rossed the summit, and moved swiftly
down the opposite slope. It was easy walking now, and he hoped to
reach the valley and there spend the night. He believed that he should
find water among that heavy timber ahead of him, and thither he made
his way. Neither was he mistaken, for when his steps at length began
to lag he heard the ripple of water drifting up the trail. As he drew
nearer he smelled the smoke of a camp-fire, and the appetizing odor of
roasting meat. "Somebody must be camping there," he mused, "and I may
have company. I am sorry, but then it can't be helped."

The brook was a small one, shallow, and Reynolds easily sprang across.
Gaining the opposite bank, he peered among the trees, and to his
surprise he saw Frontier Samson squatting upon the ground, roasting a
grouse over a fire he had previously lighted. The old prospector's
face brightened as the young man approached.

"My, y've been a long time comin'," he accosted. "I thought mebbe ye'd
played out, tumbled down the side of the mountain, or a grizzly had
gobbled ye up. What in time kept ye so long?"

"And where in the world did you come from?" Reynolds asked in reply, as
he unslung his pack and tossed it aside. "I never expected to meet you
here."

"Ye didn't, eh? Wall, ye never want to be surprised at anything I do.
I'm here to-day an' somewhere else to-morrow. I'm allus on the move,
rovin' from place to place. It's me nature, I guess."

"A rolling stone gathers no moss, so I've heard. Is that the way with
you?" Reynolds asked, with a twinkle to his eyes.

"I may git no moss, young man, an' not become a fossil like some of the
fellers in big cities, but I git a heap of rubbin' with me rollin', an'
that keeps me brightened up."

"But how did you get here ahead of me?" Reynolds questioned. "You were
not on the steamer, and I am certain you didn't walk."

Samson drew the grouse from the fire, and examined it critically.
Finding it not done to his satisfaction, he thrust it back again.

"Jist hand me that fryin'-pan, will ye?" and he motioned to his left.
"I want it handy when the bird's cooked. Ye didn't expect to find a
supper here to-night, young man, did ye?" and he looked quizzically at
Reynolds.

"Indeed I didn't," was the emphatic reply.

"Neither did ye imagine that it 'ud be a grouse's bones ye'd be
pickin'. Why, it's no tellin' where that bird was three days ago. It
may have been fifty miles or more away, fer all w