and saw him scramble down
the winding road to the ferry landing below. Here, also, he saw him wait
nearly a half hour before the cumbersome gravity flatboat put out from
the other shore, and then he devoted himself to picking and eating
Saskatoon berries, with which the hills were covered.

It was two o'clock when Roy returned, burdened with packages. For an hour
Norman had been asleep in the invigorating hill air. Roy had certainly
gone the limit in the matter of meat. He had two roasts and six thick
steaks and, what was more to his own taste, he proudly displayed a leg of
lamb. His mail, of which there seemed to be a great deal for everyone, he
had tied in one end of a flour sack. In the other end he had six loaves
of fresh bread. On his back in another bag he had a weight of magazines.

"I thought we'd take what we could," he began, "and I guess it's a good
thing we came when we did. Somebody's been pounding telegrams in here for
several days for Colonel Howell. I got a half dozen of 'em and I sent all
he gave me. I got off some messages to the folks, too, but I wonder what
the colonel's so busy about."

"This ain't the only iron he has in the fire," answered Norman drowsily.
"But where's our own eats?"

Roy dumped his bags and bundles on the grass and then began to explore
his own capacious pockets. From one he took a can of salmon and from
another a box of sardines.

"And here's the lemon for 'em," he explained, producing it from his shirt
pocket. "Help yourself to the bread."

"Is that all?" complained Norman. "I'll bet a nickel you had dinner at
the Alberta!"

"All but this," went on Roy, and he began unbuttoning the front of his
flannel shirt. "It feels kind of soft."

While Norman watched him, he extracted a greasy bag, flat and crumpled,
and tore it open to expose what was left of an originally fine hot raisin
pie.

His companion turned up his nose in disgust.

"I fell down on the hill," explained Roy, "but if you don't want it,
don't bother. It's just a little squashed. I'll eat it all right."

Norman began to straighten out the crumpled pieces with his finger, when
his chum added, with some exultation: "And these."

Then, from within his unbuttoned shirt, he began to unload a dozen large
sugar-coated doughnuts.

As Norman's mouth began to water, and he turned to the bread bag, a new
odor caught his nostrils.

"What's this?" he exclaimed, pulling another greasy bag from among the
bread loave