Ben took the hint, and rose from his recumbent position. "Didn't you wake me some time ago?" he asked. "What was it all about?" "There was a rattlesnake lying beside me." "Where is it now?" "It's gone." "Then there's no harm done." Ben Boone was not only the guide, but the cook of the little party. They had brought with them materials for camping-out meals, and it was his work to make a fire and prepare their simple repasts. Sometimes they caught a fish or two in the river, and it made a pleasant addition to their fare. Rupert found that in this new life he always had a good appetite for breakfast--more, even, than for their other meals. He had never had so good an appetite at the Somerset House, though the cook at that establishment was probably superior to Ben Boone in his chosen line. CHAPTER XXXIII. BEN BOONE'S TEMPTATION. The reader may naturally expect to hear something of Rupert's experience as a hunter. But so far as this story is concerned, this is not called for. He had other experiences which will speedily be set forth. For, after all, it was not so much the hunting that Rupert cared about. He thoroughly enjoyed his opportunity to travel through the wild scenery of Middle Colorado. It was camping out in a much more interesting way than when, as a boy, he went but a little way from home, and knew that only a few miles intervened between him and his ordinary life. Then he was interested in his guide. At the East he had never met such a man as Ben Boone. He seemed a product of the country. As for Ben, he carried out his contract, and served as a guide, philosopher and--I was about to say friend, but on the whole we'll substitute companion. Though Ben was a skillful hunter and mountaineer he did not particularly enjoy his work. He was a thoroughly lazy man, and would prefer to have remained at home in the rude cabin which passed for such, and, lying on his back with a pipe in his mouth, have drowsed and dreamed away his time. He did not understand, for his part, why city people who could live comfortably should want to rough it, incurring the fatigue of hunting just for the sake of amusement. "I am tired," he said, on the night after Rupert's adventure with the snake. "Yes," said Rupert, "I am tired, too. We have come a good many miles." "Do you like it?" "Oh, yes," said Rupert enthusiastically; "it is grand." "I don't see what good it is," rejoined Ben, lying back with a sense of exquisite enjoyment in his chance to rest. "You are not making any money." "No," replied Rupert, laughing, "but I enjoy the wild mountain scenery; don't you?" "No; a mountain isn't much to see." "Then there are the valleys, the woods and the waterfalls." "Oh, I've seen plenty of them. I don't care for them." "I suppose that is why you don't care for them. You are too familiar with them." "I reckon so," drawled Ben. "Don't you enjoy seeing anything? Is there anything you would rather see than this wild and romantic scenery?"