“Guess,” interrupted Roderick, “that he is not very happy since the new order of things—your new plan, Major—put him out of business.”
“Perhaps he is getting in touch again with his old heeler, Bud Bledsoe,” suggested Grant. “That outlaw gang has been lying low for quite a while, but I’m expecting to hear about some new bit of deviltry any day. Am in need of a corking good newspaper story.”
“Well, since you are bent on hunting big game,” laughed the Major, “these miscreants might provide you with all the exciting sport you are wanting.”
“Oh, a brace of good fat bucks will be good enough for us. Where’s the likeliest place to start from, Major? You’re the local authority on these matters.”
“You know where Spirit River Falls are?” asked Buell Hampton.
“I’ve heard of them but have never been there,” replied Grant.
“I think that I’ve seen them from above,” observed Roderick, “but I don’t know the way to them.”
“Well, you know where Gid Sutton’s half-way house is located?”
“Certainly,” replied Roderick. “I was there less than a month ago.”
“Well, Spirit River Falls are located about six or seven miles south and east of the half-way house. I advise that one of you go up the South Fork of the Encampment River and the other keep to the right and go over the hills past Conchshell ranch into a park plateau to the south; then have your meeting place this evening in an old log structure that you will find about three-fourths of a mile directly through the timber southeast from the falls. If you are wise, you will load up two or three burros, send them with a trusty, and have him make camp for you in this old deserted hut. You will find a cup of coffee, a rasher of bacon and a few sandwiches very appetizing by the time you have tramped all day in your deer-hunting quest And the country all around is full of deer.”