They set out in high humor, the new ponies being hitched to more sedate companions so as to keep their spirits within bounds. But notwithstanding this, the lively little animals plunged and leaped about till it appeared as if their packs would come off. Throughout the morning they progressed steadily toward the great snow-covered peaks that shone and glittered like diadems toward the northwest. Black ridges of rock appeared among the white coverings of their flanks, giving them an odd, striped appearance.
A stop was made for dinner at the side of a roaring torrent, whose green, cold waters came from the snow-capped peaks toward which their way now lay. While Jim cooked the meal, aided by Jimmie, the boys scattered in every direction gathering firewood or looking at the scenes about them. All at once there came a wild whoop of dismay from Persimmons, who had been entrusted with the duty of tethering Topsy, one of the new ponies.
The little animal had taken fright at the smell of the lion skin, which was rolled up on Baldy’s back, and before anyone could stop her she was off toward the torrent. Ralph was in his saddle in a second and after her, swinging his lasso in true cowboy fashion.
“Yip! yip!” he yelled, delighted at the prospect of a brisk chase.
But Topsy, although she hesitated a minute on the brink of the torrent, did not, as Ralph had surmised, turn and dash along the bank. Instead, she plunged right into the seething waters, pack and all, and struck out for the opposite shore.
Ralph only paused a minute and then he was into the stream after her, urging his unwilling pony into the cold water. Reaching the middle of the stream, he slipped off his pony and swam beside him till shallower water was reached.
The swift current carried them down stream for quite a distance, but at last the struggling pony’s feet found solid bottom, and he scrambled out not more than a hundred yards behind Topsy. All this had happened so quickly that those left behind had hardly time to realize it before Ralph gained the opposite shore. Then Jim hailed him:
“Sure!” hailed back the boy positively, and clapping his big, blunt-rowelled spurs to his pony he was off into the woods after the fleeing pack animal. The wood proved to be only a strip of pine and tamaracks, and beyond was a rocky ledge leading up the side of a high mountain, for by this time they had reached the heart of the Rockies and big peaks towered all about them.