About two o’clock Gowan stirred and rolled over, pulling at his blankets. Instantly Blake was wide awake. The puncher mumbled, drew the blankets closer about him, and lay quiet. Blake went into the tent and dozed on his own blankets until roused by the chill of dawn. He went down for a plunge in the pool, and was dressed and back at the fireplace, cooking breakfast, when Gowan started up out of his heavy slumber.
“Yes, it’s getting along about that time,” Blake 249 called to him cheerfully. “You might turn out Ashton. He has made as good a night of it as you have.”
Gowan had been staring at the dawn, his lean jaw slack. As Blake spoke, he snapped his mouth shut and came over to confront the engineer. “You agreed to call me at midnight,” he said.
“My apology!” politely replied Blake. “I know how you must feel about it. But I hope you will excuse me. I saw that you, like Ashton, needed a full night’s sleep, and so did not disturb you.”
The puncher looked away and muttered: “I’m responsible for you to Mr. Knowles. He sent me here to guard you.”
“That is true. Of course you will say it’s owing to no fault of mine that we have come through the night safely. Well, we have a big day’s work before us. May I ask you to call Ashton? Breakfast is ready.”
At this the puncher sullenly went to rouse the sleeper. Ashton came out rubbing his eyes; but after a dip in the pool, he declared himself restored by his long sleep and ready for a day’s work. During the night his bandage had come loose. He would have tossed it away, but Blake insisted upon re-dressing the wound. He did so with as much skill and almost as much gentleness as had his wife.
When Blake and Ashton left the camp, the puncher was leading the horses across to load their first packs. 250 The two levelmen walked briskly up the valley, carrying only enough food and water to last themselves until evening, when Gowan was to have the camp moved to the top of High Mesa.
Beginning from his bench-mark at the foot of the mountain, Blake carried the level line slantingly up the ridge side. The work was slow and tedious, since the telescope of the level could never be on a horizontal line either higher or lower respectively than the top and bottom of the thirteen-foot rod. This necessitated setting-up the instrument every few feet during the steepest part of the ascent.
They saw nothing of Gowan, who had chosen a more roundabout but easier trail. At midmorning, however, they were overtaken by Genevieve and Isobel and Thomas Herbert Vincent Leslie Blake. Knowles had started for Stockchute to seek the aid of the sheriff and his Indian prisoners. The ladies divided the ascent into several stages, riding ahead of the surveyors and resting in the shade of a rock or pine until the men had passed them.