274 ARRANGING MATERIAL FOR NEW MUSEUM 



been destroyed by the water. I now decided that I would have 

 to stay all night at the ranch I was heading for and, as I ap- 

 proached it, I saw a man ride out of the corral on horseback but 

 thought nothing of it and walked up to the door of the cabin and 

 knocked, but found no one in, so I opened the door and discovered 

 that the man had just taken his supper and ridden away. I was 

 soaking wet and the combination of mud, clay and hunger made 

 me decide to stay. I roamed around until I found some victuals 

 and I ate my supper. It was now getting near bed time and, as 

 there was no appearance of the owner, I took off my wet clothes, 

 hung them where they would dry, and crept into the man's bed, 

 which was in the room that I would call a kitchen. I must have 

 fallen asleep because I was awakened by hearing the man outside 

 and then I bethought me of myself, as it was dark, that I might 

 get shot, so, as soon as the man opened the door, I called out to 

 him that I had taken charge of his bed. After some talk, I ac- 

 quainted him with my position and he at once said: "Why, I 

 have just come back from Wheeler's camp, and the men have 

 been looking for you all afternoon, and Wheeler himself has gone 

 to Thomas' ranch to see if you were there." He said, then, that 

 he, also, had been riding around for the last two or three hours to 

 try and find me. We lay and talked until day was breaking and, 

 as soon as it was fairly light, I got up and dressed and started for 

 the camp, which he told me was about two miles away. While 

 on the way, I heard wolves howling and, as I was unused to them, 

 I thought they were the men at the camp calling to me and I 

 answered and, in a short time, I heard the wolves nearly upon me 

 and then realized what it was. Fortunately, they caused no 

 trouble and I reached camp safely and then all the men were 

 asleep, excepting Mr. Wheeler, who was still away. It turned 

 out that, when he reached Thomas' ranch, it was dark and, as 

 the road was bad and he was tired out, he slept all night there and, 

 in the morning, started for his own camp and reached it about 

 an hour or so after I did. We were all glad to be together again 

 and I decided that I would not be advance man again for the 

 season. 



We camped near the Elbow River and, for the remainder of 



