“He war right, as he generally war in such matters. When mornin’ come it war snowin’ harder than ever, and it never let up for four days and nights. Then when it stopped the fall war mor’n a dozen feet in the mountains. This settled like, and a crust formed on top, which war just the thing for our snow-shoes. On the steep inclines you’ve only to brace yourself and let the law of gravertation, as I b’lieve they call it, do the rest.
“It war powerful lonely in our cave day after day, with nothing to do but to talk and smoke and sleep, and now and then steal out to see if the mules war safely housed. It got so bad after a while that we all put on our snow-shoes and started out for a little fun.
“About a mile off we struck a gulch which we had all seen many times. It war the steepest that we knowed of within fifty miles. From the top to whar it broadened out into a valley war three-quarters of a mile, and all the way war like the roof of a house. I s’pose it war a little more than a hundred yards wide at the top, whar the upper part of the biggest kind of an avalanche had formed. There the wind and odd shape of the rocks and ground had filled the place with snow that war deeper than the tallest meetin’-house you ever laid eyes on. It had drifted and piled, reachin’ far back till it war a snow mountain of itself. Don’t you forget, too,” added the trapper impressively, “that this snow warn’t loose drift stuff, but a solid mass that, when it once started, would go down that gulch like so much rock, if you can think of a rock as big as that.
“We war standin’ and lookin’ at this mountain of snow, wonderin’ how long it would be before it would swing loose and plunge into the valley below, when a fool feelin’ come over me. I turned to Kit and the other fellers and offered to bet a beaver skin that I could start even with the avalanche and beat it down into the valley. Carson wouldn’t take the bet, for he saw what rashness it war. Yet he didn’t try to dissuade me, and the other chaps took me up right off. The idea got into my head that Carson thought I war afraid, and then nothin’ could have held me back.
“It didn’t take us long to get things ready. One of the trappers went with me to see that the start war all right, while Kit and the other picked thar way to the valley below, so as to have a sight of the home stretch.
“It took us a good while, and we had to work hard to make our way to the foot of the avalanche. When we got thar at last and I looked up at that mountain of snow ready to tumble right over onto me, I don’t mind sayin’ I did feel weak in the knees; but I wouldn’t have backed out if I knowed thar war only one chance in a million of my ever livin’ to tell it.
“The chap with me said if I wanted to give it up it would be all right—he told me afterward that he war sorry he had took my bet—but I laughed, and told him it war a go.
“He helped me fix my snow-shoes, and wouldn’t let me start till he seen everything war right. Then I stood on the edge of the gulch and held myself still by graspin’ the corner of the rock behind me. He climbed above, so he could peep over and see me. He said I war so far below that I looked like a fly, and I know that he didn’t look much bigger than that to me. It took him so long to climb to the perch that my hand was beginnin’ to grow numb, when I heard his voice, faint and distant-like:
“‘Hello, Eph, down thar! Are you ready?’