Unexplored!

a frisky bay, grinned delightedly as h

?" called the b

the ranch boy. "H

leather chaps-a contrast to Ted's overalls. Greetings followed between Ted and Senator King

had drawn number two from the hat. Most of the cowmen offset their "two-quart" sombreros with brilliant-hued bandannas knotted loosely at their throats. A few wore chaparreras in stamped leather, and a few in goatskin-red or black or tan-though most let it go at plain blue overalls. One of the machines drawn up beside the

he opposite hill-side, beaming vacuously as the ox was put in the pit to roast (together with two smaller carcasses that the camp c

limp when he walked, careened up and down the dusty field on a high-stepping bay, while two lasso men

ek mule kicked out in a way that left a red mark on the flank of a lean white mare. Then one of the bulls in a separate co

Ted asked the young

admitted Pedro, with a gesture

less. (And to himself he added: "Likely promised his mother not to. Gee! I'd like to

ed the Senator, (a heavy, florid man with a leonine m

-flushed cheeks topping a red silk blouse joined to her khaki riding

rily. "Dad, that's Pierre La Coste's sister,-you know, he's fire-lookou

him Pur-r-r," supple

fe's been trying to give her," added

have him?" laug

ave man

mother's fruit ranch a go, his chum. Pedro, a neighbor of the old days, was his roommate in the fraternity house at Berkeley. All three ran to greet Norris, a young man in the uniform of the

ed on the scene, afoot,-Long Lester, a lanky, bewhiskered old prospector in soft felt hat, clean but collarles

ty to ride and seven-fifty more to go up!" Three men came forward. "We want two more entries. If you pull-leather

ged glances as the

tin' trouble," ca

" grinned Ted,

your winnings to get

ake a c

ng been ridden before. But he was secretly resolved if

t name. He started as he looked at his slip. "T

Dad!" breathed Ac

itf

emitted a long

cho boys," megap

with two lassos about his neck, had fin

announcement. An Indian in overalls swung himself into the saddl

h jump, while the dust rose till no one could tell whether the rider was on or off. Then the horse galloped to the

," the next entry was shortly announced. The Indian in the

karoo!" g

barely surviving the first buck, and seeing himself riding for a fall in all his finery, leapt nimbly to the ground while

rowd hanging over the fence. The Indian signified a desire to try again.

s finery by grabbing

gets two-fifty," adjud

" gurgled Ted. "Pretty hard on

get you a meda

youngsters working on local pack-trains,-who began by straddling the neck of his mount and ended by going over the animal's head, landing fl

signified a desire to get up. He was helped to his feet. "He's all right," was the final verdict as the little group led off the field. "Somebody give

oning us, and if he knows I've

e nine

ou had one you'd see. Let's stick here beh

it?" Ted laid a hand

never take a chance? Besides, you've got a re

was born ridin'," T

ide bulls and mules with a surcingle. It took three men to get the bull into the saddling pen, two wit

lear across the corral. But there the bull torpedoed the middle

tite Rosa's mount got to dancing, and finally staged a petite runaway on his own account, but Rosa kept her head and a tight rein. A small bo

y had his blood up. The white-faced bull, meantime, was again

nt to terms so quickly that people were laying bets it was jus

d to the boys. Then a murmur rippled through the loungers that encircled the

several days past, and it had not improved his te

brute lay panting in the saddling pen, his eyes ringed with infuriated white, his snor

ting on the bull," King was challenging the R

nd one hand hold. The gate of the saddling

r look out!" megaphoned the starter. "This

lassos ready waited on either side, their mounts aquiver. Ace'

ling his hat further over his iron-gray brows against the slant of the sun. Then th

lmighty sandy," a

the field, trailing a rope that still held his saddle horn. The starter raced after, his big bay holding back with all his might on the rope. The

ll's next leap would carry him over the fence and into the machine. She blanched, but sat silent. Pedr

he rope on the saddle horn-would it hold? Then a lasso was t

the bull went down with an infuriated snort, and lay

ded the man on the bay. The bull was relieved of his sa

o his ride. Now that it was off, his knees felt shaky, and he clim

orse piled him on the ground, and the announcement came: "Ted

over the gate, thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest. "Want up, l

Ace thumped the conte

wed a group of cow-boys, in imit

oo!" the Indian

dark eyes flashed. "Spunky kid!" commented Radc

illed!" Ros

s to get a grip with," t

age, as Spitfire danced forth with three lassos trying to hold him for the

n his wiry body was keyed electrically. Then the saddle was adjusted, Ted was in the

as if feeling that his reputation needed demonst

elled Ace. "Hey, T

up again and again, both arms free, slapping him hip and shoulder, hip and shoulder with his sombrero. Zip!-Zip!-Zoom!-Around and arou

pped, exhausted

ing!" gas

p. Ted was champion

two college friends, while they marched about to the tune of "A Jolly Good Fellow,"-Norris himself lau

a trial sail. The pilot arrived shivering in leather jacket and heavy cap, woolen muffler and goggles, with similar wraps for Ace, whose leather chaps now served a purpose. For the

experience. He invited Norris first. Their route lay like a map below them, as they winged their way across the sky, steering first due South till the rim of King's River Canyon t

Ace, running her into the cold strait above the river, headed her down canyon to within a hundred feet of the forest top, his grit based on sound mechanical training; his daring counterbalanced by his cool headed precision. He tried n

that he could not draw breath against the head wind, then a chill that penetrated even the pilot's uniform, as he watched the earth recede beneath them. The motor purred as they gained momentum and the propellers whirred noisily, and the changing air pressures so affected the stability of the l

ped back almost on the spot from which they had started,-the distinguishing feat of the Spanish 'plane,-he was almost a convert, th

gh after it gets about 190 degrees below zero, less is known about it. Its density is reduced fully half at 18,000 feet,-half a mile above the h

ting they discusse

On these maps were marked out the good camp grounds, and where bears, or deer, quail or grouse, might be found, where supplies were obtainable, or

re areas marked with varying tiny green tufts of grass labeled "meadows where stock grazing is permitted," and "meadows where it i

nd a drawing that looked like a woodshed showed where Forest Service fire fighting tools had been cached in various out-of-the-way places. "TLP" indicated the free Government telephone boxes, red doughnutty-looking circles me

a stream offering good fishing, and a broken green line a stream stocked with young fish, whi

spokes of a wheel (whatever it was intended for), the key to whi

it stretched from North, North-West to South, South-East, were the wide green areas "of spe

all very well, very thoughtful of the Forest Service, for inexperienced campers, who would probably never venture into the unknown. But to Ace, the airman, to Ted, with his experienced wild-craft, and to Pedro the romanticist, no less than to the young Yale man whose thirst for far places had led him into the U. S. Geological Survey, t

ed along the crest of the range, the roughest kind of going, (absolutely a horse-back trip, it was generally pronounced), and from its glacier-capped peaks, from 14,500 foot Mt. Whitney, to t

g off ridges on the Western slope like the teeth of a coarse granite comb. Between ridges, deep, glacier-cut canyons, "yo-semities," (to employ the Indian name), with

nes of the foothills, and these in turn, several thousand feet higher up the Western slopes, to yellow pine and incense cedar, Sequoias and giant sugar pines. Higher still came the silver fir belt, and after that, the twisted Tamaracks and dwarfed and storm-tossed mount

t of the Bret Harte days), Deadman Canyon, (flavoring more strongly of the gold days of '49), and Rattlesnake Creek, (doubtless deserving the title.)-To say nothing of such ordinary features as 13,500 foot University Peak, (a mere wave of the sea of peaks surrounding champions Lyell and Whitney), Diamond Peak, 13,000 feet, Mt. Baxter, likewise around 13,000, Mt. Pinchot, and a score of others (occurring at short intervals in a solid phalanx). Whoever wants to climb a mountain everybody climbs, seemed to be the final verdict of the party. There are other peaks al

ever hard to find. The verdant meadows left by the glacier lakes could be counted on up to the very backs of the 9,000 foot ridges. Mo

time they will be found higher still. The glaciers left by the last ice age naturally melted first in the lower reaches, and as those that now cap the peaks and flow down between ridges like the arms of a starfish, melt in their turn, they will leave their icy, green-blue crystal pools higher and higher up the

ge for their burros, Norris guaranteed that there would be plenty of hanging meadows,-long, narrow, bowldery strips of weed enameled verdure s

n Red Top. (A pack-mule had crowded his horse off the trail on the steep slope of an arroyo, and the horse had fa

't know who to send in his place. Besides, it's a week's horseback

ee, wind-swept cabin.) And leaving Rosa there, as she pluckily insisted, Ace brought her brother back, covering in minutes, as the bird flies, what it would have taken a week to traverse on horseback. Those mountain trails corkscrew up and down the canyon sides till instead of calling a certain distance a hundred miles acc

e himself was to spend the next month fishing around Kings" River Canyon, putting up at the canvas hotel. But he took as much interest in the camping

rseback, or afoot with pack-burros,-a str

own to sit back almost on their haunches and slide when they could get down no other way. Some of them will walk a log twenty feet above the surface of a stream. (The Eastern rider will find that hard to believe, unt

ride the well-defined two-days' horseback trail from Giant Forest to the Kings' River Canyon, and Gian

hat group so much as dreamed that they were embar

: Pronounce