When the three others toiled up to the same place, they saw. A shallow valley lay before; at the farther edge the timbered slope of the Grand Peak commenced. Hurrah! Several buffalo were feeding, below. The lieutenant and the doctor made a dash for them――cleverly headed them off, shot rapidly, and downed two. “Fresh hump for supper,” cheered Terry. “I could eat a whole one, myself.” “Sure, I could drink a river dry, first,” wheezed John. “Do you mind that we’ve struck no water since mornin’?” “Water there,” Stub hazarded, pointing at a line of lighter green near the foot of the mountain. They arrived below in time to help butcher the buffalo while the lieutenant and the doctor rode on 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. “Yes, sir. The Government will be enabled to revise its atlases with accuracy, according to our new data as to the course of certain rivers, and the National boundary between the United States and the Mexican territory westward. And we may perceive a route that will take us directly from the Arkansaw to the head of the Red River and the Comanche country.” The long slope of the mountain rose dark and brooding right above them. They were so close in that from the campfire they could not see the top, but they felt the snow whitely waiting, up toward the black sky beyond the million stiffly marshalled, sighing pines.