"And I'm sure you wouldn't, lad. Experience is the best teacher, and if we didn't have some of these bad turns we'd grow too confident."
The camp was soon looking quite cozy again, when the tents had been placed and everything made snug.
"I'm going to like this place almost as well as the one under the cascade," remarked Will, who had been rather skeptical all along.
So the first evening came along, and supper was the same hearty, enjoyable meal they had always found it. The camp appetites worked overtime, the coffee tasted splendid, the elk steaks were just what each one had been hungering for, and as the cook supplemented these with a heaping platter of flapjacks the contentment of the four chums seemed complete.
"
How long do we stay here, Mr. Mabie?" asked Bluff, never hesitating when in search of information.
"Possibly a week or so. Then back to the ranch, and a new line of experiences. This terribly dry weather is making me anxious, for the range is drying up, and we shall be hard set to find pasture for the cattle soon, unless rain comes along."
"Do you have such a dry spell in summer often up here?" asked Frank.
"Never saw the equal of this since I settled in the valley, many years ago. Now, down in Ohio, where I originally came from, they have drouths even in May, at times, and I've seen things go to the dogs more than once, gardens dried up, and even a forest fire in July, but never up here," replied the stockman.
"The woods look as though it wouldn't take a great deal to set them going," declared Frank. "One of the men threw a match down to-day, after lighting his cigarette, and it seemed like magic the way the fire flashed up. He had to be quick to jump on it before the breeze carried it along."