"And you can't eat rocks," grinned Ned.
"Just so."
"Now, boys, if you will go to my saddle bags you will find salt and pepper and some hard tack. Bring it all over here, fill your folding cups with water, and then I think we'll be ready for supper," announced the guide, after the rabbits had been done to a rich brown.
"Pardon me, sir, but I'm curious to know what we're going to do for plates, knives and forks," asked Tad.
"Do?
"Why, my young friend, we shall do without them. If you'll watch me carefully you will learn how."
By Lige's direction, the boys squatted down about a flat rock, after which the guide proceeded to carve the rabbits with his hunting-knife, seasoning the pieces with salt and pepper, yet doing all with tantalizing deliberation.
The boys looked on expectantly.
"Much as I need money, I wouldn't take four dollars and a half for my appetite at this very moment," declared Ned Rector, earnestly.
"It can't beat mine, fellows," laughed Walter. "I tell you, there's nothing like falling off a mountain to give a chap a full-grown hankering for real food."