re right there," agreed Jim. "We will turn in early this
evening."

So they did, and by half-past two Jim sounded the early rising alarm.
The boys all got up with alacrity, except Tom, who did considerable
growling, as was his custom, but if Tom wanted sympathy he would have
to find it in the dictionary, as the fellow said.

The boys lighted a fire within the stockade to get their breakfast by,
but it was hidden so that no hint of their plans would be given to a
watchful enemy. The boys felt jovial when they got fairly waked up.
The air was cold and bracing, and they all felt that the end of their
long journey was drawing near.

By four o'clock everything was ready for the start. The mules were
packed, and the boys rode out in silence through the starry darkness
across the level floor of the valley. Jim was in the lead, and the
rest followed in order. Instead of going up the main trail through the
big canyon, Jim bore to the right, making straight through the park
where the men had killed the deer.

It was well for the Frontier Boys that they took this way, for Eph,
Ed and a number of Mexicans were lying in ambush at a narrow and
hidden part of the trail, and, with one concerted rush, were ready to
send the boys down five hundred feet. Whether the Frontier Boys would
have been so rash as to have walked blindfolded into this trap is
doubtful. Nevertheless, when they took the other way they escaped a
very serious danger.

When the first steel shining rays of dawn struck the slope of the
mountain above them the boys had climbed up several thousand feet and
could see the valley below and the distant snow-clad peaks to the
south, rosy with the first touch of morning. It was a beautiful sight,
and the boys turned sideways in their saddles, taking it all in when
their horses stopped to breathe.

"Going to take us above timber-line, Jim?" inquired Juarez.

"He's going to lose us," complained Tom.

"Then there would be a lost kid to go with the Lost Mine," declared
Jim humorously. "Yes, boys, I'm going to take you above timber-line."

"Well," said Jeems philosophically, "it is a whole lot better than
going over the range altogether, as might have been the case if we had
taken the trail through the big canyon over yonder."

"Say, Jeems!" exclaimed Jo, with a catch in his voice, "you never told
Jim and Juarez about the time you was sitting with your back to a tree
and they slipped up and tied you, and if we hadn't come