272 ADVENTURES OF DR. ALLEN. 



We ranged the pine hills far and wide, and finally found 

 ourselves on the top of a mountain. Twilight was setting in, 

 but we were determined to have some meat, if meat was to 

 be had, so we kept on until it was dark, when we found to our 

 dismay that we were on the rimrock. Everything soon be- 

 came the same color, so we dismounted and led our horses, 

 plodding along in darkness. We tried to descend at a dozen 

 places, each one proving worse than the last, and it must have 

 been at least nine o'clock when we succeeded in getting down 

 over the rocks and dead trees. As our camp was below us on 

 the creek, another hour was spent getting to it, and we again 

 took supper without fresh meat. That five men, hunters, 

 should be out in the wilds for two days and kill nothing was a 

 disgrace to the party. 



The next day's march was to carry us into the heart of 

 our hunting ground to our main camp. We held a council, 

 and Chappell and Jennings, who knew the ground, agreed on 

 the location of the camp. Chappell and myself then started 

 across the country, eager to get some game, as we now began 

 to feel the need of fresh meat. The afternoon was spent in 

 quest of black-tail deer. Creek beds, southern hillsides, 

 mountain tops, rimrocks and the pine forests afforded us no 

 opportunity to shoot, and when our party reassembled at 

 the night camp on Ten Sleep, we were all empty-handed. 

 The mountains surrounded us on the north, east and west, 

 and the three forks of the Ten Sleep River were alive with 

 trout. Signs of deer and elk had been seen, and we were all 

 sure that the morrow would find our camp well supplied with 

 meat, and meat in abundance. 



While we sat eating our supper of canned food, hot bis- 

 cuits and coffee under the towering pines, Cal told us that 

 our supper the next night would consist principally of elk 

 steak. Chappell declared he was going to have a deer's rib 



