Then I Sat Upon A Rock Back Of
Some Bushes And Waited For Miss Hayes, Who Appeared After A Few
Minutes.
We rested for a short time and then went on and on, and still
there was nothing to be seen of the meadow where the camp was supposed
to be.
Finally, after we had walked miles, it seemed to us, we saw an
opening far ahead, and the sharp silhouette of a man under the arch of
trees, and when we reached the end of the wooded road we found Captain
Spencer waiting for us. He at once started off on a fine
inspection-day reprimand, but I was tired and cross and reminded him
that it was he who had told us that the camp would be only one mile
from us, and if we had not listened to him we would not have stopped
at all. Then we all laughed!
Captain and Mrs. Spencer had become worried, and the ambulance was
just starting back for us when fortunately we appeared. Miss Hayes
cannot understand yet why I went down to that wagon. The child does
not fear tramps and desperadoes, simply because she has never
encountered them. Whether my move was wise or unwise, I knew that down
on the road we could run - up among the rocks we could not. Besides, I
have the satisfaction of knowing that once in my life I outgeneraled a
man - two men - and whether they were friends or foes I care not now. I
was wearing an officer's white cork helmet at the time, and possibly
that helped matters a little. But why did they call to us - why beckon
for us to come down? It was my birthday too. That evening Mrs. Spencer
made some delicious punch and brought out the last of the huge fruit
cake she made for the trip. We had bemoaned the fact of its having all
been eaten, and all the time she had a piece hidden away for my
birthday, as a great surprise.
We have had one very stormy day. It began to rain soon after we broke
camp in the morning, not hard, but in a cold, penetrating drizzle.
Captain and Mrs. Spencer were riding that day and continued to ride
until luncheon, and by that time they were wet to the skin and shaking
from the cold. We were nearing the falls, the elevation was becoming
greater and the air more chilling every minute. We had expected to
reach the Yellowstone River that day, but it was so wet and
disagreeable that Captain Spencer decided to go into camp at a little
spring we came to in the early afternoon, and which was about four
miles from here. The tents were pitched just above the base of a
hill - you would call it a mountain in the East - and in a small grove
of trees. The ground was thickly carpeted with dead leaves, and
everything looked most attractive from the ambulance.
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