294. SADDLE AND CAMP 



under the same dirty quilts with Bill, upon a 

 dirty mattress on the floor alongside the stove. 

 Bill talked in his sleep, waved his arms, and 

 now and again gave mighty kicks, but on the 

 whole I slept fairly well. 



At dawn I fed Button, and when he had 

 eaten, bade my friend Bill adieu, with thanks, 

 and in due course reached Lambert's ranch, 

 where Mr. and Mrs. Lambert gave me a true 

 Western greeting and I enjoyed a breakfast of 

 fried grouse, with home-made jelly. When I 

 told them where I had spent the night, Mrs. 

 Lambert held up her hands in horror and ex- 

 claimed: 



"Of all places! With crazy Bill! Why, he 

 escaped from an asylum not long ago and he's 

 hiding up there. He's a lunatic!" 



"Never mind," said I, "Bill took me, a stran- 

 ger, into his cabin and gave me the best he had 

 — and told me some good yarns." 



In a previous chapter, discussing the elk situ- 

 ation in Jackson's Hole, it was stated that large 

 numbers of park elk range in Montana, north 

 of the park. Mr. Amos Hague, of Emigrant, 

 who perhaps more than anyone else on the 

 Montana side has been active in efforts to bet- 

 ter the condition of the animals, had written me 

 that elk were starving here in great numbers 



