he fumbled in his pockets
until he found a short length of copper wire, out of which he made a
noose, fastening it to the end of a long stick.

"Now, Mr. John," said he, "there's lunch and supper both if you can
get it. Let's see how good you are at snaring grouse."

John cautiously stepped up under the tree, expecting every minute that
the birds would fly. Yet to his amazement they sat there stupidly
looking down at him. Cautiously he raised the pole among the lower
branches of the tree, and at length managed to slip the noose fairly
about the neck of the nearest bird, when he gave it a jerk and brought
it down fluttering. Passing from one side of the tree to the other,
he repeated this, and soon had four of the fat, young birds in his
possession--a feat which interested John in more ways than one, for,
as has been indicated, he was very fond of good things to eat.

They left the birds at the top of the bank, and, turning, brought up
in a trip or so all the remainder of their scanty amount of baggage
from the waterside below.

"I suppose it might be a good plan, now, to make a trip over to the
east," said Alex, "and see what we can see."

They found after a long investigation that the trail, as nearly as
they could trace it, soon swung away quite a distance from the course
of the stream, rising steadily for three miles to a sort of high
bench. It held this for several miles, finally approaching a steep
slope and dropping sharply toward the level of the water, which was
much lower than at the head of the canyon.

They discovered the eastern end of the portage to be close at the foot
of a high and precipitous bank back of which grew scattered clumps of
poplar-trees. This journey, which only Alex made throughout, took them
several miles from the place where they had left the _Jaybird_, and
they were tired enough by the time they had returned to their
supplies. They made no further progress on that day. Alex told them
they would find water at only one place on the portage, so they must
camp here in any case for the night.

XXI

THE PORTAGE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

"We might just as well do what we can toward getting across," said
Alex the next day, "because now we know what there is ahead of us. I'd
just as soon portage the boat a little way, at least, because it will
only have to be done when Moise and the two breeds come to help us.
Come ahead, then."

He swung the _Jaybird_ up on his broad shoulders,