"It is just lovely," said Miss Asquith.
"Dinner," shouted a white-aproned darky.
A great platter of deliciously browned brook trout stood appetizingly in the center of a round table, and the four chairs were immediately occupied by four hungry people, who waived all ceremony, as well as the every day stereotyped roast beef, making trout the Alpha and Omega of their first Estes Park repast.
The sight-seeing was begun at daybreak, Jack routing out his party in order to see the sunrise and the dissolving mists which hung low on the mountain sides as they disappeared beneath the warming influence of old Sol. An early breakfast was followed by unpacking of trunks, arranging of fishing tackle, cameras, hammocks and paraphernalia which they disposed of in and about the four-room cottage near the main hostelry. Great elk and deer antlers decorated buildings all about them and the emblem of occupancy was the fly rod standing in some convenient corner. Saddle horses, phaetons and four-seated spring wagons were standing about, chartered for the day's outings, while already on the banks of the streams were anglers casting their favorite flies over pool, riffle and swirl, in expectant anticipation of luring the wary, ever alert inhabitant which lurked beneath some rock or bank. A flash of something like light, followed by the straightening of a line, the symmetrical curve of a split bamboo, the sharp click of a swiftly revolving reel in crescendo as the line cleft the water, then the lull, the renewed dash for liberty as a spotted, open mouthed one-pounder madly threw himself from the water, shaking his head and falling with a splash back into the stream,—the critical moment,—but the barb holds and a limp, pink tinted trout, with extended gills, floats easily into the landing net—a prize is captured which proves the record breaker of the day, all within sight of the "tavern."
Day after day excursion followed exploration; fishing in Willow Park or Horseshoe, the cañon and the "pool," over on the St. Vrain and the meadow; in the latter place as the season advanced one becomes familiar with the finny tenant who has outwitted all the temptations of professional angling, and many an hour can be spent devising new deceptions with which to entice the sagacious big ones, those who have felt the keen thrust of a barbed hook and learned not to grab every dainty morsel floating near its den. Few captures of the landlords of the meadow stream are recorded.
Among the tourists were numbers of English members of the nobility, and in fact a great portion of the Park was the property of a well-known lord, whose representative entertained his lordship's friends. The grand herd of Hereford cattle grazing in the park belonged to the English lord, as well as many of the blooded horses found at the corral.
Just a week after Jack had tested his ability attending to the caprices of a bride and his two protegés, they were all resting in easy chairs or in the hammocks, awaiting the arrival of the stage from Lyons, when a pair of handsome brown horses, flecked with foam, swung into view, drawing a buckboard in which sat a lonesome traveler leading a beautiful roan saddle pony. It was Cal, and as he greeted Jack, who had advanced to meet the outstretched hand, he said, "I thought perhaps I'd run across a 'maverick' up here."
Jack understood and replied, "Glad you come prepared to put your brand on any that you catch in the round up."
As they were instructing the corral men what to do with the horses Miss Asquith said to Hazel, "Oh, Mrs. Sheppard, isn't that a stunning turnout? I guess it must be my rich farmer." To which Hazel nodded assent, remarking through her smiles, "There's no telling."
Chiquita joined in the merriment with a suggestion, "Suppose, Miss Asquith, you let me get some Indian lovers' ferns and you dry them, then crush them with your own hands while you chant some lines which one of the great Sachems, in time long ago, obtained from a good spirit; and the good spirit promised the great Sachem that any of his maidens could cause an obstinate lover to woo her, or make a recreant spouse return to the side of his love if the maiden or wife would mix some of the ferns with some killikinnick, so the object of solicitude would smoke himself into her presence."