Even the heavier wraps were none too warm as the coach reached the foot of the last incline and rolled easily over the hard, gritty, well kept turnpike. The meadow stretched before them, the Big Thompson easily distinguished in its center and the unbroken line of mountains walling up to the sky, shut them out from the noisy world which lay just beyond Long's Peak, whose snow-white night cap was then a mass of burnished copper from the last rays of the setting sun. "Oh, Jack, how supremely grand," was all Hazel ventured. "It is just lovely," murmured Miss Asquith. The great triangle sent forth its warning that dinner was waiting, and reluctantly they entered the house where the warmth of a little wood fire took the chill off the crisp air. "Think of it, 90 degrees in Chicago yesterday, today a fire to warm the house!" exclaimed Hazel. "It is just lovely," said Miss Asquith. "Dinner," shouted a white-aproned darky. A great platter of deliciously browned brook trout stood appetizingly in the center of a round table, and the four chairs were immediately occupied by four hungry people, who waived all ceremony, as well as the every day stereotyped roast beef, making trout the Alpha and Omega of their first Estes Park repast. The sight-seeing was begun at daybreak, Jack routing out his party in order to see the sunrise and the dissolving mists which hung low on the mountain sides as they disappeared beneath the warming influence of old Sol. An early breakfast was followed by unpacking of trunks, arranging of fishing tackle, cameras, hammocks and paraphernalia which they disposed of in and about the four-room cottage near the main hostelry. Great elk and deer antlers decorated buildings all about them and the emblem of occupancy was the fly rod standing in some convenient corner. Saddle horses, phaetons and four-seated spring wagons were standing about, chartered for the day's outings, while already on the banks of the streams were anglers casting their favorite flies over pool, riffle and swirl, in expectant anticipation of luring the wary, ever alert inhabitant which lurked beneath some rock or bank. A flash of something like light, followed by the straightening of a line, the symmetrical curve of a split bamboo, the sharp click of a swiftly revolving reel in crescendo as the line cleft the water, then the lull, the renewed dash for liberty as a spotted, open mouthed one-pounder madly threw himself from the water, shaking his head and falling with a splash back into the stream,--the critical moment,--but the barb holds and a limp, pink tinted trout, with extended gills, floats easily into the landing net--a prize is captured which proves the record breaker of the day, all within sight of the "tavern."