s fine and flaky. And there's oatmeal cookies mixed with peanut
butter and sweetened!"

"Good!" Norris pronounced.

"Y'r _all right_, kid!" Ace thumped affectionately on his thin shoulder
blade, "y'r all right," but at the threatened repetition of the bearlike
caress, Ted dodged.

"Another idea," Pedro broke in. "Why eat bread all the time anyway? Why
not macaroni and cheese, and spaghetti and tomato paste?"

"And garlic?" teased Ace.

"Surest thing you know! And vermicelli, and noodles, and all those
things. They're all made of flour, and they're different."

"A little bulky," protested Norris.

"Oh, well, for the start of the trip, then. They're not so heavy, parked
up on top of a burro's regular pack."

"Good!" agreed the leader of the expedition. "We may come to cattle
ranches where we can get beef and mutton occasionally, though not after
we get into the higher altitudes. And we can start off with a few fresh
eggs, for compactness and safety broken a dozen at a time into glass
jars. After that--I don't know whether you fellows would like scrambled
eggs or not, made of egg powder. Personally I don't. Nor the famous
erbswurst."

"Aw!" drawled Ted, barely concealing his impatience. "The thing that
stands by you best on a hard trip, after all, is jerky and pemmican. I
think old Lester jerked some venison himself last fall, and he's probably
got it yet. And he'll grind us some pemmican, if we get him word before
he starts."

"Gee Whiz! Those are emergency rations!" vetoed Ace.

"We'll have to have a long distance conversation with him to-night," said
Norris. "Meantime we mustn't forget pilot biscuit and peanut butter for a
pocket lunch and shelled peanuts, of course, and rice, and tea and
coffee, and sugar, and baking powder."

"There are two things that can compactly," conceded the Castilian boy at
this point. "The best grade of canned beets and spinach are pretty solid
weight. I'll make no kick if we load on some of that until we get to the
steeper grades."

"Hey!" shouted Ace. "In all this time nobody's mentioned bacon."

"We took that for granted," laughed Norris. "I'll bet Long Lester would
never start out without it, whether we told him to or not. But I'm
awfully afraid we'll use more tea than coffee. It's bulky, and worse, it
loses flavor."

"Oh," said Ted, "I know the answer to that. Powdered coffee isn't one
quarter so bulky, and put up in little separate tins, we keep opening
them fresh, do