“Yes, he has a public lecture to give at the Auditorium, so he cannot go on with us,” explained Mr. Vernon.
“Then listen to my idea, and tell me what you think of it—everybody,” exclaimed Julie, eagerly.
“Why can’t Mr. Lewis take back our pelts and the cubs, and express them home for us?”
The very audacity of the suggestion made every one laugh at first, but after much talking it seemed not so impossible.
“Then Gilly and Uncle can go through their wonderful heaps of glacial débris, while Tally guides us along the trail to the Flat Top. We will meet again at the foot of Tyndall Glacier,” said Julie.
So out of all the talking and planning this was the result: Frolic was selected as being the best-behaved of the two mules; the double crate was harnessed to her back, and in each crate a little cub was secured. The pelts of the bear, the panther, and the lynx were strapped across her back, and she was ready to start back to Long’s Peak village, with Mr. Lewis and Omney. There the bears would be crated anew, and shipped to the Zoo at Central Park, New York City, while the pelts were to be expressed to Mrs. Vernon’s home to await the scouts’ return.
Mr. Lewis was then to send Frolic back with Omney, who was to trail with the party and help Tally in various ways, while his master finished his lecture tour in Colorado.
The morning of their departure, the cubs were scrubbed, combed, and fed to repletion by the scouts, then secured in the crates. They were oblivious of the tears shed by the scouts over their soft little bodies, for they were curled up and fast asleep after such a hearty breakfast.
When Mr. Lewis and Omney rode down the trail, the scouts wept forlornly while the little party was in sight, but once a bend in the pathway was turned, Scrub came in for his full share of love and petting again.
“If we could only have kept the cubs with us!” sighed Joan.