“Well, but, Hugh,” said Jack, “oughtn’t we to have seen them as we came along?”
“No,” said Hugh, “I don’t see how we could have done so. Of course, if we’d been hunting, we’d have taken a good many looks over into that valley, but as we weren’t hunting, we just rode along and, of course, those shelves of rock that you see there hid the bears from us just as they hid us from the bears. Of course, it’s possible that they may be there when we go back to-night, and if they are, why you and Joe can maybe get a shot at them.”
“Well,” said Jack, “it’s too late now for us to do anything. Let’s see what there is beyond this timber.”
In the timber which grew on a little crest running parallel with the axis of the valley, there was no snow and a good camping place, but on the other side of the little stream, though the ground was bare and some flowers were springing, there was no grass, nor indeed, wherever they went during the day, could they find anything that looked like feed enough to support their horses, if they should bring them over.
“This would be a mighty handy place to camp, Jack,” said Joe, “but I don’t see anything here for the horses to eat.”
“No,” said Hugh, “there’s no feed over here at all, except those weeds that we passed this morning on the other side of the valley. Maybe there’s feed enough there to keep the horses for a day or two, but no more. We’d be a lot better off if we were camped over here; that is, provided we wanted to hunt here or climb the mountains, but we’ve got to have grass for our horses to eat, and I reckon we’ll have to leave them where they are and ride three or four miles every morning, before we begin to prospect around these mountains and the valleys between them.”
“Well,” said Jack, “there doesn’t seem to be any feed here, and I don’t see any other way than to do as you say.”
“Let’s ride up this valley here to the eastward,” said Hugh. “There may be some sheltered warm spot up there where the snow will be gone, though it’s no ways likely the grass has started yet.”
They crossed the stream and pushed up through the snow which lay among the pine timber. It was not deep nor crusted and the going was easy, and after the first steep ascent they found themselves in an open smooth valley, which sloped very gradually upward between two tall peaks. Here the snow was disappearing and, as they ascended, they presently found the ground bare, but as Hugh had said, the grass had not yet started. There were a few tufts of brown dried-up herbage, but nothing that could be called feed, even for so small a pack train as theirs. In the soft earth at the margin of a little lake that lay near the head of this valley, Hugh pointed out the tracks of several sheep, among them two old rams of great size, and a well-worn sheep trail led back from this lake up over the rocks to high pinnacles behind.
“I reckon there are lots of sheep here, son,” said Hugh, “but it isn’t time to kill them now and we’ll have to be satisfied with a young ram now and then. I hope they won’t be very strong of garlic.”