y camp fifty miles away? It has been done by somebody nearer
than that, and has been done by somebody within three weeks, too."

From this time out (we were all of two weeks on the trail) Elam was
moody. He would ride all day and wouldn't say a word to either of us,
and when we made camp at night he would go off and stay until dark. And
the worst of it was, we camped every single night right where the men
had slept. I began to shake in my boots, and did not wonder at Elam's
contrary mood. In fact we were all that way. It was very seldom that we
exchanged an opinion with one another. Elam kept his map constantly at
hand and referred to it at every turn in the road. Sometimes he would be
gone all day, and we would hear nothing of him until night, when he
would come in, ask for supper, and roll himself up in his blanket and go
to sleep. Things went on in this way for two weeks, as I said, and then
one day, as we were watering our horses at the brook that ran through
the canyon, we were suddenly surprised by the appearance of two men who
stood on the opposite bank. They were a hard-looking set, but then that
was to be expected in a country where all men lived out of doors. To
show that they were friendly they threw their rifles into the hollow of
their arms.

"Howdy, pard?" said one.

"Howdy?" replied Elam. As he was the chief man we allowed him to do all
the talking.

"You're just the men we wanted to see," said the man in a delighted
tone. "We haven't had anything to eat since yisterday. Will ye give us a
bite?"

"Sure!" replied Elam. "What are you doing so far away in the mountains?"

"We got lost, and are now trying to find our way out. This stream leads
to some water on the prairie, I reckon? How far is the fort from here?"

Elam made some reply, I didn't know what it was, while I began to look
the men over to see if I could discover any signs of their being lost.
Their moccasons were whole, or as much so as could be expected, and the
wear and tear of their buckskin shirts was no more than our own. They
were strangers to me, and I confess that I was not at all pleased to see
them. The talk about their being lost was one thing that did the
business for me. The men were hunters or trappers on the face of them;
they never would be taken for anything else, and the idea of their
getting bewildered in the mountains that they had probably passed over a
dozen times was a little too far fetched. I caught a glimpse of Ela