s a little satisfied smile in his
eyes as he watched the horse wander away unhampered into the rain.
After this they sat down to a very simple meal. Then they strapped
their packs on their shoulders--a thick blanket each, a small bag of
flour, some salt pork and green tea, and, while Grenfell carried the
light ax, Weston slung a frying-pan, a kettle and a pannikin about
him, as well as a rifle, for there are black-tail deer in that
country, and they could not be sure that their provisions would last
the journey through. The prospector soon discovers how much a man can
do without, and it is a good deal more than men bred in the cities
would suppose. The oddments rattled and banged about Weston's
shoulders as he went up the steep slope through the thick timber; and
by the time they had cleared the latter, Grenfell was visibly
distressed, and both of them realized that their difficulties had
commenced.

Any one unaccustomed to the country would probably have considered the
devious march that they already had made arduous enough, but they had,
at least for the most part, followed the valleys and crossed only a
few low divides, and it was evident now that their way led close up to
the eternal snow. There was a rock scarp in front of them, up part of
which they went on their hands and knees. When they reached the summit
of this, the slightly more level strip along which they floundered was
strewn with shattered rock and gravel that had come down from the
heights above with the thaw in the spring; and it was with difficulty
that they made a mile an hour. The gold trail is usually long and
arduous; but the prospector is content to have it so, for once it is
made easier the poor man's day has gone. Then the men of the cities
set up their hydraulic monitors, or drive their adits, and the
free-lance who disdains to work for them rolls up his old blankets and
pushes out once again into the waste.

They made supper at sunset among the last of the dwindling pines; and
then lay awake shivering part of the night, for a nipping wind came
down from the snow, and they were very wet and cold. It rained again
the next day and most of the following one. Still, they spent the two
days crawling along the farther side of the range, for when they had
struggled through the snow in a rift between two peaks, a great wall
of rock that fell almost sheer cut them off from the next valley.
Somewhat to Weston's astonishment, Grenfell now showed little