ey sat on the ground, Turk-fashion, or lolled
against a tree, first one yawned and of course the others followed suit,
so Jack suggested "early to bed."

Breakfast over, saddles were cinched, camp equipment all snugly packed
away and the laborious climb was commenced which was to take them to the
slide rock trail five miles long, following the crest of the great
continental divide which separates the waters of the Atlantic and
Pacific.

The men walked behind their respective ponies, lessening their labor by
hanging to the ponies' tails, while the fair sex suffered almost as much
hardship listening to the panting, patient animals, as they stopped
every hundred feet to get a breath and "blow."

"Oh, say, but this is a corker!" said Cal, as he steadied himself and
leaned against a tree for a little rest.

"I often wish my tongue would hang out like a dog's when I get to
climbing these high peaks. Seems as though mine fills my throat up so I
can't breathe," said Jack, his remark causing much merriment.

The summit was not far distant at ten o'clock, and as they surmounted
the last slope the clouds rolled in above them like a great drop
curtain, black and dense. Onward the great canopy spread toward the
sunlit peaks beyond, leaving a trail of drizzle, sleet and snow. Then
the entire party was swallowed up in an immense gray fog bank, while
darker electrically charged masses of moisture bowled along, chasing
each other through phosphorously illuminated paths, much to the
consternation of the ladies.

"Oh, it's lightning right here! Won't it strike us?" exclaimed Miss
Asquith.

"It might give you a little shock that would tingle some, but not enough
to hurt you," vouchsafed Jack.

The light clouds soon followed, then the sun shone bright, and in a few
minutes the gum coats provided for just such an emergency had been
relegated to the strings on the saddles. To the left, on the slope of
another hogback, rose tier after tier of little lakes, seven terraces in
all, each fringed with a belt of green pine trees; behind each belt rose
a precipitous ledge of rock.

"Just look at that, isn't it grand?" said Hazel.

Jack had provided plates and the panoramic camera snapped its welcome to
the view. Five exposures were made to insure a good one, then the party
filed along the ragged, dimly outlined trail which Indians had used for
a century or more. In the distance could be seen the headwaters of the
Cache le Poudre and to t