® (Wlounfain (pon^ 



fire smoke to look at the myriads of stars that 

 pierced with icy points the purple sky! 



The clear morning brought no solution of my 

 problem of getting Cricket through. I could not 

 abandon her. While she was trying to find 

 something to eat, I made my way up a side 

 gulch, endeavoring to find a way for her to the 

 summit. From the top we could get down be- 

 yond the slide blockade. After a time a way was 

 found that was impossible for her at only one 

 point. This point was a narrow gulch in the 

 summit. I climbed along a narrow ledge, swept 

 bare by the slide, then turned into a rocky 

 gulch which came in from the side. I was within 

 fifteen feet of success. But this was the width of 

 a rocky gulch. Beyond this it would be compara- 

 tively easy to descend on the other side of the 

 slide wreckage and land in the road to Telluride. 



But how was Cricket to get to the other side 

 of this gorge? Along the right I made my way 

 through great piles of fallen fire-killed timber. 

 In places this wreckage lay several logs deep. 

 I thought to find a way through the four or five 

 hundred feet of timber- wreckage. Careful ex- 



i8i 



