ne forest, Charles-Norton, without more ado, had
seized his grip and his blankets, and sidling out to the platform, had
jumped lightly and neatly to the ground.

When the last gleaming rail of the train had vanished around a bend,
Charles-Norton descended to the camp. It was a decrepit camp, the mine
having given out. Charles-Norton found the whole population in the
general store. It consisted of five men, about which seemed thrown an
invisible but heavy cloak of somnolence. They had entered languidly but
politely into his plans. The storekeeper had gladly parted with one-third
of the comestible stock which was slowly petrifying on shelf and rafter;
a little burro, grazing on the dump, had been transformed into a
pack-animal; and after standing treat three times around, Charles-Norton,
leading by a rope his fuzzy four-footed companion, to a great flapping of
amicable sombreros had taken the trail winding toward the high hills.

The little burro, now obscurely melancholic, grazed in the meadow. Within
the cabin, depending from the smoke-polished rafters, a sack of flour, a
bag of sugar, a ham, and several sides of bacon were strung, while a
pyramid of tins leaned against the blackened fireplace. The bunk against
the right wall held Charles-Norton's blankets; the one on the left wall
was empty. In spite of this empty bunk, which at times yawned with an
air of vague reproach, the cabin, with its wide fireplace, in the center
of which a rotund kettle hung, with its neatly strung and stacked
provisions, had a certain coziness, a sober, sedate expression of
assurance for days to come.

And it was a fine life to live.

He would get up early in the morning, and reached the sill of the door
with the sun. He would have his swim, his breakfast, and his smoke--and
then he was off.

He was off for an all-day winged romp. He made straight for the crest at
first and lit upon the tip-top of its highest pinnacle, rising there out
of the rocky chaos like an exclamation of gleaming granite. Its top,
hollowed by the weathers, made a seat which just fitted him. To the north
and to the south, the saw-toothed crest extended for miles to purple
disappearances; within its folds, here and there, a glacier scintillated
like a jewel. To the west and to the east, the mountain descended; at
first in a cataract of polished domes and runs, then in long velvety
waves of stirring pines, and finally in pale-yellow foothills, to the
plains. These wer