was made by the lake at first, and
then an excursion which had been made successfully in search of game
having resulted in the discovery of a more suitable spot higher up
towards the mountains, a week was spent there in a beautiful little
valley, where an abundant stream of crystal purity emptied itself into
the wide-spreading lake. Pasturage was there for the horses and mules,
and almost without effort food was to be had at the expense of a few
cartridges, while very little skill was needed for Griggs and the boys
to draw salmon-like and trout-like fish to the banks.

In a day or two the perils and sufferings of the journey across the salt
plains were forgotten, and careful searching for signs of Indians having
proved that they were the sole occupants of the district, the whole
party gave themselves up to the pleasures of the peaceful life they were
enjoying. But not for long.

Griggs had entered into the spirit of the chase, the fishing and the
search for vegetable food. He was as eager too when the doctor led
excursions into gully and up hill-sides of a part of the world that
seemed to the adventurers as if it had never before been trodden by the
foot of man, and ready to point out fresh flowers, or indications of
metal or other minerals where the cliff was bared or splintered by some
fall from above. But over the camp-fire at night, in some rocky nook,
or beneath the spreading boughs of a gigantic spruce-fir, a hint or a
word or two brought him back to the prime motive of their journey.

"I'm ready when you are, gentlemen," he cried. "I don't say this isn't
grand, and that we oughtn't to be as happy as the day is long in a place
like this, but we didn't come out here only to enjoy a hunting-party.
There's that map, you know."

"Yes," said the doctor gravely, "there's the map. But you don't think
this is a likely part of the country?"

"Not down here, sir; but from where we stood to-day after stalking those
birds, I could see the mountains opening out in gulch and rift and
hollow, beyond which there was peak and point and pass that looked as
much like the sort of country as could be."

"I noted the grand scenery too," said the doctor.

"And I," added Wilton. "It's made me long to begin exploring again, for
there was no sign of desert that I could see."

"It's a grand country," said Bourne, "and the wonder to me is that it
has not been settled. Why do you laugh, boy?"

"Oh, it was only at something I