268 ADVENTURES OF DR. ALLEN. 



minutes and one crack of his whip sent the horses away like 

 a flash. Through the kindness of Mr. Chaplin, a wealthy 

 farmer and cattlegrower, I was loaned a fine saddle pony. 

 Chappell rode Dr. Watkins' iron-gray steeple-chaser; Mr. 

 Dickey rode his own fleet mare, and Mr. Jennings also took 

 along his old reliable pony, which was ridden by Mr. Erwin 

 Whitcomb, who completed the party. My friend, Chappell, 

 and myself remained to bring up the rear on horseback. 



Our horses were in good condition and traveled well. 

 When we ascended the top of the hill, we could see our team 

 and horsemen wending their way far in the distance. We 

 were now about five miles from the base of the mountain, 

 so we pressed forward. Having ascended a gulch a long 

 distance, we finally came to what I supposed was the road 

 which went up perpendicularly, but, on nearing the spot, it 

 was found to be a pole chute. We turned to the left and 

 found our teamster, Cal, toiling up the narrow way. Here 

 we were fortunate enough to find a man hauling lumber who 

 gave us the aid of one of his teams. After a pull of more 

 than an hour, we succeeded in getting up the worst portion 

 of the mountain. 



Presently we came to a halt and camped for dinner at 

 an old sawmill. Our horses were soon eating. Each member 

 of our company tried to outdo the others in the preparation 

 of dinner,, and, in a few minutes, all were appeasing moun- 

 tain appetites. After dinner our route lay over a beautiful 

 prairie with stretches of pine timber. The warm sun brought 

 out the red squirrels, and the ever busy "camp robber" was 

 chattering, as he plied his ivory bill to the pine cone, devour- 

 ing the nuts. We made a long drive over rough roads and 

 struck our camp on the north fork of Powder River, where 

 Cal had planned that we would spend the night. Chappell 

 and I stole a march on the others, got in first, located camp, 



