LETTER VI. 85 



was by the main highway of the district, and 

 1 cached ' by no means expresses what we did 

 with them, for there was no attempt at conceal- 

 ment, the things merely being put up in trees to 

 be more or less out of the way of vermin. And 

 yet the untutored redskin and low-class Mexican 

 ' greaser ' will leave them untouched, though he 

 needs them more than the tramp who would 

 certainly remove them if left by an English 

 roadside. The highest trial of honesty I ever 

 saw out West was on my way back from the 

 Ashinola. A bar (of timber) crossed the main 

 trail near an empty corral. Anyone coming 

 along the trail must stop and dismount to remove 

 the bar, and, doing so, come face to face with a 

 small glass bottle, labelled ' best French brandy,' 

 and apparently full of that excellent cordial. It 

 had obviously been put there for someone ex- 

 pected shortly on the trail, and as the ther- 

 mometer was very low and the sleet very bitter, 

 I confess I had to look very earnestly in another 

 direction to avoid the temptation offered by 

 that neat little flask of bright amber fluid. 



Whilst Tommy made his final preparations, I 

 got old S. to supply me with a dozen or so of 

 the most useful words in my hunter's dialect, 

 which I proceeded to study. In cruising about 

 the world after big game, you acquire the most 



