Sandy stood watching the work in silence, while
+Waymart allowed his pipe to go out. Then both
+departed. They said they were going up to see
+Wilson, but Ross noticed that they returned to
+their own cabin instead.</p>
+
+<p>"Something doesn&#8217;t seem to please our friends
+the enemy," he chuckled after their departure.
+"They see the Weimer-Grant claims getting further
+and further from their reach."</p>
+
+<p>"Ve vill peat dem McKenzies yet," gloated Weimer
+rubbing his hands gently on his knees. "Ven
+dot oder poy comes de work vill run und jump!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross did not see the McKenzies again until
+Leslie was occupying the third bunk, Wilson
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span>
+having, good-naturedly, sent him down within a week
+after the boys had completed their bargain.</p>
+
+<p>"Clear out if ye want to," Wilson had said
+kindly. "It&#8217;s white of ye t&#8217; leave the grub. I
+hain&#8217;t a cent t&#8217; pay fer it. There&#8217;s a fortune in
+these claims of mine, but it&#8217;s too late t&#8217; dig it out
+this year. Next summer<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" and he was launched
+on the glowing prospects for the next season.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie entered on his task with a grim determination
+which seemed foreign to his disposition.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t want you to get sick of your bargain
+the first week," he said one day in answer to
+Ross&#8217;s remonstrance when he refused to stop work
+on account of a bruise on his wrist. "You open
+up that little emergency chest and I can go on digging
+just the same. I don&#8217;t want any delayed
+wages in mine!"</p>
+
+<p>With the advent of Leslie, life fell into pleasanter
+grooves in Weimer&#8217;s cabin. Despite the
+anxiety ever present with the newcomer, and despite
+his natural reserve, Ross&#8217;s exuberance of
+spirits caused by his presence and work affected
+him, and after the supper dishes were washed, the
+two boys wrestled, chaffed each other or talked,
+Ross about his father and uncle and aunt, Leslie
+about his school life in Omaha.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s a boys&#8217; school," he explained one day, "a
+military academy. I&#8217;ve had to go there ever since
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>
+I was knee high to a grasshopper. Discipline is
+fierce. I hate it, and this year I made up my
+mind I&#8217;d not stand it, so I&#8217;m here."</p>
+
+<p>"And wish," ventured Ross, "that you were
+back in school again."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&#8211;almost," Leslie began impulsively and
+then paused, adding quietly, "Lots of things I
+wish, and wish &#8217;em hard."</p>
+
+<p>The following evening after supper, Weimer
+tumbled into his bunk at once and began snoring.
+The two boys washed the dishes, in silence at first.
+Outside, snow was falling heavily. Through the
+drifting flakes the McKenzies&#8217; light shone fitfully.
+The brothers had been away again hunting and
+had just returned.</p>
+
+<p>As Leslie set the dishes on their shelf above the
+stove he glanced uneasily out of the window. He
+had not seen the McKenzies for some time. Ever
+since they had crossed the valley that noon on
+their snow-shoes, their hunting trophies on their
+shoulders, he had watched their cabin with that
+same air of uneasy abstraction.</p>
+
+<p>"Ross," he broke out at last, "I&#8217;ve got to tell
+you something. I hate like a dog to tell it, but
+it&#8217;s got to break loose some time and it may as well
+be right now."</p>
+
+<p>He turned from the shelf, glanced at the snoring
+Weimer, lowered his voice, and, standing beside
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>
+the stove, worked restlessly at the damper in
+the pipe. Ross, without looking at him, slowly
+scrubbed the dish-pan and then the table.</p>
+
+<p> "It&#8217;s like this," Leslie began. "When I met
+Wilson I had five hundred dollars in my pocket
+and a grouch against my father. Always before
+then, father had sent the Academy a check to pay
+for the semester&#8211;you have to pay there in advance
+for half the year&#8211;but this year he had business on
+hand that couldn&#8217;t be interrupted and so he called
+me into his office in a great hurry the morning I
+left home and handed over the check to me. It
+was made out to me and it was for five hundred
+dollars. That&#8217;s the price of the half year, you see.
+Dad handed it over and just said, &#8217;Here, pay your
+own bill,&#8217; and got out. That&#8217;s about all that&#8217;s
+ever between us, anyway. Well, I went up to
+Omaha. We&#8217;d had it out about school all summer.
+I was bound not to go this year, and he swore that
+I should go and go through college if he had to
+rope me and tie me and take me himself, as he put
+it! Father is a whirlwind of a man. But I was
+bound not to go, and the money let me out. I
+took the check and cashed it at the bank and went
+to the &#8217;Hill House,&#8217; where I met Wilson. I reasoned
+that the money was mine because it was to
+be spent on me. You see, Ross, I was mad enough
+to reason anything my way that I wanted."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span>Leslie turned the damper absently, sending
+smoke in gusts into the room, but neither boy noticed
+it. Ross wiped out his dish-pan, hung it on
+its nail, and sitting down on a box, took his chin
+between his hands and stared at the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," Leslie went on, "that I&#8217;d invest
+that money and surprise dad. Well," grimly,
+"he&#8217;s probably as surprised by this time as I am.
+You&#8217;ve heard Wilson tell about my meeting him
+and agreeing to go with him. I spent the entire
+five hundred on our outfit and car-fare in the expectation
+that in six weeks I could write to dad
+and tell him what a success I&#8217;d made of it! I had
+six weeks&#8217; grace."</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked up inquiringly. "What do you
+mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Father and I never have corresponded extensively,
+but he always looks sharply after my reports.
+The first report goes out from the Academy
+in six weeks after school opens. I reckoned from
+what Wilson said that we&#8217;d strike it rich up here
+in a month more or less, and so about the time
+father would be looking into the reason why no
+report was sent from the Academy, he&#8217;d be receiving
+one from me up here and, you know, Ross,
+&#8217;nothing succeeds as well as success,&#8217; and success
+of this sort would get dad right under the collar.
+Well, he probably knows by this time that I&#8217;ve
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>
+turned up missing at school, and he has not received
+a letter from Meadow Creek telling about
+the discovery of free gold!"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie gave the damper a final twist and sat
+down on a pile of fire-wood. "Ross," he exclaimed
+violently, "I am about seven ways an everlasting
+fool!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross grinned cheerfully. "Aunt Anne always
+says that to find out that you&#8217;re a fool &#8217;is the best
+cure for the disease of foolishness.&#8217; So you see
+you&#8217;re headed toward the cure already."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie shook his head. "There&#8217;s that money,
+Ross. It wasn&#8217;t mine, and you know it and I
+know it. I can&#8217;t face dad again without it in my
+hand. Why, I wouldn&#8217;t see him until I&#8217;d earned
+it for&#8211;well, wild horses wouldn&#8217;t drag me," he
+concluded passionately. "I tell you, Ross, I&#8217;ve let
+myself in for a heap of trouble. I know father."</p>
+
+<p>"Now that he finds out you&#8217;ve skipped, Leslie,
+won&#8217;t he be hunting you up?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie stirred uneasily and turning stretched up
+and looked in the direction of the McKenzies.
+"That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m expecting, or else he&#8217;ll not think
+me worth while. I tell you, Ross, I&#8217;ve made dad
+no end of trouble both at home and in school.
+Things look sort of different up here. I&#8217;ve&#8211;well&#8211;I&#8217;ve
+never been up against it before."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to send your father word?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span>"Send him word before I get back that five
+hundred!" cried Leslie aghast. "You don&#8217;t know
+dad. I can&#8217;t face him without it. Not much."</p>
+
+<p>"But he&#8217;d see that you feel different<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" Ross
+began.</p>
+
+<p>"You don&#8217;t know dad," Leslie cut in harshly.
+"With the men it&#8217;s just the same. It&#8217;s &#8217;stand and
+deliver&#8217; or get out, and he&#8217;d treat me just the
+same."</p>
+
+<p>The coming of the McKenzies put an end to
+further conversation. They came to announce
+their departure on the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>"Any little thing you&#8217;d like us t&#8217; git fer you?"
+Sandy asked the boys lazily. "Want us t&#8217; bring
+ye any biled shirts or one of these here coats with
+long handled tails? If you fellers lay out t&#8217; stay
+here all winter ye better lay in a stock of society
+rags, &#8217;n&#8217; dancin&#8217; shoes."</p>
+
+<p>"About the most useful dancing shoes we&#8217;ll need
+will be snow-shoes, I guess," Ross retorted.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie, from the wood-pile, said little but watched
+the brothers closely. Neither paid more than a
+passing attention to him, concentrating their remarks
+on Ross. They left early and went up the
+Creek with the intention of paying a farewell call
+on Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t believe," said Leslie the following
+morning as he watched them take the trail leading
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span>
+over Crosby, "that they have ever seen me before.
+They don&#8217;t act as though they have, do they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Haven&#8217;t seen a sign of it since that first
+night," declared Ross, "and yet what I overheard,
+you know<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Must have referred to you," returned Leslie
+with conviction.</p>
+
+<p>The next three days passed quietly enough.
+The inhabitants of Weimer&#8217;s cabin heard an
+occasional blast from Wilson&#8217;s claims, but did not
+see Wilson. Steadily the two boys worked and
+steadily Ross held Weimer to his labors. Usually
+it was Weimer who got the meals, either Ross or
+Leslie leading him down to the shack, in case the
+sun shone, about half-past eleven. In three-quarters
+of an hour the boys would leave work
+and sit down to a substantial meal of hot bread,
+potatoes and all sorts of canned meats and vegetables.
+But the third day after the McKenzies&#8217;
+departure it chanced that when eleven o&#8217;clock
+came, Weimer and Leslie were in the far end of
+the tunnel drilling the "cut in" holes for a new
+blast, and Ross, pushing the little car back into
+the tunnel, sang out:</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, you fellows, keep on and I&#8217;ll go down
+and shake up the grub this time."</p>
+
+<p>He ran down the trail to the cabin, and soon
+had a roaring fire in the heater. A kettle of beans
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span>
+had been left simmering on the back of the stove.
+This Ross pulled forward, and then, delving
+among the canned goods, he proceeded to set out
+various edibles, all the while whistling cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"M-m, tomatoes," he interrupted himself to
+mutter, "we haven&#8217;t had tomatoes in two days.
+And corn&#8211;sweet corn. Guess Weimer has overlooked
+the corn entirely. We&#8217;ll have corn. Soup!
+Jiminy! We haven&#8217;t had soup in an age. Vegetable.
+That means a little of everything, and that
+taken boiling hot. Here goes soup."</p>
+
+<p>"Whoa!" came a deep voice from the trail outside
+the door, then the voice was raised, "Hello!
+Who&#8217;s t&#8217; home?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross stepped to the door and faced a middle
+aged man, clad in leather "chaps" and short fur
+coat. A fur cap was drawn down over his ears
+and his hands were encased in huge fur gloves.
+He sat easily on a gray horse and was leading
+another, a mottled brown and white. As Ross
+appeared, he drew off one glove and slipped the
+hand carelessly under the tail of his coat at the
+same time squaring about in his saddle so that he
+faced the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, in his shirt sleeves, stepped out and
+greeted the newcomer hospitably. "Hello! Come
+in to dinner."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span>"Had mine down in Miners&#8217; Camp," returned
+the other with a backward jerk of his head.</p>
+
+<p>He touched his mount with his spur and came
+close to Ross. The brown and white horse pulled
+back obstinately on the leading rope. The animal
+was saddled.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you the young chap that&#8217;s workin&#8217; for
+Weimer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"All right." The stranger withdrew his hand
+from the tail of his coat. It held a gun. "No
+monkey-shines now! You&#8217;re the boy I&#8217;m after.
+I&#8217;m the sheriff of Big Horn County, and I have a
+warrant here for your arrest. Your father is
+honin&#8217; to meet up with you and settle a little
+account of money taken in Omaha."</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span><a id='link_9'></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><span class='h2fs'>SURPRISES</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>For</span> a moment Ross was stunned. His hands
+fell nervelessly at his side, and he stared up at the
+stranger with expressionless eyes. Then, as the
+situation dawned on him, his eyes suddenly narrowed
+and into them leaped a light that caused
+the other to move the gun suggestively and say
+warningly:</p>
+
+<p>"No monkeying allowed, understand. Swallow
+a bite right now and climb up here on this other
+horse."</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked over his shoulder speculatively.
+From his position he could see the mouth of the
+tunnel on the mountainside behind the cabin.
+The mouth showed up black and empty and from
+its depth came the muffled sound of the hand
+drills wielded by Weimer and Leslie. The trail
+leading over the mountain to Miners&#8217; Camp was
+screened from the mouth of the tunnel by hemlocks.
+It could be seen only from the end of the
+dump. Ross thought fast.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," he said finally. "I&#8217;ll go with you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span>
+now&#8211;and quietly. There&#8217;s no objection, I suppose,
+to my leaving a note for&#8211;Weimer?"</p>
+
+<p>No doubt existed in his mind as to the legality
+of the warrant and the seriousness of purpose in
+the man before him; therefore, he asked no further
+questions. Moreover, he wished above all things
+to avoid question and get off before Leslie appeared
+on the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave a note, yes, or see &#8217;im," assented the
+sheriff. "I&#8217;m willin&#8217;. Where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"At work," hastily. "I&#8217;ll just leave a note."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff dismounted, dropped his bridle reins
+beside his horse&#8217;s head, hitched the second animal&#8217;s
+rope about the pommel of his saddle, and
+followed Ross into the shack, repeating, "Where
+at work?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the tunnel," mumbled Ross. "I would
+rather write a line than call him."</p>
+
+<p>He picked up some cold biscuits left over from
+breakfast and stuffed them into his pockets. Then,
+drawing a box up to the table, he sat down with
+paper and pencil to write a note. To his confusion,
+the sheriff stood over him looking on. He
+moistened the point of his pencil slowly. What
+on earth could he say that would make Leslie
+understand and yet not give the situation away to
+the sheriff? To gain time he gnawed on one of
+Weimer&#8217;s hard biscuits.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span>"Where is my&#8211;father?" he asked finally,
+stumbling guiltily over the word.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff spat out of the doorway and twirled
+his gun impatiently. "You&#8217;ll see &#8217;im before I
+leave you, all right," was his ambiguous reply.
+"And the sooner that is the better it&#8217;ll suit me.
+Git busy, young man, with that pencil. I don&#8217;t
+aim to go int&#8217; winter quarters here. We&#8217;ve got
+to go on to Cody."</p>
+
+<p>Ross bit his lips and laid the biscuit aside. His
+eyes narrowed until they were mere slits. Grasping
+his pencil with a firmness he was far from
+feeling he began to write without preface.</p>
+
+<p>"The sheriff is here arresting me for stealing
+money from my father in Omaha. He is taking
+me to him in Cody now. I don&#8217;t know when I
+can get back. Keep the work going sure, and
+don&#8217;t worry. I think I will be able<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>He paused and moistened the pencil again, then
+crossed out the last sentence and substituted:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall try to reason with him and make him
+see that he had better let me keep on doing what I
+am doing and earn the money to pay him back."</p>
+
+<p>Another instant Ross paused and thought.
+Then he added the singular explanation which
+he believed would make the foregoing more
+lucid to Leslie:</p>
+
+<p>"As I write the sheriff is standing over me,"
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span>
+and then bethought himself just in time to avoid
+signing his name.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" grunted the sheriff reading the last
+sentence. "So he is; and now hustle!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross hustled most willingly. Seizing his top-coat
+and cap he was ready in a few moments for
+the perilous journey over the Crosby trail. Silently
+he mounted the brown and white horse, all the
+time glancing anxiously at the mouth of the
+tunnel. He rode in front of the sheriff and
+slyly urged his horse forward until the intervening
+trees hid the mouth of the tunnel from
+which still issued the steady grind and thud of
+the drills.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until the two horses were cautiously
+feeling their way down the perilous trail, and Ross
+saw far below him the shacks of Miners&#8217; Camp that
+some of the difficulties of his sudden venture began
+to present themselves to him. His decision had
+been made so hurriedly that he had had no time
+to think all around the subject of the arrest and
+his own action. It had seemed to him outrageous
+that a father should arrest his own son even though
+that boy had done wrong. Ross revolted at the
+idea.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t wonder," he thought, "that Less is
+afraid of his father. But his fear wouldn&#8217;t sit
+so hard on his temper but what there&#8217;d be no
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span>
+end of explosions, and then where would they
+both get to?"</p>
+
+<p>It was the thought of this state of affairs that
+had led Ross to the impulsive determination to
+go to that father and ask for a few months of
+grace for the son. In this, as he acknowledged to
+himself, he had a mixed motive and part of the
+mixture was not unselfish.</p>
+
+<p>"If he&#8217;ll only let Leslie stay and help me
+through the winter and earn the money," was
+his thought, "if I can make him see that Leslie&#8217;s
+no quitter, and that he knows he has made a big
+mistake and is willing to bone down and undo it&#8211;if
+I can only make him see!"</p>
+
+<p>It was here that Ross&#8217;s misgivings began. He
+knew he was no talker and evidently, as Leslie
+said, the father was a man of violent temper.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ll probably have my little trip under arrest
+for nothing," Ross told himself as they reached
+the foot of Crosby. "Mr. Jones will blow my
+head off and send back for Leslie. Queer father
+not to come himself instead of sending a sheriff
+and a warrant and so disgrace his own son!"</p>
+
+<p>As to who was responsible for notifying the
+father of the whereabouts of his son, Ross did
+not for a moment doubt. Sandy&#8217;s trip to Cody
+and the departure a few days before of both
+brothers answered that question to his satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span>At the foot of Crosby the trail of horsemen
+turned into the wagon trail leading past Gale&#8217;s
+Ridge. On foot approaching them was a man
+whom Ross had met often in Steele&#8217;s shack, and
+the sight of him awoke the boy with a shock to
+another phase of the situation that he had not, so
+far, had time to consider. Of course, it would not
+be possible for him to reach Cody and Mr. Jones
+without betraying his identity to the sheriff!
+There were the men of Gale&#8217;s Ridge, the hotel at
+Meeteetse, and above all, there was Sagehen Roost
+and Hank. He turned in his saddle. It was a
+waste of time to go on. He might as well own up
+and let the sheriff go back after Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>"I was foolish to think of coming!" he muttered
+aloud and reined in his horse.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff, coming on behind with his head
+bent, looked up questioningly and rode alongside.
+The two had not exchanged a word since leaving
+the Creek, the sheriff being silent by nature and
+Ross by choice. At that instant, the footman
+passed them. On the sheriff he bestowed an
+unrecognizing nod, on Ross a broad and cordial
+grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, there, Doc!" he greeted and passed on.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff glanced in surprise from the man to
+Ross. The latter drew a deep breath, and squaring
+about on his saddle shook the bridle reins. "That&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span>
+a nickname they&#8217;ve given me," he muttered and
+rode on.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff nodded and fell back, leaving Ross
+determined to play the game as far as he was able.
+He had forgotten that he was known from Cody to
+Meeteetse as "Doc Tenderfoot." In a few moments
+they had passed through camp and, rounding the
+shoulder of old Dundee, settled down to the
+eighteen mile ride to the half-way house between
+Miners&#8217; Camp and Meeteetse. This house, as Ross
+knew, had changed hands since his arrival in the
+mountains, and the change would lessen the
+chances that he would be recognized there. As it
+turned out, the sheriff was not recognized either,
+the family being newcomers in Wyoming, and the
+two ate in silence, the sheriff introducing neither
+himself nor Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Luck is with me so far," Ross thought as they
+saddled and rode away from the ranch, "but how
+can I ever get past Meeteetse and Sagehen Roost?"</p>
+
+<p>The moon shone brilliantly, and they pushed
+ahead rapidly, Ross exulting over the sheriff&#8217;s
+determination to get on to Meeteetse that night.
+They rode as silently as before, Ross in advance.
+The black hills met the trail on either side, and
+beside the trail flowed the shallow waters of Wood
+River until it merged into the Grey Bull. Half-way
+to Meeteetse, the sheriff&#8217;s horse stumbled and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span>
+limped thereafter, necessitating a slower pace, so
+that it was nearly midnight before they drew rein
+in front of the "Weller House."</p>
+
+<p>To Ross&#8217;s relief, the place was dark with the exception
+of a single lamp in the office. Even the
+barroom was deserted. Ross left the sheriff to
+register for both, and then followed the sleepy
+clerk down to a lunch of cold "come-backs"
+which that individual "rustled" from the kitchen
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"If fortune will favor me as well to-morrow as
+it did to-day," Ross thought as he listened to the
+sheriff&#8217;s first snores, "I&#8217;ll be next to Jones by this
+time to-morrow night and try to do some talking
+for Leslie!"</p>
+
+<p>He knew that his roommate was no wiser concerning
+him than when they started from Meadow
+Creek, and he most heartily desired a continuation
+of that ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning the two were up early and down
+to breakfast. Ross looked about apprehensively
+for some one who had seen him on his way into
+the mountains. He slunk into the dining-room
+in the wake of the bulkier sheriff and pushing
+himself unobtrusively into a corner seat bent low
+over his plate as befitted a young man under
+arrest. But no sooner was he seated than the
+proprietor of the house spied him from the other
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span>
+end of the dining-room, and with never a suspicion
+that he was talking to the sheriff&#8217;s prisoner, strode
+across the room. He slapped the sheriff familiarly
+on the shoulder:</p>
+
+<p>"What the dickens are you doing up this way?
+Why don&#8217;t ye stay in Basin where ye belong?"</p>
+
+<p>Then he grasped Ross&#8217;s hand cordially:</p>
+
+<p>"Bless us if here ain&#8217;t Doc back again. Got
+them claims cleaned up yet, Doc?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, encountering the puzzled eyes of the sheriff,
+quaked. "No, we haven&#8217;t yet," he muttered and
+glancing toward the dining-room door, exclaimed
+in sudden inspiration, "Wonder if that man is
+motioning to you?"</p>
+
+<p>The proprietor looked around. Several men
+were in the hall outside the dining-room. "I&#8217;ll
+go and see," he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff continued to look at Ross. "Bluff!"
+he announced briefly and understandingly.</p>
+
+<p>The blood flooded Ross&#8217;s face guiltily. "It
+was," he confessed, adding quickly, "Say, don&#8217;t
+give my arrest away where I&#8217;m known, will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>His request and confusion satisfied the sheriff.
+The puzzled expression died out of his face. "All
+right," he assented and fell on his breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>The proprietor did not see Ross again until he
+was riding away. Then he ran out of the barroom
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span>
+bareheaded and called, "Steele&#8217;s in Cody, Doc. He
+said you was pannin&#8217; out more like an old prospector
+than a tenderfoot."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff rode up beside his prisoner with a
+quick inquiry: "How long have ye worked for
+Weimer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Long enough to be sick of it and want to quit,"
+returned Ross gruffly, giving his horse a quick
+slap that set the animal to loping. It was no part
+of his plan to hold any unnecessary conversation
+with the sheriff that day.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess," the latter called as he came galloping
+after, "that you&#8217;ll quit now all right, all
+right!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross made no reply, but took care to keep well
+in advance of his captor. Although his plan had,
+so far, succeeded, he was far from feeling triumphant
+because of a distressing sense of guilt at the
+deception he was obliged to practice. Nor was he
+able to dispel this sense by the knowledge that he
+was acting for the good of all concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"I may be only messing things up more than
+they are already," he thought dejectedly as they
+approached Sagehen Roost. "What under the
+sun led me to think I was equal to such a job,
+anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly, his eyes narrowed, his chin
+raised itself determinedly and he turned his attention
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span>
+to the half-way house and the loquacious
+Hank. How could he ever get past Hank and remain
+Leslie Jones in the sheriff&#8217;s eyes? If only he
+could get a moment&#8217;s speech with Hank alone.
+But the sheriff was ever at his elbow. They had
+made good time from Meeteetse, and so approached
+Dry Creek and Sagehen Roost a full hour ahead of
+the stage from Cody. This fact gave Ross courage.
+With the stage-driver eliminated he had
+only Hank to deal with.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Hank!" shouted the sheriff as they
+dismounted in front of the corral. "Shake us up
+some grub right away, will ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Hank appeared at the door. Ross dodged behind
+the sheriff&#8217;s horse, and stooping over noted
+the approach of Hank&#8217;s legs. When they had
+borne their owner to the corral gate he straightened
+up and saying loudly: "Hello, Hank!" scratched
+the flank of the horse sharply with a pin he had
+found under the lapel of his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Wall, if there ain&#8217;t Doc Tenderfoot!" shouted
+Hank, but got no further.</p>
+
+<p>The horse leaped forward, and, as the sheriff
+sprang for its head, Ross managed to get Hank&#8217;s
+ear for an instant:</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t give me away, Hank. Talk to him
+and let me alone&#8211;understand&#8211;no names called.
+Don&#8217;t talk to me nor about me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span>Hank stared his amazement, helped the sheriff
+catch his mount, scratched his head until Ross&#8217;s
+words had soaked in, and then obeyed them so
+literally that when, half an hour later, Ross leaped
+to his horse&#8217;s back, he was still Leslie Jones to the
+taciturn sheriff, and Hank, tongue-tied for once,
+was left standing beside the corral gate with a
+multitude of questions unasked.</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s spirits arose. They were on the home
+stretch now to Cody. There was not a house on
+the way and only the stage to meet. Ross, forgetting
+his rôle as a shamefaced prisoner, began to
+whistle and plan what he should say to Leslie&#8217;s
+father. His buoyancy was checked only when he
+chanced to look over his shoulder and discovered
+the sheriff looking at him not only with the puzzled
+air which he had worn at Meeteetse, but, Ross
+thought, with suspicion also.</p>
+
+<p>"I never seen a sober man arrested that took
+arrest as you do," the sheriff declared riding to
+Ross&#8217;s side. "Think this is a little picnic, don&#8217;t
+ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;m trying to think just how it will turn out,"
+answered the boy seriously. "There&#8217;s the Cody
+stage, isn&#8217;t it?"</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff reined his horse back, and, with a
+flourish, the four horses swept past with Andy&#8217;s
+foot jammed hard on the brake and Andy&#8217;s whip
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span>
+cracking over the wheelers&#8217; heads. Just in the
+nick of time he recognized Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, there!" he shouted. "Doc, where&#8217;s yer
+patient? And how is he?"</p>
+
+<p>Then, before any answer could be returned, the
+stage was beyond reach of Ross&#8217;s voice, disappearing
+in a cloud of dust.</p>
+
+<p>"What patient does he mean?" asked the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s a fellow I helped when I first came out
+here," answered Ross frankly. He was afraid of
+the sheriff&#8217;s suspicions. "He was hurt in front of
+Sagehen Roost, and as I know something about
+surgery I&#8211;helped&#8211;to fix him up."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff studied his horse&#8217;s ears. A look of
+perplexity overspread his face. "I heard of that
+down in Basin. But it seems to me that was before
+you come." He looked hard at Ross. "The
+McKenzies said<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" He stopped suddenly, and
+bit his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Ross seized this pause to mutter, "It&#8217;s not so
+long ago," and forged ahead on the trail, taking
+good care to keep ahead until the lights of Cody
+and the odor of the Shoshone River&#8211;"Stinking
+Water"&#8211;smote their senses together through the
+gathering darkness of the early December night.
+Then the sheriff, straightening in his saddle, said
+in a voice of authority:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span>"Come back here. We&#8217;ll ride neck and neck
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Ross fell back, and asked his first question, and
+no sooner was it out than he bit his lips savagely
+in vexation at his own thoughtlessness.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Jones stopping at &#8217;The Irma&#8217;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" exploded the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Jones," murmured Ross in confusion.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff looked the boy over silently but intently
+in the moonlight. The blood surged into
+Ross&#8217;s face, and, despite the chill of the night wind,
+the perspiration broke out on his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" was the only response to his question.
+"Jones!"</p>
+
+<p>Then, with their horses neck to neck the two
+rode over the bridge together and for the second
+time entered the town to which Buffalo Bill has
+given his name, Cody. On the other side of the
+bridge, near the dust-deep road, stood a tent. The
+flap was fastened back, and, within, seated about a
+rough table, sat four men playing cards. When
+the sound of horses&#8217; hoofs reached the players, one
+of them arose and came to the tent&#8217;s opening.</p>
+
+<p>It was Sandy McKenzie.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff, still regarding Ross, did not look
+toward the tent, while Ross, excited over the prospect
+of meeting Leslie&#8217;s father, and confused by his
+recent misspeech, scarcely bestowed a moment&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span>
+thought on Sandy, whom he had known was in
+Cody and believed to be the instigator of the arrest.
+He glanced, however, within the tent as they passed
+and recognized Waymart. The man sitting next,
+his back to the open flap, his face bent over the
+cards in his hand, one leg stretched out under the
+table, looked strangely familiar to the boy, but he
+was too preoccupied to give him any attention.
+The fourth man, his face turned toward the riders,
+was a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later, a man took the horses in front
+of "The Irma," and the sheriff with his prisoner
+walked into the lobby and up to the desk. Picking
+up the pen, the sheriff thrust it into Ross&#8217;s
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Register for yourself," he commanded briefly.</p>
+
+<p>Ross hesitated, glanced at the waiting clerk,
+glanced at the suspicious face of the sheriff and
+then, with a shaking hand, wrote: "Ross Grant,
+Junior," and laid the pen down.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff drew the register toward him with a
+slowly purpling face.</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s my name," declared Ross. He spoke
+defensively, yet with a ring of exultation in his
+voice. "You haven&#8217;t asked me for it before."</p>
+
+<p>The blood dropped out of the sheriff&#8217;s face. The
+shivers ran down Ross&#8217;s spine at the anger in his
+face.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span>"What does this mean, you cub!" the sheriff
+demanded furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"It means that I want to talk to Leslie Jones&#8217;
+father before he sees Leslie," announced Ross
+boldly, "so I came with you. There was nothing
+to prevent my coming."</p>
+
+<p>A hand fell on the sheriff&#8217;s shoulder. Sandy
+McKenzie stood at Ross&#8217;s elbow. Sandy&#8217;s face
+wore a curiously baffled expression, but he
+nodded to Ross in much his usual nonchalant
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Doc, you here? Didn&#8217;t expect to see
+you. How&#8217;d you leave Leslie Jones?"</p>
+
+<p>There was an emphasis on the last name which
+Ross did not notice. Neither did he notice the
+shrewd observation in the questioner&#8217;s eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I left him busy," the boy returned glibly, "and
+so did the sheriff!"</p>
+
+<p>Once more the blood rushed into the sheriff&#8217;s
+face, and in unselected language he had begun to
+tell Ross what he thought of him, when Sandy
+succeeded in drawing him aside and leading him
+into the barroom, followed by Waymart and a
+group that the conversation had attracted.</p>
+
+<p>After they had disappeared, Ross turned to the
+clerk. "Is Mr. Jones stopping here?" he asked
+confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," responded the clerk, leaning an elbow
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span>
+on the ledger. "What was it you put over the
+sheriff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not here!" Ross exclaimed, not hearing the
+question. "Did you understand the name? I
+want to see Mr. Jones." In his anxiety he raised
+his voice.</p>
+
+<p>The clerk grinned. "There ain&#8217;t no man here
+by the name of Jones."</p>
+
+<p>"But there must be," Ross insisted stupidly.
+"There&#8217;s got to be! This is the only hotel in
+town, isn&#8217;t it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep," grinned the clerk. "It&#8217;s the original
+Waldorf-Astory all right. Where does this here
+Jones hail from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Omaha." There was unlimited dismay in
+Ross&#8217;s tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Hain&#8217;t got any one from Omaha here, and
+hain&#8217;t had this winter."</p>
+
+<p>Ross pulled the register toward him and began
+to scan the names. Instantly he exclaimed,
+"Bully! Steele. I&#8217;d forgotten him. I&#8217;ll see<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Not this trip!" the clerk interrupted lazily.
+"Ye must &#8217;a&#8217; met Steele. He went back on the
+stage to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Leonard, then. He&#8217;s here, isn&#8217;t he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," replied the clerk nonchalantly. "He&#8217;s
+in Basin. Home&#8217;s there, ye know."</p>
+
+<p>Baffled, perplexed, Ross turned again to the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span>
+register. The clerk had told the truth. There
+had been no guest entered from Omaha or any
+place further away than Montana in weeks. "See
+here," he exclaimed finally, "do you know anything
+about Leslie Jones, that went over to
+Meadow Creek with a man named Wilson a few
+weeks ago?"</p>
+
+<p>The clerk leisurely turned the pages until he
+arrived at the entry sought. "Here they be,"
+he pushed the book across the counter. "Wilson
+and Jones. They stayed here most a week.
+Knew Wilson and remember Jones when he
+was here."</p>
+
+<p>"And hasn&#8217;t his father been here?" asked Ross
+eagerly. "Not at any time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven&#8217;t you&#8211;haven&#8217;t you heard from him at
+any time or&#8211;or known about him? I&#8217;ve got to
+see the father," Ross burst out in irrepressible
+confidence born of his distraction. "I&#8217;ve stopped
+work and come all the way down from the Shoshones
+to talk with Jones."</p>
+
+<p>"Can&#8217;t help it. Don&#8217;t know anything about
+any Jones except this young one."</p>
+
+<p>At this point the clerk was called into the
+dining-room. He left Ross standing beside the
+desk staring at the register, confused and helpless.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>"And right here I got the big head over the
+way I had managed," he told himself in humiliation,
+"and at the very last minute gave the whole
+thing away!"</p>
+
+<p>Why couldn&#8217;t he have had the sense to play the
+game far enough to see the end&#8211;and Leslie&#8217;s
+father, he asked himself miserably. Now he had
+simply made a fool of himself and angered the
+sheriff and had not benefited Leslie. The sheriff
+would probably turn about and go back after the
+right boy. With this thought Ross straightened
+his shoulders determinedly and turned toward the
+barroom. As there was nothing to be gained by
+silence he was going to ask questions. As he
+turned, a man slid into the hotel in advance of
+him&#8211;the man with the oddly familiar back.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff, Sandy and Waymart were standing
+together, and toward them Ross made his way
+through clouds of tobacco smoke and past groups
+of cowboys, railroad men and prospectors.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, Doc!" called Sandy gaily. "Hump along
+here and be sociable. What&#8217;ll you have? It&#8217;s on
+me. Anybody," admiringly, "that&#8217;s smart enough
+t&#8217; fool the sheriff of Big Horn County can have
+anything on me they&#8217;ll take."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff turned his back on Sandy and
+scowled. He did not glance at his late prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t want anything," declared Ross shortly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span>
+He planted himself resolutely in front of Sandy.
+"But I&#8217;d like to know where Leslie Jones&#8217; father
+is?"</p>
+
+<p>Sandy smiled easily, while the scowl faded from
+the sheriff&#8217;s face.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain&#8217;t no city directory, Doc," responded
+Sandy, "and what&#8217;s more, I ain&#8217;t knowin&#8217; of
+any Leslie Jones! His end name ain&#8217;t any more
+Jones than yours is. He&#8217;s fooled ye mighty bad&#8211;see?"</p>
+
+<p>The blood rushed to Ross&#8217;s face. "N-not
+Jones?" he stammered. "Not Jones! What is
+it then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Doc, if he don&#8217;t want ye t&#8217; know I ain&#8217;t
+got a call t&#8217; tell ye. Be reasonable." Sandy spoke
+with maddening pleasantry and condescension.
+"A feller&#8217;s name is his own, and if he wants t&#8217;
+keep it kinda fresh and unused I ain&#8217;t the one t&#8217;
+dig it up &#8217;n&#8217; let it get covered with dust. Better
+go back t&#8217; Meadow Creek and have it out with
+Leslie."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later, Ross, with a hot and angry
+face, was back in the lobby. His indignation
+burned against Leslie, who had, unconsciously,
+helped to put him in the hole in which he found
+himself. The subdued laugh which had marked
+his retreat from the barroom rang long in his
+ears. The sheriff&#8217;s laugh was the loudest.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span>"Arrest will serve him right!" muttered Ross
+as he entered the dining-room. "There isn&#8217;t a
+reason on earth why he shouldn&#8217;t have told me
+his right name when he told me the rest."</p>
+
+<p>Angrily Ross ate his supper, glowering down at
+his plate and not noticing the entrance of the
+McKenzies with the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>After supper he went up to his room. The door
+was unlocked, the key having been long since lost.
+A single electric bulb swinging over the dresser
+was alight. Under the bulb lay a sealed and
+soiled envelope. Ross picked it up and turning
+it over came on the direction, "Doc Tenderfoot,"
+in a sprawling and carefully careless hand. Wonderingly
+he opened the envelope. Within was a
+note written with a lead pencil on the back of a
+yellow advertising sheet. It ran:</p>
+
+<p>"Leslie&#8217;s name is Quinn, not Jones. His father
+is A. B. Quinn, North Bend, Okla., or 14 Castle
+Street, Omaha. He is in Omaha now waiting
+for Leslie. Sheriff is to send him there. Mum is
+the word about this note&#8211;to him or Leslie or the
+McKenzies. If I did not know you were on the
+square you would not get it to be mum about."</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span><a id='link_10'></a>CHAPTER X<br /><span class='h2fs'>A NEWCOMER ON MEADOW CREEK</span></h2>
+
+<p>"&#8217;<span class='sc'>Old</span> man Quinn!&#8217;" Ross cried aloud.
+"&#8217;Old man Quinn&#8217; and the sheep war. And
+Leslie is his son!"</p>
+
+<p>It all came back, the story he had almost forgotten
+in the stress of events on Meadow Creek,
+the conversation on the train, old Sheepy&#8217;s tale
+and, at last, his suspicions concerning Lon Weston
+with his dyed hair. And when his memory
+brought Lon into mental view, Ross&#8217;s face lit up
+with a sudden flash of intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Weston that I saw in the tent, and it
+was Weston that went into the barroom ahead of
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>He laid the note on the dresser and, bending
+under the electric light, studied it. There was
+nothing to show who had written it except the
+caution at the end. That might have emanated
+from Waymart, but the language was better than
+he would have used. Ross felt that it was Lon
+Weston who had written that message. Of course,
+if such was the case, and Lon was the fourth whom
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span>
+old man Quinn was looking for, that warning not
+to give the unsigned writer away would be accounted
+for. It might, in some way, be the clew
+that would lead to Lon&#8217;s detection. Ross now recalled
+how Lon had lain with one arm over his
+face all the time that Wilson and Leslie had been
+at the stage camp. He could not now recall
+whether or not the injured man&#8217;s name had been
+spoken in Leslie&#8217;s presence. But he did remember
+that Leslie had said of the McKenzies that perhaps
+they were men at some time in his father&#8217;s employ,
+in which case he might not know them, but that
+they would probably recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>"Then if he had heard Weston&#8217;s name it might
+not mean anything to Leslie," Ross concluded.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered why Lon had not made himself
+known that evening and wondered how he came to
+know the McKenzies. In fact, he sat on the side
+of his bed wondering about a dozen things until
+midnight, and then went to bed undecided what
+to do now that he had Quinn&#8217;s address in his
+possession. His resentment kindled against Leslie
+whenever he thought of the latter&#8217;s deception
+about his name. And the probabilities were that
+a letter from him, Ross, would not move the father
+to clemency.</p>
+
+<p>In this undecided state of mind, Ross strolled
+into the lobby the following morning, considering
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>
+how he could best kill time until the stage started
+for Meeteetse that evening. As he was standing
+in front of a window, his hands deep in his pockets,
+the sheriff and Sandy rode past, followed by
+Waymart. Neither the sheriff nor Waymart
+looked his way. But Sandy did, and, grinning,
+raised his hand in a graceful salute. Ross, nodding,
+felt his anger at Sandy dying. Distrust him
+as he must, Ross could not dislike him. In this
+strange state of mind, however, the boy was by no
+means alone throughout the length and breadth
+of Big Horn County.</p>
+
+<p>"They&#8217;re going now after the right chap,"
+thought Ross, and a wave of sympathy for Leslie
+began to wash away his resentment.</p>
+
+<p>In the end, he spent the greater part of the day
+composing a letter to old man Quinn, wherein he
+set forth Leslie&#8217;s position, prospects and altered
+feelings in bald statements containing but few
+adjectives. In explaining who the writer was he
+gave a brief account of his connection with the
+sheriff. Between the acts of composing, tearing
+up, and rewriting the composition, he searched
+Cody for Lon Weston, but could not find him.</p>
+
+<p>When, that evening, he climbed into the stage
+behind Andy, he had sent the letter to Leslie&#8217;s
+father and had not caught a glimpse of Weston.</p>
+
+<p>At the stage camp he was the butt of much
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span>
+congratulation and derision from the hilarious Hank.
+"Say, you made the sheriff mad as a hornet, but
+he had t&#8217; own up ye cheated &#8217;im out of a year&#8217;s
+growth. Sandy set the hull thing out in good
+shape. But why didn&#8217;t ye stick t&#8217; yer job instid
+of layin&#8217; down &#8217;n&#8217; kickin&#8217; up yer heels before the
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I&#8217;m no good, Hank, this side of the
+Mississippi River," returned Ross in humility of
+spirit. "Don&#8217;t knock me&#8211;you can&#8217;t get ahead of
+me in that respect! I&#8217;ve kicked myself all over
+Cody to-day."</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, at Meeteetse, he joined
+Bill Travers and the Miners&#8217; Camp stage and
+started on the all day&#8217;s journey into the mountains.
+At noon, he began looking for the sheriff
+and Leslie. He had calculated that they would
+meet the stage at the half-way ranch and there he
+would tell Leslie what he had written his father.
+But no Leslie appeared. All the afternoon during
+the stage&#8217;s progress into the mountains, Ross
+looked for the sheriff and his prisoner, but he
+looked in vain.</p>
+
+<p>At six o&#8217;clock, Bill Travers dropped his one
+passenger in front of Steele&#8217;s shack, and Ross,
+climbing Gale&#8217;s Ridge, opened the door on the
+superintendent in the act of sitting down to
+supper.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span>"Hello, there!" cried Steele grasping the boy&#8217;s
+chilled hand. "Here&#8217;s the best elk steak you ever
+planted your teeth in. Draw up and tell me what
+you&#8217;ve been up to, skylarking off to Cody with the
+sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>Ross followed directions, and soon was giving
+Steele the entire story of his capture and failure.</p>
+
+<p>Steele, forgetting to eat, alternated between
+amusement and amazement. "By George, I don&#8217;t
+wonder that sheriff was mad! You see, Doc, he&#8217;s
+new to the business of being sheriff. You were
+his first arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably if he were not so new he wouldn&#8217;t
+have been so easily fooled."</p>
+
+<p>"I can&#8217;t say," retorted Steele, "that he was
+easily fooled. Strikes me you were about as slow
+with him as greased lightning."</p>
+
+<p>Ross flushed at the praise. It was balm to his
+wounds in his self-esteem.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following morning, he started for
+Meadow Creek, and at the upper camp learned
+something for which he was unprepared and which
+was a source of temporary satisfaction to him.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Until noon Ross lingered in camp watching the
+sheriff and Sandy pass and repass in their search
+for the runaway. Finally, just before noon, he
+saw them on snow-shoes striking out up Wood
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span>
+River cañon into the uninhabited wilderness
+beyond. Then he slowly mounted the dizzy trail
+leading to Weimer&#8217;s shack and the interrupted
+work.</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been my note that warned him,"
+Ross thought as he watched the figures toiling up
+Wood River cañon. "I hope they have the chase
+of their lives," he said aloud, "and then I can
+patronize Sandy and stroke him down as he did
+me at &#8217;The Irma&#8217;&#8211;provided I dare!"</p>
+
+<p>He found Weimer sitting beside the fire smoking
+and growling over the absence of both his assistants.</p>
+
+<p>"Dot poy," he explained, "read dot paper you
+wrote and den vat does he do, hein? He says
+notings, aber he takes some tings and out he
+goes und leaves me mit der vork und mit mine
+eyes, und dey so pad!"</p>
+
+<p>This was the extent of the information he was
+able to give Ross concerning Leslie. Many grievances
+he had against the sheriff and "dem McKenzies"
+that had ransacked the premises and
+had ridden to and fro, over to Wilson&#8217;s and round
+the mountains searching for traces of Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>As it turned out, they might have found a trace
+of him had they searched more thoroughly, for
+the following day, Ross, diving into the pocket of
+his slicker for some nails that he carried there,
+came on a folded note pinned in the bottom of the
+pocket.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i5'></a><img src='images/i-202.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+BESIDE THE DYNAMITE BOX
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span>"All I understand from your letter," ran the
+note, "is that it has given me a chance to make
+my getaway. It was a mighty white thing of
+you to do, and I appreciate it, though I know I
+haven&#8217;t acted that way. You&#8217;ve probably found
+out what my name is by this time. I didn&#8217;t tell
+you, because I was so dead ashamed about the
+whole matter that I hated to face myself and disgrace
+the name. But I never thought father
+would do such a thing as he has, and so I shall
+clear out and stay cleared until he has stopped
+hunting. I know where I&#8217;m going, and you&#8217;ll see
+me in Meadow Creek after father goes back and
+has given me up.&#8211;<span class='sc'>Leslie Jones Quinn</span>."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, standing on the dump beside the dynamite
+box, a hammer in one hand, read the letter. At
+once all his remaining resentment against Leslie
+disappeared. "I guess I would have done the
+same about the name in his place," he concluded.</p>
+
+<p>Pinning the note in his pocket again for safe
+keeping he repaired the dynamite box. Then he
+entered the tunnel, where Weimer was once more
+at work drilling for a blast.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jake," he asked, "when did Leslie
+leave, what time in the day?"</p>
+
+<p>"It vas not day, it vas night," growled Weimer
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span>
+wrestling with the drill. "He vent avay mit
+darkness."</p>
+
+<p>"That accounts," said Ross, "for his not having
+been seen in camp."</p>
+
+<p>He felt certain that Leslie would take refuge in
+the shack up Wood River cañon where Wilson
+had stored some of the supplies in preparation for
+the winter&#8217;s work on the coal claims. In this
+case he would be discovered, for it was in that
+direction that the sheriff and Sandy had gone as
+Ross was climbing the Crosby trail. Therefore,
+it was with anxiety that the boy looked for the
+return of the McKenzies.</p>
+
+<p>Darkness had fallen when he left the tunnel
+that night, and as he emerged from the trees that
+clustered about the dump, he saw a light in the
+McKenzie cabin. Without waiting for his supper,
+he crossed the little valley and rapped on the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Doc," came Sandy&#8217;s voice from within.
+"Haul up the latch-string and show yerself.
+Comin&#8217; to crow over us, ain&#8217;t ye?" he continued
+as Ross entered. "Well, that ye can, fer we can&#8217;t
+find hide ner hair of Leslie, and the sheriff has hit
+the trail to Basin about as mad as they make &#8217;em
+over the whole thing!"</p>
+
+<p>Here Sandy threw his head back and laughed
+as amusedly as though the entire affair were a joke
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span>
+of his own manufacture. He did not seem to
+harbor the least resentment against Ross for having
+blocked the wheels of his game. Rather, he applauded
+the blocking frankly, while Waymart
+smoked stolidly beside the table and said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"That little note that you left for Less is what
+done the business," Sandy went on cheerfully reviewing
+the situation. "The sheriff had forgot
+that note &#8217;til we got up here and the bird wa&#8217;n&#8217;t t&#8217;
+be found in the hand ner the bush neither. That
+was a neat little trick, Doc, almost as neat as the
+way ye come it over the sheriff on the trail to
+Cody. Guess he&#8217;ll not fergit ye fer a spell! Mart,
+don&#8217;t be s&#8217; stingy with that weed. Hand over
+some. My pipe is about as empty as the sheriff&#8217;s
+head."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you do it, Sandy?" Ross burst out.
+"What made you send word to Leslie&#8217;s father that
+he was here?"</p>
+
+<p>Sandy composedly filled his pipe and lighted it.
+"It was cruelty t&#8217; little children not t&#8217;, Doc. The
+very idee of Leslie Jones leavin&#8217; his pa and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"His name isn&#8217;t Jones, and you know it, and I
+know it!" interrupted Ross. He could not keep
+the ring of triumph from his tone. "He is Leslie
+Quinn."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy&#8217;s hand traveled slowly to his pipe. "Is
+he? How&#8217;d you find out?" he asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206'></a>206</span>"Easily enough," said Ross carelessly, "when
+you know how."</p>
+
+<p>Both Waymart and Sandy regarded the boy intently.
+"Been back here then, has he?" they
+asked in one breath.</p>
+
+<p>Ross arose. "&#8217;It would be cruelty to little children&#8217;
+to tell you!" he quoted boldly and opened
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>Waymart gave an exclamation and sprang to his
+feet. His hands were clenched. But Sandy, kicking
+him under the table, guffawed.</p>
+
+<p>"Give and take, Mart," he exclaimed. "I&#8217;m
+willin&#8217; t&#8217; chew my own words, and if I am willin&#8217;
+there ain&#8217;t no kick comin&#8217; from you!"</p>
+
+<p>The following day Ross wrote another letter to
+Leslie&#8217;s father and enclosed the note he had found
+pinned in his pocket. This letter he entrusted to
+Wilson to mail in Cody, for Wilson was going to
+Butte for a few weeks before beginning his winter&#8217;s
+work on his coal claims. He stopped at noon to
+bid Weimer and Ross good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin&#8217; would hire me t&#8217; stay over here all
+winter," were his last words to Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Although the latter had seen but little of the
+prospector, his departure made the valley seem
+lonelier than ever, and caused Ross to cling desperately
+to the idea of the McKenzies remaining.
+As the days passed, and more snow fell, the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span>
+brothers began to get decidedly uneasy. They accounted
+for their uneasiness to Ross by telling him
+they were in need of supplies and saw no way of
+getting any over from Miners&#8217; Camp. Sandy was
+the informant, as usual, while Waymart&#8217;s eyebrows
+were lifted in momentary surprise. By that
+time every horse in Miners&#8217; Camp had been sent
+"below." There was but little grass on the mountains
+during the brief summer; and through the
+winter, which occupied nine months of the year,
+every ounce of fodder must be packed over the
+difficult road from the ranches.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t see," quoth Sandy unconvincingly,
+"but what we&#8217;ll have to strike the trail. Hain&#8217;t
+no way, as I can see, to pack grub over except on
+our backs, and that&#8217;s too slow."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment there was silence in Weimer&#8217;s
+cabin. The wind moaned and wailed among the
+hemlocks, and whistled savagely past the cabin.
+In his bunk Weimer snored. Above them came
+the cry of the coyotes, like a child&#8217;s long-drawn
+scream of pain and fear. The terror of loneliness
+among those overhanging mountains gripped at the
+boy&#8217;s throat. For a moment he could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>Then, "If you could get provisions over easily,
+would you stay longer?"</p>
+
+<p>Sandy crossed his legs restfully. "Sure," he answered
+readily.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span>That week, therefore, Ross used his spare time&#8211;and
+some time which he ought not to have spared&#8211;in
+making a sled. It was, when finished, a
+crude but efficient affair, the runners being surmounted
+by a double-decked box. This vehicle
+he exhibited one day to the McKenzies as the
+prospective conveyor of their supplies over the
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy stood in front of the shack, his hands in
+his pockets, his cap pushed well back on his head
+and the front lock of hair falling over his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Doc, you&#8217;re the stuff!" he cried warmly.
+"There&#8217;s an idee or two floatin&#8217; around in yer tenderfoot
+brain, ain&#8217;t there?"</p>
+
+<p>Tied to both front and rear of the sled were
+ropes, two in front, one behind. Those in front
+differed in length.</p>
+
+<p>"See?" explained Ross. "Two can&#8217;t walk
+abreast on the trail, but still it&#8217;s easier for each one
+to pull on his own rope. That&#8217;s the reason I made
+&#8217;em of different lengths. Then one of us behind
+can hold the sled from slipping off the trail with
+the rear rope. In this way we can bring up a big
+load of supplies."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy removed his cap, and pushed back his
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Doc, where was you raised? Guess I&#8217;ll go back
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span>
+t&#8217; the same place, and be raised over agin. It
+might pay." His tone expressed an admiration
+that was almost genuine.</p>
+
+<p>Waymart said nothing. He scarcely glanced at
+the sled, but turned away scowling up toward the
+tunnel where, as he had informed himself, Ross
+and Weimer were doing an amazingly good piece
+of work.</p>
+
+<p>As they started back toward their own shack,
+Ross heard Waymart say angrily to Sandy, "Are
+you goin&#8217; to take the use of that sled?"</p>
+
+<p>And Sandy&#8217;s answer, "For sure, now! What&#8217;s
+eatin&#8217; you, Mart? Doc&#8217;s got a good head on &#8217;im."</p>
+
+<p>"Entirely too good fer us, mebby!" growled
+Waymart; and Ross smiled in satisfaction, thinking
+they referred to his work in the tunnel.</p>
+
+<p>Just before supper, the door of Weimer&#8217;s shack
+unceremoniously opened, and Waymart&#8217;s arm was
+thrust in. "Here," his voice said roughly, "take
+this here elk steak."</p>
+
+<p>Ross relieved the arm of its burden, and the door
+closed sharply. It was a sirloin steak, the juiciest
+and most tender in the animal which the brothers
+had brought into the valley the day before. Sandy
+had often brought them venison before, but never
+Waymart; and Ross was pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"While Sandy is entertaining," Ross had told
+Steele, "and Waymart seldom says two sentences at
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>
+one sitting, and next to never meets my eye, yet, if
+it came right down to a choice, I believe I&#8217;d rather
+travel along with Waymart than with Sandy."</p>
+
+<p>"Your choice is all right," Steele had replied.
+"If Waymart would cut loose from Sandy, he&#8217;d
+earn an honest living. It&#8217;s Sandy that&#8217;s the head,
+though. It&#8217;s Sandy that plans; Waymart furnishes
+the feet and arms. Sandy&#8217;s good company, but I
+wouldn&#8217;t trust him with my pocketbook around
+the corner. Not," Steele added, "that he&#8217;d steal it
+in such a way that the law could touch him. No,
+he&#8217;d have the pocketbook, but it &#8217;ud leave him
+free to look any jury in the eye and to shake hands
+with me afterward."</p>
+
+<p>The new sled made its first journey down into
+Miners&#8217; Camp one Sunday in December two weeks
+after Ross had ridden down with the sheriff.
+Waymart went ahead with one of the leading-ropes
+over his shoulder, and Sandy behind, steadying the
+empty vehicle around the shoulder of Crosby.
+Waymart led because he was the heaviest, and
+there was a deep fall of snow to contend against
+except around the shoulder, where, fortunately, the
+wind had swept the mountain clean.</p>
+
+<p>As the trail broadened beyond, Waymart paused
+to survey the low-hanging clouds. Ross, in the
+rear, stopped and studied the mountains which
+Nature had in ages past taken in her gigantic hands
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span>
+and flung into the cañon between Dundee and
+Crosby, compelling Wood River to crawl and worm
+and wind and cut its way deep and narrow down
+into Miners&#8217; Camp.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," exclaimed Ross suddenly to Sandy,
+"what is beyond that conglomeration of peaks."</p>
+
+<p>"Wood River cañon still, clean over on top of
+the Divide, and you can follow it on horseback
+right through. Part of the time up there," waving
+his hand toward the jumble of mountains
+which seemingly ended the cañon, "it&#8217;s pretty
+rocky trailin&#8217;, especially in winter, but it can be
+done."</p>
+
+<p>Sandy rested one foot on the edge of the sled.
+Waymart glued his eyes on the Camp far below.
+From various projecting stovepipes volumes of
+smoke were curling straight up in the windless air.
+From the tunnel of the Mountain Company almost
+opposite them came a succession of blasts which
+stirred the echoes between Dundee and Crosby.
+The Mountain Company were no respecters of Sunday.
+They were also working day and night in
+view of the near shut-down of the works.</p>
+
+<p>But Ross&#8217;s gaze was seeking to penetrate further
+toward the source of Wood River. "Any one living
+beyond there?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy grinned. "Elk, mountain-sheep, coyotes,
+bears, and timber wolves."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span>"But no people?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. There ain&#8217;t a man livin&#8217; &#8217;twixt here
+and the Yellowstone Park&#8211;now. Last summer a
+few prospectors sort of strolled up Wood River a
+few dozen miles, but they hiked it out, I tell ye,
+when snow come."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish," Ross said impulsively, "that I could
+go over there exploring."</p>
+
+<p>Waymart lifted his eyes the fraction of a moment,
+and encountered Sandy&#8217;s. A peculiar expression
+passed between them. Then Waymart&#8217;s
+gaze fell again on the Camp, and Sandy replied
+carelessly to Ross:</p>
+
+<p>"After you git the work done in your tunnel
+better strike some of these trails, but not in winter.
+They ain&#8217;t safe, especially for a tenderfoot."</p>
+
+<p>"But in the summer," returned Ross absently,
+"I don&#8217;t expect to be here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&#8211;that so?" and Sandy gave the sled a
+careless push.</p>
+
+<p>Waymart drew the rope over his shoulder, and
+once more the trio descended the trail.</p>
+
+<p>At the upper camp Ross left the brothers to
+purchase their supplies while he visited the post-office
+and Steele. At the former place he found
+a note to himself from Leslie&#8217;s father and a bulkier
+letter addressed to Leslie in his care. Mr. Quinn
+had received both of Ross&#8217;s letters, he wrote, the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span>
+last with the enclosure from Leslie. He had taken
+the steps necessary to recall the warrant, which, he
+explained, had seemed to him the "surest and
+quickest way of fetching the boy home," and
+would allow Leslie to return to Ross as his note
+indicated that he desired. On his return Ross
+was to give up the letter put in his care. Mr.
+Quinn closed his communication with thanks to
+Ross for the trouble he had been to, also, for his
+assurance that Leslie was boning down to work!</p>
+
+<p>Two weeks had elapsed since Leslie disappeared.
+Nothing had been seen of him nor heard of him
+in either the upper or lower camps, and Ross returned
+to Meadow Creek troubled in spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;m afraid," he told himself as he helped the
+McKenzies haul their supplies up the trail, "that
+I&#8217;ve made even a bigger mess of it all the way
+around than I thought at first."</p>
+
+<p>Steele, from his doorway, watched Ross out of
+sight that afternoon, with a pleased smile on his
+bearded lips. He was a tanned and freckled Ross
+now. Sun and wind and work in the open for
+two months had left their marks on the boy. He
+stood straighter, walked more firmly, and had laid
+on pounds of muscle.</p>
+
+<p>"He&#8217;s put himself through good and plenty,
+as well as holding Uncle Jake&#8217;s nose to the grindstone,"
+concluded Steele, turning back into the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span>
+cabin. On the making of the sled he had commented
+but briefly to Ross, realizing how much
+the presence of the McKenzies meant to the boy.
+To himself he thought, however:</p>
+
+<p>"That Sandy McKenzie! How he does manage
+to make other folks do his work!"</p>
+
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>During the week which followed, a stranger
+passed through Miners&#8217; Camp. He was seen by
+only one man, "Society Bill," who belonged to
+the Gale&#8217;s Ridge outfit.</p>
+
+<p>"He asked the way to the Meader Creek trail,"
+Society Bill told Steele. "Now, I wonder if he&#8217;s
+a new one of them McKenzies. I never set my
+two eyes on &#8217;im before."</p>
+
+<p>"Horseback?" asked Steele.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. Decent sort of bronc he rode. Told me
+to tell Bill Travers to drive it down below to-morrow
+if it got down this far."</p>
+
+<p>"That looks as if he knew what he was about,
+and intended to stay," mused Steele.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following morning the "decent sort
+of broncho," with its bridle reins tied to the
+pommel of the saddle, was discovered in front
+of Steele&#8217;s shack, pawing the snow in an ineffectual
+attempt to get a breakfast. Bill Travers,
+returning with the stage, according to request,
+drove the beast ahead of him down to the first
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span>
+ranch, and, taking off saddle and bridle, turned
+it into a large corral with dozens of other horses
+to winter. In the spring one by one the owners
+would straggle along, identify their horses and
+saddles, pay their bills, and depart for the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The owner of the ranch pitched the saddle
+under a shed, and thought no more about the
+transaction. Bill Travers, whirling his whip over
+the backs of his four stage horses, gave the stranger
+and his horse no more thought. Society Bill,
+having disseminated his news among the other
+miners, presently forgot it. But Amos Steele
+neither forgot nor ceased to speculate.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he, and what is he doing on the
+Creek?" Steele asked himself.</p>
+
+<p>The first part of the question Ross answered the
+following Sunday. He could scarcely wait to open
+the door before announcing:</p>
+
+<p>"Lon Weston is over on the Creek. He is
+cousin to the McKenzies!"</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span><a id='link_11'></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><span class='h2fs'>MEADOW CREEK VALLEY MISSES LESLIE</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Ross</span> could scarcely believe the evidence of his
+own senses when he saw Lon Weston riding along
+the trail below the dump. The boy had pushed
+the car with its load of ore out to the bumper and
+dumped it before he saw the horseman in the
+sheepskin coat, the hairy chaps, and a fur cap
+drawn over forehead and ears. The horse shied
+at the chunks of ore rolling almost to its feet, and
+Weston looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, there!" shouted Ross. "What on earth
+are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>Weston drew in his horse. "Hello, Doc!" he
+returned with gruff pleasantness without answering
+the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Doc" slipped and slid down the snowy path
+to the trail, and held out a cordial hand.</p>
+
+<p>"How&#8217;s your leg?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right." Weston gripped the extended hand
+heartily. "Almost as good &#8217;s new."</p>
+
+<p>His brown eyes above his heavy stubby beard
+held a pleasanter expression than Ross had seen
+in them while nursing their owner. They were
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span>
+deep eyes, capable of mirroring accurately the
+varied moods of the man looking out of them.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn&#8217;t recognize you in Cody three weeks
+ago," Ross was beginning when Weston interrupted
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning down from his saddle he met the boy&#8217;s
+eyes steadily. "Remember," he said slowly and
+meaningly, "that you didn&#8217;t see me&#8211;nor hear
+from me&#8211;in Cody."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," agreed Ross, embarrassed by the
+fixity of the other&#8217;s stare. "I&#8217;ll forget it hereafter,
+but I want to thank<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Cut it out," commanded Weston briefly,
+straightening again in the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"At least," invited Ross, "you&#8217;ll come to dinner
+with me. Uncle Jake is frying ham and onions.
+Smell &#8217;em? I got some onions and half a dozen
+apples over at Camp Sunday." His voice could
+not have been more eager had he been relating the
+finding of free gold. "Come on in, and have
+some."</p>
+
+<p>Weston&#8217;s eyes slipped away from Ross&#8217;s in a way
+which reminded the latter of Waymart&#8217;s, and
+rested on the smoke from the cabin a quarter of a
+mile away.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess not, to-day. Thank you just the same.
+The boys are probably rustlin&#8217; grub this minute
+and they&#8217;ll be expectin&#8217; me. See you again."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span>Ross stood motionless, looking after him.
+Weston rode sitting straight, unlike the usual
+careless forward droop of the cow puncher. He
+was a well-built man, although his shoulders were
+rather narrow. But the only characteristic that
+Ross noticed was the grip of the left knee against
+the horse. For the strength of that grip he was
+responsible, but it was a responsibility which Lon
+did not seem to recognize.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the boy realized the newcomer&#8217;s
+words. So Sandy and Waymart were expecting
+him, but had said nothing about it to Ross. And
+when Ross had told them about Lon Weston at the
+stage camp they had made no sign that they knew
+him. That was strange.</p>
+
+<p>He turned slowly toward the cabin, where
+Weimer was frying ham and onions and boiling
+coffee. Opening the cabin door he was met by a
+white gust of steam mingled with savory smoke.
+He propped the door open, and brought in an
+armful of wood.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, in his shirt-sleeves, was bending his
+head over a little stove, which offered barely room
+for a small kettle and a skillet with a coffee-pot
+sandwiched in between. A sheet-iron oven stood
+on the floor, the top answering for a sideboard.
+When Weimer made biscuits and sour dough
+bread, the oven was placed on top of the stove.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span>Ross threw his wood down on the hard dirt
+floor, and put a stick into the stove by way of the
+wide front door. The pine instantly blazed up,
+showing a wide crack which zigzagged across the
+side of the old stove.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jake,"&#8211;Ross sat back on one heel, and
+looked up at his partner whose blinking eyes were
+in the gloom of the cabin unprotected now by
+goggles,&#8211;"Uncle Jake, a stranger has just come
+into Meadow Creek City on the Limited."</p>
+
+<p>Weimer chuckled. Before the advent of his
+youthful "pard" the old man&#8211;Ross always
+thought of him as old despite his black hair and
+great strength&#8211;had not laughed in months.</p>
+
+<p>"He stopped at the second station," pursued
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer&#8217;s face instantly darkened. "At the
+McKenzies&#8217;? One of dem consarned gang, he
+ist?"</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s what I want to know. It&#8217;s Lon Weston,
+the fellow I told you I took care of at the stage
+camp."</p>
+
+<p>Weimer dumped ham and onions into an agateware
+basin, and set it on the table. "I don&#8217;t
+know him, I don&#8217;t. But he comes to der McKenzies,
+hein? Und after all dose days you spen&#8217;
+mit him!" Uncle Jack frowned heavily, and,
+sitting down, helped himself to boiled "spuds."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span>"I tink I knew all dem consarned gang, but dere
+ist no Veston mit &#8217;em."</p>
+
+<p>Ross dragged to the little bare board table a box
+marked in big letters, "Ruford&#8217;s Canned Tomatoes,
+The Yellow Brand," and, turning the box
+on end, straddled it opposite Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, eating and drinking noisily, found
+time to ask vindictively, "Ist he for more medicine
+come mit you?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross shook his head, and bent over his plate.</p>
+
+<p>The plate was tin. The cup out of which he
+drank his coffee was also tin. His knife and fork
+were steel, and his spoon was pewter. The place
+of the lacking milk pitcher was usurped by a tin
+can of condensed milk with the top bent back and
+the milk dried all over the sides. But Ross ate&#8211;how
+he ate! Potatoes followed ham, and coffee
+followed potatoes, and onions followed both, and
+then he began all over again. Never had eating
+been such serious work with him. But never,
+also, had his muscles been so firm and hard. As
+for a pickaxe, it was coming to feel no heavier than
+the baseball bat which he had always rather
+scorned.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," he began after a pause, "what
+Lon&#8217;s up to here, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>The question started Weimer on his favorite
+topic, the claim jumpers and the injustice of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221'></a>221</span>
+mining laws. He could not talk fast enough in
+English, and so dropped into his native German.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, accustomed to his tirades, cleared away
+the dishes, pushed the table back against the dirt
+chinked logs, and lay down on the blankets of his
+bunk for a few moments, his eyes glued on the
+little nickel clock.</p>
+
+<p>He broke into the other&#8217;s scolding monologue.
+"In ten minutes we must go back to work."</p>
+
+<p>Weimer scowled darkly. His lids, red and
+swollen, almost obscured his pale-blue eyes.
+"Mine eyes ist too pad to-day," he declared. "I
+vill not to go out in de sun again."</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks before, this oft-repeated declaration
+had alarmed Ross. Now he made no reply. But,
+when the hands of the nickel clock indicated one,
+he arose and put on his oiled jumper and oilskin
+cap.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Uncle Jake," he said in a strong, decided
+tone. "Here are your goggles. Get busy, or the
+McKenzie outfit will have our claims in spite of
+us. Now, when there are three to watch instead
+of two, we must show the mettle we&#8217;re made of."</p>
+
+<p>Moved by the magic statement, ever new and
+ever powerful, that the claims might be jumped,
+Uncle Jake, forgetting that in substance he had
+made the same objection to work twice a day for
+weeks and that Ross had overcome his objections
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span>
+in substantially the same way, "got busy." And
+presently Ross led him out, his eyes not only
+securely goggled, but covered as well with a black
+cloth which he pressed fearfully against the goggles.</p>
+
+<p>The snow was Weimer&#8217;s evil genius. He lived
+in dread of the sight of it. Without assistance he
+would not move a dozen paces away from the
+cabin after the sun had risen on Meadow Creek
+Valley. But the fear of the light had made as great
+an impression on his mind as the light itself had
+made on his eyes, and he had fallen into the habit,
+before Ross came, of staying in his cabin during
+cloudy days, lest, if he ventured out, the sun
+might break through the clouds.</p>
+
+<p>The old partner and the young went up the
+steep trail to the tunnel, Ross leading Weimer up
+over the side of the dump and into the mouth of
+the tunnel. In the shelter of its gloom the latter
+removed his goggles; and, stumbling along over
+the chunks of ore lying beside the narrow track,
+he reached the end of the short tunnel which had
+been blasted from the solid rock. Lighting a fresh
+candle, he set it in its socket at the end of a sharply
+pointed iron, a miner&#8217;s candlestick, and, jabbing
+the point into a crevice, leisurely surveyed the
+wall before him. Behind him the little empty car
+filled the tunnel with sound as Ross pushed it
+rattling and jolting over the rusty rails.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223'></a>223</span>"Ready to drill for another shot, ain&#8217;t we?"
+Ross asked. He pushed the car back out of the
+way. "Got to hustle to get it done this afternoon,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>Under the stimulus of Ross&#8217;s presence and hustle
+the older man fell to work valiantly, but it was
+slow work. Down in Miners&#8217; Camp machinery
+performed the task which Weimer was doing laboriously
+with the aid of a hand drill. Before him,
+at the end of the tunnel, was a seamed and uneven
+wall of rock a little higher than his head and a
+little broader than his reach had he extended his
+arms on either side. In this wall he patiently
+drilled three sets of holes, into which the "sticks"
+were placed for the next "shot," as the explosion
+of dynamite was called. In mining terms the old
+man was "putting a shot." Near the top of the
+wall he made three holes. Half-way down were
+two more, long and inclined toward each other at
+the top. These were the "cut-in holes." Lastly,
+at the foot of the wall were three large holes called
+"lifters." The contents of the top holes and the
+cut-ins were set off first, splintering and cracking
+the rock. Then the lifters were exploded, actually
+lifting the loosened mass above it and hurling it
+into the tunnel.</p>
+
+<p>When quiet reigned again, and Ross had loaded
+his hand car with the débris, he pushed it out on
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span>
+the dump again through the moist, freezing atmosphere
+of the tunnel. There was water everywhere.
+Near the mouth of the tunnel it was frozen on the
+sides and the top, and carpeted the floor with slush.
+Further in it was unfrozen, oozing out of the sides,
+dripping from the roof, running along the track.
+It covered the oiled garments of the men at work.
+It put out their candles. It made muck of the
+quartz dust on the floor. It often destroyed the
+lighted fuses.</p>
+
+<p>There was something maddening to Ross in its
+incessant drip and drizzle, and he always emerged
+on the dump with a feeling of relief, especially
+when the sun shone as it did that day in dazzling
+brightness.</p>
+
+<p>He dumped the car, and was about to push it
+back when his eyes fell on Weston&#8217;s horse journeying
+on the back trail riderless.</p>
+
+<p>"That means," thought Ross, "that he&#8217;s going
+to stay. Why?"</p>
+
+<p>A feeling of relief was mixed with uneasiness.
+The relief was caused by this further link in the
+chain of evidence that when the trail to Miners&#8217;
+Camp was closed it would not close on Weimer
+and him alone. The uneasiness had to do with
+the mission of the McKenzie outfit in Meadow
+Creek Valley. Why were they reinforced by
+Weston?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225'></a>225</span>"Oh!" exclaimed Ross aloud in sudden disgust
+with himself. "He&#8217;s come to hunt, of course!
+His gun was strapped on behind. I never thought
+of that. If he belongs to the McKenzie outfit,
+he&#8217;d rather hunt than eat."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to him that the "outfit" bore him
+not the slightest grudge or ill will. Sandy, indeed,
+seemed openly to like him, Waymart tolerated
+him with a surly good humor, while Weston&#8211;here
+Ross knit his brow&#8211;Weston baffled him completely;
+still, considering the incident of the note
+in Cody, the boy looked on him as a friend albeit
+one who evidently did not care to pose in that capacity
+before the McKenzies.</p>
+
+<p>From his position Ross could look down and
+across on the claims of the McKenzies and almost
+into the "discovery hole" in which they were
+supposed to be working. Waymart was leisurely
+drilling a hole in the rock to receive a stick of
+dynamite when Sandy came out of the cabin and
+walked rapidly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>The two talked together a moment, and then
+Weston joined them. In a moment the three fell
+apart, and appeared to be talking excitedly. Presently
+Waymart dropped the discussion, and turning
+his back walked away a few steps with his
+hands in his pockets and stood in a listening attitude.
+Ross watched with absorbing interest.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226'></a>226</span>
+Even at that distance he could see that the discussion
+between the other two was not amiable. The
+scene lasted but a few moments, and then all three
+descended to the cabin together.</p>
+
+<p>That evening after supper, Ross washed the
+day&#8217;s dishes, brought in wood, and put the room
+to rights, while Weimer alternately smoked and
+snored in his bunk. The room was dimly lighted
+by candles in candlesticks thrust into logs. Ross,
+so tired and sleepy he could scarcely keep his eyes
+open, hung up the dish-pan on its nail beside the
+stove, and looked longingly toward the emergency
+chest pushed beneath his bunk. Not one word
+had he mastered of the contents of the books he
+had stowed away there with such high hopes.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t believe the McKenzies are coming
+over," he told Weimer, as he filled the stove and
+wound up the clock. "It&#8217;s too late for them."</p>
+
+<p>Weimer made no reply. His pipe had fallen on
+his chest, and his hair-encircled mouth was wide
+open in a vacuous sleep. At that moment the rising
+wind beat the snow against the window, and
+Ross uttered an exclamation. He had forgotten to
+shut the tool-house door, and, fearing that with
+the wind in the south the little log house would be
+filled with snow before morning, he went back up
+the trail to the tunnel. Climbing noiselessly over
+the soft snow, he arrived at the ore dump, and was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span>
+making for the tool house across the mouth of the
+tunnel when a light flickered in his path.</p>
+
+<p>Startled, he looked into the tunnel, and saw
+three figures at the end silhouetted against the dim
+candle-light.</p>
+
+<p>"Lon, Sandy and Waymart," he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>There was no danger of his being discovered, so
+dark was the night. Therefore, he sat down on his
+heels beside the tool house, and watched, puzzled
+at first to understand the movements of the men.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he muttered suddenly, "they&#8217;re measuring
+to see how fast the work is going."</p>
+
+<p>With a tape line the men were estimating the
+cubic feet of rock excavated by Ross and Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>Ross hugged his knees, and exulted. His
+"friends the enemy" might measure all they
+chose, he thought; and every length of the tape
+line would reveal to them the futility of waiting
+to jump the Weimer-Grant claims.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the three started out of the tunnel.
+Ross, seeking a hiding-place, found it behind a
+clump of low spruce trees at the right of the
+tunnel&#8217;s mouth. The intruders blew out their
+candles as they came out on the dump.</p>
+
+<p>"At this rate," Ross heard Waymart say,
+"they&#8217;re solid on these here claims."</p>
+
+<p>But, although he strained his ears, he could
+hear nothing more. After a brief wait the last
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span>
+sound of twigs breaking under their shoes died
+away; and Ross, leaving his hiding-place, shut
+the tool-house door and went back to the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>He found Weimer awake and whistling in his
+bunk. Ross paused at the door, regarding him
+curiously. It was the first time he had ever heard
+the old man make this cheerful sound, although
+Steele had said he used to be called Whistling
+Weimer as well as Dutch Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Uncle Jake!" cried Ross. "Feeling
+pretty gay, aren&#8217;t you?"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer stopped in the middle of his tune, and
+blinked at Ross. "Nein," he denied, "I ain&#8217;t
+feelin&#8217; gay. If your eyes vas<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Ross interrupted. "Now, see here, Uncle Jake;
+you know your eyes are better since I&#8217;ve taken to
+doctoring them."</p>
+
+<p>The last few weeks had certainly improved the
+old man. His eyes were better, owing to a cooling
+lotion which Ross had dropped under the lids
+twice a day. Weimer&#8217;s mind was clearer because
+his growing confidence in his young partner had
+quieted his fears. Ross&#8217;s cheerfulness was also
+contagious. Nor did the cleanliness on which the
+boy insisted lower Weimer&#8217;s vitality. Soap became
+a known quantity to him.</p>
+
+<p>All these favorable circumstances reacted on
+Weimer&#8217;s work. He was becoming more and more
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span>
+efficient, and Ross&#8217;s spirits had risen as the days
+passed; and he saw the growing intelligence
+manifested by the other in regard to operations
+in the tunnel. This change for the better in
+Uncle Jake had not passed unnoticed by the
+McKenzies.</p>
+
+<p>Ross said nothing to the old man about the
+scene he had just witnessed in the tunnel. It
+would do no good, and would only inflame the
+other&#8217;s wrath. Therefore, he snuffed the candles,
+repeating mechanically:</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t believe the McKenzies are coming over
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>But at that moment footsteps sounded outside
+the door. The snow creaked under the pressure
+of shoes, and Sandy and Waymart entered.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy was as gay and talkative as ever, but not
+Waymart. He sat down on a box, leaned back
+against the logs, turned up his coat collar to protect
+himself from the icy wind, which sought out
+the dirt-chinked crevices, and, pulling a mouth-organ
+from his pocket, began to play. Nor did
+he stop until Sandy rose to go. A sombre figure
+he made back among the shadows, his eyes resting
+vacantly on the floor at his feet. One leg was
+crossed over the other, the toe moving in time to
+the discordant music. Waymart&#8217;s thoughts did
+not seem to be cheerful companions.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230'></a>230</span>But Sandy had drawn a box close up beside the
+roaring fire, and sat with his elbows on his knees
+and a pipe in his mouth. He paid no attention
+to Weimer nor to his musical brother, but told
+Ross yarns of the gold-fields of Montana and
+Nevada, tales concerning other men, Ross noticed;
+Sandy never talked about himself.</p>
+
+<p>The evening passed and the men rose to depart
+without having mentioned the newcomer; and
+Ross, with the thought of their previous reticence
+concerning him in mind, waited for them
+to speak first.</p>
+
+<p>It was Sandy who spoke, but not until his hand
+was on the door and Waymart stood outside the
+cabin. Then he said carelessly, as though Ross
+had never seen Weston before, and as though the
+coming of a relative was an every-day event in
+Meadow Creek Valley:</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin hiked it over the mountain to-day.
+We&#8217;re goin&#8217; t&#8217; strike th&#8217; trail over t&#8217; the Divide
+to-morrow, huntin&#8217;. He&#8217;s great on game."</p>
+
+<p>"So," thought Ross, "I&#8217;m right. It&#8217;s hunting
+that has brought him here."</p>
+
+<p>The next morning at daylight, Ross, eating
+breakfast, chanced to glance out of the dirty
+west window. Up near the summit of Soapweed
+Ledge, which met Crosby at right angles,
+he saw three figures advancing single file. Each
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231'></a>231</span>
+carried a gun, and had a small pack and snow-shoes
+strapped on his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jake," asked Ross suddenly, "have you
+ever been over to the Divide?"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer shook his head. "No, I stay home and
+attend to pizness."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven&#8217;t you ever crossed that mountain?"
+Ross indicated Soapweed Ledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What&#8217;s beyond?"</p>
+
+<p>"More mountains," answered Weimer vaguely,
+"und peyond dem more und more."</p>
+
+<p>It was a week before the hunters returned, a
+long lonely week for Ross. Each morning he
+told himself hopefully that before night Leslie
+might return, but, to his increasing dismay, no
+Leslie came.</p>
+
+<p>"Can it be that an accident has happened to
+him, somewhere, alone, or has he changed his
+mind about coming and gone back home?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross asked himself this question as he stood at
+the mouth of the tunnel one morning staring in
+the direction of Soapweed Ledge. A heavy snowstorm
+had set in that morning, and in the afternoon
+the falling snow shrouded the Ledge in a
+white veil out of which the three men now
+emerged, moving slowly across the little valley.
+Their snow-shoes were on their feet, and in place
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232'></a>232</span>
+of the light packs with which they had started
+their shoulders were bent under loads of venison.</p>
+
+<p>The McKenzies had returned.</p>
+
+<p>That evening Waymart appeared at Weimer&#8217;s
+door with a goodly portion of meat, at which Ross
+looked dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You&#8217;ve given us so much already," he hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>Waymart interrupted. "Jerk it," he directed
+briefly. "Jerked meat makes a good stew when
+ye can&#8217;t git no fresh meat." He turned sharply
+to Weimer in his bunk. "See here, Uncle Jake,
+have ye forgot how t&#8217; jerk venison?"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer crawled out of his bunk, scowling.
+"Vell, I haf nicht dat. I guess I jerk him so
+gud as anypody."</p>
+
+<p>"Get about it then!" retorted Waymart with
+rough kindness. "Here&#8217;s a meat knife to shred
+it up with."</p>
+
+<p>He laid a large, sharp knife on the table, and
+cut Ross&#8217;s thanks short by an abrupt departure.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, grumbling at the interruption to his
+rest, cut the meat in long, thin strips, which, he
+told Ross, were to be nailed to the outside of the
+shack after the storm had passed. But in the
+morning, Ross, objecting to a process which
+brought the meat into contact with the dirty
+logs, stretched a cord between two trees, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233'></a>233</span>
+over it, in the sunshine, folded the strips clothespin
+fashion, leaving them for the air to cure and
+dry.</p>
+
+<p>For two or three days the McKenzies did not
+visit their neighbors. Ross saw them outside
+their shack occasionally, and something in the
+air and attitudes spoke, even at that distance, of
+disagreement.</p>
+
+<p>One evening at six o&#8217;clock Weimer stumbled
+out of the tunnel alone and down the path, the
+darkness robbing the snow of its terrors. A few
+moments later, Ross, having laid the dry sticks in
+the drilled holes in the end wall of the tunnel,
+lighted the fuses, and, candle in hand, made for
+the mouth.</p>
+
+<p>He came out on Lon Weston sitting on a stump
+which projected above the dump.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Doc," greeted Lon Weston.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Weston." Ross was so astonished to see
+him there that he nearly forgot to count the explosions
+that just then thundered in the tunnel behind
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"One, two, three, four, five." That accounted
+for the five sticks.</p>
+
+<p>He leaned against the tool house, and looked at
+Lon through the dusk. Lon&#8217;s cap was pulled
+down over his eyes. His sheepskin collar was
+turned up, meeting the cap. All that was visible
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234'></a>234</span>
+of his face was a bit of beard protruding around
+the stem of the pipe. But the voice sounded a
+more amiable note than it ever had in the stage
+camp, although his manner revealed an uneasy
+embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Doc, how d&#8217;ye like minin&#8217;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t like it at all," replied Ross honestly.</p>
+
+<p>"Seems t&#8217; like you all right," returned Lon.
+"You&#8217;re in better flesh and color than you was
+down on Dry Creek."</p>
+
+<p>"So are you," retorted Ross, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>Lon made no reply. He moved restlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Done any studyin&#8217; in that pile o&#8217; books ye had
+along?" he asked abruptly after a time.</p>
+
+<p>"No." Ross&#8217;s tone was crisp. "Haven&#8217;t
+studied a word." The subject was a tender one
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>There ensued a pause. Ross opened the door of
+the tool house, and threw in his pick and shovel.
+He hitched the legs of his high rubber boots
+nearer his body; and then, as Lon made no move
+toward going, he swung his numbed hands briskly.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," Lon began again in a constrained
+and hesitating way, "that you was mighty anxious
+about those books. I thought your goin&#8217; to some
+college or other depended on your gettin&#8217; outside
+of those books."</p>
+
+<p>Ross struck his hands rapidly together. "I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235'></a>235</span>
+can&#8217;t study," he answered briefly. "I get too
+tired working."</p>
+
+<p>Weston arose and faced toward the cabin of the
+McKenzies.</p>
+
+<p>"Another storm comin&#8217;," he announced. "Get
+here day after to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s Christmas," muttered Ross. His heart
+contracted sharply, and a homesick pang assailed
+him. In his ignorance, before leaving home, he
+had set Christmas as the date of his return.</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236'></a>236</span><a id='link_12'></a>CHAPTER XII<br /><span class='h2fs'>A CALAMITY BEFALLS ROSS</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Ross</span> was writing to Dr. and Mrs. Grant. He
+bent over the rough table under the light of two
+candles stuck into the logs above his head. Weimer
+slept in his bunk the sound and noisy sleep
+of a tired laborer.</p>
+
+<p>"At the rate we&#8217;re going at present," Ross wrote,
+"we&#8217;ll finish work by the middle of May....
+We have at least one thing to be thankful for in our
+tunnel. We&#8217;re not obliged to timber it. Of course,
+blasting through solid rock isn&#8217;t easy nor fast
+work, but I guess in the long run we get along
+faster than we would through dirt. In this case,
+you see we should be obliged to snake logs down
+from the mountainside and build side walls and
+roof in the tunnel for our own safety. How&#8217;s
+&#8217;snaking&#8217; for you, Aunt Anne? First time I
+heard it I hadn&#8217;t an idea what it meant, but it
+covers the process of cutting down trees and getting
+them to their destination. Tell you what!
+We speak some language up here. The King&#8217;s
+English isn&#8217;t always in it, but then every one
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237'></a>237</span>
+understands, and I have fallen into using it as easily
+as a fish takes to water. And I am getting hardened
+to the work and the weather. I wouldn&#8217;t
+mind the whole thing so much now if only the
+way to Miners&#8217; Camp would remain open. But
+any day it may become practically impassable, and
+then I cannot hear from you nor you from me for
+months. That&#8211;as I look ahead&#8211;is the tough
+part of it, being cooped up here with only five of
+us; and how the McKenzies can remain without
+laying in more provisions I don&#8217;t see. They have
+meat enough, but that&#8217;s all. With this letter I&#8217;m
+taking another over to Camp for Leslie&#8217;s father. I
+ought to have sent him word before that Leslie
+hasn&#8217;t been seen nor heard of since he disappeared,
+but every day I&#8217;ve looked for him back&#8211;the
+whole affair worries me a lot&#8211;I should think as
+soon as he gets my letter, old man Quinn would
+come and hunt Leslie up himself."</p>
+
+<p>At this point there was the sound of laughter
+outside, and Ross laid aside his pencil and pad.</p>
+
+<p>"Sandy," he muttered, listening.</p>
+
+<p>To his surprise it was not Sandy whom the
+opening door revealed, but Lon and Waymart,
+both in unprecedented high spirits.</p>
+
+<p>"We left Sandy snorin&#8217;," Waymart volunteered.
+"He and Uncle Jake ought to bunk in together.
+Lon, show Ross how Sandy talks in his sleep."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238'></a>238</span>Weston sat down, leaned his head back against
+the logs, gave one or two passes through his hair,
+which left it arranged like Sandy&#8217;s with a lock
+falling over his forehead; and in an instant, although
+Weston was dark and Sandy fair, an excellent
+imitation of the latter mumbled and talked
+and snored against the logs. Weston accurately
+and easily imitated the voice and manner of Sandy
+with his laugh and every facial characteristic.
+Even Weimer rolled over in his bunk and laughed.
+Next, Weston, carried out of himself by an appreciative
+audience, imitated Waymart, the sheep-herder
+at Dry Creek, and finally Ross himself, and did it
+all with amazing success.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, convulsed with laughter, rocked back and
+forth on his box. It was the first real fun he had
+encountered since leaving Pennsylvania. It did
+not seem possible that this Weston was the same
+half-sullen, wholly silent man whom he had nursed
+at the stage camp.</p>
+
+<p>Ross sat opposite the window in front of which
+Weston was performing; and finally, just as
+Waymart had called for an imitation of Weimer,
+the boy, glancing up, encountered Sandy&#8217;s face
+outside the dirty pane. It remained there but an
+instant while Sandy took the measure of the performer,
+but that instant was enough to show Ross
+the full expression of which he had caught glimpses
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239'></a>239</span>
+before, and which revealed the side of his character
+that Sandy usually concealed. His blue eyes
+glinted angrily. His thin lips, tightly closed,
+wore a cruel expression, while every feature clearly
+showed a malignant disapproval of Weston&#8217;s
+methods of entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>The laugh died in Ross&#8217;s throat; but the next
+instant the door swung open and Sandy entered,
+gay and careless&#8211;except as to eyes. They still
+glinted.</p>
+
+<p>"Thought ye&#8217;d shook me, didn&#8217;t ye?" he asked
+with a grin. "Wall, this racket would bring a
+feller up from his grave, to say nothin&#8217; of a little
+snooze."</p>
+
+<p>He pushed a box over on its side, and sat astride
+it; and at once the atmosphere in the cabin
+changed, and became frigid, despite the newcomer&#8217;s
+gaiety. Weston slunk back to his seat, and all
+Ross&#8217;s urging proved ineffectual to draw him out
+of his shell again. Waymart&#8217;s face also lost its
+good humor.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the three left together.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, wide awake, moved around the shack.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat Veston!" he chuckled. "How many
+kinds of beoples ist he? I could shut mine eyes
+and tink he vas dem all."</p>
+
+<p>The next day was Sunday, and early in the
+morning in the teeth of a mild wind and threatened
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span>
+storm Ross was off for Miners&#8217; Camp. As far as
+the shoulder around Crosby he went on snow-shoes.
+Arrived at the shoulder, and, making use
+of the long, sharp spike which he carried, he
+picked his way cautiously forward, pushing
+through the deep snow in the trail with his feet
+and knees, the spike set on the outer edge to prevent
+his slipping. Again and again a ledge of
+overhanging snow would break away and fall on
+him; and, light even as the snow yet was, its
+weight dropping on his shoulders caused him to
+stagger. The snow-shoes also became a burden,
+for they were a useless encumbrance until he
+reached the foot of the mountain and struck out
+for Steele&#8217;s shack over two miles of snow already
+five feet deep.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached Gale&#8217;s Ridge, he was almost
+exhausted, not only from pushing through the
+snow on the trail, but from the unaccustomed
+effort of walking on snow-shoes. Already he was
+dreading the most difficult task of all&#8211;the return
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>Steele met him with a manifest uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Grant, your trips down to Camp this season
+are numbered," he cautioned as they sat down to
+an early dinner. "An old trailer could creep
+around the shoulder of Crosby for a little while
+yet, but neither you nor I could do it in safety.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241'></a>241</span>
+The snow&#8217;s gettin&#8217; so almighty deep now, and
+blowin&#8217; up in ledges on the shoulder&#8211;you probably
+got a ducking coming over?" His tone
+arose inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>Ross nodded. "Several times a lot of snow
+dropped on me; once I almost lost my balance."</p>
+
+<p>Steele moved uneasily. "That&#8217;s the trouble
+with that trail even before there&#8217;s danger of a
+regular avalanche. You&#8217;re likely to get swept
+over when you least expect it, and going back is
+worse than coming."</p>
+
+<p>Directly after dinner Ross commenced to bind
+on his snow-shoes for an early departure, having
+filled his pockets with candy for Weimer. His
+heart was heavy, and he had a queer, choky sensation
+as he looked around the little shack, which
+he might not see again in months.</p>
+
+<p>Steele was adjusting the straps on his own snow-shoes.</p>
+
+<p>"Going up the cañon with me, are you?" asked
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Steele nodded, and got into his top-coat. "A
+little way," he answered briefly.</p>
+
+<p>Although it was only one o&#8217;clock in the afternoon,
+twilight had fallen. The clouds rolled up
+the cañon so low that they hung almost within
+reach of the men&#8217;s hands, although not much snow
+was yet falling. An indescribable gloom filled the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242'></a>242</span>
+cañon, the gloom of utter isolation and loneliness.
+Not a breath of wind was stirring; not a movement
+of a tree was audible. Everywhere were the
+deep snow, the silent trees, the great white hulks
+of the mountains; and over all the clouds glowered
+sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>Nature had erected sudden and impenetrable
+barriers in all directions, and Ross felt as though
+he were striving against them all.</p>
+
+<p>In silence the two traveled the distance which
+lay between Gale&#8217;s Ridge and the upper end of
+Miners&#8217; Camp, which was at present a deserted
+end. When they passed out of sight of the eating
+house on Gale&#8217;s Ridge, they left behind them every
+sign of life. The Mountain Company had shut
+down two weeks before. A few men had gone to
+Steele, but the majority had betaken themselves
+"below." Their shacks stood as the owners had
+left them, with their stoves, their crude furniture,
+and in some cases provisions, intact.</p>
+
+<p>The stage was due now only once a week, and
+the post-office had been removed to Steele&#8217;s cabin.
+The former postmaster had gone to work on a
+ranch on the Grey Bull, leaving the post-office
+doors wide open, the snow filling the cabin and
+banking up against the letter boxes.</p>
+
+<p>"By April," said Steele, "you can&#8217;t see even the
+roof of a single one of these places down here next
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243'></a>243</span>
+the river. They&#8217;ll all be plumb covered with
+snow."</p>
+
+<p>Steele did not stop, as Ross supposed he would,
+at the foot of Crosby, but started up the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" demanded the boy.</p>
+
+<p>The superintendent went on. His reply came
+back muffled by the heavy air. "Around the
+shoulder of this little hill."</p>
+
+<p>Nor could any protest from Ross restrain him.</p>
+
+<p>As they began the ascent, Ross found the moisture
+hanging in drops to his clothing, while his face
+felt as though it were being bathed in ice-water.
+At the same time the clouds settled all about them.</p>
+
+<p>"This is literally walking with our heads in the
+clouds," muttered Steele grimly. "And this is
+the weather that&#8217;ll pack the snow in this trail with
+a crust as hard as earth&#8211;ugh!"</p>
+
+<p>They ascended the trail laboriously, Steele in
+the lead, Ross lagging behind, leg-weary, and
+heavy-hearted at the thought of the months to
+come. Around the shoulder of the mountain they
+cautiously felt their way, the thick clouds about
+them seeming to press back the banks of snow
+above.</p>
+
+<p>Once on the safe trail beyond the shoulder
+Steele turned, and held out his hand without a
+word. Also wordless, Ross gripped it. Then the
+older man took the back trail, and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244'></a>244</span>The boy stood where the other left him, staring
+into the clouds which hid the shoulder. As he
+stood, a slight breeze touched his cheek and died
+away. He buckled his snow-shoes on again, and
+faced Meadow Creek Valley. As he did so, the
+breeze came again. Presently it turned into a
+wind, and the clouds retreated hastily up the
+mountainside. Great flakes of snow filled the air.
+Faster and faster they came swirling down until
+the air was thick with a storm which cut sharply
+against Ross&#8217;s face. He hurried on, and in an
+hour was beyond the reach of the storm in Weimer&#8217;s
+shack, drying his wet coat and cap.</p>
+
+<p>He found his old partner half wild with anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"If you did not come pack to-night," he cried,
+"I thought you would never! A plizzard ist
+now."</p>
+
+<p>So rejoiced was Uncle Jake at Ross&#8217;s return that
+he sat near the fire and waxed garrulous while the
+wind lashed the trees and drove the snow outside;
+and Ross, the other side of the stove, shivered and
+listened listlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"What ails you, hein?" Weimer finally demanded.</p>
+
+<p>And Ross, with a lump in his throat of which
+he was not ashamed, told him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ach!" exclaimed Weimer disgustedly. He
+snapped his thumb and finger together. "I vas
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245'></a>245</span>
+here dree vinters alone mit no one near. Py day
+I vorked. Py night dem volves howl und cayotes;
+but," consolingly, "dey can&#8217;t git in, und
+dey vant nicht to git in."</p>
+
+<p>Then for the first time he went on to relate to
+Ross in his quaint and broken English many
+stories of those lonely winters in this solitary valley,
+which had then held him as its only inhabitant.</p>
+
+<p>"No wonder," thought Ross, listening to the
+fury of the storm, "that the old man&#8217;s mind was
+ready to give away under the additional trial of
+an attack of snow-blindness."</p>
+
+<p>The blizzard continued in unabated fury all the
+next day. Neither Weimer nor Ross visited the
+tunnel. They remained housed, watching the
+snow gradually pile itself around the little shack
+until the two small windows were obscured, and
+they were obliged to resort to candle-light.</p>
+
+<p>But during the night the wind changed, and the
+following morning the sun rose in a brilliantly blue
+sky. Directly after an early breakfast Ross started
+to shovel a way out of the cabin. He dug the
+snow away from the door and windows, and then
+turned his attention to the trail leading to the tunnel.
+Here he found that the wind had favored him,
+sweeping the path clean and filling up the hollows.
+In the valley the snow lay seven feet deep.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246'></a>246</span>Ross worked his way to the ore-dump, at the
+base of which he paused to look down on the McKenzies.
+Their cabin was also released from the
+snow as to door and window. The snow was also
+tramped and shoveled around the discovery hole,
+but no one was in sight, and Ross had turned again
+to his task when a yell caused him again to face
+the McKenzie cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy was gesticulating frantically while he advanced
+rapidly on snow-shoes, dodging the trees
+as he came diagonally across the mountainside.
+He came on, talking at the top of his voice, but all
+Ross could catch was "sticks" and "thief" and
+"trail." Sandy was plainly excited. His neckerchief
+was knotted under one ear; his coat was buttoned
+up awry; his cap was on with one ear-flap
+dangling, and the other held fast by the rim of the
+cap. His ears and nose were scarlet, the thermometer
+registering, that morning, thirty below
+zero.</p>
+
+<p>"Our dynamite is gone," Sandy yelled when he
+was near enough to make Ross understand. "Gone&#8211;stolen."</p>
+
+<p>Ross stared at him stupidly. "Who is there to
+take it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some one," panted Sandy with an oath, "must
+have come up the trail Sunday and taken the stuff,
+thinkin&#8217; that it &#8217;ud storm right off and shut up the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247'></a>247</span>
+trail so none of us &#8217;ud be such fools as t&#8217; go over t&#8217;
+Camp after more. That&#8217;s the way I&#8217;ve figured it
+out, and I lay ye I&#8217;m right."</p>
+
+<p>"When did you find out the sticks were gone?"
+asked Ross with an interest which did not as yet
+reach beyond Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>"A few minutes ago," gasped Sandy. "I come
+as fast as I could to see if your<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Ross cut him short with a loud exclamation, and
+without waiting to hear the end of the sentence
+turned and plunged up over the dump, ploughing
+and fighting his way through the snow as though
+it were a thing of life.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy picked up the wooden shovel which the
+boy had cast away, and followed out of breath, but
+still talking.</p>
+
+<p>"You know we kept the sticks in a box under
+a hemlock right above the hole, and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, unheeding, floundered across the dump,
+and began to dig wildly at the tool-house door, only
+the upper part of which was visible. With set
+teeth he dug, forgetting Sandy, forgetting the
+shovel, his common sense swallowed up in a panic
+of fear.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer had always kept the dynamite sticks in
+a box, a large double boarded and heavily lidded
+affair which was set in the corner of the tool chest
+furthest from the door.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248'></a>248</span>At first Ross had raised the lid of this box with
+chills creeping down his spine. His hair had
+stirred under his cap when he first saw Weimer
+stuff the sticks carelessly into his pocket and enter
+the tunnel. But familiarity with the use of the
+sticks had robbed them of their terror, although
+Ross was always cautious in the handling.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, Doc." Sandy&#8217;s voice at his elbow
+finally brought the frantic boy to his senses. "Ye
+can&#8217;t do nothin&#8217; with yer hands. Stand aside
+there, and I&#8217;ll shovel the snow away from the
+door."</p>
+
+<p>Ross stood back, unconscious of the nip of the
+cold on his nose and cheeks, and watched Sandy
+shoveling with a will, the while talking consolingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t believe the thieves have come anigh ye;
+don&#8217;t look so, anyway. It&#8217;s likely some one who&#8217;s
+a grudge against some of us. There&#8217;s plenty holds
+grudges agin Lon. Wisht he&#8217;d stayed in the valley&#8211;here
+ye be! Ketch a holt of this side of the
+door. Now, one, two, three!"</p>
+
+<p>The door yielded to their combined efforts, and
+Ross rushed in with Sandy at his heels. His fingers
+were so numbed he could scarcely raise the lid
+of the dynamite box. A film seemed to cover his
+eyes, and in the light which entered grudgingly
+only by way of the door he could see nothing. He
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249'></a>249</span>
+bent his head further over the box, but it was Sandy&#8217;s
+voice which confirmed his worst fears.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a stick left. They&#8217;ve made a clean sweep
+of Medder Creek Valley!"</p>
+
+<p>The film cleared from Ross&#8217;s eyes, but not from
+his brain. The box was empty&#8211;the box which
+had contained the stuff absolutely necessary to the
+work in the tunnel.</p>
+
+<p>Ross glanced up and met Sandy&#8217;s eyes. Sandy&#8217;s
+eyes looked steadily and guilelessly into Ross&#8217;s,
+and Sandy&#8217;s face expressed all the sympathy and
+commiseration of which Ross stood in need.</p>
+
+<p>The boy sat down on the edge of the box.
+"What shall I do?" he asked, his thoughts in a
+whirl.</p>
+
+<p>"Do about th&#8217; same as we&#8217;ve got t&#8217;&#8211;git out!"
+quoth Sandy with a lugubrious shake of his head.
+"Here we got Lon up here t&#8217; help push our work,
+and now we&#8217;re up a stump; for ye know"&#8211;here
+Sandy&#8217;s eyes held Ross&#8217;s while he spoke slowly&#8211;"there&#8217;s
+no use thinkin&#8217; about gittin&#8217; any over
+from Camp. No one &#8217;ud be crazy enough to resk
+packin&#8217; a load of sticks around the shoulder this
+time of year."</p>
+
+<p>Ross shivered as he thought of the shoulder
+under its body of snow.</p>
+
+<p>"When are you going?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow," answered Sandy promptly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250'></a>250</span>
+"We&#8217;ll start then, but we&#8217;ll have to shovel
+through. You&#8217;ll have t&#8217; lead Weimer, won&#8217;t ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross swallowed twice before he answered.
+"Yes, I suppose so."</p>
+
+<p>"We&#8217;ll help ye." Sandy&#8217;s tones were good-natured
+and soothing. He seemed suddenly to
+have lost all regret at the disappearance of his
+store of dynamite. "We&#8217;ll break open the trail,
+and then we can rope ourselves together around
+the shoulder. That&#8217;s safer."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," Ross heard himself say in an unnatural
+voice. He could not in an instant adjust
+himself to this radical uprooting of his plans.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;ll be a ticklish job," Sandy continued, "t&#8217;
+break through around the shoulder without
+bringin&#8217; down the hull side of old Crosby on
+us, includin&#8217; a few rocks; but every day now we
+put it off is so much the worse."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to go. "Then we&#8217;ll pick ye up in
+the mornin&#8217;; will we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&#8211;I suppose so," returned Ross. "There
+doesn&#8217;t seem to be anything else to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Better not load up much," warned Sandy;
+"and don&#8217;t give Uncle Jake a load at all. All
+we&#8217;re goin&#8217; to try to pack over is a little venison."</p>
+
+<p>Then Sandy disappeared, and Ross suddenly
+recovered from his mental numbness. It was the
+sting of anger which aroused him. So confused
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251'></a>251</span>
+and disappointed had he been, and so well had
+Sandy played his part, that the true solution of
+the theft did not dawn on the boy until the other&#8217;s
+departure. Then he stopped short on the downward
+trail and uttered an exclamation, his hands
+clinching inside his mittens, and his eyes narrowing
+and flashing.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, it was Sandy&#8217;s own brain which had
+planned the matter and Sandy&#8217;s own henchmen
+who had made off with the sticks. They had taken
+this way of stopping the progress of work in the
+tunnel. They had waited until no more dynamite
+could be brought over the trail, calculating that
+when the time came for the claims to be patented
+one half year&#8217;s work would be undone, and then!</p>
+
+<p>Ross started blindly down the path. He would
+go over to the Camp with the McKenzies. He
+would go down to Meeteetse with them&#8211;no officer
+of the law could be found nearer, and there he
+would put them all under arrest. Here he stopped
+again. Arrest them on what evidence? Face to
+face with this question, he was obliged to acknowledge
+the neatness of the scheme which had for its
+first point the theft of their own sticks. Could
+he prove that no one had come over the trail after
+he reached the valley? And could he prove that
+the dynamite had not been taken by this mythical
+some one?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252'></a>252</span>Ross thought of what Steele had said concerning
+trusting Sandy with his pocketbook. Sandy would
+have the contents of the purse, Steele said, but he&#8217;d
+take care to get them in such a way that he could
+shake hands afterward with the owner, as well as
+face any jury.</p>
+
+<p>"And Steele," Ross muttered, drawing a long
+breath, "was right."</p>
+
+<p>The news of the loss seemed to jar Weimer back
+into a semblance of his former intelligence. Instead
+of ranting as Ross expected he would he sat
+down and talked over the situation reasonably
+with his young partner. It was Weimer, in fact,
+who restored something like hope to Ross.</p>
+
+<p>He objected to leaving the valley with the
+McKenzies. He had been over that valley and
+the surrounding mountains inch by inch, he told
+Ross. Let that "consarned gang" be gone. They
+two would stay and bring the dynamite to light.
+Then he told of place after place on the mountain
+which would make excellent hiding-places for the
+sticks. There were many caves, and some of them
+dry. Weimer reasoned the "gang" would cache
+the sticks in a dry place for their own future use.</p>
+
+<p>Temporarily the old partner and the young
+changed places, and, as Ross listened, he became
+stout of heart once more.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he exclaimed, "if dynamite can&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253'></a>253</span>
+be carried up the trail, neither can it be taken back
+into Camp. It&#8217;s got to be somewhere around here;
+and, if we hunt for it a month, we can still get the
+work done in time."</p>
+
+<p>"Vy didn&#8217;t I tink of dem sticks?" Weimer
+asked angrily. "I might know dem consarned
+gang pe up to somet&#8217;ing ven dey see our vork it
+vas gettin&#8217; fast! Vy didn&#8217;t I tink?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, having lapsed into his own thoughts,
+made no reply; and Weimer arose from the box
+where he had been sitting, and crawled into his
+bunk.</p>
+
+<p>Ross paced the floor slowly, his arms folded behind
+him. Ross&#8217;s fighting blood was up. Before
+this he had looked at his work as the result of his
+father&#8217;s request. It was not to his liking, and the
+only actual pleasure he took in it was the prospect
+of finishing it. He had believed before the theft
+of the sticks that he would welcome anything
+which really necessitated his leaving Meadow
+Creek Valley, although he would accept nothing
+less than necessity.</p>
+
+<p>But this theft seemed suddenly to have made
+the work his own and the failure to accomplish it
+a personal defeat. Instead of rejoicing over the
+prospect of leaving Meadow Creek Valley he welcomed
+eagerly Weimer&#8217;s suggestion that they stay
+and hunt for the dynamite, even though the hunt
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254'></a>254</span>
+meant that, dynamite or no dynamite, they must
+be shut up in the valley for months to come.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a new fear caused him to scramble
+hastily into his coat, cap, and mittens.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;m going to fetch the tools down," he explained
+grimly. "I&#8217;m not going to risk having
+some one make off with them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat ist so," assented Weimer. "Ve vill need
+dose tools; ve vill. Dose McKenzie gang vill see.
+I can find dose sticks, und I know I can."</p>
+
+<p>None of the McKenzies came over that evening,
+to Ross&#8217;s relief, for the events of the day had
+brought a new fear of that outfit. Sandy&#8217;s good-natured
+neighborliness had deceived him. Now
+for the first time he realized that they were actual
+enemies, ready to stoop to any means within the
+law to baffle him.</p>
+
+<p>It was scarcely daylight the following morning,
+although breakfast in the Weimer cabin had been
+disposed of, before there was heard a tramp of feet
+outside through the creaking snow, and Sandy
+with a heavy pack on his back appeared at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready t&#8217; strike the trail?" he asked, putting
+his head inside the shack.</p>
+
+<p>There was an instant&#8217;s silence, during which
+Sandy&#8217;s face changed as he looked quickly from
+Ross to Weimer. The latter sat beside the table,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255'></a>255</span>
+his head resting on his hand, his elbow on the
+boards.</p>
+
+<p>Ross answered, "We can&#8217;t get ready to go so
+quickly."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Sandy&#8217;s face was the face which
+had appeared at the window the night Weston was
+indulging in mimicry, but for a moment only.
+Then he rallied and assumed an air of concerned
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"What? Not ready? Why, man alive, yer
+chance may be gone if ye wait another day. Uncle
+Jake, you ought to know that, if Doc here don&#8217;t.
+Why, we&#8217;re afraid we can&#8217;t come it even by ropin&#8217;
+together. Better hustle up and come."</p>
+
+<p>Both Weimer and Ross sat still, and after a little
+further parley Waymart called angrily:</p>
+
+<p>"Hike along here, Sandy. Guess they know
+what they want t&#8217; do better &#8217;n you do. Make
+tracks here!"</p>
+
+<p>The three "made tracks," while Ross stood and
+watched them out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>But after they had gone the boy, uneasy lest
+they should return to do the tunnel some damage,
+climbed the trail and entered the tool house. The
+house was fastened between two trees which
+grew at one side of the dump, the side furthest
+from the trail across the mountain toward Miners&#8217;
+Camp.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256'></a>256</span>Ross had entered aimlessly after assuring himself
+that the door at the mouth of the tunnel had
+not been opened. He stood silently looking out
+of a crack down on the mass of snow which glistened
+at the foot of the dump, when he was startled
+by seeing Sandy on snow-shoes creep around the
+dump and look up.</p>
+
+<p>Only a glance upward did Sandy give, and
+them, turning, disappeared. Yet his face had appeared
+anxious before that upward glance, while
+afterward there was on it a satisfied smile.</p>
+
+<p>The hours that followed were anxious ones for
+the two remaining in Meadow Creek Valley.
+They began a hunt for the dynamite as soon as
+the McKenzies had disappeared. Starting at the
+McKenzie shack and discovery hole they widened
+the search in a circle which finally included the
+valley and the sides of the adjoining mountains,
+with a single important omission; it did not occur
+to either of them to examine their own premises
+further than to assure themselves that neither tool
+house nor tunnel had suffered any damage from
+their "friends the enemy."</p>
+
+<p>At four o&#8217;clock came the first signs of dusk and,
+discouraged, the partners moved slowly across the
+valley. Half-way across, Ross chanced to glance
+up at the stovepipe projecting from the roof of
+their shack.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257'></a>257</span>"A fire!" he shouted. "Look there, Uncle
+Jake! Some one has built up the fire!"</p>
+
+<p>At that instant the door swung open and Leslie
+Quinn stood in the doorway.</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258'></a>258</span><a id='link_13'></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE SEARCH</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Over</span> fried bacon, sour dough bread and varied
+"canned goods," Leslie told his story to an
+interested and excited audience of two. The day
+of Ross&#8217;s arrest he had shouldered a pack of stuff
+selected from the trunk which still stood under
+the new third bunk, waited until twilight so that
+he could not be seen on the trail, and then, on
+snow-shoes, had made his way over Crosby and up
+Wood River cañon to Wilson&#8217;s cabin on the coal
+claims.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," he said, a flush sweeping over his
+face, "I supposed father was at Cody, and I
+wouldn&#8217;t have faced him without that five hundred
+dollars for all the gold that may be in these
+mountains, and, besides, the way he had taken to
+get even with me&#8211;well, I don&#8217;t need to say how
+it cuts!" Here Leslie bent over his plate in shame.
+"Although&#8211;I&#8211;well, of course, I deserve it, but I
+didn&#8217;t think he&#8217;d go as far as that."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, Less!" Ross jumped up from the
+table so suddenly that the box on which he had
+been sitting was knocked over. "Here&#8217;s a letter
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259'></a>259</span>
+to you in my care. It has been here so long I had
+forgotten it."</p>
+
+<p>He pulled the emergency chest from under his
+bunk and produced both of Mr. Quinn&#8217;s letters&#8211;the
+one to himself and the one yet unopened.</p>
+
+<p>"There you are!" he exclaimed, tossing both
+across the table. "I take it from what your
+father says in mine that he thought of the arrest
+not as a punishment, but as the way in which he
+could be sure of getting his hands on you quickly
+in Omaha."</p>
+
+<p>Eagerly Leslie read both letters, his troubled
+face lighting and softening. "You&#8217;re right," he
+said finally in a low tone. "I guess dad is&#8211;is more
+all right than&#8211;than I used to think. I&#8217;ve been
+no end of an idiot, frankly."</p>
+
+<p>He folded his letter and slipped it into his
+slicker pocket while Weimer urged:</p>
+
+<p>"You was mit dot shack, und dey found you
+not, hein?"</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to hear about Ross&#8217;s<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," interrupted Ross. "Finish out your
+story first. Mine will look like thirty cents at the
+end of yours. I&#8217;m not exactly proud of myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Vilson&#8217;s shack," prompted Weimer, pushing
+his plate back and planting both elbows on the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie continued his story in a new exuberance
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260'></a>260</span>
+of spirits, occasionally fingering the letter in his
+pocket. He had foreseen that Wilson&#8217;s shack
+would be searched, and so, trusting to the drifting
+snow to conceal his trail, he had, during the night,
+packed provisions into one of the many deserted
+shacks in the upper camp. He had selected one
+overlooking the trail up Crosby. It had two
+rooms, one behind the other, the back room having
+an outside door and but one small window.
+Leaving the first room undisturbed, he had stowed
+his provisions in the back room, which also contained
+a bunk.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you that it was hard sledding for
+me until after the sheriff and the McKenzies came
+and went that day," he continued ruefully. "I
+had brought along my blankets, but I didn&#8217;t dare
+light a fire, and I nearly froze and nearly starved
+on cold canned stuff. But after the sheriff had
+gone back&#8211;you see I could watch the camp from
+the back room window&#8211;and the McKenzies had
+passed the shack on the trail over here, I hung
+blankets over the windows and had a fire nights
+when the smoke wouldn&#8217;t be seen. I could cook
+at night and early in the morning and so got along
+fairly well. But I expected them all back again
+for another search, so mornings I used to vacate
+the outside room and leave it the same as it had
+been."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261'></a>261</span>"Why didn&#8217;t you come over sooner?" asked
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t you see that I couldn&#8217;t," demanded
+Leslie, "so long as the McKenzies were here? I
+knew, though, that they had told Wilson that they
+were not going to stay all winter. They told him
+they would go to Cody as soon as they thought
+the Crosby trail was getting dangerous. So I
+watched that trail like a cat for them to go and
+for my chance to get here."</p>
+
+<p>"Vilson he vent out," interrupted Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Uncle Jake, I saw him go, but I lay low.
+I was afraid of the consequences of being seen. I
+had no idea that father had been put off. I was
+sure he would come on himself, and I knew that
+if father once struck my trail he&#8217;d unearth me.
+He never gives up."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, this morning<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" prompted Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, this morning when I saw the McKenzies
+coming down the trail bag and baggage, I humped
+myself to get ready to get over here before their
+tracks got filled up. I knew that if they could
+get one way I could get the other way to-day, but
+maybe not to-morrow. And I tell you what,"
+here Leslie arose and stretched out his arms,
+"I&#8217;ve been living these weeks as close and cramped
+a prisoner as I ever want to be. I could get out
+nights a little because the camp came to be about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262'></a>262</span>
+deserted, but I was cooped up all day in the
+shack."</p>
+
+<p>Far into the night the boys talked, while
+Weimer alternately listened and dozed. When
+Ross was well launched on the story of his arrest
+he became at once embarrassed, wondering how
+he was going to evade the matter of Lon Weston
+and the note. He finally compromised by ending
+the story of his capture in a partial account of his
+conversation with Sandy in the barroom of "The
+Irma," and Leslie, taking it for granted that his
+father&#8217;s name and address came from Sandy, did
+not ask embarrassing questions.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s as I suspected, then," he added slowly.
+"The McKenzies were probably employed on the
+ranches around home at some time. The cowboys
+and sheep-herders are always coming into the
+town, and probably they all knew me by sight,
+while I didn&#8217;t know them one from another."</p>
+
+<p>Ross checked the question which arose to his
+lips concerning the fourth man that Mr. Quinn
+was after, and shortly after, the boys tumbled
+into their bunks, Ross with a feeling of deep relief
+that the third bunk would be occupied during
+the winter.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn&#8217;t do so badly in Cody after all, as it has
+all turned out," he thought comfortably as he fell
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263'></a>263</span>He was only half awakened a few moments
+later by an exclamation from the third bunk,
+and heard Leslie say, "By the way, Ross,
+who was<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" then the question, "Are you
+asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, without replying, sank into a deeper
+sleep, and Leslie said no more. Weimer was already
+snoring.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning Ross tumbled out at
+daybreak and built a roaring fire in the old
+cracked heater. He glanced at the third bunk
+and began whistling cheerfully. Perhaps they
+could find the dynamite now that there was a
+second with sound eyes to aid in the search and
+a sound brain to help plan. If only the sticks
+could be found the early spring would see the
+work completed and the claims patented.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing Weimer did when he arose was
+to go to the door and survey sky and mountains
+with practiced eye, as he sniffed the bracing air.
+The sky was overcast and lowering, while a sharp
+wind drove the snow in eddies and drifts through
+the valley.</p>
+
+<p>"Der vill pe a pig storm mit us," he prophesied;
+"it ist on its vay. It vill get here in dree, four
+days."</p>
+
+<p>"Hear that, Less?" shouted Ross at the new
+bunk. "You turn out and we&#8217;ll be off. We&#8217;ve
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264'></a>264</span>
+got to unearth that dynamite before any more
+snow piles up here around us."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie left his bunk with a bound. "I&#8217;m good
+for it. How&#8217;s breakfast? When I filled up last
+night I thought I&#8217;d never need anything more
+and here I am as hollow as a drum!"</p>
+
+<p>At the breakfast table, he suddenly bethought
+himself of the question he had meant to ask the
+previous night. "I say, Doc," he exclaimed,
+"who was the third man with the McKenzies
+yesterday? My cabin wasn&#8217;t near enough the
+trail so that I could see."</p>
+
+<p>Ross hesitated and Weimer answered, "Dot vas
+a cousin of the McKenzies, name of Lon Veston."</p>
+
+<p>There was a clatter and a fall as knife and fork
+slipped out of Leslie&#8217;s hands. "Lon Weston!" he
+ejaculated. "Lon Weston here? A cousin of the
+McKenzies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Know him?" asked Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie picked up his fork. "Know Lon? Well,
+I should say so. He&#8217;s made trouble enough at
+home<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" He bit his lips suddenly and stopped,
+adding, "He was foreman on a ranch near North
+Bend for a couple of years. He&#8211;he used to come
+to our house a good deal."</p>
+
+<p>In a flash Ross recalled the photo that had
+dropped out of Weston&#8217;s pocket at Sagehen Roost,
+the pretty girl face, and instantly he knew why
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265'></a>265</span>
+Hank had said of Leslie when he rode away with
+Wilson, "Seems as if I&#8217;d seen that there young
+feller before."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they are surely brother and sister," Ross
+decided, his gaze fixed critically on Leslie&#8217;s downcast
+face. "They look tremendously alike."</p>
+
+<p>"Veston, he vas de man dot Doc here mended,"
+Weimer volunteered. "Doc vas at Dry Creek mit
+Veston."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie glanced quickly across the table. "Not
+the man who was there when I passed through&#8211;the
+day I was with Wilson&#8211;not that one, Ross?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same," nodded Ross. "He&#8217;s the Lon
+Weston that I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he isn&#8217;t the Lon Weston that I know,"
+said Leslie with conviction and also relief. "That
+man at Dry Creek had dark hair, while the ranch
+foreman had hair as light almost as Sandy&#8217;s. Not
+the same at all."</p>
+
+<p>And because of the note at "The Irma," Ross did
+not contradict Leslie, did not tell him that Weston&#8217;s
+hair was still light beneath its dye of chestnut
+brown.</p>
+
+<p>"But some day," he thought, "I can ask him
+about the fourth man that his father is after, and
+so find out about Weston in a roundabout way."</p>
+
+<p>But the search for the dynamite soon proved so
+strenuous that all thought of the crime committed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266'></a>266</span>
+on the North Fork faded from Ross&#8217;s mind. Day
+after day the boys continued the search while
+Weimer stayed in the cabin "rustling grub" and
+giving suggestions. The theft of the sticks seemed
+to have shocked the man into something of his
+former mental keenness and industry. Not once
+did Ross have to urge him to his household tasks.
+When the boys tramped into the cabin at noon or
+long after darkness had fallen, they found a hearty
+appetizing meal prepared, the cook even going to
+the length of objecting to their washing the
+dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"If you dem sticks find," he would say, "Ich
+vill stay mit dese dishes."</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jake," exclaimed Ross at noon the third
+day of the hunt, "I&#8217;m discouraged. We have
+poked into every spot for miles around where such
+a lot of dynamite could be hidden&#8211;and then have
+gone again."</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;m almost ready to believe," declared Leslie,
+"that the boys had the sticks in their packs when
+they left."</p>
+
+<p>Weimer shook his head. "No, never would
+dose poys pe so foolish. Dose sticks are here, hein?
+Somewhere in Meadow Creek Valley ve vill find
+dem," but the old man&#8217;s voice broke on the declaration.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it couldn&#8217;t be that the McKenzies
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267'></a>267</span>
+carried them away," affirmed Ross. "If there had
+been six men of them they couldn&#8217;t have carried
+away all the dynamite that we had and Wilson
+had and they had. In fact they couldn&#8217;t have carried
+it all very far that night and in the teeth of
+the awful storm that howled among these peaks.
+I believe with Uncle Jake that the stuff is in this
+valley."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Uncle Jake," Ross began after a pause,
+"we have gone on the supposition that they chose
+a spot under the cover of rocks or in hollow trees,
+some place where the dynamite would be kept dry.
+Now, it may be that they have dug a hole in the
+snow and ice, and buried it in the open, and the
+snow has drifted over its grave."</p>
+
+<p>"Maype! maype!" Weimer ejaculated. "Put,
+if dey haf, our goose, it ist cooked."</p>
+
+<p>He pushed the box on which he sat back against
+the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Ross opened the cabin door, and looked out.
+The weather had grown warmer. The blanket of
+clouds which had hovered over the earth for days
+had lifted and the snow lay dazzling in the strong
+light. When he closed the door, Weimer had
+donned his blue goggles.</p>
+
+<p>"Where&#8217;s your big storm, Uncle Jake?" asked
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"Comin&#8217;, comin&#8217;," answered Uncle Jake
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268'></a>268</span>
+confidently. "It vill pe on us py mornin&#8217;. Dis light
+it vill not last."</p>
+
+<p>Ross sat down and took his head in his hands,
+his elbows on his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Every fall of snow," he thought, "makes our
+work so much more hopeless."</p>
+
+<p>Presently Weimer broke the silence. "Vell,"
+he began meditatively, "ve haf t&#8217;ings to eat fer
+de vinter, anyvay," and Ross understood the circle
+around which Uncle Jake&#8217;s thoughts had been
+winding.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it&#8217;s Meadow Creek for us now, whether
+the dynamite is found or not." Ross&#8217;s voice was
+grim. "We went over on the trail as far as the
+shoulder of Crosby to-day and whew! Uncle Jake,
+it was a sight to see. The wind has packed the
+snow into that trail until it hangs over the gorge
+in great masses and curls."</p>
+
+<p>"Looks," added Leslie, "as though a thousand
+tons or so might sweep down over the shoulder any
+minute. The trail is closed all right as far as I&#8217;m
+concerned. If I hadn&#8217;t come in the McKenzies&#8217; footprints
+that morning I wouldn&#8217;t have come at all."</p>
+
+<p>After dinner the boys fastened on their snow-shoes
+outside the door and then looked questioningly
+at each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&#8211;where to now?" asked Leslie despondently.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269'></a>269</span>"Sure enough&#8211;where?" returned Ross equally
+despondent.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer had offered no suggestions, and the boys
+were at the end of their resources.</p>
+
+<p>"We&#8217;ve hunted every place," said Ross absently,
+adjusting a buckle on the strap of his snow-shoe,
+"except our own premises here."</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had he heard his own voice speaking
+these careless words than their possible significance
+struck him. He sprang up with kindling eyes.
+"Less, do you hear?" he shouted, his thoughts in
+advance of his tongue. "There&#8217;s where it may be,
+and maybe that was the reason why Sandy came
+back and looked. Hurry! Hurry up!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you talking about?" yelled Leslie as
+Ross raced awkwardly around the cabin on his
+snow-shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer opened the door and peered out through
+his colored goggles. "Has dot poy gone crazy?"
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie, without pausing to answer, hurried after
+Ross. "Where to?" he yelled.</p>
+
+<p>"The tool house," returned Ross over his shoulder.
+"It&#8217;s fastened between two trees, and hangs
+out over the foot of the dump! See?"</p>
+
+<p>But, instead of taking the trail to the tunnel,
+Ross struck across the mounds and hillocks and
+drifts of snow that blocked the trail leading to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270'></a>270</span>
+Miners&#8217; Camp. Through the tangle of pines and
+hemlocks he led the way until he stopped at the
+foot of the snow-heaped dump and looked up at
+the tool house, one side of which rested on the
+dump, while the opposite side was fastened to
+sturdy hemlocks whose trunks arose from the
+débris heaped about them from the tunnel. The
+tool house was now a shapeless white form, while
+the dump was buried beneath tons of snow.</p>
+
+<p>"It was here," Ross explained breathlessly,
+"that Sandy stood. I was looking out at the
+McKenzies from a crack up in the house. He
+came back and looked up under the house and
+then grinned and went back to the others. They
+had started to leave, you know. Now why did he
+want to look under that house?"</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s it!" cried Leslie with excited conviction.
+"They had cached the stuff under the
+house and he wanted to make sure that their trail
+could not be seen. Ross, the sticks are up under
+there, high and dry."</p>
+
+<p>"You bet!" shouted Ross turning in his tracks.
+"We&#8217;ll get shovels and dig for it. And, Less, if
+we find the cache, we&#8217;ll let off one blast around
+here outside of the tunnel that &#8217;ill show them, if
+they&#8217;re still over in Camp, that we ain&#8217;t dead yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor dumb and stupid, either!" cried Leslie
+delightedly as he legged it rapidly over the snow.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271'></a>271</span>In the door of the shack they found Weimer
+still standing, shielding his eyes with one hand
+and calling questions into space. The boys, appearing,
+stopped to answer, not only satisfying the
+old man but receiving a valuable suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Vat for you dig mit all dot vork? It vill dake
+you poys a day und a half to git up unter dot
+shack. Vy not go in und raise dot floor und find
+dem sticks unter?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie tossed up his cap. "Three cheers for
+Uncle Jake!" he shouted. "That&#8217;s the very
+thing to do. We&#8217;ll get around to that signal blast
+sooner. Come on, Ross!"</p>
+
+<p>It was Leslie who led this time, axe in hand,
+while Ross followed with hammer and shovel.
+The trail to the tunnel had been unused for days
+and was so deeply drifted that the boys had difficulty
+in getting up to the dump even with the aid
+of the shovel. Once on top they were obliged to
+shovel their way slowly into the tool house.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," exclaimed Ross when they were fairly
+in, "now for work with these floor boards!"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie, with many grunts, fell to clearing away
+the snow from the floor, while Ross pulled the big
+box in which the dynamite had been stored from
+the center of the shack into one corner.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Ross," cried Leslie excitedly as he
+bent to the last shovelful of snow. "We don&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272'></a>272</span>
+need axe nor hammer. The McKenzies have done
+the work for us. The floor has been taken up and
+just laid back again without being spiked down.
+That box held the planks down pretty firmly, you
+see."</p>
+
+<p>The floor consisted of halves of tree trunks, flat
+above and rounded on the under side. Eagerly
+Ross and Leslie raised the central plank and both
+cried out simultaneously, for the dynamite filled
+the space beneath up to the level of the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"And to think!" muttered Ross, "that I have
+not thought of this before&#8211;didn&#8217;t think of it
+when I saw Sandy peering up here."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie sat back on his heels and mopped his
+face. "Pretty cute of &#8217;em to think of a thing like
+this," he conceded. "I should have taken the
+sticks as far away as I could have carried them had
+I been doing it, and considered that the farther I
+went the better for my plans."</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s Sandy," declared Ross. "Steele has told
+me a dozen times that he&#8217;s the brains of the
+clan."</p>
+
+<p>It did not take the trio long to restore the dynamite
+to its box, for Ross, going down to the cabin,
+led a delighted Weimer through the sunshine up
+to the tool house, and Weimer willingly devoted
+his great strength to the task.</p>
+
+<p>"And," insisted Leslie when their task was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273'></a>273</span>
+completed, "now for putting the shot that shall tell
+Miners&#8217; Camp that we&#8217;re livelier than ever over
+here."</p>
+
+<p>As long as the trail was closed and the McKenzies
+could not return, the boys reasoned, it would
+be a lark to inform them in this way of the failure
+of their project.</p>
+
+<p>"Even if they have gone on to Cody," suggested
+Ross, "Bill Travers might get the news to &#8217;em by
+way of the stages."</p>
+
+<p>"But you see," ruefully from Leslie, "probably
+there&#8217;s no one except themselves that knows of
+our plight. They may not have told any one of
+the theft of the sticks."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we&#8217;ll set off a blast that will tell every
+one that they&#8217;re found, anyway!" retorted Ross.
+"And we&#8217;ll do it in the morning before the storm
+comes on," for the brilliancy of the sunlight had
+long been dimmed by heavy banks of clouds rolling
+in from the northwest.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer entered into the project with the abandon
+of a child, and it was he who suggested the location
+of the "shot."</p>
+
+<p>"Nicht on Crosby," he said shaking his head.
+"Dot might upset dot tunnel. Put it mit Soapweed
+Ledge und see vat comes."</p>
+
+<p>The boys did not ask what Weimer meant.
+Anything they did not understand they laid to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274'></a>274</span>
+his "Dutch lingo," but they immediately adopted
+the suggestion concerning Soapweed Ledge, and in
+the morning carried enough sticks across the valley
+to plant a respectable "mine," as Ross called it, beneath
+one of the huge rocks which jutted out from
+the side of the mountain that bounded the valley
+on the north. This mountain rose four thousand
+feet above Meadow Creek, its head lost in the snow
+clouds that now threatened to submerge the valley.
+On the face of the mountain lay a great body of
+snow, especially heavy above the timber-line, which
+here, because of the great elevation of the valley
+itself, was only a few hundred feet above the base
+of any mountain.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, lured out of the shack by the dimness
+of the light and the enjoyment of the undertaking,
+went with the boys and did his share in the "packing"
+of the sticks unurged. It was he who, with
+an accession of unusual keenness, planted the
+charge in a shallow cave with a mass of rock
+perilously overhanging the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Ve vant ein noise," he chuckled, "ein pig
+racket. It shall pe heard in Miners&#8217;."</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later they had the noise, all
+they had planned for, and then a noise that no
+one had foreseen save Weimer, and he had not explained
+his expectations.</p>
+
+<p>While the long fuse was burning, the three
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275'></a>275</span>
+spectators had retreated to the middle of the
+valley and faced about expectantly. There came
+a fearful detonation which awakened the echoes
+on every hand and the vast rock with a dozen of
+its neighbors was lifted like lumps of clay and
+hurled into the valley amid a cloud of snow and
+ice. Some of the fragments landed almost at the
+feet of the spectators.</p>
+
+<p>The echoes had not died away before Weimer,
+yelling, "Ve may not pe out of de vay far,"
+turned and made his clumsy but rapid way on
+snow-shoes further from the scene of the explosion.
+The boys were following him blindly
+and excitedly when, in the clouds fairly over
+their heads, came a sound that neither had ever
+heard before, a wrenching, grinding, tearing sound
+which caused Ross&#8217;s hair to stir under his cap.</p>
+
+<p>"Can th-that be thunder?" he stammered running.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer looked over his shoulder at the mountain.
+"You haf neber an avalanche seen, hein!"
+he cried, and stopping, faced the other way again.</p>
+
+<p>Down into view below the low hanging clouds
+it swept its terrible way, that avalanche which the
+trembling of the mountain had caused, the work
+of the dynamite. With a swift overwhelming
+rush it crumbled the rocks and, uprooting great
+trees, bore them easily on its bosom. Into the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276'></a>276</span>
+valley it debouched, carrying with it the wreckage
+from the mountainside.</p>
+
+<p>Ross and Leslie looked at each other with white
+faces when the roar and grind and rush finally
+ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose," suggested Ross huskily, "we had
+set that blast off on old Crosby."</p>
+
+<p>Both boys looked at the mountain overhanging
+the tunnel above their shack, and Ross shivered.</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been good-bye to the tunnel and
+the shack and us too, I guess," muttered Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you," declared Weimer, "vat vould
+happen, hein? I told you last nicht. Now ein
+avalanche you haf seen."</p>
+
+<p>Neither boy contradicted his first statement.
+With the last they agreed rather breathlessly,
+for an avalanche they surely had seen!</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said Ross carelessly as they entered
+their shack, "that the McKenzies are still in
+Miners&#8217; and that they heard that blast!"</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277'></a>277</span><a id='link_14'></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /><span class='h2fs'>A PERILOUS JOURNEY</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>The</span> following morning the three inhabitants of
+Meadow Creek Valley began work again in the
+tunnel. The air was filled with a smother of
+snow which fell unaccompanied by wind. When,
+the following day, the sky cleared, over the path
+of the avalanche and over the ruins of Soapweed
+Ledge lay a concealing blanket of snow three feet
+deep.</p>
+
+<p>"Whew!" shivered Ross as he led the goggled
+Weimer over the snow to the tunnel that morning.
+"Wish we had a thermometer up here. This is
+some cold. Must be minus zero by a long way."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine nose ist my thermometer," complained
+Weimer, rubbing that whitening member. "Aber
+dis weather it holds nicht. Anoder snow falls in
+dree, four days."</p>
+
+<p>The third day proved the truth of this prophecy.
+The atmosphere became many degrees warmer and
+the sky lowering.</p>
+
+<p>"More snow," sighed Leslie, looking over the
+silent, white sheeted valley with homesick eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278'></a>278</span>"Und den more," added Weimer complacently.
+"More und more till June."</p>
+
+<p>That noon it chanced that Weimer, being
+afflicted with a headache, left the tunnel early.
+A little later, Ross, pushing the little car out to
+the dump, called back to Leslie at work with the
+drill:</p>
+
+<p>"Guess I&#8217;ll go down and rustle the grub for
+Uncle Jake. That headache of his is genuine."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," assented Leslie, "I&#8217;ll be down in
+half an hour or so. I want to put this shot before
+I go."</p>
+
+<p>Ross found Weimer in a state of great excitement,
+the headache forgotten. He stood at the
+door of the shack, peering up toward the tunnel,
+both hands shielding his blinking eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Who vas dot man?" he demanded in a high,
+eager voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What man, Uncle Jake?" Ross stopped short,
+staring at Weimer as though he were bereft of his
+senses.</p>
+
+<p>"I see him!" declared Weimer. "He vas shust
+startin&#8217; up dot trail py de tunnel. I see his pack.
+He vore ein pag on it. He vore ein cap mit
+goggles. I see him."</p>
+
+<p>Ross looked up the mountainside incredulously.
+"Why, Uncle Jake, I just left the tunnel and there
+was no one there but Leslie. I guess," jocosely,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279'></a>279</span>
+"your headache has made you &#8217;see things at
+night,&#8217; hasn&#8217;t it? No one can get into the valley
+now, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Excitedly protesting and expostulating, half in
+English and half in German, Uncle Jake retreated
+inside the door, and taking up his position beside
+one of the little windows watched the trail to
+the tunnel while Ross, smiling at his partner&#8217;s
+hallucination, built up the fire, cheerfully banging
+the covers of the stove as he filled the fire-box
+with dry pine sticks. In the midst of this racket
+there entered the sound of crunching footsteps on
+the side opposite the shack from that occupied by
+Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>"Hein!" yelled the latter springing up. "Was
+sagen sie? It ist somepody!"</p>
+
+<p>A rap thundered on the door, and it was thrust
+open at the same time unceremoniously, while a
+low, gruff voice inquired abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"Is there a young doctor here?"</p>
+
+<p>A man a little above medium height stood on
+the threshold. He wore buckskin trousers and a
+buckskin coat over a heavy sweater, giving him a
+bulky appearance. He had on snow-shoes, and
+strapped over his shoulder, a large leather game
+pouch sagged. Behind smoked goggles his eyes
+were blinking, like Weimer&#8217;s, almost closed. His
+head and ears were covered with a shaggy fur cap,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280'></a>280</span>
+which met his turned-up coat collar. His face
+was smooth above a fringe of black stubby whiskers,
+which ran from ear to ear under the chin.
+His voice, though gruff, was not unpleasant as he
+explained.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course &#8217;twas a month and more ago since
+they told me over t&#8217; Red Lodge that<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" His
+eyes fell on Ross. "You&#8217;re him they call Doc
+Tenderfoot, ain&#8217;t ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&#8211;yes," answered Ross. There was a
+pause between the two words caused by the
+speaker&#8217;s amazement at seeing a man drop in
+from&#8211;where?</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," invited Weimer, "und set down."</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t care if I do," assented the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>He unbuckled his snow-shoes, and, leaving them
+outside, entered the shack. Turning down his
+coat collar, he loosened his cap, pushing it back
+on his head, thereby revealing the ends of short
+black hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Haf you peen up to dat tunnel, hein?" demanded
+Weimer with a triumphant glance at
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger nodded, "Yep. Didn&#8217;t see no
+signs of livin&#8217; here and I did see some signs up t&#8217;
+the mouth of the tunnel, but I didn&#8217;t see no good
+way of gittin&#8217; up t&#8217; it. When I got there I was
+over t&#8217; other side of the dump and when I got up
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281'></a>281</span>
+on top of it I heard voices down here, so down
+here I put agin!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you come up from Miners&#8217; Camp?" asked
+Ross eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger shook his head. "No, I live
+toward the Divide on<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" The stranger interrupted
+himself to ask, "Know the country over
+there, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer shook his head. "Only py hearsay."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we located on Sagewood Run, my pal
+and me, and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn&#8217;t know dere vas a soul livin&#8217; in dem
+parts," exclaimed Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>"Me and my pal," returned the stranger. "We
+hain&#8217;t got no neighbor near enough to throw
+kisses to, that&#8217;s sartain. You&#8217;re the nighest."</p>
+
+<p>"Prospector?" asked Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>"Coal," returned the stranger. "We&#8217;re tryin&#8217;
+to hold down half a dozen claims."</p>
+
+<p>He turned from Weimer, and changed the subject
+in his queer, abrupt way.</p>
+
+<p>"Pard&#8217;s sick&#8211;hurt. Guess he&#8217;ll pass up his
+checks afore long if he don&#8217;t git help."</p>
+
+<p>He squinted through his goggles at Ross. "Over
+t&#8217; Red Lodge they said you fixed up a feller down
+in Dry Creek good&#8217;s new. So I come after ye fer
+a couple of days."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Weimer became alarmed. "Ross, he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282'></a>282</span>
+can&#8217;t go und leave us, hein! When the sun pe
+shinin&#8217;, I can&#8217;t get &#8217;round. Ross, he must pe
+here to work. He can&#8217;t go mit you."</p>
+
+<p>Ross drew a long, perplexed breath, and said
+nothing. The stranger looked attentively at
+Weimer for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"Got a touch of the sun, too, have ye?" he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer removed his goggles, and pressed his
+hands over his eyes. "Yah, dot I has, a touch
+und more dan a touch. Ross here, he ain&#8217;t leavin&#8217;
+us to go mit you."</p>
+
+<p>Still Ross stood silent. The stranger made no
+response to Weimer&#8217;s protestations, but, bending
+forward, regarded him closely.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he burst out. "Are you Dutch
+Weimer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dot ist vat dey call me," assented Weimer,
+turning his bloodshot eyes on the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>The latter persisted in an incredulous voice,
+"The Dutch Weimer who used to run a miners&#8217;
+supply store down in Butte?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dot same," assented Weimer. "Und who
+might you pe?"</p>
+
+<p>The stranger grinned, a one-sided grin which
+sent his right cheek up under the smoked goggles.
+"Well, Uncle Jake, do you remember a little black-headed
+rascal that uster hang his chin on the edge
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283'></a>283</span>
+of yer counter about once a day and get a nickel&#8217;s
+worth of candy?"</p>
+
+<p>Weimer wrinkled his brow in perplexity. "Dere
+vas so many plack-heads," he muttered, scratching
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger grinned delightedly, and again his
+right cheek was pushed up under the goggles.
+"Of course there was. I wa&#8217;n&#8217;t the only calf running
+around loose, I know. Well, do you remember
+Marvin Miller?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hein!" cried Weimer. He held out his hand
+impulsively. "Und are you Marvin Miller&#8217;s poy?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same," declared the stranger, grasping
+the hand. "And didn&#8217;t you have a younger pard
+by the name of Grant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yah!" Weimer fairly shouted. "Dot I did,
+and he&#8217;s my pard yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Uster git his eyes about shut, and tighten his
+lips, when things didn&#8217;t go to suit &#8217;im," grinned
+Marvin Miller&#8217;s son.</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s my father all right!" cried Ross.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger drew back and whistled. "Your
+dad!" he exclaimed. "Sho, now; that&#8217;s not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"It ist so," Weimer broke in. "His fader sends
+him to help me mit der vork in dese claims, und
+den dis consarned gang of McKenzies go and pack
+off der sticks<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" and Weimer was launched on an
+account of their troubles, feeling perfectly at home
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284'></a>284</span>
+with the man who as a boy had hung over his
+counter in the old days when he was merchant
+and not prospector.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, too, felt his heart warm toward the man
+who had known his father; and for an instant the
+present faded, and he was back East again among
+the old familiar surroundings. He was being
+looked over by the father who "got his eyes about
+shut" when the son did not please him; he was
+being affectionately scolded by Aunt Anne and
+advised by Dr. Grant&#8211;but the thought of the
+doctor brought Ross up sharply against the purpose
+of the stranger&#8217;s visit.</p>
+
+<p>A sick partner, Miller had said: but he, Ross,
+also had a sick partner, although the sickness was
+more of the mind than the body; and that partner
+objected to his going. What should he do? His
+training with his uncle would leave him no choice
+if he had only himself to consult in the matter.
+He was better than no doctor at all, and he was
+called on for help; therefore he must obey the
+call. But there was Weimer, who had learned to
+depend on him, and who, he feared, might relapse
+during his absence, however brief, into his former
+irresponsible state, for Leslie was, of course, a
+stranger to the methods which Ross had been
+obliged to employ to keep Weimer busy. Nor
+was Leslie, who had acted under Wilson&#8217;s direction,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285'></a>285</span>
+accustomed to going ahead with the work as Ross
+had been obliged to do. But if the trip would
+occupy only a couple of days&#8211;well, he could not
+refuse to go.</p>
+
+<p>Here he became conscious that Miller was
+addressing him, and that Uncle Jake was leaning
+eagerly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"If Doc here is willin&#8217;," Miller was saying, "we
+might go into cahoots this way: If my pard needs
+&#8217;im longer than a day &#8217;r two, I&#8217;ll come along back
+and buckle down t&#8217; work here &#8217;n&#8217; help you out
+while he&#8217;s there a-nussin&#8217;<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Yah, yah!" consented Weimer eagerly. "Den
+he may mit you go. You could do more vork dan
+Doc. You come pack und mit us vork."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, relieved, turned to the peg where hung his
+cap. "I&#8217;ll go up to the tunnel and get Leslie,
+Uncle Jake, and you take hold of the dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Leslie," repeated Miller carelessly. "Who&#8217;s
+he?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross, leaving Weimer to relate Leslie&#8217;s history,
+hurried up to the tunnel. He wanted to see Leslie
+alone and give him numerous suggestions and
+directions beyond the reach of Weimer&#8217;s ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, Less," he ended as the two finally
+started toward the shack together, "even if I do
+have to stay, and Miller comes back, he won&#8217;t know
+how to manage Uncle Jake in case he has a relapse
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286'></a>286</span>
+into the state that I found him in. And Miller
+looks like a strong willing fellow to work, so guess
+we won&#8217;t lose anything by my going. Anyway
+I&#8217;ve got to go, for he says his partner is in a bad
+way." Miller&#8217;s partner, it seemed, had been caught
+under a log they were "snaking" down to the
+cabin. His arm was crushed and in bad shape.</p>
+
+<p>"Some way, Ross," Leslie burst out uneasily, "I
+mightily hate to have you go. I&#8217;ll be deadly lonesome
+up here without you even for a couple of
+days."</p>
+
+<p>"But if I&#8217;m not back then this Miller will be,"
+returned Ross hopefully, "and he shows up rather
+agreeably."</p>
+
+<p>After a hasty dinner, Ross selected from his chest
+all that he considered would be required. Some
+of the articles Miller put into his game pouch,
+Ross making up a bundle himself to bind on his
+own back and so divide the load. At one o&#8217;clock
+they started, with Weimer and Leslie standing in
+the doorway, the former urging them on with many
+expressions of hope for a speedy return that they
+might get ahead of "dose consarned gang."</p>
+
+<p>Ross walked after Miller easily. Those past few
+days on the mountainsides had accustomed him to
+the use of snow-shoes. Almost in silence they
+crossed the valley and began the ascent of what
+remained of Soapweed Ledge.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287'></a>287</span>During the last hour the light had faded, and
+snow began to fill the air. From the base of the
+ledge the cabin on the other valley was barely visible,
+and Ross could scarcely make out the figures
+standing in front of the door.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Miller turned with an exclamation.
+"There! I forgot something that I wanted t&#8217; tell
+Uncle Jake. Wait here a minute, will ye? It&#8217;ll
+not take me long t&#8217; go back."</p>
+
+<p>He walked rapidly over the snow across the valley,
+and disappeared into the cabin. Five minutes
+passed. He reappeared, and made his way more
+slowly back again.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," he shouted from the foot of the
+ledge. "Turn to the right, and go along above
+them rocks. That&#8217;s the trail."</p>
+
+<p>At the top of the mountain Miller again took
+the lead. He had shifted the pouch to the front,
+and eased its weight with one hand. Ross noticed
+that it seemed much heavier than when he entered
+the cabin, but thought nothing further of the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later he was on totally unfamiliar
+ground among a labyrinth of "sugar loaf" peaks
+which they skirted and climbed, Miller pushing on
+steadily and without words.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold yer wind," he directed Ross; "ye&#8217;ll have
+need of it before we reach camp."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288'></a>288</span>The sky and earth were nearly blotted out now
+by the falling snow. Ross could see scarcely a
+dozen paces ahead. He could not tell whether
+they were headed east or west, north or south.
+They twisted and turned and turned again. The
+boy became leg-weary; but Miller pressed on, seemingly
+unexhausted, the heavy game pouch dragging
+at his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"We&#8211;we can&#8217;t reach there to-night, can we?"
+Ross gasped at last.</p>
+
+<p>Miller turned his head but did not pause.
+"Yep," he answered, "about dark."</p>
+
+<p>Again in silence they went on.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, at five o&#8217;clock, they began to climb the
+gentle slope of a mountain which seemed to have
+no summit. Here for the first time his guide
+stopped to allow Ross to rest. Then he advanced
+slowly, step by step, prodding the snow deeply at
+the left of the blind trail he was following.</p>
+
+<p>"What&#8217;s the matter?" Ross called the first time
+he saw Miller taking measure of the snow in this
+way.</p>
+
+<p>"Gorge somewhere here," Miller had replied.
+"Wind&#8217;s filled it up even from bank t&#8217; bank. If
+we sh&#8217; step off&#8211;why, there&#8217;s a hundred feet or so
+below made up of spruces and snow. I don&#8217;t want
+t&#8217; go down int&#8217; no such landscape."</p>
+
+<p>Ross involuntarily hugged the upper side of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289'></a>289</span>
+mountain. He longed for their journey&#8217;s end. As
+they neared the top, the wind became active, cutting
+their faces and forcing Ross to turn his back
+and gasp for breath.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the descent, the storm thickening
+about them. Occasionally Miller threw a direction
+or a warning over his shoulder, which always
+caused Ross&#8217;s heart to leap fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t go outside my tracks here. There&#8217;s a
+flat rock on the down side that ends in a ledge.
+Not a pretty slide t&#8217; take," he shouted once.</p>
+
+<p>Again it was: "Be careful ahead here under
+that rock. Brace toward the inside of the trail.
+We may get a few pounds of snow on our heads."</p>
+
+<p>For half an hour longer they tramped on steadily.
+Ross ached in every muscle. His feet were
+beginning to cramp. They almost refused to raise
+the snow-shoes and push them forward. Miller
+slackened his speed when he saw that Ross was
+nearly played out.</p>
+
+<p>"A few minutes more, and we&#8217;re there," he explained.
+"Keep up your courage."</p>
+
+<p>And at that moment Ross thought he had need
+of courage. They had been descending the mountain
+gradually above timber-line, zigzagging back
+and forth across the face in such a way as would
+enable them to use their snow-shoes to the best advantage.
+Now the storm lightened just enough to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290'></a>290</span>
+enable Ross to see they were traveling along the
+edge of a cliff with an overhanging fringe of trees,
+and the cliff appeared to the boy to be the jumping
+off place into space. Right and left as far as
+the falling snow permitted him to see the cliff extended.
+Above was the white bulk of the mountain;
+below was nothing but storm.</p>
+
+<p>Along this cliff Miller had walked slowly, pausing
+occasionally to look up into the trees. Finally
+he gave a grunt of satisfaction, and, throwing his
+staff and the heavy pouch on the rock, took from
+the snow-laden branches of a pine a coil of slender
+new rope.</p>
+
+<p>"Nerves good?" he asked jokingly.</p>
+
+<p>"For what?" was Ross&#8217;s startled response.</p>
+
+<p>Miller explained. Ross saw that for the first
+time the colored goggles were no longer astride the
+other&#8217;s nose. His cap was drawn down over his
+eyes, however, and his coat collar was turned up so
+that not much of his face was visible save his nose.</p>
+
+<p>"If it was summer," began Miller, busying himself
+with the rope, "we could get around this here
+little rock. But now there&#8217;s nothin&#8217; t&#8217; do but go
+over it, because the mountain on each side shelves
+down so steep now we couldn&#8217;t git down on snow-shoes
+or off &#8217;em to save our necks. We&#8217;d bring
+down a load of snow on our heads if we should
+try."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291'></a>291</span>As he talked, he knotted the rope securely
+around a tree standing near the edge of the rock.
+"Right here the cliff slopes so I can just slide you
+down," Miller&#8217;s gruff voice ran on in jerks, "and
+then I can slide after ye. But I take it you
+ain&#8217;t used to mountains and this sort of game,
+and so I guess ye&#8217;d better hitch the end round yer
+waist."</p>
+
+<p>He tossed the end of the rope to Ross. "Take off
+yer shoes, and pack &#8217;em in your hand," he directed
+when with numb, trembling fingers the boy had
+knotted the rope. "Forty feet down," Miller continued,
+"you&#8217;ll come to a ledge. Stop there, and
+free the line."</p>
+
+<p>A moment more, snow-shoes in hand, Ross was
+on his back sliding down an almost perpendicular
+wall, his hair doing its best to raise his cap from
+his head. Slowly he was let down, down, so far
+as he could see, into space. Then suddenly, just
+as he had closed his eyes in dizzy terror, his feet
+struck snow into which he sank to his knees, and
+the rope above slackened.</p>
+
+<p>The ledge had stopped him, but it seemed to
+Ross but an insecure footing hung between heaven
+and earth. It was a mere path across the face of
+the cliff not more than three feet wide at the
+widest part.</p>
+
+<p>Ross untied the end; and then, as he felt it
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292'></a>292</span>
+jerked from behind him, he covered his eyes with
+his hand and stood shivering, crowding back
+against the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>It was the work of a moment only for Miller to
+slide down the rope and stand beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hug the cliff," directed Ross&#8217;s conductor
+shortly, "and follow me. No, don&#8217;t put on your
+shoes. I&#8217;ll break the trail fer ye."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly they crawled across the face of the cliff,
+the ledge leading downward. At the base they
+were in a winding cañon scarcely twenty yards
+wide. Here they buckled on their snow-shoes
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"If," said Miller, bending over the straps, "we
+see it&#8217;s best fer you t&#8217; stay a few days with my pard
+and let me go back and help Uncle Jake, I wouldn&#8217;t
+do much investigatin&#8217; of the premises around here
+if I was you."</p>
+
+<p>Ross shuddered, and looked up at the face of the
+cliff, obscured now not only by the storm, but by
+the coming darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"No investigating for me!" he exclaimed forcefully.</p>
+
+<p>Then they began the tramp up the cañon, the
+shadow from the wooded mountains deepening
+every moment. Finally, Miller made a sharp
+turn around a group of seven spruces standing at
+the foot of a peak, and cautiously approached a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293'></a>293</span>
+log shack that stood half buried in the snow, and
+had as its corner posts four tall trees. The snow
+was shoveled away from the door and window,
+and a light smoke arose from the joint of stovepipe
+projecting from the roof.</p>
+
+<p>At the door Miller stopped and listened.
+"Guess he&#8217;s asleep," he whispered. "Take off yer
+shoes out here."</p>
+
+<p>Ross stooped, and unbuckled his snow-shoes.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess the fire must be low," whispered Miller.
+"Wisht you&#8217;d go round the corner there, and
+load up with wood while I go in and see what he&#8217;s
+up to. But don&#8217;t come in till I tell ye to. I&#8217;ll
+sort of prepare him to see ye."</p>
+
+<p>Ross did as he was bidden. He found the path
+to the pile of pine chunks partly broken; but, with
+his numb fingers incased in huge mittens, it was
+not easy work to dig out the wood frozen under
+its covering of snow. But finally, his arms full,
+he staggered around the corner of the shack, and
+stood again in front of the door. So busy had he
+been at the wood-pile that he had not thought of
+listening for sounds within the shack.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as he stood in the dusk before the door, he
+was surprised at the stillness within, and also by
+the fact that the window beyond the door showed
+no light. With a growing but vague uneasiness
+he waited, chilled to the bone by the wind, which
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294'></a>294</span>
+had begun to suck through the cañon and whistle
+along the sides of the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The few moments during which he waited
+seemed to him like years. Then he raised the
+wooden latch softly, and opened the door. Darkness
+and silence greeted him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Miller," he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>No reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Miller!" His voice rose sharply.</p>
+
+<p>The wind soughed through the branches over
+his head; and a sharp flurry of snow, forerunner of
+the blizzard, assailed him, while from the open
+door came a whiff of warmth.</p>
+
+<p>Ross dropped the wood outside, and, stepping
+within the shack, closed the door, and groped his
+way toward the stove, from the front of which
+came a faint glow.</p>
+
+<p>Pulling off his mittens, he held his hands over
+the heat, at the same time holding his breath that
+he might hear the breathing of the sick man.
+But all he heard was the beating of the blood in
+his own ears.</p>
+
+<p>Working some life into his fingers, he tore open
+the front of his fur-lined coat, and, pulling a match
+out of his pocket, lighted it, and held it above his
+head. In the further corner of the cabin was a
+bunk, from beneath the blankets of which the
+straw protruded. Trembling so that he could
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295'></a>295</span>
+scarcely walk, Ross started across the floor. Half-way
+to the bunk his match burned out. He
+retreated to the stove, and lit another. This time
+he succeeded in reaching the bunk. Several
+blankets were spread over a foundation of straw.
+Otherwise the bunk was empty.</p>
+
+<p>A panic seized Ross. "Miller!" he shouted,
+"Miller!"</p>
+
+<p>The wind howled through the cañon. The trees
+above the shack swayed and grated their interlocked
+branches together.</p>
+
+<p>Striking a third match, Ross observed a candle
+stuck into a hole in a piece of wood which lay on
+the table. He lighted it, and sank into a chair
+beside the table.</p>
+
+<p>What had happened? Where was Miller?
+Where was the sick partner?</p>
+
+<p>Ross took off his cap, and laid it on the table.
+In bewilderment he ran his fingers through his
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly his eyes fell on something in the
+shadow beside the door. He went to it. It was
+the heavily loaded game pouch. Evidently Miller
+had opened the door, dropped that inside, and vanished
+into the night.</p>
+
+<p>Ross was reaching for the pouch when another
+thought struck him so forcibly that he jerked
+himself to a standing posture with a loud
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296'></a>296</span>
+exclamation. Hastily opening the door, he stopped and,
+throwing the wood about, peered through the darkness,
+searching the open space where he had parted from Miller.</p>
+
+<p>His snow-shoes were gone.</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297'></a>297</span><a id='link_15'></a>CHAPTER XV<br /><span class='h2fs'>A NEW CAMP</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>The</span> disappearance of the snow-shoes, instead of
+proving to Ross that he had been hoaxed, at first,
+only deepened his bewilderment. Finally, the
+idea found lodgment in his brain that Miller&#8217;s
+partner had wandered off in the storm delirious,
+and Miller, having found him gone, had followed,
+forgetting Ross. The boy was too confused to
+weigh the probabilities of such forgetfulness, especially
+in view of the missing snow-shoes. Therefore,
+the moment the idea occurred to him he acted
+on it, hurrying out into the storm with the intention
+of going to Miller&#8217;s assistance.</p>
+
+<p>But, without snow-shoes, he found himself helpless.
+He had not gone a dozen yards from the
+door before he sank half-way to his waist in the
+snow. Scrambling hastily back again, he ran
+around the cabin where the snow was not so deep,
+and struggled up the mountainside.</p>
+
+<p>"Miller!" he shouted desperately. "Miller,
+where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Here and there among the trees he plunged
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298'></a>298</span>
+frantically until the fear that he could not find his
+way to the shack drove him back.</p>
+
+<p>He filled the stove with wood, snuffed the candle
+mechanically, and looked about him. Then for the
+first time he realized that there was but one bunk.</p>
+
+<p>"If two men lived here, there would be two
+bunks," he said slowly; and then came the conviction
+that Miller had decoyed him here and deserted
+him, taking the snow-shoes along. But
+Ross&#8217;s brain was too numb to pursue the thought.
+Exhausted by his long tramp and by his fruitless
+battle with the snow, he filled the stove with
+chunks, closed the draughts, and, without stopping
+to blow out the candle, rolled into the bunk, and
+was asleep before he had pulled all the blankets
+over him.</p>
+
+<p>When he awoke, the shack was filled with a
+light, which, although exceedingly dim, was unmistakably
+daylight. Outside, the snow was piled
+to the top of the window. The candle was burned
+out and the fire low. Ross crawled out stiffly,
+every muscle aching and sore. Filling the stove,
+he looked at his watch. Twelve o&#8217;clock! He had
+slept away the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the blizzard raged in unabated fury, but
+so sheltered was the shack by scrub hemlocks and
+banks of snow roof-high, that but little wind found
+its way through the mud-chinked log walls.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299'></a>299</span>Standing over the fire, Ross looked at the dark
+outlines of the one bunk, and considered his situation.
+His heart sank when he thought of the
+miles which Miller and he had put between themselves
+and Meadow Creek Valley.</p>
+
+<p>And who was Miller?</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s suspicions, of course, had fastened to the
+McKenzies. But why had they considered it necessary
+to have him marooned so far from Meadow
+Creek? How did they know that the dynamite
+had been found? When they left Meadow
+Creek<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried Ross aloud at this point. He
+brought the stove poker down vigorously on top
+of the stove. "That blast under Soapweed Ledge!
+I wanted &#8217;em to hear it&#8211;guess they didn&#8217;t fail!"
+Ruefully he turned from the stove. He was certainly
+paying for his little triumph.</p>
+
+<p>But who was Miller?</p>
+
+<p>The lack of wood in the cabin soon turned his
+attention from the answer to the necessity for immediate
+action. He found a large wooden snow-shovel
+behind the stove; and, opening the door
+cautiously in order to prevent a mass of snow from
+following it, he cleared away a space in front of the
+door and the two windows, and shoveled his way
+to the wood-pile.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until he was struggling around the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300'></a>300</span>
+corner of the shack with an armful of wood that
+he realized that his weakness and tremors were due
+not only to anxiety, but to hunger; and with that
+realization came a fear which nearly induced
+another panic. Was there food in the cabin? So
+great had been his absorption that he had not noticed
+the contents of the shack beyond those things
+which he had required for immediate use.</p>
+
+<p>Throwing the armful of wood down beside the
+stove, he proceeded to make a hurried search, the
+results of which quieted his fears. The cabin was
+as well stocked with provisions as Weimer&#8217;s. A
+portion of these supplies, the canned milk, vegetables,
+and fruits, he found in boxes beneath the
+bunk. Sacks of flour and meal were suspended
+from the roof logs to protect them from the
+"pack" rats. Having investigated these provisions,
+Ross opened a second door at the back of the
+shack, supposing it led out-of-doors. But he was
+agreeably surprised to find it led to a little lean-to
+of logs, where were suspended a large ham, strips
+of bacon, jerked meat, and quantities of fresh venison
+all frozen. The door protected these from the
+heat inside the shack, while the logs, unchinked,
+gave protection from timber wolves and coyotes,
+but not from the snow, which had sifted in over
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>Ross at once set about getting breakfast. He
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301'></a>301</span>
+found every necessary cooking utensil at hand.
+The cabin was&#8211;as such cabins go&#8211;completely
+furnished and, it appeared, must have been inhabited
+not long ago by a stout man; for in a box
+at the head of the bunk he found some clothing
+much too large for him or for the man who had
+brought him there.</p>
+
+<p>"But," he thought, as he sat down to venison
+steak and flapjacks, "whoever owns the cabin,
+Miller must have gone from here to Meadow
+Creek, because there was a fire here last night
+when I came in; and it was a fire fixed to keep
+some hours, too."</p>
+
+<p>As he finished eating, his eyes fell on the game
+pouch still bulging beside the door. He had not
+looked inside. With a piece of steak balanced on
+his fork he crossed the floor. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Books!" he cried aloud. "<i>My</i> books!"</p>
+
+<p>The fork fell from his hand. He dropped to
+his knees and emptied the pouch. Besides the
+appliances which he had given to Miller to carry
+there were all his books, the medical text-books
+which he had left in the emergency chest in
+Weimer&#8217;s shack. He could scarcely believe his
+eyes. He sat back on his heels, and stared.</p>
+
+<p>"Weston!" he finally shouted. "Miller is
+Weston!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly rising, his eyes narrowed and his lips
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302'></a>302</span>
+compressed, he kicked the game pouch across the
+floor in a gust of anger caused by an illumination
+of certain circumstances which explained the
+events of the previous day.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;m slow," he muttered between clinched
+teeth. "Any one can get the better of me."</p>
+
+<p>He recalled Weston&#8217;s imitation of different
+people the night he and Waymart had come to
+Weimer&#8217;s together and Sandy&#8217;s displeasure at the
+exhibition. Sitting down in an armchair beside
+the table&#8211;the only chair in the shack&#8211;he followed
+his chain of evidence link by link. The conversation
+which he had overheard between Waymart
+and Sandy the night of the latter&#8217;s return from
+Cody was fully explained&#8211;the some one whose
+assistance they might need in Meadow Creek
+Valley, but who would not come unless some one
+else had left.</p>
+
+<p>"Weston would not come with Leslie there for
+fear he&#8217;d be recognized," thought Ross. "Therefore,
+Sandy took steps to remove Leslie and&#8211;yes&#8211;in
+spite of the mess I made of it, I blocked the
+game!"</p>
+
+<p>Then, despite his anxiety, Ross grinned. Of
+course the McKenzies had not expected Leslie to
+return any more than they had expected the
+dynamite to be found. But after hearing his
+signal of discovery they had sent Weston, the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303'></a>303</span>
+skilful impersonator, to maroon him here&#8211;where?
+Ross dropped forward his head on the
+table and groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"They brought me here to get rid of me entirely,"
+he finished; "and I came voluntarily!"</p>
+
+<p>Presently he picked up the pouch, intending to
+hang it on a nail in the logs beside the door. It
+was not quite empty; and, lifting the flap he
+looked in. At the bottom lay a few wads of newspaper.
+Ross concluded that the pouch had been
+stuffed with these when Weston came to Weimer&#8217;s.
+Then, when he went back after the books, he had
+thrown out the paper, the presence of which had
+prevented his companion from noticing much
+difference in the pouch after the books were put
+into it. Ross picked up one of the pieces, and
+glanced at it listlessly. It was a page of the Cody
+"Gazette." He dropped it back into the pouch.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what he told Uncle Jake and Leslie
+when he got the books," thought Ross, hanging
+up the bag.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie was the only comfort the situation held
+for him, and this merely came from the knowledge
+that Weimer was not alone. For, of course, Weston
+having seen the boy in Meadow Creek would return
+and block the work somehow, probably steal the
+dynamite again, and convey it farther than the
+tool house.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304'></a>304</span>Here Ross started up in a sort of frenzy, and,
+putting on his top-coat and cap, rushed out-of-doors.
+He would find a way out. There must be a way,
+for Miller had gone back&#8211;Ross felt sure he had
+returned&#8211;and if Miller had he could! He would
+save the claims yet. The first plunge into the
+snow, waist-deep now, with the whip-lash of the
+blizzard in his face, brought him to his senses.</p>
+
+<p>"This is folly," he thought as he dropped once
+more into the chair beside the table, "when I have
+no idea where I am."</p>
+
+<p>But, even if he did know, his snow-shoes were
+gone; and without them he could not safely
+venture&#8211;nor with them, either, he decided, recalling
+with a sick shudder the snow-filled ravines
+against which Miller had warned him&#8211;<i>Miller</i>,
+indeed!</p>
+
+<p>His bitterness came back with a rush. After all
+he had done for Weston this was the final reward.
+Weston had shaved his beard, recolored his hair
+and the fringe of whiskers left beneath his chin,
+covered his deep brown eyes with goggles, and
+brought his benefactor of Dry Creek here to spend
+months in this deadly loneliness! That was the
+thanks he gave "Doc Tenderfoot" for saving his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>That night the storm ceased and a warm wind
+arose. The next morning Ross again shoveled
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305'></a>305</span>
+out the doorway, window, and wood-pile. The sky
+was clear, but the sun did not swing over the
+towering peak which rose almost perpendicular,
+opposite the cabin, until ten o&#8217;clock. But, when
+it did show its face, it looked down on a bewildering
+mass of snow. Ross gazed longingly down
+the cañon, which wound like a serpent between
+the overhanging mountains. Down there not
+half a mile away a ledge ran diagonally across
+the face of a cliff; and Ross felt impelled to go
+to the foot of that cliff, and find out whether or
+not the rope still dangled from its summit. But
+well he knew that even so short a journey would
+be impossible without the aid of snow-shoes.
+However, if the warm wind continued and the
+sky remained unclouded, perhaps in a day or
+two there would be a crust on the snow of sufficient
+strength to bear his weight. Then he would
+investigate.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile he tried to force himself calmly to
+the business of living and planning. He was
+there. So far as he could see there was no escape.
+He would make the best and the most of the
+months of his banishment. When he arrived at
+this conclusion, he found himself relenting a
+trifle toward Weston on account of the books. It
+had been no light load to pack across the mountains
+on a tramp which had lasted many hours.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306'></a>306</span>"Perhaps Weston has a piece of heart, after all,"
+Ross mused the following morning, "but so thoroughly
+is he under Sandy&#8217;s control that he dare
+not show it."</p>
+
+<p>Before him on the table lay Piersol&#8217;s "Histology,"
+although he was totally unable to focus
+his scattered thoughts on the contents. He was
+anxiously watching the weather. The warm
+wind had continued, but the sky was lowering.
+Another storm was brewing. Finally Ross left
+Piersol and going to the door, looked out anxiously
+over the cañon.</p>
+
+<p>"The snow is settling finely," he decided, "and
+if the cold comes before the storm the crust will
+hold me up."</p>
+
+<p>He went back to the armchair and began drumming
+nervously on the arms. He wondered how
+it had chanced to be packed so far over the
+narrow trails. A chair, a "store chair," that is,
+was an uncommon sight among the mountains.
+From which point had it been brought, Cody or
+Red Lodge? The latter, he knew, was more than
+one hundred miles from the Shoshones, while
+Cody was but eighty.</p>
+
+<p>However, nearness depended not so much on
+miles as on accessibility, and for the thousandth
+time Ross wondered where he was.</p>
+
+<p>He could not reason from the memory of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307'></a>307</span>
+tortuous windings of that stormy afternoon&#8217;s
+journey, with no view of the sun&#8217;s face to guide
+him; but his strong impression was that he was
+many miles northwest of Meadow Creek, with at
+least three chains of peaks between him and
+Weimer.</p>
+
+<p>Then he fell to wondering again about the
+shack. Did it belong to one of the McKenzie
+relatives? Who had given it over to his use
+for the winter? He suspected that, while the furnishings
+and the clothing had been left there by the
+owner, the McKenzies had planned for his winter&#8217;s
+residence, and had partially, at least, stocked his
+larder, as the owner would not be likely to desert
+such a supply of meat, especially the fresh venison.
+Perhaps the venison was due to Weston&#8217;s forethought.
+Ross liked to think that Weston had
+done all that he dared do for the comfort of
+"Doc Tenderfoot."</p>
+
+<p>"He&#8217;s a bigger man," mused "Doc"; "and yet
+he seems more than half afraid of Sandy. Wonder
+what the trouble is."</p>
+
+<p>That night the wind changed, the temperature
+dropped, and the next morning snow began to
+fall, lightly, however. Again and again Ross
+went out for trial trips on the fast freezing crust,
+but not until afternoon did he venture on the
+journey to the cliff.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_308'></a>308</span>The shack stood among the trees on the mountainside
+about ten feet above the level of the
+cañon. Taking with him a long pole with a
+sharpened end, which he found in the shack,
+Ross slid from tree to tree until he gained the
+level of the cañon. Then, hugging the foot of
+the mountain closely, that he might judge of the
+lay of the land by the trees, and so avoid the
+dreaded creeks and gorges, he turned down the
+cañon toward the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>It was difficult walking, the crust being smooth
+and slippery. Several times one foot broke
+through, and each time Ross&#8217;s heart seemed to
+rise in his throat when he considered that he
+was walking on a body of snow deeper than he
+was high. The cañon had no distinguishing features.
+It might have been any one of a dozen
+located among the Shoshones, and all of them
+unfamiliar to the young man lost in their midst.
+On either side, the mountains, dreary and lonely
+and lifeless, arose precipitately. It was windless
+in the cañon, but on top of the mountains a white,
+cold cloud of snow played perpetually.</p>
+
+<p>But Ross&#8217;s eyes were eagerly searching the
+mountain at the left for the cliff; and presently
+he recognized it despite the curtain of snow drifting
+across its face. There it was, stretching up
+until his neck ached in the effort to scan the top,
+where in an unbroken line along the edge hung
+a great body of snow, the undisturbed accumulations
+of the last blizzard. The steep side of the
+cliff, however, was bare, and Ross failed to discover
+a rope dangling over its surface.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i6'></a><img src='images/i-308.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+THE SNOW HID IT FROM VIEW
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_309'></a>309</span>He thought he had not expected to see it there,
+and so could not account for the sinking of his
+heart when he found it gone. For a few moments
+he stood looking down the cañon hemmed in by
+its great mountain barriers. He fully realized the
+fact that he was a prisoner within those barriers,
+perfectly helpless until released by the brief summer.</p>
+
+<p>With bent head he turned his back to the cliff
+and cautiously retraced his steps while a wildly
+whirling "squall" suddenly caught him in its
+clutches. He had gone but a short distance before
+a sound in the rear caused him to wheel about and
+listen sharply. Only a smother of snow, swirling
+up the cañon, met his eyes and a blast of the rising
+wind his ears. Hesitating, he struggled back a
+few steps and turned his face up toward the cliff.
+The snow hid it from view. He stood listening
+again, and, presently, the sound, above him and a
+little in advance, again mingled with the roar of
+the wind. Ross broke into a run, panting through
+the storm, breaking through the crust, struggling
+to his feet and tumbling on again. It was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_310'></a>310</span>
+certainly the call of a human voice, although no
+words were distinguishable because of the noise of
+the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, obsessed by one idea, raised his voice:
+"Miller&#8211;Weston!" he yelled frantically. "I&#8217;m
+here&#8211;below here! Where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>But the wind swooped down on him, seized his
+words and bore them down the cañon. Then it
+suddenly died away, and again the snow fell
+quietly, mistily, and Ross, looking up, saw, as in a
+nightmare, a rope dangling across the face of the
+cliff. In bewildered joyousness he pressed his
+hand against his eyes and looked again.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s there!" he cried, "but it certainly wasn&#8217;t
+ten minutes ago. That&#8217;s the queerest&#8211;I know I
+saw straight before<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>He opened his lips to call again, but the call was
+checked by the discovery of a man half-way down
+the cliff, creeping along on what looked to be a
+thread of snow fastened diagonally across the dark
+surface of the rock, but which Ross at once recognized
+as the narrow ledge he himself had trod
+only three days before. Slowly the figure was
+progressing, its feet kicking away the snow lodged
+on the ledge, its hands clinging to the bare face of
+the cliff. Then, faintly into the lull of the storm
+a nervous voice floated down to Ross from the
+thread-like path.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_311'></a>311</span>"I&#8217;m almost down, I guess, Miller. Hope I can
+get to the cabin before another squall strikes us."</p>
+
+<p>Then, from the top of the cliff, the barely distinguishable
+words behind the veil of falling
+snow, "All right. Remember you&#8217;ll find Doc not
+half a mile straight ahead. The cabin&#8217;s on the
+right, as I&#8217;ve told ye. It&#8217;s above a bunch of seven
+spruces. Ye won&#8217;t need yer snow-shoes&#8211;crust&#8217;ll
+hold down there."</p>
+
+<p>Ross waited to hear no more. "Leslie!" he
+yelled joyously. "Ho, Leslie! I&#8217;m down here.
+Come on! Hurray for that rope again!"</p>
+
+<p>But even as the hurray ascended the side of the
+cliff, so did the rope. Snakily, jerkily, the knotted
+end traveled upward until it disappeared in the
+cloud of snow that hid the mountain tops.</p>
+
+<p>From this cloud came a faint and far-away
+voice: "Good luck t&#8217; ye! Tell Doc ye&#8217;re in the
+same boat as he is. He&#8217;ll savvy!"</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_312'></a>312</span><a id='link_16'></a>CHAPTER XVI<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE INGRATITUDE OF WESTON</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>The</span> presence of Leslie without snow-shoes, the
+disappearance of the rope, and Weston&#8217;s voice
+caused Ross to "savvy" immediately in impotent
+anger and bitter disappointment. But not until
+the two boys had reached the cabin and Leslie was
+warming himself beside the hot stove, did he fully
+comprehend the trick that had been played on
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Weston!" he exclaimed stupidly in answer to
+Ross&#8217;s explanation. "Why, this isn&#8217;t the man you
+told about at Sagehen Roost&#8211;it&#8217;s the Miller that
+you went away with. I saw that Weston fellow,
+you know. They&#8217;re not the same!"</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s evident that when you&#8217;ve seen Weston
+you&#8217;ve seen any number of men that he cares to
+imitate. This Miller is Weston, the McKenzies&#8217;
+cousin and the man you<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" Here Ross checked
+himself, as Leslie had not yet connected the dark-haired
+Weston with the light-haired Oklahoma
+man of the same name.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, after supper, Leslie recovered from his
+bewilderment sufficiently to tell connectedly the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_313'></a>313</span>
+story of the days that had intervened between
+Ross&#8217;s departure from Meadow Creek and his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Begin at the beginning," urged Ross finally,
+putting a pine chunk in the stove and snuffing the
+candle.</p>
+
+<p>He had seated the newcomer in the armchair
+beside the fire, while he sat on an overturned box
+in front of the stove door and within reach of a
+heap of wood. On the table at his elbow lay the
+gun which Steele had insisted on adding to his
+equipment the day he arrived in Meadow Creek
+and which he had not since touched. Leslie had
+brought it strapped across his shoulders and with
+it all the ammunition which Steele had provided.
+This was another proof of Weston&#8217;s strangely curious
+good will that continued to puzzle Ross. How
+the unsuspecting Leslie was prevailed on to bring
+the limited arsenal was a part of the story which
+Ross was demanding. While the storm raged
+outside and the dim candle-light flickered and
+cast long uncanny shadows within, and the pine
+chunk flamed and cracked cheerily filling the
+room with a warmth grateful to the chilled narrator,
+Leslie complied with the request to "begin at
+the beginning."</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;d no sooner seen your back, Ross, as you
+followed Miller out of the door, than I had an
+awfully uncomfortable feeling of responsibility.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_314'></a>314</span>
+By the time the storm had swallowed you two up,
+the whole outfit there at Weimer&#8217;s was sitting
+hard on my shoulders. We watched you out of
+sight, Uncle Jake and I, and then we went back
+into the cabin and, Ross, if that cabin seems to
+Uncle Jake now as&#8211;well&#8211;as&#8211;when you left<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie paused and stared at the candle. Ross drew
+his seat nearer the stove and cleared his throat.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jake has stayed there a lot in the winter
+all alone, you must remember. He was telling
+me about it not long ago, how the<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Above the cabin, through the roaring and soughing
+of the wind among the spruce, came the long
+drawn yelling, harassed, pitiful cry of a coyote.
+From the cañon the cry was answered. Again
+and again the two human-like voices wailed despairingly
+at each other while the boys involuntarily
+drew nearer together and Ross laid a caressing
+hand on the gun and finished his speech:</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s exactly what Uncle Jake told me&#8211;how
+the coyotes and wolves prowled around, and he
+didn&#8217;t mind them nor the loneliness at all."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie nodded. "I noticed that he didn&#8217;t seem
+to mind your being away in the same way I did.
+He just took to his pipe and his bunk and seemed
+settled for a rest until you got back again. That
+didn&#8217;t add any to my restfulness, I can tell you,
+for what could I do up in the tunnel without him?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_315'></a>315</span>
+I rustled around a bit trying to decide what to do
+when the door opened and there was Miller again,
+or Weston rather. I was as surprised as they
+make &#8217;em until he said:</p>
+
+<p>"&#8217;Say, young feller, Doc he sent me back t&#8217;
+round up a book on medicine that he may need.
+It&#8217;ll be layin&#8217; round loose som&#8217;ers, maybe in that
+hair covered chist of hisn.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie went on to say that when he had opened
+Ross&#8217;s emergency chest Weston professed to have
+forgotten the name of the book he had been directed
+to fetch, and, consequently, had taken all the
+books, stuffing them carelessly into his game pouch.
+Then the storm had again swallowed him up.</p>
+
+<p>"After he went away," said Leslie, "I got to
+thinking pretty strongly about the dynamite. If
+it was so easy for one man to get into the valley
+from the land only knew where, why couldn&#8217;t the
+McKenzies make their way back and spirit the
+dynamite off for good and all? We&#8217;d gone and
+touched off that charge under Soapweed Ledge to
+make &#8217;em understand that we had it again, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know!" affirmed Ross grimly. "Geese
+that we were!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, those sticks got on my nerves, and I
+made up my mind to fasten them up if such a
+thing were possible. So I put on my snow-shoes
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_316'></a>316</span>
+and began to rattle around in the storm to see
+what I could do. I thought no one could come up
+into the tool house from under because of the mass
+of snow all around, and because the dynamite box
+was so heavy with all of your and our and the
+McKenzies&#8217; sticks in it that it held the floor boards
+down with a vengeance. But I wasn&#8217;t taking any
+chances after seeing what our &#8217;friends the enemy&#8217;
+were capable of doing, so I got all the spike nails
+that Weimer had and nailed down the floor. Then
+I plowed through the storm up to Wilson&#8217;s shack,
+shoveled my way in, collected all the tools that
+could be used to pry or hammer with and brought
+&#8217;em back to our tool house. And with them, Ross,
+I brought a great padlock and chain that I recollected
+seeing up there rusty and unused. I oiled
+it and put a bar across the tool-house door and
+padlocked it. And if I do say it, it would cost a
+man some time and strength and racket to get into
+that shack. It would also take some tools, and
+there&#8217;s none in the valley except what are behind
+that locked door, for before night came I had
+raided the McKenzie cabin and brought over all
+their tools. Then," continued Leslie, "I went to
+sleep feeling some better."</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ll bet you," cried Ross eagerly, "that it&#8217;s
+because you fastened up the dynamite that you&#8217;re
+here! I do believe that when Weston went back
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_317'></a>317</span>
+it would have been easier to cache that if he could
+have got it than to have brought you here."</p>
+
+<p>"I don&#8217;t know, Ross." Leslie gave a short laugh.
+"It was easy enough to get me here, as easy as to
+get you. I&#8211;but you want the story as it comes."</p>
+
+<p>"Every word of it. Go on. The next day<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>The next day, Leslie continued, so furious a
+blizzard was raging that he didn&#8217;t work in the
+tunnel but spent the time keeping open the trails
+to the dump, the wood-pile and the spring. But
+the second day, the sky having cleared, he tried
+his best to get Weimer to work.</p>
+
+<p>"Ich vill vork mit Doc," was Uncle Jake&#8217;s declaration
+of independence, "mit you, nein!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can imagine, Ross, how much work I did
+alone, not used to going ahead with the blasting.
+When I came down at noon the old fellow had
+dished up a capital dinner. He washed the
+dishes, but not one step would he budge to the
+tunnel. Said that you were likely to drop in any
+time that day and he&#8217;d stay in and watch for you.
+Said it would be work enough for him to do to
+fill you up after your long tramp through the
+snow! He simply boiled over with ready excuses.
+When I went up to the tunnel I left him with his
+goggles on, swinging open the door about once in
+two minutes for a look over on Soapweed Ledge.
+You know it was clear that day and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_318'></a>318</span>Here Leslie suddenly paused and sat up with a
+jerk. He gripped the arms of the chair and gave
+a startled exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Ross, that clearness business has reminded
+me of something that I noticed in the
+morning, and, because I thought it couldn&#8217;t be
+true, I paid but little attention. But now I know&#8211;well,
+this is what it was: when I reached the
+dump I glanced across the valley at the McKenzie
+shack. It seemed completely buried in snow except
+the roof and the chimney stovepipe, and at
+first I imagined that I saw heat coming out of that
+stovepipe! You know how, after a hot fire, the
+heat will crinkle the air above a chimney and no
+smoke in sight?"</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s so!" exclaimed Ross. "And you
+think<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"At the time I thought it was a mere notion of
+mine, but now I believe I saw correctly, and that
+Weston was there waiting to dispose of my case."</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s the idea," agreed Ross excitedly. "There
+all the time after he left me, probably. He had
+likely got him a hot breakfast before you were up
+and then let the fire die."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie nodded. "Same as I did when I was
+hiding down in Miners&#8217; Camp. But, anyway, I
+didn&#8217;t investigate and forgot all about that chimney
+until this minute."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_319'></a>319</span>Here Leslie broke off to ask abruptly, "Another
+thing, Ross, right here before I forget. The day
+you left, you remember Uncle Jake was sick and
+you went down to get dinner and left me in the
+tunnel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, only a few minutes after you left I looked
+out and you, as I supposed then, stood in the mouth
+of the tunnel<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope, &#8217;twas Weston," interrupted Ross. "He
+said he went up there first. He came to the shack
+from that direction."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he got a squint at the work and the dynamite
+and your assistant right then! I thought it
+was queer I didn&#8217;t get an answer when I yelled to
+know if you had dinner ready. But just as I
+spoke, the figure took a sneak, and I supposed you
+had just stopped a bit to look things over."</p>
+
+<p>"Weston was attending to that, evidently," retorted
+Ross promptly. "But now let&#8217;s see&#8211;you&#8217;ve
+brought the happenings up to to-day, haven&#8217;t
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite," Leslie answered. "I&#8217;ll be there in
+a minute, though. Yesterday I got as uneasy as
+Weimer over your not getting back, and Miller, or
+Weston, I mean, not coming as he promised. I
+confess I was in a blue funk by afternoon, and I
+saw things were shaping for another storm. I went
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_320'></a>320</span>
+slipping and sliding out beside the dump a dozen
+times where I could look over to Soapweed Ledge
+while Uncle Jake tramped around outside the
+shack continually watching for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Uncle Jake!" muttered Ross stirring uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that brings me to to-day," Leslie began
+after a pause. "I was down beside the dump looking
+for you about eleven o&#8217;clock this morning when
+I saw him coming over the Ledge&#8211;Weston, I mean.
+Same goggles, same cap drawn down over his ears,
+same outfit except the game pouch. I noticed as
+soon as he came near that the pouch was gone.
+Tell you what, Ross, I made tracks down the trail,
+got my snow-shoes on and went to meet him. I
+would have hurried to meet a Hottentot! Uncle
+Jake stayed behind jabbering in German, and
+fairly dancing up and down in his excitement because
+you had not come with Weston."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, his elbows on his knees and his chin in his
+palms, staring at Leslie, saw in a flash the latter as
+he had appeared at Sagehen Roost, overbearing
+and dictatorial. Then he saw him running across
+the lonely valley of Meadow Creek eager to meet
+any one on a fraternal footing.</p>
+
+<p>"Weston must have left his shack and made a
+long trip behind it up the mountain and around
+over the summit to have come in on the Ledge;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_321'></a>321</span>
+don&#8217;t you think so?" asked Ross. "He probably
+didn&#8217;t want to run any risk of being seen."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie assented and went on with his story. He
+had gone to meet Weston with a demand as to
+Ross&#8217;s whereabouts and return.</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t ye worry none about Doc," Weston declared
+heartily. "He&#8217;s fixin&#8217; things fine over our
+way. Doc&#8217;s all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"So he is," Leslie agreed, "and for that reason
+we want him right here, Uncle Jake and I!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wall," Weston drawled good-naturedly, "he
+says the same about you even t&#8217; wantin&#8217; ye where
+he is now for a day."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" Leslie asked.</p>
+
+<p>The two had been walking back toward the
+shack and the frantic Weimer, and Weston did not
+explain until he had assured Uncle Jake of Ross&#8217;s
+safety and health, and was seated beside the stove.</p>
+
+<p>"Not once while he was there," Leslie told Ross,
+"not even when he was eating dinner, did he take
+off his cap&#8211;merely pushed it back a little. Uncle
+Jake urged him to shed it, but he just grinned and
+said he had a bald spot on the top of his head, and
+had got into the habit of wearing his cap all the
+time to keep that spot warm. Said he guessed he
+wouldn&#8217;t &#8217;bust into that habit now.&#8217; I thought
+he was an odd Dick to get into such a habit, and
+with a fur cap, too, but it was all so plausible, Ross,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_322'></a>322</span>
+everything he said was said with such an air of
+truth, that I didn&#8217;t once suspect."</p>
+
+<p>"No more did I," confessed Ross.</p>
+
+<p>"And then, of course, I was awfully interested
+in what he had to tell, and ask me to do. He told
+a clever lie, Ross. He said that you had brought
+down an elk with his gun and wanted me to come
+back with him and the sled you had made to help
+the McKenzies haul supplies, and help pack the venison
+over the mountains for our winter meat. It was
+all the more clever because I knew that meat was
+all we needed to make our winter&#8217;s supplies good.
+The story hit Uncle Jake in the right spot, too. He
+hurried up dinner for us to be gone before the big
+snow came. Weston thought we could reach his
+cabin that night and make it back again to-morrow
+morning with the elk meat. He said it would be a
+pretty good pull for the three of us, but as there was
+a good crust we could make it with that sled. Why,
+Doc, there wasn&#8217;t a suspicion of deceit in his manner.
+He said you had fixed his pard up all right
+and would leave some stuff for him, and so didn&#8217;t
+need to stay any longer. So I went up to the tool
+house and got the sled out and we started<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"The gun," interrupted Ross. "Did you think
+of the gun?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not much I didn&#8217;t! That was Weston. Just
+as we were starting off he turned back and said:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_323'></a>323</span>"&#8217;See here, young feller. Doc said as how ye
+was t&#8217; bring his gun along and mebby he could
+bring down a mountain sheep as we come back.
+They is a lot of them animals over with us.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>So the two had turned back and Leslie strapped
+Ross&#8217;s gun across his shoulders. He carried the
+ammunition. Weston insisted on taking all of it
+along as he and his partner had run short, and
+Ross had promised them a share of his! Then
+they had started out, and, screened by the veil of
+gently falling snow, entered on the same tortuous,
+winding, upward trail that Ross and Weston had
+taken a few days previously.</p>
+
+<p>"And all the way," Leslie continued, "whenever
+the trail let us walk together, he was telling me a
+long yarn about the day you and he had spent
+chasing that elk whose meat we were going after.
+I listened, Ross, with my mouth opened half the
+time, and wished a dozen times, if I did once, that
+I had been with you.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as the afternoon passed, the storm became
+heavier, and part of the way we couldn&#8217;t see
+a dozen feet before us, and finally I think Weston
+himself was uncertain of our way although he
+said he wasn&#8217;t. It must have been about four
+o&#8217;clock when we came to the head of the ledge.
+Weston searched and groped along until he came
+to a tree where a rope was already tied.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_324'></a>324</span>"&#8217;It&#8217;s the one I used fer Doc and me,&#8217;" he explained
+and slung it over the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>"He had been hauling the sled along, while all I
+had to carry was the gun and ammunition. Now
+he said that I had better leave my snow-shoes on top
+of the cliff and tie the end of the rope around my
+waist and he would let me down to the ledge.
+That I was to kick clear of snow and then go up
+the cañon and get you to come down and help
+heave the sled over and get it down to the cañon.
+He said you would know better than I how to do
+that. He kept giving me directions about where
+to find the cabin, for the snow had thickened until
+we couldn&#8217;t see the ledge, to say nothing of the
+cañon. You see, Ross, I&#8217;ll confess I was too nervous
+about going over into space attached to that
+rope to think that his proceeding was queer. I
+just didn&#8217;t question a thing, but shut my eyes and
+went over. It didn&#8217;t occur to me to wonder why
+my snow-shoes, instead of that gun, weren&#8217;t tied
+on my shoulders. Well, I struck the ledge and
+untied the rope and felt my way along that ticklish
+shelf until the squall lifted and then&#8211;you know
+the rest. If I live to be a hundred I&#8217;ll never forget
+how I felt when that rope was drawn up and
+he yelled down that I was to tell you I was in the
+same boat that you were!"</p>
+
+<p>It was late and Leslie was too tired to talk
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_325'></a>325</span>
+longer. Ross gave him the bunk and, waiting
+only long enough to fill the stove with wood, close
+the draughts and blow out the candles, wrapped
+up in a blanket and lay down beside the stove, his
+coat for a pillow. He did not fall asleep at once,
+but lay staring up at the flicker of firelight dancing
+about on the mud-chinked logs overhead.</p>
+
+<p>After all his planning and working, he thought,
+his mission in the mountains was doomed to failure.
+The claims would pass into the McKenzies&#8217;
+hands, and, besides, he would have missed one
+year of the preparation for the work he had chosen.
+He rolled over and half groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"Awake, Ross?" came from the bunk. "I&#8217;m
+so tired I haven&#8217;t dropped off yet and, besides&#8211;say,
+Ross, here I am and there&#8217;s dad waiting for
+me to turn up with that missing five hundred&#8211;and
+then your claims&#8211;we&#8217;re not exactly in luck,
+are we? I feel as though I&#8217;d like to get my hands
+on that Weston-Miller fellow&#8217;s throat."</p>
+
+<p>"There&#8217;s one thing I can do, though&#8211;study,"
+muttered Ross. "That I&#8217;ve got to hold myself
+to."</p>
+
+<p>Conversation languished then, and both boys
+fell asleep, Ross&#8217;s last thought being of Weimer
+watching for their return in the lonely valley of
+Meadow Creek.</p>
+
+<p>By daylight the following morning the two were
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_326'></a>326</span>
+up, full of plans for living and doing during the
+long months of their imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>"There are some nails, but no hammer," said
+Ross. "But we can drive &#8217;em with a stick of
+wood and fix up another bunk out of these two
+boxes. They&#8217;re the longest, and I think they&#8217;ll fill
+the bill for my five feet ten. Then we&#8217;ll divide
+the straw and the blankets, and by keeping up the
+fire all night, I guess we won&#8217;t freeze to death."</p>
+
+<p>On the floor in the corner back of the stove they
+built the bunk. There were not nails enough nor
+were the boxes strong enough to allow of making
+a substantial bunk such as the owner of the shack
+had built against the side logs.</p>
+
+<p>Until the bunk was completed, Leslie, while
+working docilely enough under the older boy&#8217;s
+direction, regarded the more comfortable bunk as
+his permanent possession. He had never been
+taught to be unselfish. He had from his motherless
+childhood demanded what he wished and
+received it until the question arose of his continued
+attendance in school. There he had taken
+the course he wished and was now paying for it
+dearly. It was not until he was dividing the straw
+in his bunk and had come across Ross&#8217;s watch
+and pocketbook that the idea smote him hard that
+the other had vacated the easier bunk in a wordless
+generosity that he, Leslie, had never practiced,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_327'></a>327</span>
+and that he had not even thanked the bunk&#8217;s
+former occupant.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Ross," he began brusquely, "you
+needn&#8217;t think that you&#8217;re going to rest your old
+bones in the new bunk all the time, for you ain&#8217;t!
+I shall try it myself half the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Week and week about, then," Ross agreed.
+"And this brings us up against a calendar. I
+brought my watch, thank fortune! But what
+about a calendar? I want to be sure that I know
+when the 4th of July gets here, for Steele says
+you&#8217;d never know it except by the calendar, there&#8217;s
+so much snow."</p>
+
+<p>"Snow!" groaned Leslie. "Snow! There&#8217;s
+never a time when there isn&#8217;t snow in these mountains,
+it seems. Well, I know what day to-morrow
+is, and&#8211;have you a pencil?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross slapped the breast pocket of his slicker.
+"Yep, a long one. And there&#8217;s one in the pockets
+of the trousers you&#8217;ll find in that box," nodding
+toward the repository of the shack owner&#8217;s clothing.
+"Guess we will keep a record of the days up
+on the side logs. I know how many in each
+month when I say that old jingle, &#8217;Thirty days
+hath September,&#8217; etc."</p>
+
+<p>But the need of a calendar was not so pressing
+as the need of wood. The few days that Ross had
+spent in the shack had caused an alarming shrinkage
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_328'></a>328</span>
+in the pile of chunks already cut; and Ross,
+commencing to shovel his way to the nearest pine
+tree, now ran across a number of logs which had
+been "snaked" down the mountainside before the
+snow came, and lay ready for the axe and saw.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess if Aunt Anne were here, she&#8217;d not complain
+that I took no exercise," he muttered grimly,
+shouldering a short cross cut saw.</p>
+
+<p>While he sawed Leslie got dinner. After dinner
+Leslie took his turn at the saw and axe while
+Ross considered the matter of the calendar. Looking
+about the shack, his glance fell on Weston&#8217;s
+game pouch. He had hung it on a peg driven between
+two side logs and had forgotten it.</p>
+
+<p>"The very thing!" he exclaimed aloud. "We
+can mark the days on the margin of the old newspapers
+that are in the bottom of that pouch."</p>
+
+<p>Taking the bag down he dumped the crushed
+papers out on the table, and sitting down, began to
+smooth them out, glancing over the contents idly.
+He found nothing which interested him until he
+reached the last wad. When he spread this out,
+he found, stuck to the newspaper by candle-drippings,
+a scrap of coarse note paper which at
+once riveted his attention. It contained only the
+latter part of one sentence and the first part of
+another.</p>
+
+<p>"<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>come and help us out, and no fooling
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_329'></a>329</span>
+about it, either. If you back out I will turn you
+over to old man Quinn<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Over and over Ross read these words. They
+were few and short, but to him now they were the
+intelligible index to a whole volume. The scrap
+was stuck to a "Gazette" bearing a date which was
+just previous to Weston&#8217;s appearance in Meadow
+Creek. There was no name to show that Sandy
+had written the letter, but Ross knew Weston had
+escaped from Oklahoma. No doubt Sandy possessed
+the knowledge that compelled his obedience.</p>
+
+<p>Ross drew a long breath. "Strange what parts
+of two sentences may tell a fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell a fellow what?" demanded Leslie&#8217;s curious
+voice at his elbow. A hand came over his shoulder
+and pinned the paper down to the table while
+Leslie read the contents aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"&#8217;Old man Quinn,&#8217;" he finished excitedly.
+"Why, that is my father, but&#8211;Lon Weston&#8211;say,
+what does that mean, Ross?"</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_330'></a>330</span><a id='link_17'></a>CHAPTER XVII<br /><span class='h2fs'>A RANDOM SHOT</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>For</span> an instant Ross made no reply. He sat
+with his back to the door and had not heard Leslie
+enter. Turning slowly he looked up with puzzled
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Less, there&#8217;s something that I&#8217;ve not told you
+before&#8211;because&#8211;I guess because I&#8217;ve thought it
+wasn&#8217;t fair to tell. But after Weston has brought
+us away off here and dumped us in this wilderness&#8211;even
+if he has done it out of fear of Sandy&#8211;well,
+it seems to me that about now he has forfeited all
+right to my silence."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie fell back in astonishment, the scraps of
+the letter still in his hand. "Doc, are you getting
+luny? What are you talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross laughed ruefully. "Just thinking out
+loud, that&#8217;s all. Now I&#8217;ll get right down to business
+about Weston. You said you knew a fellow in
+Oklahoma by his name&#8211;Lon Weston."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie pursed his lips incredulously. "Yes, but
+as I said, our Lon Weston had light hair and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_331'></a>331</span>
+didn&#8217;t murder the King&#8217;s English like this man,
+and he hadn&#8217;t a husky voice."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so!" cried Ross triumphantly. "Neither
+does this Lon Weston murder the English language
+when he is talking like himself, nor has he a husky
+voice naturally nor has he dark hair! It&#8217;s colored
+dark&#8211;near the roots, as I found out, it&#8217;s light."</p>
+
+<p>"Jiminy crickstones!" cried Leslie excitedly.
+"If that&#8217;s true, it&#8217;s one on me! Come to think of
+it, Weston was forever imitating folks, but I never
+have seen him in such a serious imitation as this.
+How do you know all about him, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>From this Ross proceeded to tell what he knew
+except Weston&#8217;s connection with the note laid
+under the electric bulb in the bedroom of "The
+Irma." That much he felt himself pledged not to
+relate, but its omission, really, in no way detracted
+from the proof of Weston&#8217;s identity. Furthermore,
+Ross, concerned only with that identity,
+began his recital with Sheepy&#8217;s talk about Weston
+forgetting the photograph which had revealed the
+injured man&#8217;s name.</p>
+
+<p>"You can see," Ross concluded, "by putting
+together all the evidence, that he is the fourth
+man your father is after, and that Sandy has come
+it over him completely, knowing that he is the
+fourth. The more I think of it the more I&#8217;m
+convinced of Sandy&#8217;s power. Sandy holds this
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_332'></a>332</span>
+cudgel over his head and makes him do the dirty
+work. But, no matter how big the cudgel is, he
+had no business to play this low-down trick on us."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till we get out of here!" declared Leslie
+wrathfully, "and I&#8217;ll make him pay for his trick!"
+Suddenly his face lighted. "Ross, see here! Dad
+has been hunting for that fourth man for two
+years, and if I can go to him and tell him who it
+is and set him on the right track, well&#8211;I&#8217;ll stand
+in better with dad, that&#8217;s all! The five hundred
+that I can&#8217;t begin to earn until next summer won&#8217;t
+be in it beside that information!"</p>
+
+<p>Then, as suddenly as it had come, the light died
+out of the boy&#8217;s face. He sat down on the table
+and rubbed his forehead in perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Ross, there&#8217;s another side to this. For
+me to do that would knock things endwise with
+Sue."</p>
+
+<p>"Sue," repeated Ross, "who is Sue?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ve got a sister," explained Leslie. "She&#8217;s
+four or five years older. She keeps house for us.
+She&#8217;s an awfully good girl, Sue is, although,"
+turning his head shamefacedly away, "she&#8217;d be
+surprised to hear me say so, for we, dad and I,
+have made her a lot of trouble. Dad&#8217;s as up and
+down with her as with me and I&#8211;say, Ross, I&#8217;ve
+been a nuisance at home!"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie choked. He looked slowly around the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_333'></a>333</span>
+cramped, dirty, ill-lighted room, so unlike the
+neat, pleasant home presided over by Sue, and
+swallowed hard. Ross industriously made notches
+in the edge of the table with his pocket-knife.</p>
+
+<p>Finally Leslie, clearing his throat, continued,
+"I guess all this serves me about right. I know
+I ought to be kicked&#8211;and I am being&#8211;in a way.
+Well, it&#8217;s always been up to Sue to put up with us
+both, and she has. And then three years ago Lon
+Weston came. You see, Ross, dad is a sheep
+owner, and North Bend is on the edge of the range
+between sheep and cattle, and that always means
+war. About three miles away is a cattle ranch,
+and Peck, the owner, and dad are always by the
+ears. It was at Peck&#8217;s that Lon was foreman, and
+he used to come over to North Bend to see my
+sister whenever dad would let &#8217;im, but things were
+never very smooth for &#8217;em. Of course, I didn&#8217;t
+see much of him because I was off at school most
+of the year. I was away when the cattlemen had
+their big round-up two years ago in the fall.
+After each had cut out his own bunch of cattle and
+shipped &#8217;em, a lot of the boys went on a drunk
+and dad lost his sheep. Naturally he went up in
+the air at the loss and was at the throat of every
+cattle owner and cowboy for miles around. And,
+first thing, of course he came down on Sue about
+Lon&#8217;s coming to the house and forbid &#8217;er to see
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_334'></a>334</span>
+him again, not because he suspected Lon, but just
+because he was Peck&#8217;s foreman and a cowboy.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Lon cleared out right off and Sue cried
+herself sick. She never said anything, but I&#8217;ve
+guessed that Lon never has written to &#8217;er and I&#8217;m
+afraid she&#8217;s foolish enough," tolerantly, "to think
+a lot of him.</p>
+
+<p>"But I never suspected that Lon was in the
+bunch that sent dad&#8217;s sheep over, and I know that
+no one else around the ranch suspects it, because
+of Lon&#8217;s coming to see Sue right along. Still&#8211;there
+were times when he was a pretty rough
+customer, and&#8211;it&#8217;s a mixed up mess, ain&#8217;t it, Ross,
+along with Sue?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross had been leaning forward on the table listening
+eagerly. Two or three times he had started
+to interrupt, and had checked himself with difficulty.
+Now he burst out:</p>
+
+<p>"I had forgotten the girl&#8217;s photo in Lon&#8217;s
+pocket, Leslie. I know now it&#8217;s Sue&#8217;s picture, because
+it looks like you. It fell out of his pocket
+at Sagehen Roost, and both Hank and I saw it, and
+then, when you came, you puzzled Hank because
+he thought he had seen you before!"</p>
+
+<p>"The very idea!" exclaimed Leslie indignantly
+when Ross had told him about the name on the
+photograph. "How dare he carry my sister&#8217;s
+picture around with him after doing dad such a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_335'></a>335</span>
+dirty trick. Oh, I have it in for him all right! I
+don&#8217;t wonder the McKenzies knew they had to get
+rid of me before they could make Lon come over
+to Meadow Creek! I see now! I presume he
+thinks that dad has been on his track these two
+years. I wonder if Sandy and Waymart were
+with Peck at the same time Lon was?"</p>
+
+<p>For a long time the boys talked over the affair
+in all its bearings, and as the long lonely days
+passed, they recalled every incident that had occurred
+since they left Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
+Their conversations mostly took place in the evening
+by the light of one dim candle, or in the
+darkness relieved only by the flicker of the firelight,
+as candles were not plenty. It was at that
+dreary time between day and night with the wind
+and the coyotes howling outside that the homesickness
+that they could fight successfully in daylight
+had its inning.</p>
+
+<p>"But what if I were here alone!" Ross exclaimed
+periodically.</p>
+
+<p>His gratitude at having Leslie there softened his
+anger at Weston, although he knew that the bringing
+of Leslie had been no philanthropic move on
+Weston&#8217;s part.</p>
+
+<p>Soon, however, the boys settled to a routine of
+work, exercise and study planned by Ross and acquiesced
+in by Leslie, all, at first, save the study.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_336'></a>336</span>
+In that Ross began with no thought of aid from
+the other or partnership with him until one day
+when he sat with a book on anatomy before him
+industriously absorbing the pages. Presently,
+turning his book over on its face, he resolutely
+closed his eyes against the outer world, and his
+ears against Leslie&#8217;s lively whistle, mentally reviewing
+the facts he had been conning. Suddenly
+Leslie, who had been lying in the bunk, came over
+to the table and, picking up the text-book, lazily
+bade Ross think aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s so deadly lonely, Ross, with you poring
+over those dull books," complained Leslie, "that
+I&#8217;d rather hear you recite than not to hear anything
+at all!"</p>
+
+<p>From this trifling beginning, a student partnership
+grew up. At first the task meant to Leslie
+only a form of passing the time away, of hearing a
+human voice instead of the crackle of the fire and
+the sough of the wind. Then, gradually, his interest
+in the subject of anatomy was awakened.
+He began to look at himself with a new interest.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Ross," he burst out one day when he
+was frying bacon, "I never have thought of myself
+before as being made up of parts that must
+work together smoothly&#8211;and I never considered
+how they must work and that some one or other
+must know just how they ought to work so that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_337'></a>337</span>
+he can put &#8217;em together if they fall out of place.
+Now, about that femur, and ball and socket joint
+at the hip here<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Immediately Ross plunged into a lively description
+which soon led both boys to the books for
+proof and illustration, and Leslie&#8217;s interest grew.
+From being merely the holder of the book while
+Ross recited and explained what he had studied,
+Leslie, the "hater" of studies, began to study also,
+at first, in a fitful way, and then more steadily as
+Ross proved himself an enthusiastic teacher.</p>
+
+<p>Neither, however, became so absorbed in his
+studies as to become reconciled to his enforced
+residence above the seven spruces. Day after day
+they ventured out and up and down the cañon, or
+up the side of the mountain on the side of which
+their shack was located, but no discoveries resulted.
+The absence of snow-shoes made travel
+impossible except on top of a strong crust, and
+even then a realization of a constantly increasing
+danger resulted in making such trips shorter and
+shorter. The danger was this: blizzard succeeded
+blizzard until the willows, ten feet tall, which
+grew thickly in the cañon, were completely concealed,
+also the scrub hemlocks and quaking asp
+on the mountainside. The tops of the bushes,
+lashed by the wind until they became finally snow
+covered, formed each a dangerous hollow under a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_338'></a>338</span>
+crust thinner and weaker than the surrounding
+surface. This painful discovery was made by Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>One bright day, leaving Ross to cut off the
+branches of a tree that he had felled for fire-wood,
+Leslie took the gun and started down the cañon on
+a tour of exploration.</p>
+
+<p>"The crust is stout enough to hold up an ox,
+Doc," he declared, bringing the butt of the gun
+down on it hard, "and I&#8217;m going out to see what
+there is to see&#8211;and shoot."</p>
+
+<p>"Shoot!" echoed Ross, poising the axe in air.
+"I&#8217;d like to see something shootable up here beside
+coyotes, and we never see them&#8211;only hear &#8217;em!"
+and the axe descended with a thud.</p>
+
+<p>Leslie laughed, shouldered the gun and tramped
+briskly down the cañon, while Ross wielded the
+axe and, whistling cheerfully, thought of the progress
+he was making in his studies.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, he rested on his axe handle and
+chafed his cheeks and nose briskly with the shaggy
+mittens he had found in the box of clothing left in
+the shack. "I don&#8217;t want any more frost bites in
+mine!" he muttered. He had had several experiences
+of the kind that winter, the altitude being
+so great that he did not realize the intense cold
+until nose or cheek or ear had become frost nipped.</p>
+
+<p>He was resuming his axe when a faint sound
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_339'></a>339</span>
+traveled up the cañon on the wings of a slow south
+wind. Ross straightened himself and listened.
+Again came the wind and the sound. With the
+axe in his hand he slipped and slid down the
+mountainside until he stood in the cañon below
+the seven spruce trees. There he paused long
+enough to distinguish in the sound the faint muffled
+cry, "Ross!" and "Help!"</p>
+
+<p>"Coming!" yelled Ross frantically. "Where
+are you?"</p>
+
+<p>He did not await a reply but, slipping unsteadily
+along the icy crust, he hurried down the cañon
+in the general direction of Leslie&#8217;s voice, yelling
+intermittently, "Coming&#8211;here I am! Where are
+you, Less?"</p>
+
+<p>As he came to the cliff over which he had been
+lowered into the cañon, he heard Leslie&#8217;s voice
+again, still curiously muffled, although evidently
+only a little way in advance. It seemed to rise
+from beneath the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, Ross. Don&#8217;t come fast. I&#8217;ve fallen
+through among the willows."</p>
+
+<p>Cautiously Ross advanced toward the voice, testing
+the strength of the crust at every step until it
+gave under the stamping of his heel. Then he
+stopped and found himself looking down a section
+of shelving crust into a hole filled with loose snow,
+willow tops&#8211;and Leslie.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_340'></a>340</span>"Great guns!" cried Ross. "What are you
+doing in there?"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie attempted to respond nonchalantly, but
+his face was nearly as white as the bed of snow he
+was occupying, and his teeth chattered with cold
+and fright.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ve been flopping around here for half an hour
+yelling," he explained jerkily, "and have only
+managed to sink deeper and break off more crust
+and more willow tops."</p>
+
+<p>"Rub your nose and face the next thing you
+do," advised Ross immediately, "or you&#8217;ll be a
+mass of frost bite."</p>
+
+<p>He rubbed his own nose meditatively. Then
+grasping the axe he cried cheerfully, "Hold the
+fort a while longer down there, Less, and relief will
+arrive. See here! I hadn&#8217;t finished the wood and
+I ran off with the axe. Now I&#8217;ll skiddoo and cut a
+pole and help you out. And don&#8217;t forget to rub
+your face!"</p>
+
+<p>Laboriously and fearfully&#8211;lest he meet with
+Leslie&#8217;s fate&#8211;Ross climbed the side of the mountain
+until he stood among the branches of a sturdy
+spruce, the depth of snow raising him to that
+height. Cutting and trimming a long limb, he
+dragged it back to the cañon. Projecting one end
+over the hole he sat hard on the other. Then Leslie,
+by jumping and seizing the projecting end, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_341'></a>341</span>
+bracing against the sloping sheet of crust, climbed,
+breathless but relieved, to the surface of the snow.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what, Ross," he said emphatically as
+they made their way gingerly back to the shack,
+"I&#8217;ve done all the research work I want to in this
+cañon!" He shivered and slapped his hands
+smartly together. "Without snow-shoes we are
+helpless here, and the McKenzies know it!"</p>
+
+<p>To make snow-shoes without boards or small
+nails or a hammer was impossible to workmen of
+their inexperience. They broke up some boxes
+and put in all their spare time for days experimenting,
+but to no purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"Even if we did succeed, Less," Ross comforted
+himself one day as he looked gloomily at their
+latest failure, "we couldn&#8217;t escape from here. We
+have no idea where we are, whether we are nearer
+Red Lodge or Cody or Timbuctoo. We would
+merely start out and leave a half-way comfortable
+certainty for a mighty ticklish uncertainty."</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s right," agreed Leslie, "and we couldn&#8217;t
+pack enough food on our backs to last many days,
+nor can we tell when a storm is coming."</p>
+
+<p>In fact, storms were the order of the day. By
+the middle of February immense masses of snow
+curled out over the cliffs on the side of the mountain
+opposite the shack waiting for the warm
+chinooks of spring to send them hurtling down
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_342'></a>342</span>
+into the cañon. Fortunately, the mountain above
+the shack was lower than its neighbors, and the
+face, heavily wooded, sloped back more gently until
+it reached a great elevation.</p>
+
+<p>"The trees here prove that there have been no
+snowslides within the memory of this generation,
+at any rate," Ross broke out one day as they were
+sawing the branches from a spruce on the mountainside
+above the shack. "Now, if the shack
+were on the other side<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"But it wouldn&#8217;t be built on the other side,"
+interrupted Leslie. "No cabin builder would do
+such a thing unless he built when he first struck
+this country as young and green as we were!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross laughed and started the branch he had
+trimmed down the mountainside on the crust. It
+skidded along rapidly until it wedged itself into a
+great snow bank which had drifted from the shack
+to the trees on either side, and through which the
+boys had tunneled. With the last branch sent
+home in this convenient fashion, Ross shouldered
+the axe and picked up the saw, while Leslie took
+the gun from a near-by branch where it had been
+slung, and followed down the mountainside.</p>
+
+<p>With the increase in the depth of the snow, the
+coyotes and gray wolves had grown bolder, and
+without the gun the boys never went now outside
+of their dooryard, as they called the spaces they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_343'></a>343</span>
+had cleared around the shack. So far, however,
+the coyotes had only skulked near the strongly
+built lean-to, attracted by the smell of the meat,
+while the wolves contented themselves by howling
+at night from the rocks far above the cabin, and
+being answered from the mountainside opposite.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always heard that the gray wolf is a
+coward," commented Leslie as the two entered the
+shack. "We have not had a glimpse of one yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jake said they are far more afraid of
+people than sensible people are afraid of them," returned
+Ross, "but I&#8217;d rather not be called sensible
+than to meet one face to face!"</p>
+
+<p>That night the boys turned in early, tired with
+their exertions at the wood-pile. About midnight
+they were both awakened by a mysterious noise.
+Leslie, in the wall bunk, came up on his elbow
+before he was fairly awake. Ross, on the floor,
+sat up instantly, whispering sharply:</p>
+
+<p>"Leslie, is that you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked Leslie bewildered. "Is it you?
+What was that?"</p>
+
+<p>Before Ross could reply again, the noise was repeated.
+It came from above their heads, a soft
+padding and crunching on the roof logs. Suddenly
+there was added a whining sound and a
+scratching at the side and then an increase in the
+crunching on the roof.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_344'></a>344</span>"Wolves!" cried Ross and Leslie simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>"They smell the meat in the lean-to," added
+Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell you what, Less," said Ross, "I&#8217;m glad
+we&#8217;re inside a stockade. I&#8217;ll put my trust in
+logs rather than boards with those fellows
+around."</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s voice was decidedly husky, Leslie was
+glad to note. His own was almost beyond control
+while cold chills ran up and down his spine.
+He grunted assent and tried to yawn aloud but
+was unsuccessful.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as the soft padding and eager sniffing
+continued, he found his voice in a frightened
+quaver, "Ross, can they get into the window, do
+you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or break into the door?" added Ross equally
+uncertain as to tone. "One thing I know, Less,
+they&#8217;re afraid of fire."</p>
+
+<p>At that both boys came out of their bunks and
+began to fill the stove with wood. But at these
+sounds from below, the wolves departed hastily
+and put in the remainder of the night howling
+from the side of the mountain a safe distance
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"Guess Uncle Jake is right. They seem as
+afraid of us as we are of them!" exclaimed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_345'></a>345</span>
+Leslie, lighting a candle and setting it in the
+window. Then he turned on Ross with a sheepish
+grin. "Say, Doc, is my hair standing straight up?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross passed his hand over his own. "I don&#8217;t
+see it stand, but if it feels like mine it won&#8217;t lie
+down again in a week. To-morrow, Less, we&#8217;ll
+let studies go by the board and have that window
+and the door barricaded. Then, if a wolf or two
+chance to stumble against them we can turn over
+and laugh in our sleep."</p>
+
+<p>There was no more sleep in the shack that
+night, however, and before daylight the boys were
+up planning the proposed barricade. They finally
+hit on two cross poles for the door, fitted into
+crudely carved stanchions nailed to either side.
+These bars were removed by day, but when night
+came, it was with a feeling of relief that the boys
+dropped the bars into their stanchions and knew
+the device could foil any wolf that prowled about
+the mountains. The window, also, was similarly
+barricaded.</p>
+
+<p>But, secure behind these protections, the boys
+soon became accustomed to their midnight visitors,
+and even began to look eagerly for them during
+the day, Leslie being a fair shot.</p>
+
+<p>"I would like to get a skin or two, Ross," he
+said one evening. "Sue would like &#8217;em as rugs,
+you bet!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_346'></a>346</span>It was after supper, and the boys, having washed
+the dishes, had blown out the candle and were sitting
+beside the stove. The draft in front was open,
+and the blazing chunks within sent a cheerful
+glow dancing past the window and flickering on
+the bunk and the side wall beyond. Outside, the
+wind soughed among the branches of the seven
+spruces, whipping them savagely. It was densely
+dark, darker than it would be an hour later when
+the moon swung over the tops of the mountain
+opposite the shack. There had been no storm for
+several days, but severe cold, so that on top of a
+strong crust a light snow drifted about continually.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;m satisfied to leave the skin on the brutes if
+they&#8217;ll agree to leave mine on me!" laughed Ross
+in answer to Leslie. "Guess you&#8217;re a better sport,
+Less, than I am."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie shook his head. "Aw, I&#8217;m no sport," he
+disclaimed in a pleased tone. "If I ever think I
+am I shall remember the first night the wolves
+came."</p>
+
+<p>He was rubbing his head reminiscently when,
+suddenly, there came an unexpected sound from
+the neighborhood of the window. There was a
+thump against the outer logs, followed by the
+splinter of glass and the inward rush of cold air.
+This was immediately succeeded by a hasty scraping
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_347'></a>347</span>
+noise in the midst of which Leslie sprang to
+his feet shouting:</p>
+
+<p>"Wolves! Quick, Ross, the door!"</p>
+
+<p>While Leslie sprang to the gun hung on pegs
+against the logs near the door, Ross fumbled at the
+door fastenings and, in a moment, both boys were
+out in front in the clearing that they had shoveled
+in front of the door and window. The sound was
+rapidly retreating down the side of the slope
+toward the seven spruces. Eagerly the boys ran
+toward the spruces, which, in the darkness, merely
+made a darker spot below them. From the midst
+of the trees came the scratching sound on the
+crust. Throwing the gun to his shoulder Leslie
+excitedly fired again and again in the direction of
+the rapidly receding sounds.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" he exclaimed when the chambers of
+the gun were emptied. "Of course I haven&#8217;t hit
+anything, but I have the satisfaction of knowing
+I&#8217;ve shot at a wolf, at least!"</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_348'></a>348</span><a id='link_18'></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>A HUMILIATING DISCOVERY</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>Returning</span> to the cabin, the boys excitedly split
+up a box and, binding the dry splinters together,
+thrust one end into the stove. A moment later,
+Ross, brandishing this improvised torch, and followed
+by Leslie, bearing the gun in hands none
+too steady, ran down to the seven spruces.</p>
+
+<p>This group of trees, full grown and broad
+limbed, interlocked their branches at the foot of
+the mountain in the path of the high winds which
+roared through the cañon as through a funnel between
+the high mountains. The trunks formed a
+windbreak for the storms that left their load of
+snow heaped to the branches on the upper side at
+the expense of the lower side where the crust was
+swept as clear of loose snow as though by a broom.</p>
+
+<p>Here, in the shadow of these trees, Leslie, despite
+his earnest protest to the contrary, half expected
+to see a wolf dead or wounded, but no wolf
+appeared. Lowering the torch, the boys made
+their way warily around the trees and the drifts
+heaped to leeward. The pile of snow had not
+been disturbed, nor did they discover any tracks.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_349'></a>349</span>"Less, I&#8217;m not satisfied," exclaimed Ross finally.
+"Something broke that window and something
+ran down here. There&#8217;s enough loose snow over
+this crust to show traces if<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Here the speaker hastily interposed his body between
+a gust of wind and the flaring torch.</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s true," asserted Leslie, "but the snow is
+so light that this wind has probably moved every
+particle of it since that window was broken, and
+this crust is too hard to show a track."</p>
+
+<p>Ross uttered a sudden exclamation and plunged
+forward, the torch&#8217;s head flaming against the crust.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, Less, see here!"</p>
+
+<p>Leslie sprang forward and bent over the torch.
+"Blood!" he shouted. "I did hit him for sure!
+There is a&#8211;no, see here, Ross, here are some more
+drops, a neat little collection! I must have hit
+hard. Oh, we can track him now easily!"</p>
+
+<p>The telltale drops were scattered on the glistening
+face of the crust just below the trees. There
+was one splash of red and a few inches further
+along scattering drops. Sweeping the crust with
+the torch the boys cautiously crossed the cañon
+taking care to test the crust with the heels of their
+shoes as they advanced. But, to their disappointment,
+no more blood appeared, and no further
+signs of life. Slowly they zigzagged back and
+forth, searching and listening, but to no purpose.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_350'></a>350</span>"He got away all right," said Leslie in a voice
+of deep chagrin. "Guess, after all, I must only
+have scratched him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but it&#8217;s queer that a scratch would have
+produced that much blood and not another drop,"
+returned Ross puzzled. "Such a wound would
+keep on bleeding for a few moments at least. We
+ought to find more traces right around here."</p>
+
+<p>Convinced of the soundness of this reasoning,
+Leslie urged another search. Stopping long
+enough to make a fresh torch they returned to the
+blood spots and with them as a center carefully
+enlarged the circle of their search until they had
+again covered the surface, inch by inch, for yards
+around.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have stopped and licked the wound
+clean right here and then streaked it for the
+mountains," said Leslie at last.</p>
+
+<p>Ross shook his head obstinately. "I don&#8217;t
+believe it. With your shots pattering around him
+he&#8217;d likely streak it for the mountains and attend
+to his wounds later&#8211;only in that case there would
+be more blood."</p>
+
+<p>Discouraged and cold, the searchers returned to
+the cabin. Nailing a box cover over the window,
+and barring the door again, they went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning dawned bright and still
+in the Cañon of the Seven Spruces as the boys had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_351'></a>351</span>
+named their home. Tired out with the excitement
+and exertion of the previous night they overslept,
+and not until the sun had appeared above the
+eastern peaks were they ready for a further examination
+of the neighborhood of the blood spots.
+They searched as they had the previous evening
+and with no better results, until noon. Then the
+unexpected happened!</p>
+
+<p>They had given up the hunt disgustedly and
+were returning to the shack for dinner, when
+passing to windward of the seven spruces, Leslie
+chanced to pause beside the trunk of the outermost
+sentinel in the group. Ross, in advance, turned
+and, simultaneously, the gaze of both boys fell on
+another evidence that Leslie&#8217;s gun had drawn
+blood the night before. Half of each tree trunk
+was covered with snow and on the white envelope
+of the spruce beside which they stood appeared
+four red streaks lying parallel and a couple of
+inches away around the curve of the trunk a faint
+red blotch. The second of the four streaks contained
+the deepest stain.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Ross!" cried Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>"Less, here you are again!" ejaculated Ross.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant they both stared at the tree trunk
+motionless. Then Ross, with a sudden narrowing
+of his eyes and upward tilt of his square chin,
+strode forward, drew off his mitten and extended
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_352'></a>352</span>
+his arm. The marks were shoulder high. Leslie
+gave an exclamation as Ross grasped the trunk,
+his four fingers covering the four streaks of blood,
+his thumb pressed on the fainter blotch. Then
+his hand fell to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"A man!" gasped Leslie. His face turned
+white. "Ross, did I shoot a man?"</p>
+
+<p>"That would account for things," said Ross
+slowly. He looked back. Only a few feet intervened
+between the tree and the blood on the
+crust. "If you hurt his hand&#8211;and he steadied
+himself here at this tree, and then ran on&#8211;perhaps
+before he realized that he was hurt&#8211;and then
+staunched the flow in his mittens or on his
+clothes&#8211;anywhere<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"It was Sandy!" exclaimed Leslie. His voice
+was weak, also his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Or Weston," added Ross and scowled.</p>
+
+<p>"He&#8211;they were looking in the window<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"
+began Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>"And slipped and fell against the glass," added
+Ross.</p>
+
+<p>Only one more proof was needed to convince
+them that Leslie had drawn human blood, and
+that proof they found where they had not thought
+to look previously&#8211;beneath the window. There,
+in the loose snow blown against the side of the
+shack, was the blurred impression of a snow-shoe.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_353'></a>353</span>"I believe," said Ross with conviction that
+night as they sat beside the fire with their door
+barred and the window securely shuttered, "I
+believe, Less, that it was Sandy and perhaps Waymart,
+coming to see if Weston had done his duty by
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"But where did they come from?" questioned
+Leslie. "Where are we? Can they get over to
+Meadow Creek and from there here? Or is there
+another way of getting here?"</p>
+
+<p>It was months before that persistent question
+was answered, months of a dull routine wherein
+the boys turned with more and more zeal to their
+studies. Nights now, behind their barred door
+and shuttered window, they listened, not for wolves,
+but for the return of their human caller, but he
+did not come again. Day after day they looked
+sharply for prints of snow-shoes, but looked in
+vain. Gradually as the spring advanced, the
+wolves and coyotes retreated until the boys no
+longer carried the gun on their wood-cutting excursions.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess Sue will not see a wolf skin this year,"
+Leslie complained in March. "Even in that I
+have failed."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, standing over the stove frying bacon,
+glanced over his shoulder. "Brace up, Less," he
+gibed. "There&#8217;s one thing you haven&#8217;t failed in,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_354'></a>354</span>
+nor I either. We&#8217;ve got outside of more anatomy
+and physiology and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s so," Leslie interrupted brightening.
+"I&#8217;ve found out what I want to do&#8211;after I&#8217;ve made
+my peace with father," soberly. "I guess he&#8217;ll
+not make any objections to a doctor in the family.
+It strikes me," lugubriously, "that he&#8217;ll be
+pleased to find out that I want to be anything!"</p>
+
+<p>March gave place to April, finally; but in the
+mountains April showers do not have the effect
+they are popularly supposed to have elsewhere,
+the showers being great downfalls of snow alternating
+with thaws which threatened to turn the
+entire cañon into a river and brought to their ears
+daily the thunder of the snowslides. By the first
+of May the tops of the tallest willows began to
+appear, but the boys knew that the roots would
+not be visible for six weeks yet, so long does winter
+linger among the Shoshones. On the mountainside
+above timber-line bowlders began to push
+aside their dense white covering.</p>
+
+<p>But with the softening of the great body of
+snow, the inhabitants of the cañon became more
+closely confined than ever. It was well that the
+hot sun did away with the necessity for a fire
+during the day, because the boys were able to cut
+and shovel their way only to the nearest trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Things are getting worse instead of better,"
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_355'></a>355</span>
+said Leslie gloomily one day when May was two
+weeks old.</p>
+
+<p>The boys sat in the doorway in the red glow of
+a warm sunset. At their feet, only a few yards
+away, the narrow cañon was transformed into a
+river choked with ice and snow and mud flowing
+sluggishly among the willows. For weeks the
+boys had looked in vain for the subsidence of the
+water. On the steep slope of the mountain opposite
+lay a mass of wet heavy snow waiting for its
+turn to come to plunge into the cañon.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, his eyes on this slope, gave a rueful laugh.
+"Less, if only we had such a charge of dynamite
+now as we set off under Soapweed Ledge we might
+have a little fun across there."</p>
+
+<p>"Fun!" echoed Leslie miserably. "Never connect
+that piece of foolishness with the word &#8217;fun.&#8217;
+If it hadn&#8217;t been for that shot we probably would
+have been in Meadow Creek Valley now hard at
+work."</p>
+
+<p>Ross gazed gloomily up the river-like cañon.
+He wondered whether the trail from Miners&#8217; Camp
+to Meadow Creek was clear yet, and whether the
+McKenzies had returned to the valley; for in three
+weeks Weimer&#8217;s fifth year of work on the claims
+would close. He chafed with impatience at the
+delay necessitated by that slowly moving stream.
+With the cañon clear, the boys had determined
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_356'></a>356</span>
+to start out and follow its windings until they
+came to&#8211;Somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Late one afternoon of that same week Ross sat
+studying beneath the window while Leslie was out
+trying to force a path to a fine spruce tree that
+promised good fire-wood. The sun had long since
+hidden his face behind the mountain against which
+the cabin rested, but his rays turned the snow on
+the peaks opposite to gold. The day had been
+warm. The door stood open, and the fire was
+almost out. Near the doorway, and only a few feet
+from a solid bank of ice, blossomed a profusion of
+forget-me-nots and yellow wild asters. The breeze
+which rocked their petals was the breeze of
+summer that, nevertheless, carried the tang of the
+ice and snow over which it passed.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Ross, deep in his book, heard a sound,
+the crunching of the pine cones and boughs with
+which the ground was strewn. A moment later a
+shadow moved across his book. He sprang to his
+feet, the book falling to the floor, and confronted
+a man in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>The man was middle-aged, large, and stoop-shouldered.
+His face was burned and bearded
+and furrowed, but astonishment was stamped on
+every feature and furrow.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" he greeted Ross, as one familiar with
+his surroundings greets a stranger.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_357'></a>357</span>He stepped inside with that air of assurance
+which proclaims ownership. His eyes left Ross,
+and swept the shack.</p>
+
+<p>"What<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" he began, and suddenly stopped,
+his gaze traveling back curiously to the boy.
+"What<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" he began again, but got no further.</p>
+
+<p>Ross was the first one to complete a question,
+and it was an eager one.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you come from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cody," returned the stranger, reciprocating
+with "And you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meadow Creek."</p>
+
+<p>"Meadow Creek!" in surprise. "Is the trail
+open now?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross shook his head. "I don&#8217;t know. I came
+last January."</p>
+
+<p>"January!" The stranger stared, and stuffed
+his hands into his pockets. "Do ye mean t&#8217; tell
+me ye&#8217;ve been here sence January?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since then."</p>
+
+<p>Briefly but excitedly Ross told the story of his
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger, listening, leaned back against the
+door-post. Successively he removed his cap,
+scratched his head, and contracted his bushy
+eyebrows. When Ross finished he was grinning
+in grim humor.</p>
+
+<p>"Young man," he began slowly, "this here is
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_358'></a>358</span>
+Wood River cañon. Ye&#8217;re only seven miles from
+Miners&#8217; Camp. Ye could &#8217;a&#8217; hoofed it down t&#8217;
+Gale&#8217;s Ridge in two hours on top of any crust that
+would &#8217;a&#8217; held ye up."</p>
+
+<p>Stepping to the door Ross raised a chagrined
+voice, "Leslie, ho, Less! Come here!"</p>
+
+<p>The boy&#8217;s unexpected and welcome visitor was
+Terry Brown, the owner of several adjacent coal
+claims. He had gone out of the mountains the
+first of December, his preparations for departure
+consisting merely in closing the door of his shack.
+He had expected to open it in June on the same
+furnishings and provisions which he had left.</p>
+
+<p>"I see how it was," Brown began as the three
+talked things over that evening. "That &#8217;ere
+Weston waits fer a storm a-purpose. Then he
+takes ye a pretty chase around and up and among
+them little peaks over at the head waters of Meadow
+Creek until he gits ye so mixed up that ye don&#8217;t
+know east from west. Then he slides ye over the
+cliff, and lands ye in here; and you, thinkin&#8217;
+ye&#8217;re miles away from ye don&#8217;t know where, with
+a heap o&#8217; danger spots between ye and anywheres,
+jest naturally sets down here and behaves yerself.
+It was the only sensible thing to do," added Brown
+approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"But in the face of the facts it doesn&#8217;t look
+sensible now!" Ross burst out.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i7'></a><img src='images/i-359.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_360'></a>360</span>"No," meditatively, "but without knowin&#8217; any
+of the facts, and with no way t&#8217; know &#8217;em, you
+acted with sense, plain hoss sense. But that &#8217;ere
+Weston, he sure done you dirt, all right."</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s fists doubled involuntarily. Seeing this,
+Brown&#8217;s voice changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Better fergit it, son. Chuck the hull matter.
+Ye&#8217;ve lost and they&#8217;ve won; and, if what I hear
+of the McKenzies is true, it won&#8217;t do ye no good t&#8217;
+keep thinkin&#8217; of this. And when ye git down t&#8217;
+Camp I wouldn&#8217;t tell the first man I seen about
+this, nuther<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," Leslie broke in hotly, "they&#8217;d
+laugh at us for staying here so near Camp all
+winter."</p>
+
+<p>Brown made no reply, but a slow grin expressed
+his opinion.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Less," Ross broke out, "we don&#8217;t look
+any bigger to ourselves than we did when we
+found out what that blast under the Ledge had
+done for us, do we?"</p>
+
+<p>But Leslie did not hear. He sat with his elbows
+on his knees scowling down at the floor. "If we&#8217;re
+that near Camp," he reasoned, "it was surely one
+of the McKenzies that came up to see if we were
+here yet that night that I fired. He chose a night,
+you remember, when the snow was light and the
+crust icy. No tracks left for us to follow."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_361'></a>361</span>Their visitor asked for no explanation to this.
+He was studying Ross&#8217;s face intently as the boy
+sat leaning forward, his hands clasped around his
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>"I say!" the older man broke out suddenly.
+"Ye look almighty like a feller that rode up in
+the stage from Meeteetse yisterday&#8211;almighty like
+&#8217;im. They was two of &#8217;em. They got out at
+Amos Steele&#8217;s."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did they come from?" asked Ross
+absently.</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno. Sheepy Luther said they was Easterners."</p>
+
+<p>"Sheepy Luther!" exclaimed Ross. "I know
+Sheepy. His wagon set on the hill just back
+of the stage camp when I was there with
+Weston."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so? Wall, Sheepy is down on his
+luck. He&#8217;s too old t&#8217; chase sheep, and last winter
+he lost five hundred or thereabouts; so he got his
+walkin&#8217; papers. He come up yisterday. Stopped
+at Steele&#8217;s t&#8217; try t&#8217; git a job with the Gale&#8217;s Ridge
+Company. Steele may take &#8217;im on to wrangle the
+hosses, but he can&#8217;t do more&#8217;n a boy&#8217;s work. He&#8217;s
+done fer; only he don&#8217;t know it."</p>
+
+<p>In the pause which followed Brown again
+studied Ross. "This feller," he began again
+suddenly, "was a bigger man than ye be; but
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_362'></a>362</span>
+I vum, ye&#8217;re alike even t&#8217; the way ye squint up
+yer eyes and mouth, &#8217;n&#8217;<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Ross came to his feet alertly, his interest at last
+aroused.</p>
+
+<p>"His name?" he demanded eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>Brown shook his head. "Didn&#8217;t hear no names
+except the front ones. They called each other
+&#8217;Ross&#8217; &#8217;n&#8217; &#8217;Fred.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Fred and father!" shouted Ross excitedly.
+"They came up yesterday, you say,
+and stopped at Gale&#8217;s Ridge!"</p>
+
+<hr class='pb' />
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_363'></a>363</span><a id='link_19'></a>CHAPTER XIX<br /><span class='h2fs'>AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='sc'>The</span> boy&#8217;s first feeling of joy was immediately
+succeeded by a deep chagrin. Probably his father
+had come on to complete the legal process for securing
+a clear title to the claims, and had brought
+Dr. Grant with him, and Ross must confront them
+with news of failure rather than victory. He
+winced when he thought of the expression of
+disappointment which he felt sure would sweep
+over his father&#8217;s face, especially when his father
+learned that the way to failure had lain in part
+through the boy&#8217;s exercise of his medical knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"There&#8217;s my snow-shoes," he heard Brown saying,
+and the words brought him out of his reverie
+back to the present at once. "To-morrer ye better
+hoof it down t&#8217; Camp and meet up with yer relation."</p>
+
+<p>"That&#8217;s right, Ross," urged Leslie. "I&#8217;ll stay
+here until you can bring more shoes back. In that
+case," cheerfully, "you see I&#8217;ll get the better
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_364'></a>364</span>
+bargain because you&#8217;ll have to take the brunt<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"
+he paused abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the brunt of the ridicule," added Ross
+grimly. "We may as well look the thing squarely
+in the face. I&#8217;m pretty hot inside, and I shall
+probably boil over at sight of the McKenzies, but&#8211;they&#8217;ve made us ridiculous instead of laying
+themselves open to prosecution."</p>
+
+<p>"Except Weston," Leslie burst out significantly.
+"Wait till I get hold of father!"</p>
+
+<p>According to the plans laid, Ross set out the following
+morning on the snow-shoes. Following
+Brown&#8217;s directions, to keep to the side of the mountain,
+he threaded the windings of the cañon on reluctant
+feet, past the cliff whose dark face mocked
+him, over the treacherous rotting ice and packed
+snow, and finally emerged into the broader portion
+of the cañon which contained Miners&#8217; Camp.</p>
+
+<p>The cabins, deserted the previous December, were
+inhabited again. The sound of the woodchopper
+was in the air; and, as Ross came into Camp, a
+dull reverberating boom from the heart of Dundee
+told that the Mountain Company&#8217;s mining operations
+were resumed.</p>
+
+<p>But so intent was he on the thought of meeting
+his father and uncle that these sights and sounds
+did not fill him with the joy he had imagined they
+would give. He even failed to notice a man standing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_365'></a>365</span>
+in the doorway of a shack, scanning Crosby,
+on whose steep face the snow still hung in loosening
+masses.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the shack came Bill Travers, the stage-driver
+between Meeteetse and Miners&#8217; Camp.</p>
+
+<p>"Wall, beat me," cried the man in the doorway,
+"if here ain&#8217;t Doc!"</p>
+
+<p>Ross flashed around and faced Sandy McKenzie.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy&#8217;s hands were rammed into his pockets;
+but his sun-burned face was smiling an unruffled
+welcome, and his voice rang pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"How," Sandy inquired, "did ye get over here
+from Medder Creek?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross instantly "boiled over" as he had feared he
+should, and said the very thing he had not intended
+to say. "You know how I got here! You
+know where I came from!"</p>
+
+<p>The stage-driver, joined by a second man, came
+nearer and paused. Sandy pushed his hands yet
+deeper into his pockets, and looked amazingly innocent.</p>
+
+<p>"Me!" he drawled. "What d&#8217;ye mean?"</p>
+
+<p>At the insolent tone Ross&#8217;s blood boiled. It
+hummed through his ears, deafening him to the
+sound of his own voice. What he said he never
+could recall beyond the general knowledge that he
+accused Sandy of the theft of the dynamite and of
+his own and Leslie&#8217;s abduction across the mountains.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_366'></a>366</span>And, when he paused to catch his breath and
+steady his voice, Sandy was looking him over with
+an amused grin which maddened him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, ain&#8217;t that a likely story?" he inquired.
+"Kept ye a prisoner fer six months not five miles
+from Camp on a trail that can be follered at any
+time in the year! Ha, ha!"</p>
+
+<p>Bill Travers grinned faintly. The other man
+turned away with the corners of his mouth twitching,
+while Sandy went on:</p>
+
+<p>"And as fer Weston, he went to Missoury the
+day after we left Medder Creek, and there he is
+now fer all I&#8217;ve heard." Again Sandy&#8217;s laugh
+rang out as he added: "That story won&#8217;t hold
+water. Why didn&#8217;t ye make up a<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Here Waymart appeared in the doorway of the
+shack. He scowled at Ross, but his peremptory
+words were aimed at Sandy:</p>
+
+<p>"See here! If we&#8217;re goin&#8217; t&#8217; send that bundle
+down by Grasshopper we&#8217;ve got t&#8217; make lively
+tracks in here, and ye ought t&#8217; know it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep yer hair on tight, Mart," laughed Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>He turned, nevertheless, toward the door. As
+he did so, he mechanically withdrew his hands
+from his pockets and Ross saw something which
+at once arrested his attention. The middle finger
+of Sandy&#8217;s right hand was gone! In a flash, memory
+showed Ross the four blood streaks on the
+trunk of the spruce with the second streak the
+deepest in color.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a id='link_i8'></a><img src='images/i-366.jpg'  alt='' />
+<p class='center caption'>
+YOU&#8217;VE PAID FOR IT.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_367'></a>367</span>With his anger still burning he snatched off his
+glove and held up his right hand triumphantly,
+the middle finger projecting. "Well, anyway,"
+he cried, "Leslie ain&#8217;t a bad shot. We may never
+prove that you put us in that hole, but you&#8217;ve
+paid for it, nevertheless!"</p>
+
+<p>Sandy involuntarily doubled his right hand into
+a fist. He caught his under lip between his teeth
+and sent Ross a black look as, wordlessly, he entered
+the shack and slammed the door behind him,
+leaving Ross to tell the story of Leslie&#8217;s shot to two
+interested and excited men.</p>
+
+<p>"That accounts fer it," confirmed Bill Travers.
+"Sandy and Waymart they come up from Cody
+along in February and when they clumb int&#8217; th&#8217;
+stage goin&#8217; back, Sandy&#8217;s hand was tied up. Next
+thing I knowed when they come up with me
+t&#8217; other day, that finger was off clean to the hand,
+but Sandy hain&#8217;t never spoken of it."</p>
+
+<p>Ross, leaving Bill to talk the matter over with
+his companions, went on rapidly now down the
+cañon, his eyes narrowed and his chin protruding
+doggedly. One disagreeable scene was ended, and
+he was, perhaps, facing another.</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to be sorry that Sandy lost a finger
+but&#8211;hanged if I am!" he burst out loud. He
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_368'></a>368</span>
+was anxious to have Leslie know the result of his
+random shot.</p>
+
+<p>Rounding a shoulder of Gale&#8217;s Ridge, he came
+in sight of Steele&#8217;s shack. Steele sat in the doorway.
+Beside him, leaning against the logs of the
+shack&#8217;s side, was a man in shirt-sleeves and cap,
+beneath which a rim of woolly gray hair projected.</p>
+
+<p>Facing Steele were two well dressed men, one in
+a tall silk hat, which appeared incongruous against
+its background of log shack and pine tree.
+Ross, with narrowed eyes and compressed lips,
+plodded on.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ve done my best," he muttered defensively.
+"It&#8217;s all a fellow can do; but, when that best is
+failure, why, it&#8217;s not much consolation."</p>
+
+<p>Then he raised his head, squared his shoulders,
+and doggedly faced the four in front of Steele&#8217;s
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Ross Grant, Senior, had not come West to look
+after his claims, but after his son, with whom he
+felt he had but just begun an acquaintance. He
+had no difficulty in getting Dr. Grant to accompany
+him, reënforced as he was by an anxious
+Aunt Anne. It was true that both Ross and Steele
+had written that all communications with the
+former would be shut off for months. But, when
+the hot days of June came and brought no letter
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_369'></a>369</span>
+from the boy, as Aunt Anne said, "something must
+be done."</p>
+
+<p>That something was represented in the persons
+of the Grant brothers in Miners&#8217; Camp.</p>
+
+<p>After the first greetings, tinged with amazement
+on the part of the four, Ross backed up against a
+spruce, and, facing the others, proceeded to answer
+the questions with which they bombarded him.</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour they were in possession of the
+main facts in his life during the last six months.</p>
+
+<p>"The McKenzies all through," commented
+Steele finally; "but&#8211;prove it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8217;ve got to prove it!" declared Ross violently;
+"I shall!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ross,"&#8211;Dr. Grant&#8217;s comment carried with it
+the pride and honor of his profession,&#8211;"if you&#8217;re
+called upon to attend the sick, you must go.
+That&#8217;s the duty of a physician, even before he receives
+his diploma. You did right."</p>
+
+<p>"I felt that way myself, uncle," returned Ross
+quietly. "As soon as Weimer opened the way, I
+never thought of not going, so long as there was no
+regular doctor within reach."</p>
+
+<p>Ross Grant, Senior, looked his son over. There
+was no expression of disapproval on his face as he
+took the measure of this full-blooded, broad-shouldered,
+erect young man whose muscles had been
+hardened by wind and sun and work in the open.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_370'></a>370</span>Having completed his survey, Ross, Senior,
+smiled. "Well, my boy," he remarked characteristically,
+"it took three good sized men to down
+you two boys, didn&#8217;t it? And it must have cost
+them a heap of thinking into the bargain. Shake,
+Ross; I&#8217;m proud of you!"</p>
+
+<p>And Ross, bewildered, shook hands with his
+father, his cheeks reddening with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"I&#8211;I never thought of it in that way before,"
+he stammered. "But&#8211;that doesn&#8217;t save the
+claims, and the fifth year is up next week, and
+Uncle Jake<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Don&#8217;t you worry about Uncle Jake," interrupted
+his father meaningly. "We may lose the
+claims, but Uncle Jake will be provided for."</p>
+
+<p>"The first thing to do," interpolated Steele, "is
+to root him out of Meadow Creek Valley. I&#8217;ve
+never known the snow to hang so late to the side
+of Crosby."</p>
+
+<p>That very night it ceased to "hang." At midnight
+every one in the shack was awakened.
+There was a cracking of trees, a long steady rush,
+and then a mighty and prolonged roar as the
+snow, under the influence of a swift warm wind,
+swept down the side of old Crosby, and took the
+thousand-feet plunge into the ravine at the foot of
+the falls. The roar echoed against the sides of
+Dundee and Spar and Sniffle, starting other
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_371'></a>371</span>
+though lesser slides until the cañon was filled with
+the confusion of sound.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, Steele, after investigation,
+found the trail around the shoulder of
+Crosby swept clean, and at once proposed that
+they follow it to Meadow Creek. Ross objected
+to starting until Leslie reached them. Steele had
+sent Society Bill up the cañon the previous evening
+with snow-shoes for the boy. But neither
+Society Bill nor Leslie had appeared. Ross&#8217;s objections
+were, therefore, overruled by the older
+men.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave word in the upper camp for him to
+follow us when he comes," Steele suggested, "and
+we&#8217;ll start right away. We shall have to foot it,
+too, for no horse can make it yet."</p>
+
+<p>The sheep-herder, who had shared Steele&#8217;s hospitality
+over night, shouldered his blankets, observing
+that he was going over with them to see his
+friend Weimer, and find out what was "doin&#8217; on
+the Creek."</p>
+
+<p>There were others of the same mind also, as the
+party from Steele&#8217;s shack found when they reached
+the foot of Crosby. Just ahead of them, so engrossed
+in their climbing that they did not look
+back, were Sandy and Waymart.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, to accommodate the older Grants, the
+party moved up the trail, slippery with mud
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_372'></a>372</span>
+and snow, their way obstructed by rocks and
+tree trunks.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy and Waymart, ahead, were obliged to
+move slowly also; for to their lot fell the removal
+of any obstacles too large to surmount,
+and the snow and landslide of the previous night
+had left many such. Around the shoulder, however,
+the trail was intact, the mountain being so
+steep at this point that the slide had leaped clear
+of the trail and projected itself headlong into the
+gorge below.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Ross called back to his father
+and uncle, who were puffing along, breathless
+and tired and dizzy: "We&#8217;ll be in sight of the
+dump in ten minutes. It&#8217;s just around the spur
+of the mountain there."</p>
+
+<p>Then, unable to restrain his impatience and
+anxiety longer, he ran on ahead of Steele, keeping
+a short distance between himself and the
+McKenzies. The McKenzies, however, seemed
+no more anxious to enjoy his society than he
+did to enjoy theirs. Sandy, for once, omitted
+his usual pleasantries, an omission easy to account
+for whenever Ross thought of the missing
+middle finger of his right hand.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing footsteps behind him, Ross glanced
+around. Steele had left the others, and was
+following on a run. The McKenzies pushed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_373'></a>373</span>
+on without looking back, and neither Steele nor
+Ross spoke.</p>
+
+<p>In silence, then, the four approached the spur.
+But before they reached the dump that silence
+was most unexpectedly broken. Out of the open
+mouth of the tunnel rolled a volume of sound,
+then another and another.</p>
+
+<p>Ross in his surprise, his head thrown back as he
+scanned the dump, nearly fell over a mass of newly
+mined ore which blocked the main trail.</p>
+
+<p>Then he caught a glimpse of Weimer shielding
+his eyes from the sun with both hands, waiting for
+the effects of the explosions in the tunnel to subside.
+And, leaning against the tool house, his
+hands in his pockets, his head bent forward, was
+another man, the sight of whom caused a great
+illumination in Ross&#8217;s mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Weston!" he shouted. "Weston!"</p>
+
+<p>The two men on the dump came to the edge,
+and looked over. The McKenzies on the trail
+ahead halted. The Grants with the sheep-herder
+drew nearer.</p>
+
+<p>Weimer, squinting, recognized Ross. He took
+off his cap, and waved it as wildly as a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"The vork," he yelled, "ist done! It ist done
+dese two veeks. Me und Miller here, ve ist vorkin&#8217;
+now joost for de fun!"</p>
+
+<p>Weston gave one glance at Sandy and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_374'></a>374</span>
+Waymart, and without speaking went back to the
+tunnel.</p>
+
+<p>Ross was after him with a bound, scrambling up
+over the dump, followed by the others, who were
+infected by his excitement. He ran to Weston
+with both hands outstretched.</p>
+
+<p>"Weston," he shouted, "you did this!"</p>
+
+<p>"Veston!" exclaimed Uncle Jake. "Dot ist
+Miller. He has been mit me all der spring."</p>
+
+<p>"I told him," muttered Weston, extending his
+hand to Ross, but turning away shamefacedly,
+"that you two boys had taken my place with my
+sick pard, while I was to stay by him."</p>
+
+<p>Ross pumped the big hand up and down.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," he cried excitedly, "he has saved our
+claims."</p>
+
+<p>Weston tried to liberate his hand. He stole a
+glance at Sandy and Waymart, who had stopped
+just beyond the dump.</p>
+
+<p>"Doc here"&#8211;he spoke to the group who surrounded
+him&#8211;"saved me first. I had that little
+business to pay for, but"&#8211;his tone sank to a
+mutter&#8211;"I thought I could pay it and git away
+to Missoury before Sandy found out what I was
+up to here<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>He was interrupted by Sandy&#8217;s voice from the
+trail, and the voice was harsh and vengeful.
+"Better come over to our shack, Lon. I want a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_375'></a>375</span>
+little talk with ye about old man Quinn. He&#8217;s
+wantin&#8217; t&#8217; see ye powerful bad."</p>
+
+<p>At the name the sheep-herder, who had been
+standing stupidly staring at Weston, woke up.</p>
+
+<p>"Old man Quinn," he began. "A feller in Cody
+told me<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" but no one was paying any attention
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>Sandy and Waymart moved on slowly toward
+their cabin, talking and gesticulating excitedly,
+evidently in disagreement.</p>
+
+<p>For the present no one undeceived Weimer in
+regard to Miller.</p>
+
+<p>"He come pack in all dot storm," Weimer exulted,
+"und mit me vas."</p>
+
+<p>Weston looked away, but Steele cried, "Good
+work, man," clapping him warmly on the shoulder.
+Then he added boyishly: "I&#8217;m hungry as a bear!
+Got any grub left?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Weston quietly, "plenty.
+Come on down all of you, and I&#8217;ll rustle some
+flapjacks and coffee."</p>
+
+<p>They started down the trail, Weston and Ross
+in advance. At the mention of "old man Quinn"
+Ross&#8217;s elation had subsided. He looked at Weston
+out of the corner of his eye. The other&#8217;s eyes
+were downcast and his face pale beneath its sunburn.
+His hair was of a peculiar color, light at
+the roots and dark at the ends. He had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_376'></a>376</span>
+evidently forgotten to bring his hair dye to Meadow
+Creek.</p>
+
+<p>The older man spoke first. His voice was low
+and his words halting. "I had to take you across
+the mountain and leave you there," he explained
+briefly. "Sandy was behind the cabin when we
+got there. I couldn&#8217;t fool &#8217;im about you, but I
+did about myself; and, if you all had put off
+comin&#8217; over a day longer, I could have got away
+out of Sandy&#8217;s reach."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, Weston&#8217;s hand involuntarily crept
+up to his breast pocket. It fell again, however, as
+he added in a mutter as though to himself: "And
+Less&#8211;I had to take &#8217;im over too&#8211;for my own good.
+But it&#8217;s all up now and I&#8217;ve got to face it out."</p>
+
+<p>Just behind them came the sheep-herder, his
+thoughts reverting to a subject on which he had
+tried once to speak. Now he saw an opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye must &#8217;a&#8217; known of old man Quinn then,"
+he called to Weston. "Didn&#8217;t ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Weston stumbled. He caught himself, but the
+movement saved him from the necessity of an
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Wall," the sheep-herder went on, almost running
+in order to keep up with the pace Weston
+had set, "I met Happy in Cody t&#8217; other day,
+and Happy said old man Quinn had pinched the
+fourth puncher that druv his sheep<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_377'></a>377</span>"What?" shouted Weston. He swung around
+so suddenly that the sheep-herder ran full tilt
+against him.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" Weston shouted again. He seized
+the amazed and terrified Sheepy, and held him by
+the arms in a vise that made the man wince.
+"Say that again."</p>
+
+<p>"S-say what?" faltered Sheepy.</p>
+
+<p>"What about the fourth? Tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>With every word Weston, his eyes ablaze, his
+lips drawn back over strong white teeth, gave the
+old sheep-herder a convulsive shake.</p>
+
+<p>"W-why," the old man quavered, "Happy,
+he said that a feller down in Oklahomy, name of
+Burns, went and give himself up to old man
+Quinn. He said he was the feller the old man
+was after&#8211;that he was the fourth who done the
+business with the sheep. But because he owned
+up the jedge give &#8217;im only six months<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Weston suddenly pushed the sheep-herder from
+him, his face working convulsively. "Then I
+wasn&#8217;t in it!" he cried. "Sandy said I was, but
+I wasn&#8217;t!"</p>
+
+<p>Offering no further explanation to his astonished
+hearers, he turned toward the McKenzie shack on
+a run; and for a couple of hours they saw no more
+of him.</p>
+
+<p>It was a busy time for Ross, who promptly took
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_378'></a>378</span>
+Weston&#8217;s place "rustling grub." But, as he
+worked, his thoughts wonderingly circled around
+Weston&#8217;s strange actions. The fourth man was
+found and it was not Weston&#8211;yet Weston, it would
+appear, had believed himself to be the guilty
+party! It was too deep a puzzle for Ross. As
+the boy worked he kept a watchful eye on the
+trail for Leslie. Surely the latter would come
+down to Camp that morning and receive the word
+Ross had left him at the post-office.</p>
+
+<p>Steele, who had stayed behind long enough to
+examine the tunnel, confirmed Weimer&#8217;s statement
+that more than enough work had been done to
+cover the requirements of the law. Weimer, jubilant,
+sat and talked to his old-time "pard," whose
+voice answered him, but whose satisfied gaze
+followed Ross.</p>
+
+<p>But it was to the man who had stood in the
+place of a father to him that Ross&#8217;s eyes turned
+most frequently. Dr. Grant sat, appropriately,
+on the emergency chest, looking affectionately at
+his energetic nephew.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Ross picked up a tin cup full of water
+from the table, and held it out at arm&#8217;s length
+toward his uncle.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grant smiled. "All right, Ross," he said
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Ross, Senior, looked from one to the other
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_379'></a>379</span>
+inquiringly. Ross, Junior, answered; but he turned
+his back on his father, and spoke hesitatingly.
+"I was showing uncle, father, that my hand is
+still steady enough to be the hand of a first
+class&#8211;surgeon."</p>
+
+<p>Promptly and heartily came the unexpected
+response from the elder Grant. "I&#8217;m glad of that,
+Ross, for I shall look to see you as successful in
+your profession as you have been in my business,"
+and he turned at once to Weimer, and went on
+speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose," he was saying, "as long as you want
+to stay here, you get your friend"&#8211;he indicated
+the sheep-herder&#8211;"to come and live with you.
+I&#8217;m going to buy out Ross&#8217;s interest in the shares,
+and I&#8217;ll look to you to keep &#8217;em in good shape&#8211;you
+and your friend&#8211;until we get a chance to sell
+well. Of course," he added carelessly, "I&#8217;ll grub-stake
+you and more, both of you."</p>
+
+<p>Sheepy&#8217;s eyes lighted, and Weimer grinned and
+slapped his knee. They were the only signs
+necessary to complete the bargain.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, as Ross arose from the table, he
+saw Leslie hurrying down the trail. Ross went to
+meet him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Ross!" Leslie called in a voice which
+he tried to make matter-of-fact, but which bubbled
+over with jubilation. "I stopped in at the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_380'></a>380</span>
+post-office and got your word and a letter from dad.
+It&#8217;s only a month old! He thinks we&#8217;re mewed
+up over here, you know, working your claims.
+And he says he and Sue want me to come home
+as soon as I get this letter. He says if I&#8217;m willing
+to work he&#8217;ll give me better wages than I can get
+anywhere else! He doesn&#8217;t know yet," here Leslie
+grinned broadly, "that I want to do now the very
+thing he has fought all my life to make me do&#8211;go
+to school. That doctor business has sort of
+sunk in. But say, Ross, here&#8217;s a thing that
+bothers me." Leslie pulled the letter from his
+pocket and read:</p>
+
+<p>"&#8217;A few days ago I got hold of the fourth man
+that ran my sheep off into the river two years ago.
+The fellow came and gave himself up to me.&#8217;"</p>
+
+<p>The reader looked up tentatively. "Ross, if it
+was Weston dad would have said<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Ross&#8217;s hand descended on the other&#8217;s shoulder
+in a mighty whack as he shouted: "It isn&#8217;t Weston.
+Now you listen and give me an inning on
+the talk!"</p>
+
+<p>For half an hour they stood outside the shack
+while Ross got his inning&#8211;Sandy&#8217;s hand, the
+work, Weston&#8217;s strange actions were all reviewed
+hurriedly and listened to excitedly. Then, seeing
+Weston approaching, the boys went inside.</p>
+
+<p>Weston crossed the valley slowly, looking down
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_381'></a>381</span>
+at something which he held in the palm of his
+hand, something in a small gilt frame that he
+slipped into his breast pocket when he entered the
+shack.</p>
+
+<p>Completely absorbed in his own thoughts&#8211;cheerful
+thoughts too, apparently&#8211;he went directly
+to his bunk, and began gathering his few possessions
+together not noticing that the group had been
+augmented by Leslie.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess," he explained abstractedly, "that I&#8217;ll
+go on at once&#8211;I&#8217;m going to Oklahoma and not
+Missouri." Then he looked over his shoulder at
+the sheep-herder, adding abstractedly: "Waymart
+says I ain&#8217;t the fourth, and never was. He&#8217;s
+been makin&#8217; up his mind to tell me this good
+while."</p>
+
+<p>The blank expression on the sheep-herder&#8217;s face
+brought Weston back to a sense of his surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot," he muttered turning to Ross, who
+stood beside the bunk, "that you may not know
+about this Quinn business."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie stepped forward quickly, but paused as he
+saw Weston was oblivious of his presence.</p>
+
+<p>"I know a good deal about it," exclaimed Ross
+impulsively, "and I wish I knew the rest&#8211;your
+part of it."</p>
+
+<p>Weston leaned against the bunk, his back toward
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_382'></a>382</span>
+the silent room, his eyes downcast. He made the
+explanation with visible reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Doc, I used to drink; and when I
+had two or three glasses down, I&#8217;d go out of my
+head; and when I had come to myself again I
+wouldn&#8217;t know a blooming thing that had happened
+while I was drunk. But all the time I could
+ride straight and talk straight and shoot straight."</p>
+
+<p>He paused to moisten his lips. Leslie came a
+step nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Weston continued, "to make a long
+story short, I was foreman on a cattle ranch in
+Oklahoma two years ago. Sandy and Mart came
+around wanting a job, and I gave &#8217;em one on the
+same ranch. Then came the big round-up at
+North Fork&#8211;and there was trouble between the
+sheep and cattle men."</p>
+
+<p>Weston hesitated and looked down. He raised
+his hand to his breast pocket and let it fall at his
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"The night the round-up ended most of us&#8211;got drunk."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, shook himself impatiently, and hurried
+on: "I didn&#8217;t go with the rest intending to
+drink&#8211;but I did, what with treating and all that.
+And when I come to myself, Sandy told me I was
+one of the men who had done the job on the Quinn
+sheep. And, knowing what I am when drunk, I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_383'></a>383</span>
+believed him and cleared out with him and Mart
+over the Texas line, and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>&#8211;&#8211;</span>" his hand traveled
+to his hair completing the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"I see!" exclaimed Ross excitedly; "and since
+then Sandy has held that over you."</p>
+
+<p>Weston nodded. "I was sick of drink, but I
+got sick of it too late, you see. I&#8217;d put a lasso
+round my own neck just when I most wanted to
+be free."</p>
+
+<p>His hand again wandered toward his breast
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"But now," he added, "I am free."</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his head proudly and turning, was
+aware for the first time of Leslie&#8217;s presence. As
+the hands of the two met Ross strode across the
+room and began speaking loudly and at random to
+the others, leaving Sue&#8217;s lover and Sue&#8217;s brother to
+talk alone.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, however, unable to restrain the question
+longer, Ross turned again on Weston.</p>
+
+<p>"Sandy stole our sticks, didn&#8217;t he?" he demanded,
+"and planned the whole thing to get rid
+of me?"</p>
+
+<p>Weston turned slowly back to his bunk. For a
+moment he fumbled among the blankets in silence.
+Then he faced about again resolutely.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, Doc, you have your claims here secure,
+haven&#8217;t you, and Sandy has lost &#8217;em?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_384'></a>384</span>"Yes, thanks to you."</p>
+
+<p>"And you&#8217;ve got outside of enough of those
+books so you can go to college next year, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, again thanks to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"And," here Weston glanced at Leslie, "Sandy
+has dropped a finger somewhere in the game."</p>
+
+<p>Leslie could not restrain a look of exultation.
+"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, let this thing drop, will you?
+Sandy hain&#8217;t all to the bad. He&#8217;s pulled me out
+of as many holes as he&#8217;s chucked me into; and I&#8211;well,
+I&#8211;say, Doc, call it square, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>Ross glanced from his father to his uncle and
+then at Steele. A glance satisfied him. Stepping
+forward, he extended his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It&#8217;s square, Weston, and I&#8217;ll let everything go
+except&#8211;I can&#8217;t forget that you&#8217;ve pulled me out
+of a pretty big hole&#8211;the worst one I ever dropped
+into."</p>
+
+<p class='c fs08 mt40'>The Books of this Series are:<br />ROSS GRANT, TENDERFOOT<br />ROSS GRANT, GOLD HUNTER</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ross Grant Tenderfoot, by John Garland
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ross Grant Tenderfoot, by John Garland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ross Grant Tenderfoot
+
+Author: John Garland
+
+Illustrator: R. L. Boyer
+
+Release Date: November 12, 2010 [EBook #34296]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSS GRANT TENDERFOOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SLOWLY HE WAS LET DOWN]
+
+
+
+
+ROSS GRANT
+
+TENDERFOOT
+
+BY
+
+JOHN GARLAND
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+  "Ross Grant, Gold Hunter"
+  "Ross Grant on the Trail"
+
+Illustrated by R. L. Boyer
+
+THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+
+1917
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT 1915 BY
+
+THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+Ross Grant, Tenderfoot
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Tewksbury
+
+whose life in the Wyoming Mountains has
+made Ross Grant, Tenderfoot, possible, I
+cordially dedicate this book
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+WHEN I went over the same route, some time before Ross Grant traveled it,
+from Cody eighty miles into the snow-capped Shoshones, I found how
+welcome a "Doc Tenderfoot" would be in the gold mining camp at the end
+of the route. There was, in camp, the superintendent of one of the mining
+companies, a man who had never had any instruction in things medical
+or surgical, but who, with a steady hand and a cool head, and an acquired
+knowledge of "first aids," was often called on in case of sickness and
+accident, as there was no doctor nearer than Cody. Such a state of
+affairs greeted Ross Grant when he arrived with his medical "emergency
+chest" and his real knowledge of the use to which its contents should be
+put.
+
+Also, I found a certain "outfit" of men, not McKenzie in name but in
+nature, waiting to "jump" certain valuable "claims" provided the owners
+failed in any particular to measure up to the requirements of the law.
+Their intention was to do the "jumping" legally and not through "gun
+play," which is becoming an obsolete custom in that great state.
+
+Then, too, I discovered over on a real Meadow Creek Valley--exactly
+the same place that Ross found--a real "Dutch Weimer" afflicted with
+snow-blindness, imprisoned for months at a time in the little valley
+because of the danger from snowslides on the mountainsides.
+
+And, by the way, if you should ever follow this same interesting
+trail from Cody up into the mountains, you would find "Ross Grant,
+Tenderfoot" an accurate guide-book until you reached the end of the
+stage route. There you would find that Miners' Camp is a fictitious
+name applied to a real place. And if you should chance to be in camp on
+the Fourth of July, you would realize fully the difficulties that Ross
+had to contend against in the vast snowfalls. For the year I visited
+the mountains the glorious Fourth was celebrated by snow-shoe races down
+the mountainsides! There are snow-storms every month in the year there,
+but Miners' Camp is comparatively free from snow during August and
+September.
+
+These are the months, then, when gold hunters, "prospectors," are
+most numerous in the mountains. I saw them everywhere with their "pack
+outfits" bound on wooden saddles, seeking in the rocks for indications
+of a fortune that is as elusive in their business as the proverbial
+"pot of gold at the end of a rainbow."
+
+But, although Ross Grant did not immediately find a fortune, he found
+what is far more desirable, the development of muscle, quick wit and
+nerve in the situations which he was obliged to face and conquer in these
+adventure-breeding mountains.
+
+"Ross Grant, Gold Hunter" tells of the hero's further adventures in the
+mountains and of his hard won "find."
+
+In "Ross Grant on the Trail" he meets many discouragements, but finally
+conquers them.
+
+
+                                                        John Garland.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+       I. A BORN SURGEON                                        13
+      II. A STEADY HAND                                         34
+     III. DOC TENDERFOOT IN ACTION                              56
+      IV. THE FOURTH MAN                                        78
+       V. A MAN WHO NEEDED BRACING UP                           98
+      VI. THE MEN OF MEADOW CREEK                              121
+     VII. HALF-CONFIDENCES                                     140
+    VIII. ROSS'S "HIRED MAN"                                   159
+      IX. SURPRISES                                            176
+       X. A NEWCOMER ON MEADOW CREEK                           197
+      XI. MEADOW CREEK VALLEY MISSES LESLIE                    216
+     XII. A CALAMITY BEFALLS ROSS                              236
+    XIII. THE SEARCH                                           258
+     XIV. A PERILOUS JOURNEY                                   277
+      XV. A NEW CAMP                                           297
+     XVI. THE INGRATITUDE OF WESTON                            312
+    XVII. A RANDOM SHOT                                        330
+   XVIII. A HUMILIATING DISCOVERY                              348
+     XIX. AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY                                363
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+                                                              Page
+  SLOWLY HE WAS LET DOWN                              _Frontispiece_
+  MAP OF THE MEADOW CREEK TRAIL                                 59
+  "WHAT'S THE LATEST WORD?"                                    72
+  HE STRUCK THE TRAIL                                          134
+  BESIDE THE DYNAMITE BOX                                      203
+  THE SNOW HID IT FROM VIEW                                    309
+  MAP OF THE CROOKED TRAIL                                     359
+  "YOU'VE PAID FOR IT"                                        367
+ROSS GRANT, TENDERFOOT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A BORN SURGEON
+
+
+DR. FRED GRANT, recalled in haste from his daily round of professional
+visits by a telephone message from his nephew, leaped out of his carriage
+over the yet moving wheel, and, stuffing an open letter into his pocket,
+rushed up the walk and into his office, which occupied a wing of his
+commodious house.
+
+A sight met his eyes which was not uncommon, situated as he was in the
+midst of the coal fields of Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. Stretched
+out on the leather couch lay a man from the mines, black and grimy, his
+right arm crushed. Two other miners, also blackened with coal-dust, sat
+on the edges of their chairs, their eyes following the movements of Ross
+Grant, the doctor's nephew and self-constituted assistant.
+
+Those movements had been rapid and effective. Again and again had this
+seventeen-year-old boy been brought face to face with such cases as
+this, and he handled it promptly and wordlessly. Words, indeed, would
+have been wasted, as none of his callers spoke English. He had quieted
+the sufferer with a hypodermic injection of morphine, stripped the
+injured arm, cleansed it, and treated it with a temporary dressing.
+
+Then, with the bandages firmly in place, he had gone to the telephone
+and patiently called up house after house until he found his uncle.
+
+When Dr. Grant entered the office, he found Ross calmly taking the
+temperature of the wounded man.
+
+"He must have met with the accident at least an hour before they got him
+here," the boy explained, "for he was suffering awfully. I thought I
+ought to fix him up before trying to find you."
+
+His uncle nodded with satisfaction, and bent over the man. "All right,"
+he commended briefly, but his tone said more. Words were not always
+necessary to an understanding between uncle and nephew.
+
+The younger man was an abridged edition of the older in form and feature.
+In movements the two were alike only so long as Ross was aiding the
+doctor on such an occasion as this. Then there were in both the same
+alertness and quiet intentness, the same compression of the lips and
+narrowing of the eyes. But when the strain of the hour was past and
+the miners gone, the boy's manner changed. The alert quality which
+characterized the uncle at all times seemed to desert the nephew, and
+his movements became slow. From the born surgeon in embryo he became a
+rather awkward, self-conscious boy.
+
+Throwing himself into a chair behind the table, he drew toward him
+Gray's "Anatomy," and began reading at a line marked by a paper-cutter,
+his closely cropped head grasped in both hands.
+
+The older man moved around the room restlessly, occasionally glancing
+with troubled eyes at the figure behind the table. Standing finally in
+front of the window, he drew the letter from his pocket, smoothed it out,
+and read it again.
+
+In front of him, in the valley, lay Pittston and Wilkes-Barre, with
+Scranton in the distance, and beyond, the sun-burned hills, almost hidden
+now by the smoke from a hundred coal-breakers, and by the late August
+haze.
+
+"Ross," began Dr. Grant abruptly, without turning, "I'm afraid you are
+going to meet disappointment--to a certain extent. I have a letter from
+your father."
+
+The boy raised his head with a jerk. "Do you mean that he forbids----"
+
+"No,"--the doctor turned slowly,--"not exactly. He expects to send for
+you in a few days, and will tell you himself."
+
+Ross's chin came up. "And I shall not be twenty-one for nearly four
+years yet!" he exclaimed aggressively.
+
+His uncle looked at him with more sternness than he felt. "Remember,
+Ross, that he is your father and that you owe him----"
+
+Ross interrupted hotly, looking longingly at the letter. "I don't owe
+him as much as I do you and Aunt Anne."
+
+Dr. Grant made no reply, nor did he share the letter. Putting it into
+an inner pocket, he left the office, and presently Ross heard the sound
+of wheels on the drive. Dr. Grant was starting again on his interrupted
+round of calls.
+
+The boy leaned back and drew a deep breath. His father was going to
+send for him, and would then tell him--what? That he could not enter
+a medical college? That he could not become a surgeon? That he must
+fit himself for a business career? His chin came up again. He looked
+around the office lingeringly. It had been the heart of his home for
+seven years. It represented to him all that he wished to become. His
+father was almost a stranger to him; his uncle had stood in the place
+of a father since he, a sickly boy of ten, had been sent from the city
+to gain health on the hills which girdle Wyoming Valley.
+
+He had gained health. In so far he had fulfilled his father's wishes.
+But, in addition, he had gained a knowledge and been settled in a desire
+extremely displeasing to Ross Grant, Senior, who expected to train his
+only son to continue his own business.
+
+"Grant & Grant" was the father's ambition; "Dr. Grant" the son's.
+
+Presently Dr. Grant's wife appeared in the doorway of the office. She
+was a short, round woman, with a laughing face and a pretty, bustling
+air of authority. Stopping abruptly, she shook a chubby forefinger at
+Ross.
+
+"All day to-day," she accused, "you have bent over that book."
+
+Ross, his elbows planted on the table and his chin resting on his fists,
+shook his head. He did not look up.
+
+"I've been studying Gray on Anatomy, Aunt Anne. Got to master him."
+
+Aunt Anne bobbed energetically across the room, and slammed the volume
+shut. "There!" she cried triumphantly. "Get out and walk five miles, and
+strengthen your own anatomy!"
+
+Under her light tones and in the affectionate touch of her hand as she
+ran her fingers through his hair, Ross detected an undercurrent of
+solicitude, which brought forth a counter-accusation. Rising hastily, he
+laid both hands on her shoulders, and looked down from an altitude of
+five feet ten.
+
+"Aunt Anne, you know what father wrote to uncle, don't you?"
+
+Mrs. Grant's eyes fell. "Better take a good run over the mountain,
+Ross," she parried.
+
+Ross's hands slipped from her shoulders. "I see there's no use asking
+either of you what he wrote."
+
+Mrs. Grant flecked some dust from the table. "Sometimes, Ross," was her
+only reply, "disappointment is the very best and most strengthening tonic
+we can take."
+
+She turned away, adding without glancing back as she left the room: "I
+do wish, Ross, that you'd get out and exercise more. You would conquer
+Gray's 'Anatomy'--and all other difficulties--more quickly if you
+would."
+
+"I guess you're right, Aunt Anne," assented Ross.
+
+"Yes," scolded Aunt Anne to her sister in the living-room--but the
+scolding rested on a very apparent foundation of love--"Ross always
+agrees with me about taking vigorous exercise--and then never takes it.
+Now watch him walk, will you?" she fretted, looking out of the window.
+
+Her sister, busily sewing, paused with suspended needle, and glanced
+out. Ross was going slowly down the drive, his head bent forward, his
+youthful shoulders carelessly sagging, his long arms aimlessly hanging,
+giving him a curiously helpless appearance at variance with his large
+frame.
+
+"It's Ross's own fault," declared Aunt Anne. "He doesn't like to exert
+himself physically. Not that he's lazy," defensively, "for he isn't.
+He would work all night over a patient, and never think of himself; but
+to get out and exercise for the sake of exercising, and straightening
+himself up, and holding himself, somehow--well, I've talked myself
+hoarse about it, and then found that he had been reading some medical
+book or other all the time I was talking!"
+
+Here Aunt Anne laughed silently, and ran her shears through a length
+of gingham, adding, as if the addition were a logical sequence to her
+monologue:
+
+"It's a mystery to me how his father can feel so disappointed in him."
+
+"Disappointed in Ross?" exclaimed the sister in a tone of wonder.
+
+Mrs. Grant nodded. "His father sends for him once a year, sees him for a
+day or two when Ross is at the greatest disadvantage in unaccustomed
+surroundings--you know the stepmother is a woman of fashion; and the
+result is that he is so awkward and slow and tongue-tied that his
+father--well," Mrs. Grant bit off her thread energetically, "of course,
+we feel tender on the subject because we have had Ross now for seven
+years, and we think a better boy never lived. But now the time has
+come," her voice trembled, "when we must give him up."
+
+"Will his father forbid his going to medical college?" asked the sister.
+
+Mrs. Grant hesitated. "No, I don't think he will forbid it; but he will
+prevent it--if he is able," she added significantly.
+
+Two days later the summons from Ross Grant, Senior, arrived in the shape
+of a telegram brief and to the point. "Take night-train," it read,
+"September first. Reach office at nine."
+
+"Ross," worried Aunt Anne as she straightened his tie and hovered around
+him anxiously the afternoon of September first, "you'd better get a new
+hat in Scranton. This one is--well, I think you better appear before Mrs.
+Grant in a new one."
+
+"All right, aunt."
+
+Dr. Grant extended his hand, and gripped Ross's. "Remember, my boy, that
+the telegram appointed nine A. M. as the time for your appearing."
+
+Ross laughed. "Don't you worry, uncle," he returned confidently. "I
+shall be at the office before father gets there."
+
+But, despite his confidence, it was nearly ten the morning following
+before he stepped out of the elevator of a Broadway office building and
+presented himself hesitatingly before the clerk in his father's outer
+office.
+
+His hesitation was due to his appearance. His hat, new the afternoon
+before, was soiled and pierced by the calk of a horse's shoe. His
+shirtfront was also soiled and then smeared over by a wet cloth in a
+vain effort to remove the dirt. His right coat-sleeve was wrinkled, and
+bore marks of a recent wetting. About his clothes lingered a subtle
+"horsy" odor, which caused the clerk to sniff involuntarily as he
+curiously looked over the heir to the house of Grant before disappearing
+into the inner office.
+
+When he returned he bore the crisp message that Ross was to wait until
+his father had time to see him.
+
+Ross waited. He retreated to a window through which the sunshine
+streamed, and there sat, industriously drying his wet sleeve. He pulled
+it, and smoothed it, and stretched it, only to see it shrivel and shrink
+while he waited. The clerk occasionally glanced with no abating of
+curiosity from the boy to the clock. Two hours passed. Others waiting
+in that outer office grew restless. They read. They took quick turns
+about the room. They went out into the corridor, and returned. At
+last, one by one, they were ushered into the inner office, while Ross
+still waited.
+
+It was past twelve before his father sent for him, and the first glance
+the boy encountered was one of displeasure.
+
+"Did you come in on the night-train?" was the elder Grant's greeting.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+The father frowned, and looked up at a clock which ticked above their
+heads.
+
+"I telegraphed you that I could see you at nine."
+
+Ross sank into a great padded, leather-upholstered chair. All about him
+were evidences of luxury, but he was conscious only of his father's
+displeasure and of his own disreputable appearance. He studied his hands
+awkwardly, and stumbled in his reply.
+
+"I should have been here by nine, sir, but for an accident which occurred
+on the ferry----"
+
+"Accident?" His father's tone softened.
+
+Ross looked at his coat-sleeve. "There was a fine horse, a big bay that
+stood behind a truckster's cart. He took an apple. It lodged in his
+throat, and he nearly choked to death." The boy hesitated and glanced
+up. "I got it out," he explained simply, adding apologetically, "I got
+awfully mussed up doing it, though."
+
+"You!" Grant burst out, paying no attention to the apology. "You got it
+out!" He leaned forward, genuinely interested. "How did you do it?"
+
+Ross warmed under the interest in the tone. "I was standing in the
+bow of the boat, just over the rail from the horse, and I saw what
+the trouble was. There was no one else who seemed to know what to do."
+He spoke modestly. "The horse would have died before we reached the
+landing; and so," simply, "I ran my arm down his throat, and got the
+apple."
+
+"You did!" ejaculated Grant. He leaned further forward. "And what
+prevented the horse from chewing up your arm while you were after the
+apple?"
+
+"A bootblack's brush," Ross explained. "A boy was rubbing up a man's
+shoes near me; and I grabbed his brushes, and got busy. One of the deck
+hands helped me prop the horse's mouth open. I threw off my coat"--here
+Ross surveyed himself ruefully, and left the subject of the horse; "and I
+got pretty dirty all over. Couldn't help it. There wasn't any time to
+think of keeping clean. But after we got over on the New York side
+the owner of the horse took me to a stable, and helped me to clean
+up; but--I don't think it's much of a success."
+
+Mr. Grant leaned back in his swivel chair, rested his elbows on the arms,
+and fitted his finger-tips together. His imagination, country-trained
+in his youth, was supplying some of the details which his son had
+omitted. He nodded his iron-gray head, and narrowed his eyes, a trick
+common to all the Grants when intent on any subject.
+
+"Quick work," he remarked after a pause. His eyes were taking the measure
+of his son. "It had to be quick work," he added as if to convince himself
+that Ross could act swiftly.
+
+"Where did you get breakfast?" was his next question.
+
+"I haven't had any," Ross replied. "I tried to get here by nine
+o'clock."
+
+A low whistle escaped the father. He arose, and reached for his hat,
+which lay on the top of a safe behind him. "We'll go out to lunch now."
+
+Ross glanced doubtfully from his father's well-groomed person to his
+own dirty coat.
+
+"Perhaps, father, you'd like me to go out alone so long as----"
+
+"Nonsense!" interrupted Grant brusquely.
+
+As they left the room, he took his boy's arm. There was little
+resemblance between the two. Ross had his uncle's head with its
+high brow and well-shaped chin, lean cheeks, and prominent ears. He was
+taller than his father, but wholly lacked his father's energetic
+manner and erect carriage.
+
+"You graduated in June from Wyoming Seminary," the father stated as they
+entered a large Broadway restaurant and sat down near the door.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"No honors?"
+
+The boy's eyes fell. "No, sir. I stood tenth in a class of thirty-four."
+
+Evasion of the truth was not one of Ross's strong points.
+
+"And," stated his father, "it took you five years to do a four years'
+course."
+
+Ross looked his father squarely in the eyes, and lifted his chin a
+little. The father noticed for the first time that the boy's chin could
+indicate aggression.
+
+"I flunked on mathematics. But I made them up the next summer, and went
+on."
+
+Again Grant looked at his son attentively, the son who retrieved his
+failure and "went on."
+
+"You're seventeen," he said abruptly. "What's next?" The question, as
+both knew, was superfluous.
+
+"Medical college," Ross answered as abruptly as the question had been
+put. "I am preparing for the entrance examinations in the University of
+Pennsylvania. I want to go down and take them in January, and at the same
+time pass upon a couple of subjects in the freshman year."
+
+There was a gleam of curiosity in Grant's deep-set eyes as he put the
+next questions.
+
+"Haven't I told you repeatedly that I shall never advance one penny on a
+medical education for you?"
+
+"Yes, sir." Ross's eyes met his father's steadily but respectfully.
+"And I shall not ask you to advance a cent."
+
+"But haven't I forbidden your uncle, also, to help you out?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and Uncle Fred has no intention of helping me. He'll keep
+the letter and the spirit of the law you have laid down."
+
+"Well, then----"
+
+Ross smiled quietly. "But you have never forbidden my getting a medical
+education through my own efforts; and that, father, is what I intend to
+do."
+
+Ross Grant, Senior, found himself looking into eyes which he recognized
+as strangely like his own and shining with the same determination which
+in himself had established a thriving business and built up a moderate
+fortune. Never had he been so interested in his son. Never had he so
+coveted him for a business career. But, as he ate a moment in silence,
+young Ross's determined voice seemed to be repeating in old Ross's
+ears, "That, father, is what I intend to do."
+
+During the remainder of the meal the elder Grant listened attentively
+to the younger's plans. To Ross this was a new experience. After the
+first irritation over his tardiness, his father had not once oppressed
+him with that sense of disapproval and disappointment which usually sent
+him back to his uncle with a buoyant relief at his escape from New York.
+
+Still, he was not deceived. He knew that his father's summons had to do
+with the thwarting of his surgical career; and he was prepared to argue,
+persuade, do anything short of actual defiance, to gain permission to
+work for the object toward which all his inclinations pulled.
+
+As they made their way up Broadway through the noon-hour crowd, a
+feminine voice behind them suddenly piped out excitedly:
+
+"There he is, Kate, right ahead of you--that tall, round-shouldered young
+man. He's the one I told you about on the ferry this morning. I tell you
+what, he made all the men around step lively for a few minutes."
+
+Ross suddenly quickened his pace. His face flushed uncomfortably, but
+the voice of "Kate's" companion was still at his heels.
+
+"Why, he grabbed them brushes and was over the rail as quick as a cat,
+and had that horse's mouth open before its owner even knew that it was
+chokin'----"
+
+Ross, Senior, strode along behind Ross, Junior, now in a vain attempt
+to keep up. He chuckled in a sly enjoyment of the boy's embarrassment.
+
+"He certainly can move, I see," he muttered, "when he has something to
+move toward--or away from!"
+
+But the mutter was lost on Ross seeking an escape from that voice of
+praise by dodging in and out among the crowd until his father lost sight
+of him, and found him again only at the entrance to the office building.
+
+When the two were again seated in the private office, the father for
+the first time broached the matter which he had called the son from
+Pennsylvania to hear; and, had he studied the boy for months, he could
+not have overcome his opposition more tactfully and completely.
+
+"Ross," he began quietly, "I am not going to forbid your going to a
+medical college this year or any other year. To be honest with you, I
+admire your grit. I believe it will bring you success. And so, as I say,
+I am not going to forbid your entering the University of Pennsylvania.
+But--I am going to ask a favor of you."
+
+Ross's eyes sparkled. His father swung around, and, picking up a pencil,
+marked aimlessly on a pad lying on the big mahogany desk.
+
+"Well, father."
+
+"I am going to ask you to help me pay a debt which I owe--and the payment
+will certainly spoil this year so far as college is concerned."
+
+Grant paused. He did not look up, but he heard Ross draw a deep breath.
+Then there was silence.
+
+"Keep in mind," Grant began again, "that I am not requiring this of
+you--I am asking it."
+
+"Yes--sir."
+
+The tone gave the father the uncomfortable impression that he was
+assisting at a surgical operation on his son, but he bent his head a
+little lower over the pad, and traced figures more carefully as he
+began abruptly on a seemingly new subject.
+
+"Have I ever told you about my Western partner, Jake Weimer?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, I started business in the West without a cent, and it was Weimer
+who gave me my start. He was running a store in Butte, and took me with
+him. I have managed to get beyond a start, but Weimer never has. After I
+came East he lost his share of our earnings, and turned prospector. Ever
+since he has spent his life trying to squeeze gold out of the mountains.
+Again and again he has staked out claims, and I've grub-staked him to
+the finish. For twenty-five years this has gone on. So far, none of
+the properties have amounted to much; still, we hold them; there's
+always a chance of a rise in value."
+
+Grant drew straight, heavy lines on the pad as he told the story of
+his grub-staked partner. He fell easily into the vernacular of the
+gold-fields.
+
+"Four years ago Weimer went prospecting among the Shoshones in Wyoming
+over near Yellowstone Park. There he began development work on some
+deserted claims, a few miles from Miners' Camp."
+
+Here Grant pulled a letter from his pocket, and consulted it.
+
+"The claims, it seems," he continued, "had been originally worked by two
+men named Allen and Waymart McKenzie. They did the required work for
+three years, and then threw up their job and left Wyoming. Now they're
+back again, wishing, evidently, that they had never left."
+
+Ross nodded. His eyes had not left his father's face.
+
+"Weimer has felt from the first that he would make good on these claims.
+He has sent me quartz from time to time, and I've had it assayed.
+It carries moderately high values in gold, silver, and lead; but, as
+the camp is eighty miles from a railroad, up among almost impassable
+mountains, where it's impossible to get the quartz to a smelter, I
+confess I have paid but little attention to Weimer's work. It has
+seemed a waste of energy, despite his enthusiasm."
+
+Grant suddenly threw himself back in his chair. His manner took on a
+keener edge, and his tone became brisker.
+
+"But this year things bid fair to change there because the Burlington
+Railroad is surveying a line from Cody, and a boom is in prospect for
+next summer. Our claims have suddenly acquired a new importance; they
+promise to become valuable."
+
+"Then," commented Ross in a low, constrained tone, "Weimer will get
+beyond a 'start' at last."
+
+Grant regarded his son keenly. He did not answer the comment directly.
+
+"According to the law of Wyoming," he continued, "one hundred dollars'
+worth of work a year for five years must be done on a claim, or five
+hundred dollars' worth all together within five years, before the
+tract can be patented, by which I mean before the owners can receive a
+clear title to it. Now, Weimer has done four years' work all right;
+but this year, the fifth and last in which he can hold the claims without
+fulfilling the conditions of work to the full, he is failing because
+of snow-blindness. It seems he had an attack last spring, and was obliged
+to stay in his cabin for weeks at a time instead of working."
+
+Ross cleared his throat. "And if he fails----"
+
+"We lose the claims, and the McKenzies get them back." Grant again
+consulted the letter. "Weimer got a man named Steele to write this--an
+Amos Steele in Miners' Camp. He writes that the McKenzies are taking
+advantage of some technicalities in the law. They have already filed
+a claim on the tract based on their three years' former occupancy.
+This will clear the way for them to take possession in case Weimer
+fails with the work. Steele goes on to say that, if the claims are
+saved, some one must come out and look after them--preferably some one
+with a personal interest in the property."
+
+Mr. Grant laid the letter down, adding slowly, "If you go, I shall give
+you a substantial personal interest."
+
+There ensued a pause. Ross sat motionless. His gaze had left his
+father's face, and was fixed on the rug.
+
+"Now, knowing," Grant continued, "that Weimer has set his heart on these
+claims, I can't desert him. That work must be done and the claims
+patented."
+
+There was another pause. Grant looked at his son expectantly, but still
+Ross neither moved nor spoke.
+
+"Weimer is a good sort," Grant went on tentatively. "You'd like Weimer.
+He's a big man and jolly in every pound of his avoirdupois. Great
+story-teller--stories worth listening to, what's more. You wouldn't
+be dull with him."
+
+Grant leaned forward suddenly, and asked directly the question to which
+his son felt there could be but one reply in view of his father's appeal.
+
+"My boy, will you go?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A STEADY HAND
+
+
+IN the two weeks which elapsed between Ross's visit to his father and
+his start for Wyoming he planned hopefully for the year.
+
+"Father has given me a free hand," he told his uncle. "As soon as I can
+get the work done and the claims patented I am at liberty to come back
+home, and I tell you I shall hustle. I shall hire as many men as are
+necessary in Miners' Camp, and take 'em over to Meadow Creek, where
+the claims are located, and just rush that work through."
+
+"I wonder," remarked Dr. Grant thoughtfully, "why that man Weimer
+doesn't hire it done instead of sending East for some one to manage
+the matter."
+
+Ross frowned into the open grate before which the two were sitting.
+"Why, uncle, I never thought of that, and father didn't mention it. In
+fact, he knows but very little about Miners' Camp or Weimer's work,
+and you know he hasn't seen Weimer in years. All he knows about the
+business is contained in a letter that Weimer got a man named Amos Steele
+to write. Weimer, it seems, can't use his eyes to read or write. The
+letter is very short. That man Steele is a mine-superintendent out there.
+Father knows about the company which he works for."
+
+"The very idea," cried Aunt Anne a few moments later in tearful
+indignation, "of Ross Grant's sending that boy away out West to the
+jumping-off place into the wilderness without knowing the conditions
+into which he's sending him! It's a shame. He's our boy, and I
+don't want him to go."
+
+The doctor made no reply, but retired precipitately to the office, where
+he had occupied himself at intervals all day with fitting up an emergency
+chest for Ross.
+
+The chest was a little oblong, hair-covered strong trunk, which had held
+all of the doctor's worldly possessions when, thirty years before, he
+had started to the medical college just as his brother, Ross's father,
+had started West for his financial "start." Into this chest uncle and
+nephew fitted all sorts of objects medical, from books to bandages.
+
+"When you're eighty miles from a physician, Ross, and shut in by
+snow-drifted mountains at that, it's well to have a few remedies
+and appliances on hand."
+
+"And, when you're several Sabbath days' journey from civilization,
+with time to burn on your hands, it's also well to have some light
+literature along," laughed Ross, tucking into the chest Piersol's
+"Histology." "I intend to make my time count for myself, as well as
+for Weimer and father."
+
+Aunt Anne, meantime, was packing another and more modern chest, her tears
+besprinkling the contents.
+
+"I have put your winter shirts and chamois-skin vest right on top of the
+tray, Ross," she sobbed as she bade him good-bye. "You better put 'em
+on as soon as you reach the mountains, as it will be cold there."
+
+"All right, aunt; I shall." Ross's voice was a little husky as he turned
+to his uncle.
+
+Dr. Grant was standing beside the vacated breakfast table absorbed in
+filling a glass of water. Carefully he brimmed it drop by drop.
+
+Aunt Anne peered through her tears. "Why, Fred," she exclaimed, "what
+are you up to? Don't make Ross miss his train."
+
+Calmly the doctor added a few more drops, and then turned to his nephew.
+His eyes narrowed intently as he motioned toward the glass.
+
+"I want to test your nerves, Ross. Hold it out," he directed.
+
+The boy smiled confidently, raised the glass, carried it from him the
+length of a long, steady arm, and held it there. Then he returned it to
+the table without spilling a drop.
+
+The doctor grasped the hand that had held the glass, looking earnestly
+into the boy's eyes.
+
+"Ross, the hand that holds the surgeon's knife successfully must _keep
+as steady as this_."
+
+For a long, silent moment uncle and nephew looked into each other's
+faces as their hands gripped. Ross made no reply, but in the expression
+which leaped to his eyes the older man read the resolution which
+satisfied him, and which seemed a part of this slow, steady nephew of his.
+
+An hour later the boy was being borne westward on the way to Chicago and
+the "jumping-off place into the wilderness."
+
+At the same time his father sat behind his desk on Broadway reading a
+letter postmarked Cody, Wyo., and signed D. H. Leonard. It was written
+in reply to a recent communication from Ross Grant, Senior.
+
+"Of course I shall be glad to do anything in my power for your son,"
+the letter read, "along the lines you have suggested. I see the wisdom
+of your move, too. It doesn't always do to refuse a boy's demands
+point-blank. It's far better to turn him from his purpose as you are
+doing--or trying to do, I should say, because, if young Ross is anything
+like old Ross, he will not be so easily turned. Yet, as you say, a
+little stirring up and jostling out of his uncle's beaten tracks may
+put some new ideas into his head. This country certainly bids fair to
+be stirring enough now to fascinate any young man. It's a good idea
+also to give him a half-share in your share of the claims; and I'm
+sure, if the railroad makes good its promise of a way up to Miners'
+Camp, the claims will be worth working for. And, as a real estate
+dealer, I don't need to be urged to do my best to interest him in the
+business of this vast land, the country of the future."
+
+In Chicago a telegram overtook Ross. It was from his father. "Stop
+overnight at Hotel Irma, Cody," it read. "Leonard will meet you there."
+
+Two days later, early in the morning, the west bound express dropped
+Ross Grant and half a dozen other passengers at Toluca, in southern
+Montana, a station with a water-tank and some cattle corrals attached.
+Here stood the train which by day plied over the branch road to Cody,
+and by night returned to Toluca. It was a mixed train consisting of
+freight and express cars with a sleeper at the end.
+
+The half dozen passengers, reenforced by others left by the east bound
+express, all men, transferred themselves to this coach. Every one
+except Ross seemed to be more or less acquainted with every one else.
+Ross sat silent, listening and looking out on as much of the great
+West as was visible from the slowly moving car. Across the windswept,
+sun-cracked plain grumbled the old engine. On either side were herds of
+cattle fattening on the dusty dried grass, which looked to Ross dead
+and worthless. Not a tree met his eyes, and not a house.
+
+"Got the Western fever yet?" drawled a voice behind him finally, and Ross
+looked around into the good-natured face of a man who had boarded the
+north bound express at Omaha.
+
+Ross shook his head decidedly. "There's nothing here to give a fellow
+the Western fever," he returned, pointing to the flat yellow plain
+overlaid by the dull yellow sunshine.
+
+The man lounged forward, his elbows on the back of Ross's seat, and
+grinned. He was apparently about thirty, short and fair, with sandy
+hair and mustache. He wore corduroy trousers and coat, with a dark
+flannel shirt and turn-over collar under which was knotted carelessly a
+broad green silk tie. Hanging to the back of his head was a brown,
+broad-brimmed hat, the crown encircled with a narrow band of intricately
+woven hair dyed in all the colors of the rainbow.
+
+"I'll tell ye what's out there that gives most of us the Western
+fever," he declared; "and that's money prospects. Sort of a yellow
+fever, ye know, it is, except that no one wants to be cured."
+
+"Then I don't want to catch it in the first place," declared Ross,
+looking out of the window again.
+
+Presently some one in the rear of the car lowered a newspaper, and
+rumbled over the top of it:
+
+"You fellers rec'lect old man Quinn?"
+
+Some did; some did not. To the latter, the speaker explained.
+
+"Used to live in Cody. Friend of Buffalo Bill, old man Quinn was. Went
+down to Oklahomy five years ago, and bought a sheep ranch. He and some
+of the cattlemen around him got by the ears over how much of the range
+belonged to the sheep----"
+
+Here an inarticulate murmur sounded through the car. There was a "cattle
+war" on in Wyoming at that time.
+
+"Wall, one night two years ago about now, after a big round-up at
+North Fork, one thousand of old man Quinn's sheep was driven over the
+bluffs into North Fork River. All that old man Quinn could find out
+was that four men done it. But he kept a-tryin' to find out, and got
+a _de_tective down from Kansas City, feller who used to be a cow puncher
+himself; and he nabbed three of 'em. They had had the gall to stay right
+there on the range all this time."
+
+"Good reason," volunteered some one, "why it took so long to land 'em. I
+suppose old man Quinn was lookin' for 'em among the punchers that had
+left after the round-up."
+
+"Jest so," declared the informant. "He was tryin' to track up every one
+who cleared out after the round-up--jest so."
+
+"How long did they git?" asked some one further up the aisle.
+
+"Two years."
+
+"Sandy," some one across the aisle said to the man behind Ross, "wa'n't
+you down t' Oklahomy punchin' two year ago?"
+
+There was a perceptible pause. Then a note of irritation spoke through
+Sandy's drawl as he answered briefly, "No, north Texas."
+
+And, while the rest continued the discussion concerning old man Quinn,
+he leaned forward and devoted himself to Ross.
+
+Presently they came to the hills whose barrenness and sombreness were
+relieved at intervals by the brilliant coloring of the rocks.
+
+"Well," asked Sandy, "what do ye think of this? It ain't every day East
+that ye can walk around the crater of an old volcano."
+
+"Is this----" began Ross, his head out of the window.
+
+"This is!" chuckled he of the sandy hair.
+
+The train was crawling slowly around the edge of a wide, shallow well, on
+all sides of which the hills frowned darkly, stripped of every vestige
+of verdure.
+
+"An extinct volcano!" ejaculated Ross.
+
+"Yep,"--the other sagged forward until his laughing face was close to
+Ross's,--"but just let me tell ye right here, young man, that volcanoes
+is the only thing in the West that's extinct. Everything else is pretty
+lively."
+
+Ross joined in the laugh which greeted this sally all around him. The
+man opposite lowered his paper, and looked over his glasses.
+
+"Volcanoes _and_ hopes, Sandy," he amended quickly, instantly retiring
+again behind his paper.
+
+Ross did not understand the significance of the retort, but he noticed
+that several men around exchanged glances and that Sandy's face lost a
+fraction of its good nature. And when Sandy's face lost its humorous
+expression, it was not pleasing.
+
+Dusk and Cody drew near together. The train dropped over the "rim," and
+steamed along through the Big Horn Basin, coming to a final standstill in
+front of another station and water-tank.
+
+"Cody," announced the brakeman. "All out."
+
+Ross, suitcase in hand, his top-coat over his arm, stumbled out of the
+train, still swaying with the perpetual motion of the last few days. A
+big open wagon with side seats stood beside the platform. At the call of
+the driver Ross looked around interrogatively at Sandy, who was still
+beside him.
+
+"Oh, we're two miles from the town yet," Sandy replied to the look.
+"Pile in. Train can't make it over the shelves between here and
+Stinkin' Water."
+
+Ross silently "piled in." Sandy sat down beside him, and the wagon filled
+with the other passengers.
+
+Behind them, stretching back into the darkness, their heads sagging
+sleepily, was a row of teams, their neck-yokes joined by a chain, their
+heads connected by a single rein running through the ring at the left
+side of the bit.
+
+"Hey, there," called one of the men in the wagon, "does Grasshopper
+strike the trail to-night for Meeteetse?"
+
+"Yep," came a voice beside a lantern which was traveling to and fro.
+"There's a lot of freight to pack up to Miners' Camp; and, if it gits
+there ahead of the snow, these freighters have got to hit the pike more
+rapid than they have been doin'."
+
+A horseman dashed past the wagon and into the circle of light from the
+lantern hung in front of the station. Dropping the reins to the ground,
+he swung his leather-enveloped legs off the horse, and yelled at the
+station agent:
+
+"Have those boxes of apples come yet?"
+
+"Just here," replied the holder of the moving light.
+
+"Can't you start 'em up by the Meeteetse stage to-night?" demanded the
+newcomer. "The boys are about famished."
+
+"Them surveyors," complained the agent, "are always hollerin' for more
+grub. 'N' no matter how much ye fill 'em, they don't go faster than
+molasses in January. Ain't got beyond Sagehen Roost this minute, and
+they'll probably be a-quittin' in a month."
+
+Ross pricked up his ears. The same interest was manifested by Sandy.
+
+"Don't you worry about our quitting," the newcomer returned brusquely;
+"if the Burlington Railroad starts out to run a track up to Miners'
+Camp, why, it will run one, that's all, if the track has to go under
+snow-sheds all the way up from the Meadows."
+
+At this point the big open bus rumbled off over the dust-choked "shelf"
+toward Cody. An unwieldy swaying coach drawn by four horses passed them
+on its way to the station.
+
+"Meeteetse stage is late to-night," remarked Sandy.
+
+On rumbled the wagon. Its brake screamed against the wheel as the horses
+plunged down the steep inclines which marked the descent from one "shelf"
+to another. Presently a vile odor greeted Ross's nostrils, and at the
+same time the wagon struck the bridge over the sulphurated waters of
+the Shoshone, and began the climb on the other side.
+
+Ross was keenly alive to this strange new world in which the convenience
+of the East met the newness and crudeness of the West. Brilliant
+electric lights illuminated dust-deep, unpaved, unsprinkled streets.
+Tents stood beside pretentious homes, and stone business blocks were
+rising beside offices located in canvas wagons with rounded tops. And
+to and fro past the wagon flashed horsemen, cowboys dressed like Sandy
+except that their corduroy trousers were incased in leather "chaps."
+
+Sandy, watching Ross out of the corner of his eye, grinned at the boy's
+expression.
+
+"Buck up here, tenderfoot," he advised good-naturedly. "This here is
+'The Irma'; and, if you've got any better hotels in the East, why,
+don't tell Colonel Cody of it, at any rate, for 'The Irma' is the
+Colonel's pet."
+
+Then Ross found himself in the foyer of "The Irma," the hotel that
+"Buffalo Bill" erected to honor his home town, which bears his name,
+a comfortable, modernly equipped house decorated with hundreds of
+paintings, water colors, and etchings, all picturing the scenes in
+Colonel Cody's life as represented in his "Wild West Show."
+
+Sandy had registered in advance of Ross, and stepped to a swinging door
+at the end of the counter. There he stopped and turned back. "Come on
+and have a drink, tenderfoot," he invited good-naturedly.
+
+Ross was writing his name, and did not look up. "No, thank you," he
+returned quietly. "I don't drink."
+
+Several men lounging about glanced curiously at the boy. Sandy thrust
+his hands into his pockets, and, leaning against the counter, looked at
+him in open interest.
+
+After Ross had registered, he drew a nickel from his pocket and laid it
+on the counter. "A two-cent stamp, please."
+
+The clerk, impatient with the deliberation of his movements, cast the
+nickel hurriedly into the cash drawer and handed out a stamp. Ross
+waited for the change, while three men behind him pressed forward to
+the register.
+
+Sandy grinned broadly. "There's no change comin', tenderfoot," he said
+with a chuckle. "You've reached a land where nothin' less'n a nickel
+can be got outside a post-office."
+
+"Pennies don't grow in the Rocky Mountains," added the clerk in a tone
+which plainly invited the boy to move on.
+
+The tone brought the blood to Ross's cheek. His eyes suddenly narrowed.
+His head went up, and his voice quickened and deepened.
+
+"Very well, then," he returned coolly, "give me another two-cent stamp
+and a postal card."
+
+Sandy patted his thigh softly. "You'll pass, tenderfoot," he murmured.
+"No flies on you--at least, they don't stick there."
+
+Ross took his trophies, and retired to a desk beside the swinging door.
+Just as he had finished directing a letter to his Aunt Anne he noticed
+that his new friend was waiting again beside the counter.
+
+When the last man had registered, Sandy pulled the book toward him and
+leaned over it. Suddenly he bent lower, and jabbed hard on the page with
+his forefinger. When he turned, all the good humor had dropped out of
+his face. With a glance of keen interest at the boy beside the desk he
+passed on into the barroom.
+
+So marked was the change in his manner that Ross paused in the act of
+dipping his pen into the ink-well.
+
+"Guess I'll see who Sandy is," he thought, and, dropping his pen,
+crossed to the book.
+
+The name stared up at him in big bold letters directly above his own,
+but he had not noticed it at the time of registering.
+
+    _"Allen McKenzie, Miners' Camp."_
+
+Ross pursed his thin lips, and nearly whistled aloud as he returned to
+his desk.
+
+"It's one of the McKenzies who are after our claims," he wrote at
+the end of a long letter to his uncle and aunt; "but he is a funny,
+good-natured fellow. I partly like him and partly don't. He has no
+six-shooter in sight--in fact, I'm told that six-shooters have gone
+more or less out of fashion in Wyoming; and he doesn't look a bit as I
+had imagined a 'claim-jumper' would. But one thing he may reckon on;
+there will be no chance for him or any one else to jump the Weimer-Grant
+claims in a few months."
+
+And, sealing this confident declaration, he slipped the letter into the
+mail-box, ate a hearty dinner, and went to bed.
+
+The following morning at nine o'clock D. H. Leonard, his father's
+old-time friend, appeared, and greeted the son most cordially. Mr.
+Leonard was a man of middle age, hale, red-faced, bald-headed, and
+wearing a "boiled" shirt and collar. He was a dealer in real estate, with
+offices in both Cody and Basin. It was to his office that he first
+took Ross.
+
+"We'll go for a drive by and by," he began, throwing himself back in
+his chair and tossing a cigar across the desk. "We have the country of
+the future here, and I want you to see it. Perfect gold-mine in this land
+once it's irrigated."
+
+Ross picked up the cigar, played with it a moment, and laid it again on
+the desk, listening attentively.
+
+The older man drew a match across the woodwork beneath his chair, and
+lighted his cigar. "It's _the_ place for young men, Grant, a greater
+place than it was when Horace Greeley gave his advice to young men to
+go West--here's a match," he interrupted himself to say.
+
+Ross accepted the match, bit on the end of it a moment, and laid it
+beside the cigar.
+
+"Don't you smoke?" asked Leonard in some surprise.
+
+Before Ross could reply, some one called Mr. Leonard out into the hall.
+As the door closed behind him, Ross arose and stood silently in front
+of the open window. Beyond the little town and beyond the level stretch
+of "shelves" arose the Big Horn Mountains, miles away, but so sharply
+outlined in the clear air that they seemed only a short walk distant.
+
+As Ross leaned against the window-casing, some one in the room adjoining
+came to the open window. The stub of a cigar was thrown out, and a voice
+exclaimed:
+
+"But if Grant realized the situation, he'd never have sent a boy out
+here to look after those claims. And it looks as though it was his
+son--same initials. But with such a boy and Weimer you ought to be
+able----"
+
+The speaker left the window at this point, and Ross lost the rest of the
+sentence. In a few moments, however, some one clattered through the
+hall and down the stairs, with spurs jingling. A horse stood on the
+street below, tethered only by its bridle-reins dangling to the ground.
+From the entrance to the building Sandy McKenzie emerged, clad as on
+the previous day, except for a colored handkerchief knotted about his
+neck. Mounting his pony, he touched a spur to its flank, and galloped
+away in a cloud of dust just as Leonard returned.
+
+"Who's in the next room?" asked Ross.
+
+"Over on the right?" asked Leonard carelessly. "Oh, a lawyer has that
+office." He crossed to the window, and glanced out just as McKenzie
+disappeared. "Evidently Sandy's pulling out for the mountains," he
+observed. "Miners' Camp, that is."
+
+"Are there only two McKenzies?" asked Ross.
+
+Leonard shrugged his shoulders. "Two are all that have ever showed up
+around here--Sandy and Waymart; but they say there are half a dozen more
+brothers and cousins, some figurin' under names not their own; but where
+they put up I don't know."
+
+Here he turned and looked curiously at Ross. "I suppose your father told
+you that Sandy and Waymart are sitting up on Meadow Creek waiting to jump
+the Grant-Weimer claims."
+
+"Yes, he told me," answered Ross, and hesitated. "Do they use guns in
+the jumping process?"
+
+Leonard laughed. "Not much! They have other and safer methods of getting
+their own way in case Weimer doesn't do the work the law requires this
+year."
+
+Then he glanced at the unsmoked cigar, and repeated his question of some
+time before. "Don't you smoke?"
+
+Ross shook his head shortly.
+
+"Why not?" Leonard looked at his old friend's son in friendly interest.
+
+Ross stretched out his right arm in an unconscious imitation of the test
+his uncle had required of him only a few mornings before. "It's apt to
+get on a fellow's nerves," was all the reply he made.
+
+There was much to see during the day and much to hear. Leonard took the
+boy for a long drive up the canon of the Shoshone, whose densely green
+waters have a background of brilliant reds and yellows in the sandstone
+sides of the wall through which the river has cut. Up and yet up the
+carriage went, with the walls rising higher and higher on either side,
+the road a mere thread blasted out of the rocks, up to the great dam
+which was beginning to raise its head across the river bed to hold back
+the water and distribute it over Big Horn Basin through irrigating canals.
+
+Ross's interest, however, during the drive was divided. He was glad to
+see the vast "Shoshone Project," as the government reservoir is called;
+but his most active thoughts were following Sandy McKenzie on his way
+to Miners' Camp, and his questions were of the Camp and Wyoming mining
+laws and the conditions he would meet in this new and strange land.
+
+But Leonard had never been up to Camp, and was not interested in mining,
+but in ranch lands; therefore, Ross got but little enlightenment from
+him, and finally, ceasing to question, listened in silence while the
+older man, in obedience to the senior Grant's request, did his best to
+interest the junior Grant in the business prospects of Wyoming.
+
+"I want you to come down to Basin at Christmas," Leonard said cordially
+as host and guest sat down to dinner in the dining-room of "The Irma" at
+six o'clock that night. "My home is in Basin. It's the county-seat of
+Big Horn County, you know; and I want you to come down there. I want to
+show you more of this magnificent country."
+
+Ross was grateful for this friendly invitation, but made no promises; and
+presently the two were eating in silence, Ross looking with interest on
+some of the contrasts which were too familiar for Leonard even to notice.
+
+Under elaborate and gaudy chandeliers was a bare and not overclean floor.
+Looking down on the thickest and heaviest of cracked china were pictures
+by well-known artists. Seated around the tables spread in linen, were
+bearded men in chaps and overalls, flannel shirts and spurs, together
+with those in tan oxfords and broadcloth.
+
+At the table opposite Ross, and facing him, was a man to whom his
+glance returned again and again. He sat alone. His square, unexpressive
+face was relieved by a pair of fine dark-brown eyes. The lower part of
+his face was covered by a stubby reddish beard. His hair was brown, and
+fell nearly to his eyes, giving him the appearance of having a low
+forehead. He wore a coat,--the first of its kind Ross had seen,--a short,
+bulky affair, with a high collar laid over the shoulders and lined
+throughout with lambskin, the wool badly worn on the collar. His chaps
+were of undressed leather, with the long hair trimmed short save from
+the thigh to the ankle. High riding boots, spurs, and a sombrero, which
+he wore low over his forehead while eating, completed his costume.
+
+"Who is he?" asked Ross.
+
+Mr. Leonard shook his head. "Man next to me here said he rode in this
+afternoon on the Yellowstone trail. Don't know who he is."
+
+As if he felt he was under discussion, the stranger raised his head, and
+his eyes met Ross's in a quick furtive glance.
+
+After dinner Leonard gripped Ross's hand in farewell, and left. An hour
+later there was a rattle of wheels in front of the hotel, the sound of
+horses's hoofs, and a rollicking voice called:
+
+"Meeteetse stage. All aboard!"
+
+Ross, with a glance around the office which he expected to see again
+before spring, picked up his bag, and went out on the piazza. Here he
+stood while his trunk and the emergency chest were swung up behind the
+stage and roped. Then he climbed up beside the driver, who was glad to
+have some one near to help him keep awake during the long night ride, and
+they were off, only to be stopped almost immediately by a man standing
+in the doorway of a store.
+
+"Hold up there!" shouted the man. "Steele is here, and wants to go on
+to-night."
+
+The name caught Ross's attention. "Is it Amos Steele?" he asked the
+driver.
+
+The driver assented. "Yep--superintendent of the Gale's Ridge Mine up
+in Camp."
+
+Ross leaned forward and surveyed with interest the pleasant-faced,
+well-dressed, squarely-built young man who came out of the store and
+climbed into the stage. In his pocket Ross had the letter Steele had
+written his father at Weimer's request.
+
+"Git out of this," the driver requested briefly of his four bronchos as
+the stage door slammed to, and the four obligingly "got out" on a run.
+
+Just as they left the last house behind them, a figure on horseback
+whirled by in a cloud of dust, and Ross recognized in the sheepskin coat
+and hairy chaps the stranger who had attracted his attention during
+dinner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DOC TENDERFOOT IN ACTION
+
+
+BESIDES Steele, there were three other passengers inside the stage
+that night. One was the assistant manager of the Embar Ranch, south of
+Meeteetse. He had been to Omaha with a car-load of cattle. The remaining
+two were miners whom Steele had picked up in Butte. This much Ross
+learned from the driver. He learned many other things by listening to
+the conversation between Hillis, the manager, and Steele, although
+all the while he was keenly observant of his surroundings.
+
+The stage was bowling along smoothly over a road as level as a floor and
+flooded by brilliant moonlight. Behind them Cody faded into silvery
+mist, guarded by the huge shadowy bulks of the Big Horn Mountains. Ahead,
+houseless and treeless, stretched the shelf until the shimmering mist
+cut off the sight. And in the distance, so far ahead that sometimes he
+blended with the mist, rode the horseman in the sheepskin coat.
+
+"Hi, there, Andy," called the ranch-manager; "who is that fellow ahead?"
+
+Andy, the driver, turned, and looked down through the open flap into the
+cavernous darkness of the stage. "Don't know. Didn't find out. I have
+seen fellers, though, that can give more information about themselves
+per square inch than that same chap ahead there."
+
+"I never saw 'im in these parts before," returned Hillis.
+
+"Nor I." The driver spat over the flank of the right wheeler. "Gid'ep
+there, Suke, ye slowmy, you! Hike it, old Blue! Git out of this!" And,
+having thus jogged the energy of the leaders, Andy gave his attention
+again to Hillis. "Hain't ever set eyes on that brown chap before. I
+guessed back there he was bound fer Embar. Looks like a puncher."
+
+"I wish"--the assistant manager of the Embar spoke forcefully--"that he
+and seven or eight more were bound for the Embar."
+
+"Short of hands, eh?" questioned Andy, whirling his "black snake" so
+skilfully that the lash missed the heads of the wheelers, and touched the
+flank of the nigh leader.
+
+"Short of hands?" Steele broke in. "Who isn't short of hands from Butte
+to Omaha--especially in Wyoming? I've been out two weeks advertising
+and hunting men, and here I am back again with two only."
+
+Ross turned half around in his high seat, and grasped the low back. "Is
+labor as scarce as that in Miners' Camp?" he burst out in a brusque,
+astonished tone which betrayed a personal interest.
+
+"As scarce as diamonds," returned Steele, adding with a laugh, "and
+almost as expensive."
+
+Andy pushed back his hat, and surveyed his young companion with
+curiosity. There was a little stir in the coach also.
+
+"It must be"--Amos Steele spoke as if the matter had been debated
+before--"that you are related to Ross Grant of New York."
+
+"Yes," returned Ross, "I am his son."
+
+He was conscious of becoming an immediate centre of speculation.
+
+"I wondered," remarked Steele, "when I saw your name on the hotel
+register. Going out to Camp, are you?"
+
+"Yes," Ross hesitated. "In answer to that letter you wrote father for
+Mr. Weimer."
+
+"Oh!" Steele's tone was edged with astonishment.
+
+"Come out to see to the work, did ye?" asked Andy.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Andy glanced sidewise, and Ross caught the look of incredulity.
+
+[Illustration: "Regular Trail from Miner's Camp to Weimer's, Etc."]
+
+"Expected to hire men to do it, did ye?" That Andy was a general
+information bureau was due to his faculty for asking questions.
+
+"Yes, I do," emphatically.
+
+The present tense of the reply did not escape the listener's attention.
+
+"Weimer has tried to hire," volunteered Steele; "but it's no use."
+
+"Why not?" demanded the boy.
+
+"Well, in the first place, as I said, there hain't enough men to supply
+the demand; and, in the second place, no man in his senses is going away
+over on the Creek, where he'll be shut in for months, when he can just
+as well stay down in Camp, and get the same wages."
+
+"Shut in for months?" repeated Ross slowly.
+
+Andy explained. "Along about first of February ye're shut in fer
+sartain. Trail fills up, and there's apt to be snowslides any time on
+old Crosby."
+
+Ross sat with widening eyes staring out into the moonlight, and wondering
+with tightening muscles what he was "up against." The vagueness of his
+father's knowledge concerning Weimer's work had not counted in New
+York. But here, swinging along toward Miners' Camp with two-thirds
+of the width of the continent between himself and his friends, Ross
+realized that this vagueness had put him at a disadvantage.
+
+The two men behind him began discussing the cattle market, and the
+stage slid down the side of the first mesa of the Wyoming bad lands
+and into the coulee, or dry creek, at the bottom. The level road was
+left behind. Up hill and down plunged the horses ahead of the rocking,
+tipping stage. There was no regular road. A dozen tracks showed the
+differing routes of as many drivers. To Ross it seemed as if destruction
+were imminent every time they came to the top of one of the short,
+steep hills. But Andy jammed on the brake hard, and, giving a peculiar
+little whistle, yelled carelessly, "Git out of this."
+
+Presently Andy took advantage of the rattle of wheels and hoofs to say
+to Ross: "Steele is boss of the Gale's Ridge work up to Camp. They keep
+open all winter; t'other company shuts down."
+
+"Shuts down?" repeated Ross.
+
+"Yep, has to. Men go down t' Cody t' work on the Project. Hard work to
+keep men in Camp through the winter. When the railroad goes up there,
+'twill be different."
+
+Some one inside the stage struck a match.
+
+"On time, ain't you, Andy?" asked Steele's voice; "it's twelve-thirty."
+
+"Yep," returned the driver. "Here's Dry Creek."
+
+The road, a well-defined track here, was hemmed in between a creek-bed
+on one hand and a hill on the other. On top of the hill, silhouetted
+against the star-studded sky, appeared a wagon with a white bellying
+canvas top. Around it, covering the hilltop and the side clear down
+to the track was a soft white moving mass that caused Ross to give a
+startled exclamation.
+
+"Why--that looks like--it _is_ sheep!" he ejaculated. "Sheep by the
+hundreds."
+
+"Sheep's the word!" returned the driver. "This is Sheepy's layout.
+That's his wagon up yon. He herds fer parties in Cody. There's nigh
+seven hundred of them sheep. Never seen such a flock before, did ye?"
+
+Before Ross could reply, the stage swung around a corner of the hill
+and Andy, with a sharp whistle, drew up the leaders abruptly. They were
+in an open space in front of the stage camp, half cabin and half dugout
+driven into the hillside. Beside the dugout was a low, stout corral,
+outside of which were a haystack and a jumble of bales of hay. As the
+stage stopped, the door of the dugout opened, and a man loomed large
+against a dim light within.
+
+But all this Ross did not notice at the time. His attention was riveted
+on the horse just ahead ridden by the stranger. Around and around it
+whirled, unmindful of the quirt and spur of the rider.
+
+"Pretty ridin'," remarked Andy, spitting appreciatively over the wheel.
+
+The men inside the stage clambered out with grunts at their stiffened
+limbs, and leaned against the wheels watching. The man in the doorway
+stepped out, and thrust his hands into his pockets, and looked calmly
+while the horse placed its four feet together and humped its back with a
+momentum which sent the rider high in the air.
+
+When he came down, he settled himself in the saddle, drew up on the
+reins, and dug his spurs into the horse's flank. The animal, his
+nostrils distended and the foam flying from his mouth, without any
+warning rose on his hind legs, and threw himself backward. The rider
+freed one foot from the stirrup; but the other caught, and horse and
+rider went down in a heap. There was a deep groan from both, and then
+silence. If the men had seemed indifferent before, they made up in
+activity now. With a flying leap Andy was down from his high seat. The
+stage-camp man rushed forward, and threw himself on the horse's head,
+while the others pulled the unconscious rider from beneath the animal's
+body.
+
+"Leg's done for," Ross heard Steele say as they carried the wounded man
+into the dugout.
+
+Ross clambered awkwardly down from his seat, and followed. He nearly fell
+over an empty chicken-coop and into the one little room of the dugout.
+
+"Put 'im here," directed the stage-camp man, whom the others called
+Hank. He pointed to the blankets in the corner from which he had crawled
+ten minutes before.
+
+"Here, boy," Steele said with pale-faced absorption, "smooth the blankets
+up."
+
+Ross, half dazed by his strange and unexpected surroundings, slowly and
+clumsily did as he was directed, and they laid the unconscious stranger
+down carefully, his left leg hanging limply from a point half-way
+between knee and hip. Then the men straightened up, and looked at one
+another.
+
+"A bad job," muttered Hank.
+
+"Take 'im back to Cody?" asked Steele.
+
+Hillis shook his head. "Doctor there went to Thermopolis this morning."
+
+Suddenly the daze which had beclouded Ross's brain cleared away. He woke
+up, and his whole attention focused itself on the prostrate man. In a
+moment he became alert, resourceful, and active. His boyish hesitation
+fell from him. He threw off his top-coat, tossed his cap with it to the
+uncovered board table, and, kneeling by the man's side, laid his ear
+on the heart.
+
+"Go out," he said authoritatively to the astonished men, "and bring in my
+smallest trunk. Hurry, for this chap will be conscious in just a moment."
+
+No one stirred.
+
+Whipping out his jack-knife, Ross cut a strap which secured the chaps,
+and caught one leg at the ankle. "Help me pull 'em off," he cried
+urgently.
+
+Some one stooped to the other foot, and the chaps were off. Kneeling
+beside the wounded leg, with his knife, Ross ripped the trousers from
+ankle to thigh, and exposed a bloody wound.
+
+"Compound fracture," he exclaimed after a brief examination.
+
+Then he looked up. "Where's that chest?" he demanded. "I must cleanse
+this and bandage it at once."
+
+The cock-sureness of the boy's tone and the sight of the skilful touch
+of his fingers on the wound galvanized the two miners into action, and
+in a moment the emergency chest was beside Ross.
+
+"Hot water," was his next command, as he fumbled with the key, "and a
+small dish"--his eye fell on the table--"that salt cellar, with every
+grain of salt washed out. Quick!"
+
+The wounded man had recovered consciousness now, and was groaning, and
+clinching his fists, and rolling his head from side to side in agony.
+
+"Are you a doctor?" asked Steele incredulously.
+
+"My uncle is," Ross returned briefly, "and I'm going to be."
+
+The answer, coupled with a view of the contents of the chest and Ross's
+manipulation of those contents, brought relief to the men.
+
+He had produced a hypodermic syringe, and with a tiny morphine tablet
+dissolved in the salt cellar he began operations which lasted the greater
+part of two hours, and employed every man present.
+
+"Bring in that hen-coop," directed Ross; "we can use that for a double
+inclined plane to stretch the leg over."
+
+Steele, who had so recently issued orders to a slow and clumsy boy, now
+quietly obeyed this embryo surgeon. Hillis was holding bandages, while
+Hank and Andy were doing something which filled their souls with wonder,
+namely, making long, narrow bags from grain sacks out of which wheat
+had been hastily dumped.
+
+"By the great horn spoon, what're these fer?" Andy demanded in an
+undertone, running the big needle deep into his thumb. "Jehoshaphat!"
+
+Hank shook his head helplessly. He plumped a stick of wood into his rusty
+old stove, and refilled a kettle from a water pail which stood on a box.
+Steele dragged in the triangular chicken-coop, and laid it beside the
+wounded man, who was moaning mechanically and drowsily now.
+
+Ross arose, and set a bottle of alcohol on the table. He looked
+critically at the coop. "The very thing," he muttered with eyes alight.
+"How fortunate that I fell over it coming in!" Then he paused in thought.
+
+Miners' Camp and Meadow Creek were forgotten. Forgotten were Weimer and
+the neglected work. A "case" lay before him, a man needing the help that
+it was life for the boy to give.
+
+When, at last, the belated stage was ready to move on, the men, again
+in their overcoats, lined up and looked down at the sleeping patient. He
+lay with the knee of the wounded leg over the peak of the chicken-coop,
+padded thick and soft with blankets, the leg held secure and motionless
+between heavy sand-bags. Down the leg from knee to foot on either side
+ran strips of adhesive plaster with loops protruding below the foot. And
+attached to the loops was a small bag loaded with stone.
+
+"To reduce the fracture," Ross explained briefly. He was on his knees,
+measuring the well leg with a tape measure from the haircloth trunk.
+"See, this leg is longer now because the broken parts of the thigh bone
+in the other have been driven past each other, and the muscles have
+contracted, shortening the leg. The weight on the foot will stretch
+the muscles and allow the ends of the bone to meet again."
+
+"Jehoshaphat!" exclaimed Andy softly. "He's lucky to have you come
+trailin' down the pike just behind 'im. But see here, fellers," the
+driver turned to the others; "yer Uncle Samuel will dock me this time
+sure, fer the mail won't reach Meeteetse in time fer the stage up to
+Miners' Camp!"
+
+"Miners' Camp!"
+
+The exclamation burst involuntarily from Ross. He arose. The tape measure
+dropped from his hands. He drew his hand across his wet forehead. He had
+seen the stage load prepare to go on without a thought that he ought
+to go also. His one idea had been the care of the nameless man on the
+blankets.
+
+"Miners' Camp," he repeated; "why, I ought to go on!"
+
+"Not much," cried Hank in lively alarm. "What 'ud I do with him and all
+that toggery?" jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the chicken-coop.
+
+"Of course," was Ross's decision in a low tone, "I can't desert
+him--but I ought to go on."
+
+A few moments later, Andy's four bronchos pounded up the hill beyond
+the stage camp and disappeared, leaving Ross standing beside the window
+watching. The man on the blankets breathed heavily. A big yellow cat
+purred around Ross's legs. Hank poked the fire.
+
+"Guess I'll rustle some grub now," the latter said in awkward
+solicitude. "Ye're all in, ain't ye, Doc?"
+
+Ross turned from the window wearily without replying, and for the first
+time looked about the cabin.
+
+It was roughly boarded, with a hard dirt floor. In addition to the
+bench, the only seats were boxes in which "canned goods" had been stored
+away. A pile of wood lay behind an old stove propped up on boxes in
+lieu of legs. A cupboard containing some tin cups and thick plates, a
+few pans and skillets, and a shelf heaped with magazines half a year
+old completed the furnishings of the room.
+
+Suddenly Ross's eyes lighted on the wounded man's sheepskin coat, which
+had been cast hurriedly aside on the floor. Lifting it, he stepped to
+the door, and commenced to shake it energetically. Out of the breast
+pocket fell a small object. It hit the stone in front of the door
+with a metallic ring. Ross picked it up, and looked down into the
+photographed face of a winning girl with smiling eyes, curved lips, and
+plump cheeks. The picture was a little oval set in a gilt frame. On the
+back in a girlish hand was written the inscription, "To Lon Weston."
+
+"Weston, huh?" came Hank's voice at Ross's elbow. "I never heard of Lon
+Weston before. Wonder where he hails from."
+
+Hank glanced speculatively at the sleeper, then took a deep earthenware
+dish from the cupboard, beat its contents with a spoon, greased a
+skillet, and set it on the fire.
+
+"Men fergot t' eat," he grumbled, "'n' fergot t' feed the horses.
+They fergot everything except him. They'll be one hungry lot when they
+land in Meeteetse."
+
+He raised the smoking skillet, and gave a deft toss, which sent the
+flapjack spinning into the air, turned it over, and settled it back with
+the baked side uppermost.
+
+"Nice-looking girl that!" he muttered absently, immediately adding, "Here
+ye are--flapjacks 'n' coffee!"
+
+Late in the afternoon the injured man aroused himself groaning. He
+stared at Ross with eyes which gradually cleared as a realization of
+his environment was borne in on him.
+
+"I say, Doc," he muttered, biting his lips with the pain, "I'm all to
+the bad, ain't I?"
+
+"Leg's used up for a few days, that's all, Mr. Weston," returned Ross
+cheerfully.
+
+The man turned his head quickly. His eyes widened and he seemed to
+forget his pain. For a long moment he lay motionless looking from Ross to
+Hank, who grinned hospitably at him from the stove.
+
+"Cheer up down there," said Hank in jovial strain, "the worst is yet
+t' come, fer I'm makin' ye some puddin', and even my mother 'ud
+say that puddin' ain't one of my strong pints!"
+
+The sick man did not smile. He merely stared at the speaker until Hank
+disappeared, a water pail in hand, bound for the spring. Then he threw
+out a hand toward Ross and asked abruptly:
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+Ross, turning a flapjack awkwardly, looked inquiringly over his shoulder.
+"Get what?"
+
+"The name--Weston?"
+
+Ross smiled and then, partly because he was embarrassed and partly
+because he thought the injured man would be, turned his back before
+answering, "A picture fell out of your coat and I--we--saw the name
+written on the back, 'Lon Weston.'"
+
+There was no reply, and presently Ross added, "I put the photo back in
+your pocket and hung the coat above your head there on the peg. Guess
+you can reach it."
+
+Still no reply, and Ross, looking around, found his patient with head
+turned away, eyes closed and lips pressed tightly together in his beard.
+
+Suddenly, in the open doorway appeared a figure that Ross had not seen
+before. A shaggy head was advanced cautiously within the cabin and the
+owner peered at Weston curiously. Then, evidently understanding his
+closed eyes to mean sleep, the stranger backed out precipitately and sat
+down on the bench outside the door. From this vantage point he peered
+around the jamb from time to time eyeing Ross and his patient in turn.
+
+"Good-evening," said the former as the stranger showed no signs of
+speaking.
+
+The shaggy head appeared in the doorway and nodding briefly, was
+withdrawn, just as Hank, coming with the water, called, "Well, Sheepy,
+what's the latest word up your way?"
+
+It was Luther, otherwise "Sheepy," the herder whose wagon crowned the
+adjacent hill. He was Hank's daily caller.
+
+"There ye are, Doc," exclaimed Hank entering with the water. "Puddin'
+fer Weston, and flapjacks 'n' coffee fer you and me with cabbage 'n'
+spuds thrown in. Fill up."
+
+It was a menu which was not varied to any great extent in the days which
+followed, strange days for "Doc Tenderfoot," as Hank called Ross.
+
+[Illustration: "WHAT'S THE LATEST WORD?"]
+
+Every night at midnight one of the two stages plying between Cody and
+Meeteetse stopped at the stage camp for supper and horse feed. Every
+noon the other stage stopped for dinner on its return trip. Between
+times, horsemen came and went, occasionally, men from the ranches on
+Wood River and the Grey Bull, miners "packing" their beds behind them,
+prospectors going out of the mountains for the winter, and every day
+during the first week there was Sheepy. Sheepy usually came toward night
+when his flock had been driven in from the range and rounded up by the
+faithful shepherd dog near the canvas-topped wagon.
+
+One day, the last of the week, after Ross had had a particularly trying
+time with his patient, he left the latter asleep, and going outside, sat
+on the bench in the sunshine watching Hank who was repairing the corral.
+Presently Sheepy joined him, first refreshing himself, as usual, with a
+long look at the snoring Weston.
+
+"Once I seen a feller that rode like him and looked like him, only his
+hair and beard," Sheepy announced finally in a hoarse whisper. "I seen
+'im ridin' in ahead of th' stage that night, and I thought 'twas
+th' other chap."
+
+Ross listened without interest. Sheepy filled a pipe with deliberation
+and lighted it. Then, clasping a worn knee in both hands he spoke again
+out of the corner of his mouth.
+
+"That feller had hair light as tow and his face clean of beard, but he
+rode the same and his eyes was the same. He was a puncher off the cattle
+ranges. Used to ride past my wagon alone about once a week headin' fer
+town. Went in the edge of the evenin' always."
+
+"And where were you?" asked Ross still without interest.
+
+"Down in Oklahomy. I was herdin' sheep fer old man Quinn."
+
+Ross looked at Sheepy with new interest. "I heard the men on the train
+talking about old man Quinn and the sheep that he lost. Were you there
+at that time?"
+
+Sheepy nodded. "I sartain was. That's two years gone by."
+
+"And did you see what was going on--driving the sheep into the river,
+I mean?" questioned Ross eagerly.
+
+The sheep-herder shook his grizzled head. "It wa'n't off my range that
+the sheep was drove, but another feller's called Happy. He seen there
+was four men done it. It was night--dark night, and they didn't stop to
+say howdy ner make any introductions. They shot Happy's dog and got
+away over the bluff with a thousand sheep. They was drunk, all of 'em,
+but not too drunk not t' know what they was doin'. Old man Quinn got
+three of 'em. He's been after the other ever since."
+
+"Do you think he'll be caught?"
+
+Sheepy moved his shoulders helplessly. "Don't know. Old man Quinn he
+never lets up on a thing. Took 'im two years t' find three. Bet he
+don't give t'other up."
+
+"Why did they drive the sheep over the bluff?" asked Ross.
+
+Sheepy frowned. "Cattlemen claimed the sheep had crossed the dead line.
+Cattlemen are always claimin' that, and they push the line further
+and further in on the sheep and claim more of the range every year.
+They do here. They did down in Oklahomy. The sheep owners and cattlemen
+had a row at the big cattle round-up on the North Fork. It was after
+the round-up, when the cow punchers was feelin' pretty gay and let
+themselves loose, that them four drove old man Quinn's sheep over
+the bluff."
+
+There was a pause, and then Sheepy went back to the original subject.
+"The feller that looked like him and rode like him," jerking his thumb
+over his shoulder, "used to ride past when I was shakin' grub in my
+wagon. He used t' go grinnin' mostly and starin' at his hoss'
+ears. And he alus went with his fixin's on, tan chaps and a red silk
+'kerchief 'round his neck and Indian gloves with these here colored
+gauntlets. Oh, he struck the trail in his good togs all right--bet he
+went t' see some girl 'r other!"
+
+This was the last information that Ross received from Sheepy for several
+months. The following morning there arrived from Cody a supply wagon
+which replenished the sheep-herder's larder, and then, the sheep having
+eaten the range bare for miles around the dugout, the canvas-topped
+wagon was attached to the supply wagon and drawn to another hilltop
+ten miles away. With it went Sheepy only faintly regretting the loss
+of companionship at the dugout. The seven hundred sheep that his dog
+rounded up and drove in advance of the wagons were the companions with
+which he was best acquainted.
+
+"It wouldn't ha' been a bad idee," Hank remarked when the last bleat
+died away in the distance, "if Sheepy could ha' stayed all winter. He
+ain't generally long on talk--none of them herders be--but he was some
+one t' have around, and once in a while his tongue breaks loose."
+
+Ross drew a long breath and thought of Meadow Creek.
+
+In the afternoon Hank resumed his repairs on the corral, leaving Weston
+asleep and Ross kneeling beside his medicine chest sorting its contents.
+
+The sorting done, the boy arose noiselessly and closed the lid of the
+chest. Then, turning, he looked down on the head of the sleeper. For
+the first time he noticed that Weston's hair, thick and unkempt, was
+dull in color and had a dead look at variance with its evident health.
+Tiptoeing across the floor he bent over the recumbent man and gently
+raising a lock of his hair looked wonderingly at the roots. The sight
+caused him to utter an exclamation which disturbed the sleeper. He
+straightened himself and stepped back precipitately.
+
+The hair was tow-colored at the roots.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FOURTH MAN
+
+
+ROSS stood motionless until Weston, muttering and turning his head from
+side to side, gradually came to rest again and fell into a deeper sleep.
+Then the boy went outside and sat down on the bench.
+
+"It's easy enough to put two and two together," he muttered.
+
+Leaning forward, he dropped his elbows on his knees and taking his head
+between his hands, proceeded to do some adding satisfactory in its
+results. He longed for the presence of Sheepy. Now he would question
+him with interest on the subject of the puncher whose face was free
+from a beard and whose hair was tow color. He wanted more information
+on the subject of that cattle round-up and of the process of getting
+those three guilty cow punchers. Still, he believed that Sheepy had
+told him enough to make it clear that Weston was the fourth that old man
+Quinn was after.
+
+"Some one that looked like Weston and rode like him," Ross enumerated
+the points in the evidence, "only the man in Oklahoma had no beard and
+his hair was tow color."
+
+What was easier than to grow a beard--the hair was already accounted
+for--it had been tow-colored before its owner stained it a chestnut
+brown. And why should he have colored it unless for purposes of disguise?
+And why a disguise unless he was guilty of a crime such as driving old
+man Quinn's sheep into the North Fork?
+
+At this point in his reasoning, another fact flashed into the boy's
+mind--the strange way in which Weston had acted about his name.
+
+"Ha, ha!" exclaimed Ross aloud and then checked his voice. "Probably he
+didn't want us to know his name, his real name," he thought. "How all
+that dovetails together. If I could only get hold of Sheepy now!"
+
+On further reflection, however, he decided that Sheepy could throw no
+more light on the subject. It was evident that the herder did not know
+the name of the puncher who had ridden alone past his wagon, for he had
+not connected Weston's name with the other. Nor would Weston, if he
+were the same puncher, be likely to recognize Sheepy who, as he himself
+said, was in his wagon preparing supper when the puncher, his eyes on
+his horse's ears, passed.
+
+That night, when Ross rolled up in his blankets beside Weston he was sure
+he was lying beside the fourth cowboy of old man Quinn's search. But
+in the cold clear dawn he was not so sure. It might have been vanity that
+had led Weston to stain his hair, tow not being a manly color. Then,
+too, even if he had been on the North Fork, so were dozens of other
+cow punchers. As to his name, Weston would naturally have been astonished
+at perfect strangers addressing him rightly where he believed himself
+unknown.
+
+Ross, eating his breakfast, and only half listening to Hank, looked down
+at the prostrate man speculatively, his mind full of suspicion, but not
+so sure as on the previous day that there was no flaw in his reasoning.
+He had not had an opportunity, the day before, of speaking to Hank about
+the matter, and now he decided to keep his suspicions to himself for
+the present.
+
+His suspicions, however, during the two weeks which followed, were
+swallowed up in the anxiety that attended this, the first "case"
+where he had been obliged to assume all responsibility. The care and
+interruptions to his rest wore on him. Never had one of Aunt Anne's
+hair mattresses invited sleep as did the blankets laid on the dirt
+floor when he found time to lie on them. Often he fell asleep sitting
+on the hard bench, his head on his arms crossed on the table, while
+Hank was frying flapjacks and boiling thick black coffee.
+
+As for the patient, he accepted Ross's ministrations with but few
+remarks. As his thigh bone began to knit, he became querulous, and
+finally passively enduring.
+
+"When you goin' to let me out of this?" he asked on the day when Ross
+last measured the injured leg.
+
+The boy settled back on his heels. "I have sent for some plaster of
+Paris," he explained, "and, by the time it gets here, your leg will be
+healed and ready for a cast. Then you can be taken back to Cody and
+let the doctor there see you. If it was not for that ugly fracture you
+would have been out of here before. If you'd only have the Cody doctor
+to look you over now----"
+
+The man grunted, and worked restlessly at the sand-bag, which, on the
+outside of his leg, reached his armpit.
+
+"Cody doctor be hanged!" he remarked unaffably. "He don't know half as
+much as you do."
+
+It was the nearest approach to thanks or praise he had given Ross.
+
+"That Cody doctor ain't worth shucks," confirmed Hank, who occupied a
+box beside the stove. "He tended a feller that I knew, and let 'im die."
+The speaker looked from Ross to his patient with an expression which
+plainly said that the former could not be guilty of any such charge.
+
+The brown eyes of the patient rolled slowly in their sockets until their
+gaze could rest on Ross. Then the lids dropped over them. "The Cody
+doctor be hanged!" he remarked again more affably, and fell asleep.
+
+Ross continued to sit on his heels until his patient commenced to snore.
+Then he glanced at the occupant of the box seat and asked softly:
+
+"Hank, has Weston ever told you where he came from?"
+
+"Nope," responded Hank absently. "Not where he hails from ner where
+he's started fer, ner why, ner what fer. That's nothin' though, Doc."
+Here Hank looked sidewise at Ross. "You'll find, if ye stay in these
+parts long, that there's lots of men who ain't partin' with every
+fact they know within ten minutes after ye're introduced to 'em. And
+you'll find, too, that it ain't always healthy to ask questions. Ye
+have th' sort of sense who ye can question and who ye can't."
+
+"And this fellow----" Ross jerked his head in the direction of the
+sleeper.
+
+Hank yawned and reached for the poker and a stick of wood. "I ain't
+aimin' to inquire fer into his history--unless I could inquire of
+some one else besides himself, that is. Hello!" he interrupted himself
+suddenly with the stick held over the stove. "Who's that hikin' over
+the Creek?"
+
+Ross arose with alacrity and went to the door. The first snow had fallen
+on the bad lands, but in an hour it had been whisked away by a warm
+northwest wind, leaving the ground soft and a little stream of water in
+Dry Creek across which rode a man who proved to be a prospector from the
+mountains.
+
+"Must have had a bit of snow here," he called as he turned his horse into
+the corral. "Up t' Miners' Camp it's two inches deep and driftin'."
+
+As this prospector was eating his dinner, he most unexpectedly gave Ross
+his first news of Weimer. The boy, finding Hank both intelligent and
+sympathetic, had talked freely concerning his mission in the mountains
+and his desire to return East at an early date. To the latter subject,
+in all its details of study and college-attendance, Hank listened and
+questioned in open interest. But, when Ross touched the subject of
+Weimer and the McKenzies, the other was non-committal and guarded,
+as became a landlord who might be called upon any day to serve flapjacks
+and coffee to all of the parties under discussion.
+
+"I hope," he had observed cautiously on two or three occasions, "that
+you'll get on all right with Uncle Jake Weimer."
+
+And, although his tone implied a doubt, Ross could not prevail on him
+to explain it.
+
+But the prospector, who had ridden through from the mountains, and knew
+nothing of Ross or of his origin, spoke more freely. He had passed along
+Meadow Creek but a few days before.
+
+"Dutch Weimer," he told Hank as he bolted boiled cabbage and flapjacks,
+"was settin' at the door of his shack, a-smokin' as though his claims
+was all patented and secure. He says that Eastern pal of hisn is
+a-sendin' some one t' help 'im out."
+
+Hank coughed behind his hand, and motioned toward Ross, busy with his
+patient; but at first the prospector was too intent on his food to notice.
+
+"And there," he observed with a chuckle, "are them two McKenzie boys
+a-settin' on their claims next door and waitin'." He gave another
+chuckle. "Curious how that snow-blindness should have touched Dutch
+Weimer."
+
+Then he saw Hank's restraining gesture, and paused. Glancing down, he
+met Lon Weston's veiled brown eyes and Ross's wide gray ones; but the
+prospector had suddenly become as non-committal as Hank himself, nor did
+Ross's persistent questioning wring from him any further details. He
+had but passed that way, he assured Ross, had stopped but a moment in
+front of Weimer's cabin and that was all.
+
+But what he had said was enough to leave Ross troubled, and impatient
+to start for Meadow Creek and his delayed work.
+
+Finally the plaster of Paris came. The stage from Cody brought it one
+noon, and Ross's spirits arose at the prospect of release from his
+unwelcome charge.
+
+"If it wa'n't fer yer Uncle Samuel's long arm of the law, Doc," the
+stage-driver informed him as he was disposing of potatoes and pork, "I'd
+leave my stage right here and see ye wind all them stiff rags around
+that there leg. I'd like t' see th' finish s' long as I seen the
+beginnin'. But the trouble with bein' stage skinner is, ye've got
+t' hike along no matter what shows ye come acrost on the trail. Hand
+them spuds acrost, Doc, will ye? Hank, if ye'd let 'em smell fire a
+minute 'r two mebby I could drive my fork int' 'em."
+
+A few minutes later, he arose from the bench, drew the back of his hand
+across his mouth and addressed Weston. "Wall, I suppose you'll be ready
+t' be boosted onto the stage when I come back in th' mornin'? S'
+long."
+
+Scarcely had his four bronchos topped the hill on the further side of Dry
+Creek before a procession, the like of which Ross had never seen,
+appeared on the trail the other side of the dugout. It was a pack
+outfit on horses accompanied by a man and a boy. It slowly rounded the
+shoulder of the hill behind the corral. The man rode ahead whistling
+gaily, his sombrero pulled low over his eyes, a purple tie knotted
+under the turn-over collar of his flannel shirt. His horse's tail
+was tied to a rope which, in turn, was tied loosely about the neck of
+the first pack animal. In similar fashion the five bronchos were held
+together on the trail, and after them came a horse ridden by a boy about
+Ross's height. On the pack animals were wooden saddles piled high
+with supplies for a camp, boxes and bags securely roped to the saddles.
+
+Hank, in the act of clearing the dishes from the bare board table,
+stopped with a platter of boiled turnip and pork suspended in the air.
+"By the great horn spoon!" he yelled, "if there don't come Wishin'
+Wilson! And a pack outfit! Is my eyes a-foolin' me? Doc, look out. Is
+it a five bronc outfit, or ain't it?"
+
+"It certainly is," confirmed Ross.
+
+He arose from his seat on the floor where he was working in the plaster
+and stepped to the door. But Hank was before him holding up the platter
+of food.
+
+"Hey, there, Wishin'! Here's some come-backs hot fer ye! Where'd ye
+come from? Where ye goin' and what fer and how long and why and all the
+rest?" Evidently the newcomer was one of the kind that could safely be
+questioned, for Hank turned himself into a great interrogation point as
+he set the platter down, and rushing out, pulled the stranger from his
+horse, shaking him in familiar bear play.
+
+Ross watched while the train filed slowly up to the dugout, bringing the
+boy's mount to rest in front of the door.
+
+The young rider wore a new brown corduroy suit, and a long fur coat, the
+skirts of which were drawn up awkwardly above a pair of high riding
+boots and tucked under the rider's legs. A pair of shining silver
+spurs adorned the heels of the boots, while a sealskin cap crowned a
+head covered with closely cropped hair darker than Ross's. His eyes
+also were darker and his figure, although of the same height, was more
+slender than Ross's. He was also, apparently, a couple of years younger.
+
+The two boys nodded at each other, Ross with awkward cordiality and
+interest, the stranger carelessly and with unmistakable condescension.
+Swinging himself out of the saddle he said pleasantly but commandingly:
+
+"Take my coat inside, please."
+
+He shed his fur coat and pulled off his fur-lined gloves and tossed both
+into Ross's arms, while Hank, watching the proceeding out of the tail
+of an amused eye, talked with Wilson.
+
+Ross, biting his lips, backed into the shack and tossed coat and gloves
+on the end of the table near Weston. The boy, following his moves from
+the doorway, pointed at the prostrate man, asking in a surprised and
+subdued voice:
+
+"What ails him?"
+
+"Broke his leg," responded Ross shortly, not relishing the touch of
+lordliness in the other's manner.
+
+"How did he do it?" demanded the stranger.
+
+"Horse fell on him," answered Ross, and returned abruptly to his work
+with the plaster.
+
+Weston lay with his blanket drawn up to his chin and one arm thrown over
+his face and ear, his face turned to the wall. He was breathing regularly
+as though in sleep, although Ross knew he was wide awake. This was a
+favorite position with him when Hank was entertaining guests. It saved
+him the trouble of responding to inquiries, and, as Ross had come to
+suspect, might also serve to avert a chance recognition.
+
+Presently Wilson approached the dugout, leaving the boy in the corral
+rubbing down his mount. One arm was thrown in rough affection over
+Hank's shoulder while the two pulled each other about like two boys
+at play.
+
+"I tell you, Hank!" Wilson exclaimed at the door, "this is what ye might
+call God's country, and I always have a feelin' of gettin' home in
+these parts. But, Jehoshaphat! it didn't look a spell ago as if I'd
+ever strike the trail to the mountains again. It looked like as if I'd
+have to throw up my claims and----"
+
+"Sh!" interrupted Hank tiptoeing into the shack. "Guess he's asleep,
+ain't he?" He explained over his shoulder in a hoarse whisper. "Chap
+named Weston that come this way three weeks ago and bust his leg out in
+front, here. Hoss fell on him."
+
+Wilson, who followed at Hank's heels, looked Weston over with friendly
+but detached interest. "On the mend, is he?" asked the newcomer subduing
+his voice with difficulty.
+
+Hank forgot to continue his whisper. "You bet!" he exclaimed heartily.
+"Doc here is a-mendin' him t' beat anything I ever seen from a full
+sized doctor." He jerked his thumb toward Ross. "Doc's goin' to have
+him all plastered up and out of here to-morrow."
+
+Wishing looked at Ross with a pleasant nod, stepped over the bench and
+was about to seat himself at the table when he bethought him suddenly
+of his riding companion. Leaning forward he looked out of the doorway.
+Then with a nod he sat down and forgetting that Weston was supposedly
+sleeping, raised his voice again to its normal high key.
+
+"Fetch on them come-backs, Hank. My pard'll be here in a minute. I need
+t' git the start of him in eating always, fer he ain't long on grub
+such as we shake out here. I expect," with an amused chuckle, "that it
+ain't exactly what he's used to."
+
+Hank slapped his knee and leaned forward. "Say, Wishin', how d'ye come
+t' be hikin' over the country with Queen Victory's youngest? My eyes!
+Ain't he a reg'lar ornament t' th' landscape?"
+
+Wishing Wilson laughed softly and then glancing hastily from Ross to
+Weston, shook his head at Hank. "Less is all right!" he declared
+cautiously. "He's young yet. Lots of time to learn--more time 'n
+you and me have, Hank."
+
+Hank set coffee before his guest, asking, "Who is he and where does he
+hail from?"
+
+Wilson squared himself before the table, both arms resting thereon and
+began to eat noisily, talking between knifefuls.
+
+"Luckiest thing for me that ever struck the trail, that young feller
+is," he began. "I was stranded down in Omaha without a red cent in my
+pocket and no way of raisin' one. If you'll believe me I couldn't
+find a man in Omaha with brains enough to believe in them claims of
+mine, no, not with the ore assay report before their eyes. I tell ye,
+Hank, times have changed down in Omaha. There wa'n't no grub-stakers
+waitin' around like there used to be fer prospectors to snatch up--no,
+not one. And just as I was gettin' plum used up talkin', this young
+feller, Less Jones, fell onto me outer a clear sky. It was in a hotel
+where I went t' talk with a drummer, but not t' eat. Why, Hank, yer
+Uncle Wilson didn't have the price of a hotel dinner handy, and that
+drummer never treated me! Well, I stood tryin' to persuade him that his
+salary was burning fer investment in my claims, when in comes Less
+and lined up 'longside me listenin'. I hadn't any kind of objection
+to his hearin', but he looked like such a cub that I never paid no
+attention t' 'im, but when the drummer said a final 'Nix,' Less he
+stepped up and asked me about the claims, and, t' make a long story
+short, before the end of the day I was hikin' over town hot footed on
+the trail of supplies with Less at my heels with an open pocketbook."
+
+"Does he stay up t' the Creek with you?" asked Hank wonderingly.
+
+"Says he will," laughed Wilson. "Says he's wanted for years t' try his
+luck with quartz!"
+
+"Must 'a' begun wantin' then when he was a baby," remarked Hank
+succinctly. "Where's his ma and pa?"
+
+Wishing shrugged his shoulders and balanced a quantity of pork and
+potatoes on the blade of his knife. "Search me! He says there's no one
+to hender him doin' what he pleases, and so I take it he's dropped
+out of some fairy orphanage som'ers where they have gold t' burn.
+I'm fallin' on his neck more'n I'm askin' him questions that he
+don't want t' answer. Less is an all right sort, you'll find, but
+he ain't long on information."
+
+At this point Wishing's garrulity suffered an interruption from the
+entrance of his young partner.
+
+Leslie Jones walked with the erect bearing that Aunt Anne coveted for
+Ross. Buttoning his short corduroy jacket over a soft flannel shirt,
+across the front of which was suspended a large gold chain, he ran his
+fingers around inside his collar and looked about impatiently.
+
+Ross, attending strictly to his work, did not look up. Hank, sitting on
+a bench opposite Wilson, spread his elbows yet further apart on the table
+and indicated a place beside him.
+
+"Set down and fall to, young feller!"
+
+"I'll wash up first," returned Leslie in a tone which had a decided
+edge. His manner plainly indicated his desire to be waited on.
+
+Hank raised his eyebrows and waved a hand vaguely toward the stove.
+"There's pans 'n' water. Help yerself. Guess there's a towel hikin'
+about som'ers in the corner. My dozen best handmade 'uns ain't come
+in yet from the laundry!"
+
+Every one laughed except Weston and Leslie. The former breathed
+regularly, apparently unconscious of all that was said and done in the
+room. The latter flushed, and plunging into the corner tumbled the pans
+about angrily like a spoiled child, spilling as much water on the
+floor as he could. Then he sat down beside his partner and asked
+shortly for some hot coffee, with an emphasis on the adjective.
+
+Hank leisurely pushed the coffee-pot across the table. "Help yerself.
+This was hot a spell ago and will be again at supper time." Hank's voice
+having acquired an edge by this time, "Victory's youngest" poured the
+coffee angrily but wordlessly into his thick cup and ate in silence,
+listening to Wilson, who was too much occupied with a vision of riches
+to come to allow such scenes to disturb his equanimity.
+
+"As I told Less," he went on, raising his voice to drown opposition,
+"we'll leave part of the sticks and the grub up the canon to the coal
+claims and then when it comes winter and the mountains are impassable,
+we'll just strike the trail over from the Creek to the canon and work
+the coal till things open up in the spring. That Creek is a mean place to
+drop into this late."
+
+"What Creek?" asked Ross, suddenly awakening to the conversation.
+
+"Meadow Creek," returned Wishing.
+
+"That's where Doc is bound fer, Wishing'," volunteered Hank. "Doc is
+come out t' help Jake Weimer."
+
+Wishing surveyed the boy with cordial eyes. "Jake Weimer, hey? We'll be
+neighbors, then. My claims ain't two miles up the Creek."
+
+"Doc, he's Grant's boy," supplemented Hank. "But I bet my last year's
+hat that he can't mine it as well as he can doctor."
+
+"Doctor!" exclaimed Leslie Jones curiously. "Are you a doctor?"
+
+"He's fixed him up all right," interrupted Hank pointing to Weston.
+"Stretched his leg over my best chicken-coop and needled his arm and
+made 'im walk a chalk line generally. Oh, I tell ye Doc is better than
+the Cody doctor."
+
+Ross laughed. "I know something about medicine and surgery," he
+confessed. "I've read and helped my uncle, Dr. Grant. That's all."
+
+"All!" echoed Leslie Jones. His manner was touched with disbelief as he
+looked from Weston to Ross. "And did you, alone, set a leg?"
+
+Ross sought to change the subject. "Aw--that's not much--when you know
+how. I'm glad I'm to have neighbors up on Meadow Creek. Hope I don't
+have to stay there any longer than you do."
+
+"Expect to clean up the title this year, do you?" asked Wilson.
+
+"That's what I came for."
+
+"Well, all I can say now is that you'll be mighty glad you come. I tell
+ye what, Doc, Meadow Creek is the mining deestrict of the future,"
+whereupon Wishing launched on a glowing account of the future of Meadow
+Creek claims as he saw the future. His eyes lighted up and he forgot
+to eat as he told of the wonderful value of the gold and silver that he
+expected to pull out of the claims he had staked the previous year.
+He believed so thoroughly in his own vision that even Ross, whose
+interests were far removed from gold mining, felt a thrill of expectancy
+as to the outcome of his work in Meadow Creek, while Leslie, whose
+appetite was slight for the coarse, ill-cooked food, dropped his fork
+to listen although he must have heard the recital many times before.
+
+Shortly after dinner, the two saddled up and departed in the order in
+which they had come.
+
+"So long!" yelled Wilson, waving his hat. "We expect t' strike it rich
+before a month."
+
+"Good luck!" shouted Hank and Ross together, the latter adding, "I'll
+see you again in a few days."
+
+Hank, stuffing his hands into his pockets, pursed up his lips and
+whistled shortly as the pack outfit disappeared in a cloud of dust.
+
+"If Wishin' is cal'latin' that he has enough there to last two men all
+winter he's about as far off in his cal'lations as--well, as Wishin'
+usually is. Wishin' ain't no lightnin' cal'later on any subject, but
+he's a mighty likely chap t' have around."
+
+"Judging from the small amount his pard ate to-day he has food enough,
+I should say," returned Ross, adding hastily, "but then I realize that I
+know nothing about it."
+
+"Huh!" laughed Hank, "he must know that when that there young chap
+has been in the mountings a few days he'll eat mulligan 'n' spotted
+pup 'n' bacon with the best of 'em. His will be a good, lively
+comin' appetite--but huh! I should hate mightily t' have t' feed
+'im. Wonder if Wishin' has packed some bibs along 'n' silk socks
+'n' hand-warmers! Huh!"
+
+When Ross reentered the cabin he found Weston staring out of the doorway,
+his arm stretched by his side.
+
+"Guess you didn't sleep much," remarked Hank noisily gathering up the
+dishes.
+
+"All I wanted to," returned Weston shortly.
+
+Hank piled the dishes into a pan and poured boiling water over them.
+"M-m," he soliloquized, "all the time I was lookin' at him I was
+thinkin' I'd seen that young Jones before. M-m--where, I wonder?"
+
+No one answered, and he washed dishes in silence while Ross returned to
+his work and Weston lay staring out-of-doors.
+
+The following day Ross saw his patient depart on the stage headed toward
+Cody, and prepared to take the next one himself in the opposite direction.
+
+When he assisted Weston out of the door of the dugout, he knew exactly as
+much about him as when he followed his prostrate figure in at the same
+door three weeks before--and no more, unless the name be excepted.
+
+Hank watched the stage off with a scowl, and then departed from his usual
+custom of cautious speech, where possible customers were concerned.
+
+"Guess that feller must 'a' hailed from som'ers beside Wyoming," he
+grumbled. "Now, a Wyoming chap would 'a' paid his bill, or if he was
+on the hog's back, he'd owned up and passed his promise. But that
+there maverick never even said, 'Thank ye,' to you or me; and here
+you're knocked out of three weeks' work along of him, to say nothin'
+of the work day and night you've put in on 'im. Well, good riddance;
+'tain't no ways likely we'll set eyes on 'im again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A MAN WHO NEEDED BRACING UP
+
+
+THE road to Miners' Camp from Meeteetse, forty-five miles long, follows
+the Grey Bull to its junction with Wood River. Thence it wanders along
+through miles of fertile ranch lands; then, rising among the black
+foot-hills, up, up, it winds across the precipitous face of Jo-Jo Hill,
+and plunges among the snow-crowned Shoshones, crowded nearer and yet
+nearer to Wood River until finally there is but room for the narrow
+track and the narrow stream at the bottom of the deep canon.
+
+This was the road which Ross traveled the day following Weston's
+departure for Cody, and traveled in increasing discomfort. The further
+they advanced among the mountains, the colder it became, until, finally,
+Ross was obliged to desert the high seat beside Bill Travers, the
+driver, and seek shelter inside the stage, but not until he had learned
+from Bill that there was no hotel in Miners' Camp.
+
+In talking with Hank he had taken it for granted that there was a lodging
+house of some description and so had asked no questions on the subject.
+
+"I pack my grub along," Bill assured him carelessly, "'n' roll up in
+a bunk in a shack that some one 'r other has left. If you've packed
+yer bed along, stay with me to-night. There's the floor," hospitably,
+"and I guess I can rustle grub enough fer both. Anyhow, there's two
+eatin'-houses where you could fill up."
+
+At five in the afternoon the stage crawled through the dusk over a
+yielding bridge built of hemlock saplings creaking under their coating
+of ice and snow, and stopped in front of a shack out of whose open door
+glinted a welcome light. Another light appeared high up on the side of
+the mountain.
+
+"Hold up there, Bill," was the shout which had brought the stage to a
+standstill. "Got a cold, hungry young chap inside there, name of Grant?
+Wishin' Wilson went through yesterday and said he'd be along with you
+to-day."
+
+Ross recognized the voice as belonging to Steele, and, opening the stage
+door, answered for himself in the affirmative.
+
+Steele shook hands cordially. "Better get out here, Grant," he invited in
+an offhand way; "I have some beefsteak ready to fry, and the spuds are
+bakin' in the oven."
+
+Ross climbed out with as much alacrity as his cold, benumbed limbs would
+permit. But no sooner was he on the ground than something queer occurred.
+His legs gave every indication of doubling up under him, while his head
+felt as large and airy as a balloon. He clutched the wheel, but not
+until Steele had clutched him.
+
+"Altitude!" exclaimed Steele. "Being a mile and a half above sea-level
+don't agree with most people just at first."
+
+Ross leaned against the wheel, looking up giddily at the strip of sky
+corralled between the towering summits of Dundee and Gale's Ridge.
+It seemed to him that it was the mountains and not the altitude which
+oppressed him, and bore down upon him, and shut off his breath.
+
+"My baggage," he began hesitatingly to the stage-driver, "where--if
+there's no hotel----"
+
+But Steele interposed. "Lend a hand here, Bill, with these trunks. I want
+Grant to put up at my hotel to-night, bag and baggage."
+
+Bill grinned, and laid hands on the emergency chest. "He'll git a better
+layout than at my old shack, I tell ye! Say! Is Uncle Jake in Camp?"
+
+Steele shook his head. "Nope. I'm going to see about packin' Grant over
+to the Creek myself in a few days," and a great wave of thankfulness
+surged over Ross.
+
+A few moments later Steele waved his hand around the one room of his
+little log shack. "This is the only kind of home you'll find up here,
+Grant, about the same as Weimer has over on the Creek. Things are rough
+and ready here, without any frills."
+
+As he spoke he glanced at the larger of Ross's trunks.
+
+If Amos Steele understood one subject better than mining operations, that
+one subject was men. He saw in Ross an overgrown, homesick boy, with a
+stout but untested "backbone."
+
+"And I wonder," thought Steele, "how far that backbone is going to take
+him when it gets a healthy development, and--how far is he goin' to
+develop it?"
+
+Furthermore, Steele concluded, Ross was more accustomed to bending over
+a book than over a shovel; and he shrugged his shoulders at the thought
+of the Weimer-Grant claims.
+
+"His backbone can't do everything," he decided, "no matter how stout
+it grows, especially when Weimer has lost his."
+
+Steele's shack was at the foot of Gale's Ridge. Half-way up the
+mountainside was another and larger shack, where his miners, thirty in
+number, ate. Above that was the "bunk-house" where they slept. And yet
+higher up was the mouth of the tunnel out of which the Gale's Ridge
+Mining Company expected to pull vast wealth when the Burlington Road
+had done its part.
+
+"I'd rather bach it," Steele explained to Ross as they sat down to
+beefsteak and baked potatoes, "than to be with the men. It's pleasanter
+for me--and," with a jolly laugh, "for them also, I expect."
+
+Ross liked this frank young superintendent who had so kindly taken him
+in. He felt that he must get his bearings in some way, and Steele was
+the man to set him right.
+
+Therefore quite early in the evening the boy burst out with:
+
+"Mr. Steele, I've come to the conclusion that I'm the greenest
+tenderfoot that ever came to Wyoming. Now, you know the ropes here, and I
+don't. Will you advise me?"
+
+"That is exactly what I've been wanting to do," assented Steele swiftly
+and heartily. "But I won't do it at all to-night. It'll take you a
+few days to get over your light-headedness, and until you do the trail
+around Crosby won't be healthy ridin' for you. Anyway, there's a lot
+to be done, for Uncle Jake Weimer hasn't laid in any winter supplies
+yet."
+
+Ross tipped his chair back against the unhewn logs, and thrust his
+hands into his pockets. Ever since the talkative prospector had passed
+through the stage camp he had wondered what manner of man Weimer was.
+But not until he was jolting along in the stage that day did one sentence
+especially recur to him in all its possible significance.
+
+The prospector had said, "'Curious how that snow-blindness should have
+touched Dutch Weimer.'"
+
+Therefore, Ross's first question was of the man he had crossed the
+continent to help.
+
+The answer reached far into the night; and when at last Ross, wrapped in
+his blankets, lay down in a bunk built against the wall, it was a long
+time before sleep came, tired as he was.
+
+The following evening, after a full day's work, he sat down beside the
+little home-made table to write to Dr. Grant and Aunt Anne while Steele
+washed up the supper dishes.
+
+"I should be worse than helpless, were it not for Steele," he wrote;
+"and even with him to help me I may as well own up I am in blue funk.
+Not a man is there to hire; so the programme for the next few months
+seems to be this: Yours truly has got to put on some muscle, and buckle
+down to pick and shovel. Where do you think Piersol's 'Histology' is
+coming in, uncle, or that man Remsen?
+
+"But that's not the worst. It seems that Weimer isn't as stout in
+his head as he was before he was stricken with snow-blindness, and,
+although he is as stout as ever in his muscles, he doesn't take kindly
+to work any more. Hasn't even taken the winter's supplies of food
+and dynamite over to Meadow Creek. He's just smoking his pipe in peace
+because of the man father is sending to help him out! But I can tell
+you that the peace is all on his side.
+
+"The mountains here are the original packages, all right. They're miles
+high, and look as if they'd topple over on a fellow with but half an
+excuse. And then the air--or the lack of it, rather! I've not been able
+to walk any distance without a cane, so uncertain does this rare air
+make me in my motions. But Steele says I'll get over that in a day or
+two. So, day after to-morrow he is going with me to Meadow Creek with
+the Gale's Ridge Company's horses--we 'pack' over the supplies for
+the winter, and the emergency chest just as it is; but, Aunt Anne, only
+a small portion of the contents of my big trunk can go. Over on the
+Creek Steele can explain to me about the amount of work to be done,
+for fear Weimer doesn't tell it straight----"
+
+Suddenly Ross stopped. He leaned back and bit his pencil, his eyes
+narrowing frowningly as he glanced over the letter. Then with a gesture
+of disdain he caught up the sheets, and tore them into fragments.
+
+Steele paused in the act of placing the dishes in the rough cupboard
+which was nailed to the logs behind the stove.
+
+"Well, I'd think twice before I tore up a letter--too hard work to write
+'em."
+
+"I have thought twice," returned Ross emphatically. "That's why I tore
+it up. No use piling up all my difficulties on them first thing. Aunt
+Anne worries enough over my being here, as it is."
+
+"So there's an 'Aunt Anne,' is there?" mused Steele to himself over
+the dishes. He glanced at the bits of paper in a heap on the table. "Good
+work she and that doctor uncle have done." He surveyed Ross's clean-cut,
+clear-eyed face as it bent above a second and brighter letter, one that
+ignored or made light of the difficulties oppressing the boy.
+
+In order to divert further the attention of the recipients, Ross also
+wrote divers pieces of information that he had learned from Steele.
+
+"I am trying to ferret out this gold mining business from the beginning,"
+he wrote. "I never got the hang of it before, and, if Mr. Steele wasn't
+everlasting patient with me, I wouldn't be getting much now, because
+everything is so new and strange here. I don't half understand the
+men's lingo, because they have a strange name for everything.... Well,
+it seems that a gold mine up here is started in some such a way as this:
+along comes a prospector--quartz crazy, he is called if he's in dead
+earnest--with a pick and shovel, a hammer and microscope, and a camp
+outfit. If some one else has provided him with food and the outfit he is
+'grub-staked' and his 'pard' is entitled to half of the results of
+his work. Father, for instance, has grub-staked Weimer for years. This
+prospector pegs away at the rocks, getting specimens of ore and
+examining them under his microscope. He goes right past rocks that
+look to me full of gold they glitter so. No gold in such! But when he
+finds some common, dull old stone that doesn't show up much to me but
+has all the earmarks of 'a high value' in gold, then he thinks he has
+found the outcropping of a good 'lead,' because all the rock that
+is behind that rock in the same strata is supposed to have that much
+gold in it or more. So there he 'stakes his claim.' You see I've
+got the hang of a few of the terms already. First, he drives a stake near
+the rock and leaves on it a paper with his name and the date and a
+notice that the land is his for so many feet each way. He can't take
+possession of more than six hundred feet one way and fifteen hundred
+the other in one claim, but he can stake off as many other claims
+right beside this first as he wants to. The staking is easy enough,
+but the tug of war comes in doing enough work to patent the claims! This
+means to get a deed of possession from the state. There is where Weimer
+and I are up against it--on the work side! But guess I'd better not
+make your heads ache any more with such an accumulation of learned facts.
+I'll just say good-bye now and continue the headache in my next."
+
+To his father he wrote a different kind of letter, a defense of his delay
+at Dry Creek.
+
+"I couldn't desert a man in that shape," he wrote, "although I have
+lost three weeks at exactly the season of the year, I find, when three
+weeks count for the most. I'm sorry it happened that way, but I shall
+try to put in good time now and make up. Anyway, I guess the delay is
+as broad as it is long, because, if that accident hadn't occurred,
+I shouldn't have known Steele; and it's his help that's smoothing
+things out here for me to begin work."
+
+Ross did not know that the way he had conducted himself at Dry Creek was
+the cause of the very practical interest which Steele was taking in him.
+
+But not all of Steele's influence in Camp had secured a single laborer
+for Meadow Creek. Ross found that Andy's explanation on the Cody stage
+held good. No one cared to go any further out of the world than Miners'
+Camp.
+
+"It's bad enough," one of the Mountain Company's men told Ross, "up
+here eighty miles from the railroad, with a stage only three times a
+week in summer and any time it can get through in the winter. But, when
+it comes to workin' on the Creek, _ex_cuse me! Seven mile over Crosby,
+and the trail shut up half the year. No, I'm goin' to Cody when the
+Mountain works shuts down."
+
+The Gale's Ridge Company worked all winter; but the Mountain Company
+dismissed its employees, twenty in number, when the deep snows came.
+
+To the twenty Ross applied in vain. Labor was dear and men scarce "Cody
+way," and the miners refused to be mewed up over on the Creek for five
+months at any price.
+
+"You see," Steele explained, "I'd be glad to employ all the twenty
+during the winter myself; but not many of 'em will ever stay up here
+in Camp--too much cut off. I shall run short of hands all winter. Of
+course, when the railroad gets up here, it will be different. They'll
+be willing to stay then."
+
+Ross checked a groan. "The railroad isn't here, but I am," he observed
+grimly.
+
+Steele looked at him curiously. "Why don't you strike the trail back
+East," he asked abruptly, "since you started out without understanding
+the situation?"
+
+Ross glanced up in surprise. "Why, I never thought of doing that!" he
+exclaimed, and dropped the subject.
+
+But Steele continued to look him over with a new interest; for the stage
+the previous evening had brought to Steele a letter from the elder Grant
+asking for private information concerning the situation Ross, Junior,
+was encountering. Ross's brief letters from Dry Creek had shown Ross,
+Senior, that he had no real knowledge of the nature of the difficulties
+into which he had sent his son.
+
+The morning of the third day, Ross, staggering around uncertainly without
+a cane, aided Steele in binding the supplies on the wooden saddles of
+the packhorses. From the Gale's Ridge Company's supply-shack they
+brought sacks of flour and cornmeal, boxes of canned vegetables and
+condensed milk, sides of bacon and hams, bags of coffee and tea, all of
+which Steele with many a twist of the rope and "half-hitch" secured to
+the clumsy saddles. The trustiest horse carried the emergency chest.
+On Ross's own horse, lashed behind his saddle, were his bed blankets
+and a bundle from the trunk Aunt Anne had packed with such care.
+
+"All ready?" called Steele, one foot in his stirrup.
+
+He looked back at Ross already mounted, bringing up the rear of the
+string of packhorses, standing in front of the company's store.
+
+"All ready," shouted Ross.
+
+Steele, about to swing himself up, hesitated. He glanced again at Ross.
+Then, dropping his bridle reins to the ground, he disappeared inside the
+store, emerging presently with a short rifle and a cartridge belt.
+
+"Ever use a gun?" he asked.
+
+Ross hesitated. "I've practiced target shooting a little, and gone
+hunting a few times; but," candidly, "I don't amount to shucks with a
+gun."
+
+Steele grinned, and handed it up. "Take it along," he advised, "and
+practice some more. It may bring you fresh meat. Sometimes elk and
+mountain sheep come down to the Creek to drink over there--won't come
+amiss, anyhow."
+
+Ross accepted the gun; and Steele, going back to the head of the
+procession, mounted, and led the way up the canon, which presently
+broadened until it formed a snow-flecked valley a few rods wide. Here
+were a dozen shacks, another eating house, and the store of the Mountain
+Company. The mouth of its tunnel could be seen high on the side of the
+mountain above the store.
+
+Immediately beyond this valley the canon was nearly closed by two great
+peaks. The one on the left was still Dundee; but on the right Gale's
+Ridge gave place to Crosby, behind which lay Meadow Creek Valley.
+
+Zigzagging across the face of this mountain wound a narrow trail
+gradually ascending. Up and yet up climbed the horses until Ross clung to
+his saddle involuntarily while looking down. Soon Wood River became
+a thread, and the shacks became black doll-houses set in patches of snow.
+
+On the trail the snow lay deep in the hollows, but was swept away
+wherever the east wind could touch it. But, snow-filled or black,
+the trail ever ascended. The peak of Dundee opposite, which had seemed
+from the canon narrow and remote, stretched out now immense and so near
+that Ross felt he could hurl a stone across and hit it.
+
+He looked ahead. They were approaching the dizzy shoulder of Crosby.
+Steele rounded it, and disappeared. One by one the slow packhorses, their
+loads hitting against the rocks on the inside of the trail, crawled
+cautiously after, and also disappeared. Then before Ross opened a view
+of startling grandeur. He was looking out over the top of Gale's Ridge
+and down across Big Horn Basin, beyond Cody, eighty miles away and into
+the blue heart of the Big Horn Mountains. The sight brought with it a
+pang of homesickness. Eighty miles from a railroad! Eighty difficult,
+laborious miles! Ross felt helpless and small and decidedly shaky in
+this strange new world about which he had so much to learn.
+
+Clinching his teeth hard together, he looked up. Above were bowlders
+seemingly glued to the almost upright mountainside. Below--but Ross's
+head swam, and he turned his eyes to the inside of the trail, and clung
+to the saddle. Below was a sheer drop of a thousand feet down to the
+falls of Meadow Creek, which separated Crosby from Gale's Ridge. The
+mist came up in clouds rolling thick and frosty in the zero air. This was
+the quarter-mile of trail which cut Meadow Creek Valley off from Wood
+River Canon for months during the year.
+
+"Well," laughed Steele as they stopped where the trail widened beyond
+the dangerous shoulder, "you didn't take a header, did you?"
+
+Ross passed his hand across his forehead. His face was pale. "No, but--I
+felt every minute that I'd go over."
+
+"You'll get used to that," returned Steele easily. "You see why that
+trail becomes impassable later, don't you? If it was just the snow on
+the trail, why, that wouldn't count. You could shovel it off around
+the shoulder, and go on snow-shoes the rest of the way. But, when the
+snow lodges up over the shoulder something like ten feet deep, and a
+chinook or warm wind comes along and loosens it, a footfall or a man
+calling might start it, and then----" Steele shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"And there is no other way you can get into the Creek valley?" asked Ross.
+
+"No other way with a horse. You can follow the Creek toward its source,
+they say, a few miles and then across. Hunters go that way sometimes,
+but on foot; and they have to scramble for it."
+
+On and on they went over a wide trail now beside the clear little Meadow
+Creek. Ross began to feel giddy again.
+
+"Of course you do," Steele explained the next time they made a stop,
+"because the Creek is half a mile higher than the canon. But you get
+over that in a few days."
+
+"I wonder," exclaimed Ross suddenly, "how Leslie Jones stood that trail?"
+
+"About the same as the average and ordinary mortal," rejoined Steele
+sarcastically. "But you'll probably have a good many chances of finding
+out for yourself. You'll be glad to see anybody, even young Jones!"
+
+At last, after threading their way between spurs and over bowlders and
+through valleys, they emerged on the other side of Crosby, and found
+themselves in a bowl the sides of which were formed by mountains so high
+and grim that Ross gasped for the breath that he felt the peaks would
+eventually shut off.
+
+It was a queer and uncomfortable feeling, this which the mountains gave
+him, a sense of being shut in and overpowered and helpless.
+
+The peaks on all sides were snow-heaped; but the valley, protected as
+it was, showed patches of black earth. Sage-brush with scrub spruce and
+hemlock were the only vegetation of the valley visible, but the sides
+of the mountains showed a good growth of hemlock and pine trees reaching
+to timber line only a few hundred feet up.
+
+On the left at the foot of Crosby--whose back looked as high to Ross
+as its face, despite the fact that he was half a mile higher here than
+in the canon--two columns of smoke were ascending from two clusters of
+hemlocks a quarter of a mile apart. Toward these, Steele, drawing in his
+horse, pointed.
+
+"The first is your layout," he called back over his shoulder, "the other
+is the McKenzies'!"
+
+"And where is Wilson's?" asked Ross, eagerly.
+
+Steele faced in the opposite direction and indicated a narrow trail that
+led to the right, disappearing in a forest of scrub pine which filled the
+ravine between two of the mountains that formed the rim of the bowl.
+"Follow that trail and you'll reach 'em. But ten to one, before you can
+do it they'll follow the trail this way and reach you!"
+
+"I hope so!" exclaimed Ross in a heartfelt tone.
+
+A few moments later he was face to face with Weimer.
+
+The latter stood in the doorway of a low log shack, his great hands
+cupped over large blue goggles through which his eyes showed dimly,
+the lids screwed together, leaving only slits for the admission of the
+dreaded glare of light from the snow. His hands were crusted with
+dirt. His face, bearded to the rim of the goggles, was grimy, and the
+beard matted. His hair hung uneven and uncombed to his thick rounded
+shoulders. He wore a colored flannel shirt, a sheepskin coat, and
+corduroy trousers thrust into the knee-high tops of old shoes.
+
+In response to Steele's greeting and introduction Weimer extended his
+hand, peered at Ross a moment, and then asked eagerly in a throaty, husky
+voice of Steele:
+
+"D'ye pack any tobac' over?"
+
+"Lots of it," cried Steele jovially. "Enough for your use and some for
+you to give to your neighbors."
+
+Immediately Weimer's sagging, middle-aged figure became straight and
+stiff, and his high forehead wrinkled in a heavy frown.
+
+"Give dem McKenzies anyting! Ven I do, it'll be ven my name ain't Shake
+Veimer."
+
+Steele stepped quickly in front of the older man, and spoke forcefully.
+"There's one thing, Uncle Jake, that you're givin' 'em as fast as
+you can, and that's these claims."
+
+"Nein! Nein!" Weimer shouted. "Das ist nicht so!"
+
+His uneven black hair bobbed wildly about his shoulders. He pumped his
+powerful arms up and down as if the McKenzies were beneath them.
+
+Steele thrust his face near that of the agitated man, and demanded
+roughly, "How many shots have you put since you were over to Camp to
+get me to write to young Grant's father? Say, now!"
+
+Weimer's manner became cringing. He backed into the cabin. "If your
+eyes----" he began, but Steele cut him short.
+
+"You know you've not taken one pound of ore out of your tunnel since.
+You know you have sat around here waitin' for Grant to send some one to
+help you out----"
+
+Weimer put up a great hand, and shrank back as a child would have
+retreated before his mother's upraised slipper. Steele followed him
+into the cabin, and Ross slowly followed Steele.
+
+"The snow ist come," whimpered Weimer; "und I can't see ven the snow
+comes, und the tunnel so far ist to valk----"
+
+But Steele cut short his complaints sternly. "Now," he declared, "all
+your excuses must come to an end. Here is some one to help. Young Grant
+here is going to put this work through, and you've got to brace up and
+help him. I should be ashamed to sit down and let a couple of McKenzies
+take away my claims."
+
+At once Weimer became alert and combative. The McKenzies should not take
+the claims.
+
+"You see how it is," Steele began as he and Ross were carrying the
+cases of dynamite "sticks" up the trail to the tunnel in which Weimer
+was doing the assessment work for the four tracts to which he had laid
+claim. "Mentally Weimer has become suddenly an old and childish man
+while retaining all his physical powers. He can do the work of two
+ordinary men if he can be made to work--and it's up to you to compel
+him. Otherwise, by the first of next July, at the time when these claims
+ought to be patented, you will have to forfeit 'em."
+
+Ross's heart sank. "The first of next July," and it was then but the
+middle of October! He laid the case of sticks down on the ore-dump, and,
+glancing up at the peaks which held him a prisoner, caught his breath
+in a gust of rebellion.
+
+At the mouth of the tunnel, some seven feet high and eight wide, was
+the "dump," to the edge of which ran a rusty track with a "bumper" at
+the end. The track extended into the tunnel. On it stood a lumbering
+vehicle, consisting of the trucks of a hand car, on which was fastened a
+home-made box to carry ore.
+
+"This," explained Steele, "is a remnant of Weimer's better days. There
+was no way to pack a regular car over here, and he devised this. He was a
+smart man until last year."
+
+After dinner, which Weimer prepared,--Ross found him always ready to
+prepare food and eat it,--Steele suggested that they "drop in" on the
+McKenzies.
+
+"Especially," he added, his eyes scanning Ross's face, "after your
+meeting Sandy on the way to Cody."
+
+Ross hesitated. "I don't know about that," he objected, surprised that
+Steele should suggest such a thing. "Wouldn't it be a bit queer for me
+to call on my 'friends the enemy'?"
+
+Steele laughed, but held strongly to his point. "Not queer at all.
+There's no object in not being on a speakin'-footing with 'em," he
+said. "There's nothing to be gained and a lot to be lost by openly
+recognizing what they're waiting for. You're goin' to get almighty
+lonesome up here,"--involuntarily Ross swallowed, and turned his face
+away,--"and that Sandy McKenzie is good company--on the surface. I
+can't say as much for the other, Waymart, but he'll pass."
+
+The sun was shining warmly when they left Weimer's cabin. The snow above
+the narrow loam-paved trail was melting and running in rivulets down to
+the creek. Overhead the spruce boughs met, and laced their green fingers
+together, sending down a damp, spicy odor.
+
+Near the McKenzie cabin Steele paused and looked up the mountainside.
+A few rods away the earth was thrown up around some tree stumps whose
+tops had been recently cut off.
+
+"You see," he explained in a low tone to Ross, "the McKenzies are
+supposed to be over here working some claims that they staked out last
+spring. But look there! They haven't got the discovery hole finished
+yet!"
+
+The "discovery hole," as Ross had learned, must be dug within thirty
+days after the staking of the claim, and is a name given to the ten
+feet of development work required by the law of Wyoming. This ten feet of
+digging may mark either the commencement of a tunnel if the claim is
+located on the side of a mountain, or, if the claim is on level ground,
+the hole takes the form of a shaft driven perpendicularly into the
+earth. With a claim thus staked and developed, the owner may rest secure
+for one year without further work. Then, in order to hold the claim
+against any covetous claim "jumper" he must do one hundred dollars'
+worth of development work a year for five years in order to obtain a
+patent. If he has staked several adjacent claims, work for all may be
+done in one shaft or tunnel.
+
+Ross, merely glancing at the incomplete discovery hole, looked at the
+cabin from which the sound of voices issued. His gaze was doubtful, and
+his footsteps lagged.
+
+Seeing this, Steele walked on briskly, rapped on the sagging door, threw
+it open, and brought Ross reluctantly face to face with his "friends the
+enemy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE MEN OF MEADOW CREEK
+
+
+SANDY MCKENZIE sat before a rough board table on which his elbows lazily
+rested, supporting half his weight. Sandy needed no gymnasium exercises
+to teach him relaxation. Before him were the remains of a hearty dinner,
+the chief dish of which smelled to Ross like beefsteak. From this dish
+from time to time Sandy forked bits of meat on which he leisurely chewed.
+
+He wore the same garb in which Ross had first seen him; but the corduroy
+trousers were much the worse for wear and dirt, and it had been weeks
+since his face had felt a razor. His sandy hair also had increased in
+length, one thick lock perpetually dangling over his forehead.
+
+Waymart, an older and darker man than Sandy, lay in his bunk smoking,
+his knees drawn up and his hands clasped around them. Waymart was clean
+shaven, and his black hair was closely clipped.
+
+Both Sandy and Waymart were surprised to see Ross at their cabin door,
+but Sandy favored him with a delighted grin. Rising without disturbing
+the box on which he had been sitting, he straddled across it, and held
+out a cordial hand.
+
+"Hello, Tenderfoot," he shouted. "I hear they've added Doc to that there
+name since I see you last."
+
+Waymart crawled slowly out of his bunk. His black eyes met Ross's an
+instant, and then slid away, the lids drooping. He held out a hand which,
+although larger than Sandy's, lacked its cordial grip.
+
+"Have some chairs," Sandy invited gayly, kicking forward a couple of
+boxes. "These here are our second-best plush, upholstered, _ma_hogany
+affairs. The best are coming from Chicago when the Burlington Road gets
+into Camp."
+
+There was about Sandy such an air of gay irresponsibility and cordiality
+that Ross brightened perceptibly. After all, his "friends the enemy"
+might not be bad neighbors, and he was glad he had allowed Steele to
+persuade him to come.
+
+Pushing his box away from the red-hot stove, he tipped it up on end, and
+sat down beside the only window the cabin afforded. Directly outside,
+hanging to a tree, were the hind quarters of a beef, as Ross supposed
+at first glance. But, chancing to glance down, he found himself looking
+at the head of an elk with great branching antlers, a head such as he had
+seen at "The Irma" in Cody, credited to the marksmanship of Buffalo Bill.
+
+"Last week," he heard Waymart saying to Steele, "we got him over near the
+Divide."
+
+Ross opened his eyes in astonishment. "A week!" he exclaimed, glancing
+from the table to the meat hanging uncovered and unprotected outside.
+
+Sandy caught the expression, and slapped his leg gleefully. "Think that
+there meat ought to be off color by this time, don't ye, Doc? Well, let
+me tell ye we'll be eatin' on it hangin' just where it is until it's
+gone; and the last bite will be as good as the first."
+
+Steele explained. "The air up here cures meat, Grant, quite as well as
+brine. It takes meat a mighty long time to spoil--in fact, if it's
+properly jerked, it never spoils."
+
+"'Jerked'?" interrogated Ross: but Sandy had launched into an account
+of their hunt over on the Divide, and no one explained the "jerking"
+process then.
+
+As Sandy talked, his manner lost its laziness. He became animated,
+laughing and gesticulating constantly, and occasionally running his
+fingers through his hair and throwing the stray front lock back among its
+fellows.
+
+Waymart had lain back in his bunk again, and unceremoniously elevated
+his knees, between which he glanced at Ross from time to time. He said
+but little, and smiled less.
+
+The two occupied a cabin similar to Weimer's except that it was cleaner.
+In one corner was a heap of supplies, boxes of canned goods, and sacks of
+flour. Seeing Steele's eyes on these, Sandy explained easily:
+
+"Hain't packed over our winter's supplies yet except the sticks. Got
+a plenty of them, but grub's gettin' pretty low."
+
+"Better hurry up, then," remarked Steele in a careless fashion. "All the
+horses in Camp will be sent below in a couple of weeks."
+
+By "below" he meant the ranches of Wood River Valley.
+
+Sandy pushed back his front lock. "Time enough," he returned lightly.
+"Everything can wait except game-huntin'. There's a flock of mountain
+sheep over on the north side of Crosby, and we're goin' to trail 'em
+to-morrow." Then he turned hospitably to Ross. "Want to go along?"
+
+Ross shook his head. "I've--I've got to work," he stammered,
+embarrassed at being obliged to introduce the subject of work on the
+Weimer-Grant claims.
+
+He might have saved himself all embarrassment, as the subject seemed to
+have no personal connection with the gay Sandy.
+
+"What," he cried, "in huntin' season? Wall, I've met other tenderfeet
+constituted like ye; but they soon git over the fit, and so will you, I
+reckon. Brought a gun?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You'll be out with us yet," declared Sandy.
+
+"Sure," came from the bunk in tones of certainty.
+
+Ross said nothing.
+
+"When you bring down your first buck," pursued Sandy, unruffled by the
+boy's silence, "you'll begin to git the Western fever that ye said ye
+didn't want." Here Sandy chortled. "Guess ye think ye're enough of a
+doctor t' cure that fever, but wait and see!"
+
+As he said this, there was in the speaker's manner, or in his blue eyes
+or sandy-bearded face, a return of that subtle something which had caused
+Ross to decide that he "partly liked him and partly didn't."
+
+"I expect," said Steele laughingly, "that Doc here will get as quartz
+crazy as Wishing Wilson is. Of course, you fellows have seen Wishing."
+
+"Wishin' Wilson!" exclaimed Sandy and Waymart in one breath, Sandy
+adding, "What do ye mean? Whereabouts is Wishin'?"
+
+"Well! Well! How comes it you didn't know?" exclaimed Steele
+wonderingly. "Wishing is right up here in your midst. He's holding
+down his claims this minute up yonder," jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder.
+
+Sandy sat up and threw the lock out of his eyes. "Back to stay?" he asked
+with his forehead puckering into a scowl.
+
+Steele nodded. "Stay till the trail is shut up."
+
+The scowl on Sandy's forehead deepened. "Thought Wishin' was on the
+hog's back. Last I knew he was tryin' to sell out to a party in Omaha.
+When did he come?"
+
+Waymart crawled out of his bunk again and lighted his pipe. "We've been
+hunting'," he explained, "ye know. Didn't git back 'til yesterday.
+Place may be full of folks and we none the wiser!"
+
+"I don't think you're crowded up here yet," Steele rejoined. "And
+Wishing didn't come until--when was it?--only a few days ago, he and his
+new partner."
+
+"Pardner?" cried Sandy.
+
+"Pardner!" echoed Waymart, holding his pipe in his hand. "What pardner?"
+
+"Young chap," replied Steele, "about Doc's height and--what age should
+you say, Doc?"
+
+"Probably seventeen," returned Ross. "Not much over," adding, "his name
+is Jones, Leslie Jones. He's from Omaha."
+
+"Grub stake?" asked Waymart succinctly.
+
+"More than that," answered Steele. "Jones is going to stay and help."
+
+The scowl on Sandy's forehead smoothed itself out. He grinned genially
+at Ross. "I wonder now," he mused, "if there's enough of us old goats
+up here in Meadow Greek to round up the kids and take care of 'em!"
+
+"What about the kids taking care of the goats?" laughed Steele.
+"Sometimes they're bigger hustlers."
+
+Sandy nodded lightly. "This air'll take the hustle out quick enough.
+Such high mountains as these hain't made fer hustlers."
+
+As Ross was returning with Steele to Weimer's shack, the superintendent
+glanced at him sidewise.
+
+"I don't believe," he said slowly, "that the McKenzies intend to winter
+here. Of course, there's no object in their stayin'. We all know
+they're not here to work their claims, and it isn't necessary to
+stay in order to watch yours; and they've no winter supplies, nor,"
+thoughtfully, "have they mud-chinked their cabin. You can see daylight
+anywhere between the logs. No, I don't think they have any intention
+of staying."
+
+Ross looked around the tiny valley, with its fringe of windy,
+inaccessible peaks, and thought of the long months ahead of him, shut
+in among those cruelly cold mountains.
+
+"I hope they stay!" he declared fervently.
+
+An hour later, having talked over the situation with Ross thoroughly,
+explained the amount of work necessary to be done in the tunnel, and
+given Weimer large chunks of advice, Steele rode away, driving his
+packhorses in front of him.
+
+Ross watched him out of sight and then entered the shack whistling to
+keep his courage up. Inside he surveyed his temporary home with a shiver
+which stopped the whistle. "Uncle Jake," he suggested, "let's clean
+house the rest of the day. Willing?"
+
+Weimer, sitting on a box in front of the stove, assented without removing
+the pipe from his lips. "Ja, clean up all you vant to. I tink your fader
+was alvays vantin' to clean mit der house."
+
+"Think of my father's ever cleaning out a cabin like this!" muttered
+Ross.
+
+He stood helplessly in front of the door looking from the complacently
+smoking Weimer to the bags and boxes heaped on the floor and then around
+the dirt-encrusted room. He thought of Aunt Anne and her perfectly
+kept house with a great throb of homesickness. Then he thought of his
+father, who had got his "start" under such conditions as these and
+suddenly threw off his coat.
+
+"It's got to be done," he said aloud, "and I've got to do it!"
+
+"Vat?" asked Weimer stupidly turning his goggles in Ross's direction.
+Weimer was hugging his knees in a state of blissful content, the smoke
+from his pipe curling about his head and almost shutting from view the
+big young man on whose shoulders he had already shifted all burdens
+connected with the Grant-Weimer claims.
+
+During the remainder of the day Ross worked cleaning up the cabin and
+packing away their winter supplies. When night came his bunk looked
+better to him than the supper which Weimer was preparing, and he dropped
+asleep sitting beside the table waiting for the flapjacks. But, instead
+of turning in directly after washing the supper dishes, as he had
+intended, he was forced to keep awake until nine o'clock entertaining
+the denizens of Meadow Creek Valley.
+
+The McKenzies came over first. Weimer, who, when night approached, had
+removed his goggles, saw them coming first and raised his voice in
+protest.
+
+"Ach! dem McKenzies! See here, poy, dey mustn't come mit my cabin. Dey
+ist after dese claims. Vorstehen sie nicht?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Uncle Jake, I understand," Ross returned soothingly. "But they
+can't carry the claims away in their pockets to-night, and to-morrow
+morning we are going to bone down to work at such a rate that they'll
+come up missing on their calculations altogether."
+
+At the mention of work, Weimer groaned and retiring precipitately to his
+bunk lay there regarding the doorway hostilely through the smoke from
+his pipe. The next minute the doorway framed Sandy with Waymart close
+behind.
+
+"Hello, Doc!" Sandy pushed his cap to the back of his head. "Mart and
+I, we've started out fer to pay our respects to Wishin' Wilson. Want
+t' hike along with us?"
+
+Ross shrugged his shoulders and sat down on one end of the table,
+dish-cloth in hand. "Guess I've had hiking enough for one day, McKenzie.
+Let's see. It's two miles up there, isn't it?"
+
+"Yep;" Sandy lounged in and sat down on a box. "And by th' same sign
+it's two miles back. But, gosh, young man, a matter of four mile ain't
+nothin' in this country!" He surveyed Ross curiously. "How d'ye travel
+East? In a push cart?"
+
+Ross grinned but flushed. "The trip over from Camp was on rather higher
+ground than I've ever seen before and it--well--it winded me," frankly.
+"And this afternoon I've been hoeing out here. So I'm not exactly as
+fresh as a morning glory to-night."
+
+Waymart came inside and looked around. Ross pushed a box in his direction
+and, after a moment's hesitation and a civil nod in the direction of the
+bunk, the older McKenzie sat down and pulled his pipe out of his pocket.
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Sandy. "When you're a few months further away from
+Pennsylvany you'll forgit that a shack needs a hoe, t' say nothin' of
+a broom." Then he addressed the bunk without looking toward it. "Uncle
+Jake, have you seen Wishin'?"
+
+"Ja," growled Weimer uncivilly, "dat I have."
+
+"How did he look?" smiled Sandy who seemed to enjoy the other's "grouch."
+
+"Look?" violently. "Vy, how should he look but shust like himself!"
+
+Waymart chuckled, and Sandy was about to reply when footsteps were heard
+drawing near. Heavy shoes were crunching the stones and pine needles
+under foot, and voices sounded louder and louder.
+
+"Must be Wilson and Jones," said Ross going to the door.
+
+The room was lighted by two miner's candlesticks driven into the side
+logs. One candle was near the door, and the light fell on the genial
+face of Wishing Wilson, who paused in the doorway to wring Ross's hand
+and shout his greetings at the other occupants of the room, before
+stepping in and allowing his young partner to enter. When Ross finally
+held out his hand to Leslie Jones he knew that he was facing a boy as
+homesick as himself, rather than "Queen Victory's youngest."
+
+Leslie gripped the other's hand as though its owner were a lifelong
+friend. "How do you make it up here?" he asked in a low tone.
+
+"Don't make it yet," responded Ross. "I just got here to-day. Steele
+came up with me."
+
+Then he turned to introduce Leslie to the McKenzies and saw a tableau
+which puzzled him.
+
+Waymart was staring at Leslie with amazed eyes and a lower jaw that
+slightly sagged. He held his pipe in front of his mouth surprised in
+the act of adjusting it between his lips. Sandy, rising, came blithely
+forward, and, in passing Waymart, stumbled and jostled against him.
+Waymart instantly recovered his lost poise. Lowering his pipe he slouched
+along behind Sandy and shook hands with Wilson's partner. Wilson
+himself was over beside Weimer's bunk telling at the top of his voice
+that he had come to a rock wall in his tunnel, and on the other side
+there must, without fail, be either a pocket of free gold or a lead
+that would make the claims among the most valuable in the Shoshones. To
+this optimistic talk Leslie did not listen with the same absorbing
+interest he had shown at Sagehen Roost, Ross noticed.
+
+In fact, a week of loneliness, coarse food and hard work had wilted
+Leslie Jones both physically and mentally. Abject weariness seemed to
+have robbed him of a part of his absorbing self-esteem. Furthermore,
+he appeared to Ross to be troubled as well as homesick. He looked at
+Sandy and Waymart unrecognizingly and sat down on a bench beneath the
+candle by the stove.
+
+"We shall stay," Ross heard Wishing tell the McKenzies, "till the pass
+over Crosby threatens. Then we'll hike it below to the coal claims."
+
+"Didn't know you had any," interrupted Sandy. "Where are they?"
+
+"Up Wood River, only about a mile or such a matter from Camp. Fine
+outcroppin' of coal. Best in the country. When the Burlington gits
+here they've got t' have coal and I says to myself, 'There's where
+you come up on top, Wishin', you'll have th' coal t' sell 'em,'
+me and my pard now," he added with a glance at Jones.
+
+The boy looked at him vaguely, as though he had not heard, and nodded.
+He sat with one knee thrown over the other, his back pressed against the
+side logs, his eyes so heavy that the lids kept drooping despite his
+efforts to keep awake. His hands were blistered, and his new corduroy
+suit dirty and torn. The air of newness which had characterized him when
+Ross first met him was gone. His hair had lengthened, and his cheeks
+revealed hollows. He said but little, being engaged in the absorbing
+effort to keep awake. Besides, Sandy and Wilson gave no one else a chance
+to talk. Waymart smoked stolidly staring at the candle above Leslie.
+
+Ross, sitting with his elbows on the table, ceased to struggle against
+weariness, and, with his head on his arms, fell asleep. He awakened just
+in time to see his callers depart, whereupon he threw himself, dressed,
+in his bunk and slept until late the next morning.
+
+During the next few weeks, all days seemed alike to Ross except Sunday.
+Early each Sunday morning he struck the trail for Miners' Camp, the
+post-office, and Steele's shack. At first he crept shudderingly over
+that quarter mile around the shoulder of Crosby. But soon his head
+lost every sense of giddiness, and his legs regained their accustomed
+strength, and his heart ceased to beat agitatedly at sight of the
+thousand-feet fall.
+
+On the third Sunday he came into Steele's shack with a brighter face
+than he had worn before.
+
+[Illustration: HE STRUCK THE TRAIL]
+
+"Things are sort of righting themselves," he reported over a hot elk
+steak. "I'm getting Weimer down to work in dead earnest," chuckling.
+"I hold the McKenzie boys before his mind's eye continually, and roll
+that car out, and dump it so quickly that he has to step lively to get
+enough ore picked out and blasted out to fill it."
+
+Steele whistled when Ross told him how many cubic feet had been taken
+out of the Weimer-Grant tunnel during the week. He took from his pocket
+a paper and pencil, and fell to figuring. Ross pushed aside the empty
+dishes, and, leaning across the table, looked on with interest. He, too,
+had figured extensively since work began on Meadow Creek, but only during
+the last week had the figures satisfied him.
+
+"Why, man alive!" cried Steele after a few moments' silent work,
+"you'll fetch it, at this rate." He stretched his hand across the
+table impetuously, and gripped Ross's, adding, "I thought you could
+never do it--even with a backbone."
+
+Ross's shoulders straightened, and his face flushed boyishly. "We _must_
+fetch it!"
+
+Steele leaned back, and drummed on the table. "What about the McKenzies?
+Of course they must know what progress you've made."
+
+"Well," exclaimed Ross, "I hope I can keep 'em so interested guessing
+that they'll stay all winter. They come over as socially as you please
+about every evening. Weimer doesn't like it much. He has no use for
+'em, but I have, you bet! I'm glad to have 'em around, especially
+now when I can estimate that at the present rate of speed the tunnel
+will be ready so we can apply for a patent by June."
+
+To Dr. and Mrs. Grant, Ross wrote: "It's going to be a long pull and
+a strong pull, but I shall stick to the ship and show father that I can
+do something else besides setting a bone.
+
+"And what's more and queerer, I'm in danger of getting interested in
+gold mining for itself. Every time I push our little car out to the end
+of the dump and unload the ore I wonder how much gold I'm watching
+roll away down the incline. Aunt Anne, you said in your last that it
+seems such a waste to throw away the ore. Well, if you were here you'd
+find it a greater waste of good money to try to get money out of the
+quartz under present conditions. You see there are only a few dollars'
+worth of gold in a ton of rock. That ton would have to be 'packed,'
+as they say here, eighty miles over the roughest of trails to Cody, and
+there loaded on cars and sent clear to Omaha, our nearest smelter. And
+I guess you know more than I do about the costly process of crushing ore
+and extracting gold from it in a smelter. It's not like mining for
+'pay dirt,' as the men here call placer mining, where you gather up
+sand and wash it out yourself and find the particles of gold in the
+bottom of your pan. This quartz digging is the most expensive kind of
+mining there is. But when the Burlington gets the branch road up into
+Miners' the ore can be loaded at the mines and unloaded in Omaha
+without change of cars. Then we'll dig out the dumps and send them
+to the smelter, and back will come the gold jingling into our pockets.
+But whenever I'm moved to give you information I feel small, for I
+believe, in spite of all you write, that you both know more than I do
+about it now.
+
+"I haven't had a book in my hand, Uncle Fred. When it comes night, I am
+too tired to understand the newspapers that I bring over from Miners',
+to say nothing of delving in histology. I expect I shall forget all I
+ever knew, but never mind! If I can get those claims patented, and so
+satisfy father, then next year I'll begin over again to fit myself
+for college--guess what I knew once will come back when I've studied a
+little. Anyway, I'm not going to worry about it now."
+
+Ross underscored those last words to convince himself that he was not
+worrying, and handed the letter over to Bill Travers to be mailed at
+Meeteetse.
+
+To his father Ross proudly wrote of the week's progress in the tunnel,
+adding in reply to a rather longer letter than usual, which he found
+awaiting him in Camp, "No, I have no intention of throwing up the job."
+
+His father had opened the way wide for him to "throw up the job"
+after receiving the letter he had requested Steele to fill with exact
+information. That part of the information which stated that Ross must
+necessarily be shut up in Meadow Creek Valley for months with a more or
+less weak-headed partner had led to the letter which Ross found awaiting
+him. But Ross, Junior, was not well enough acquainted with Ross, Senior,
+to understand that this letter was an invitation for him to return East.
+
+"He thinks I'm just chicken-hearted enough to be ready to cut and run at
+the first obstacle," was Ross's thought when he read what his father had
+written. His chin came up, and his eyes narrowed. "I'd stay and work
+here a year before I'd show the white feather now."
+
+Ever since his last visit to New York, Ross had dwelt with secret pride
+on the respect and confidence that his father had shown him, and the
+sensation was so new and pleasant that he had no intention of forfeiting
+it.
+
+And thus it happened that, with Grant, Senior, and Dr. Grant and Aunt
+Anne all desiring Ross's presence at home, and with Ross's wishes
+coinciding exactly with theirs, he remained at the "jumping-off place"
+into the wilderness.
+
+In his private office on Broadway, Grant, Senior, read and reread, "No,
+I have no intention of throwing up the job." He twisted uneasily in his
+swivel-chair. He pulled Steele's last letter out of a pigeonhole, read
+it, frowned, and replaced it. Then he leaned back and admitted aloud:
+
+"I wish the boy was safely entered in medical college."
+
+But, even as he considered the matter, "the boy" with a small pack on his
+back, candy and a few apples to eat as a relish with the canned stuff,
+was plodding through the snow, light and easily brushed aside as yet,
+over the trail between Miners' Camp and Meadow Creek. And the boy's
+heart was growing as courageous as his muscles were strong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HALF-CONFIDENCES
+
+
+IT was dark that night when Ross arrived at the Weimer shack. The
+candles were lighted, and as he passed the window, he saw Leslie Jones
+within, sitting on a box on the opposite side of the room. His elbows
+were on the table, and he was listening to Weimer, or rather, pretending
+to listen. At a glance, Ross saw that his thoughts were far afield,
+his eyes being fixed on the speaker with an absent stare. He appeared
+more unkempt than on the occasion of his first call, and his face was
+thinner. There was also about him an air of collapse that made him a
+different person from the overbearing young man who had issued lofty
+orders at Sagehen Roost.
+
+It was the second time that Ross had seen him since coming into the
+valley. The week before he had gone with the McKenzies one evening to
+the Jones claims, but the two boys had exchanged few remarks, both being
+too tired to talk.
+
+As Ross entered the shack a sudden thought struck him. He stopped in the
+doorway and greeted Jones with, "See here! Why haven't I thought to get
+your mail Sundays? You haven't been over to Camp at all, have you?"
+
+Leslie moved uneasily. He picked up his cap and pulled at the rim.
+"Aw--it's bully of you to think of my mail, but I'm not expecting--why,
+yes, you might inquire," he added lamely. Then, "What's going on in
+Camp? I'd like to hear something about people once more," with a wry
+smile.
+
+Ross unstrapped a pack from his back and threw the contents on the
+table. Sorting out the week's papers, he tossed them across the table.
+"'Omaha News.' Want to see it?"
+
+The blood came in an unexpected rush to Leslie's face and his hand
+trembled as he reached for the papers. Ross watched him as he took them
+and scanned the headings, column by column. Then he glanced keenly over
+the advertisements, and without reading further threw the papers aside
+and rested his elbows despondently on the table.
+
+Weimer, satisfied with the tobacco and candy that Ross had brought,
+retired to his bunk, dozing and smoking by turns. Ross had seated himself
+at the table opposite Leslie and reread his letters. Now, as the other
+cast the papers aside, he looked up and met misery in the eyes leveled
+at him from beneath his caller's lengthening hair.
+
+"Say!" ejaculated Ross impulsively, "I bet you find it as awful up in
+this country as I do!"
+
+"Awful!" echoed Leslie. "It's----" A sudden working in his throat
+stopped him. He turned his face away.
+
+"I wouldn't stay here for all the gold in these mountains if things
+weren't just as they are," Ross continued sympathetically, "and I
+presume you're caught in some such way, too, or you'd get out."
+
+Leslie hesitated, nodded and again faced Ross, "How are you caught?" he
+asked eagerly.
+
+Ross told him briefly about his father's interest in the claims and
+Weimer's appeal for help that had led to his, Ross's, coming.
+
+As he talked Leslie's eagerness evaporated. He evidently was looking
+for another sort of explanation, and his response was only half-hearted:
+
+"Then your father sent you. That's bad luck when you want to be in
+school." He hesitated and added: "It's not every fellow that wants to go
+to school. I hate it!"
+
+"You do!" exclaimed Ross. "Well, I can't say I waste any love on
+studying myself, that is, in most studies, but I'm after results.
+I'm willing to bone down to work because of where the work will take
+me. The only thing I really like to study is medicine, anatomy and
+all that sort of thing, you know. But in order to get anywhere in the
+profession, I have to take a lot of mathematics and language and things
+that I detest."
+
+Leslie's shoulders came up. "I won't study what I don't like," he
+declared arrogantly, "and I can't be made to--guess they're finding
+that out, too!" The last was under his breath.
+
+"Well," Ross began vaguely, "if you want to be a business man it's not
+necessary to go through college. Our most successful business men----"
+His voice trailed into silence as he saw that the other was not listening.
+
+There ensued a few moments of quiet. In the bunk Weimer snored gently. A
+nickel clock suspended on a peg from the side logs ticked loudly. The
+pine chunks in the sheet-iron stove cracked and snapped cheerfully.
+Leslie stared dejectedly at the table, while Ross, his forehead knit
+into a puzzled frown, stared at Leslie. What could have happened, he
+asked himself, to rob the other in four weeks of his former desire to
+turn prospector? Homesickness? Perhaps, but Ross decided the trouble
+lay deeper. If it were mere homesickness, the boy would be haunting
+Miners' Camp and the post-office or else clearing out of the mountains.
+
+"Where's Wilson?" Ross asked finally.
+
+Leslie aroused himself with difficulty. "He's over at the McKenzies'.
+I came here."
+
+"How's the tunnel going? Are you making headway?"
+
+This question opened the flood-gates of Leslie's misery. "Headway?" he
+burst out. "Yes, we're making headway, but toward what, I'd like to
+know!"
+
+It was an exclamation rather than a question, and the boy brought his
+clenched fist down violently on the table.
+
+"Why," stammered Ross, "toward getting the claims patented, I suppose.
+What else did you expect?"
+
+Leslie's excitement subsided. He folded his arms on the table. "I came
+expecting to find gold," he confessed. "I could hardly wait to get here
+and now--well, I'm here, that's all, and all my money is spent for
+supplies."
+
+"But didn't you understand," Ross began, "that the ore up here had to
+be smelted in order to release the metal, and that we can never pack the
+ore on horseback over these trails and----"
+
+"No," cried Leslie fiercely, "I didn't understand. I understood that I
+was coming to work claims that would surely prove a perfect Klondike in a
+short time--I thought in a few weeks."
+
+"Oh, that's Wilson," broke in Ross. "He's a perfect promoter, Steele
+tells me, because he believes in things himself so intensely that he
+makes you see his way in spite of yourself. Steele says he has been
+quartz crazy for years. Every claim that he stakes holds his everlasting
+fortune in prospect."
+
+"I've found that out," assented Leslie bitterly, "and yet I can't
+blame Wilson. I foisted myself on him at Omaha--he didn't get after
+me. And he has really been square with me. He simply made me believe in
+his claims as thoroughly as he does, and he believes in them yet, but I
+don't. You see," Leslie explained, "he keeps expecting to run across a
+pocket of free gold, and that he says he'll turn over to me so I can get
+back the money I put into the supplies. I've got to get that money
+back pretty soon," he added emphatically.
+
+Ross looked at him commiseratingly. "I'm afraid you can't."
+
+For a moment Leslie's lips worked miserably. He took no pains to conceal
+his emotion from Ross. Finally he burst out, "I must, Grant. I've
+simply got to have that money back." He held out his hands palms up.
+They were blistered and sore. "That doesn't matter," he declared.
+"I'd work 'em to the bone if the work would bring the gold. And a
+month ago I'd never done an hour's work in my life. I tell you,"
+in a burst of irrepressible confidence, "everything looks different to
+me to-day from what it did five weeks ago. I wish--I wish I could go
+back those five weeks--why, I'd almost be willing to go to school----"
+
+Approaching sounds stopped the confidence that Ross was so anxious
+to hear. The door opened unceremoniously, and the McKenzies entered,
+accompanied by Wilson. The latter was talking excitedly. With a nod
+at Ross he finished his speech while helping himself to a seat beside
+the stove.
+
+"I tell you there's every sign of free gold. Same kind of stun crops
+out there and in the same layers and at the same angle as when I was
+working up in Butte. My claims was right next door to a fellow's named
+Harrison. One mornin' he bust through a wall rock slam bang right onto
+two thousand dollars' worth of the prettiest yellow ye ever see. And I
+tell ye I shouldn't be a mite surprised if our next blast showed us a
+streak of yellow too."
+
+Sandy laughed unconcernedly. "A streak of yeller in a chap and in a rock
+mean two different things, I notice. And I've also seen more of the
+yeller in fellers than in rocks," easily dropping on a box and lighting
+his pipe.
+
+Young Jones, looking at his partner, brightened visibly, despite the
+knowledge he had recently acquired of Wilson's optimism. There was about
+the man such a cock-sureness, such simple sincerity and abiding faith in
+his own statements that Ross felt that he could not rest content the
+following day without knowing the result of that next charge of dynamite.
+
+Steele had told him about these "pockets" that occasionally are concealed
+in the heart of the veins or "leads" along which mining tunnels are
+driven. They are uncovered unexpectedly by a blast of dynamite. They
+consist of small quantities of quartz of such richness that it pays
+to transport the ore to the smelter. But every prospector dreams of
+uncovering a pocket of "free gold" ore, quartz through which the gold
+is scattered in visible particles or streaks and can be extracted in
+its pure state with the aid of a hammer and a knife blade.
+
+"Come down to-morrow night," Ross said in a low tone across the table,
+"and report."
+
+Leslie nodded, and Ross, going to his emergency chest, brought out a
+bottle of liquid and a box of salve. "Here," he said abruptly, "better
+take some care of those hands of yours if you don't want blood poisoning
+to set in. Soak 'em well in hot water with a teaspoonful of this
+added"--he shoved the bottle of liquid across the table--"and then rub
+in this salve. And don't work in the dirt without gloves till those
+sores are healed."
+
+Humbly and gratefully Leslie took his orders from "Doc Tenderfoot," while
+the men looked on with interest and many questions.
+
+"Tell ye what," said Sandy heartily, "if I intended t' winter here I'd
+feel easier about the trail bein' closed. If a stick should go off at
+the wrong time and blow ye int' pieces, Doc here could put th' pieces
+together and patch ye up as good as new. Doc's all right!"
+
+"I wish," thought Ross as he saw his guests depart, "that I could say
+the same about Sandy."
+
+But while he had no faith in the friendly pretentions of Sandy, he
+dreaded any mention of his leaving the mountains. To feel that he would
+be left alone with Weimer for months was maddening. If only Wilson and
+his partner were to remain on the Creek--but they too would go as soon
+as the trail threatened to become impassable. This careless speech of
+Sandy's concerning leaving the valley drove all other ideas out of
+Ross's head that night and persisted in the morning. To feel that Weimer
+and himself were the only human beings in Meadow Creek Valley, to know
+that there was no escape until the sun thawed away the barrier in
+the spring was a terrifying thought. It was present that day with Ross
+like a waking nightmare. As he pushed the little car out of the tunnel
+and dumped it, he looked up at the cold gray peaks with a wild desire to
+level them and bring Miners' Camp--Cody--Pennsylvania--nearer. So
+absorbing was this desire that he forgot the promised visit from Leslie
+and was surprised to see him at the door before he had finished washing
+the supper dishes.
+
+"You wanted to hear about that promised vein," explained the newcomer,
+reading Ross's surprise in his face.
+
+"Oh--why, yes! That pocket of free gold!" exclaimed Ross hastily picking
+up the thread of connection where it had been broken the previous
+evening by Sandy's reference to leaving the valley. "Did you uncover it?"
+
+"Uncover nothing!" returned Leslie. He sat on the table and swung
+his feet restlessly, adding despondently, "And what's more, we
+won't uncover anything in a lifetime up here, either. I've lost all
+hope--except," he added with a shrug of his shoulders, "just the
+minute that Wilson is talking."
+
+"I never had any hope," said Ross slowly, "but then, I have never given
+the ore more than a thought. With me it's simply to get the work done,
+satisfy my father and--clear out."
+
+"And with me," responded Leslie, "it's the money now--I've got to have
+the money. Only," he added, "I'll say this--that when I left Omaha
+there was more in it for me than the money. You see--I'll own up--I
+was crazy to get out of school and, well--see things and do 'em! If
+I'd gone to some other place, to Goldfield or even down to Miners' Camp
+it would be different. But I'm here and all my money's spent."
+
+Continually he came back to that last statement. That fact had evidently
+swallowed up all the lust for adventure, for "getting out and seeing
+things"--it was the only thing that young Jones could now see in the
+situation. Ross wondered why but did not like to ask. Finally he said
+hesitatingly, "I say, Jones, if you want to get out of here I'll--that
+is--I have enough on hand to let you have your car-fare back to Omaha."
+
+The blood rushed over Leslie's face. His head came up proudly. "See
+here, Grant," he exclaimed briskly, sliding off the table and stuffing
+his hands into his pockets, "it must sound as if I'm a low-down beggar,
+but I never thought of such a thing as getting hold of your money!"
+
+"And I never thought of it, either," declared Ross quickly. "I've made
+you the offer on my own hook. Come off your high and mighty perch and
+talk sense! Take the money and pay it back when you can. I'm a hundred
+dollars to the good here."
+
+Leslie "came off his perch" instantly and held out his hand repentantly.
+"Thank you, Grant. That's awfully white of you, but that won't do.
+It's not car-fare I want, and Omaha is the last place I want to
+strike--or next to the last, at least--without--well, a lot more than
+car-fare." After a moment he repeated, "I tell you it's white of you
+to offer it, though. It makes a fellow feel as if he'd fallen among
+friends."
+
+The latter expression reminded Ross of something about which he had not
+thought in three weeks, namely, the behavior of Waymart McKenzie when
+he first saw Leslie. With the water still dripping from the dish-pan the
+boy hung it against the logs, tossed the dish-cloth on top of the pan
+and rolling down his sleeves, asked:
+
+"Jones, do you know the McKenzies?"
+
+Leslie shook his head. "Before coming here, do you mean?"
+
+Ross nodded.
+
+"No, never saw them before. Why?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," returned Ross carelessly, "only when you came in here the
+first night I thought they acted as though they'd seen you before, or
+Waymart did, rather."
+
+The effect of this simple statement was unexpected. Leslie gripped the
+table excitedly. His face paled and he was obliged to clear his throat
+before asking: "What made you think that? I didn't--didn't notice
+anything. I never thought that they--he----"
+
+"It was just a trifle that made me think that," Ross hastened to assure
+his guest in confusion. "Just a little byplay when Waymart first saw
+you. Nothing to----"
+
+"Tell me exactly what it was," commanded Leslie, and all the boy's
+imperiousness leaped to the front. "I want to know all that you saw."
+
+Ross related the incident haltingly. "Sandy didn't act as though he had
+ever seen you before. It was only Waymart," he said consolingly, but it
+was plain to be seen that the other was not consoled.
+
+"It's possible, very possible that they may have seen me--I wouldn't
+have noticed them," he muttered, "if they were--that is, father hired
+any number of men--they might all see me and I not notice them."
+
+"Maybe I can find out," offered Ross promptly. "I'll ask them."
+
+"No, no!" hastily; "don't bother with the matter."
+
+Leslie crossed the room, threw open the door and stood staring across the
+valley at the McKenzie shack. When next he spoke he did not look around:
+
+"It will be just as well, Grant, if you don't mention me to 'em
+until----" There ensued a long pause. Then, "until I talk with you again."
+
+Just before he left he asked abruptly, "Do you bring the Omaha papers
+back with you every Sunday?"
+
+"I can," replied Ross, "if you want 'em. But, see here, Jones, why
+don't you go over to Camp with me next Sunday?"
+
+Leslie hesitated. "Guess I will. Good-night."
+
+A few steps from the door he turned back. "See here, Grant, don't wait
+for me Sunday. If I go I'll be here by eight o'clock. But if I don't
+go, I should like to see the Omaha papers."
+
+"All right, I'll fetch them," returned Ross.
+
+Sunday morning he postponed his start for Miners' Camp until past eight
+o'clock, hoping that Leslie would come, but no Leslie appeared. Sandy
+did, however. He came freshly shaved and combed, with a new kerchief
+knotted about his neck.
+
+"Want some good company over t' Camp?" he inquired jocularly. "If ye do,
+here it is, fer I'm goin' out."
+
+"Going to stay long or just for the day?" asked Ross.
+
+"Oh, I dunno how long," carelessly. "I've got t' see Cody again. Little
+old town couldn't fetch it if I didn't hang around it about once in
+so often."
+
+"Is Waymart going?"
+
+"Nope, Mart will hold the cabin and claims down here. Mart don't
+like t' hit th' trail as often as I do. He's fer his pipe and a soft
+bunk and a good meal. Mart 'ud be a failure as one of these here
+globe-trotters. He's what ye could call domestic in his tastes. The
+only thing he lacks," here Sandy chuckled at his own wit, "is a blamed
+thing to be domestic about!"
+
+As they were making their way cautiously around the shoulder of Crosby,
+Sandy asked suddenly, "Why don't that young Jones go t' Camp ever on
+Sunday? Guess they don't work Sundays up t' th' Wilson claims. I
+should think he'd be as wild as you be t' git over this side of Crosby
+where there's a post-office and newspapers and things."
+
+"I don't know," returned Ross in a general denial of knowledge of all
+Sandy had said.
+
+"I wonder about that young feller now," pursued Sandy affably.
+
+"So do I!" thought Ross. He said nothing.
+
+"I wonder how he come t' drop out of nowhere with money enough t'
+grub-stake the two of 'em fer six months--and then have nothin' further
+t' draw on!"
+
+Sandy, walking now shoulder to shoulder with Ross, looked at him keenly.
+
+"Don't know anything about it," returned Ross shortly, but he could not
+rid himself of the insinuation in Sandy's words.
+
+When he returned that night to Meadow Creek, Ross was disappointed at
+finding Wilson awaiting him as well as Leslie. He had hoped that Leslie
+would come for the papers alone and would continue the conversation of
+his previous visit.
+
+In a loud and jovial voice Wilson informed Doc that his pard had started
+out in good shape that morning to go over to Camp and had then backed out.
+
+"Must have got clean over here," Wilson added.
+
+Leslie gathered up the newspapers which Ross had brought and fitted them
+together without meeting Ross's eyes. "I found I was too tired to go
+on," was all the explanation he made. "I slept pretty much all day and
+am going to turn in early to-night."
+
+Ross nodded speechlessly, wondering how much Sandy's going had to do
+with Leslie's staying. Would the latter avoid the McKenzies now that he
+knew they had seemed to recognize him, and why? Before the evening was
+far spent Ross began to suspect that Leslie would like to avoid him also,
+if it were possible. The boy looked more despondent than ever, but he
+shielded his despondency behind a proud reserve that shut Ross out, much
+to the latter's disappointment.
+
+"Perhaps," Ross told himself, "if I hadn't been such an idiot as to
+offer him money, he wouldn't act so offish now. I never had any more
+tact than a goat, anyhow! Wish I had minded my own business and let him
+do all the talking!"
+
+"Vas ist de matter mit dot poy?" Weimer asked as soon as the door closed
+on their visitors. "He vas such a talker oder time he vas here und now
+he talks nicht at all."
+
+"Guess he's homesick."
+
+Weimer rubbed his great hands together thoughtfully. "Und sick of de
+mountains, I tink," he added shrewdly. "Ven dot poy come here he fooled
+himself!"
+
+The last of the week saw Sandy's return. He came strolling along the
+trail one night just as the sunlight was fading from the tops of the
+mountains. He was whistling, apparently in high spirits. Stopping at
+the door of Weimer's shack he paused to call:
+
+"Hi, in there, Grant! I saw your friend Leonard at Cody. I set you up
+in fine shape t' 'im. 'No grass,' says I, 'will turn t' hay while
+he's gittin' things done.'"
+
+Ross laughed. Despite the fact that he knew Sandy's praise covered an
+abyss of insincerity, it was pleasant, none the less.
+
+After the supper dishes were washed, he decided to visit the McKenzies.
+"Want to go along, Uncle Weimer?" he asked, well knowing what the reply
+would be.
+
+"Go mit dem McKenzies?" gesticulated Weimer. "Ven I do it vill pe ven my
+legs von't carry me avay from dem!"
+
+Ross laughed. "Well, Uncle Weimer, my legs seem to want to carry me where
+I can get the Cody news. I want to hear about Mr. Leonard. Perhaps he has
+heard from father more recently than I."
+
+There was no moon that night, and the sky had become suddenly overcast
+so that Ross faced a dense darkness pierced only by the candle-light
+from the window of the McKenzie shack. He stumbled toward this, feeling
+his way so slowly along the narrow trail that he unwittingly approached
+the cabin silently and surprised an altercation within. Sandy's voice
+was raised in vehement assertion and Waymart's lower rumble in protest.
+As he was groping for the door, he heard Sandy say:
+
+"I tell ye, Mart, wild hosses won't drag 'im up here s' long as that
+young feller is in these mountings, and we may want 'im here."
+
+Then Waymart's response, "Well, what be ye aimin' to do about it?
+Don't bite off more'n ye can swaller. Ye do that too often. He'll
+be out of here in a few weeks. What's eatin' ye? 'Let well enough
+alone.'"
+
+"Yes," scornfully from Sandy. "Ye maverick! They won't go till we----"
+
+Ross, his hand on the door, had stubbed his toe against a stone.
+
+"Sh," came Sandy's warning in lowered tones. "What's that?"
+
+There was a step across the floor. Ross instinctively fell back into the
+darkness and slipped behind a tree. The door was jerked open and Sandy's
+figure appeared. An instant he looked out and then turning back, said
+disgustedly, "Nobudy, but guess we don't need t' yell loud enough t'
+be heard up t' Wilson's."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ROSS'S "HIRED MAN"
+
+
+As the door closed on Sandy, Ross beat a hasty retreat. His first thought
+was that the brothers were discussing him. The fact that they were in
+the valley to watch the progress of work on the Weimer-Grant claims and
+that they were interested in his being there and not anxious to have him
+remain, all aided in the interpretation of the McKenzies' speeches.
+
+"But who on earth is it that won't come as long as I am here and why
+not?" he asked himself as he stumbled back in the direction of the light
+in Weimer's cabin.
+
+"Vat's you pack for alreddy?" demanded Weimer from his bunk as Ross
+opened the door. "Ist dem McKenzies mit Wilson, hein?"
+
+"No," returned Ross, "but I decided that I am tired enough to turn in
+instead of going visiting," and he forthwith "turned in," but did not go
+to sleep immediately.
+
+Truth to tell, he was uneasy. He felt that Sandy, behind that
+good-natured, friendly exterior, was full of schemes. The McKenzies
+wanted the claims, and Ross had unexpectedly interposed himself
+between them and their desires. Therefore, their schemes must include
+him. What was on foot now?
+
+He tossed restlessly in his bunk assailed with qualms of fear that he
+tried to conceal from himself. "Ah, what you afraid of?" he asked himself
+disgustedly. "They won't shoot you nor yet tie you hand and foot and
+throw you over the Crosby trail. As Steele says, I haven't a thing to
+fear personally from 'em. That's not their way. Go to sleep."
+
+This command he issued to himself in an angry mutter and at once
+scrambled up in his bunk wider awake than ever. His mental horizon
+unexpectedly cleared. "Of course he's the one they meant and not me!"
+he exclaimed aloud.
+
+"Vat's dat you say?" asked Weimer sleepily. "Hein?"
+
+"A waking nightmare," returned Ross and lay down again.
+
+Of course it was Leslie. "'He's to be here only a few weeks,'" Waymart
+had said. "'Let well enough alone.'" He, Ross, expected to winter
+in the valley, and the McKenzies knew it. Yes, they were referring to
+Leslie. That calmed Ross, but deepened the mystery.
+
+The following morning he thought over the situation while he was at work.
+It was a blind enough situation, but he felt that he ought to repeat to
+Leslie the scraps of conversation that he had overheard. They might mean
+much to the boy, and in spite of his reserve and his overbearing manners
+Ross liked Leslie.
+
+At noon he ate dinner hastily, and telling Weimer that he would be
+back in an hour, set out for the upper claims. Snow had fallen the
+night before and the trail had filled, making walking tiresome, for
+Ross had not yet accustomed himself to the use of snow-shoes. With his
+hands in his pockets and his cap drawn down over his eyes he plunged
+through the drifts in the teeth of a sharp east wind. Up the side of
+the mountains he struggled, through the pass between two peaks where
+Meadow Creek had cut a channel and into a hollow sheltered from the wind
+and exposed to the sun.
+
+"Hello, Grant!" A voice greeted him from the upper side of the trail.
+
+Ross pushed his cap back and looked up. In the sunshine, his back against
+a warm rock, his feet buried in the dry loam and pine needles, sat Leslie
+Jones. He had eaten his dinner and wandered along the trail until he
+had found a warm spot in which to spend the noon hour. Ross promptly
+climbed the steep mountainside and dropped down beside him.
+
+"The McKenzies say," began Leslie curiously, "that you don't stop work
+long enough to eat and sleep. Yet here you are two miles from home in
+the middle of the day."
+
+"It's because of what the McKenzies have said that I'm here now,"
+Ross returned swiftly. "It may not be worth a picayune to you, and then
+again, maybe, it will be," and he related the events of the previous
+evening.
+
+Leslie bent a troubled face over a stick that he was idly whittling.
+"Are you sure, Grant, that they meant me? I haven't an idea who they are
+nor who could be so afraid of me that he wouldn't come up here with me
+here. I don't know of a soul that's afraid of me, but," with a short,
+mirthless laugh, "I do know of some one that I'm afraid of. It's not
+the McKenzies, although they might--if they know me----"
+
+Suddenly he flung the stick from him and faced Ross impulsively. "Grant,
+did you ever do something that you'd give anything you possessed to
+undo--and that you'd just _got_ to undo?"
+
+Ross, startled at the sudden change in his companion, at the latter's
+intensity and evident unhappiness, merely shook his head awkwardly,
+avoiding the misery-filled eyes. He turned away and began piling up
+stones, bits of shining quartz that had been thrown, at some time, out of
+a discovery hole above them.
+
+Presently Leslie regained his self-possession. "I say, Grant," he began
+again abruptly, "to tell you the truth, I have started to go over to see
+you half a dozen times within a week and got this far every time. I'm
+going to ask a favor of you."
+
+"All right," said Ross with a gruffness that did not conceal his
+sympathy. "Fire ahead!"
+
+"The other day you--you offered me money," Leslie began with difficulty.
+
+"Yes, and I do to-day," Ross interrupted.
+
+Leslie shook his head. "Hold on till I get to it. I can't take your
+money--not that way. But the other day I heard the McKenzies tell Wilson
+that you tried to hire men in Miners' Camp. Will you hire me?"
+
+"Will I!" Ross leaped to his feet. He grabbed his cap and tossed it in
+the air and then fell to pommeling Leslie in pure exuberance of joy.
+"Hire you? I wish there were half a dozen of you to hire! Bully for you!
+But----"
+
+His exuberance died out. He replaced his cap and looked down on the
+other, his lips pursed ready for a whistle.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"See here!" Ross burst out. "What about Wilson?"
+
+"That's all right," Leslie answered quickly. "I told him a couple
+of days ago that I'd got to get money. I told him I'd leave him the
+grub, of course. I agreed to furnish it, and I'll stick to my word,"
+doggedly, "but I must also light out and earn some money. And all I can
+do is to work with my hands. I--well, I've always hated to make my head
+work, and I've never had to do any other kind until now. You'll find
+I'm soft yet, but I'll do my best."
+
+The boy spoke humbly.
+
+Ross sent his cap spinning into the air once more. "I'll risk you!
+You're not as soft as you were six weeks ago! Not by half! When can you
+come?"
+
+Leslie considered. "Wilson says he'll go below to the coal claims in a
+couple of weeks. I'll talk it over with him and let you know."
+
+"Come to-morrow, if you can," Ross shouted back as he slid down to the
+trail.
+
+Work went easily for a few days in view of Leslie's coming. The thought
+of his companionship robbed the prospective loneliness of Meadow Creek
+Valley of its terrors. He whistled and sang about the shack as he hunted
+up the material out of which to make a third bunk. He was hammering
+away on this the second evening after his talk with Leslie, when the
+McKenzies dropped in. They had been over on the Divide hunting and
+had been out of Ross's sight and mind since his talk with Leslie. Not
+until Sandy pushed the door open unceremoniously and walked in did Ross
+recall the comments that had so disturbed him and wondered once more
+to whom they had referred, himself or Leslie, and what the reference
+meant.
+
+"Hello, Grant!" Sandy exclaimed, stopping abruptly just inside the door.
+"What's up? Why another bunk? Goin' t' take boarders? Any relations
+droppin' in t' attend our festivities up here?"
+
+Ross looked over his shoulder laughingly. "Nope. Give another guess."
+
+Sandy came nearer. Waymart shut the door and sat down beside the stove.
+Weimer turned his back on "dem darned McKenzies," and put on his goggles
+that he might not be tormented by a view of their faces. It was a
+never-ending source of vexation to him that they came sociably to his
+shack.
+
+"I haven't any more guesses in stock," declared Sandy, but the smile on
+his face was succeeded by a frown and he bit his red beard restlessly.
+
+"Hired man is coming to-morrow," Ross formed him as the hammer sent
+another nail home in the side wall.
+
+"Hired man!" exploded Sandy. "Where the deuce will you get a hired man?"
+
+"Right here in the valley," exulted Ross. "Leslie Jones."
+
+"Leslie Jones!" repeated Sandy.
+
+"Leslie Jones," muttered Waymart.
+
+"By and by," Ross confessed, "when all you fellows go below, it will
+seem a little more livable up here to have a third one around. I'd pay a
+man wages just to stay here to say nothing of working for me."
+
+Neither Sandy nor Waymart made any comment. Sandy stood watching the
+work in silence, while Waymart allowed his pipe to go out. Then both
+departed. They said they were going up to see Wilson, but Ross noticed
+that they returned to their own cabin instead.
+
+"Something doesn't seem to please our friends the enemy," he chuckled
+after their departure. "They see the Weimer-Grant claims getting further
+and further from their reach."
+
+"Ve vill peat dem McKenzies yet," gloated Weimer rubbing his hands gently
+on his knees. "Ven dot oder poy comes de work vill run und jump!"
+
+Ross did not see the McKenzies again until Leslie was occupying the third
+bunk, Wilson having, good-naturedly, sent him down within a week after
+the boys had completed their bargain.
+
+"Clear out if ye want to," Wilson had said kindly. "It's white of ye
+t' leave the grub. I hain't a cent t' pay fer it. There's a fortune
+in these claims of mine, but it's too late t' dig it out this year.
+Next summer----" and he was launched on the glowing prospects for the
+next season.
+
+Leslie entered on his task with a grim determination which seemed foreign
+to his disposition.
+
+"I don't want you to get sick of your bargain the first week," he said
+one day in answer to Ross's remonstrance when he refused to stop work
+on account of a bruise on his wrist. "You open up that little emergency
+chest and I can go on digging just the same. I don't want any delayed
+wages in mine!"
+
+With the advent of Leslie, life fell into pleasanter grooves in Weimer's
+cabin. Despite the anxiety ever present with the newcomer, and despite
+his natural reserve, Ross's exuberance of spirits caused by his presence
+and work affected him, and after the supper dishes were washed, the two
+boys wrestled, chaffed each other or talked, Ross about his father and
+uncle and aunt, Leslie about his school life in Omaha.
+
+"It's a boys' school," he explained one day, "a military academy. I've
+had to go there ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Discipline
+is fierce. I hate it, and this year I made up my mind I'd not stand
+it, so I'm here."
+
+"And wish," ventured Ross, "that you were back in school again."
+
+"Yes--almost," Leslie began impulsively and then paused, adding quietly,
+"Lots of things I wish, and wish 'em hard."
+
+The following evening after supper, Weimer tumbled into his bunk at
+once and began snoring. The two boys washed the dishes, in silence at
+first. Outside, snow was falling heavily. Through the drifting flakes
+the McKenzies' light shone fitfully. The brothers had been away again
+hunting and had just returned.
+
+As Leslie set the dishes on their shelf above the stove he glanced
+uneasily out of the window. He had not seen the McKenzies for some time.
+Ever since they had crossed the valley that noon on their snow-shoes,
+their hunting trophies on their shoulders, he had watched their cabin
+with that same air of uneasy abstraction.
+
+"Ross," he broke out at last, "I've got to tell you something. I hate
+like a dog to tell it, but it's got to break loose some time and it may
+as well be right now."
+
+He turned from the shelf, glanced at the snoring Weimer, lowered his
+voice, and, standing beside the stove, worked restlessly at the damper in
+the pipe. Ross, without looking at him, slowly scrubbed the dish-pan
+and then the table.
+
+"It's like this," Leslie began. "When I met Wilson I had five hundred
+dollars in my pocket and a grouch against my father. Always before then,
+father had sent the Academy a check to pay for the semester--you have
+to pay there in advance for half the year--but this year he had business
+on hand that couldn't be interrupted and so he called me into his
+office in a great hurry the morning I left home and handed over the
+check to me. It was made out to me and it was for five hundred dollars.
+That's the price of the half year, you see. Dad handed it over and
+just said, 'Here, pay your own bill,' and got out. That's about
+all that's ever between us, anyway. Well, I went up to Omaha. We'd
+had it out about school all summer. I was bound not to go this year,
+and he swore that I should go and go through college if he had to rope
+me and tie me and take me himself, as he put it! Father is a whirlwind
+of a man. But I was bound not to go, and the money let me out. I took
+the check and cashed it at the bank and went to the 'Hill House,'
+where I met Wilson. I reasoned that the money was mine because it was
+to be spent on me. You see, Ross, I was mad enough to reason anything
+my way that I wanted."
+
+Leslie turned the damper absently, sending smoke in gusts into the room,
+but neither boy noticed it. Ross wiped out his dish-pan, hung it on its
+nail, and sitting down on a box, took his chin between his hands and
+stared at the fire.
+
+"I thought," Leslie went on, "that I'd invest that money and surprise
+dad. Well," grimly, "he's probably as surprised by this time as I am.
+You've heard Wilson tell about my meeting him and agreeing to go with
+him. I spent the entire five hundred on our outfit and car-fare in the
+expectation that in six weeks I could write to dad and tell him what a
+success I'd made of it! I had six weeks' grace."
+
+Ross looked up inquiringly. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Father and I never have corresponded extensively, but he always looks
+sharply after my reports. The first report goes out from the Academy in
+six weeks after school opens. I reckoned from what Wilson said that we'd
+strike it rich up here in a month more or less, and so about the time
+father would be looking into the reason why no report was sent from
+the Academy, he'd be receiving one from me up here and, you know,
+Ross, 'nothing succeeds as well as success,' and success of this sort
+would get dad right under the collar. Well, he probably knows by this
+time that I've turned up missing at school, and he has not received
+a letter from Meadow Creek telling about the discovery of free gold!"
+
+Leslie gave the damper a final twist and sat down on a pile of fire-wood.
+"Ross," he exclaimed violently, "I am about seven ways an everlasting
+fool!"
+
+Ross grinned cheerfully. "Aunt Anne always says that to find out that
+you're a fool 'is the best cure for the disease of foolishness.' So
+you see you're headed toward the cure already."
+
+Leslie shook his head. "There's that money, Ross. It wasn't mine, and
+you know it and I know it. I can't face dad again without it in my hand.
+Why, I wouldn't see him until I'd earned it for--well, wild horses
+wouldn't drag me," he concluded passionately. "I tell you, Ross, I've
+let myself in for a heap of trouble. I know father."
+
+"Now that he finds out you've skipped, Leslie, won't he be hunting you
+up?"
+
+Leslie stirred uneasily and turning stretched up and looked in the
+direction of the McKenzies. "That's what I'm expecting, or else he'll
+not think me worth while. I tell you, Ross, I've made dad no end of
+trouble both at home and in school. Things look sort of different up
+here. I've--well--I've never been up against it before."
+
+"Are you going to send your father word?"
+
+"Send him word before I get back that five hundred!" cried Leslie aghast.
+"You don't know dad. I can't face him without it. Not much."
+
+"But he'd see that you feel different----" Ross began.
+
+"You don't know dad," Leslie cut in harshly. "With the men it's just
+the same. It's 'stand and deliver' or get out, and he'd treat me just
+the same."
+
+The coming of the McKenzies put an end to further conversation. They came
+to announce their departure on the morrow.
+
+"Any little thing you'd like us t' git fer you?" Sandy asked the boys
+lazily. "Want us t' bring ye any biled shirts or one of these here coats
+with long handled tails? If you fellers lay out t' stay here all winter
+ye better lay in a stock of society rags, 'n' dancin' shoes."
+
+"About the most useful dancing shoes we'll need will be snow-shoes, I
+guess," Ross retorted.
+
+Leslie, from the wood-pile, said little but watched the brothers closely.
+Neither paid more than a passing attention to him, concentrating their
+remarks on Ross. They left early and went up the Creek with the intention
+of paying a farewell call on Wilson.
+
+"I don't believe," said Leslie the following morning as he watched them
+take the trail leading over Crosby, "that they have ever seen me before.
+They don't act as though they have, do they?"
+
+"Haven't seen a sign of it since that first night," declared Ross, "and
+yet what I overheard, you know----"
+
+"Must have referred to you," returned Leslie with conviction.
+
+The next three days passed quietly enough. The inhabitants of Weimer's
+cabin heard an occasional blast from Wilson's claims, but did not see
+Wilson. Steadily the two boys worked and steadily Ross held Weimer to
+his labors. Usually it was Weimer who got the meals, either Ross or
+Leslie leading him down to the shack, in case the sun shone, about
+half-past eleven. In three-quarters of an hour the boys would leave
+work and sit down to a substantial meal of hot bread, potatoes and all
+sorts of canned meats and vegetables. But the third day after the
+McKenzies' departure it chanced that when eleven o'clock came, Weimer
+and Leslie were in the far end of the tunnel drilling the "cut in" holes
+for a new blast, and Ross, pushing the little car back into the tunnel,
+sang out:
+
+"Hey, you fellows, keep on and I'll go down and shake up the grub this
+time."
+
+He ran down the trail to the cabin, and soon had a roaring fire in the
+heater. A kettle of beans had been left simmering on the back of the
+stove. This Ross pulled forward, and then, delving among the canned
+goods, he proceeded to set out various edibles, all the while whistling
+cheerfully.
+
+"M-m, tomatoes," he interrupted himself to mutter, "we haven't had
+tomatoes in two days. And corn--sweet corn. Guess Weimer has overlooked
+the corn entirely. We'll have corn. Soup! Jiminy! We haven't had soup
+in an age. Vegetable. That means a little of everything, and that taken
+boiling hot. Here goes soup."
+
+"Whoa!" came a deep voice from the trail outside the door, then the voice
+was raised, "Hello! Who's t' home?"
+
+Ross stepped to the door and faced a middle aged man, clad in leather
+"chaps" and short fur coat. A fur cap was drawn down over his ears and
+his hands were encased in huge fur gloves. He sat easily on a gray horse
+and was leading another, a mottled brown and white. As Ross appeared,
+he drew off one glove and slipped the hand carelessly under the tail
+of his coat at the same time squaring about in his saddle so that he
+faced the doorway.
+
+Ross, in his shirt sleeves, stepped out and greeted the newcomer
+hospitably. "Hello! Come in to dinner."
+
+"Had mine down in Miners' Camp," returned the other with a backward jerk
+of his head.
+
+He touched his mount with his spur and came close to Ross. The brown and
+white horse pulled back obstinately on the leading rope. The animal was
+saddled.
+
+"Are you the young chap that's workin' for Weimer?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"All right." The stranger withdrew his hand from the tail of his coat.
+It held a gun. "No monkey-shines now! You're the boy I'm after. I'm
+the sheriff of Big Horn County, and I have a warrant here for your
+arrest. Your father is honin' to meet up with you and settle a little
+account of money taken in Omaha."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+SURPRISES
+
+
+FOR a moment Ross was stunned. His hands fell nervelessly at his side,
+and he stared up at the stranger with expressionless eyes. Then, as
+the situation dawned on him, his eyes suddenly narrowed and into them
+leaped a light that caused the other to move the gun suggestively and say
+warningly:
+
+"No monkeying allowed, understand. Swallow a bite right now and climb
+up here on this other horse."
+
+Ross looked over his shoulder speculatively. From his position he could
+see the mouth of the tunnel on the mountainside behind the cabin. The
+mouth showed up black and empty and from its depth came the muffled
+sound of the hand drills wielded by Weimer and Leslie. The trail leading
+over the mountain to Miners' Camp was screened from the mouth of the
+tunnel by hemlocks. It could be seen only from the end of the dump.
+Ross thought fast.
+
+"All right," he said finally. "I'll go with you now--and quietly.
+There's no objection, I suppose, to my leaving a note for--Weimer?"
+
+No doubt existed in his mind as to the legality of the warrant and the
+seriousness of purpose in the man before him; therefore, he asked no
+further questions. Moreover, he wished above all things to avoid question
+and get off before Leslie appeared on the scene.
+
+"Leave a note, yes, or see 'im," assented the sheriff. "I'm willin'.
+Where is he?"
+
+"At work," hastily. "I'll just leave a note."
+
+The sheriff dismounted, dropped his bridle reins beside his horse's
+head, hitched the second animal's rope about the pommel of his saddle,
+and followed Ross into the shack, repeating, "Where at work?"
+
+"In the tunnel," mumbled Ross. "I would rather write a line than call
+him."
+
+He picked up some cold biscuits left over from breakfast and stuffed
+them into his pockets. Then, drawing a box up to the table, he sat down
+with paper and pencil to write a note. To his confusion, the sheriff
+stood over him looking on. He moistened the point of his pencil slowly.
+What on earth could he say that would make Leslie understand and yet
+not give the situation away to the sheriff? To gain time he gnawed on
+one of Weimer's hard biscuits.
+
+"Where is my--father?" he asked finally, stumbling guiltily over the word.
+
+The sheriff spat out of the doorway and twirled his gun impatiently.
+"You'll see 'im before I leave you, all right," was his ambiguous
+reply. "And the sooner that is the better it'll suit me. Git busy,
+young man, with that pencil. I don't aim to go int' winter quarters
+here. We've got to go on to Cody."
+
+Ross bit his lips and laid the biscuit aside. His eyes narrowed until
+they were mere slits. Grasping his pencil with a firmness he was far from
+feeling he began to write without preface.
+
+"The sheriff is here arresting me for stealing money from my father in
+Omaha. He is taking me to him in Cody now. I don't know when I can get
+back. Keep the work going sure, and don't worry. I think I will be
+able----"
+
+He paused and moistened the pencil again, then crossed out the last
+sentence and substituted:
+
+"I shall try to reason with him and make him see that he had better let
+me keep on doing what I am doing and earn the money to pay him back."
+
+Another instant Ross paused and thought. Then he added the singular
+explanation which he believed would make the foregoing more lucid to
+Leslie:
+
+"As I write the sheriff is standing over me," and then bethought himself
+just in time to avoid signing his name.
+
+"Huh!" grunted the sheriff reading the last sentence. "So he is; and now
+hustle!"
+
+Ross hustled most willingly. Seizing his top-coat and cap he was ready in
+a few moments for the perilous journey over the Crosby trail. Silently he
+mounted the brown and white horse, all the time glancing anxiously at
+the mouth of the tunnel. He rode in front of the sheriff and slyly urged
+his horse forward until the intervening trees hid the mouth of the tunnel
+from which still issued the steady grind and thud of the drills.
+
+It was not until the two horses were cautiously feeling their way down
+the perilous trail, and Ross saw far below him the shacks of Miners'
+Camp that some of the difficulties of his sudden venture began to present
+themselves to him. His decision had been made so hurriedly that he had
+had no time to think all around the subject of the arrest and his own
+action. It had seemed to him outrageous that a father should arrest his
+own son even though that boy had done wrong. Ross revolted at the idea.
+
+"I don't wonder," he thought, "that Less is afraid of his father. But
+his fear wouldn't sit so hard on his temper but what there'd be no end
+of explosions, and then where would they both get to?"
+
+It was the thought of this state of affairs that had led Ross to the
+impulsive determination to go to that father and ask for a few months
+of grace for the son. In this, as he acknowledged to himself, he had a
+mixed motive and part of the mixture was not unselfish.
+
+"If he'll only let Leslie stay and help me through the winter and earn
+the money," was his thought, "if I can make him see that Leslie's no
+quitter, and that he knows he has made a big mistake and is willing to
+bone down and undo it--if I can only make him see!"
+
+It was here that Ross's misgivings began. He knew he was no talker and
+evidently, as Leslie said, the father was a man of violent temper.
+
+"I'll probably have my little trip under arrest for nothing," Ross told
+himself as they reached the foot of Crosby. "Mr. Jones will blow my head
+off and send back for Leslie. Queer father not to come himself instead
+of sending a sheriff and a warrant and so disgrace his own son!"
+
+As to who was responsible for notifying the father of the whereabouts of
+his son, Ross did not for a moment doubt. Sandy's trip to Cody and the
+departure a few days before of both brothers answered that question to
+his satisfaction.
+
+At the foot of Crosby the trail of horsemen turned into the wagon trail
+leading past Gale's Ridge. On foot approaching them was a man whom Ross
+had met often in Steele's shack, and the sight of him awoke the boy
+with a shock to another phase of the situation that he had not, so
+far, had time to consider. Of course, it would not be possible for
+him to reach Cody and Mr. Jones without betraying his identity to the
+sheriff! There were the men of Gale's Ridge, the hotel at Meeteetse,
+and above all, there was Sagehen Roost and Hank. He turned in his saddle.
+It was a waste of time to go on. He might as well own up and let the
+sheriff go back after Leslie.
+
+"I was foolish to think of coming!" he muttered aloud and reined in his
+horse.
+
+The sheriff, coming on behind with his head bent, looked up questioningly
+and rode alongside. The two had not exchanged a word since leaving
+the Creek, the sheriff being silent by nature and Ross by choice. At
+that instant, the footman passed them. On the sheriff he bestowed an
+unrecognizing nod, on Ross a broad and cordial grin.
+
+"Hello, there, Doc!" he greeted and passed on.
+
+The sheriff glanced in surprise from the man to Ross. The latter drew
+a deep breath, and squaring about on his saddle shook the bridle reins.
+"That's a nickname they've given me," he muttered and rode on.
+
+The sheriff nodded and fell back, leaving Ross determined to play the
+game as far as he was able. He had forgotten that he was known from
+Cody to Meeteetse as "Doc Tenderfoot." In a few moments they had passed
+through camp and, rounding the shoulder of old Dundee, settled down
+to the eighteen mile ride to the half-way house between Miners' Camp
+and Meeteetse. This house, as Ross knew, had changed hands since his
+arrival in the mountains, and the change would lessen the chances that
+he would be recognized there. As it turned out, the sheriff was not
+recognized either, the family being newcomers in Wyoming, and the two
+ate in silence, the sheriff introducing neither himself nor Ross.
+
+"Luck is with me so far," Ross thought as they saddled and rode away from
+the ranch, "but how can I ever get past Meeteetse and Sagehen Roost?"
+
+The moon shone brilliantly, and they pushed ahead rapidly, Ross exulting
+over the sheriff's determination to get on to Meeteetse that night. They
+rode as silently as before, Ross in advance. The black hills met the
+trail on either side, and beside the trail flowed the shallow waters of
+Wood River until it merged into the Grey Bull. Half-way to Meeteetse,
+the sheriff's horse stumbled and limped thereafter, necessitating a
+slower pace, so that it was nearly midnight before they drew rein in
+front of the "Weller House."
+
+To Ross's relief, the place was dark with the exception of a single lamp
+in the office. Even the barroom was deserted. Ross left the sheriff to
+register for both, and then followed the sleepy clerk down to a lunch
+of cold "come-backs" which that individual "rustled" from the kitchen
+himself.
+
+"If fortune will favor me as well to-morrow as it did to-day," Ross
+thought as he listened to the sheriff's first snores, "I'll be next
+to Jones by this time to-morrow night and try to do some talking for
+Leslie!"
+
+He knew that his roommate was no wiser concerning him than when they
+started from Meadow Creek, and he most heartily desired a continuation
+of that ignorance.
+
+In the morning the two were up early and down to breakfast. Ross looked
+about apprehensively for some one who had seen him on his way into the
+mountains. He slunk into the dining-room in the wake of the bulkier
+sheriff and pushing himself unobtrusively into a corner seat bent low
+over his plate as befitted a young man under arrest. But no sooner was
+he seated than the proprietor of the house spied him from the other end
+of the dining-room, and with never a suspicion that he was talking to
+the sheriff's prisoner, strode across the room. He slapped the sheriff
+familiarly on the shoulder:
+
+"What the dickens are you doing up this way? Why don't ye stay in Basin
+where ye belong?"
+
+Then he grasped Ross's hand cordially:
+
+"Bless us if here ain't Doc back again. Got them claims cleaned up yet,
+Doc?"
+
+Ross, encountering the puzzled eyes of the sheriff, quaked. "No, we
+haven't yet," he muttered and glancing toward the dining-room door,
+exclaimed in sudden inspiration, "Wonder if that man is motioning to you?"
+
+The proprietor looked around. Several men were in the hall outside the
+dining-room. "I'll go and see," he exclaimed.
+
+The sheriff continued to look at Ross. "Bluff!" he announced briefly and
+understandingly.
+
+The blood flooded Ross's face guiltily. "It was," he confessed, adding
+quickly, "Say, don't give my arrest away where I'm known, will you?"
+
+His request and confusion satisfied the sheriff. The puzzled expression
+died out of his face. "All right," he assented and fell on his breakfast.
+
+The proprietor did not see Ross again until he was riding away. Then he
+ran out of the barroom bareheaded and called, "Steele's in Cody, Doc. He
+said you was pannin' out more like an old prospector than a tenderfoot."
+
+The sheriff rode up beside his prisoner with a quick inquiry: "How long
+have ye worked for Weimer?"
+
+"Long enough to be sick of it and want to quit," returned Ross gruffly,
+giving his horse a quick slap that set the animal to loping. It was no
+part of his plan to hold any unnecessary conversation with the sheriff
+that day.
+
+"I guess," the latter called as he came galloping after, "that you'll
+quit now all right, all right!"
+
+Ross made no reply, but took care to keep well in advance of his captor.
+Although his plan had, so far, succeeded, he was far from feeling
+triumphant because of a distressing sense of guilt at the deception he
+was obliged to practice. Nor was he able to dispel this sense by the
+knowledge that he was acting for the good of all concerned.
+
+"I may be only messing things up more than they are already," he thought
+dejectedly as they approached Sagehen Roost. "What under the sun led me
+to think I was equal to such a job, anyway?"
+
+Then, suddenly, his eyes narrowed, his chin raised itself determinedly
+and he turned his attention to the half-way house and the loquacious
+Hank. How could he ever get past Hank and remain Leslie Jones in the
+sheriff's eyes? If only he could get a moment's speech with Hank alone.
+But the sheriff was ever at his elbow. They had made good time from
+Meeteetse, and so approached Dry Creek and Sagehen Roost a full hour
+ahead of the stage from Cody. This fact gave Ross courage. With the
+stage-driver eliminated he had only Hank to deal with.
+
+"Hello, Hank!" shouted the sheriff as they dismounted in front of the
+corral. "Shake us up some grub right away, will ye?"
+
+Hank appeared at the door. Ross dodged behind the sheriff's horse, and
+stooping over noted the approach of Hank's legs. When they had borne
+their owner to the corral gate he straightened up and saying loudly:
+"Hello, Hank!" scratched the flank of the horse sharply with a pin he had
+found under the lapel of his coat.
+
+"Wall, if there ain't Doc Tenderfoot!" shouted Hank, but got no further.
+
+The horse leaped forward, and, as the sheriff sprang for its head, Ross
+managed to get Hank's ear for an instant:
+
+"Don't give me away, Hank. Talk to him and let me alone--understand--no
+names called. Don't talk to me nor about me."
+
+Hank stared his amazement, helped the sheriff catch his mount, scratched
+his head until Ross's words had soaked in, and then obeyed them so
+literally that when, half an hour later, Ross leaped to his horse's
+back, he was still Leslie Jones to the taciturn sheriff, and Hank,
+tongue-tied for once, was left standing beside the corral gate with a
+multitude of questions unasked.
+
+Ross's spirits arose. They were on the home stretch now to Cody. There
+was not a house on the way and only the stage to meet. Ross, forgetting
+his role as a shamefaced prisoner, began to whistle and plan what he
+should say to Leslie's father. His buoyancy was checked only when he
+chanced to look over his shoulder and discovered the sheriff looking at
+him not only with the puzzled air which he had worn at Meeteetse, but,
+Ross thought, with suspicion also.
+
+"I never seen a sober man arrested that took arrest as you do," the
+sheriff declared riding to Ross's side. "Think this is a little picnic,
+don't ye?"
+
+"I'm trying to think just how it will turn out," answered the boy
+seriously. "There's the Cody stage, isn't it?"
+
+The sheriff reined his horse back, and, with a flourish, the four
+horses swept past with Andy's foot jammed hard on the brake and Andy's
+whip cracking over the wheelers' heads. Just in the nick of time he
+recognized Ross.
+
+"Hi, there!" he shouted. "Doc, where's yer patient? And how is he?"
+
+Then, before any answer could be returned, the stage was beyond reach of
+Ross's voice, disappearing in a cloud of dust.
+
+"What patient does he mean?" asked the sheriff.
+
+"It's a fellow I helped when I first came out here," answered Ross
+frankly. He was afraid of the sheriff's suspicions. "He was hurt in
+front of Sagehen Roost, and as I know something about surgery
+I--helped--to fix him up."
+
+The sheriff studied his horse's ears. A look of perplexity overspread
+his face. "I heard of that down in Basin. But it seems to me that was
+before you come." He looked hard at Ross. "The McKenzies said----" He
+stopped suddenly, and bit his lips.
+
+Ross seized this pause to mutter, "It's not so long ago," and forged
+ahead on the trail, taking good care to keep ahead until the lights of
+Cody and the odor of the Shoshone River--"Stinking Water"--smote their
+senses together through the gathering darkness of the early December
+night. Then the sheriff, straightening in his saddle, said in a voice
+of authority:
+
+"Come back here. We'll ride neck and neck now."
+
+Ross fell back, and asked his first question, and no sooner was it out
+than he bit his lips savagely in vexation at his own thoughtlessness.
+
+"Is Mr. Jones stopping at 'The Irma'?"
+
+"Who?" exploded the sheriff.
+
+"Mr. Jones," murmured Ross in confusion.
+
+The sheriff looked the boy over silently but intently in the moonlight.
+The blood surged into Ross's face, and, despite the chill of the night
+wind, the perspiration broke out on his forehead.
+
+"Huh!" was the only response to his question. "Jones!"
+
+Then, with their horses neck to neck the two rode over the bridge
+together and for the second time entered the town to which Buffalo Bill
+has given his name, Cody. On the other side of the bridge, near the
+dust-deep road, stood a tent. The flap was fastened back, and, within,
+seated about a rough table, sat four men playing cards. When the sound
+of horses' hoofs reached the players, one of them arose and came to
+the tent's opening.
+
+It was Sandy McKenzie.
+
+The sheriff, still regarding Ross, did not look toward the tent, while
+Ross, excited over the prospect of meeting Leslie's father, and confused
+by his recent misspeech, scarcely bestowed a moment's thought on
+Sandy, whom he had known was in Cody and believed to be the instigator
+of the arrest. He glanced, however, within the tent as they passed
+and recognized Waymart. The man sitting next, his back to the open
+flap, his face bent over the cards in his hand, one leg stretched out
+under the table, looked strangely familiar to the boy, but he was too
+preoccupied to give him any attention. The fourth man, his face turned
+toward the riders, was a stranger.
+
+A moment later, a man took the horses in front of "The Irma," and the
+sheriff with his prisoner walked into the lobby and up to the desk.
+Picking up the pen, the sheriff thrust it into Ross's hand.
+
+"Register for yourself," he commanded briefly.
+
+Ross hesitated, glanced at the waiting clerk, glanced at the suspicious
+face of the sheriff and then, with a shaking hand, wrote: "Ross Grant,
+Junior," and laid the pen down.
+
+The sheriff drew the register toward him with a slowly purpling face.
+
+"That's my name," declared Ross. He spoke defensively, yet with a ring
+of exultation in his voice. "You haven't asked me for it before."
+
+The blood dropped out of the sheriff's face. The shivers ran down
+Ross's spine at the anger in his face.
+
+"What does this mean, you cub!" the sheriff demanded furiously.
+
+"It means that I want to talk to Leslie Jones' father before he sees
+Leslie," announced Ross boldly, "so I came with you. There was nothing
+to prevent my coming."
+
+A hand fell on the sheriff's shoulder. Sandy McKenzie stood at Ross's
+elbow. Sandy's face wore a curiously baffled expression, but he nodded
+to Ross in much his usual nonchalant manner.
+
+"Hello, Doc, you here? Didn't expect to see you. How'd you leave Leslie
+Jones?"
+
+There was an emphasis on the last name which Ross did not notice. Neither
+did he notice the shrewd observation in the questioner's eyes.
+
+"I left him busy," the boy returned glibly, "and so did the sheriff!"
+
+Once more the blood rushed into the sheriff's face, and in unselected
+language he had begun to tell Ross what he thought of him, when Sandy
+succeeded in drawing him aside and leading him into the barroom, followed
+by Waymart and a group that the conversation had attracted.
+
+After they had disappeared, Ross turned to the clerk. "Is Mr. Jones
+stopping here?" he asked confidently.
+
+"Nope," responded the clerk, leaning an elbow on the ledger. "What was
+it you put over the sheriff?"
+
+"Not here!" Ross exclaimed, not hearing the question. "Did you understand
+the name? I want to see Mr. Jones." In his anxiety he raised his voice.
+
+The clerk grinned. "There ain't no man here by the name of Jones."
+
+"But there must be," Ross insisted stupidly. "There's got to be! This
+is the only hotel in town, isn't it?"
+
+"Yep," grinned the clerk. "It's the original Waldorf-Astory all right.
+Where does this here Jones hail from?"
+
+"Omaha." There was unlimited dismay in Ross's tone.
+
+"Hain't got any one from Omaha here, and hain't had this winter."
+
+Ross pulled the register toward him and began to scan the names.
+Instantly he exclaimed, "Bully! Steele. I'd forgotten him. I'll see----"
+
+"Not this trip!" the clerk interrupted lazily. "Ye must 'a' met Steele.
+He went back on the stage to-night."
+
+"Leonard, then. He's here, isn't he?"
+
+"Nope," replied the clerk nonchalantly. "He's in Basin. Home's there,
+ye know."
+
+Baffled, perplexed, Ross turned again to the register. The clerk had
+told the truth. There had been no guest entered from Omaha or any place
+further away than Montana in weeks. "See here," he exclaimed finally,
+"do you know anything about Leslie Jones, that went over to Meadow Creek
+with a man named Wilson a few weeks ago?"
+
+The clerk leisurely turned the pages until he arrived at the entry
+sought. "Here they be," he pushed the book across the counter. "Wilson
+and Jones. They stayed here most a week. Knew Wilson and remember Jones
+when he was here."
+
+"And hasn't his father been here?" asked Ross eagerly. "Not at any time?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Haven't you--haven't you heard from him at any time or--or known
+about him? I've got to see the father," Ross burst out in irrepressible
+confidence born of his distraction. "I've stopped work and come all the
+way down from the Shoshones to talk with Jones."
+
+"Can't help it. Don't know anything about any Jones except this young
+one."
+
+At this point the clerk was called into the dining-room. He left Ross
+standing beside the desk staring at the register, confused and helpless.
+
+"And right here I got the big head over the way I had managed," he told
+himself in humiliation, "and at the very last minute gave the whole thing
+away!"
+
+Why couldn't he have had the sense to play the game far enough to
+see the end--and Leslie's father, he asked himself miserably. Now he
+had simply made a fool of himself and angered the sheriff and had not
+benefited Leslie. The sheriff would probably turn about and go back
+after the right boy. With this thought Ross straightened his shoulders
+determinedly and turned toward the barroom. As there was nothing to be
+gained by silence he was going to ask questions. As he turned, a man slid
+into the hotel in advance of him--the man with the oddly familiar back.
+
+The sheriff, Sandy and Waymart were standing together, and toward them
+Ross made his way through clouds of tobacco smoke and past groups of
+cowboys, railroad men and prospectors.
+
+"Hi, Doc!" called Sandy gaily. "Hump along here and be sociable. What'll
+you have? It's on me. Anybody," admiringly, "that's smart enough t'
+fool the sheriff of Big Horn County can have anything on me they'll
+take."
+
+The sheriff turned his back on Sandy and scowled. He did not glance at
+his late prisoner.
+
+"I don't want anything," declared Ross shortly. He planted himself
+resolutely in front of Sandy. "But I'd like to know where Leslie Jones'
+father is?"
+
+Sandy smiled easily, while the scowl faded from the sheriff's face.
+
+"I ain't no city directory, Doc," responded Sandy, "and what's more, I
+ain't knowin' of any Leslie Jones! His end name ain't any more Jones
+than yours is. He's fooled ye mighty bad--see?"
+
+The blood rushed to Ross's face. "N-not Jones?" he stammered. "Not
+Jones! What is it then?"
+
+"Why, Doc, if he don't want ye t' know I ain't got a call t' tell ye.
+Be reasonable." Sandy spoke with maddening pleasantry and condescension.
+"A feller's name is his own, and if he wants t' keep it kinda fresh
+and unused I ain't the one t' dig it up 'n' let it get covered with
+dust. Better go back t' Meadow Creek and have it out with Leslie."
+
+Ten minutes later, Ross, with a hot and angry face, was back in the
+lobby. His indignation burned against Leslie, who had, unconsciously,
+helped to put him in the hole in which he found himself. The subdued
+laugh which had marked his retreat from the barroom rang long in his
+ears. The sheriff's laugh was the loudest.
+
+"Arrest will serve him right!" muttered Ross as he entered the
+dining-room. "There isn't a reason on earth why he shouldn't have told
+me his right name when he told me the rest."
+
+Angrily Ross ate his supper, glowering down at his plate and not noticing
+the entrance of the McKenzies with the sheriff.
+
+After supper he went up to his room. The door was unlocked, the key
+having been long since lost. A single electric bulb swinging over the
+dresser was alight. Under the bulb lay a sealed and soiled envelope. Ross
+picked it up and turning it over came on the direction, "Doc Tenderfoot,"
+in a sprawling and carefully careless hand. Wonderingly he opened the
+envelope. Within was a note written with a lead pencil on the back of
+a yellow advertising sheet. It ran:
+
+"Leslie's name is Quinn, not Jones. His father is A. B. Quinn, North
+Bend, Okla., or 14 Castle Street, Omaha. He is in Omaha now waiting
+for Leslie. Sheriff is to send him there. Mum is the word about this
+note--to him or Leslie or the McKenzies. If I did not know you were on
+the square you would not get it to be mum about."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NEWCOMER ON MEADOW CREEK
+
+
+"'OLD man Quinn!'" Ross cried aloud. "'Old man Quinn' and the sheep
+war. And Leslie is his son!"
+
+It all came back, the story he had almost forgotten in the stress of
+events on Meadow Creek, the conversation on the train, old Sheepy's
+tale and, at last, his suspicions concerning Lon Weston with his dyed
+hair. And when his memory brought Lon into mental view, Ross's face lit
+up with a sudden flash of intelligence.
+
+"It was Weston that I saw in the tent, and it was Weston that went into
+the barroom ahead of me!"
+
+He laid the note on the dresser and, bending under the electric light,
+studied it. There was nothing to show who had written it except the
+caution at the end. That might have emanated from Waymart, but the
+language was better than he would have used. Ross felt that it was Lon
+Weston who had written that message. Of course, if such was the case, and
+Lon was the fourth whom old man Quinn was looking for, that warning not
+to give the unsigned writer away would be accounted for. It might, in
+some way, be the clew that would lead to Lon's detection. Ross now
+recalled how Lon had lain with one arm over his face all the time that
+Wilson and Leslie had been at the stage camp. He could not now recall
+whether or not the injured man's name had been spoken in Leslie's
+presence. But he did remember that Leslie had said of the McKenzies
+that perhaps they were men at some time in his father's employ, in which
+case he might not know them, but that they would probably recognize him.
+
+"Then if he had heard Weston's name it might not mean anything to
+Leslie," Ross concluded.
+
+He wondered why Lon had not made himself known that evening and wondered
+how he came to know the McKenzies. In fact, he sat on the side of his
+bed wondering about a dozen things until midnight, and then went to
+bed undecided what to do now that he had Quinn's address in his
+possession. His resentment kindled against Leslie whenever he thought of
+the latter's deception about his name. And the probabilities were
+that a letter from him, Ross, would not move the father to clemency.
+
+In this undecided state of mind, Ross strolled into the lobby the
+following morning, considering how he could best kill time until the
+stage started for Meeteetse that evening. As he was standing in front of
+a window, his hands deep in his pockets, the sheriff and Sandy rode past,
+followed by Waymart. Neither the sheriff nor Waymart looked his way.
+But Sandy did, and, grinning, raised his hand in a graceful salute.
+Ross, nodding, felt his anger at Sandy dying. Distrust him as he must,
+Ross could not dislike him. In this strange state of mind, however,
+the boy was by no means alone throughout the length and breadth of
+Big Horn County.
+
+"They're going now after the right chap," thought Ross, and a wave of
+sympathy for Leslie began to wash away his resentment.
+
+In the end, he spent the greater part of the day composing a letter to
+old man Quinn, wherein he set forth Leslie's position, prospects
+and altered feelings in bald statements containing but few adjectives. In
+explaining who the writer was he gave a brief account of his connection
+with the sheriff. Between the acts of composing, tearing up, and
+rewriting the composition, he searched Cody for Lon Weston, but could
+not find him.
+
+When, that evening, he climbed into the stage behind Andy, he had sent
+the letter to Leslie's father and had not caught a glimpse of Weston.
+
+At the stage camp he was the butt of much congratulation and derision
+from the hilarious Hank. "Say, you made the sheriff mad as a hornet,
+but he had t' own up ye cheated 'im out of a year's growth. Sandy
+set the hull thing out in good shape. But why didn't ye stick t' yer
+job instid of layin' down 'n' kickin' up yer heels before the time?"
+
+"Because I'm no good, Hank, this side of the Mississippi River,"
+returned Ross in humility of spirit. "Don't knock me--you can't get
+ahead of me in that respect! I've kicked myself all over Cody to-day."
+
+The following morning, at Meeteetse, he joined Bill Travers and the
+Miners' Camp stage and started on the all day's journey into the
+mountains. At noon, he began looking for the sheriff and Leslie. He
+had calculated that they would meet the stage at the half-way ranch
+and there he would tell Leslie what he had written his father. But no
+Leslie appeared. All the afternoon during the stage's progress into the
+mountains, Ross looked for the sheriff and his prisoner, but he looked in
+vain.
+
+At six o'clock, Bill Travers dropped his one passenger in front of
+Steele's shack, and Ross, climbing Gale's Ridge, opened the door on
+the superintendent in the act of sitting down to supper.
+
+"Hello, there!" cried Steele grasping the boy's chilled hand. "Here's
+the best elk steak you ever planted your teeth in. Draw up and tell me
+what you've been up to, skylarking off to Cody with the sheriff."
+
+Ross followed directions, and soon was giving Steele the entire story
+of his capture and failure.
+
+Steele, forgetting to eat, alternated between amusement and amazement.
+"By George, I don't wonder that sheriff was mad! You see, Doc, he's
+new to the business of being sheriff. You were his first arrest."
+
+"Probably if he were not so new he wouldn't have been so easily fooled."
+
+"I can't say," retorted Steele, "that he was easily fooled. Strikes me
+you were about as slow with him as greased lightning."
+
+Ross flushed at the praise. It was balm to his wounds in his self-esteem.
+
+Early the following morning, he started for Meadow Creek, and at the
+upper camp learned something for which he was unprepared and which was
+a source of temporary satisfaction to him.
+
+Leslie had disappeared.
+
+Until noon Ross lingered in camp watching the sheriff and Sandy pass and
+repass in their search for the runaway. Finally, just before noon, he saw
+them on snow-shoes striking out up Wood River canon into the uninhabited
+wilderness beyond. Then he slowly mounted the dizzy trail leading to
+Weimer's shack and the interrupted work.
+
+"It must have been my note that warned him," Ross thought as he watched
+the figures toiling up Wood River canon. "I hope they have the chase of
+their lives," he said aloud, "and then I can patronize Sandy and stroke
+him down as he did me at 'The Irma'--provided I dare!"
+
+He found Weimer sitting beside the fire smoking and growling over the
+absence of both his assistants.
+
+"Dot poy," he explained, "read dot paper you wrote and den vat does he
+do, hein? He says notings, aber he takes some tings and out he goes und
+leaves me mit der vork und mit mine eyes, und dey so pad!"
+
+This was the extent of the information he was able to give Ross
+concerning Leslie. Many grievances he had against the sheriff and "dem
+McKenzies" that had ransacked the premises and had ridden to and fro,
+over to Wilson's and round the mountains searching for traces of Leslie.
+
+As it turned out, they might have found a trace of him had they searched
+more thoroughly, for the following day, Ross, diving into the pocket of
+his slicker for some nails that he carried there, came on a folded note
+pinned in the bottom of the pocket.
+
+[Illustration: BESIDE THE DYNAMITE BOX]
+
+"All I understand from your letter," ran the note, "is that it has given
+me a chance to make my getaway. It was a mighty white thing of you to
+do, and I appreciate it, though I know I haven't acted that way. You've
+probably found out what my name is by this time. I didn't tell you,
+because I was so dead ashamed about the whole matter that I hated to
+face myself and disgrace the name. But I never thought father would do
+such a thing as he has, and so I shall clear out and stay cleared until
+he has stopped hunting. I know where I'm going, and you'll see me in
+Meadow Creek after father goes back and has given me up.--LESLIE JONES
+QUINN."
+
+Ross, standing on the dump beside the dynamite box, a hammer in one hand,
+read the letter. At once all his remaining resentment against Leslie
+disappeared. "I guess I would have done the same about the name in his
+place," he concluded.
+
+Pinning the note in his pocket again for safe keeping he repaired the
+dynamite box. Then he entered the tunnel, where Weimer was once more at
+work drilling for a blast.
+
+"Uncle Jake," he asked, "when did Leslie leave, what time in the day?"
+
+"It vas not day, it vas night," growled Weimer wrestling with the drill.
+"He vent avay mit darkness."
+
+"That accounts," said Ross, "for his not having been seen in camp."
+
+He felt certain that Leslie would take refuge in the shack up Wood River
+canon where Wilson had stored some of the supplies in preparation for the
+winter's work on the coal claims. In this case he would be discovered,
+for it was in that direction that the sheriff and Sandy had gone as Ross
+was climbing the Crosby trail. Therefore, it was with anxiety that the
+boy looked for the return of the McKenzies.
+
+Darkness had fallen when he left the tunnel that night, and as he emerged
+from the trees that clustered about the dump, he saw a light in the
+McKenzie cabin. Without waiting for his supper, he crossed the little
+valley and rapped on the door.
+
+"Hello, Doc," came Sandy's voice from within. "Haul up the latch-string
+and show yerself. Comin' to crow over us, ain't ye?" he continued as
+Ross entered. "Well, that ye can, fer we can't find hide ner hair of
+Leslie, and the sheriff has hit the trail to Basin about as mad as they
+make 'em over the whole thing!"
+
+Here Sandy threw his head back and laughed as amusedly as though the
+entire affair were a joke of his own manufacture. He did not seem to
+harbor the least resentment against Ross for having blocked the wheels
+of his game. Rather, he applauded the blocking frankly, while Waymart
+smoked stolidly beside the table and said nothing.
+
+"That little note that you left for Less is what done the business,"
+Sandy went on cheerfully reviewing the situation. "The sheriff had forgot
+that note 'til we got up here and the bird wa'n't t' be found in
+the hand ner the bush neither. That was a neat little trick, Doc, almost
+as neat as the way ye come it over the sheriff on the trail to Cody.
+Guess he'll not fergit ye fer a spell! Mart, don't be s' stingy with
+that weed. Hand over some. My pipe is about as empty as the sheriff's
+head."
+
+"Why did you do it, Sandy?" Ross burst out. "What made you send word to
+Leslie's father that he was here?"
+
+Sandy composedly filled his pipe and lighted it. "It was cruelty t'
+little children not t', Doc. The very idee of Leslie Jones leavin'
+his pa and----"
+
+"His name isn't Jones, and you know it, and I know it!" interrupted
+Ross. He could not keep the ring of triumph from his tone. "He is Leslie
+Quinn."
+
+Sandy's hand traveled slowly to his pipe. "Is he? How'd you find out?"
+he asked quickly.
+
+"Easily enough," said Ross carelessly, "when you know how."
+
+Both Waymart and Sandy regarded the boy intently. "Been back here then,
+has he?" they asked in one breath.
+
+Ross arose. "'It would be cruelty to little children' to tell you!" he
+quoted boldly and opened the door.
+
+Waymart gave an exclamation and sprang to his feet. His hands were
+clenched. But Sandy, kicking him under the table, guffawed.
+
+"Give and take, Mart," he exclaimed. "I'm willin' t' chew my own
+words, and if I am willin' there ain't no kick comin' from you!"
+
+The following day Ross wrote another letter to Leslie's father and
+enclosed the note he had found pinned in his pocket. This letter he
+entrusted to Wilson to mail in Cody, for Wilson was going to Butte for
+a few weeks before beginning his winter's work on his coal claims. He
+stopped at noon to bid Weimer and Ross good-bye.
+
+"Nothin' would hire me t' stay over here all winter," were his last
+words to Ross.
+
+Although the latter had seen but little of the prospector, his departure
+made the valley seem lonelier than ever, and caused Ross to cling
+desperately to the idea of the McKenzies remaining. As the days passed,
+and more snow fell, the brothers began to get decidedly uneasy. They
+accounted for their uneasiness to Ross by telling him they were in need
+of supplies and saw no way of getting any over from Miners' Camp.
+Sandy was the informant, as usual, while Waymart's eyebrows were
+lifted in momentary surprise. By that time every horse in Miners' Camp
+had been sent "below." There was but little grass on the mountains
+during the brief summer; and through the winter, which occupied nine
+months of the year, every ounce of fodder must be packed over the
+difficult road from the ranches.
+
+"I don't see," quoth Sandy unconvincingly, "but what we'll have to
+strike the trail. Hain't no way, as I can see, to pack grub over except
+on our backs, and that's too slow."
+
+For a moment there was silence in Weimer's cabin. The wind moaned and
+wailed among the hemlocks, and whistled savagely past the cabin. In
+his bunk Weimer snored. Above them came the cry of the coyotes, like a
+child's long-drawn scream of pain and fear. The terror of loneliness
+among those overhanging mountains gripped at the boy's throat. For a
+moment he could not speak.
+
+Then, "If you could get provisions over easily, would you stay longer?"
+
+Sandy crossed his legs restfully. "Sure," he answered readily.
+
+That week, therefore, Ross used his spare time--and some time which
+he ought not to have spared--in making a sled. It was, when finished,
+a crude but efficient affair, the runners being surmounted by a
+double-decked box. This vehicle he exhibited one day to the McKenzies as
+the prospective conveyor of their supplies over the mountains.
+
+Sandy stood in front of the shack, his hands in his pockets, his cap
+pushed well back on his head and the front lock of hair falling over
+his forehead.
+
+"Doc, you're the stuff!" he cried warmly. "There's an idee or two
+floatin' around in yer tenderfoot brain, ain't there?"
+
+Tied to both front and rear of the sled were ropes, two in front, one
+behind. Those in front differed in length.
+
+"See?" explained Ross. "Two can't walk abreast on the trail, but still
+it's easier for each one to pull on his own rope. That's the reason
+I made 'em of different lengths. Then one of us behind can hold the sled
+from slipping off the trail with the rear rope. In this way we can bring
+up a big load of supplies."
+
+Sandy removed his cap, and pushed back his hair.
+
+"Doc, where was you raised? Guess I'll go back t' the same place, and
+be raised over agin. It might pay." His tone expressed an admiration that
+was almost genuine.
+
+Waymart said nothing. He scarcely glanced at the sled, but turned away
+scowling up toward the tunnel where, as he had informed himself, Ross
+and Weimer were doing an amazingly good piece of work.
+
+As they started back toward their own shack, Ross heard Waymart say
+angrily to Sandy, "Are you goin' to take the use of that sled?"
+
+And Sandy's answer, "For sure, now! What's eatin' you, Mart? Doc's
+got a good head on 'im."
+
+"Entirely too good fer us, mebby!" growled Waymart; and Ross smiled in
+satisfaction, thinking they referred to his work in the tunnel.
+
+Just before supper, the door of Weimer's shack unceremoniously opened,
+and Waymart's arm was thrust in. "Here," his voice said roughly, "take
+this here elk steak."
+
+Ross relieved the arm of its burden, and the door closed sharply. It was
+a sirloin steak, the juiciest and most tender in the animal which the
+brothers had brought into the valley the day before. Sandy had often
+brought them venison before, but never Waymart; and Ross was pleased.
+
+"While Sandy is entertaining," Ross had told Steele, "and Waymart seldom
+says two sentences at one sitting, and next to never meets my eye, yet,
+if it came right down to a choice, I believe I'd rather travel along
+with Waymart than with Sandy."
+
+"Your choice is all right," Steele had replied. "If Waymart would cut
+loose from Sandy, he'd earn an honest living. It's Sandy that's the
+head, though. It's Sandy that plans; Waymart furnishes the feet and
+arms. Sandy's good company, but I wouldn't trust him with my pocketbook
+around the corner. Not," Steele added, "that he'd steal it in such a way
+that the law could touch him. No, he'd have the pocketbook, but it 'ud
+leave him free to look any jury in the eye and to shake hands with me
+afterward."
+
+The new sled made its first journey down into Miners' Camp one Sunday in
+December two weeks after Ross had ridden down with the sheriff. Waymart
+went ahead with one of the leading-ropes over his shoulder, and Sandy
+behind, steadying the empty vehicle around the shoulder of Crosby.
+Waymart led because he was the heaviest, and there was a deep fall of
+snow to contend against except around the shoulder, where, fortunately,
+the wind had swept the mountain clean.
+
+As the trail broadened beyond, Waymart paused to survey the low-hanging
+clouds. Ross, in the rear, stopped and studied the mountains which Nature
+had in ages past taken in her gigantic hands and flung into the canon
+between Dundee and Crosby, compelling Wood River to crawl and worm and
+wind and cut its way deep and narrow down into Miners' Camp.
+
+"I wonder," exclaimed Ross suddenly to Sandy, "what is beyond that
+conglomeration of peaks."
+
+"Wood River canon still, clean over on top of the Divide, and you can
+follow it on horseback right through. Part of the time up there," waving
+his hand toward the jumble of mountains which seemingly ended the canon,
+"it's pretty rocky trailin', especially in winter, but it can be done."
+
+Sandy rested one foot on the edge of the sled. Waymart glued his eyes
+on the Camp far below. From various projecting stovepipes volumes of
+smoke were curling straight up in the windless air. From the tunnel of
+the Mountain Company almost opposite them came a succession of blasts
+which stirred the echoes between Dundee and Crosby. The Mountain Company
+were no respecters of Sunday. They were also working day and night in
+view of the near shut-down of the works.
+
+But Ross's gaze was seeking to penetrate further toward the source of
+Wood River. "Any one living beyond there?" he asked.
+
+Sandy grinned. "Elk, mountain-sheep, coyotes, bears, and timber wolves."
+
+"But no people?"
+
+"Nope. There ain't a man livin' 'twixt here and the Yellowstone
+Park--now. Last summer a few prospectors sort of strolled up Wood River a
+few dozen miles, but they hiked it out, I tell ye, when snow come."
+
+"I wish," Ross said impulsively, "that I could go over there exploring."
+
+Waymart lifted his eyes the fraction of a moment, and encountered
+Sandy's. A peculiar expression passed between them. Then Waymart's
+gaze fell again on the Camp, and Sandy replied carelessly to Ross:
+
+"After you git the work done in your tunnel better strike some of these
+trails, but not in winter. They ain't safe, especially for a tenderfoot."
+
+"But in the summer," returned Ross absently, "I don't expect to be here."
+
+"Oh--that so?" and Sandy gave the sled a careless push.
+
+Waymart drew the rope over his shoulder, and once more the trio descended
+the trail.
+
+At the upper camp Ross left the brothers to purchase their supplies
+while he visited the post-office and Steele. At the former place he found
+a note to himself from Leslie's father and a bulkier letter addressed
+to Leslie in his care. Mr. Quinn had received both of Ross's letters, he
+wrote, the last with the enclosure from Leslie. He had taken the steps
+necessary to recall the warrant, which, he explained, had seemed to
+him the "surest and quickest way of fetching the boy home," and would
+allow Leslie to return to Ross as his note indicated that he desired.
+On his return Ross was to give up the letter put in his care. Mr. Quinn
+closed his communication with thanks to Ross for the trouble he had
+been to, also, for his assurance that Leslie was boning down to work!
+
+Two weeks had elapsed since Leslie disappeared. Nothing had been seen
+of him nor heard of him in either the upper or lower camps, and Ross
+returned to Meadow Creek troubled in spirit.
+
+"I'm afraid," he told himself as he helped the McKenzies haul their
+supplies up the trail, "that I've made even a bigger mess of it all
+the way around than I thought at first."
+
+Steele, from his doorway, watched Ross out of sight that afternoon, with
+a pleased smile on his bearded lips. He was a tanned and freckled Ross
+now. Sun and wind and work in the open for two months had left their
+marks on the boy. He stood straighter, walked more firmly, and had laid
+on pounds of muscle.
+
+"He's put himself through good and plenty, as well as holding Uncle
+Jake's nose to the grindstone," concluded Steele, turning back into the
+cabin. On the making of the sled he had commented but briefly to Ross,
+realizing how much the presence of the McKenzies meant to the boy. To
+himself he thought, however:
+
+"That Sandy McKenzie! How he does manage to make other folks do his work!"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the week which followed, a stranger passed through Miners' Camp.
+He was seen by only one man, "Society Bill," who belonged to the Gale's
+Ridge outfit.
+
+"He asked the way to the Meader Creek trail," Society Bill told Steele.
+"Now, I wonder if he's a new one of them McKenzies. I never set my two
+eyes on 'im before."
+
+"Horseback?" asked Steele.
+
+"Yep. Decent sort of bronc he rode. Told me to tell Bill Travers to drive
+it down below to-morrow if it got down this far."
+
+"That looks as if he knew what he was about, and intended to stay," mused
+Steele.
+
+Early the following morning the "decent sort of broncho," with its
+bridle reins tied to the pommel of the saddle, was discovered in front of
+Steele's shack, pawing the snow in an ineffectual attempt to get a
+breakfast. Bill Travers, returning with the stage, according to request,
+drove the beast ahead of him down to the first ranch, and, taking off
+saddle and bridle, turned it into a large corral with dozens of other
+horses to winter. In the spring one by one the owners would straggle
+along, identify their horses and saddles, pay their bills, and depart
+for the mountains.
+
+The owner of the ranch pitched the saddle under a shed, and thought no
+more about the transaction. Bill Travers, whirling his whip over the
+backs of his four stage horses, gave the stranger and his horse no more
+thought. Society Bill, having disseminated his news among the other
+miners, presently forgot it. But Amos Steele neither forgot nor ceased
+to speculate.
+
+"Who is he, and what is he doing on the Creek?" Steele asked himself.
+
+The first part of the question Ross answered the following Sunday. He
+could scarcely wait to open the door before announcing:
+
+"Lon Weston is over on the Creek. He is cousin to the McKenzies!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MEADOW CREEK VALLEY MISSES LESLIE
+
+
+ROSS could scarcely believe the evidence of his own senses when he saw
+Lon Weston riding along the trail below the dump. The boy had pushed the
+car with its load of ore out to the bumper and dumped it before he saw
+the horseman in the sheepskin coat, the hairy chaps, and a fur cap drawn
+over forehead and ears. The horse shied at the chunks of ore rolling
+almost to its feet, and Weston looked up.
+
+"Hello, there!" shouted Ross. "What on earth are you doing here?"
+
+Weston drew in his horse. "Hello, Doc!" he returned with gruff
+pleasantness without answering the question.
+
+"Doc" slipped and slid down the snowy path to the trail, and held out a
+cordial hand.
+
+"How's your leg?"
+
+"All right." Weston gripped the extended hand heartily. "Almost as good
+'s new."
+
+His brown eyes above his heavy stubby beard held a pleasanter expression
+than Ross had seen in them while nursing their owner. They were deep
+eyes, capable of mirroring accurately the varied moods of the man looking
+out of them.
+
+"I didn't recognize you in Cody three weeks ago," Ross was beginning
+when Weston interrupted him.
+
+Leaning down from his saddle he met the boy's eyes steadily. "Remember,"
+he said slowly and meaningly, "that you didn't see me--nor hear from
+me--in Cody."
+
+"All right," agreed Ross, embarrassed by the fixity of the other's
+stare. "I'll forget it hereafter, but I want to thank----"
+
+"Cut it out," commanded Weston briefly, straightening again in the saddle.
+
+"At least," invited Ross, "you'll come to dinner with me. Uncle Jake
+is frying ham and onions. Smell 'em? I got some onions and half a dozen
+apples over at Camp Sunday." His voice could not have been more eager had
+he been relating the finding of free gold. "Come on in, and have some."
+
+Weston's eyes slipped away from Ross's in a way which reminded the
+latter of Waymart's, and rested on the smoke from the cabin a quarter of
+a mile away.
+
+"Guess not, to-day. Thank you just the same. The boys are probably
+rustlin' grub this minute and they'll be expectin' me. See you again."
+
+Ross stood motionless, looking after him. Weston rode sitting straight,
+unlike the usual careless forward droop of the cow puncher. He was a
+well-built man, although his shoulders were rather narrow. But the only
+characteristic that Ross noticed was the grip of the left knee against
+the horse. For the strength of that grip he was responsible, but it was a
+responsibility which Lon did not seem to recognize.
+
+Suddenly the boy realized the newcomer's words. So Sandy and Waymart
+were expecting him, but had said nothing about it to Ross. And when Ross
+had told them about Lon Weston at the stage camp they had made no sign
+that they knew him. That was strange.
+
+He turned slowly toward the cabin, where Weimer was frying ham and onions
+and boiling coffee. Opening the cabin door he was met by a white gust of
+steam mingled with savory smoke. He propped the door open, and brought
+in an armful of wood.
+
+Weimer, in his shirt-sleeves, was bending his head over a little stove,
+which offered barely room for a small kettle and a skillet with a
+coffee-pot sandwiched in between. A sheet-iron oven stood on the floor,
+the top answering for a sideboard. When Weimer made biscuits and sour
+dough bread, the oven was placed on top of the stove.
+
+Ross threw his wood down on the hard dirt floor, and put a stick into
+the stove by way of the wide front door. The pine instantly blazed up,
+showing a wide crack which zigzagged across the side of the old stove.
+
+"Uncle Jake,"--Ross sat back on one heel, and looked up at his partner
+whose blinking eyes were in the gloom of the cabin unprotected now by
+goggles,--"Uncle Jake, a stranger has just come into Meadow Creek City
+on the Limited."
+
+Weimer chuckled. Before the advent of his youthful "pard" the old
+man--Ross always thought of him as old despite his black hair and great
+strength--had not laughed in months.
+
+"He stopped at the second station," pursued Ross.
+
+Weimer's face instantly darkened. "At the McKenzies'? One of dem
+consarned gang, he ist?"
+
+"That's what I want to know. It's Lon Weston, the fellow I told you I
+took care of at the stage camp."
+
+Weimer dumped ham and onions into an agateware basin, and set it on the
+table. "I don't know him, I don't. But he comes to der McKenzies, hein?
+Und after all dose days you spen' mit him!" Uncle Jack frowned heavily,
+and, sitting down, helped himself to boiled "spuds."
+
+"I tink I knew all dem consarned gang, but dere ist no Veston mit 'em."
+
+Ross dragged to the little bare board table a box marked in big letters,
+"Ruford's Canned Tomatoes, The Yellow Brand," and, turning the box on
+end, straddled it opposite Weimer.
+
+Weimer, eating and drinking noisily, found time to ask vindictively, "Ist
+he for more medicine come mit you?"
+
+Ross shook his head, and bent over his plate.
+
+The plate was tin. The cup out of which he drank his coffee was also tin.
+His knife and fork were steel, and his spoon was pewter. The place of the
+lacking milk pitcher was usurped by a tin can of condensed milk with the
+top bent back and the milk dried all over the sides. But Ross ate--how he
+ate! Potatoes followed ham, and coffee followed potatoes, and onions
+followed both, and then he began all over again. Never had eating been
+such serious work with him. But never, also, had his muscles been so firm
+and hard. As for a pickaxe, it was coming to feel no heavier than the
+baseball bat which he had always rather scorned.
+
+"I wonder," he began after a pause, "what Lon's up to here, anyway."
+
+The question started Weimer on his favorite topic, the claim jumpers
+and the injustice of the mining laws. He could not talk fast enough in
+English, and so dropped into his native German.
+
+Ross, accustomed to his tirades, cleared away the dishes, pushed the
+table back against the dirt chinked logs, and lay down on the blankets
+of his bunk for a few moments, his eyes glued on the little nickel clock.
+
+He broke into the other's scolding monologue. "In ten minutes we must
+go back to work."
+
+Weimer scowled darkly. His lids, red and swollen, almost obscured his
+pale-blue eyes. "Mine eyes ist too pad to-day," he declared. "I vill not
+to go out in de sun again."
+
+A few weeks before, this oft-repeated declaration had alarmed Ross. Now
+he made no reply. But, when the hands of the nickel clock indicated one,
+he arose and put on his oiled jumper and oilskin cap.
+
+"Come, Uncle Jake," he said in a strong, decided tone. "Here are your
+goggles. Get busy, or the McKenzie outfit will have our claims in spite
+of us. Now, when there are three to watch instead of two, we must show
+the mettle we're made of."
+
+Moved by the magic statement, ever new and ever powerful, that the claims
+might be jumped, Uncle Jake, forgetting that in substance he had made
+the same objection to work twice a day for weeks and that Ross had
+overcome his objections in substantially the same way, "got busy." And
+presently Ross led him out, his eyes not only securely goggled, but
+covered as well with a black cloth which he pressed fearfully against
+the goggles.
+
+The snow was Weimer's evil genius. He lived in dread of the sight of
+it. Without assistance he would not move a dozen paces away from the
+cabin after the sun had risen on Meadow Creek Valley. But the fear of the
+light had made as great an impression on his mind as the light itself
+had made on his eyes, and he had fallen into the habit, before Ross came,
+of staying in his cabin during cloudy days, lest, if he ventured out, the
+sun might break through the clouds.
+
+The old partner and the young went up the steep trail to the tunnel, Ross
+leading Weimer up over the side of the dump and into the mouth of the
+tunnel. In the shelter of its gloom the latter removed his goggles; and,
+stumbling along over the chunks of ore lying beside the narrow track,
+he reached the end of the short tunnel which had been blasted from the
+solid rock. Lighting a fresh candle, he set it in its socket at the end
+of a sharply pointed iron, a miner's candlestick, and, jabbing the
+point into a crevice, leisurely surveyed the wall before him. Behind him
+the little empty car filled the tunnel with sound as Ross pushed it
+rattling and jolting over the rusty rails.
+
+"Ready to drill for another shot, ain't we?" Ross asked. He pushed the
+car back out of the way. "Got to hustle to get it done this afternoon,
+too."
+
+Under the stimulus of Ross's presence and hustle the older man fell
+to work valiantly, but it was slow work. Down in Miners' Camp machinery
+performed the task which Weimer was doing laboriously with the aid
+of a hand drill. Before him, at the end of the tunnel, was a seamed
+and uneven wall of rock a little higher than his head and a little
+broader than his reach had he extended his arms on either side. In
+this wall he patiently drilled three sets of holes, into which the
+"sticks" were placed for the next "shot," as the explosion of dynamite
+was called. In mining terms the old man was "putting a shot." Near
+the top of the wall he made three holes. Half-way down were two more,
+long and inclined toward each other at the top. These were the "cut-in
+holes." Lastly, at the foot of the wall were three large holes called
+"lifters." The contents of the top holes and the cut-ins were set off
+first, splintering and cracking the rock. Then the lifters were
+exploded, actually lifting the loosened mass above it and hurling it
+into the tunnel.
+
+When quiet reigned again, and Ross had loaded his hand car with the
+debris, he pushed it out on the dump again through the moist, freezing
+atmosphere of the tunnel. There was water everywhere. Near the mouth
+of the tunnel it was frozen on the sides and the top, and carpeted the
+floor with slush. Further in it was unfrozen, oozing out of the sides,
+dripping from the roof, running along the track. It covered the oiled
+garments of the men at work. It put out their candles. It made muck of
+the quartz dust on the floor. It often destroyed the lighted fuses.
+
+There was something maddening to Ross in its incessant drip and drizzle,
+and he always emerged on the dump with a feeling of relief, especially
+when the sun shone as it did that day in dazzling brightness.
+
+He dumped the car, and was about to push it back when his eyes fell on
+Weston's horse journeying on the back trail riderless.
+
+"That means," thought Ross, "that he's going to stay. Why?"
+
+A feeling of relief was mixed with uneasiness. The relief was caused
+by this further link in the chain of evidence that when the trail to
+Miners' Camp was closed it would not close on Weimer and him alone. The
+uneasiness had to do with the mission of the McKenzie outfit in Meadow
+Creek Valley. Why were they reinforced by Weston?
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Ross aloud in sudden disgust with himself. "He's come
+to hunt, of course! His gun was strapped on behind. I never thought of
+that. If he belongs to the McKenzie outfit, he'd rather hunt than eat."
+
+It seemed to him that the "outfit" bore him not the slightest grudge or
+ill will. Sandy, indeed, seemed openly to like him, Waymart tolerated him
+with a surly good humor, while Weston--here Ross knit his brow--Weston
+baffled him completely; still, considering the incident of the note in
+Cody, the boy looked on him as a friend albeit one who evidently did
+not care to pose in that capacity before the McKenzies.
+
+From his position Ross could look down and across on the claims of
+the McKenzies and almost into the "discovery hole" in which they were
+supposed to be working. Waymart was leisurely drilling a hole in the
+rock to receive a stick of dynamite when Sandy came out of the cabin and
+walked rapidly toward him.
+
+The two talked together a moment, and then Weston joined them. In a
+moment the three fell apart, and appeared to be talking excitedly.
+Presently Waymart dropped the discussion, and turning his back walked
+away a few steps with his hands in his pockets and stood in a listening
+attitude. Ross watched with absorbing interest. Even at that distance
+he could see that the discussion between the other two was not amiable.
+The scene lasted but a few moments, and then all three descended to
+the cabin together.
+
+That evening after supper, Ross washed the day's dishes, brought in
+wood, and put the room to rights, while Weimer alternately smoked and
+snored in his bunk. The room was dimly lighted by candles in candlesticks
+thrust into logs. Ross, so tired and sleepy he could scarcely keep his
+eyes open, hung up the dish-pan on its nail beside the stove, and looked
+longingly toward the emergency chest pushed beneath his bunk. Not one
+word had he mastered of the contents of the books he had stowed away
+there with such high hopes.
+
+"I don't believe the McKenzies are coming over," he told Weimer, as he
+filled the stove and wound up the clock. "It's too late for them."
+
+Weimer made no reply. His pipe had fallen on his chest, and his
+hair-encircled mouth was wide open in a vacuous sleep. At that moment
+the rising wind beat the snow against the window, and Ross uttered an
+exclamation. He had forgotten to shut the tool-house door, and, fearing
+that with the wind in the south the little log house would be filled with
+snow before morning, he went back up the trail to the tunnel. Climbing
+noiselessly over the soft snow, he arrived at the ore dump, and was
+making for the tool house across the mouth of the tunnel when a light
+flickered in his path.
+
+Startled, he looked into the tunnel, and saw three figures at the end
+silhouetted against the dim candle-light.
+
+"Lon, Sandy and Waymart," he muttered.
+
+There was no danger of his being discovered, so dark was the night.
+Therefore, he sat down on his heels beside the tool house, and watched,
+puzzled at first to understand the movements of the men.
+
+"Oh," he muttered suddenly, "they're measuring to see how fast the work
+is going."
+
+With a tape line the men were estimating the cubic feet of rock excavated
+by Ross and Weimer.
+
+Ross hugged his knees, and exulted. His "friends the enemy" might measure
+all they chose, he thought; and every length of the tape line would
+reveal to them the futility of waiting to jump the Weimer-Grant claims.
+
+Presently the three started out of the tunnel. Ross, seeking a
+hiding-place, found it behind a clump of low spruce trees at the
+right of the tunnel's mouth. The intruders blew out their candles as
+they came out on the dump.
+
+"At this rate," Ross heard Waymart say, "they're solid on these here
+claims."
+
+But, although he strained his ears, he could hear nothing more. After a
+brief wait the last sound of twigs breaking under their shoes died away;
+and Ross, leaving his hiding-place, shut the tool-house door and went
+back to the cabin.
+
+He found Weimer awake and whistling in his bunk. Ross paused at the door,
+regarding him curiously. It was the first time he had ever heard the old
+man make this cheerful sound, although Steele had said he used to be
+called Whistling Weimer as well as Dutch Weimer.
+
+"Hello, Uncle Jake!" cried Ross. "Feeling pretty gay, aren't you?"
+
+Weimer stopped in the middle of his tune, and blinked at Ross. "Nein,"
+he denied, "I ain't feelin' gay. If your eyes vas----"
+
+Ross interrupted. "Now, see here, Uncle Jake; you know your eyes are
+better since I've taken to doctoring them."
+
+The last few weeks had certainly improved the old man. His eyes were
+better, owing to a cooling lotion which Ross had dropped under the lids
+twice a day. Weimer's mind was clearer because his growing confidence
+in his young partner had quieted his fears. Ross's cheerfulness was
+also contagious. Nor did the cleanliness on which the boy insisted lower
+Weimer's vitality. Soap became a known quantity to him.
+
+All these favorable circumstances reacted on Weimer's work. He was
+becoming more and more efficient, and Ross's spirits had risen as the
+days passed; and he saw the growing intelligence manifested by the other
+in regard to operations in the tunnel. This change for the better in
+Uncle Jake had not passed unnoticed by the McKenzies.
+
+Ross said nothing to the old man about the scene he had just witnessed
+in the tunnel. It would do no good, and would only inflame the other's
+wrath. Therefore, he snuffed the candles, repeating mechanically:
+
+"Don't believe the McKenzies are coming over to-night."
+
+But at that moment footsteps sounded outside the door. The snow creaked
+under the pressure of shoes, and Sandy and Waymart entered.
+
+Sandy was as gay and talkative as ever, but not Waymart. He sat down
+on a box, leaned back against the logs, turned up his coat collar to
+protect himself from the icy wind, which sought out the dirt-chinked
+crevices, and, pulling a mouth-organ from his pocket, began to play. Nor
+did he stop until Sandy rose to go. A sombre figure he made back among
+the shadows, his eyes resting vacantly on the floor at his feet. One leg
+was crossed over the other, the toe moving in time to the discordant
+music. Waymart's thoughts did not seem to be cheerful companions.
+
+But Sandy had drawn a box close up beside the roaring fire, and sat with
+his elbows on his knees and a pipe in his mouth. He paid no attention to
+Weimer nor to his musical brother, but told Ross yarns of the gold-fields
+of Montana and Nevada, tales concerning other men, Ross noticed; Sandy
+never talked about himself.
+
+The evening passed and the men rose to depart without having mentioned
+the newcomer; and Ross, with the thought of their previous reticence
+concerning him in mind, waited for them to speak first.
+
+It was Sandy who spoke, but not until his hand was on the door and
+Waymart stood outside the cabin. Then he said carelessly, as though Ross
+had never seen Weston before, and as though the coming of a relative
+was an every-day event in Meadow Creek Valley:
+
+"Cousin hiked it over the mountain to-day. We're goin' t' strike th'
+trail over t' the Divide to-morrow, huntin'. He's great on game."
+
+"So," thought Ross, "I'm right. It's hunting that has brought him here."
+
+The next morning at daylight, Ross, eating breakfast, chanced to glance
+out of the dirty west window. Up near the summit of Soapweed Ledge, which
+met Crosby at right angles, he saw three figures advancing single file.
+Each carried a gun, and had a small pack and snow-shoes strapped on his
+back.
+
+"Uncle Jake," asked Ross suddenly, "have you ever been over to the
+Divide?"
+
+Weimer shook his head. "No, I stay home and attend to pizness."
+
+"Haven't you ever crossed that mountain?" Ross indicated Soapweed Ledge.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What's beyond?"
+
+"More mountains," answered Weimer vaguely, "und peyond dem more und more."
+
+It was a week before the hunters returned, a long lonely week for Ross.
+Each morning he told himself hopefully that before night Leslie might
+return, but, to his increasing dismay, no Leslie came.
+
+"Can it be that an accident has happened to him, somewhere, alone, or
+has he changed his mind about coming and gone back home?"
+
+Ross asked himself this question as he stood at the mouth of the tunnel
+one morning staring in the direction of Soapweed Ledge. A heavy snowstorm
+had set in that morning, and in the afternoon the falling snow shrouded
+the Ledge in a white veil out of which the three men now emerged, moving
+slowly across the little valley. Their snow-shoes were on their feet,
+and in place of the light packs with which they had started their
+shoulders were bent under loads of venison.
+
+The McKenzies had returned.
+
+That evening Waymart appeared at Weimer's door with a goodly portion
+of meat, at which Ross looked dubiously.
+
+"You've given us so much already," he hesitated.
+
+Waymart interrupted. "Jerk it," he directed briefly. "Jerked meat makes
+a good stew when ye can't git no fresh meat." He turned sharply to
+Weimer in his bunk. "See here, Uncle Jake, have ye forgot how t' jerk
+venison?"
+
+Weimer crawled out of his bunk, scowling. "Vell, I haf nicht dat. I guess
+I jerk him so gud as anypody."
+
+"Get about it then!" retorted Waymart with rough kindness. "Here's a
+meat knife to shred it up with."
+
+He laid a large, sharp knife on the table, and cut Ross's thanks short
+by an abrupt departure.
+
+Weimer, grumbling at the interruption to his rest, cut the meat in long,
+thin strips, which, he told Ross, were to be nailed to the outside
+of the shack after the storm had passed. But in the morning, Ross,
+objecting to a process which brought the meat into contact with the
+dirty logs, stretched a cord between two trees, and over it, in the
+sunshine, folded the strips clothespin fashion, leaving them for the air
+to cure and dry.
+
+For two or three days the McKenzies did not visit their neighbors. Ross
+saw them outside their shack occasionally, and something in the air and
+attitudes spoke, even at that distance, of disagreement.
+
+One evening at six o'clock Weimer stumbled out of the tunnel alone
+and down the path, the darkness robbing the snow of its terrors. A few
+moments later, Ross, having laid the dry sticks in the drilled holes
+in the end wall of the tunnel, lighted the fuses, and, candle in hand,
+made for the mouth.
+
+He came out on Lon Weston sitting on a stump which projected above the
+dump.
+
+"Hello, Doc," greeted Lon Weston.
+
+"Hello, Weston." Ross was so astonished to see him there that he nearly
+forgot to count the explosions that just then thundered in the tunnel
+behind him.
+
+"One, two, three, four, five." That accounted for the five sticks.
+
+He leaned against the tool house, and looked at Lon through the dusk.
+Lon's cap was pulled down over his eyes. His sheepskin collar was turned
+up, meeting the cap. All that was visible of his face was a bit of beard
+protruding around the stem of the pipe. But the voice sounded a more
+amiable note than it ever had in the stage camp, although his manner
+revealed an uneasy embarrassment.
+
+"Well, Doc, how d'ye like minin'?"
+
+"I don't like it at all," replied Ross honestly.
+
+"Seems t' like you all right," returned Lon. "You're in better flesh
+and color than you was down on Dry Creek."
+
+"So are you," retorted Ross, laughing.
+
+Lon made no reply. He moved restlessly.
+
+"Done any studyin' in that pile o' books ye had along?" he asked
+abruptly after a time.
+
+"No." Ross's tone was crisp. "Haven't studied a word." The subject was
+a tender one with him.
+
+There ensued a pause. Ross opened the door of the tool house, and threw
+in his pick and shovel. He hitched the legs of his high rubber boots
+nearer his body; and then, as Lon made no move toward going, he swung
+his numbed hands briskly.
+
+"I thought," Lon began again in a constrained and hesitating way, "that
+you was mighty anxious about those books. I thought your goin' to some
+college or other depended on your gettin' outside of those books."
+
+Ross struck his hands rapidly together. "I can't study," he answered
+briefly. "I get too tired working."
+
+Weston arose and faced toward the cabin of the McKenzies.
+
+"Another storm comin'," he announced. "Get here day after to-morrow."
+
+"That's Christmas," muttered Ross. His heart contracted sharply, and
+a homesick pang assailed him. In his ignorance, before leaving home, he
+had set Christmas as the date of his return.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A CALAMITY BEFALLS ROSS
+
+
+ROSS was writing to Dr. and Mrs. Grant. He bent over the rough table
+under the light of two candles stuck into the logs above his head. Weimer
+slept in his bunk the sound and noisy sleep of a tired laborer.
+
+"At the rate we're going at present," Ross wrote, "we'll finish work
+by the middle of May.... We have at least one thing to be thankful for
+in our tunnel. We're not obliged to timber it. Of course, blasting
+through solid rock isn't easy nor fast work, but I guess in the long run
+we get along faster than we would through dirt. In this case, you see
+we should be obliged to snake logs down from the mountainside and build
+side walls and roof in the tunnel for our own safety. How's 'snaking'
+for you, Aunt Anne? First time I heard it I hadn't an idea what it
+meant, but it covers the process of cutting down trees and getting them
+to their destination. Tell you what! We speak some language up here.
+The King's English isn't always in it, but then every one understands,
+and I have fallen into using it as easily as a fish takes to water. And
+I am getting hardened to the work and the weather. I wouldn't mind the
+whole thing so much now if only the way to Miners' Camp would remain
+open. But any day it may become practically impassable, and then I cannot
+hear from you nor you from me for months. That--as I look ahead--is
+the tough part of it, being cooped up here with only five of us; and how
+the McKenzies can remain without laying in more provisions I don't
+see. They have meat enough, but that's all. With this letter I'm
+taking another over to Camp for Leslie's father. I ought to have sent
+him word before that Leslie hasn't been seen nor heard of since he
+disappeared, but every day I've looked for him back--the whole affair
+worries me a lot--I should think as soon as he gets my letter, old man
+Quinn would come and hunt Leslie up himself."
+
+At this point there was the sound of laughter outside, and Ross laid
+aside his pencil and pad.
+
+"Sandy," he muttered, listening.
+
+To his surprise it was not Sandy whom the opening door revealed, but Lon
+and Waymart, both in unprecedented high spirits.
+
+"We left Sandy snorin'," Waymart volunteered. "He and Uncle Jake ought
+to bunk in together. Lon, show Ross how Sandy talks in his sleep."
+
+Weston sat down, leaned his head back against the logs, gave one or
+two passes through his hair, which left it arranged like Sandy's with
+a lock falling over his forehead; and in an instant, although Weston
+was dark and Sandy fair, an excellent imitation of the latter mumbled
+and talked and snored against the logs. Weston accurately and easily
+imitated the voice and manner of Sandy with his laugh and every facial
+characteristic. Even Weimer rolled over in his bunk and laughed. Next,
+Weston, carried out of himself by an appreciative audience, imitated
+Waymart, the sheep-herder at Dry Creek, and finally Ross himself, and
+did it all with amazing success.
+
+Ross, convulsed with laughter, rocked back and forth on his box. It was
+the first real fun he had encountered since leaving Pennsylvania. It
+did not seem possible that this Weston was the same half-sullen, wholly
+silent man whom he had nursed at the stage camp.
+
+Ross sat opposite the window in front of which Weston was performing; and
+finally, just as Waymart had called for an imitation of Weimer, the boy,
+glancing up, encountered Sandy's face outside the dirty pane. It
+remained there but an instant while Sandy took the measure of the
+performer, but that instant was enough to show Ross the full expression
+of which he had caught glimpses before, and which revealed the side of
+his character that Sandy usually concealed. His blue eyes glinted
+angrily. His thin lips, tightly closed, wore a cruel expression, while
+every feature clearly showed a malignant disapproval of Weston's
+methods of entertainment.
+
+The laugh died in Ross's throat; but the next instant the door swung
+open and Sandy entered, gay and careless--except as to eyes. They still
+glinted.
+
+"Thought ye'd shook me, didn't ye?" he asked with a grin. "Wall, this
+racket would bring a feller up from his grave, to say nothin' of a
+little snooze."
+
+He pushed a box over on its side, and sat astride it; and at once
+the atmosphere in the cabin changed, and became frigid, despite the
+newcomer's gaiety. Weston slunk back to his seat, and all Ross's
+urging proved ineffectual to draw him out of his shell again. Waymart's
+face also lost its good humor.
+
+Presently the three left together.
+
+Weimer, wide awake, moved around the shack.
+
+"Dat Veston!" he chuckled. "How many kinds of beoples ist he? I could
+shut mine eyes and tink he vas dem all."
+
+The next day was Sunday, and early in the morning in the teeth of a mild
+wind and threatened storm Ross was off for Miners' Camp. As far as the
+shoulder around Crosby he went on snow-shoes. Arrived at the shoulder,
+and, making use of the long, sharp spike which he carried, he picked
+his way cautiously forward, pushing through the deep snow in the trail
+with his feet and knees, the spike set on the outer edge to prevent
+his slipping. Again and again a ledge of overhanging snow would break
+away and fall on him; and, light even as the snow yet was, its weight
+dropping on his shoulders caused him to stagger. The snow-shoes also
+became a burden, for they were a useless encumbrance until he reached
+the foot of the mountain and struck out for Steele's shack over two
+miles of snow already five feet deep.
+
+When he reached Gale's Ridge, he was almost exhausted, not only from
+pushing through the snow on the trail, but from the unaccustomed effort
+of walking on snow-shoes. Already he was dreading the most difficult task
+of all--the return journey.
+
+Steele met him with a manifest uneasiness.
+
+"Grant, your trips down to Camp this season are numbered," he cautioned
+as they sat down to an early dinner. "An old trailer could creep around
+the shoulder of Crosby for a little while yet, but neither you nor I
+could do it in safety. The snow's gettin' so almighty deep now, and
+blowin' up in ledges on the shoulder--you probably got a ducking coming
+over?" His tone arose inquiringly.
+
+Ross nodded. "Several times a lot of snow dropped on me; once I almost
+lost my balance."
+
+Steele moved uneasily. "That's the trouble with that trail even before
+there's danger of a regular avalanche. You're likely to get swept over
+when you least expect it, and going back is worse than coming."
+
+Directly after dinner Ross commenced to bind on his snow-shoes for an
+early departure, having filled his pockets with candy for Weimer. His
+heart was heavy, and he had a queer, choky sensation as he looked around
+the little shack, which he might not see again in months.
+
+Steele was adjusting the straps on his own snow-shoes.
+
+"Going up the canon with me, are you?" asked Ross.
+
+Steele nodded, and got into his top-coat. "A little way," he answered
+briefly.
+
+Although it was only one o'clock in the afternoon, twilight had fallen.
+The clouds rolled up the canon so low that they hung almost within
+reach of the men's hands, although not much snow was yet falling. An
+indescribable gloom filled the canon, the gloom of utter isolation and
+loneliness. Not a breath of wind was stirring; not a movement of a tree
+was audible. Everywhere were the deep snow, the silent trees, the great
+white hulks of the mountains; and over all the clouds glowered sullenly.
+
+Nature had erected sudden and impenetrable barriers in all directions,
+and Ross felt as though he were striving against them all.
+
+In silence the two traveled the distance which lay between Gale's Ridge
+and the upper end of Miners' Camp, which was at present a deserted
+end. When they passed out of sight of the eating house on Gale's
+Ridge, they left behind them every sign of life. The Mountain Company had
+shut down two weeks before. A few men had gone to Steele, but the
+majority had betaken themselves "below." Their shacks stood as the
+owners had left them, with their stoves, their crude furniture, and in
+some cases provisions, intact.
+
+The stage was due now only once a week, and the post-office had been
+removed to Steele's cabin. The former postmaster had gone to work on a
+ranch on the Grey Bull, leaving the post-office doors wide open, the
+snow filling the cabin and banking up against the letter boxes.
+
+"By April," said Steele, "you can't see even the roof of a single one
+of these places down here next the river. They'll all be plumb covered
+with snow."
+
+Steele did not stop, as Ross supposed he would, at the foot of Crosby,
+but started up the trail.
+
+"Where are you going?" demanded the boy.
+
+The superintendent went on. His reply came back muffled by the heavy air.
+"Around the shoulder of this little hill."
+
+Nor could any protest from Ross restrain him.
+
+As they began the ascent, Ross found the moisture hanging in drops to
+his clothing, while his face felt as though it were being bathed in
+ice-water. At the same time the clouds settled all about them.
+
+"This is literally walking with our heads in the clouds," muttered Steele
+grimly. "And this is the weather that'll pack the snow in this trail
+with a crust as hard as earth--ugh!"
+
+They ascended the trail laboriously, Steele in the lead, Ross lagging
+behind, leg-weary, and heavy-hearted at the thought of the months to
+come. Around the shoulder of the mountain they cautiously felt their
+way, the thick clouds about them seeming to press back the banks of snow
+above.
+
+Once on the safe trail beyond the shoulder Steele turned, and held out
+his hand without a word. Also wordless, Ross gripped it. Then the older
+man took the back trail, and disappeared.
+
+The boy stood where the other left him, staring into the clouds which
+hid the shoulder. As he stood, a slight breeze touched his cheek and
+died away. He buckled his snow-shoes on again, and faced Meadow Creek
+Valley. As he did so, the breeze came again. Presently it turned into
+a wind, and the clouds retreated hastily up the mountainside. Great
+flakes of snow filled the air. Faster and faster they came swirling down
+until the air was thick with a storm which cut sharply against Ross's
+face. He hurried on, and in an hour was beyond the reach of the storm in
+Weimer's shack, drying his wet coat and cap.
+
+He found his old partner half wild with anxiety.
+
+"If you did not come pack to-night," he cried, "I thought you would
+never! A plizzard ist now."
+
+So rejoiced was Uncle Jake at Ross's return that he sat near the fire
+and waxed garrulous while the wind lashed the trees and drove the snow
+outside; and Ross, the other side of the stove, shivered and listened
+listlessly.
+
+"What ails you, hein?" Weimer finally demanded.
+
+And Ross, with a lump in his throat of which he was not ashamed, told him.
+
+"Ach!" exclaimed Weimer disgustedly. He snapped his thumb and finger
+together. "I vas here dree vinters alone mit no one near. Py day I
+vorked. Py night dem volves howl und cayotes; but," consolingly, "dey
+can't git in, und dey vant nicht to git in."
+
+Then for the first time he went on to relate to Ross in his quaint and
+broken English many stories of those lonely winters in this solitary
+valley, which had then held him as its only inhabitant.
+
+"No wonder," thought Ross, listening to the fury of the storm, "that the
+old man's mind was ready to give away under the additional trial of an
+attack of snow-blindness."
+
+The blizzard continued in unabated fury all the next day. Neither Weimer
+nor Ross visited the tunnel. They remained housed, watching the snow
+gradually pile itself around the little shack until the two small windows
+were obscured, and they were obliged to resort to candle-light.
+
+But during the night the wind changed, and the following morning the sun
+rose in a brilliantly blue sky. Directly after an early breakfast Ross
+started to shovel a way out of the cabin. He dug the snow away from the
+door and windows, and then turned his attention to the trail leading to
+the tunnel. Here he found that the wind had favored him, sweeping the
+path clean and filling up the hollows. In the valley the snow lay seven
+feet deep.
+
+Ross worked his way to the ore-dump, at the base of which he paused to
+look down on the McKenzies. Their cabin was also released from the snow
+as to door and window. The snow was also tramped and shoveled around the
+discovery hole, but no one was in sight, and Ross had turned again to
+his task when a yell caused him again to face the McKenzie cabin.
+
+Sandy was gesticulating frantically while he advanced rapidly on
+snow-shoes, dodging the trees as he came diagonally across the
+mountainside. He came on, talking at the top of his voice, but all
+Ross could catch was "sticks" and "thief" and "trail." Sandy was plainly
+excited. His neckerchief was knotted under one ear; his coat was
+buttoned up awry; his cap was on with one ear-flap dangling, and the
+other held fast by the rim of the cap. His ears and nose were scarlet,
+the thermometer registering, that morning, thirty below zero.
+
+"Our dynamite is gone," Sandy yelled when he was near enough to make Ross
+understand. "Gone--stolen."
+
+Ross stared at him stupidly. "Who is there to take it?"
+
+"Some one," panted Sandy with an oath, "must have come up the trail
+Sunday and taken the stuff, thinkin' that it 'ud storm right off and
+shut up the trail so none of us 'ud be such fools as t' go over t'
+Camp after more. That's the way I've figured it out, and I lay ye I'm
+right."
+
+"When did you find out the sticks were gone?" asked Ross with an interest
+which did not as yet reach beyond Sandy.
+
+"A few minutes ago," gasped Sandy. "I come as fast as I could to see if
+your----"
+
+Ross cut him short with a loud exclamation, and without waiting to hear
+the end of the sentence turned and plunged up over the dump, ploughing
+and fighting his way through the snow as though it were a thing of life.
+
+Sandy picked up the wooden shovel which the boy had cast away, and
+followed out of breath, but still talking.
+
+"You know we kept the sticks in a box under a hemlock right above the
+hole, and----"
+
+Ross, unheeding, floundered across the dump, and began to dig wildly at
+the tool-house door, only the upper part of which was visible. With set
+teeth he dug, forgetting Sandy, forgetting the shovel, his common sense
+swallowed up in a panic of fear.
+
+Weimer had always kept the dynamite sticks in a box, a large double
+boarded and heavily lidded affair which was set in the corner of the
+tool chest furthest from the door.
+
+At first Ross had raised the lid of this box with chills creeping down
+his spine. His hair had stirred under his cap when he first saw Weimer
+stuff the sticks carelessly into his pocket and enter the tunnel. But
+familiarity with the use of the sticks had robbed them of their terror,
+although Ross was always cautious in the handling.
+
+"Hold on, Doc." Sandy's voice at his elbow finally brought the frantic
+boy to his senses. "Ye can't do nothin' with yer hands. Stand aside
+there, and I'll shovel the snow away from the door."
+
+Ross stood back, unconscious of the nip of the cold on his nose and
+cheeks, and watched Sandy shoveling with a will, the while talking
+consolingly.
+
+"I don't believe the thieves have come anigh ye; don't look so, anyway.
+It's likely some one who's a grudge against some of us. There's plenty
+holds grudges agin Lon. Wisht he'd stayed in the valley--here ye be!
+Ketch a holt of this side of the door. Now, one, two, three!"
+
+The door yielded to their combined efforts, and Ross rushed in with Sandy
+at his heels. His fingers were so numbed he could scarcely raise the lid
+of the dynamite box. A film seemed to cover his eyes, and in the light
+which entered grudgingly only by way of the door he could see nothing.
+He bent his head further over the box, but it was Sandy's voice which
+confirmed his worst fears.
+
+"Not a stick left. They've made a clean sweep of Medder Creek Valley!"
+
+The film cleared from Ross's eyes, but not from his brain. The box was
+empty--the box which had contained the stuff absolutely necessary to the
+work in the tunnel.
+
+Ross glanced up and met Sandy's eyes. Sandy's eyes looked steadily and
+guilelessly into Ross's, and Sandy's face expressed all the sympathy
+and commiseration of which Ross stood in need.
+
+The boy sat down on the edge of the box. "What shall I do?" he asked,
+his thoughts in a whirl.
+
+"Do about th' same as we've got t'--git out!" quoth Sandy with a
+lugubrious shake of his head. "Here we got Lon up here t' help push
+our work, and now we're up a stump; for ye know"--here Sandy's eyes
+held Ross's while he spoke slowly--"there's no use thinkin' about
+gittin' any over from Camp. No one 'ud be crazy enough to resk packin'
+a load of sticks around the shoulder this time of year."
+
+Ross shivered as he thought of the shoulder under its body of snow.
+
+"When are you going?" he asked.
+
+"To-morrow," answered Sandy promptly. "We'll start then, but we'll have
+to shovel through. You'll have t' lead Weimer, won't ye?"
+
+Ross swallowed twice before he answered. "Yes, I suppose so."
+
+"We'll help ye." Sandy's tones were good-natured and soothing. He
+seemed suddenly to have lost all regret at the disappearance of his
+store of dynamite. "We'll break open the trail, and then we can rope
+ourselves together around the shoulder. That's safer."
+
+"All right," Ross heard himself say in an unnatural voice. He could not
+in an instant adjust himself to this radical uprooting of his plans.
+
+"It'll be a ticklish job," Sandy continued, "t' break through around
+the shoulder without bringin' down the hull side of old Crosby on us,
+includin' a few rocks; but every day now we put it off is so much the
+worse."
+
+He turned to go. "Then we'll pick ye up in the mornin'; will we?"
+
+"Why--I suppose so," returned Ross. "There doesn't seem to be anything
+else to do."
+
+"Better not load up much," warned Sandy; "and don't give Uncle Jake a
+load at all. All we're goin' to try to pack over is a little venison."
+
+Then Sandy disappeared, and Ross suddenly recovered from his mental
+numbness. It was the sting of anger which aroused him. So confused
+and disappointed had he been, and so well had Sandy played his part,
+that the true solution of the theft did not dawn on the boy until the
+other's departure. Then he stopped short on the downward trail and
+uttered an exclamation, his hands clinching inside his mittens, and
+his eyes narrowing and flashing.
+
+Of course, it was Sandy's own brain which had planned the matter and
+Sandy's own henchmen who had made off with the sticks. They had taken
+this way of stopping the progress of work in the tunnel. They had waited
+until no more dynamite could be brought over the trail, calculating that
+when the time came for the claims to be patented one half year's work
+would be undone, and then!
+
+Ross started blindly down the path. He would go over to the Camp with
+the McKenzies. He would go down to Meeteetse with them--no officer of the
+law could be found nearer, and there he would put them all under arrest.
+Here he stopped again. Arrest them on what evidence? Face to face with
+this question, he was obliged to acknowledge the neatness of the scheme
+which had for its first point the theft of their own sticks. Could he
+prove that no one had come over the trail after he reached the valley?
+And could he prove that the dynamite had not been taken by this mythical
+some one?
+
+Ross thought of what Steele had said concerning trusting Sandy with his
+pocketbook. Sandy would have the contents of the purse, Steele said,
+but he'd take care to get them in such a way that he could shake hands
+afterward with the owner, as well as face any jury.
+
+"And Steele," Ross muttered, drawing a long breath, "was right."
+
+The news of the loss seemed to jar Weimer back into a semblance of his
+former intelligence. Instead of ranting as Ross expected he would he sat
+down and talked over the situation reasonably with his young partner.
+It was Weimer, in fact, who restored something like hope to Ross.
+
+He objected to leaving the valley with the McKenzies. He had been over
+that valley and the surrounding mountains inch by inch, he told Ross.
+Let that "consarned gang" be gone. They two would stay and bring the
+dynamite to light. Then he told of place after place on the mountain
+which would make excellent hiding-places for the sticks. There were
+many caves, and some of them dry. Weimer reasoned the "gang" would cache
+the sticks in a dry place for their own future use.
+
+Temporarily the old partner and the young changed places, and, as Ross
+listened, he became stout of heart once more.
+
+"Of course," he exclaimed, "if dynamite can't be carried up the trail,
+neither can it be taken back into Camp. It's got to be somewhere around
+here; and, if we hunt for it a month, we can still get the work done in
+time."
+
+"Vy didn't I tink of dem sticks?" Weimer asked angrily. "I might know
+dem consarned gang pe up to somet'ing ven dey see our vork it vas
+gettin' fast! Vy didn't I tink?"
+
+Ross, having lapsed into his own thoughts, made no reply; and Weimer
+arose from the box where he had been sitting, and crawled into his bunk.
+
+Ross paced the floor slowly, his arms folded behind him. Ross's
+fighting blood was up. Before this he had looked at his work as the
+result of his father's request. It was not to his liking, and the only
+actual pleasure he took in it was the prospect of finishing it. He had
+believed before the theft of the sticks that he would welcome anything
+which really necessitated his leaving Meadow Creek Valley, although he
+would accept nothing less than necessity.
+
+But this theft seemed suddenly to have made the work his own and the
+failure to accomplish it a personal defeat. Instead of rejoicing over the
+prospect of leaving Meadow Creek Valley he welcomed eagerly Weimer's
+suggestion that they stay and hunt for the dynamite, even though the hunt
+meant that, dynamite or no dynamite, they must be shut up in the valley
+for months to come.
+
+Suddenly a new fear caused him to scramble hastily into his coat, cap,
+and mittens.
+
+"I'm going to fetch the tools down," he explained grimly. "I'm not
+going to risk having some one make off with them!"
+
+"Dat ist so," assented Weimer. "Ve vill need dose tools; ve vill. Dose
+McKenzie gang vill see. I can find dose sticks, und I know I can."
+
+None of the McKenzies came over that evening, to Ross's relief, for
+the events of the day had brought a new fear of that outfit. Sandy's
+good-natured neighborliness had deceived him. Now for the first time
+he realized that they were actual enemies, ready to stoop to any means
+within the law to baffle him.
+
+It was scarcely daylight the following morning, although breakfast in
+the Weimer cabin had been disposed of, before there was heard a tramp of
+feet outside through the creaking snow, and Sandy with a heavy pack on
+his back appeared at the door.
+
+"All ready t' strike the trail?" he asked, putting his head inside the
+shack.
+
+There was an instant's silence, during which Sandy's face changed as he
+looked quickly from Ross to Weimer. The latter sat beside the table, his
+head resting on his hand, his elbow on the boards.
+
+Ross answered, "We can't get ready to go so quickly."
+
+For a moment Sandy's face was the face which had appeared at the window
+the night Weston was indulging in mimicry, but for a moment only. Then
+he rallied and assumed an air of concerned astonishment.
+
+"What? Not ready? Why, man alive, yer chance may be gone if ye wait
+another day. Uncle Jake, you ought to know that, if Doc here don't.
+Why, we're afraid we can't come it even by ropin' together. Better
+hustle up and come."
+
+Both Weimer and Ross sat still, and after a little further parley Waymart
+called angrily:
+
+"Hike along here, Sandy. Guess they know what they want t' do better
+'n you do. Make tracks here!"
+
+The three "made tracks," while Ross stood and watched them out of sight.
+
+But after they had gone the boy, uneasy lest they should return to do the
+tunnel some damage, climbed the trail and entered the tool house. The
+house was fastened between two trees which grew at one side of the dump,
+the side furthest from the trail across the mountain toward Miners' Camp.
+
+Ross had entered aimlessly after assuring himself that the door at the
+mouth of the tunnel had not been opened. He stood silently looking out
+of a crack down on the mass of snow which glistened at the foot of the
+dump, when he was startled by seeing Sandy on snow-shoes creep around the
+dump and look up.
+
+Only a glance upward did Sandy give, and them, turning, disappeared. Yet
+his face had appeared anxious before that upward glance, while afterward
+there was on it a satisfied smile.
+
+The hours that followed were anxious ones for the two remaining in Meadow
+Creek Valley. They began a hunt for the dynamite as soon as the McKenzies
+had disappeared. Starting at the McKenzie shack and discovery hole they
+widened the search in a circle which finally included the valley and the
+sides of the adjoining mountains, with a single important omission; it
+did not occur to either of them to examine their own premises further
+than to assure themselves that neither tool house nor tunnel had suffered
+any damage from their "friends the enemy."
+
+At four o'clock came the first signs of dusk and, discouraged, the
+partners moved slowly across the valley. Half-way across, Ross chanced
+to glance up at the stovepipe projecting from the roof of their shack.
+
+"A fire!" he shouted. "Look there, Uncle Jake! Some one has built up the
+fire!"
+
+At that instant the door swung open and Leslie Quinn stood in the doorway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SEARCH
+
+
+OVER fried bacon, sour dough bread and varied "canned goods," Leslie
+told his story to an interested and excited audience of two. The day
+of Ross's arrest he had shouldered a pack of stuff selected from the
+trunk which still stood under the new third bunk, waited until twilight
+so that he could not be seen on the trail, and then, on snow-shoes, had
+made his way over Crosby and up Wood River canon to Wilson's cabin on
+the coal claims.
+
+"You see," he said, a flush sweeping over his face, "I supposed father
+was at Cody, and I wouldn't have faced him without that five hundred
+dollars for all the gold that may be in these mountains, and, besides,
+the way he had taken to get even with me--well, I don't need to say how
+it cuts!" Here Leslie bent over his plate in shame. "Although--I--well,
+of course, I deserve it, but I didn't think he'd go as far as that."
+
+"Hold on, Less!" Ross jumped up from the table so suddenly that the box
+on which he had been sitting was knocked over. "Here's a letter to you
+in my care. It has been here so long I had forgotten it."
+
+He pulled the emergency chest from under his bunk and produced both of
+Mr. Quinn's letters--the one to himself and the one yet unopened.
+
+"There you are!" he exclaimed, tossing both across the table. "I take
+it from what your father says in mine that he thought of the arrest not
+as a punishment, but as the way in which he could be sure of getting his
+hands on you quickly in Omaha."
+
+Eagerly Leslie read both letters, his troubled face lighting and
+softening. "You're right," he said finally in a low tone. "I guess dad
+is--is more all right than--than I used to think. I've been no end of
+an idiot, frankly."
+
+He folded his letter and slipped it into his slicker pocket while Weimer
+urged:
+
+"You was mit dot shack, und dey found you not, hein?"
+
+"But I want to hear about Ross's----"
+
+"No, no," interrupted Ross. "Finish out your story first. Mine will look
+like thirty cents at the end of yours. I'm not exactly proud of myself."
+
+"Vilson's shack," prompted Weimer, pushing his plate back and planting
+both elbows on the table.
+
+Leslie continued his story in a new exuberance of spirits, occasionally
+fingering the letter in his pocket. He had foreseen that Wilson's shack
+would be searched, and so, trusting to the drifting snow to conceal
+his trail, he had, during the night, packed provisions into one of the
+many deserted shacks in the upper camp. He had selected one overlooking
+the trail up Crosby. It had two rooms, one behind the other, the back
+room having an outside door and but one small window. Leaving the first
+room undisturbed, he had stowed his provisions in the back room, which
+also contained a bunk.
+
+"I can tell you that it was hard sledding for me until after the sheriff
+and the McKenzies came and went that day," he continued ruefully. "I
+had brought along my blankets, but I didn't dare light a fire, and I
+nearly froze and nearly starved on cold canned stuff. But after the
+sheriff had gone back--you see I could watch the camp from the back room
+window--and the McKenzies had passed the shack on the trail over here, I
+hung blankets over the windows and had a fire nights when the smoke
+wouldn't be seen. I could cook at night and early in the morning and so
+got along fairly well. But I expected them all back again for another
+search, so mornings I used to vacate the outside room and leave it the
+same as it had been."
+
+"Why didn't you come over sooner?" asked Ross.
+
+"Don't you see that I couldn't," demanded Leslie, "so long as the
+McKenzies were here? I knew, though, that they had told Wilson that
+they were not going to stay all winter. They told him they would go
+to Cody as soon as they thought the Crosby trail was getting dangerous.
+So I watched that trail like a cat for them to go and for my chance to
+get here."
+
+"Vilson he vent out," interrupted Weimer.
+
+"Yes, Uncle Jake, I saw him go, but I lay low. I was afraid of the
+consequences of being seen. I had no idea that father had been put
+off. I was sure he would come on himself, and I knew that if father
+once struck my trail he'd unearth me. He never gives up."
+
+"Then, this morning----" prompted Ross.
+
+"Yes, this morning when I saw the McKenzies coming down the trail bag
+and baggage, I humped myself to get ready to get over here before their
+tracks got filled up. I knew that if they could get one way I could get
+the other way to-day, but maybe not to-morrow. And I tell you what," here
+Leslie arose and stretched out his arms, "I've been living these weeks
+as close and cramped a prisoner as I ever want to be. I could get out
+nights a little because the camp came to be about deserted, but I was
+cooped up all day in the shack."
+
+Far into the night the boys talked, while Weimer alternately listened and
+dozed. When Ross was well launched on the story of his arrest he became
+at once embarrassed, wondering how he was going to evade the matter of
+Lon Weston and the note. He finally compromised by ending the story
+of his capture in a partial account of his conversation with Sandy
+in the barroom of "The Irma," and Leslie, taking it for granted that his
+father's name and address came from Sandy, did not ask embarrassing
+questions.
+
+"It's as I suspected, then," he added slowly. "The McKenzies were
+probably employed on the ranches around home at some time. The cowboys
+and sheep-herders are always coming into the town, and probably they
+all knew me by sight, while I didn't know them one from another."
+
+Ross checked the question which arose to his lips concerning the fourth
+man that Mr. Quinn was after, and shortly after, the boys tumbled into
+their bunks, Ross with a feeling of deep relief that the third bunk would
+be occupied during the winter.
+
+"I didn't do so badly in Cody after all, as it has all turned out," he
+thought comfortably as he fell asleep.
+
+He was only half awakened a few moments later by an exclamation from the
+third bunk, and heard Leslie say, "By the way, Ross, who was----" then
+the question, "Are you asleep?"
+
+Ross, without replying, sank into a deeper sleep, and Leslie said no
+more. Weimer was already snoring.
+
+The following morning Ross tumbled out at daybreak and built a roaring
+fire in the old cracked heater. He glanced at the third bunk and began
+whistling cheerfully. Perhaps they could find the dynamite now that there
+was a second with sound eyes to aid in the search and a sound brain to
+help plan. If only the sticks could be found the early spring would see
+the work completed and the claims patented.
+
+The first thing Weimer did when he arose was to go to the door and survey
+sky and mountains with practiced eye, as he sniffed the bracing air.
+The sky was overcast and lowering, while a sharp wind drove the snow in
+eddies and drifts through the valley.
+
+"Der vill pe a pig storm mit us," he prophesied; "it ist on its vay. It
+vill get here in dree, four days."
+
+"Hear that, Less?" shouted Ross at the new bunk. "You turn out and we'll
+be off. We've got to unearth that dynamite before any more snow piles
+up here around us."
+
+Leslie left his bunk with a bound. "I'm good for it. How's breakfast?
+When I filled up last night I thought I'd never need anything more and
+here I am as hollow as a drum!"
+
+At the breakfast table, he suddenly bethought himself of the question he
+had meant to ask the previous night. "I say, Doc," he exclaimed, "who
+was the third man with the McKenzies yesterday? My cabin wasn't near
+enough the trail so that I could see."
+
+Ross hesitated and Weimer answered, "Dot vas a cousin of the McKenzies,
+name of Lon Veston."
+
+There was a clatter and a fall as knife and fork slipped out of Leslie's
+hands. "Lon Weston!" he ejaculated. "Lon Weston here? A cousin of the
+McKenzies?"
+
+"Know him?" asked Ross.
+
+Leslie picked up his fork. "Know Lon? Well, I should say so. He's made
+trouble enough at home----" He bit his lips suddenly and stopped, adding,
+"He was foreman on a ranch near North Bend for a couple of years. He--he
+used to come to our house a good deal."
+
+In a flash Ross recalled the photo that had dropped out of Weston's
+pocket at Sagehen Roost, the pretty girl face, and instantly he knew
+why Hank had said of Leslie when he rode away with Wilson, "Seems as
+if I'd seen that there young feller before."
+
+"Yes, they are surely brother and sister," Ross decided, his gaze fixed
+critically on Leslie's downcast face. "They look tremendously alike."
+
+"Veston, he vas de man dot Doc here mended," Weimer volunteered. "Doc
+vas at Dry Creek mit Veston."
+
+Leslie glanced quickly across the table. "Not the man who was there when
+I passed through--the day I was with Wilson--not that one, Ross?"
+
+"The same," nodded Ross. "He's the Lon Weston that I know."
+
+"Then he isn't the Lon Weston that I know," said Leslie with conviction
+and also relief. "That man at Dry Creek had dark hair, while the ranch
+foreman had hair as light almost as Sandy's. Not the same at all."
+
+And because of the note at "The Irma," Ross did not contradict Leslie,
+did not tell him that Weston's hair was still light beneath its dye of
+chestnut brown.
+
+"But some day," he thought, "I can ask him about the fourth man that his
+father is after, and so find out about Weston in a roundabout way."
+
+But the search for the dynamite soon proved so strenuous that all thought
+of the crime committed on the North Fork faded from Ross's mind. Day
+after day the boys continued the search while Weimer stayed in the cabin
+"rustling grub" and giving suggestions. The theft of the sticks seemed
+to have shocked the man into something of his former mental keenness
+and industry. Not once did Ross have to urge him to his household tasks.
+When the boys tramped into the cabin at noon or long after darkness
+had fallen, they found a hearty appetizing meal prepared, the cook even
+going to the length of objecting to their washing the dishes.
+
+"If you dem sticks find," he would say, "Ich vill stay mit dese dishes."
+
+"Uncle Jake," exclaimed Ross at noon the third day of the hunt, "I'm
+discouraged. We have poked into every spot for miles around where such a
+lot of dynamite could be hidden--and then have gone again."
+
+"I'm almost ready to believe," declared Leslie, "that the boys had the
+sticks in their packs when they left."
+
+Weimer shook his head. "No, never would dose poys pe so foolish. Dose
+sticks are here, hein? Somewhere in Meadow Creek Valley ve vill find
+dem," but the old man's voice broke on the declaration.
+
+"Of course it couldn't be that the McKenzies carried them away,"
+affirmed Ross. "If there had been six men of them they couldn't have
+carried away all the dynamite that we had and Wilson had and they had.
+In fact they couldn't have carried it all very far that night and in
+the teeth of the awful storm that howled among these peaks. I believe
+with Uncle Jake that the stuff is in this valley."
+
+"You see, Uncle Jake," Ross began after a pause, "we have gone on the
+supposition that they chose a spot under the cover of rocks or in hollow
+trees, some place where the dynamite would be kept dry. Now, it may be
+that they have dug a hole in the snow and ice, and buried it in the
+open, and the snow has drifted over its grave."
+
+"Maype! maype!" Weimer ejaculated. "Put, if dey haf, our goose, it ist
+cooked."
+
+He pushed the box on which he sat back against the wall.
+
+Ross opened the cabin door, and looked out. The weather had grown warmer.
+The blanket of clouds which had hovered over the earth for days had
+lifted and the snow lay dazzling in the strong light. When he closed
+the door, Weimer had donned his blue goggles.
+
+"Where's your big storm, Uncle Jake?" asked Ross.
+
+"Comin', comin'," answered Uncle Jake confidently. "It vill pe on us
+py mornin'. Dis light it vill not last."
+
+Ross sat down and took his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees.
+
+"Every fall of snow," he thought, "makes our work so much more hopeless."
+
+Presently Weimer broke the silence. "Vell," he began meditatively, "ve
+haf t'ings to eat fer de vinter, anyvay," and Ross understood the circle
+around which Uncle Jake's thoughts had been winding.
+
+"Yes, it's Meadow Creek for us now, whether the dynamite is found or
+not." Ross's voice was grim. "We went over on the trail as far as the
+shoulder of Crosby to-day and whew! Uncle Jake, it was a sight to see.
+The wind has packed the snow into that trail until it hangs over the
+gorge in great masses and curls."
+
+"Looks," added Leslie, "as though a thousand tons or so might sweep down
+over the shoulder any minute. The trail is closed all right as far as
+I'm concerned. If I hadn't come in the McKenzies' footprints that
+morning I wouldn't have come at all."
+
+After dinner the boys fastened on their snow-shoes outside the door and
+then looked questioningly at each other.
+
+"Well--where to now?" asked Leslie despondently.
+
+"Sure enough--where?" returned Ross equally despondent.
+
+Weimer had offered no suggestions, and the boys were at the end of their
+resources.
+
+"We've hunted every place," said Ross absently, adjusting a buckle on
+the strap of his snow-shoe, "except our own premises here."
+
+No sooner had he heard his own voice speaking these careless words than
+their possible significance struck him. He sprang up with kindling eyes.
+"Less, do you hear?" he shouted, his thoughts in advance of his tongue.
+"There's where it may be, and maybe that was the reason why Sandy came
+back and looked. Hurry! Hurry up!"
+
+"What are you talking about?" yelled Leslie as Ross raced awkwardly
+around the cabin on his snow-shoes.
+
+Weimer opened the door and peered out through his colored goggles. "Has
+dot poy gone crazy?" he asked.
+
+Leslie, without pausing to answer, hurried after Ross. "Where to?" he
+yelled.
+
+"The tool house," returned Ross over his shoulder. "It's fastened
+between two trees, and hangs out over the foot of the dump! See?"
+
+But, instead of taking the trail to the tunnel, Ross struck across the
+mounds and hillocks and drifts of snow that blocked the trail leading
+to Miners' Camp. Through the tangle of pines and hemlocks he led the
+way until he stopped at the foot of the snow-heaped dump and looked up at
+the tool house, one side of which rested on the dump, while the opposite
+side was fastened to sturdy hemlocks whose trunks arose from the debris
+heaped about them from the tunnel. The tool house was now a shapeless
+white form, while the dump was buried beneath tons of snow.
+
+"It was here," Ross explained breathlessly, "that Sandy stood. I was
+looking out at the McKenzies from a crack up in the house. He came back
+and looked up under the house and then grinned and went back to the
+others. They had started to leave, you know. Now why did he want to look
+under that house?"
+
+"That's it!" cried Leslie with excited conviction. "They had cached the
+stuff under the house and he wanted to make sure that their trail could
+not be seen. Ross, the sticks are up under there, high and dry."
+
+"You bet!" shouted Ross turning in his tracks. "We'll get shovels and
+dig for it. And, Less, if we find the cache, we'll let off one blast
+around here outside of the tunnel that 'ill show them, if they're still
+over in Camp, that we ain't dead yet."
+
+"Nor dumb and stupid, either!" cried Leslie delightedly as he legged it
+rapidly over the snow.
+
+In the door of the shack they found Weimer still standing, shielding his
+eyes with one hand and calling questions into space. The boys, appearing,
+stopped to answer, not only satisfying the old man but receiving a
+valuable suggestion.
+
+"Vat for you dig mit all dot vork? It vill dake you poys a day und a half
+to git up unter dot shack. Vy not go in und raise dot floor und find dem
+sticks unter?"
+
+Leslie tossed up his cap. "Three cheers for Uncle Jake!" he shouted.
+"That's the very thing to do. We'll get around to that signal blast
+sooner. Come on, Ross!"
+
+It was Leslie who led this time, axe in hand, while Ross followed with
+hammer and shovel. The trail to the tunnel had been unused for days and
+was so deeply drifted that the boys had difficulty in getting up to the
+dump even with the aid of the shovel. Once on top they were obliged to
+shovel their way slowly into the tool house.
+
+"Now," exclaimed Ross when they were fairly in, "now for work with these
+floor boards!"
+
+Leslie, with many grunts, fell to clearing away the snow from the floor,
+while Ross pulled the big box in which the dynamite had been stored from
+the center of the shack into one corner.
+
+"See here, Ross," cried Leslie excitedly as he bent to the last shovelful
+of snow. "We don't need axe nor hammer. The McKenzies have done the
+work for us. The floor has been taken up and just laid back again
+without being spiked down. That box held the planks down pretty firmly,
+you see."
+
+The floor consisted of halves of tree trunks, flat above and rounded on
+the under side. Eagerly Ross and Leslie raised the central plank and both
+cried out simultaneously, for the dynamite filled the space beneath up to
+the level of the floor.
+
+"And to think!" muttered Ross, "that I have not thought of this
+before--didn't think of it when I saw Sandy peering up here."
+
+Leslie sat back on his heels and mopped his face. "Pretty cute of 'em
+to think of a thing like this," he conceded. "I should have taken the
+sticks as far away as I could have carried them had I been doing it, and
+considered that the farther I went the better for my plans."
+
+"It's Sandy," declared Ross. "Steele has told me a dozen times that
+he's the brains of the clan."
+
+It did not take the trio long to restore the dynamite to its box, for
+Ross, going down to the cabin, led a delighted Weimer through the
+sunshine up to the tool house, and Weimer willingly devoted his great
+strength to the task.
+
+"And," insisted Leslie when their task was completed, "now for putting
+the shot that shall tell Miners' Camp that we're livelier than ever
+over here."
+
+As long as the trail was closed and the McKenzies could not return, the
+boys reasoned, it would be a lark to inform them in this way of the
+failure of their project.
+
+"Even if they have gone on to Cody," suggested Ross, "Bill Travers might
+get the news to 'em by way of the stages."
+
+"But you see," ruefully from Leslie, "probably there's no one except
+themselves that knows of our plight. They may not have told any one of
+the theft of the sticks."
+
+"Well, we'll set off a blast that will tell every one that they're
+found, anyway!" retorted Ross. "And we'll do it in the morning before
+the storm comes on," for the brilliancy of the sunlight had long been
+dimmed by heavy banks of clouds rolling in from the northwest.
+
+Weimer entered into the project with the abandon of a child, and it was
+he who suggested the location of the "shot."
+
+"Nicht on Crosby," he said shaking his head. "Dot might upset dot tunnel.
+Put it mit Soapweed Ledge und see vat comes."
+
+The boys did not ask what Weimer meant. Anything they did not understand
+they laid to his "Dutch lingo," but they immediately adopted the
+suggestion concerning Soapweed Ledge, and in the morning carried
+enough sticks across the valley to plant a respectable "mine," as
+Ross called it, beneath one of the huge rocks which jutted out from
+the side of the mountain that bounded the valley on the north. This
+mountain rose four thousand feet above Meadow Creek, its head lost in
+the snow clouds that now threatened to submerge the valley. On the
+face of the mountain lay a great body of snow, especially heavy above the
+timber-line, which here, because of the great elevation of the valley
+itself, was only a few hundred feet above the base of any mountain.
+
+Weimer, lured out of the shack by the dimness of the light and the
+enjoyment of the undertaking, went with the boys and did his share in the
+"packing" of the sticks unurged. It was he who, with an accession of
+unusual keenness, planted the charge in a shallow cave with a mass of
+rock perilously overhanging the entrance.
+
+"Ve vant ein noise," he chuckled, "ein pig racket. It shall pe heard in
+Miners'."
+
+A few moments later they had the noise, all they had planned for, and
+then a noise that no one had foreseen save Weimer, and he had not
+explained his expectations.
+
+While the long fuse was burning, the three spectators had retreated
+to the middle of the valley and faced about expectantly. There came a
+fearful detonation which awakened the echoes on every hand and the
+vast rock with a dozen of its neighbors was lifted like lumps of clay
+and hurled into the valley amid a cloud of snow and ice. Some of the
+fragments landed almost at the feet of the spectators.
+
+The echoes had not died away before Weimer, yelling, "Ve may not pe out
+of de vay far," turned and made his clumsy but rapid way on snow-shoes
+further from the scene of the explosion. The boys were following him
+blindly and excitedly when, in the clouds fairly over their heads, came
+a sound that neither had ever heard before, a wrenching, grinding,
+tearing sound which caused Ross's hair to stir under his cap.
+
+"Can th-that be thunder?" he stammered running.
+
+Weimer looked over his shoulder at the mountain. "You haf neber an
+avalanche seen, hein!" he cried, and stopping, faced the other way again.
+
+Down into view below the low hanging clouds it swept its terrible way,
+that avalanche which the trembling of the mountain had caused, the work
+of the dynamite. With a swift overwhelming rush it crumbled the rocks
+and, uprooting great trees, bore them easily on its bosom. Into the
+valley it debouched, carrying with it the wreckage from the mountainside.
+
+Ross and Leslie looked at each other with white faces when the roar and
+grind and rush finally ceased.
+
+"Suppose," suggested Ross huskily, "we had set that blast off on old
+Crosby."
+
+Both boys looked at the mountain overhanging the tunnel above their
+shack, and Ross shivered.
+
+"It would have been good-bye to the tunnel and the shack and us too, I
+guess," muttered Leslie.
+
+"I told you," declared Weimer, "vat vould happen, hein? I told you last
+nicht. Now ein avalanche you haf seen."
+
+Neither boy contradicted his first statement. With the last they agreed
+rather breathlessly, for an avalanche they surely had seen!
+
+"I hope," said Ross carelessly as they entered their shack, "that the
+McKenzies are still in Miners' and that they heard that blast!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A PERILOUS JOURNEY
+
+
+THE following morning the three inhabitants of Meadow Creek Valley began
+work again in the tunnel. The air was filled with a smother of snow which
+fell unaccompanied by wind. When, the following day, the sky cleared,
+over the path of the avalanche and over the ruins of Soapweed Ledge
+lay a concealing blanket of snow three feet deep.
+
+"Whew!" shivered Ross as he led the goggled Weimer over the snow to the
+tunnel that morning. "Wish we had a thermometer up here. This is some
+cold. Must be minus zero by a long way."
+
+"Mine nose ist my thermometer," complained Weimer, rubbing that whitening
+member. "Aber dis weather it holds nicht. Anoder snow falls in dree, four
+days."
+
+The third day proved the truth of this prophecy. The atmosphere became
+many degrees warmer and the sky lowering.
+
+"More snow," sighed Leslie, looking over the silent, white sheeted valley
+with homesick eyes.
+
+"Und den more," added Weimer complacently. "More und more till June."
+
+That noon it chanced that Weimer, being afflicted with a headache, left
+the tunnel early. A little later, Ross, pushing the little car out to
+the dump, called back to Leslie at work with the drill:
+
+"Guess I'll go down and rustle the grub for Uncle Jake. That headache of
+his is genuine."
+
+"All right," assented Leslie, "I'll be down in half an hour or so. I
+want to put this shot before I go."
+
+Ross found Weimer in a state of great excitement, the headache forgotten.
+He stood at the door of the shack, peering up toward the tunnel, both
+hands shielding his blinking eyes.
+
+"Who vas dot man?" he demanded in a high, eager voice.
+
+"What man, Uncle Jake?" Ross stopped short, staring at Weimer as though
+he were bereft of his senses.
+
+"I see him!" declared Weimer. "He vas shust startin' up dot trail py
+de tunnel. I see his pack. He vore ein pag on it. He vore ein cap mit
+goggles. I see him."
+
+Ross looked up the mountainside incredulously. "Why, Uncle Jake, I
+just left the tunnel and there was no one there but Leslie. I guess,"
+jocosely, "your headache has made you 'see things at night,' hasn't
+it? No one can get into the valley now, you know."
+
+Excitedly protesting and expostulating, half in English and half in
+German, Uncle Jake retreated inside the door, and taking up his position
+beside one of the little windows watched the trail to the tunnel while
+Ross, smiling at his partner's hallucination, built up the fire,
+cheerfully banging the covers of the stove as he filled the fire-box
+with dry pine sticks. In the midst of this racket there entered the
+sound of crunching footsteps on the side opposite the shack from that
+occupied by Weimer.
+
+"Hein!" yelled the latter springing up. "Was sagen sie? It ist somepody!"
+
+A rap thundered on the door, and it was thrust open at the same time
+unceremoniously, while a low, gruff voice inquired abruptly:
+
+"Is there a young doctor here?"
+
+A man a little above medium height stood on the threshold. He wore
+buckskin trousers and a buckskin coat over a heavy sweater, giving
+him a bulky appearance. He had on snow-shoes, and strapped over his
+shoulder, a large leather game pouch sagged. Behind smoked goggles
+his eyes were blinking, like Weimer's, almost closed. His head and
+ears were covered with a shaggy fur cap, which met his turned-up coat
+collar. His face was smooth above a fringe of black stubby whiskers,
+which ran from ear to ear under the chin. His voice, though gruff, was
+not unpleasant as he explained.
+
+"Of course 'twas a month and more ago since they told me over t'
+Red Lodge that----" His eyes fell on Ross. "You're him they call Doc
+Tenderfoot, ain't ye?"
+
+"Why--yes," answered Ross. There was a pause between the two words caused
+by the speaker's amazement at seeing a man drop in from--where?
+
+"Come in," invited Weimer, "und set down."
+
+"Don't care if I do," assented the stranger.
+
+He unbuckled his snow-shoes, and, leaving them outside, entered the
+shack. Turning down his coat collar, he loosened his cap, pushing it
+back on his head, thereby revealing the ends of short black hair.
+
+"Haf you peen up to dat tunnel, hein?" demanded Weimer with a triumphant
+glance at Ross.
+
+The stranger nodded, "Yep. Didn't see no signs of livin' here and I
+did see some signs up t' the mouth of the tunnel, but I didn't see no
+good way of gittin' up t' it. When I got there I was over t' other
+side of the dump and when I got up on top of it I heard voices down here,
+so down here I put agin!"
+
+"Did you come up from Miners' Camp?" asked Ross eagerly.
+
+The stranger shook his head. "No, I live toward the Divide on----" The
+stranger interrupted himself to ask, "Know the country over there, do
+you?"
+
+Weimer shook his head. "Only py hearsay."
+
+"Well, we located on Sagewood Run, my pal and me, and----"
+
+"Didn't know dere vas a soul livin' in dem parts," exclaimed Weimer.
+
+"Me and my pal," returned the stranger. "We hain't got no neighbor near
+enough to throw kisses to, that's sartain. You're the nighest."
+
+"Prospector?" asked Weimer.
+
+"Coal," returned the stranger. "We're tryin' to hold down half a dozen
+claims."
+
+He turned from Weimer, and changed the subject in his queer, abrupt way.
+
+"Pard's sick--hurt. Guess he'll pass up his checks afore long if he
+don't git help."
+
+He squinted through his goggles at Ross. "Over t' Red Lodge they said
+you fixed up a feller down in Dry Creek good's new. So I come after ye
+fer a couple of days."
+
+Instantly Weimer became alarmed. "Ross, he can't go und leave us, hein!
+When the sun pe shinin', I can't get 'round. Ross, he must pe here
+to work. He can't go mit you."
+
+Ross drew a long, perplexed breath, and said nothing. The stranger looked
+attentively at Weimer for the first time.
+
+"Got a touch of the sun, too, have ye?" he asked.
+
+Weimer removed his goggles, and pressed his hands over his eyes. "Yah,
+dot I has, a touch und more dan a touch. Ross here, he ain't leavin'
+us to go mit you."
+
+Still Ross stood silent. The stranger made no response to Weimer's
+protestations, but, bending forward, regarded him closely.
+
+"What?" he burst out. "Are you Dutch Weimer?"
+
+"Dot ist vat dey call me," assented Weimer, turning his bloodshot eyes
+on the stranger.
+
+The latter persisted in an incredulous voice, "The Dutch Weimer who used
+to run a miners' supply store down in Butte?"
+
+"Dot same," assented Weimer. "Und who might you pe?"
+
+The stranger grinned, a one-sided grin which sent his right cheek up
+under the smoked goggles. "Well, Uncle Jake, do you remember a little
+black-headed rascal that uster hang his chin on the edge of yer counter
+about once a day and get a nickel's worth of candy?"
+
+Weimer wrinkled his brow in perplexity. "Dere vas so many plack-heads,"
+he muttered, scratching his head.
+
+The stranger grinned delightedly, and again his right cheek was pushed
+up under the goggles. "Of course there was. I wa'n't the only calf
+running around loose, I know. Well, do you remember Marvin Miller?"
+
+"Hein!" cried Weimer. He held out his hand impulsively. "Und are you
+Marvin Miller's poy?"
+
+"The same," declared the stranger, grasping the hand. "And didn't you
+have a younger pard by the name of Grant?"
+
+"Yah!" Weimer fairly shouted. "Dot I did, and he's my pard yet."
+
+"Uster git his eyes about shut, and tighten his lips, when things didn't
+go to suit 'im," grinned Marvin Miller's son.
+
+"That's my father all right!" cried Ross.
+
+The stranger drew back and whistled. "Your dad!" he exclaimed. "Sho, now;
+that's not so?"
+
+"It ist so," Weimer broke in. "His fader sends him to help me mit der
+vork in dese claims, und den dis consarned gang of McKenzies go and
+pack off der sticks----" and Weimer was launched on an account of their
+troubles, feeling perfectly at home with the man who as a boy had hung
+over his counter in the old days when he was merchant and not prospector.
+
+Ross, too, felt his heart warm toward the man who had known his father;
+and for an instant the present faded, and he was back East again among
+the old familiar surroundings. He was being looked over by the father
+who "got his eyes about shut" when the son did not please him; he was
+being affectionately scolded by Aunt Anne and advised by Dr. Grant--but
+the thought of the doctor brought Ross up sharply against the purpose of
+the stranger's visit.
+
+A sick partner, Miller had said: but he, Ross, also had a sick partner,
+although the sickness was more of the mind than the body; and that
+partner objected to his going. What should he do? His training with
+his uncle would leave him no choice if he had only himself to consult
+in the matter. He was better than no doctor at all, and he was called
+on for help; therefore he must obey the call. But there was Weimer, who
+had learned to depend on him, and who, he feared, might relapse during
+his absence, however brief, into his former irresponsible state, for
+Leslie was, of course, a stranger to the methods which Ross had been
+obliged to employ to keep Weimer busy. Nor was Leslie, who had acted
+under Wilson's direction, accustomed to going ahead with the work as
+Ross had been obliged to do. But if the trip would occupy only a couple
+of days--well, he could not refuse to go.
+
+Here he became conscious that Miller was addressing him, and that Uncle
+Jake was leaning eagerly toward him.
+
+"If Doc here is willin'," Miller was saying, "we might go into cahoots
+this way: If my pard needs 'im longer than a day 'r two, I'll come
+along back and buckle down t' work here 'n' help you out while he's
+there a-nussin'----"
+
+"Yah, yah!" consented Weimer eagerly. "Den he may mit you go. You could
+do more vork dan Doc. You come pack und mit us vork."
+
+Ross, relieved, turned to the peg where hung his cap. "I'll go up to
+the tunnel and get Leslie, Uncle Jake, and you take hold of the dinner."
+
+"Leslie," repeated Miller carelessly. "Who's he?"
+
+Ross, leaving Weimer to relate Leslie's history, hurried up to the
+tunnel. He wanted to see Leslie alone and give him numerous suggestions
+and directions beyond the reach of Weimer's ears.
+
+"Of course, Less," he ended as the two finally started toward the shack
+together, "even if I do have to stay, and Miller comes back, he won't
+know how to manage Uncle Jake in case he has a relapse into the state
+that I found him in. And Miller looks like a strong willing fellow to
+work, so guess we won't lose anything by my going. Anyway I've got to
+go, for he says his partner is in a bad way." Miller's partner, it
+seemed, had been caught under a log they were "snaking" down to the
+cabin. His arm was crushed and in bad shape.
+
+"Some way, Ross," Leslie burst out uneasily, "I mightily hate to have you
+go. I'll be deadly lonesome up here without you even for a couple of
+days."
+
+"But if I'm not back then this Miller will be," returned Ross hopefully,
+"and he shows up rather agreeably."
+
+After a hasty dinner, Ross selected from his chest all that he
+considered would be required. Some of the articles Miller put into his
+game pouch, Ross making up a bundle himself to bind on his own back
+and so divide the load. At one o'clock they started, with Weimer and
+Leslie standing in the doorway, the former urging them on with many
+expressions of hope for a speedy return that they might get ahead of
+"dose consarned gang."
+
+Ross walked after Miller easily. Those past few days on the mountainsides
+had accustomed him to the use of snow-shoes. Almost in silence they
+crossed the valley and began the ascent of what remained of Soapweed
+Ledge.
+
+During the last hour the light had faded, and snow began to fill the
+air. From the base of the ledge the cabin on the other valley was barely
+visible, and Ross could scarcely make out the figures standing in front
+of the door.
+
+Suddenly Miller turned with an exclamation. "There! I forgot something
+that I wanted t' tell Uncle Jake. Wait here a minute, will ye? It'll
+not take me long t' go back."
+
+He walked rapidly over the snow across the valley, and disappeared into
+the cabin. Five minutes passed. He reappeared, and made his way more
+slowly back again.
+
+"All right," he shouted from the foot of the ledge. "Turn to the right,
+and go along above them rocks. That's the trail."
+
+At the top of the mountain Miller again took the lead. He had shifted
+the pouch to the front, and eased its weight with one hand. Ross noticed
+that it seemed much heavier than when he entered the cabin, but thought
+nothing further of the matter.
+
+Half an hour later he was on totally unfamiliar ground among a labyrinth
+of "sugar loaf" peaks which they skirted and climbed, Miller pushing on
+steadily and without words.
+
+"Hold yer wind," he directed Ross; "ye'll have need of it before we
+reach camp."
+
+The sky and earth were nearly blotted out now by the falling snow. Ross
+could see scarcely a dozen paces ahead. He could not tell whether they
+were headed east or west, north or south. They twisted and turned and
+turned again. The boy became leg-weary; but Miller pressed on, seemingly
+unexhausted, the heavy game pouch dragging at his shoulder.
+
+"We--we can't reach there to-night, can we?" Ross gasped at last.
+
+Miller turned his head but did not pause. "Yep," he answered, "about
+dark."
+
+Again in silence they went on.
+
+Finally, at five o'clock, they began to climb the gentle slope of a
+mountain which seemed to have no summit. Here for the first time his
+guide stopped to allow Ross to rest. Then he advanced slowly, step by
+step, prodding the snow deeply at the left of the blind trail he was
+following.
+
+"What's the matter?" Ross called the first time he saw Miller taking
+measure of the snow in this way.
+
+"Gorge somewhere here," Miller had replied. "Wind's filled it up even
+from bank t' bank. If we sh' step off--why, there's a hundred feet or
+so below made up of spruces and snow. I don't want t' go down int' no
+such landscape."
+
+Ross involuntarily hugged the upper side of the mountain. He longed for
+their journey's end. As they neared the top, the wind became active,
+cutting their faces and forcing Ross to turn his back and gasp for breath.
+
+Then came the descent, the storm thickening about them. Occasionally
+Miller threw a direction or a warning over his shoulder, which always
+caused Ross's heart to leap fearfully.
+
+"Don't go outside my tracks here. There's a flat rock on the down side
+that ends in a ledge. Not a pretty slide t' take," he shouted once.
+
+Again it was: "Be careful ahead here under that rock. Brace toward the
+inside of the trail. We may get a few pounds of snow on our heads."
+
+For half an hour longer they tramped on steadily. Ross ached in every
+muscle. His feet were beginning to cramp. They almost refused to raise
+the snow-shoes and push them forward. Miller slackened his speed when
+he saw that Ross was nearly played out.
+
+"A few minutes more, and we're there," he explained. "Keep up your
+courage."
+
+And at that moment Ross thought he had need of courage. They had been
+descending the mountain gradually above timber-line, zigzagging back and
+forth across the face in such a way as would enable them to use their
+snow-shoes to the best advantage. Now the storm lightened just enough to
+enable Ross to see they were traveling along the edge of a cliff with
+an overhanging fringe of trees, and the cliff appeared to the boy to be
+the jumping off place into space. Right and left as far as the falling
+snow permitted him to see the cliff extended. Above was the white bulk
+of the mountain; below was nothing but storm.
+
+Along this cliff Miller had walked slowly, pausing occasionally to look
+up into the trees. Finally he gave a grunt of satisfaction, and, throwing
+his staff and the heavy pouch on the rock, took from the snow-laden
+branches of a pine a coil of slender new rope.
+
+"Nerves good?" he asked jokingly.
+
+"For what?" was Ross's startled response.
+
+Miller explained. Ross saw that for the first time the colored goggles
+were no longer astride the other's nose. His cap was drawn down over
+his eyes, however, and his coat collar was turned up so that not much
+of his face was visible save his nose.
+
+"If it was summer," began Miller, busying himself with the rope, "we
+could get around this here little rock. But now there's nothin' t'
+do but go over it, because the mountain on each side shelves down so
+steep now we couldn't git down on snow-shoes or off 'em to save our
+necks. We'd bring down a load of snow on our heads if we should try."
+
+As he talked, he knotted the rope securely around a tree standing near
+the edge of the rock. "Right here the cliff slopes so I can just slide
+you down," Miller's gruff voice ran on in jerks, "and then I can slide
+after ye. But I take it you ain't used to mountains and this sort of
+game, and so I guess ye'd better hitch the end round yer waist."
+
+He tossed the end of the rope to Ross. "Take off yer shoes, and pack 'em
+in your hand," he directed when with numb, trembling fingers the boy had
+knotted the rope. "Forty feet down," Miller continued, "you'll come to
+a ledge. Stop there, and free the line."
+
+A moment more, snow-shoes in hand, Ross was on his back sliding down an
+almost perpendicular wall, his hair doing its best to raise his cap from
+his head. Slowly he was let down, down, so far as he could see, into
+space. Then suddenly, just as he had closed his eyes in dizzy terror,
+his feet struck snow into which he sank to his knees, and the rope above
+slackened.
+
+The ledge had stopped him, but it seemed to Ross but an insecure footing
+hung between heaven and earth. It was a mere path across the face of the
+cliff not more than three feet wide at the widest part.
+
+Ross untied the end; and then, as he felt it jerked from behind him, he
+covered his eyes with his hand and stood shivering, crowding back against
+the cliff.
+
+It was the work of a moment only for Miller to slide down the rope and
+stand beside him.
+
+"Hug the cliff," directed Ross's conductor shortly, "and follow me. No,
+don't put on your shoes. I'll break the trail fer ye."
+
+Slowly they crawled across the face of the cliff, the ledge leading
+downward. At the base they were in a winding canon scarcely twenty yards
+wide. Here they buckled on their snow-shoes again.
+
+"If," said Miller, bending over the straps, "we see it's best fer you
+t' stay a few days with my pard and let me go back and help Uncle Jake,
+I wouldn't do much investigatin' of the premises around here if I was
+you."
+
+Ross shuddered, and looked up at the face of the cliff, obscured now not
+only by the storm, but by the coming darkness.
+
+"No investigating for me!" he exclaimed forcefully.
+
+Then they began the tramp up the canon, the shadow from the wooded
+mountains deepening every moment. Finally, Miller made a sharp turn
+around a group of seven spruces standing at the foot of a peak, and
+cautiously approached a log shack that stood half buried in the snow, and
+had as its corner posts four tall trees. The snow was shoveled away from
+the door and window, and a light smoke arose from the joint of stovepipe
+projecting from the roof.
+
+At the door Miller stopped and listened. "Guess he's asleep," he
+whispered. "Take off yer shoes out here."
+
+Ross stooped, and unbuckled his snow-shoes.
+
+"Guess the fire must be low," whispered Miller. "Wisht you'd go round
+the corner there, and load up with wood while I go in and see what he's
+up to. But don't come in till I tell ye to. I'll sort of prepare him
+to see ye."
+
+Ross did as he was bidden. He found the path to the pile of pine chunks
+partly broken; but, with his numb fingers incased in huge mittens,
+it was not easy work to dig out the wood frozen under its covering of
+snow. But finally, his arms full, he staggered around the corner of
+the shack, and stood again in front of the door. So busy had he been at
+the wood-pile that he had not thought of listening for sounds within
+the shack.
+
+Now, as he stood in the dusk before the door, he was surprised at the
+stillness within, and also by the fact that the window beyond the door
+showed no light. With a growing but vague uneasiness he waited, chilled
+to the bone by the wind, which had begun to suck through the canon and
+whistle along the sides of the mountains.
+
+The few moments during which he waited seemed to him like years. Then he
+raised the wooden latch softly, and opened the door. Darkness and silence
+greeted him.
+
+"Mr. Miller," he whispered.
+
+No reply.
+
+"Miller!" His voice rose sharply.
+
+The wind soughed through the branches over his head; and a sharp flurry
+of snow, forerunner of the blizzard, assailed him, while from the open
+door came a whiff of warmth.
+
+Ross dropped the wood outside, and, stepping within the shack, closed
+the door, and groped his way toward the stove, from the front of which
+came a faint glow.
+
+Pulling off his mittens, he held his hands over the heat, at the same
+time holding his breath that he might hear the breathing of the sick man.
+But all he heard was the beating of the blood in his own ears.
+
+Working some life into his fingers, he tore open the front of his
+fur-lined coat, and, pulling a match out of his pocket, lighted it,
+and held it above his head. In the further corner of the cabin was a
+bunk, from beneath the blankets of which the straw protruded. Trembling
+so that he could scarcely walk, Ross started across the floor. Half-way
+to the bunk his match burned out. He retreated to the stove, and lit
+another. This time he succeeded in reaching the bunk. Several blankets
+were spread over a foundation of straw. Otherwise the bunk was empty.
+
+A panic seized Ross. "Miller!" he shouted, "Miller!"
+
+The wind howled through the canon. The trees above the shack swayed and
+grated their interlocked branches together.
+
+Striking a third match, Ross observed a candle stuck into a hole in a
+piece of wood which lay on the table. He lighted it, and sank into a
+chair beside the table.
+
+What had happened? Where was Miller? Where was the sick partner?
+
+Ross took off his cap, and laid it on the table. In bewilderment he ran
+his fingers through his hair.
+
+Suddenly his eyes fell on something in the shadow beside the door. He
+went to it. It was the heavily loaded game pouch. Evidently Miller had
+opened the door, dropped that inside, and vanished into the night.
+
+Ross was reaching for the pouch when another thought struck him so
+forcibly that he jerked himself to a standing posture with a loud
+exclamation. Hastily opening the door, he stopped and, throwing the
+wood about, peered through the darkness, searching the open space
+where he had parted from Miller.
+
+His snow-shoes were gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A NEW CAMP
+
+
+THE disappearance of the snow-shoes, instead of proving to Ross that he
+had been hoaxed, at first, only deepened his bewilderment. Finally,
+the idea found lodgment in his brain that Miller's partner had wandered
+off in the storm delirious, and Miller, having found him gone, had
+followed, forgetting Ross. The boy was too confused to weigh the
+probabilities of such forgetfulness, especially in view of the missing
+snow-shoes. Therefore, the moment the idea occurred to him he acted
+on it, hurrying out into the storm with the intention of going to
+Miller's assistance.
+
+But, without snow-shoes, he found himself helpless. He had not gone a
+dozen yards from the door before he sank half-way to his waist in the
+snow. Scrambling hastily back again, he ran around the cabin where the
+snow was not so deep, and struggled up the mountainside.
+
+"Miller!" he shouted desperately. "Miller, where are you?"
+
+Here and there among the trees he plunged frantically until the fear that
+he could not find his way to the shack drove him back.
+
+He filled the stove with wood, snuffed the candle mechanically, and
+looked about him. Then for the first time he realized that there was
+but one bunk.
+
+"If two men lived here, there would be two bunks," he said slowly;
+and then came the conviction that Miller had decoyed him here and
+deserted him, taking the snow-shoes along. But Ross's brain was too
+numb to pursue the thought. Exhausted by his long tramp and by his
+fruitless battle with the snow, he filled the stove with chunks, closed
+the draughts, and, without stopping to blow out the candle, rolled
+into the bunk, and was asleep before he had pulled all the blankets
+over him.
+
+When he awoke, the shack was filled with a light, which, although
+exceedingly dim, was unmistakably daylight. Outside, the snow was piled
+to the top of the window. The candle was burned out and the fire low.
+Ross crawled out stiffly, every muscle aching and sore. Filling the
+stove, he looked at his watch. Twelve o'clock! He had slept away the
+morning.
+
+Outside the blizzard raged in unabated fury, but so sheltered was the
+shack by scrub hemlocks and banks of snow roof-high, that but little wind
+found its way through the mud-chinked log walls.
+
+Standing over the fire, Ross looked at the dark outlines of the one bunk,
+and considered his situation. His heart sank when he thought of the miles
+which Miller and he had put between themselves and Meadow Creek Valley.
+
+And who was Miller?
+
+Ross's suspicions, of course, had fastened to the McKenzies. But why
+had they considered it necessary to have him marooned so far from Meadow
+Creek? How did they know that the dynamite had been found? When they left
+Meadow Creek----
+
+"Oh!" cried Ross aloud at this point. He brought the stove poker down
+vigorously on top of the stove. "That blast under Soapweed Ledge! I
+wanted 'em to hear it--guess they didn't fail!" Ruefully he turned
+from the stove. He was certainly paying for his little triumph.
+
+But who was Miller?
+
+The lack of wood in the cabin soon turned his attention from the
+answer to the necessity for immediate action. He found a large wooden
+snow-shovel behind the stove; and, opening the door cautiously in
+order to prevent a mass of snow from following it, he cleared away a
+space in front of the door and the two windows, and shoveled his way to
+the wood-pile.
+
+It was not until he was struggling around the corner of the shack with
+an armful of wood that he realized that his weakness and tremors were
+due not only to anxiety, but to hunger; and with that realization came
+a fear which nearly induced another panic. Was there food in the cabin?
+So great had been his absorption that he had not noticed the contents of
+the shack beyond those things which he had required for immediate use.
+
+Throwing the armful of wood down beside the stove, he proceeded to
+make a hurried search, the results of which quieted his fears. The
+cabin was as well stocked with provisions as Weimer's. A portion of
+these supplies, the canned milk, vegetables, and fruits, he found in
+boxes beneath the bunk. Sacks of flour and meal were suspended from
+the roof logs to protect them from the "pack" rats. Having investigated
+these provisions, Ross opened a second door at the back of the shack,
+supposing it led out-of-doors. But he was agreeably surprised to find
+it led to a little lean-to of logs, where were suspended a large ham,
+strips of bacon, jerked meat, and quantities of fresh venison all frozen.
+The door protected these from the heat inside the shack, while the
+logs, unchinked, gave protection from timber wolves and coyotes, but
+not from the snow, which had sifted in over everything.
+
+Ross at once set about getting breakfast. He found every necessary
+cooking utensil at hand. The cabin was--as such cabins go--completely
+furnished and, it appeared, must have been inhabited not long ago by a
+stout man; for in a box at the head of the bunk he found some clothing
+much too large for him or for the man who had brought him there.
+
+"But," he thought, as he sat down to venison steak and flapjacks,
+"whoever owns the cabin, Miller must have gone from here to Meadow Creek,
+because there was a fire here last night when I came in; and it was
+a fire fixed to keep some hours, too."
+
+As he finished eating, his eyes fell on the game pouch still bulging
+beside the door. He had not looked inside. With a piece of steak balanced
+on his fork he crossed the floor. Then:
+
+"Books!" he cried aloud. "_My_ books!"
+
+The fork fell from his hand. He dropped to his knees and emptied the
+pouch. Besides the appliances which he had given to Miller to carry
+there were all his books, the medical text-books which he had left in
+the emergency chest in Weimer's shack. He could scarcely believe his
+eyes. He sat back on his heels, and stared.
+
+"Weston!" he finally shouted. "Miller is Weston!"
+
+Suddenly rising, his eyes narrowed and his lips compressed, he kicked
+the game pouch across the floor in a gust of anger caused by an
+illumination of certain circumstances which explained the events of the
+previous day.
+
+"I'm slow," he muttered between clinched teeth. "Any one can get the
+better of me."
+
+He recalled Weston's imitation of different people the night he and
+Waymart had come to Weimer's together and Sandy's displeasure at
+the exhibition. Sitting down in an armchair beside the table--the only
+chair in the shack--he followed his chain of evidence link by link. The
+conversation which he had overheard between Waymart and Sandy the night
+of the latter's return from Cody was fully explained--the some one whose
+assistance they might need in Meadow Creek Valley, but who would not
+come unless some one else had left.
+
+"Weston would not come with Leslie there for fear he'd be recognized,"
+thought Ross. "Therefore, Sandy took steps to remove Leslie and--yes--in
+spite of the mess I made of it, I blocked the game!"
+
+Then, despite his anxiety, Ross grinned. Of course the McKenzies had
+not expected Leslie to return any more than they had expected the
+dynamite to be found. But after hearing his signal of discovery they
+had sent Weston, the skilful impersonator, to maroon him here--where?
+Ross dropped forward his head on the table and groaned.
+
+"They brought me here to get rid of me entirely," he finished; "and I
+came voluntarily!"
+
+Presently he picked up the pouch, intending to hang it on a nail in the
+logs beside the door. It was not quite empty; and, lifting the flap he
+looked in. At the bottom lay a few wads of newspaper. Ross concluded
+that the pouch had been stuffed with these when Weston came to Weimer's.
+Then, when he went back after the books, he had thrown out the paper,
+the presence of which had prevented his companion from noticing much
+difference in the pouch after the books were put into it. Ross picked
+up one of the pieces, and glanced at it listlessly. It was a page of the
+Cody "Gazette." He dropped it back into the pouch.
+
+"I wonder what he told Uncle Jake and Leslie when he got the books,"
+thought Ross, hanging up the bag.
+
+Leslie was the only comfort the situation held for him, and this merely
+came from the knowledge that Weimer was not alone. For, of course, Weston
+having seen the boy in Meadow Creek would return and block the work
+somehow, probably steal the dynamite again, and convey it farther than
+the tool house.
+
+Here Ross started up in a sort of frenzy, and, putting on his top-coat
+and cap, rushed out-of-doors. He would find a way out. There must be a
+way, for Miller had gone back--Ross felt sure he had returned--and if
+Miller had he could! He would save the claims yet. The first plunge into
+the snow, waist-deep now, with the whip-lash of the blizzard in his face,
+brought him to his senses.
+
+"This is folly," he thought as he dropped once more into the chair beside
+the table, "when I have no idea where I am."
+
+But, even if he did know, his snow-shoes were gone; and without them he
+could not safely venture--nor with them, either, he decided, recalling
+with a sick shudder the snow-filled ravines against which Miller had
+warned him--_Miller_, indeed!
+
+His bitterness came back with a rush. After all he had done for Weston
+this was the final reward. Weston had shaved his beard, recolored his
+hair and the fringe of whiskers left beneath his chin, covered his deep
+brown eyes with goggles, and brought his benefactor of Dry Creek here to
+spend months in this deadly loneliness! That was the thanks he gave "Doc
+Tenderfoot" for saving his life.
+
+That night the storm ceased and a warm wind arose. The next morning
+Ross again shoveled out the doorway, window, and wood-pile. The sky was
+clear, but the sun did not swing over the towering peak which rose
+almost perpendicular, opposite the cabin, until ten o'clock. But, when
+it did show its face, it looked down on a bewildering mass of snow.
+Ross gazed longingly down the canon, which wound like a serpent between
+the overhanging mountains. Down there not half a mile away a ledge
+ran diagonally across the face of a cliff; and Ross felt impelled to
+go to the foot of that cliff, and find out whether or not the rope
+still dangled from its summit. But well he knew that even so short a
+journey would be impossible without the aid of snow-shoes. However,
+if the warm wind continued and the sky remained unclouded, perhaps in a
+day or two there would be a crust on the snow of sufficient strength to
+bear his weight. Then he would investigate.
+
+Meanwhile he tried to force himself calmly to the business of living
+and planning. He was there. So far as he could see there was no escape.
+He would make the best and the most of the months of his banishment.
+When he arrived at this conclusion, he found himself relenting a trifle
+toward Weston on account of the books. It had been no light load to pack
+across the mountains on a tramp which had lasted many hours.
+
+"Perhaps Weston has a piece of heart, after all," Ross mused the
+following morning, "but so thoroughly is he under Sandy's control
+that he dare not show it."
+
+Before him on the table lay Piersol's "Histology," although he was
+totally unable to focus his scattered thoughts on the contents. He was
+anxiously watching the weather. The warm wind had continued, but the
+sky was lowering. Another storm was brewing. Finally Ross left Piersol
+and going to the door, looked out anxiously over the canon.
+
+"The snow is settling finely," he decided, "and if the cold comes before
+the storm the crust will hold me up."
+
+He went back to the armchair and began drumming nervously on the arms. He
+wondered how it had chanced to be packed so far over the narrow trails.
+A chair, a "store chair," that is, was an uncommon sight among the
+mountains. From which point had it been brought, Cody or Red Lodge? The
+latter, he knew, was more than one hundred miles from the Shoshones,
+while Cody was but eighty.
+
+However, nearness depended not so much on miles as on accessibility, and
+for the thousandth time Ross wondered where he was.
+
+He could not reason from the memory of the tortuous windings of that
+stormy afternoon's journey, with no view of the sun's face to guide
+him; but his strong impression was that he was many miles northwest of
+Meadow Creek, with at least three chains of peaks between him and Weimer.
+
+Then he fell to wondering again about the shack. Did it belong to one
+of the McKenzie relatives? Who had given it over to his use for the
+winter? He suspected that, while the furnishings and the clothing had
+been left there by the owner, the McKenzies had planned for his winter's
+residence, and had partially, at least, stocked his larder, as the owner
+would not be likely to desert such a supply of meat, especially the
+fresh venison. Perhaps the venison was due to Weston's forethought.
+Ross liked to think that Weston had done all that he dared do for the
+comfort of "Doc Tenderfoot."
+
+"He's a bigger man," mused "Doc"; "and yet he seems more than half
+afraid of Sandy. Wonder what the trouble is."
+
+That night the wind changed, the temperature dropped, and the next
+morning snow began to fall, lightly, however. Again and again Ross
+went out for trial trips on the fast freezing crust, but not until
+afternoon did he venture on the journey to the cliff.
+
+The shack stood among the trees on the mountainside about ten feet above
+the level of the canon. Taking with him a long pole with a sharpened
+end, which he found in the shack, Ross slid from tree to tree until he
+gained the level of the canon. Then, hugging the foot of the mountain
+closely, that he might judge of the lay of the land by the trees, and so
+avoid the dreaded creeks and gorges, he turned down the canon toward
+the cliff.
+
+It was difficult walking, the crust being smooth and slippery. Several
+times one foot broke through, and each time Ross's heart seemed to
+rise in his throat when he considered that he was walking on a body of
+snow deeper than he was high. The canon had no distinguishing features.
+It might have been any one of a dozen located among the Shoshones, and
+all of them unfamiliar to the young man lost in their midst. On either
+side, the mountains, dreary and lonely and lifeless, arose precipitately.
+It was windless in the canon, but on top of the mountains a white, cold
+cloud of snow played perpetually.
+
+But Ross's eyes were eagerly searching the mountain at the left for
+the cliff; and presently he recognized it despite the curtain of snow
+drifting across its face. There it was, stretching up until his neck
+ached in the effort to scan the top, where in an unbroken line along
+the edge hung a great body of snow, the undisturbed accumulations of the
+last blizzard. The steep side of the cliff, however, was bare, and Ross
+failed to discover a rope dangling over its surface.
+
+[Illustration: THE SNOW HID IT FROM VIEW]
+
+He thought he had not expected to see it there, and so could not account
+for the sinking of his heart when he found it gone. For a few moments he
+stood looking down the canon hemmed in by its great mountain barriers.
+He fully realized the fact that he was a prisoner within those barriers,
+perfectly helpless until released by the brief summer.
+
+With bent head he turned his back to the cliff and cautiously retraced
+his steps while a wildly whirling "squall" suddenly caught him in its
+clutches. He had gone but a short distance before a sound in the rear
+caused him to wheel about and listen sharply. Only a smother of snow,
+swirling up the canon, met his eyes and a blast of the rising wind his
+ears. Hesitating, he struggled back a few steps and turned his face
+up toward the cliff. The snow hid it from view. He stood listening
+again, and, presently, the sound, above him and a little in advance,
+again mingled with the roar of the wind. Ross broke into a run, panting
+through the storm, breaking through the crust, struggling to his feet
+and tumbling on again. It was certainly the call of a human voice,
+although no words were distinguishable because of the noise of the wind.
+
+Ross, obsessed by one idea, raised his voice: "Miller--Weston!" he yelled
+frantically. "I'm here--below here! Where are you?"
+
+But the wind swooped down on him, seized his words and bore them down
+the canon. Then it suddenly died away, and again the snow fell quietly,
+mistily, and Ross, looking up, saw, as in a nightmare, a rope dangling
+across the face of the cliff. In bewildered joyousness he pressed his
+hand against his eyes and looked again.
+
+"It's there!" he cried, "but it certainly wasn't ten minutes ago.
+That's the queerest--I know I saw straight before----"
+
+He opened his lips to call again, but the call was checked by the
+discovery of a man half-way down the cliff, creeping along on what
+looked to be a thread of snow fastened diagonally across the dark
+surface of the rock, but which Ross at once recognized as the narrow
+ledge he himself had trod only three days before. Slowly the figure
+was progressing, its feet kicking away the snow lodged on the ledge, its
+hands clinging to the bare face of the cliff. Then, faintly into the lull
+of the storm a nervous voice floated down to Ross from the thread-like
+path.
+
+"I'm almost down, I guess, Miller. Hope I can get to the cabin before
+another squall strikes us."
+
+Then, from the top of the cliff, the barely distinguishable words
+behind the veil of falling snow, "All right. Remember you'll find Doc
+not half a mile straight ahead. The cabin's on the right, as I've
+told ye. It's above a bunch of seven spruces. Ye won't need yer
+snow-shoes--crust'll hold down there."
+
+Ross waited to hear no more. "Leslie!" he yelled joyously. "Ho, Leslie!
+I'm down here. Come on! Hurray for that rope again!"
+
+But even as the hurray ascended the side of the cliff, so did the rope.
+Snakily, jerkily, the knotted end traveled upward until it disappeared
+in the cloud of snow that hid the mountain tops.
+
+From this cloud came a faint and far-away voice: "Good luck t' ye! Tell
+Doc ye're in the same boat as he is. He'll savvy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE INGRATITUDE OF WESTON
+
+
+THE presence of Leslie without snow-shoes, the disappearance of the rope,
+and Weston's voice caused Ross to "savvy" immediately in impotent anger
+and bitter disappointment. But not until the two boys had reached the
+cabin and Leslie was warming himself beside the hot stove, did he fully
+comprehend the trick that had been played on him.
+
+"Weston!" he exclaimed stupidly in answer to Ross's explanation. "Why,
+this isn't the man you told about at Sagehen Roost--it's the Miller
+that you went away with. I saw that Weston fellow, you know. They're
+not the same!"
+
+"It's evident that when you've seen Weston you've seen any number of
+men that he cares to imitate. This Miller is Weston, the McKenzies'
+cousin and the man you----" Here Ross checked himself, as Leslie had
+not yet connected the dark-haired Weston with the light-haired Oklahoma
+man of the same name.
+
+Finally, after supper, Leslie recovered from his bewilderment
+sufficiently to tell connectedly the story of the days that had
+intervened between Ross's departure from Meadow Creek and his own.
+
+"Begin at the beginning," urged Ross finally, putting a pine chunk in
+the stove and snuffing the candle.
+
+He had seated the newcomer in the armchair beside the fire, while he sat
+on an overturned box in front of the stove door and within reach of a
+heap of wood. On the table at his elbow lay the gun which Steele had
+insisted on adding to his equipment the day he arrived in Meadow Creek
+and which he had not since touched. Leslie had brought it strapped
+across his shoulders and with it all the ammunition which Steele had
+provided. This was another proof of Weston's strangely curious good
+will that continued to puzzle Ross. How the unsuspecting Leslie was
+prevailed on to bring the limited arsenal was a part of the story
+which Ross was demanding. While the storm raged outside and the dim
+candle-light flickered and cast long uncanny shadows within, and the
+pine chunk flamed and cracked cheerily filling the room with a warmth
+grateful to the chilled narrator, Leslie complied with the request to
+"begin at the beginning."
+
+"I'd no sooner seen your back, Ross, as you followed Miller out of the
+door, than I had an awfully uncomfortable feeling of responsibility.
+By the time the storm had swallowed you two up, the whole outfit there at
+Weimer's was sitting hard on my shoulders. We watched you out of sight,
+Uncle Jake and I, and then we went back into the cabin and, Ross, if
+that cabin seems to Uncle Jake now as--well--as--when you left----"
+
+Leslie paused and stared at the candle. Ross drew his seat nearer the
+stove and cleared his throat.
+
+"Uncle Jake has stayed there a lot in the winter all alone, you must
+remember. He was telling me about it not long ago, how the----"
+
+Above the cabin, through the roaring and soughing of the wind among
+the spruce, came the long drawn yelling, harassed, pitiful cry of a
+coyote. From the canon the cry was answered. Again and again the two
+human-like voices wailed despairingly at each other while the boys
+involuntarily drew nearer together and Ross laid a caressing hand on
+the gun and finished his speech:
+
+"That's exactly what Uncle Jake told me--how the coyotes and wolves
+prowled around, and he didn't mind them nor the loneliness at all."
+
+Leslie nodded. "I noticed that he didn't seem to mind your being away in
+the same way I did. He just took to his pipe and his bunk and seemed
+settled for a rest until you got back again. That didn't add any to
+my restfulness, I can tell you, for what could I do up in the tunnel
+without him? I rustled around a bit trying to decide what to do when
+the door opened and there was Miller again, or Weston rather. I was as
+surprised as they make 'em until he said:
+
+"'Say, young feller, Doc he sent me back t' round up a book on medicine
+that he may need. It'll be layin' round loose som'ers, maybe in that
+hair covered chist of hisn.'"
+
+Leslie went on to say that when he had opened Ross's emergency chest
+Weston professed to have forgotten the name of the book he had been
+directed to fetch, and, consequently, had taken all the books, stuffing
+them carelessly into his game pouch. Then the storm had again swallowed
+him up.
+
+"After he went away," said Leslie, "I got to thinking pretty strongly
+about the dynamite. If it was so easy for one man to get into the valley
+from the land only knew where, why couldn't the McKenzies make their
+way back and spirit the dynamite off for good and all? We'd gone and
+touched off that charge under Soapweed Ledge to make 'em understand that
+we had it again, you know."
+
+"Yes, I know!" affirmed Ross grimly. "Geese that we were!"
+
+"Well, those sticks got on my nerves, and I made up my mind to fasten
+them up if such a thing were possible. So I put on my snow-shoes and
+began to rattle around in the storm to see what I could do. I thought
+no one could come up into the tool house from under because of the mass
+of snow all around, and because the dynamite box was so heavy with all
+of your and our and the McKenzies' sticks in it that it held the floor
+boards down with a vengeance. But I wasn't taking any chances after
+seeing what our 'friends the enemy' were capable of doing, so I got
+all the spike nails that Weimer had and nailed down the floor. Then I
+plowed through the storm up to Wilson's shack, shoveled my way in,
+collected all the tools that could be used to pry or hammer with and
+brought 'em back to our tool house. And with them, Ross, I brought a
+great padlock and chain that I recollected seeing up there rusty and
+unused. I oiled it and put a bar across the tool-house door and padlocked
+it. And if I do say it, it would cost a man some time and strength
+and racket to get into that shack. It would also take some tools, and
+there's none in the valley except what are behind that locked door,
+for before night came I had raided the McKenzie cabin and brought over
+all their tools. Then," continued Leslie, "I went to sleep feeling
+some better."
+
+"I'll bet you," cried Ross eagerly, "that it's because you fastened up
+the dynamite that you're here! I do believe that when Weston went back
+it would have been easier to cache that if he could have got it than to
+have brought you here."
+
+"I don't know, Ross." Leslie gave a short laugh. "It was easy enough
+to get me here, as easy as to get you. I--but you want the story as it
+comes."
+
+"Every word of it. Go on. The next day----"
+
+The next day, Leslie continued, so furious a blizzard was raging that he
+didn't work in the tunnel but spent the time keeping open the trails
+to the dump, the wood-pile and the spring. But the second day, the sky
+having cleared, he tried his best to get Weimer to work.
+
+"Ich vill vork mit Doc," was Uncle Jake's declaration of independence,
+"mit you, nein!"
+
+"You can imagine, Ross, how much work I did alone, not used to going
+ahead with the blasting. When I came down at noon the old fellow had
+dished up a capital dinner. He washed the dishes, but not one step would
+he budge to the tunnel. Said that you were likely to drop in any time
+that day and he'd stay in and watch for you. Said it would be work
+enough for him to do to fill you up after your long tramp through the
+snow! He simply boiled over with ready excuses. When I went up to the
+tunnel I left him with his goggles on, swinging open the door about once
+in two minutes for a look over on Soapweed Ledge. You know it was clear
+that day and----"
+
+Here Leslie suddenly paused and sat up with a jerk. He gripped the arms
+of the chair and gave a startled exclamation.
+
+"See here, Ross, that clearness business has reminded me of something
+that I noticed in the morning, and, because I thought it couldn't be
+true, I paid but little attention. But now I know--well, this is what
+it was: when I reached the dump I glanced across the valley at the
+McKenzie shack. It seemed completely buried in snow except the roof and
+the chimney stovepipe, and at first I imagined that I saw heat coming
+out of that stovepipe! You know how, after a hot fire, the heat will
+crinkle the air above a chimney and no smoke in sight?"
+
+"That's so!" exclaimed Ross. "And you think----"
+
+"At the time I thought it was a mere notion of mine, but now I believe I
+saw correctly, and that Weston was there waiting to dispose of my case."
+
+"That's the idea," agreed Ross excitedly. "There all the time after he
+left me, probably. He had likely got him a hot breakfast before you were
+up and then let the fire die."
+
+Leslie nodded. "Same as I did when I was hiding down in Miners' Camp.
+But, anyway, I didn't investigate and forgot all about that chimney
+until this minute."
+
+Here Leslie broke off to ask abruptly, "Another thing, Ross, right here
+before I forget. The day you left, you remember Uncle Jake was sick and
+you went down to get dinner and left me in the tunnel?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, only a few minutes after you left I looked out and you, as I
+supposed then, stood in the mouth of the tunnel----"
+
+"Nope, 'twas Weston," interrupted Ross. "He said he went up there first.
+He came to the shack from that direction."
+
+"Then he got a squint at the work and the dynamite and your assistant
+right then! I thought it was queer I didn't get an answer when I yelled
+to know if you had dinner ready. But just as I spoke, the figure took a
+sneak, and I supposed you had just stopped a bit to look things over."
+
+"Weston was attending to that, evidently," retorted Ross promptly. "But
+now let's see--you've brought the happenings up to to-day, haven't
+you?"
+
+"Not quite," Leslie answered. "I'll be there in a minute, though.
+Yesterday I got as uneasy as Weimer over your not getting back, and
+Miller, or Weston, I mean, not coming as he promised. I confess I was in
+a blue funk by afternoon, and I saw things were shaping for another
+storm. I went slipping and sliding out beside the dump a dozen times
+where I could look over to Soapweed Ledge while Uncle Jake tramped
+around outside the shack continually watching for you."
+
+"Poor Uncle Jake!" muttered Ross stirring uneasily.
+
+"Well, that brings me to to-day," Leslie began after a pause. "I was
+down beside the dump looking for you about eleven o'clock this morning
+when I saw him coming over the Ledge--Weston, I mean. Same goggles,
+same cap drawn down over his ears, same outfit except the game pouch.
+I noticed as soon as he came near that the pouch was gone. Tell you
+what, Ross, I made tracks down the trail, got my snow-shoes on and
+went to meet him. I would have hurried to meet a Hottentot! Uncle Jake
+stayed behind jabbering in German, and fairly dancing up and down in
+his excitement because you had not come with Weston."
+
+Ross, his elbows on his knees and his chin in his palms, staring at
+Leslie, saw in a flash the latter as he had appeared at Sagehen Roost,
+overbearing and dictatorial. Then he saw him running across the lonely
+valley of Meadow Creek eager to meet any one on a fraternal footing.
+
+"Weston must have left his shack and made a long trip behind it up the
+mountain and around over the summit to have come in on the Ledge; don't
+you think so?" asked Ross. "He probably didn't want to run any risk of
+being seen."
+
+Leslie assented and went on with his story. He had gone to meet Weston
+with a demand as to Ross's whereabouts and return.
+
+"Don't ye worry none about Doc," Weston declared heartily. "He's
+fixin' things fine over our way. Doc's all right!"
+
+"So he is," Leslie agreed, "and for that reason we want him right here,
+Uncle Jake and I!"
+
+"Wall," Weston drawled good-naturedly, "he says the same about you even
+t' wantin' ye where he is now for a day."
+
+"What do you mean?" Leslie asked.
+
+The two had been walking back toward the shack and the frantic Weimer,
+and Weston did not explain until he had assured Uncle Jake of Ross's
+safety and health, and was seated beside the stove.
+
+"Not once while he was there," Leslie told Ross, "not even when he
+was eating dinner, did he take off his cap--merely pushed it back a
+little. Uncle Jake urged him to shed it, but he just grinned and said he
+had a bald spot on the top of his head, and had got into the habit of
+wearing his cap all the time to keep that spot warm. Said he guessed
+he wouldn't 'bust into that habit now.' I thought he was an odd Dick
+to get into such a habit, and with a fur cap, too, but it was all so
+plausible, Ross, everything he said was said with such an air of truth,
+that I didn't once suspect."
+
+"No more did I," confessed Ross.
+
+"And then, of course, I was awfully interested in what he had to tell,
+and ask me to do. He told a clever lie, Ross. He said that you had
+brought down an elk with his gun and wanted me to come back with him and
+the sled you had made to help the McKenzies haul supplies, and help
+pack the venison over the mountains for our winter meat. It was all
+the more clever because I knew that meat was all we needed to make our
+winter's supplies good. The story hit Uncle Jake in the right spot,
+too. He hurried up dinner for us to be gone before the big snow came.
+Weston thought we could reach his cabin that night and make it back again
+to-morrow morning with the elk meat. He said it would be a pretty good
+pull for the three of us, but as there was a good crust we could make
+it with that sled. Why, Doc, there wasn't a suspicion of deceit in his
+manner. He said you had fixed his pard up all right and would leave
+some stuff for him, and so didn't need to stay any longer. So I went up
+to the tool house and got the sled out and we started----"
+
+"The gun," interrupted Ross. "Did you think of the gun?"
+
+"Not much I didn't! That was Weston. Just as we were starting off he
+turned back and said:
+
+"'See here, young feller. Doc said as how ye was t' bring his gun along
+and mebby he could bring down a mountain sheep as we come back. They is
+a lot of them animals over with us.'"
+
+So the two had turned back and Leslie strapped Ross's gun across his
+shoulders. He carried the ammunition. Weston insisted on taking all of it
+along as he and his partner had run short, and Ross had promised them a
+share of his! Then they had started out, and, screened by the veil of
+gently falling snow, entered on the same tortuous, winding, upward trail
+that Ross and Weston had taken a few days previously.
+
+"And all the way," Leslie continued, "whenever the trail let us walk
+together, he was telling me a long yarn about the day you and he had
+spent chasing that elk whose meat we were going after. I listened, Ross,
+with my mouth opened half the time, and wished a dozen times, if I did
+once, that I had been with you.
+
+"Well, as the afternoon passed, the storm became heavier, and part of
+the way we couldn't see a dozen feet before us, and finally I think
+Weston himself was uncertain of our way although he said he wasn't.
+It must have been about four o'clock when we came to the head of the
+ledge. Weston searched and groped along until he came to a tree where a
+rope was already tied.
+
+"'It's the one I used fer Doc and me,'" he explained and slung it over
+the cliff.
+
+"He had been hauling the sled along, while all I had to carry was the
+gun and ammunition. Now he said that I had better leave my snow-shoes
+on top of the cliff and tie the end of the rope around my waist and
+he would let me down to the ledge. That I was to kick clear of snow
+and then go up the canon and get you to come down and help heave the
+sled over and get it down to the canon. He said you would know better
+than I how to do that. He kept giving me directions about where to
+find the cabin, for the snow had thickened until we couldn't see the
+ledge, to say nothing of the canon. You see, Ross, I'll confess I
+was too nervous about going over into space attached to that rope to
+think that his proceeding was queer. I just didn't question a thing,
+but shut my eyes and went over. It didn't occur to me to wonder why
+my snow-shoes, instead of that gun, weren't tied on my shoulders.
+Well, I struck the ledge and untied the rope and felt my way along that
+ticklish shelf until the squall lifted and then--you know the rest.
+If I live to be a hundred I'll never forget how I felt when that rope
+was drawn up and he yelled down that I was to tell you I was in the
+same boat that you were!"
+
+It was late and Leslie was too tired to talk longer. Ross gave him the
+bunk and, waiting only long enough to fill the stove with wood, close
+the draughts and blow out the candles, wrapped up in a blanket and lay
+down beside the stove, his coat for a pillow. He did not fall asleep at
+once, but lay staring up at the flicker of firelight dancing about on
+the mud-chinked logs overhead.
+
+After all his planning and working, he thought, his mission in the
+mountains was doomed to failure. The claims would pass into the
+McKenzies' hands, and, besides, he would have missed one year of the
+preparation for the work he had chosen. He rolled over and half groaned.
+
+"Awake, Ross?" came from the bunk. "I'm so tired I haven't dropped off
+yet and, besides--say, Ross, here I am and there's dad waiting for me
+to turn up with that missing five hundred--and then your claims--we're
+not exactly in luck, are we? I feel as though I'd like to get my hands
+on that Weston-Miller fellow's throat."
+
+"There's one thing I can do, though--study," muttered Ross. "That I've
+got to hold myself to."
+
+Conversation languished then, and both boys fell asleep, Ross's last
+thought being of Weimer watching for their return in the lonely valley
+of Meadow Creek.
+
+By daylight the following morning the two were up, full of plans for
+living and doing during the long months of their imprisonment.
+
+"There are some nails, but no hammer," said Ross. "But we can drive 'em
+with a stick of wood and fix up another bunk out of these two boxes.
+They're the longest, and I think they'll fill the bill for my five
+feet ten. Then we'll divide the straw and the blankets, and by keeping
+up the fire all night, I guess we won't freeze to death."
+
+On the floor in the corner back of the stove they built the bunk. There
+were not nails enough nor were the boxes strong enough to allow of
+making a substantial bunk such as the owner of the shack had built
+against the side logs.
+
+Until the bunk was completed, Leslie, while working docilely enough under
+the older boy's direction, regarded the more comfortable bunk as his
+permanent possession. He had never been taught to be unselfish. He had
+from his motherless childhood demanded what he wished and received it
+until the question arose of his continued attendance in school. There
+he had taken the course he wished and was now paying for it dearly.
+It was not until he was dividing the straw in his bunk and had come
+across Ross's watch and pocketbook that the idea smote him hard that
+the other had vacated the easier bunk in a wordless generosity that
+he, Leslie, had never practiced, and that he had not even thanked the
+bunk's former occupant.
+
+"See here, Ross," he began brusquely, "you needn't think that you're
+going to rest your old bones in the new bunk all the time, for you
+ain't! I shall try it myself half the time."
+
+"Week and week about, then," Ross agreed. "And this brings us up
+against a calendar. I brought my watch, thank fortune! But what about a
+calendar? I want to be sure that I know when the 4th of July gets
+here, for Steele says you'd never know it except by the calendar,
+there's so much snow."
+
+"Snow!" groaned Leslie. "Snow! There's never a time when there isn't
+snow in these mountains, it seems. Well, I know what day to-morrow is,
+and--have you a pencil?"
+
+Ross slapped the breast pocket of his slicker. "Yep, a long one. And
+there's one in the pockets of the trousers you'll find in that box,"
+nodding toward the repository of the shack owner's clothing. "Guess
+we will keep a record of the days up on the side logs. I know how many in
+each month when I say that old jingle, 'Thirty days hath September,'
+etc."
+
+But the need of a calendar was not so pressing as the need of wood.
+The few days that Ross had spent in the shack had caused an alarming
+shrinkage in the pile of chunks already cut; and Ross, commencing to
+shovel his way to the nearest pine tree, now ran across a number of logs
+which had been "snaked" down the mountainside before the snow came, and
+lay ready for the axe and saw.
+
+"I guess if Aunt Anne were here, she'd not complain that I took no
+exercise," he muttered grimly, shouldering a short cross cut saw.
+
+While he sawed Leslie got dinner. After dinner Leslie took his turn at
+the saw and axe while Ross considered the matter of the calendar. Looking
+about the shack, his glance fell on Weston's game pouch. He had hung
+it on a peg driven between two side logs and had forgotten it.
+
+"The very thing!" he exclaimed aloud. "We can mark the days on the margin
+of the old newspapers that are in the bottom of that pouch."
+
+Taking the bag down he dumped the crushed papers out on the table, and
+sitting down, began to smooth them out, glancing over the contents
+idly. He found nothing which interested him until he reached the last
+wad. When he spread this out, he found, stuck to the newspaper by
+candle-drippings, a scrap of coarse note paper which at once riveted his
+attention. It contained only the latter part of one sentence and the
+first part of another.
+
+"----come and help us out, and no fooling about it, either. If you back
+out I will turn you over to old man Quinn----"
+
+Over and over Ross read these words. They were few and short, but to him
+now they were the intelligible index to a whole volume. The scrap was
+stuck to a "Gazette" bearing a date which was just previous to Weston's
+appearance in Meadow Creek. There was no name to show that Sandy had
+written the letter, but Ross knew Weston had escaped from Oklahoma. No
+doubt Sandy possessed the knowledge that compelled his obedience.
+
+Ross drew a long breath. "Strange what parts of two sentences may tell a
+fellow!"
+
+"Tell a fellow what?" demanded Leslie's curious voice at his elbow. A
+hand came over his shoulder and pinned the paper down to the table while
+Leslie read the contents aloud.
+
+"'Old man Quinn,'" he finished excitedly. "Why, that is my father,
+but--Lon Weston--say, what does that mean, Ross?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A RANDOM SHOT
+
+
+FOR an instant Ross made no reply. He sat with his back to the door and
+had not heard Leslie enter. Turning slowly he looked up with puzzled eyes.
+
+"Less, there's something that I've not told you before--because--I
+guess because I've thought it wasn't fair to tell. But after Weston
+has brought us away off here and dumped us in this wilderness--even if
+he has done it out of fear of Sandy--well, it seems to me that about
+now he has forfeited all right to my silence."
+
+Leslie fell back in astonishment, the scraps of the letter still in his
+hand. "Doc, are you getting luny? What are you talking about?"
+
+Ross laughed ruefully. "Just thinking out loud, that's all. Now I'll
+get right down to business about Weston. You said you knew a fellow in
+Oklahoma by his name--Lon Weston."
+
+Leslie pursed his lips incredulously. "Yes, but as I said, our Lon Weston
+had light hair and didn't murder the King's English like this man, and
+he hadn't a husky voice."
+
+"Just so!" cried Ross triumphantly. "Neither does this Lon Weston murder
+the English language when he is talking like himself, nor has he a
+husky voice naturally nor has he dark hair! It's colored dark--near
+the roots, as I found out, it's light."
+
+"Jiminy crickstones!" cried Leslie excitedly. "If that's true, it's
+one on me! Come to think of it, Weston was forever imitating folks, but
+I never have seen him in such a serious imitation as this. How do you
+know all about him, anyway?"
+
+From this Ross proceeded to tell what he knew except Weston's connection
+with the note laid under the electric bulb in the bedroom of "The Irma."
+That much he felt himself pledged not to relate, but its omission,
+really, in no way detracted from the proof of Weston's identity.
+Furthermore, Ross, concerned only with that identity, began his recital
+with Sheepy's talk about Weston forgetting the photograph which had
+revealed the injured man's name.
+
+"You can see," Ross concluded, "by putting together all the evidence,
+that he is the fourth man your father is after, and that Sandy has come
+it over him completely, knowing that he is the fourth. The more I think
+of it the more I'm convinced of Sandy's power. Sandy holds this cudgel
+over his head and makes him do the dirty work. But, no matter how big
+the cudgel is, he had no business to play this low-down trick on us."
+
+"Wait till we get out of here!" declared Leslie wrathfully, "and I'll
+make him pay for his trick!" Suddenly his face lighted. "Ross, see
+here! Dad has been hunting for that fourth man for two years, and if I
+can go to him and tell him who it is and set him on the right track,
+well--I'll stand in better with dad, that's all! The five hundred
+that I can't begin to earn until next summer won't be in it beside that
+information!"
+
+Then, as suddenly as it had come, the light died out of the boy's face.
+He sat down on the table and rubbed his forehead in perplexity.
+
+"But, Ross, there's another side to this. For me to do that would knock
+things endwise with Sue."
+
+"Sue," repeated Ross, "who is Sue?"
+
+"I've got a sister," explained Leslie. "She's four or five years older.
+She keeps house for us. She's an awfully good girl, Sue is, although,"
+turning his head shamefacedly away, "she'd be surprised to hear me
+say so, for we, dad and I, have made her a lot of trouble. Dad's as
+up and down with her as with me and I--say, Ross, I've been a nuisance
+at home!"
+
+Leslie choked. He looked slowly around the cramped, dirty, ill-lighted
+room, so unlike the neat, pleasant home presided over by Sue, and
+swallowed hard. Ross industriously made notches in the edge of the
+table with his pocket-knife.
+
+Finally Leslie, clearing his throat, continued, "I guess all this serves
+me about right. I know I ought to be kicked--and I am being--in a way.
+Well, it's always been up to Sue to put up with us both, and she has.
+And then three years ago Lon Weston came. You see, Ross, dad is a sheep
+owner, and North Bend is on the edge of the range between sheep and
+cattle, and that always means war. About three miles away is a cattle
+ranch, and Peck, the owner, and dad are always by the ears. It was at
+Peck's that Lon was foreman, and he used to come over to North Bend
+to see my sister whenever dad would let 'im, but things were never
+very smooth for 'em. Of course, I didn't see much of him because I
+was off at school most of the year. I was away when the cattlemen had
+their big round-up two years ago in the fall. After each had cut out
+his own bunch of cattle and shipped 'em, a lot of the boys went on a
+drunk and dad lost his sheep. Naturally he went up in the air at the
+loss and was at the throat of every cattle owner and cowboy for miles
+around. And, first thing, of course he came down on Sue about Lon's
+coming to the house and forbid 'er to see him again, not because he
+suspected Lon, but just because he was Peck's foreman and a cowboy.
+
+"Well, Lon cleared out right off and Sue cried herself sick. She never
+said anything, but I've guessed that Lon never has written to 'er and
+I'm afraid she's foolish enough," tolerantly, "to think a lot of him.
+
+"But I never suspected that Lon was in the bunch that sent dad's sheep
+over, and I know that no one else around the ranch suspects it, because
+of Lon's coming to see Sue right along. Still--there were times when
+he was a pretty rough customer, and--it's a mixed up mess, ain't it,
+Ross, along with Sue?"
+
+Ross had been leaning forward on the table listening eagerly. Two or
+three times he had started to interrupt, and had checked himself with
+difficulty. Now he burst out:
+
+"I had forgotten the girl's photo in Lon's pocket, Leslie. I know now
+it's Sue's picture, because it looks like you. It fell out of his
+pocket at Sagehen Roost, and both Hank and I saw it, and then, when
+you came, you puzzled Hank because he thought he had seen you before!"
+
+"The very idea!" exclaimed Leslie indignantly when Ross had told him
+about the name on the photograph. "How dare he carry my sister's picture
+around with him after doing dad such a dirty trick. Oh, I have it in for
+him all right! I don't wonder the McKenzies knew they had to get rid
+of me before they could make Lon come over to Meadow Creek! I see now!
+I presume he thinks that dad has been on his track these two years. I
+wonder if Sandy and Waymart were with Peck at the same time Lon was?"
+
+For a long time the boys talked over the affair in all its bearings, and
+as the long lonely days passed, they recalled every incident that had
+occurred since they left Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Their conversations
+mostly took place in the evening by the light of one dim candle, or in
+the darkness relieved only by the flicker of the firelight, as candles
+were not plenty. It was at that dreary time between day and night with
+the wind and the coyotes howling outside that the homesickness that they
+could fight successfully in daylight had its inning.
+
+"But what if I were here alone!" Ross exclaimed periodically.
+
+His gratitude at having Leslie there softened his anger at Weston,
+although he knew that the bringing of Leslie had been no philanthropic
+move on Weston's part.
+
+Soon, however, the boys settled to a routine of work, exercise and study
+planned by Ross and acquiesced in by Leslie, all, at first, save the
+study. In that Ross began with no thought of aid from the other or
+partnership with him until one day when he sat with a book on anatomy
+before him industriously absorbing the pages. Presently, turning his book
+over on its face, he resolutely closed his eyes against the outer world,
+and his ears against Leslie's lively whistle, mentally reviewing the
+facts he had been conning. Suddenly Leslie, who had been lying in the
+bunk, came over to the table and, picking up the text-book, lazily bade
+Ross think aloud.
+
+"It's so deadly lonely, Ross, with you poring over those dull books,"
+complained Leslie, "that I'd rather hear you recite than not to hear
+anything at all!"
+
+From this trifling beginning, a student partnership grew up. At first
+the task meant to Leslie only a form of passing the time away, of hearing
+a human voice instead of the crackle of the fire and the sough of
+the wind. Then, gradually, his interest in the subject of anatomy was
+awakened. He began to look at himself with a new interest.
+
+"I say, Ross," he burst out one day when he was frying bacon, "I never
+have thought of myself before as being made up of parts that must work
+together smoothly--and I never considered how they must work and that
+some one or other must know just how they ought to work so that he can
+put 'em together if they fall out of place. Now, about that femur,
+and ball and socket joint at the hip here----"
+
+Immediately Ross plunged into a lively description which soon led both
+boys to the books for proof and illustration, and Leslie's interest
+grew. From being merely the holder of the book while Ross recited and
+explained what he had studied, Leslie, the "hater" of studies, began to
+study also, at first, in a fitful way, and then more steadily as Ross
+proved himself an enthusiastic teacher.
+
+Neither, however, became so absorbed in his studies as to become
+reconciled to his enforced residence above the seven spruces. Day
+after day they ventured out and up and down the canon, or up the side
+of the mountain on the side of which their shack was located, but no
+discoveries resulted. The absence of snow-shoes made travel impossible
+except on top of a strong crust, and even then a realization of a
+constantly increasing danger resulted in making such trips shorter
+and shorter. The danger was this: blizzard succeeded blizzard until
+the willows, ten feet tall, which grew thickly in the canon, were
+completely concealed, also the scrub hemlocks and quaking asp on the
+mountainside. The tops of the bushes, lashed by the wind until they
+became finally snow covered, formed each a dangerous hollow under a
+crust thinner and weaker than the surrounding surface. This painful
+discovery was made by Leslie.
+
+One bright day, leaving Ross to cut off the branches of a tree that he
+had felled for fire-wood, Leslie took the gun and started down the canon
+on a tour of exploration.
+
+"The crust is stout enough to hold up an ox, Doc," he declared, bringing
+the butt of the gun down on it hard, "and I'm going out to see what
+there is to see--and shoot."
+
+"Shoot!" echoed Ross, poising the axe in air. "I'd like to see something
+shootable up here beside coyotes, and we never see them--only hear
+'em!" and the axe descended with a thud.
+
+Leslie laughed, shouldered the gun and tramped briskly down the canon,
+while Ross wielded the axe and, whistling cheerfully, thought of the
+progress he was making in his studies.
+
+Presently, he rested on his axe handle and chafed his cheeks and nose
+briskly with the shaggy mittens he had found in the box of clothing left
+in the shack. "I don't want any more frost bites in mine!" he muttered.
+He had had several experiences of the kind that winter, the altitude
+being so great that he did not realize the intense cold until nose or
+cheek or ear had become frost nipped.
+
+He was resuming his axe when a faint sound traveled up the canon on the
+wings of a slow south wind. Ross straightened himself and listened. Again
+came the wind and the sound. With the axe in his hand he slipped and
+slid down the mountainside until he stood in the canon below the seven
+spruce trees. There he paused long enough to distinguish in the sound the
+faint muffled cry, "Ross!" and "Help!"
+
+"Coming!" yelled Ross frantically. "Where are you?"
+
+He did not await a reply but, slipping unsteadily along the icy crust,
+he hurried down the canon in the general direction of Leslie's voice,
+yelling intermittently, "Coming--here I am! Where are you, Less?"
+
+As he came to the cliff over which he had been lowered into the canon, he
+heard Leslie's voice again, still curiously muffled, although evidently
+only a little way in advance. It seemed to rise from beneath the ground.
+
+"Hold on, Ross. Don't come fast. I've fallen through among the willows."
+
+Cautiously Ross advanced toward the voice, testing the strength of the
+crust at every step until it gave under the stamping of his heel. Then he
+stopped and found himself looking down a section of shelving crust into
+a hole filled with loose snow, willow tops--and Leslie.
+
+"Great guns!" cried Ross. "What are you doing in there?"
+
+Leslie attempted to respond nonchalantly, but his face was nearly as
+white as the bed of snow he was occupying, and his teeth chattered with
+cold and fright.
+
+"I've been flopping around here for half an hour yelling," he explained
+jerkily, "and have only managed to sink deeper and break off more crust
+and more willow tops."
+
+"Rub your nose and face the next thing you do," advised Ross immediately,
+"or you'll be a mass of frost bite."
+
+He rubbed his own nose meditatively. Then grasping the axe he cried
+cheerfully, "Hold the fort a while longer down there, Less, and relief
+will arrive. See here! I hadn't finished the wood and I ran off with
+the axe. Now I'll skiddoo and cut a pole and help you out. And don't
+forget to rub your face!"
+
+Laboriously and fearfully--lest he meet with Leslie's fate--Ross
+climbed the side of the mountain until he stood among the branches of a
+sturdy spruce, the depth of snow raising him to that height. Cutting
+and trimming a long limb, he dragged it back to the canon. Projecting one
+end over the hole he sat hard on the other. Then Leslie, by jumping
+and seizing the projecting end, and bracing against the sloping sheet
+of crust, climbed, breathless but relieved, to the surface of the snow.
+
+"I tell you what, Ross," he said emphatically as they made their way
+gingerly back to the shack, "I've done all the research work I want
+to in this canon!" He shivered and slapped his hands smartly together.
+"Without snow-shoes we are helpless here, and the McKenzies know it!"
+
+To make snow-shoes without boards or small nails or a hammer was
+impossible to workmen of their inexperience. They broke up some boxes
+and put in all their spare time for days experimenting, but to no purpose.
+
+"Even if we did succeed, Less," Ross comforted himself one day as he
+looked gloomily at their latest failure, "we couldn't escape from here.
+We have no idea where we are, whether we are nearer Red Lodge or Cody or
+Timbuctoo. We would merely start out and leave a half-way comfortable
+certainty for a mighty ticklish uncertainty."
+
+"That's right," agreed Leslie, "and we couldn't pack enough food on
+our backs to last many days, nor can we tell when a storm is coming."
+
+In fact, storms were the order of the day. By the middle of February
+immense masses of snow curled out over the cliffs on the side of the
+mountain opposite the shack waiting for the warm chinooks of spring to
+send them hurtling down into the canon. Fortunately, the mountain above
+the shack was lower than its neighbors, and the face, heavily wooded,
+sloped back more gently until it reached a great elevation.
+
+"The trees here prove that there have been no snowslides within the
+memory of this generation, at any rate," Ross broke out one day as they
+were sawing the branches from a spruce on the mountainside above the
+shack. "Now, if the shack were on the other side----"
+
+"But it wouldn't be built on the other side," interrupted Leslie. "No
+cabin builder would do such a thing unless he built when he first struck
+this country as young and green as we were!"
+
+Ross laughed and started the branch he had trimmed down the mountainside
+on the crust. It skidded along rapidly until it wedged itself into a
+great snow bank which had drifted from the shack to the trees on either
+side, and through which the boys had tunneled. With the last branch sent
+home in this convenient fashion, Ross shouldered the axe and picked up
+the saw, while Leslie took the gun from a near-by branch where it had
+been slung, and followed down the mountainside.
+
+With the increase in the depth of the snow, the coyotes and gray wolves
+had grown bolder, and without the gun the boys never went now outside
+of their dooryard, as they called the spaces they had cleared around the
+shack. So far, however, the coyotes had only skulked near the strongly
+built lean-to, attracted by the smell of the meat, while the wolves
+contented themselves by howling at night from the rocks far above the
+cabin, and being answered from the mountainside opposite.
+
+"I have always heard that the gray wolf is a coward," commented Leslie
+as the two entered the shack. "We have not had a glimpse of one yet."
+
+"Uncle Jake said they are far more afraid of people than sensible people
+are afraid of them," returned Ross, "but I'd rather not be called
+sensible than to meet one face to face!"
+
+That night the boys turned in early, tired with their exertions at the
+wood-pile. About midnight they were both awakened by a mysterious noise.
+Leslie, in the wall bunk, came up on his elbow before he was fairly
+awake. Ross, on the floor, sat up instantly, whispering sharply:
+
+"Leslie, is that you?"
+
+"What?" asked Leslie bewildered. "Is it you? What was that?"
+
+Before Ross could reply again, the noise was repeated. It came from above
+their heads, a soft padding and crunching on the roof logs. Suddenly
+there was added a whining sound and a scratching at the side and then
+an increase in the crunching on the roof.
+
+"Wolves!" cried Ross and Leslie simultaneously.
+
+"They smell the meat in the lean-to," added Leslie.
+
+"Tell you what, Less," said Ross, "I'm glad we're inside a stockade.
+I'll put my trust in logs rather than boards with those fellows around."
+
+Ross's voice was decidedly husky, Leslie was glad to note. His own was
+almost beyond control while cold chills ran up and down his spine. He
+grunted assent and tried to yawn aloud but was unsuccessful.
+
+Then, as the soft padding and eager sniffing continued, he found his
+voice in a frightened quaver, "Ross, can they get into the window, do you
+think?"
+
+"Or break into the door?" added Ross equally uncertain as to tone. "One
+thing I know, Less, they're afraid of fire."
+
+At that both boys came out of their bunks and began to fill the stove
+with wood. But at these sounds from below, the wolves departed hastily
+and put in the remainder of the night howling from the side of the
+mountain a safe distance away.
+
+"Guess Uncle Jake is right. They seem as afraid of us as we are of them!"
+exclaimed Leslie, lighting a candle and setting it in the window. Then
+he turned on Ross with a sheepish grin. "Say, Doc, is my hair standing
+straight up?"
+
+Ross passed his hand over his own. "I don't see it stand, but if it
+feels like mine it won't lie down again in a week. To-morrow, Less,
+we'll let studies go by the board and have that window and the door
+barricaded. Then, if a wolf or two chance to stumble against them we can
+turn over and laugh in our sleep."
+
+There was no more sleep in the shack that night, however, and before
+daylight the boys were up planning the proposed barricade. They
+finally hit on two cross poles for the door, fitted into crudely
+carved stanchions nailed to either side. These bars were removed by
+day, but when night came, it was with a feeling of relief that the boys
+dropped the bars into their stanchions and knew the device could foil
+any wolf that prowled about the mountains. The window, also, was
+similarly barricaded.
+
+But, secure behind these protections, the boys soon became accustomed to
+their midnight visitors, and even began to look eagerly for them during
+the day, Leslie being a fair shot.
+
+"I would like to get a skin or two, Ross," he said one evening. "Sue
+would like 'em as rugs, you bet!"
+
+It was after supper, and the boys, having washed the dishes, had blown
+out the candle and were sitting beside the stove. The draft in front
+was open, and the blazing chunks within sent a cheerful glow dancing
+past the window and flickering on the bunk and the side wall beyond.
+Outside, the wind soughed among the branches of the seven spruces,
+whipping them savagely. It was densely dark, darker than it would be an
+hour later when the moon swung over the tops of the mountain opposite
+the shack. There had been no storm for several days, but severe cold, so
+that on top of a strong crust a light snow drifted about continually.
+
+"I'm satisfied to leave the skin on the brutes if they'll agree to
+leave mine on me!" laughed Ross in answer to Leslie. "Guess you're a
+better sport, Less, than I am."
+
+Leslie shook his head. "Aw, I'm no sport," he disclaimed in a pleased
+tone. "If I ever think I am I shall remember the first night the wolves
+came."
+
+He was rubbing his head reminiscently when, suddenly, there came an
+unexpected sound from the neighborhood of the window. There was a thump
+against the outer logs, followed by the splinter of glass and the inward
+rush of cold air. This was immediately succeeded by a hasty scraping
+noise in the midst of which Leslie sprang to his feet shouting:
+
+"Wolves! Quick, Ross, the door!"
+
+While Leslie sprang to the gun hung on pegs against the logs near the
+door, Ross fumbled at the door fastenings and, in a moment, both boys
+were out in front in the clearing that they had shoveled in front of
+the door and window. The sound was rapidly retreating down the side of
+the slope toward the seven spruces. Eagerly the boys ran toward the
+spruces, which, in the darkness, merely made a darker spot below them.
+From the midst of the trees came the scratching sound on the crust.
+Throwing the gun to his shoulder Leslie excitedly fired again and again
+in the direction of the rapidly receding sounds.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed when the chambers of the gun were emptied. "Of
+course I haven't hit anything, but I have the satisfaction of knowing
+I've shot at a wolf, at least!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A HUMILIATING DISCOVERY
+
+
+RETURNING to the cabin, the boys excitedly split up a box and, binding
+the dry splinters together, thrust one end into the stove. A moment
+later, Ross, brandishing this improvised torch, and followed by Leslie,
+bearing the gun in hands none too steady, ran down to the seven spruces.
+
+This group of trees, full grown and broad limbed, interlocked their
+branches at the foot of the mountain in the path of the high winds which
+roared through the canon as through a funnel between the high mountains.
+The trunks formed a windbreak for the storms that left their load of
+snow heaped to the branches on the upper side at the expense of the
+lower side where the crust was swept as clear of loose snow as though
+by a broom.
+
+Here, in the shadow of these trees, Leslie, despite his earnest protest
+to the contrary, half expected to see a wolf dead or wounded, but no
+wolf appeared. Lowering the torch, the boys made their way warily around
+the trees and the drifts heaped to leeward. The pile of snow had not
+been disturbed, nor did they discover any tracks.
+
+"Less, I'm not satisfied," exclaimed Ross finally. "Something broke that
+window and something ran down here. There's enough loose snow over this
+crust to show traces if----"
+
+Here the speaker hastily interposed his body between a gust of wind and
+the flaring torch.
+
+"That's true," asserted Leslie, "but the snow is so light that this wind
+has probably moved every particle of it since that window was broken,
+and this crust is too hard to show a track."
+
+Ross uttered a sudden exclamation and plunged forward, the torch's head
+flaming against the crust.
+
+"Quick, Less, see here!"
+
+Leslie sprang forward and bent over the torch. "Blood!" he shouted. "I
+did hit him for sure! There is a--no, see here, Ross, here are some more
+drops, a neat little collection! I must have hit hard. Oh, we can track
+him now easily!"
+
+The telltale drops were scattered on the glistening face of the crust
+just below the trees. There was one splash of red and a few inches
+further along scattering drops. Sweeping the crust with the torch the
+boys cautiously crossed the canon taking care to test the crust with the
+heels of their shoes as they advanced. But, to their disappointment, no
+more blood appeared, and no further signs of life. Slowly they zigzagged
+back and forth, searching and listening, but to no purpose.
+
+"He got away all right," said Leslie in a voice of deep chagrin. "Guess,
+after all, I must only have scratched him."
+
+"Yes, but it's queer that a scratch would have produced that much blood
+and not another drop," returned Ross puzzled. "Such a wound would keep on
+bleeding for a few moments at least. We ought to find more traces right
+around here."
+
+Convinced of the soundness of this reasoning, Leslie urged another
+search. Stopping long enough to make a fresh torch they returned to the
+blood spots and with them as a center carefully enlarged the circle of
+their search until they had again covered the surface, inch by inch,
+for yards around.
+
+"He must have stopped and licked the wound clean right here and then
+streaked it for the mountains," said Leslie at last.
+
+Ross shook his head obstinately. "I don't believe it. With your shots
+pattering around him he'd likely streak it for the mountains and attend
+to his wounds later--only in that case there would be more blood."
+
+Discouraged and cold, the searchers returned to the cabin. Nailing a box
+cover over the window, and barring the door again, they went to bed.
+
+The following morning dawned bright and still in the Canon of the Seven
+Spruces as the boys had named their home. Tired out with the excitement
+and exertion of the previous night they overslept, and not until the
+sun had appeared above the eastern peaks were they ready for a further
+examination of the neighborhood of the blood spots. They searched as
+they had the previous evening and with no better results, until noon.
+Then the unexpected happened!
+
+They had given up the hunt disgustedly and were returning to the shack
+for dinner, when passing to windward of the seven spruces, Leslie
+chanced to pause beside the trunk of the outermost sentinel in the
+group. Ross, in advance, turned and, simultaneously, the gaze of both
+boys fell on another evidence that Leslie's gun had drawn blood the
+night before. Half of each tree trunk was covered with snow and on
+the white envelope of the spruce beside which they stood appeared
+four red streaks lying parallel and a couple of inches away around the
+curve of the trunk a faint red blotch. The second of the four streaks
+contained the deepest stain.
+
+"I say, Ross!" cried Leslie.
+
+"Less, here you are again!" ejaculated Ross.
+
+For an instant they both stared at the tree trunk motionless. Then Ross,
+with a sudden narrowing of his eyes and upward tilt of his square chin,
+strode forward, drew off his mitten and extended his arm. The marks were
+shoulder high. Leslie gave an exclamation as Ross grasped the trunk, his
+four fingers covering the four streaks of blood, his thumb pressed on
+the fainter blotch. Then his hand fell to his side.
+
+"A man!" gasped Leslie. His face turned white. "Ross, did I shoot a man?"
+
+"That would account for things," said Ross slowly. He looked back. Only a
+few feet intervened between the tree and the blood on the crust. "If you
+hurt his hand--and he steadied himself here at this tree, and then ran
+on--perhaps before he realized that he was hurt--and then staunched the
+flow in his mittens or on his clothes--anywhere----"
+
+"It was Sandy!" exclaimed Leslie. His voice was weak, also his knees.
+
+"Or Weston," added Ross and scowled.
+
+"He--they were looking in the window----" began Leslie.
+
+"And slipped and fell against the glass," added Ross.
+
+Only one more proof was needed to convince them that Leslie had drawn
+human blood, and that proof they found where they had not thought to look
+previously--beneath the window. There, in the loose snow blown against
+the side of the shack, was the blurred impression of a snow-shoe.
+
+"I believe," said Ross with conviction that night as they sat beside
+the fire with their door barred and the window securely shuttered, "I
+believe, Less, that it was Sandy and perhaps Waymart, coming to see if
+Weston had done his duty by us."
+
+"But where did they come from?" questioned Leslie. "Where are we? Can
+they get over to Meadow Creek and from there here? Or is there another
+way of getting here?"
+
+It was months before that persistent question was answered, months of
+a dull routine wherein the boys turned with more and more zeal to their
+studies. Nights now, behind their barred door and shuttered window, they
+listened, not for wolves, but for the return of their human caller,
+but he did not come again. Day after day they looked sharply for prints
+of snow-shoes, but looked in vain. Gradually as the spring advanced, the
+wolves and coyotes retreated until the boys no longer carried the gun on
+their wood-cutting excursions.
+
+"I guess Sue will not see a wolf skin this year," Leslie complained in
+March. "Even in that I have failed."
+
+Ross, standing over the stove frying bacon, glanced over his shoulder.
+"Brace up, Less," he gibed. "There's one thing you haven't failed in,
+nor I either. We've got outside of more anatomy and physiology and----"
+
+"That's so," Leslie interrupted brightening. "I've found out what I
+want to do--after I've made my peace with father," soberly. "I guess
+he'll not make any objections to a doctor in the family. It strikes
+me," lugubriously, "that he'll be pleased to find out that I want to
+be anything!"
+
+March gave place to April, finally; but in the mountains April showers
+do not have the effect they are popularly supposed to have elsewhere,
+the showers being great downfalls of snow alternating with thaws which
+threatened to turn the entire canon into a river and brought to their
+ears daily the thunder of the snowslides. By the first of May the tops
+of the tallest willows began to appear, but the boys knew that the roots
+would not be visible for six weeks yet, so long does winter linger among
+the Shoshones. On the mountainside above timber-line bowlders began to
+push aside their dense white covering.
+
+But with the softening of the great body of snow, the inhabitants of the
+canon became more closely confined than ever. It was well that the hot
+sun did away with the necessity for a fire during the day, because the
+boys were able to cut and shovel their way only to the nearest trees.
+
+"Things are getting worse instead of better," said Leslie gloomily one
+day when May was two weeks old.
+
+The boys sat in the doorway in the red glow of a warm sunset. At their
+feet, only a few yards away, the narrow canon was transformed into a
+river choked with ice and snow and mud flowing sluggishly among the
+willows. For weeks the boys had looked in vain for the subsidence of
+the water. On the steep slope of the mountain opposite lay a mass of
+wet heavy snow waiting for its turn to come to plunge into the canon.
+
+Ross, his eyes on this slope, gave a rueful laugh. "Less, if only we had
+such a charge of dynamite now as we set off under Soapweed Ledge we might
+have a little fun across there."
+
+"Fun!" echoed Leslie miserably. "Never connect that piece of foolishness
+with the word 'fun.' If it hadn't been for that shot we probably would
+have been in Meadow Creek Valley now hard at work."
+
+Ross gazed gloomily up the river-like canon. He wondered whether the
+trail from Miners' Camp to Meadow Creek was clear yet, and whether the
+McKenzies had returned to the valley; for in three weeks Weimer's fifth
+year of work on the claims would close. He chafed with impatience at the
+delay necessitated by that slowly moving stream. With the canon clear,
+the boys had determined to start out and follow its windings until they
+came to--Somewhere.
+
+Late one afternoon of that same week Ross sat studying beneath the window
+while Leslie was out trying to force a path to a fine spruce tree that
+promised good fire-wood. The sun had long since hidden his face behind
+the mountain against which the cabin rested, but his rays turned the snow
+on the peaks opposite to gold. The day had been warm. The door stood
+open, and the fire was almost out. Near the doorway, and only a few
+feet from a solid bank of ice, blossomed a profusion of forget-me-nots
+and yellow wild asters. The breeze which rocked their petals was the
+breeze of summer that, nevertheless, carried the tang of the ice and
+snow over which it passed.
+
+Suddenly Ross, deep in his book, heard a sound, the crunching of the
+pine cones and boughs with which the ground was strewn. A moment later a
+shadow moved across his book. He sprang to his feet, the book falling to
+the floor, and confronted a man in the doorway.
+
+The man was middle-aged, large, and stoop-shouldered. His face was burned
+and bearded and furrowed, but astonishment was stamped on every feature
+and furrow.
+
+"Hello!" he greeted Ross, as one familiar with his surroundings greets
+a stranger.
+
+He stepped inside with that air of assurance which proclaims ownership.
+His eyes left Ross, and swept the shack.
+
+"What----" he began, and suddenly stopped, his gaze traveling back
+curiously to the boy. "What----" he began again, but got no further.
+
+Ross was the first one to complete a question, and it was an eager one.
+
+"Where did you come from?"
+
+"Cody," returned the stranger, reciprocating with "And you?"
+
+"Meadow Creek."
+
+"Meadow Creek!" in surprise. "Is the trail open now?"
+
+Ross shook his head. "I don't know. I came last January."
+
+"January!" The stranger stared, and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
+"Do ye mean t' tell me ye've been here sence January?"
+
+"Ever since then."
+
+Briefly but excitedly Ross told the story of his coming.
+
+The stranger, listening, leaned back against the door-post. Successively
+he removed his cap, scratched his head, and contracted his bushy
+eyebrows. When Ross finished he was grinning in grim humor.
+
+"Young man," he began slowly, "this here is Wood River canon. Ye're only
+seven miles from Miners' Camp. Ye could 'a' hoofed it down t' Gale's
+Ridge in two hours on top of any crust that would 'a' held ye up."
+
+Stepping to the door Ross raised a chagrined voice, "Leslie, ho, Less!
+Come here!"
+
+The boy's unexpected and welcome visitor was Terry Brown, the owner of
+several adjacent coal claims. He had gone out of the mountains the first
+of December, his preparations for departure consisting merely in closing
+the door of his shack. He had expected to open it in June on the same
+furnishings and provisions which he had left.
+
+"I see how it was," Brown began as the three talked things over that
+evening. "That 'ere Weston waits fer a storm a-purpose. Then he takes
+ye a pretty chase around and up and among them little peaks over at the
+head waters of Meadow Creek until he gits ye so mixed up that ye don't
+know east from west. Then he slides ye over the cliff, and lands ye in
+here; and you, thinkin' ye're miles away from ye don't know where,
+with a heap o' danger spots between ye and anywheres, jest naturally
+sets down here and behaves yerself. It was the only sensible thing to
+do," added Brown approvingly.
+
+"But in the face of the facts it doesn't look sensible now!" Ross burst
+out.
+
+[Illustration: "The Crooked Trail that Deceived Ross"]
+
+"No," meditatively, "but without knowin' any of the facts, and with no
+way t' know 'em, you acted with sense, plain hoss sense. But that 'ere
+Weston, he sure done you dirt, all right."
+
+Ross's fists doubled involuntarily. Seeing this, Brown's voice changed.
+
+"Better fergit it, son. Chuck the hull matter. Ye've lost and they've
+won; and, if what I hear of the McKenzies is true, it won't do ye
+no good t' keep thinkin' of this. And when ye git down t' Camp I
+wouldn't tell the first man I seen about this, nuther----"
+
+"Because," Leslie broke in hotly, "they'd laugh at us for staying here
+so near Camp all winter."
+
+Brown made no reply, but a slow grin expressed his opinion.
+
+"I say, Less," Ross broke out, "we don't look any bigger to ourselves
+than we did when we found out what that blast under the Ledge had done
+for us, do we?"
+
+But Leslie did not hear. He sat with his elbows on his knees scowling
+down at the floor. "If we're that near Camp," he reasoned, "it was
+surely one of the McKenzies that came up to see if we were here yet that
+night that I fired. He chose a night, you remember, when the snow was
+light and the crust icy. No tracks left for us to follow."
+
+Their visitor asked for no explanation to this. He was studying Ross's
+face intently as the boy sat leaning forward, his hands clasped around
+his knees.
+
+"I say!" the older man broke out suddenly. "Ye look almighty like a
+feller that rode up in the stage from Meeteetse yisterday--almighty
+like 'im. They was two of 'em. They got out at Amos Steele's."
+
+"Where did they come from?" asked Ross absently.
+
+"I dunno. Sheepy Luther said they was Easterners."
+
+"Sheepy Luther!" exclaimed Ross. "I know Sheepy. His wagon set on the
+hill just back of the stage camp when I was there with Weston."
+
+"Is that so? Wall, Sheepy is down on his luck. He's too old t' chase
+sheep, and last winter he lost five hundred or thereabouts; so he got
+his walkin' papers. He come up yisterday. Stopped at Steele's t' try
+t' git a job with the Gale's Ridge Company. Steele may take 'im on to
+wrangle the hosses, but he can't do more'n a boy's work. He's done
+fer; only he don't know it."
+
+In the pause which followed Brown again studied Ross. "This feller," he
+began again suddenly, "was a bigger man than ye be; but I vum, ye're
+alike even t' the way ye squint up yer eyes and mouth, 'n'----"
+
+Ross came to his feet alertly, his interest at last aroused.
+
+"His name?" he demanded eagerly.
+
+Brown shook his head. "Didn't hear no names except the front ones. They
+called each other 'Ross' 'n' 'Fred.'"
+
+"Uncle Fred and father!" shouted Ross excitedly. "They came up yesterday,
+you say, and stopped at Gale's Ridge!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY
+
+
+THE boy's first feeling of joy was immediately succeeded by a deep
+chagrin. Probably his father had come on to complete the legal process
+for securing a clear title to the claims, and had brought Dr. Grant
+with him, and Ross must confront them with news of failure rather than
+victory. He winced when he thought of the expression of disappointment
+which he felt sure would sweep over his father's face, especially when
+his father learned that the way to failure had lain in part through the
+boy's exercise of his medical knowledge.
+
+"There's my snow-shoes," he heard Brown saying, and the words brought
+him out of his reverie back to the present at once. "To-morrer ye better
+hoof it down t' Camp and meet up with yer relation."
+
+"That's right, Ross," urged Leslie. "I'll stay here until you can bring
+more shoes back. In that case," cheerfully, "you see I'll get the better
+bargain because you'll have to take the brunt----" he paused abruptly.
+
+"Yes, the brunt of the ridicule," added Ross grimly. "We may as well look
+the thing squarely in the face. I'm pretty hot inside, and I shall
+probably boil over at sight of the McKenzies, but--they've made us
+ridiculous instead of laying themselves open to prosecution."
+
+"Except Weston," Leslie burst out significantly. "Wait till I get hold
+of father!"
+
+According to the plans laid, Ross set out the following morning on the
+snow-shoes. Following Brown's directions, to keep to the side of the
+mountain, he threaded the windings of the canon on reluctant feet, past
+the cliff whose dark face mocked him, over the treacherous rotting ice
+and packed snow, and finally emerged into the broader portion of the
+canon which contained Miners' Camp.
+
+The cabins, deserted the previous December, were inhabited again. The
+sound of the woodchopper was in the air; and, as Ross came into Camp, a
+dull reverberating boom from the heart of Dundee told that the Mountain
+Company's mining operations were resumed.
+
+But so intent was he on the thought of meeting his father and uncle that
+these sights and sounds did not fill him with the joy he had imagined
+they would give. He even failed to notice a man standing in the doorway
+of a shack, scanning Crosby, on whose steep face the snow still hung in
+loosening masses.
+
+Toward the shack came Bill Travers, the stage-driver between Meeteetse
+and Miners' Camp.
+
+"Wall, beat me," cried the man in the doorway, "if here ain't Doc!"
+
+Ross flashed around and faced Sandy McKenzie.
+
+Sandy's hands were rammed into his pockets; but his sun-burned face was
+smiling an unruffled welcome, and his voice rang pleasantly.
+
+"How," Sandy inquired, "did ye get over here from Medder Creek?"
+
+Ross instantly "boiled over" as he had feared he should, and said the
+very thing he had not intended to say. "You know how I got here! You know
+where I came from!"
+
+The stage-driver, joined by a second man, came nearer and paused. Sandy
+pushed his hands yet deeper into his pockets, and looked amazingly
+innocent.
+
+"Me!" he drawled. "What d'ye mean?"
+
+At the insolent tone Ross's blood boiled. It hummed through his ears,
+deafening him to the sound of his own voice. What he said he never
+could recall beyond the general knowledge that he accused Sandy of
+the theft of the dynamite and of his own and Leslie's abduction across
+the mountains.
+
+And, when he paused to catch his breath and steady his voice, Sandy was
+looking him over with an amused grin which maddened him.
+
+"Now, ain't that a likely story?" he inquired. "Kept ye a prisoner fer
+six months not five miles from Camp on a trail that can be follered at
+any time in the year! Ha, ha!"
+
+Bill Travers grinned faintly. The other man turned away with the corners
+of his mouth twitching, while Sandy went on:
+
+"And as fer Weston, he went to Missoury the day after we left Medder
+Creek, and there he is now fer all I've heard." Again Sandy's laugh
+rang out as he added: "That story won't hold water. Why didn't ye make
+up a----"
+
+Here Waymart appeared in the doorway of the shack. He scowled at Ross,
+but his peremptory words were aimed at Sandy:
+
+"See here! If we're goin' t' send that bundle down by Grasshopper
+we've got t' make lively tracks in here, and ye ought t' know it!"
+
+"Keep yer hair on tight, Mart," laughed Sandy.
+
+He turned, nevertheless, toward the door. As he did so, he mechanically
+withdrew his hands from his pockets and Ross saw something which at once
+arrested his attention. The middle finger of Sandy's right hand was
+gone! In a flash, memory showed Ross the four blood streaks on the trunk
+of the spruce with the second streak the deepest in color.
+
+[Illustration: YOU'VE PAID FOR IT.]
+
+With his anger still burning he snatched off his glove and held up his
+right hand triumphantly, the middle finger projecting. "Well, anyway,"
+he cried, "Leslie ain't a bad shot. We may never prove that you put us
+in that hole, but you've paid for it, nevertheless!"
+
+Sandy involuntarily doubled his right hand into a fist. He caught his
+under lip between his teeth and sent Ross a black look as, wordlessly,
+he entered the shack and slammed the door behind him, leaving Ross to
+tell the story of Leslie's shot to two interested and excited men.
+
+"That accounts fer it," confirmed Bill Travers. "Sandy and Waymart they
+come up from Cody along in February and when they clumb int' th' stage
+goin' back, Sandy's hand was tied up. Next thing I knowed when they
+come up with me t' other day, that finger was off clean to the hand,
+but Sandy hain't never spoken of it."
+
+Ross, leaving Bill to talk the matter over with his companions, went on
+rapidly now down the canon, his eyes narrowed and his chin protruding
+doggedly. One disagreeable scene was ended, and he was, perhaps, facing
+another.
+
+"I ought to be sorry that Sandy lost a finger but--hanged if I am!" he
+burst out loud. He was anxious to have Leslie know the result of his
+random shot.
+
+Rounding a shoulder of Gale's Ridge, he came in sight of Steele's
+shack. Steele sat in the doorway. Beside him, leaning against the logs
+of the shack's side, was a man in shirt-sleeves and cap, beneath which a
+rim of woolly gray hair projected.
+
+Facing Steele were two well dressed men, one in a tall silk hat, which
+appeared incongruous against its background of log shack and pine tree.
+Ross, with narrowed eyes and compressed lips, plodded on.
+
+"I've done my best," he muttered defensively. "It's all a fellow can
+do; but, when that best is failure, why, it's not much consolation."
+
+Then he raised his head, squared his shoulders, and doggedly faced the
+four in front of Steele's cabin.
+
+Ross Grant, Senior, had not come West to look after his claims, but after
+his son, with whom he felt he had but just begun an acquaintance. He had
+no difficulty in getting Dr. Grant to accompany him, reenforced as he
+was by an anxious Aunt Anne. It was true that both Ross and Steele had
+written that all communications with the former would be shut off for
+months. But, when the hot days of June came and brought no letter from
+the boy, as Aunt Anne said, "something must be done."
+
+That something was represented in the persons of the Grant brothers in
+Miners' Camp.
+
+After the first greetings, tinged with amazement on the part of the four,
+Ross backed up against a spruce, and, facing the others, proceeded to
+answer the questions with which they bombarded him.
+
+In half an hour they were in possession of the main facts in his life
+during the last six months.
+
+"The McKenzies all through," commented Steele finally; "but--prove it!"
+
+"I've got to prove it!" declared Ross violently; "I shall!"
+
+"Ross,"--Dr. Grant's comment carried with it the pride and honor of his
+profession,--"if you're called upon to attend the sick, you must go.
+That's the duty of a physician, even before he receives his diploma. You
+did right."
+
+"I felt that way myself, uncle," returned Ross quietly. "As soon as
+Weimer opened the way, I never thought of not going, so long as there
+was no regular doctor within reach."
+
+Ross Grant, Senior, looked his son over. There was no expression of
+disapproval on his face as he took the measure of this full-blooded,
+broad-shouldered, erect young man whose muscles had been hardened by
+wind and sun and work in the open.
+
+Having completed his survey, Ross, Senior, smiled. "Well, my boy," he
+remarked characteristically, "it took three good sized men to down you
+two boys, didn't it? And it must have cost them a heap of thinking into
+the bargain. Shake, Ross; I'm proud of you!"
+
+And Ross, bewildered, shook hands with his father, his cheeks reddening
+with pleasure.
+
+"I--I never thought of it in that way before," he stammered. "But--that
+doesn't save the claims, and the fifth year is up next week, and Uncle
+Jake----"
+
+"Don't you worry about Uncle Jake," interrupted his father meaningly.
+"We may lose the claims, but Uncle Jake will be provided for."
+
+"The first thing to do," interpolated Steele, "is to root him out of
+Meadow Creek Valley. I've never known the snow to hang so late to the
+side of Crosby."
+
+That very night it ceased to "hang." At midnight every one in the
+shack was awakened. There was a cracking of trees, a long steady rush,
+and then a mighty and prolonged roar as the snow, under the influence
+of a swift warm wind, swept down the side of old Crosby, and took the
+thousand-feet plunge into the ravine at the foot of the falls. The roar
+echoed against the sides of Dundee and Spar and Sniffle, starting other
+though lesser slides until the canon was filled with the confusion of
+sound.
+
+The following morning, Steele, after investigation, found the trail
+around the shoulder of Crosby swept clean, and at once proposed that
+they follow it to Meadow Creek. Ross objected to starting until Leslie
+reached them. Steele had sent Society Bill up the canon the previous
+evening with snow-shoes for the boy. But neither Society Bill nor Leslie
+had appeared. Ross's objections were, therefore, overruled by the older
+men.
+
+"Leave word in the upper camp for him to follow us when he comes," Steele
+suggested, "and we'll start right away. We shall have to foot it, too,
+for no horse can make it yet."
+
+The sheep-herder, who had shared Steele's hospitality over night,
+shouldered his blankets, observing that he was going over with them
+to see his friend Weimer, and find out what was "doin' on the Creek."
+
+There were others of the same mind also, as the party from Steele's
+shack found when they reached the foot of Crosby. Just ahead of them,
+so engrossed in their climbing that they did not look back, were Sandy
+and Waymart.
+
+Slowly, to accommodate the older Grants, the party moved up the trail,
+slippery with mud and snow, their way obstructed by rocks and tree trunks.
+
+Sandy and Waymart, ahead, were obliged to move slowly also; for to their
+lot fell the removal of any obstacles too large to surmount, and the
+snow and landslide of the previous night had left many such. Around the
+shoulder, however, the trail was intact, the mountain being so steep
+at this point that the slide had leaped clear of the trail and projected
+itself headlong into the gorge below.
+
+An hour later Ross called back to his father and uncle, who were puffing
+along, breathless and tired and dizzy: "We'll be in sight of the dump
+in ten minutes. It's just around the spur of the mountain there."
+
+Then, unable to restrain his impatience and anxiety longer, he ran
+on ahead of Steele, keeping a short distance between himself and the
+McKenzies. The McKenzies, however, seemed no more anxious to enjoy his
+society than he did to enjoy theirs. Sandy, for once, omitted his usual
+pleasantries, an omission easy to account for whenever Ross thought of
+the missing middle finger of his right hand.
+
+Hearing footsteps behind him, Ross glanced around. Steele had left the
+others, and was following on a run. The McKenzies pushed on without
+looking back, and neither Steele nor Ross spoke.
+
+In silence, then, the four approached the spur. But before they reached
+the dump that silence was most unexpectedly broken. Out of the open mouth
+of the tunnel rolled a volume of sound, then another and another.
+
+Ross in his surprise, his head thrown back as he scanned the dump, nearly
+fell over a mass of newly mined ore which blocked the main trail.
+
+Then he caught a glimpse of Weimer shielding his eyes from the sun with
+both hands, waiting for the effects of the explosions in the tunnel to
+subside. And, leaning against the tool house, his hands in his pockets,
+his head bent forward, was another man, the sight of whom caused a
+great illumination in Ross's mind.
+
+"Weston!" he shouted. "Weston!"
+
+The two men on the dump came to the edge, and looked over. The McKenzies
+on the trail ahead halted. The Grants with the sheep-herder drew nearer.
+
+Weimer, squinting, recognized Ross. He took off his cap, and waved it
+as wildly as a boy.
+
+"The vork," he yelled, "ist done! It ist done dese two veeks. Me und
+Miller here, ve ist vorkin' now joost for de fun!"
+
+Weston gave one glance at Sandy and Waymart, and without speaking went
+back to the tunnel.
+
+Ross was after him with a bound, scrambling up over the dump, followed by
+the others, who were infected by his excitement. He ran to Weston with
+both hands outstretched.
+
+"Weston," he shouted, "you did this!"
+
+"Veston!" exclaimed Uncle Jake. "Dot ist Miller. He has been mit me all
+der spring."
+
+"I told him," muttered Weston, extending his hand to Ross, but turning
+away shamefacedly, "that you two boys had taken my place with my sick
+pard, while I was to stay by him."
+
+Ross pumped the big hand up and down.
+
+"Father," he cried excitedly, "he has saved our claims."
+
+Weston tried to liberate his hand. He stole a glance at Sandy and
+Waymart, who had stopped just beyond the dump.
+
+"Doc here"--he spoke to the group who surrounded him--"saved me first. I
+had that little business to pay for, but"--his tone sank to a mutter--"I
+thought I could pay it and git away to Missoury before Sandy found out
+what I was up to here----"
+
+He was interrupted by Sandy's voice from the trail, and the voice was
+harsh and vengeful. "Better come over to our shack, Lon. I want a little
+talk with ye about old man Quinn. He's wantin' t' see ye powerful bad."
+
+At the name the sheep-herder, who had been standing stupidly staring at
+Weston, woke up.
+
+"Old man Quinn," he began. "A feller in Cody told me----" but no one was
+paying any attention to him.
+
+Sandy and Waymart moved on slowly toward their cabin, talking and
+gesticulating excitedly, evidently in disagreement.
+
+For the present no one undeceived Weimer in regard to Miller.
+
+"He come pack in all dot storm," Weimer exulted, "und mit me vas."
+
+Weston looked away, but Steele cried, "Good work, man," clapping him
+warmly on the shoulder. Then he added boyishly: "I'm hungry as a bear!
+Got any grub left?"
+
+"Yes," answered Weston quietly, "plenty. Come on down all of you, and
+I'll rustle some flapjacks and coffee."
+
+They started down the trail, Weston and Ross in advance. At the mention
+of "old man Quinn" Ross's elation had subsided. He looked at Weston
+out of the corner of his eye. The other's eyes were downcast and his
+face pale beneath its sunburn. His hair was of a peculiar color, light
+at the roots and dark at the ends. He had evidently forgotten to bring
+his hair dye to Meadow Creek.
+
+The older man spoke first. His voice was low and his words halting. "I
+had to take you across the mountain and leave you there," he explained
+briefly. "Sandy was behind the cabin when we got there. I couldn't
+fool 'im about you, but I did about myself; and, if you all had put
+off comin' over a day longer, I could have got away out of Sandy's
+reach."
+
+As he spoke, Weston's hand involuntarily crept up to his breast pocket.
+It fell again, however, as he added in a mutter as though to himself:
+"And Less--I had to take 'im over too--for my own good. But it's all up
+now and I've got to face it out."
+
+Just behind them came the sheep-herder, his thoughts reverting to a
+subject on which he had tried once to speak. Now he saw an opportunity.
+
+"Ye must 'a' known of old man Quinn then," he called to Weston.
+"Didn't ye?"
+
+Weston stumbled. He caught himself, but the movement saved him from the
+necessity of an answer.
+
+"Wall," the sheep-herder went on, almost running in order to keep up with
+the pace Weston had set, "I met Happy in Cody t' other day, and Happy
+said old man Quinn had pinched the fourth puncher that druv his sheep----"
+
+"What?" shouted Weston. He swung around so suddenly that the sheep-herder
+ran full tilt against him.
+
+"What?" Weston shouted again. He seized the amazed and terrified Sheepy,
+and held him by the arms in a vise that made the man wince. "Say that
+again."
+
+"S-say what?" faltered Sheepy.
+
+"What about the fourth? Tell me!"
+
+With every word Weston, his eyes ablaze, his lips drawn back over strong
+white teeth, gave the old sheep-herder a convulsive shake.
+
+"W-why," the old man quavered, "Happy, he said that a feller down in
+Oklahomy, name of Burns, went and give himself up to old man Quinn. He
+said he was the feller the old man was after--that he was the fourth
+who done the business with the sheep. But because he owned up the jedge
+give 'im only six months----"
+
+Weston suddenly pushed the sheep-herder from him, his face working
+convulsively. "Then I wasn't in it!" he cried. "Sandy said I was,
+but I wasn't!"
+
+Offering no further explanation to his astonished hearers, he turned
+toward the McKenzie shack on a run; and for a couple of hours they saw
+no more of him.
+
+It was a busy time for Ross, who promptly took Weston's place "rustling
+grub." But, as he worked, his thoughts wonderingly circled around
+Weston's strange actions. The fourth man was found and it was not
+Weston--yet Weston, it would appear, had believed himself to be the
+guilty party! It was too deep a puzzle for Ross. As the boy worked he
+kept a watchful eye on the trail for Leslie. Surely the latter would
+come down to Camp that morning and receive the word Ross had left him at
+the post-office.
+
+Steele, who had stayed behind long enough to examine the tunnel,
+confirmed Weimer's statement that more than enough work had been done to
+cover the requirements of the law. Weimer, jubilant, sat and talked
+to his old-time "pard," whose voice answered him, but whose satisfied
+gaze followed Ross.
+
+But it was to the man who had stood in the place of a father to him that
+Ross's eyes turned most frequently. Dr. Grant sat, appropriately, on
+the emergency chest, looking affectionately at his energetic nephew.
+
+Suddenly Ross picked up a tin cup full of water from the table, and held
+it out at arm's length toward his uncle.
+
+Dr. Grant smiled. "All right, Ross," he said quietly.
+
+Ross, Senior, looked from one to the other inquiringly. Ross, Junior,
+answered; but he turned his back on his father, and spoke hesitatingly.
+"I was showing uncle, father, that my hand is still steady enough to be
+the hand of a first class--surgeon."
+
+Promptly and heartily came the unexpected response from the elder Grant.
+"I'm glad of that, Ross, for I shall look to see you as successful
+in your profession as you have been in my business," and he turned at
+once to Weimer, and went on speaking.
+
+"Suppose," he was saying, "as long as you want to stay here, you get your
+friend"--he indicated the sheep-herder--"to come and live with you. I'm
+going to buy out Ross's interest in the shares, and I'll look to you
+to keep 'em in good shape--you and your friend--until we get a chance to
+sell well. Of course," he added carelessly, "I'll grub-stake you and
+more, both of you."
+
+Sheepy's eyes lighted, and Weimer grinned and slapped his knee. They
+were the only signs necessary to complete the bargain.
+
+After dinner, as Ross arose from the table, he saw Leslie hurrying down
+the trail. Ross went to meet him.
+
+"Hello, Ross!" Leslie called in a voice which he tried to make
+matter-of-fact, but which bubbled over with jubilation. "I stopped in
+at the post-office and got your word and a letter from dad. It's only
+a month old! He thinks we're mewed up over here, you know, working your
+claims. And he says he and Sue want me to come home as soon as I get
+this letter. He says if I'm willing to work he'll give me better
+wages than I can get anywhere else! He doesn't know yet," here Leslie
+grinned broadly, "that I want to do now the very thing he has fought
+all my life to make me do--go to school. That doctor business has
+sort of sunk in. But say, Ross, here's a thing that bothers me." Leslie
+pulled the letter from his pocket and read:
+
+"'A few days ago I got hold of the fourth man that ran my sheep off into
+the river two years ago. The fellow came and gave himself up to me.'"
+
+The reader looked up tentatively. "Ross, if it was Weston dad would have
+said----"
+
+Ross's hand descended on the other's shoulder in a mighty whack as he
+shouted: "It isn't Weston. Now you listen and give me an inning on the
+talk!"
+
+For half an hour they stood outside the shack while Ross got his
+inning--Sandy's hand, the work, Weston's strange actions were all
+reviewed hurriedly and listened to excitedly. Then, seeing Weston
+approaching, the boys went inside.
+
+Weston crossed the valley slowly, looking down at something which he held
+in the palm of his hand, something in a small gilt frame that he slipped
+into his breast pocket when he entered the shack.
+
+Completely absorbed in his own thoughts--cheerful thoughts too,
+apparently--he went directly to his bunk, and began gathering his few
+possessions together not noticing that the group had been augmented by
+Leslie.
+
+"I guess," he explained abstractedly, "that I'll go on at once--I'm
+going to Oklahoma and not Missouri." Then he looked over his shoulder at
+the sheep-herder, adding abstractedly: "Waymart says I ain't the fourth,
+and never was. He's been makin' up his mind to tell me this good while."
+
+The blank expression on the sheep-herder's face brought Weston back to
+a sense of his surroundings.
+
+"I forgot," he muttered turning to Ross, who stood beside the bunk, "that
+you may not know about this Quinn business."
+
+Leslie stepped forward quickly, but paused as he saw Weston was oblivious
+of his presence.
+
+"I know a good deal about it," exclaimed Ross impulsively, "and I wish
+I knew the rest--your part of it."
+
+Weston leaned against the bunk, his back toward the silent room, his eyes
+downcast. He made the explanation with visible reluctance.
+
+"You see, Doc, I used to drink; and when I had two or three glasses down,
+I'd go out of my head; and when I had come to myself again I wouldn't
+know a blooming thing that had happened while I was drunk. But all the
+time I could ride straight and talk straight and shoot straight."
+
+He paused to moisten his lips. Leslie came a step nearer.
+
+"Well," Weston continued, "to make a long story short, I was foreman on
+a cattle ranch in Oklahoma two years ago. Sandy and Mart came around
+wanting a job, and I gave 'em one on the same ranch. Then came the big
+round-up at North Fork--and there was trouble between the sheep and
+cattle men."
+
+Weston hesitated and looked down. He raised his hand to his breast pocket
+and let it fall at his side.
+
+"The night the round-up ended most of us--got drunk."
+
+He paused, shook himself impatiently, and hurried on: "I didn't go
+with the rest intending to drink--but I did, what with treating and all
+that. And when I come to myself, Sandy told me I was one of the men
+who had done the job on the Quinn sheep. And, knowing what I am when
+drunk, I believed him and cleared out with him and Mart over the Texas
+line, and----" his hand traveled to his hair completing the sentence.
+
+"I see!" exclaimed Ross excitedly; "and since then Sandy has held that
+over you."
+
+Weston nodded. "I was sick of drink, but I got sick of it too late, you
+see. I'd put a lasso round my own neck just when I most wanted to be
+free."
+
+His hand again wandered toward his breast pocket.
+
+"But now," he added, "I am free."
+
+He lifted his head proudly and turning, was aware for the first time
+of Leslie's presence. As the hands of the two met Ross strode across
+the room and began speaking loudly and at random to the others, leaving
+Sue's lover and Sue's brother to talk alone.
+
+Presently, however, unable to restrain the question longer, Ross turned
+again on Weston.
+
+"Sandy stole our sticks, didn't he?" he demanded, "and planned the whole
+thing to get rid of me?"
+
+Weston turned slowly back to his bunk. For a moment he fumbled among the
+blankets in silence. Then he faced about again resolutely.
+
+"Say, Doc, you have your claims here secure, haven't you, and Sandy has
+lost 'em?"
+
+"Yes, thanks to you."
+
+"And you've got outside of enough of those books so you can go to
+college next year, eh?"
+
+"Yes, again thanks to you!"
+
+"And," here Weston glanced at Leslie, "Sandy has dropped a finger
+somewhere in the game."
+
+Leslie could not restrain a look of exultation. "Yes."
+
+"Well, then, let this thing drop, will you? Sandy hain't all to the
+bad. He's pulled me out of as many holes as he's chucked me into; and
+I--well, I--say, Doc, call it square, will you?"
+
+Ross glanced from his father to his uncle and then at Steele. A glance
+satisfied him. Stepping forward, he extended his hand.
+
+"It's square, Weston, and I'll let everything go except--I can't
+forget that you've pulled me out of a pretty big hole--the worst one I
+ever dropped into."
+
+
+The Books of this Series are:
+  ROSS GRANT, TENDERFOOT
+  ROSS GRANT, GOLD HUNTER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ross Grant Tenderfoot, by John Garland
+
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