of a cavalcade
which was headed for Fremont Peak, concerning whose height and formation
the leader wished to inform himself. Alice was, however, a bit dashed by
Ward's change of manner as he laid upon his train his final
instructions.

"There is to be no skylarking," he said, "and no back-tracking. Each one
is to exercise great care. We cannot afford to lose a horse nor waste
our provisions. This is not a picnic excursion, but a serious
government enterprise. I cannot turn back because of any discomfort you
may encounter in camp."

"I am ready for what comes," Alice answered, smilingly.

But she rode for the rest of the day remarkably silent. There had been
times when she was certain that Ward cared a great deal for her--not in
the impersonal way indicated by his reprimand--but in the way of a
lover, and she was very fond of him, had indeed looked forward to this
trip in his company as one sure to yield hours of delightful intimacy.
On the train he had been very devoted, "almost lover-like," Peggy Adams
insisted. But now she was dismayed by his tone of military command.

Their first day's march brought them to a beautiful water called Heart
Lake, which shone dark and deep amid its martial firs at the head of one
of the streams which descended into the East Fork, and there the guides
advised a camp. They were now above the hunters, almost above the game,
in a region "delightfully primeval," as the women put it, and very
beautiful and peaceful.

After the tents were in order and the supper eaten, Alice, having tuned
up her little metal banjo, began to twitter tender melodies (to the
moon, of course), and the long face of the man of science broadened and
he seemed less concerned about rocks and fauna and flora.

The camp was maintained at Heart Lake for a day while Ward and his men
explored the various gorges in order to discover a way into Blizzard
Basin, which was their goal. They returned to camp each time more and
more troubled about the question of taking the women over the divide
into the "rough country" which lay to the north.

"It is a totally different world," Adams explained to his wife. "It is
colder and stormier over there. The forest on the north slopes is full
of down-timber and the cliffs are stupendous. I wish you girls were back
in the settlement," and in this wish Ward heartily joined.

However, the more they talked the more determined the women were to go.

It was like a May day the following n