Emigrant. The last stop on the long, long journey from New York. The last stop till the thundering train would reach the Gardiner entrance of the Yellowstone National Park. They were within thirty miles of that wonderland. Westy was glad that there was one more station to be reached before his dream should be a reality. His nerves were so much on edge that the one, poor, little station of Emigrant would act as a sort of valve to relieve him of the tension that he felt. He was glad that they weren’t going to reach their destination quite yet—he was too excited. Yes, he was glad there was just one more station. Then, then——
As for the traveling man, he seemed to be about as excited and anticipatory as if he were strolling across the street to buy another cigar.
The train thundered along through the rugged Montana country, its screeching whistle now and again echoing from the towering mountains. On, on, on it rushed with a kind of disdainful preoccupation, going straight about its business, circling the frowning heights, crossing torrents, unhindered, invincible. Did anybody live or even venture in those wild mountains, Westy wondered. Were there trails there? Could it be that grizzly bears heard in their fastnesses the shriek of that steel monster that was rushing straight to its end?
Only this roaring, swerving, thundering, rushing train stood between Westy Martin and those uninhabited wilds. No smudge signal would save him there. No approved device for helping the lost pilgrim in distress would serve him in that endless, rugged wilderness. The leather seat of the smoking car seemed good to him.
“Who’s going to look after you kids?” their traveling acquaintance asked.
The boys, particularly Warde, did not like to hear it put that way but he answered, “The auto is going to meet us at Gardiner; there’s a scout official who’s going to be there and they’ll call our names out. They’re going to take us to the hotel at Mammoth Hot Springs. After that we go on a kind of a tour. It’s all planned out for us.”
“Well, I’ll be with you as far as the Springs,” said the stranger, “so if you don’t make connections all right I’ll get things fixed up for you. How the dickens did you three kids happen to beat it out here anyway?”
“If we told you, you’d only laugh,” said Ed Carlisle. “We did some stunts, that’s how. We——”
“Don’t you tell him unless he tells us what he’s doing out here,” Warde said.
“All right, that’s a go,” laughed the stranger.
“I bet you’re just selling things to tourists,” said Westy. “I bet you’re bringing a lot of souvenirs of Yellowstone Park from New York to sell out here.”
“Yes, and how about you?” the stranger asked.
“We’re sent by the Rotary Club,” said Warde, “because we did three things to win the award.” The traveling man cocked his head sideways and listened in a humorously skeptical way which was very annoying. “You found somebody who was lost in the woods?” he queried.
“No, we didn’t find somebody who was lost in the woods,” Warde said som............