is companion; "it isn't necessary now. You will
sometime. But I think I have done in the last hour something I have
been trying to do for years. Many others have likewise failed in the
same quest."

Bucks listened with growing interest.

"Yes, for years," Stanley went on, "incredible as it may sound, I have
been searching these mountains for just such a crevice as we have this
moment ridden down. You see how this range"--the exhausted engineer
stretched flat on his back, but, with burning eyes, pointed to the
formidable mountain wall that rose behind them in the dusk of the
western sky--"rises abruptly from the plains below. Our whole grade
climb for the continental divide is right here, packed into these few
miles. Neither I nor any one else has ever been able to find such a
pass as we need to get up into it. But if we have saved our scalps, my
boy, you will share with me the honor of finding the pass for the
Union Pacific Railroad over the Rocky Mountains."

They were supperless, but it was very exciting, and Bucks was
extremely happy. Stanley watched that night until twelve. When he woke
Bucks the moon was rising and the ghostly peaks in the west towered
sentinel-like above the plains flooded with silver. The two were to
move at one o'clock when the moon would be high enough to make riding
safe. It was cold, but fire was forbidden.

The horses were grazing quietly, and Bucks, examining his revolver,
which he had all the time felt he was wretchedly incompetent to shoot,
sat down beside Stanley, already fast asleep, to stand his watch. He
had lost Sublette's rifle in falling into the wash-out. At least he
had found no leisure to pick it up and save his hair in the same
instant, and he wondered now how much he should have to pay for the
rifle.

When the sun rose next morning the two horsemen were far out of the
foot-hills and bearing northeast toward camp--so far had their ride
for life taken them from their hunting ground. They scanned the
horizon at intervals, with some anxiety, for Indians, and again with
the hope of sighting their missing guide. Once they saw a distant herd
of buffalo, and Bucks experienced a shock until assured by Stanley
that the suspicious objects were neither Cheyennes nor Sioux.

By nine o'clock they had found the transcontinental telegraph line and
had a sure trail to follow until they discovered the grade stakes of
the railroad, and soon descried the advance-guard of the graders busy