THE FRONTIER ONCE MORE 207 



through which the trail lay, with no probability 

 that the horses could forage their supper, de- 

 termined me to search for Lewis's camp, and I 

 therefore turned into the other trail in the hope 

 that good luck would lead me to Skunk Creek 

 Canon. The several branching trails, each 

 leading into a canon, rendered the selection of 

 the right one uncertain, but presently I came 

 upon a brook and decided to follow it a rea- 

 sonable distance up the narrow mountain defile 

 from which it emerged, and, if nothing devel- 

 oped, bivouac for the night. 



Twilight was fading into darkness when I 

 reached the brook, and soon it grew so dark in 

 the narrow canon that I was compelled to rely 

 upon Heart's instinct to keep the trail. For- 

 tunately we had proceeded not much above a 

 mile when a camp-fire glimmered through the 

 trees, and a few minutes later I rode into the 

 circle of its light, where three men lounged 

 with their pipes. It proved to be Lewis's camp, 

 and I received a hospitable greeting. 



Lewis's lumber camp was situated in a na- 

 tional forest reserve, and the government had 

 ordered all tree cutting stopped. Some logs of 

 a previous year's chopping were still on the 

 ground, and Lewis had established this tem- 

 porary camp to clean them up and discontinue 



