ROUGH WEATHER OX THE ROCKIES 423 



the other clung still to a thumb and wrist of wet leather. 

 The lean figure was upright as a dart, and the spirit was 

 obviously unquenched, as he queried sharply, " Where 

 might you fellows be working for?" In one hand he 

 held the bridle-rein of a one-eyed saddle-horse, a fit 

 charger for the Don Quixotic-looking master ; to the tail 

 of this was fastened a sorrel steed without flesh, and no 

 other trappings but the hakamore or rope halter ; in the 

 other he held a long willow wand, with which he had 

 been persuading no less than five loaded donkeys to carry 

 their burden whither it might occur to him to go. Briefly, 

 he had completely lost his way ; and, after nearly a week 

 of wandering on the creek (" he kept no account of days," 

 he said) he was now pushing undauntedly up stream into 

 this basin of country, this river head, from which the 

 precipitous mountains barred all escape save by this one 

 entrance. For two days and nights he had been wet to 

 the skin — even his matches, the most vital treasure of a 

 backwoodsman, were damp, and his Winchester rifle, hung 

 on his saddle-bow, was rusted into uselessness. Of flour 

 he had nearlv 50 lbs., but nothing else to call food. But 

 what struck me most of all was not the above-stated dire 

 necessity into which the man had fallen, nor the imminent 

 danger that awaited him of death by cold and wet and 

 hunger, but the indomitable spirit with which he accepted 

 his position, and had fully and confidently intended to go 

 through. 



"Come down to the camp fire 1 " I naturally hailed ; 

 but, as he seemed bent upon arguing the situation, we all 

 scrambled up the snowy and slippery bank to our strange 

 visitor. Soon he seemed to accept circumstances, and to 

 consent not so much to accepting hospitality, as to throw- 

 ing in his lot pro km. with ours. The jackasses crowded 

 down more readily than their master ; willing hands 

 untied their remnant ropes and let fall the packs, while, 

 talking the while, so far as his chattering teeth would let 

 him, our quaint visitor applied himself to his two saddle- 

 horses. *' Guess I've broken my nails," he explained as his 

 half-frozen fingers refused to unknot the raw hide ropes ; 

 and he even submitted to my bringing a buttonhook into 



