Colorado.




CHAPTER VI



HELL'S HALF MILE

We began our work the next morning where we left off the night before
by bringing the remaining boat down along the edge of the "Triplets."
Then, while Emery cooked the breakfast, Jimmy and I "broke camp." The
beds came first. The air had been released from the mattresses before
we got up,--one way of saving time. A change of dry clothing was
placed with each bed, and they were rolled as tightly as the two of us
could do it, after which they were strapped, placed in a rubber sack,
with a canvas sack over that, both these sacks being laced at the top.
The tent--one of those so-called balloon silk compositions--made a
very small roll; the dark-room tent, with its three plies of cloth,
made the largest bundle of the lot. Everything had been taken from the
boats, and made quite a pile of dunnage, when it was all collected in
a pile ready for loading. After the dishes were washed they were
packed in a box, the smoke-covered pots and pans being placed in a
sack. Everything was sorted and piled before the loading commenced. An
equal division of nearly everything was made, so that the loss of one
boat and its cargo would only partially cripple the expedition. The
photographic plates and films, in protecting canvas sacks, were first
disposed of, being stored in the tin-lined hatches in the bow of the