, after giving his
hand a hearty grasp, told him what he had found.

Chapter VI
Castle Howard

Albert agreed with Dick that they should begin to more at once,
and his imagination was greatly stirred by Dick's narrative.
"Why, it's an enchanted valley!" he exclaimed. "And a house is
there waiting for us, too! Dick, I want to see it right away!"

Dick smiled.

"Sorry, but you'll have to wait a little, Al, old man," he said.
"You're not strong enough yet to carry stores over the big range,
though you will be very soon, and we can't leave our precious
things here unguarded. So you'll have to stay and act as
quartermaster while I make myself pack mule. When we have all
the things over there, we can fasten them up in our house, where
bears, panthers, and wolves can't get at them."

Albert made a wry face, but he knew that he must yield to
necessity. Dick began the task the next morning, and it was
long, tedious, and most wearing. More than once he felt like
abandoning some of their goods, but he hardened his resolution
with the reflection that all were precious, and not a single
thing was abandoned.

It was more than a week before it was all done, and it was not
until the last trip that Albert went with him, carrying besides
his gun a small pack. The weather was still propitious. Once
there had been a light shower in the night, but Albert was
protected from it by the tarpaulin which they had made of the
wagon cover, and nothing occurred to check his progress. He ate
with an appetite that he had never known before, and he breathed
by night as well as by day the crisp air of the mountains tingling
with the balsam of the pines. It occurred to Dick that to be
marooned in these mountains was perhaps the best of all things
that could have happened to Albert.

They went slowly over the range toward the enchanted valley,
stopping now and then because Albert, despite his improvement,
was not yet equal to the task of strenuous climbing, but all
things continued auspicious. There was a touch of autumn on the
foliage, and the shades of red and yellow were appearing on the
leaves of all the trees except the evergreens, but everything
told of vigorous life. As they passed the crest of the range and
began the descent of the slope toward the enchanted valley, a
mule deer crashed from the covert and fled away with great
bounds. Flocks of birds rose with whirrings from the bushes.
From some point far away came t