HORACE "COMES BACK" 157 



to be carried forward along the main ridge to the 

 Datil and then south down Diamond Creek as far 

 as our next camp. For there now remained of the 

 formidable forest we had attacked in May only a 

 block of country to the west, stretching from the 

 Datil on the north to McKnight Creek on the south. 

 And we planned to work this territory, so far as 

 possible, from the canyons where the baseline was 

 td run. Our camps would be along the streams, 

 which flowed in a generally westerly direction and 

 which cut the timbered area for the most part into 

 easily accessible strips and wedges. Diamond 

 Creek was the northernmost of these main water- 

 courses and a first camp site was chosen near the 

 trap corral of the Diamond Bar outfit, some four 

 miles from the canyon head. 



The journey of the baseline to this point was made 

 memorable by an exploit of Wetherby's which 

 boosted that young man's popularity higher than it 

 had ever before been registered by the thermometer 

 of camp sentiment. 



The crew was running the line down a narrow ra- 

 vine that breaks west from the main range a little 

 this side of the forest boundary. It was late after- 

 noon, nearly time to knock off work. Conway 

 walked fifty yards or more in advance of the others. 

 Wetherby, at the moment, was helping Wallace with 

 the plane table. 



At a sudden unusual sound in the brush to the 

 left, Wallace turned aside to investigate. The next 



