"Do you know, I'm overjoyed to get back!" said Elsie to Curtis. "I don't know why I should be, but I've been eagerly looking for the Cleft Butte all day. Jerome will tell you that I expressed a sort of proprietorship in every prairie-dog."
"We are very glad to have you here again," replied Curtis. "And now that you are here, we must get your belongings together and get away. We are to camp to-night at the Sandstone Spring."
"A real camp?"
"A real camp. We could drive through, of course, but it would be tiresome, and then I thought you'd enjoy the camp."
"Of course we shall. It's very thoughtful of you."
"Everything will be ready for us. I left Two Horns to look after it."
"Then it will be right," said Lawson, who was beaming with placid joy. "Isn't it good to breathe this air again? It was stifling hot in Alta City. I never knew it to be hotter in the month of June."
While they talked, Crane's Voice was collecting the trunks, and in a few minutes, with Elsie by his side, Curtis drove his three-seated buckboard out upon the floor of the valley, leaving the squalid town behind. Lawson and Mrs. Parker occupied the middle seat, and Jennie and the tall sculptor sat behind. They were all as merry as children. Elsie took off her hat and faced the sun with joyous greeting.
"Isn't this glorious? I've dreamed of this every night for a month."
"That's one thing the Tetong has—good, fresh air, and plenty of it," said Lawson.