CHAPTER XVIII

AT THE "TOP OF THE WORLD"

The morning dawned with the sky a molten green and gold. The mountain peak and the high ridges were a beautiful pink, and below them lay the green and blue of the meadow like a velvet carpet.

"Wonderful!" breathed the girls in chorus.

"Could anything be more beautiful?" murmured Grace.

"This is worth all the hardships we have endured," declared Elfreda.

The Overlanders continued to admire the scene until breakfast was ready. Immediately after the meal the journey was resumed, each one eager to reach the pink snows above that held so great a fascination for all. They came to the snow line late in the day. The ponies were left in charge of Woo Smith to remain until the party returned from the high peak of the Sierras, which was now their immediate objective.

Now that they were close to it, they discovered that the snow really was pink. No one seemed able to explain this mystery until Tom announced it as his opinion that the pink shade was due to a tiny bright red flower whose petals were found imbedded in the snow. Stacy scooped up a handful of snow and tasted it, and then made a wry face.

"It tastes like turpentine," he declared.

The Overland Riders danced and capered about in the snow like school children, and tried to snowball each other, but found the snow so crumbly that it could not be rolled into balls. This they overcame by wetting handfuls of snow from their canteens, and then, ere they even thought of making camp, they had a merry snowballing battle thousands of feet above sea level. They battled until their breaths gave out in the rarefied air--threw snowballs at each other until almost exhausted.

"Never mind. Don't wolly till to-mollow," comforted Stacy Brown.

With the coming of night a chill settled over the mountain, beside which the previous nights were almost sultry, and a damp, gray cloud hid the lower reaches of the peaks like a great gray blanket. The Overlanders were glad that they were above rather than below that cloud, and they hugged their cook fire, though it was far from being a roaring one, for they did not have fuel to waste.

Tom Gray, who, before the evening was far advanced, went out to examine the strange twisted little trees that grew here and there, discovered that they were full of pitch. He said nothing to his companions, but, moving back a little distance from the camp, he tested one with a match. The trunk of the twisted tree flared instantly. He put out the blaze with snow and returned to camp.

"How would you folks like a real camp-fire?" he asked.

"There ain't no such thing," mocked Emma.

Grace gazed at her husband inquiringly, knowing quite well that Tom had some plan for a fire in mind.

"The easiest thing in the world, my dear friends," chuckled Tom. "All that is needed to make a regular conflagration is the know-how." Tom struck a match against the trunk of a small scrubby tree against which he was standing, and held the match close to the trunk until he felt the heat, then sprang away from it. The tree blazed up gloriously.

"I did it with my magic wand!" he cried, waving his arms dramatically.

Exclamations of wonder greeted the achievement, and the Overlanders gathered about the blaze, holding out their hands to catch some of the warmth.

"Me savvy nicee piecee fire," observed Chunky solemnly.

"However did you do it, Tom?" wondered Nora.

"The tree is filled with pitch," answered Tom Gray. "When we get ready to turn in we will light another one. I don't suppose we shall get any warmth from it, but we can hear it crackle, which will be some comfort."

That night the Overlanders made their beds under an overhanging rock where there was no snow, and were lulled to sleep by another of Tom Gray's burning trees. They awakened in the morning again stiff with cold, but half an hour after sunrise they had fully recovered their spirits and were making preparations for the long hard hike ahead of them.

Each of the men carried a pack on his back, leaving the girls to carry such provisions as they thought would be needed. Even the rifles had been left behind with Woo, the mountain climbers carrying no arms but their revolvers. Ropes, an axe and a shovel were included in the equipment and they finally set out for what Elfreda Briggs characterized as "The Top of the World."

The peak of the great mountain was reached late in the afternoon, with all hands well tired out. They found the summit of the peak strewn with huge granite slabs, from some of which the snow had been blown away in spots, forming little scooped-out cups in the pink mantle.

"Well, now that we have enjoyed this punk view, suppose we get down to some place where we can make camp and sleep," suggested Stacy.

"This is where we are to sleep to-night," answered Tom.

"What! Here?" gasped Stacy.

"Yes. Did we not come up here for that purpose?"

Stacy shivered, and glanced down over the glittering snow field, then shivered some more, but made no further comment.

"This will be the first time that I ever slept in a snow bank, and I trust it may be the last," observed Emma resignedly. "Last night we found a nice dry spot for our beds, but up here--Br-r-r-r!"

"You will be as comfortable as though you were in your own bed at home," promised Grace.

"I wish to goodness I had your imagination," grumbled Chunky. "It must be beautiful to be able to dream things the way you do."

No fuel for a fire had been brought along on this last leg of the climb above timber line, so supper was a cold meal. Everyone felt so miserable after supper that the Overlanders with one accord began preparing to roll up in their blankets for the night. Hippy had already dug trenches in the snow for the party to sleep in, so they might be out of the wind. The girls talked chatteringly of everything they could think of, to assist them in forgetting their misery, then crawled into their trenches and tightly rolled themselves up in their blankets.

"This is the first time I ever went to bed with my boots on," complained Elfreda. "Should I live until morning I surely shall have something to brag about."

"Why, girls, this is an ideal summer resort," laughingly chided Grace.

The response was a chorus of dismal groans. For a few moments after that the Overlanders lay gazing up at the bright stars, then a gradual warmth overspread their shivering bodies, and one by one they dropped off to sleep, now nearly thirteen thousand feet above sea level.