"All I was thinking of," I added, "was the exercise."
"That's it," my companion cried. "Exercise. We haven't had a bit of exercise since we left New York."
"I need it, too!" put in the Denver man. "My wife says I'm getting fat."
"Oh, if it's exercise you want," said our host, "I'm with you."
Even the spirits of the chauffeur seemed to rise as his employer alighted.
"I think I had better stay with the car, sir," he said.
"All right, all right," said our host indifferently. "You can be turning her around. We'll be back in a couple of hours or so."
The chauffeur looked at the edge.
"Well," he said, "I don't know but what the exercise will do me good, too. I guess I'll come along if you don't mind, sir."
On foot we could pick our way, avoiding the larger drifts, so that, for the most part, we merely trudged through snow a foot deep. But it was uphill work in the sun, and before long overcoats were removed and cachéd at the roadside, weighted down against the wind with stones. Now and then we left the road and took a short cut up the mountainside, wading through drifts which were sometimes armpit deep and joining the road again where it doubled back at a higher elevation. Presently our coats came off, then our waistcoats, until at last all five of us were in our shirts, making a strange picture in such a wintry landscape.