If traveling had been hard before, it was doubly so now, and the chums realized that to get to where the deer were grazing would be no easy matter. They had to slip and slide over the rocks, and once or twice they reached places where further progress seemed impossible. "If we get any of those deer, we'll earn them!" panted Phil, as he half climbed, half slid, over some rocks. "If my horse goes down, I don't know what will happen to me!" he added. "We'll not go much further on hossback, I'm thinking," answered Todd. "We can't afford to injure our animals." Between the hills was a small valley and here the cowboy said they had better tether their steeds and leave them. "Even if we don't get back, they'll likely be safe till morning," he added. "If we have to remain away all night, we had better take some eating with us," said Phil. "We sure will," answered Todd, and he gave each of the party something to carry on his back and in his gamebag. "Now for a climb that is a climb!" cried Dave. "Roger, this puts me in mind of some climbing I did in Norway." "Were you in Norway?" questioned Sid Todd, curiously. "Oh, yes, I once went there to find my father," answered Dave. Before them was a steep incline, covered with stones and a stunted growth of cedars. Up this they went with care, for some of the stones were loose and afforded only an uncertain footing. Once Phil slipped and commenced to roll. He bumped against Dave, and both went flat. "Grab a tree!" sang out Roger. But there was no need to offer this advance, for Dave had already done so. He saved himself and Phil from rolling further. But a frying-pan the shipowner's son carried broke loose from the pack on his back and went clattering down the rocks to the very foot of the hill. "For the love of flapjacks, stop that noise!" cried Sid Todd, in a low voice. "Time you get to the top of the hill them deer will be ten miles away!" "I--I couldn't help it," answered Phil, as he arose and gazed sorrowfully after the frying-pan. "Shall I go back after it?" he asked. "Where is it?" "I see it--sticking in the fork of a cedar tree," answered Roger, and pointed out the pan. "Let it alone--we can get it when we come back," said the cowboy. "Now don't make any more noise, or you won't get no chanct at them deer, mark my words!" All of the boys understood the importance of keeping quiet, and as they neared the top of the hill where the deer had been discovered, they moved with great caution and spoke only in whispers. "The wind is blowing toward us, and that's in our favor," said Sid Todd. "I know it," answered Dave. "Deer can scent a fellow a long way off if the wind is towards them." The cowboy now took the lead and told the lads not to make a sound that was unnecessary. Thus they covered another hundred yards. Here was a ridge of rocks and beyond the top of the hill. "They are gone!" murmured Roger, as his eyes discovered that the top of the hill was abandoned.