res up to the norrard." That was all he knew, but he gave us a
good supper of roast deer flesh, and told us that if we looked out we
could easily get more on our way, and when we were higher up we might
perhaps get a mountain sheep. He was curious to know our object in
making so long a journey, but saved Gunson from any difficulty in
explanations by supposing that we meant to do something in skins, saying
that he had heard that the company up there did a big trade with the
Indians in furs.

We left him and his son the next morning many miles from his ranch, for
he had insisted upon shouldering a rusty piece and showing us part of
our way by a short cut which saved us from a journey through a canon,
where the path, he said, was "powerful bad," and it did seem a change
when he left us with instructions to keep due north till we struck the
river again, where we should find another ranch. For in place of being
low down in a gorge, made gloomy by the mighty rock-sides and the
everlasting pines, we were out on open mountain sides, where the wind
blew, and the sun beat down pretty fiercely.

We reached the ranch in due time, obtained shelter for the night, and
went on the next day, finding the country more open. I was trudging
along side by side with Esau, Quong was behind us, and Gunson out of
sight among the rocks in front, when we were startled by a sharp crash,
followed by an echoing roar.

"What's that?" said Esau, turning pale. "Here, stop!" he cried.

But I was already running forward, to come up to Gunson, reloading his
rifle, and in answer to my inquiry--

"Don't know yet," he said; "I fired at a sheep up on that rocky slope.
There was one standing alone, and half a dozen behind him, but I only
caught sight of their tails as they disappeared up that little valley.
The smoke kept me from seeing whether I hit one. Let's leave the packs
here, and go up and see."

It was a hot and difficult climb, for the valley was again steep and
contracted here, and when we reached the shelf where Gunson said the
sheep had stood, there was nothing to be seen but a wild chaos of rocks
and the narrow rift down which a stream bounded, and up by whose bed the
sheep had rushed.

"Bad job," said Gunson, after a full half-hour's weary search. "That
meat would have tided us on for days, and made us independent when we
reached the next ranch, where the people would have been glad of the
skin."

"Shall we climb up higher?" I sa