CHAPTER VI. 



A Peculiar Wedding-Journey Field Taxidermy A Typical 

 Mountaineer Big Bear Talk The Cabin was Looted A 

 Lost Timepiece A Great Day for Talking. 







>LL was bustle in Paradise Valley one May 

 morning two years after the events nar- 

 rated in the preceding chapter. Harvey 

 was reading to Mrs. Harvey and Allie 

 a letter, the gist of which was as follows : 



" Meet me with the burros. I have two compan- 

 ions and am coming to spend the summer with you." 

 It was from Dyche, and this announcement was 

 the cause of the commotion. Everyone was impa- 

 tient for the pack-train to be off, even old Reuben 

 seeming to know that something out of the ordinary 

 had happened, for instead of hanging back and caus- 

 ing trouble when the train started, he walked sedately 

 to his place and waited for his saddle. 



Dyche and his companions had travelled the 

 twenty-five miles from Las Vegas to the foot of the 

 mountains in a wagon, and were now waiting for 

 the arrival of the pack-train from the mountain 

 ranch. Their baggage had been dumped on the 

 ground at the edge of a little Mexican village on the 

 banks of the Gallinas River, and here they made their 

 camp. The home life of the Mexicans, as seen from 

 the door of their tent, served to while away the time 



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