n', an' a
gittin' inter somebody's grub."

The burro chose to overlook these insults and drew near the fire,
unostentatiously. The old prospector slipped him part of his breakfast.

"Which way you headin'?" asked the first man, plainly puzzled because I
carried neither gun nor mining tools.

"To climb Arapahoe peak."

"Climb the peak," he repeated, much mystified.

"What's the idear?" the second wanted to know. "Goin' way off thar
jes' to git up a mountain, when thar's plenty right hyar, higher ones
too?" He indicated the ranges to the east.

"Any place up that way to get out of the rain?" I asked, for the clouds
were dropping again with the threat of gathering storm.

The men exchanged glances. Abruptly the small one got to his feet and
led the burro out of sight among the willows. The other man faced me.

"Better take a friend's advice and keep outen there," he swept a grimy
hand westward.

"What's up?"

"Better do your climbin' round hyar," he replied suggestively.

"But I want to climb Arapahoe; I have heard the Indians used it for a
signal mountain and..."

He beckoned me to follow, and led the way into the grove mysteriously.
At length he stopped, peered about uneasily, then whispered.

"There's an ole cabin up yonder"--he faced toward Arapahoe--"that's
ha'nted."

"Haunted?" my interest quickening, my fears of the depressing night
forgotten.

He nodded--dead earnest.

"Are you sure about that? Did you ever see the, the----"

His look silenced me.

"Ole feller died up thar," he declared; "nobody knows how." His tone
was awesome.

I made a move down the trail, thanking him for the meal.

"Wouldn't go, if I wus you," he persisted, following me as far as his
camp.

Then, as I took the unused trail that led down toward North Park, he
called after me:

"Remember, I've warned you!"

Fishing was good in the stream a few miles below their camp, and I soon
had all the trout I wanted and was on my way to the round dome of
Arapahoe peak, jutting above some clouds that were banked against its
lower slope. Through the willow flats and a dense forest of spruce,
the way led up between parallel ridges over a game trail, deeply worn
and recently used. I was right upon a log wall before I knew it. Then
I circled and saw that the wall was part of an old cabin built in a
little opening of the forest.

A section of the roof had fallen in and the fireplace had lost part of
its chimney; the sla