"Yes, I believe we were," smiled Frank; for he could still see Bluff flourishing his precious knife, sheath and all, for the entertainment of Nellie.

"Well, I can't remember for the life of me seeing it again after that.

You know we packed in a big hurry in the morning. I may have laid it aside, intending that it would go in on top, and then overlooked it.

Such a fool play, too, when that was the prize of the whole collection!"

groaned Bluff.

"And you've looked over the whole outfit here, have you?" Frank continued, surveying the piled-up mess of stuff.

"Yes; three separate times. Oh, there's no getting around it, I've made a goose of myself, and you know how I wanted to use that trusty blade so much. Of course, I won't think of moping in my tent. I'll borrow a knife, and perhaps it will do me good service; but nothing can ever take the place of that beautiful piece of steel."

"Well, let's get these things in something like order before the boys come in. Sort out what belongs to you, and chuck the balance of your extra clothes in your own bag, for I see that you've had most of them out"

"Yes. I even wondered if I could have stuck that knife in among my other shirts and underclothes, but it isn't there. I'll have to stand it, but you fellows will never know what a loss this is to me. Coming all this distance, too, just to get a chance to use it on an elk, or something worth while."

Frank thought that if Bluff had his way his mates would at least never have a chance to forget about his great loss, for he was apt to remind them of it every little while.

Will now came bustling in, anxious to ascertain if his little developing outfit came through safely, together with his packages of hypo and other necessities.

It was decided to put in that day around the ranch seeing how Mr. Mabie ran his business. Then on the following morning a party of them intended to set out for a camp in the mountains, where game would likely be found.

"We'll occupy three camps I have in view. From the first we can go to the second by taking several bullboats that will be waiting for us, and shooting the rapids in the river. That would be an experience you boys might enjoy," remarked the stockman as they rode around the valley to get a comprehensive grasp upon the way in which this enterprising settler carried on a big cattle ranch.

Reddy seemed to have been picked out by the owner to keep with them.

Frank was glad of this, for somehow he had come to entertain a fancy for the smiling young cowboy.

"Rapids, did you say?" exclaimed Jerry, his face lighting up with rapture. "Why, that would tickle us from the ground up. I've always wanted to run through some little Niagara. Frank, here, has done it up in Maine, so he tells us. I hope what you have will beat his experience all hollow."

"Well, they are some rapids, I understand," replied the other, smiling.

"And if I could only be on the sh.o.r.e, to see you shoot down, it would afford me the greatest pleasure in the world. Not that I don't want to go through, too, but my first duty is toward securing all these wonderful events in an imperishable way by taking a picture. Some scoffers may doubt a story, but pictures never lie."

"That shows your innocence, Will," remarked Jerry. "Why, I've seen fellows standing beside the fish they caught, which I knew myself to be only ten inches long, and yet the cunning photographer had arranged it so that it looked all of two feet."

"I'm surprised that you, with all your experience, shouldn't know that,"

said Frank, pretending to frown.

"You mistook my meaning, that's all. What I intended to say was that _my_ pictures would never lie," affirmed Will st.u.r.dily.

"Hear! hear! Somebody rub him on the back, please! But joking aside, Will, I'm ready to back you up on that score. The only fault I find with you is your ambition to take a fellow in every pickle he happens to drop into," and Jerry made a wry face as he remembered a number of scenes in which he had figured, that were wont to excite his chums to uproarious laughter at such times as they looked at the faithful reproductions in their alb.u.m at the clubhouse.

In this pleasant way the day pa.s.sed, and evening found them eager to complete their preparations for the morrow. Mr. Mabie answered every question fired at him by the anxious young sportsmen, especially Bluff, who wanted to know everything connected with the game they expected to hunt.

"He's trying to forget his great disappointment," said Frank as he and Jerry watched the other plying Mr. Mabie with these queries; for Bluff was the son of a lawyer, and would never take things for granted.

"What's that?" asked Jerry, for no one had been told about the loss that had come to Bluff.

"Can't find that knife of his anywhere, it seems, and believes he must have left it behind. He was looking mighty blue when I found him in the room, with all our stuff tumbled, pell-mell, out of the trunk."

Frank eyed his chum as he spoke. Jerry turned a little red.

"Not guilty, Frank! I give you my word I never touched the measly old knife. I'm sorry for him, too, for he seemed so bent on doing great stunts with it. I'll take a look myself," he said hastily, and yet meeting his chum's gaze in such a straightforward fashion that Frank never doubted his word for an instant.

"No use doing that. He rooted the whole outfit over. The knife is gone, and that's sure! I've been thinking some about it."

"And had a bright idea, I warrant. What's your solution of the mystery?"

"Why, you see, Jerry, I can clearly recollect Nellie's startled look when Bluff showed her that terribly large knife. She's afraid of such things. I'm sure she must have worried some about it, and I was thinking--"

"What?"

"That perhaps she may have considered it prudent to hide it away so that he couldn't find it again. I believe she would in my case, anyhow. It would be just like Nellie."

"Oh, well, it doesn't matter much, only Bluff is such a fellow to hang on a thing he'll never give us any peace about it. Have you asked Will?"

said Jerry.

"No. I will, though; but I don't think he would bother his head about a dozen knives. If it were a camera, now, or a rapid-action rectilinear lens, you could depend on him to take notice."

Frank was as good as his word. Will denied having touched the article in question, and said he was sorry to hear Bluff would be deprived of a pleasure.

And so for the time being the mystery remained such, with Bluff occasionally digging into that trunk in a vain search, and always sighing mournfully because he failed to bring the lost treasure to light.

The boys bunked in one big room. It was very much like a picnic for them, and would often bring back pleasant memories whenever they looked at the rather clever view Will managed to get of the interior, with his chums and himself lolling there.

In the morning there was pretty much of a bustle around the ranch house.

"Ready, boys?" called Mr. Mabie, as he appeared with his gun strapped across his back, as the easiest way of carrying it.

A chorus of affirmatives greeted his question.

"Then mount, and we'll be off. They've gone on ahead last night with the tents and foodstuff, so that we'll find things in pretty much shipshape when we get on the ground."

"Say, they do things right out in this big country, eh?" said Bluff to Frank as the two of them galloped off in company.

The morning was fair and the air sharp enough to be bracing.

"Never saw anything to equal the atmosphere here," remarked Frank as their host came alongside. "There seems to be a tonic in it that even we do not have up in Maine or the Adirondacks. It makes you feel like shouting all the time."

"Everybody says the same when they first come. Presently you will grow accustomed to its invigorating tone, and quiet down. It is caused by the dry air. We are a long way from the Atlantic, and these mighty mountains to the west act as a buffer to the moisture-laden air from the Pacific."

Crossing the valley, they were soon penetrating among the foothills at the base of the great uplifts, the tops of which bore eternal snow.

Wilder grew the scenery as they penetrated deeper into the wilderness.

Frank and his chums were almost awed by the grandeur of their surroundings. At the same time, Jerry kept an eager eye on the watch for signs of game. The sportsman spirit was strong in his nature, and generally forged to the front.

It was Frank, however, who first chanced to spy something that excited his attention.

"What is that moving up yonder, Mr. Mabie? There! Look! I declare if it didn't jump straight across from that high rock to the other! Is that a Rocky Mountain sheep, sir?" he asked.