Page:Lost with Lieutenant Pike (1919).djvu/158

 looking for a good camping place. It was too late to do anything more this day.

A good camp spot was found on a little creek of ice cold water from several springs flowing out of the mountain's base.

"Here we are at last, lads," the lieutenant welcomed, as they brought the meat in. "We've wood, meat and water, and to-morrow we'll climb to the top. Success awaits us."

"It's been a long pull, eh?" laughed the doctor. "How about you, Stub? Are you game? I mean, are you ready to try?"

"I go," Stub announced.

"With the cap'n's permission we'll all go, sir," added soldier Miller. "'Twill be a view worth the seeing, up yonder above the clouds."

"No tellin' what we'll find, I reckon," put in John Brown.

"Whatever happens, we'll be content in the knowledge that we're losing no opportunity," the lieutenant declared. "When we stand up there, on what may prove to be the uttermost southwestern border of the United States, we will have extended the authority of the Flag into a region doubtless never before penetrated by man."

"And procured considerable geographic information," said the doctor.