and ludicrous experience
with a lost person, though at the time it seemed only exasperating. I
had stepped outside my cabin to drink in the "moonshine" on my superb
outlook. Across the valley, as clearly as in daylight. Long's Peak
and its neighbors stood out. The little meadow brook shimmered like a
silver ribbon. I walked out to Cabin Rock, a thousand feet above the
valley, and sat down. Coyotes yip-yipped their salutations to the
sailing moon. The murmur of the little brooks rose to my ears,
subdued, distant. I listened for each familiar night sound as one does
for the voices of old friends. I sat entranced, intoxicated with the
beauty of the hour, refreshing my soul, at peace, content.

A strange cry startled me from my reverie, a human cry, faint, as
though far off.

"Help!" Then a pause. "H-e-l-p!" Then more urgently: "H-E-L-P!"

For a few minutes I sat still upon my crag, puzzling. Some one has
stumbled into a bear trap, I thought, or been injured in a fall. After
marking the locality from which the calls came, I ran down my zigzag
trail, and hastened down the valley toward the spot whence the cries
had come. Whenever I came to the open, parklike clearings, I stopped
to listen. The floor of the wide valley had been burned over scores of
years before, and a new growth of lodge-pole pines covered it. These
trees were of nearly uniform height, about fifteen feet, and in places
too dense to permit of passage.

Three miles were covered in record time. Then, thinking that I must be
close to the spot from which the calls had come, I climbed an upthrust
of rock, searched the openings among the trees near by, and listened
intently. I shouted; no reply. For perhaps ten minutes I waited.
Then from far up the valley, close below my cabin, the distressing
calls were repeated.

"He's certainly not crippled," I thought. "He's traveled nearly as far
as I."

I set off at a run, for I know every little angle of the woods in the
vicinity. But when I arrived, breathless and panting, there was no
answer to my shouts. I gave up the chase in disgust, and started up
the trail toward my cabin. I decided some one was having fun with me.

Midway up the trail to my cabin, I heard the cries again, agonized,
fearful. They came from across the valley, toward the west. Heading
for the peaks! I must stop him! It certainly sounded serious. I'd
have to see it through.

I hurried across the valley, shouting at