cape, they resumed their work of
ascending the steep mountainside. Rob pointed to the broken surface of
the ground at his feet.

"What do you mean, Rob?" asked the older hunter.

"It looks as if horses had been here," said Rob, "yesterday, late."

"Yes," said Uncle Dick, smiling, "but not horses, I should say."

"Maybe not," said Rob, doubtfully. "But I thought maybe prospectors
had been in here."

"Only the original prospectors--the ones with white coats and long
whiskers and sharp horns," said Uncle Dick.

"But it looks like a regular trail!"

"It is a regular trail, but if you will look closer you'll see the
hoof marks. Horses do not have split toes, my boy. In fact, I have no
doubt this is the regular stairway of the goat family that lives on
this mountain. Like enough they've been down in here to get some
different sort of grass or water. They've evidently been using this
path quite a while."

"How high do you suppose they are now?" inquired John.

"Who can tell? A mile or two, or three, or five, for all I know. It
will take us two or three hours to get up to the rim-rock, at least,
and I've usually noticed that goats don't stop much short of the
rim-rock when they start to go up a hill. The sign is fresh, however,
made late last night or very early this morning; I think with you,
Rob, that it was yesterday."

"How many are there?" inquired Jesse, bending over the broad trail.

"Hard to tell, for they've used this trail more than once. A dozen or
more, I should say. Well, all we can do is to follow after them and
thank them for showing us a good path."

They climbed on up all the more eagerly now, and when they reached
more open country where the sun shone fairly on them they soon were
dripping with perspiration. But, young as were these hunters from
Alaska, they were not inexperienced in mountain-climbing. They knew
that the way to get up a mountain is to keep on slowly and steadily,
not hurrying, and never resting very long at a time. Thus they
advanced for three-quarters of an hour, until they could see still
farther out over the country below them. Now they could see that the
game had sometimes wandered about feeding, and the trail itself
divided and grew fainter.

Uncle Dick pointed out all these things quietly and suggested that
they would better be on the lookout. They advanced now more carefully,
and whenever they came to the edge of an open reach or topped some
shoulder of the slope they p