Late that night I came into the mining-town 

 of Leadville. At the hotel I found letters and 

 a telegram awaiting me. This telegram told me 

 that it was important for me to come to the 

 Pike's Peak National Forest at the earliest pos- 

 sible moment. 



After a light supper and an hour's rest, I again 

 tied on my snowshoes, and at midnight started 

 to climb. The newly fallen snow on the steep 

 mountain-side was soft and fluffy. I sank so 

 deeply into it and made such slow progress that 

 it was late in the afternoon of the next day before 

 I reached timber-line on the other side. The Lon- 

 don mine lay a little off my course, and knowing 

 that miners frequently rode return horses up to it, 

 I thought that by going to the mine I might secure 

 a return horse to carry me back to Alma, which was 

 about thirteen miles away. With this in mind, I 

 started off in a hurry. In my haste I caught one of 

 my webbed shoes on the top of a gnarly, storm- 

 beaten tree that was buried and hidden in the 

 snow. I fell, or rather dived, into the snow, and 

 in so doing broke a snowshoe and lost my hat. 

 This affair delayed me a little, and I gave up going 



125 



