224 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



a burst of prosperity, and houses and stores sprang up 

 almost in a night, but when traffic passed on it was as 

 suddenly deserted, and at that time there were only 

 about fifty or sixty people in a town that lately had 

 held two or three thousand. Two days passed with no 

 news. The event of the day was to meet the train that 

 brought passengers from the park and took back those 

 that arrived in the train from the east. On the third 

 day the Ramsay s persuaded Fitzgerald to leave them 

 and join some friends who passed through on their way 

 to the park. They had not said so to Fitzgerald, but 

 they were becoming seriously uneasy, and Ramsay had 

 made up his mind to start next day on an eighty miles' 

 ride to the address to which they had telegraphed. 

 However, late that night, greatly to their relief, the 

 wanderer rode into the hotel yard, and anxiety was at 

 an end. Buchanan suggested that if they would trust 

 to his camping knowledge they would have a much 

 more characteristic experience of the wild west than if 

 they were just being taken round with the ordinary 

 parties. As they specially wished to have a quiet time 

 with him they were only too glad, and at once they pro- 

 ceeded to get all necessary camp fittings and stores, 

 and in the afternoon they set off for the real starting 

 place, the Mammoth Springs Hotel. There, to their 

 surprise and joy, Fitzgerald greeted them, " Ye never 

 surely thought I would leave ye in the lurch ; I just 

 came here to make sure that Pat was not waiting for 

 us here by mistake." This is not the place to describe 



