Mr. Hunter considered for a moment or two, and then said: "Do you want to make a little hunting trip of this kind, and now?"
"Yes," said Jack, "Mr. Johnson, here, and I were thinking of doing that."
"Well," said Mr. Hunter; "I believe I know just the place for you. It's only a short distance from Hope, a town just below Yale, on the river, and if you can get started at once, four or five days ought to take you into a good sheep country, where there are also a few deer and goats. You could have three or four days hunting there, and could get back to take the steamer down the river and get to Westminster inside of two weeks."
"That's a little bit more time than we have to give to the trip," said Jack, "but perhaps we could do that, and perhaps we could gain a day or two in the travelling."
"Perhaps you might," said Mr. Hunter, "those things depend largely upon the outfit you have and chiefly on the energy of the man who runs your outfit. If you get somebody who is a rustler, who will get you up every morning before day and have the train on the march before the sun is up, and travel all day, you can get along pretty rapidly."
"Well," said Hugh, "it seems to be a matter that depends largely upon ourselves. Son and I are fair packers, and if we can get horses and a man to wrangle them and somebody that knows the road, we ought to be able to keep them moving."
"I'll tell you what I will do," said Mr. Hunter. "When we get to Yale I will telegraph to an acquaintance of mine in Hope, and find out what the prospect is of getting the outfit that you want."
Hugh and Jack both thanked Mr. Hunter, and after some inquiry about the character of the country to be traversed, the talk turned to other subjects. It was but a little later when the boat began to pass groups of Indians camping along the shore; and near each camp were seen the drying stages on which they were curing the fish that they took. Horizontal poles were raised five or six feet above the ground and these were thickly hung with the red flesh, making a band of bright color which stood out in bold relief against the green of the trees and the cold gray of the rocks.
Jack and Hugh looked at these camps with much interest.
"It looks some like a little camp on the plains when there has been a killing and the meat is just hung up to dry, doesn't it, son?" remarked Hugh.