Camp Venture

Mount

the rest of you donkeys are tired!" called out Jack Ridsdale, as the last of the mules an

night. All in favor say 'aye.' T

ndly tree and proceeded in other ways to relieve himself of the restraints under which he had toiled

ules, there's timber around for fire wood and I hear water trickling down from th

ht or thirty years old. Each member of the party carried a heavy pack upon his back and each had a gun slung over his shoulder a

y eagerly welcomed Jack Ridsdale's decision to go no fa

ountain peak-"we're all starved. The first thing to do is to get a fire started and get the kettle on for supper. If some of you f

was an expert with the axe-he quickly converted some fallen limbs and dead trees into a rude sort of fire wood which the other bo

behind the mountain, and evening was drawing near, there was a sharp feeling of coming frost in the atmosphere, and as it would be necessary to sleep out of

salt pork, and Jim Chenowith endeavored to boil some potatoes. "Little Tom" Ridsdale, another brother of Jack's, employed himself in bringing the wood as fast as his brother chopped it, and

ork and the coffee are waiting for Jim Chenowith to dish up his potatoes. C

on't seem to want to get done. Mother always boils them in from ten to twenty minutes, according to their size, and thes

an elevation of two thousand feet above the sea level and that,"

ou find o

t to do with bo

ere fired at the

last dishing up his potatoes we'll postpone the answer to both qu

they sat there on logs and other improvised seats with tin plates before them and tin cups at han

r two of growth still ahead of him. They were all robust fellows, too, lean, muscular, thin visaged, clear eyed and bronzed of face. They wore high boots, into which the legs of their trousers were thrust, and, over their tr

tin plate and swallowing the last of the coffee from h

wasn't hot enough to cook

ing like a volcano every moment

evel water boils at a temperature of 212 degrees, Fahrenheit. But when you climb up mountains y

ng very hard-" interrupted Jim; "I

l it is just as hot as fire can make it, unless it is shut completely off from contact with the air, as is t

fire you make in a stove the hotter the stove gets, and the hotter t

water is converted by heat into vapor. It requires a great deal of heat to make the change from liquid to vapor and so the process of giving off steam cools the water. That is w

n the steam from a kettle when you can't hold it

cooling processes are so exactly balanced that boiling water stands always at a uniform temperature no matter whether it is boiling hard as we say, or only just barely boiling. But in a dense atmosphere it requires more heat to boil water than it does in a rarefied atmosphere like that up here on the mountain. At Leadville and o

ised to tell us how you find out ho

to a tree and took down

pressure, and as that pressure steadily and pretty uniformly decrease

that you can trust it?" asked one

r it is growing dark, and come with me down the hill

ay. He there exhibited his instrument again and it registered fifty feet lower than it had done on the

trument exactly how high you a

you observe it always on the same level. One has to allow for that, but allowing for it we c

d, stalked out of the woods and approached the camp fire. After inspecting the company

who had risen in al

app

N

campin

, still adhering to

gs? You see us fellers what lives up here ain't over fond of stran

orld. She's a widow, and she's had a pretty hard time to bring up three boys of us"-turning and indicating his two brothers-"and now we see a way of helping her. They're going to build a railroad down

here things for?" pointing to the Doctor's sci

at means," answered Jack, who was beginning to grow i

do with 'em? Will they

ested in science and he has brought his instruments along so as to make

I'll show you how I use these things and what they tell me. One of them tells me how high up we are and when i

ength of whiskey and how much t

h a peculiar tone of sneeri

atever to whiskey or taxes or anythi

He turned to the tree behind him, seized his shot gun, presented it at the mountaineer's breast bef

you to lay dow

an ob

ready for action. The Doctor had not a shot gun, but a repeating, magazine rifle of the latest make, long in its range, exceedingly accurate in its fire and equipped with fourteen cartridges in its magazine that could be fired as fast as their owner pleased. And the moment that the mountaineer, before he laid down his rifle, made

aid to the

ur camp? Who are you? What right have you to ask us about ourselves and our mission in these mountains?

informer, an' so we takes good keer to have no informers about, an' if they insist on stayin' we usually buries 'em. Now you've got the drap on me an' my only chance is to go way if you'll let me go. So far as I'm concerned you're welcome to go round the mounting an' chop all the railroad ties an' cordwood you choose. But there's fellers in the mountings that you ai

. We are not interfering with anybody and I give you warning that if anybody interferes with us it will be the worse for him. We are armed, ever

n take your rifle and go away. But don't intrude upon us again. If you do, you'll get th

ments and without a word walked away u

ean, Jack?" asked a

broke in Tom,

ies in the fastnesses of the mountains and surreptitiously

n the wood lands up here and cutting railroad ties?

onfiscated, they are fined heavily, and worse still they are imprisoned for very long terms. They are always on the lookout for agents of the revenue in disguise,

and subject him to humiliation?" asked Ed Parmly

ell to let him know at once that we're going to stay, that we are fully armed, and that in the event of necessity we shall be what he would call 'quick on trigger.' I meant him to understand that clearly, and he understands it. You see men that are freest in killing other men

ck us in our camp?"

they'll probably try to drive us out. But I for one am not going to be driven out, and I

and we know how to use them. We're up here

" answered the

ook out for ourselves. We must never sleep without a sentinel on guard, and every fellow of

detail for to-night Jack. I'll take the worst turn, which I believe

l be up by six in the morning. That's eight hours and there are five of

n the Doctor. "You

and we don't want you to lose your sleep. We'll

hat may venture to assail us. Now boys, I want you to understand my position and attitude clearly. Either I am a full member of this company in good standing, or else I do not belong to it at all. In the latter case I'll withdraw and go back down the mountain. I'm older than you boys, but not enough older to make any serious difference. I'm still a good deal of a boy, and either you must let me do a

e company, "that Doctor LaTrobe be hereby declared to be precisely sixt

a shout, and then Jack, wh

at means one hour and twenty minut

as arranged, the boys piled an abundance of wood on the fire, wrapped themselves in their blankets and lay down t

id, "and I don't know anything like good