their hostess could spare, their own bed rolls and most of their
equipment having gone back to Billy's ranch by his pack train. Their
supply of food was only enough for two meals--supper and breakfast--but
this gave them two days for the ascent, whereas Mrs. Culver had made it
in one; so they felt sure of success.

Well used to mountain work, and guided by a good engineer, their Uncle
Dick, who had spent his life in work among wild countries, they wound
easily in and among the shoulders of the hills, taking distance rather
than sharp elevation, and so gradually and without strain to the horses
working up the mountain that lay at one side of Mount Jefferson. When
they were well up, they followed a long hogback that swung a little to
the left, and at length turned for their deliberate plunge down into the
steep valley of the stream. Here, among heavy tracts of fallen timber
and countless tumbled rocks, they came at last to the white water of
their river, now grown very small and easily fordable by the horses.

"As near as I can tell," said Uncle Dick, "we've got her whipped right
now. This must be a good way above the place Brower and Culver left
their horse. We're up seventy-six hundred and forty feet now by the
aneroid. The valley is around seven thousand feet, and Brower makes the
summit at eight thousand feet; so we've not so far to go now. We crossed
above the upper Red Rock Lake, and Brower makes the whole distance,
along the longest branch, only twenty miles from the head spring to the
lake. A mile or two should put us at the edge of the Hole in the
Mountains, as he calls his upper valley. What do you say--shall we
leave our horses and walk it, or try on up in the same way?"

"I vote against leaving the horses," said Rob. "It's nearly always bad
to split an outfit, and bad to get away from your base of supplies. I'd
say keep to the horses as high as they can get. A good mountain horse
can go almost any place a man can, if you leave him alone. If it gets
hard to ride, we can walk and lead, or drive them ahead of us over the
down timber."

"And then, if we get them up to the Hole, we could camp up in there all
night," suggested John. "Like enough, we'd be the first to do that,
anyhow."

"And maybe the last," laughed Billy. "It'll sure be cold up in there,
with no tent and not much bedding and none too much to eat. We're above
the trout line, up here, and not far to go to timber line, if you ask
me."

"Not so