There were pieces of furniture and toilet articles, children's toys
and harness, several smashed boats had been seen, and bloated cattle
as well. A short distance above this camp we had found two cans of
white paint, carefully placed on top of a big rock above the
high-water mark, by some previous voyager.[5] The boats were beginning
to show the effect of hard usage, so we concluded to take the paint
along. At another point, this same day, we found a corked bottle
containing a faded note, undated, requesting the finder to write to a
certain lady in Delta, Colorado. A note in my journal, beneath a
record of this find, reads: "Aha! A romance at last!" Judging by the
appearance of the note it might have been thrown in many years before.
Delta, we knew, was on the Gunnison River, a tributary of the Grand
River. The bottle must have travelled over two hundred miles to reach
this spot.
A letter which I sent out later brought a prompt answer, with the
information that this bottle and four others with similar notes were
set adrift by the writer and four of her schoolmates, nearly two years
before. An agreement was made that the one first receiving an answer
was to treat the others to a dinner. Our find was the second, so this
young lady was a guest instead of the host.
Emery took but little interest in our camp arrangements this evening,
and went to bed as soon as it was possible for him to do so. He said
little, but he was very weak, and I could tell from his drawn face
that he was suffering, and knew that it was nothing but nervous energy
that kept him at his work--that, and a promise which he had made to
build a fire, within a stated time now less than two weeks away, in
Bright Angel Creek Canyon, nearly three hundred miles below this camp,
a signal to his wife and baby that he would be home the next day.
Pages:
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150