After they had eaten breakfast, which was served up at daylight, Bob, who had bestowed no little thought upon the matter, proceeded to select the articles they were to take with them on their journey.
He filled his double cartridge-belt with ball and shot cases; saw that George’s powderhorn and bullet-pouch were well supplied, and put into his game-bag all their lines and hooks.
As much of their provisions as they could conveniently wrap up in their blankets were next laid aside; but these bundles were made very light, for Bob knew that before they had spent two days among the ravines, the weight of their packs would begin to tell upon their progress.
The next thing was to take care of the numerous articles they were compelled to leave behind them. They might not succeed in working their way out the first time trying, and if they were obliged to return to the valley to take a rest and make a new start, they wanted some supplies to fall back on.
The rest of the provisions were wrapped up in a blanket and hoisted into the branches of a sapling; the tent was taken down and concealed in a thicket where it would be somewhat protected from the elements; the skiff which had carried them safely through the canyon was hauled out on the bank and turned bottom up, and the little fowling-piece and the ammunition-box which contained the rest of their cartridges were wrapped in a rubber poncho with their fishing-rod, and hidden under a log.
When all this work had been done, Bob fastened the coffee-pot to his belt, tied the stump of his oar to his pack, and led the way toward the ravine, the geyser favoring them with one of its grandest eruptions by way of a “send off.”
It would take a story longer than this to describe all the incidents of the journey that was begun that morning, and which continued for three long, weary weeks.
Such trials and privations, such severe tests of their endurance and fortitude, they had never known before.
Bob was experienced in mountain travel, and he knew as much, in a general way, regarding ravines and “divides” as the men with whom he had hunted could tell him; but he often found himself at fault.
After stumbling over rocks and logs all day long, it was certainly discouraging to find themselves in a “pocket” at night—to ascertain that the stream they had been following had its source in a little glen which was hemmed in on all sides by rocks so precipitous that a big-horn could not have scaled them.