CHAPTER XVIII--Joe Gets Good News From the Doctor, And The Scouts NameTheir Camp, "Camp Kent"
The next morning Dr. Kent arrived, rather cross, at the boys' camp, forthe hikers had waked him up early, and he told Joe nothing but a goodbreakfast would set the world right. Joe did his best, and then put upsome lunch for him, and he went off presently in better spirits, tospend the day, as he put it, "loafing with the wild flowers and invitingmy soul." Joe also cooked his dinner when he returned at night. The nextday, he said, would be his last, and he insisted that Tom go with him upon Grinnell Glacier.
"We'll have a little more practice with the rope," he said, "and you cansee if you can tumble into a crevasse the way your friend Joe did."
So Joe, for a second time, took charge of the camp, and Tom left withthe doctor, bright and early. It wasn't a hard climb up to the glacier,and they crossed it, using Tom's scout axe for cutting steps whennecessary, and the doctor sent Tom ahead a little way up a cliff, andthen reversed positions on the rope, and let Tom take number twoposition. They climbed far enough up on the great gray shoulder of GouldMountain to look down on the glacier, on the lake far below that, on thegreen meadow, and then returned leisurely to camp.
On the way back Tom got up courage to ask Dr. Kent what he had beenlonging to ask him ever since he learned of his profession. That was, toexamine Joe. He told his new friend of Joe's condition, and why theywere in the Park, and how he was responsible for him, and did not wanthim to go on trips and do hard work if it wasn't safe.
"I'll see if I can borrow a stethoscope from the hotel," Dr. Kent said."There must be a house physician there. Then I'll give him the onceover, gladly. Anybody who can make coffee like his mustn't be allowed todie! But he doesn't look like a sick boy to me."
True to his word, he got the instrument, and before dinner took Joe intothe scouts' tent, stripped him, and examined him very carefully.
"Who told you you had tuberculosis?" he finally said.
"Dr. Meyer," Joe replied.
"What Dr. Meyer--not Julius Meyer?"
"Yes, sir, in Southmead."
"Well, if _he_ said you had, then I suppose you did have," Dr. Kentreplied. "But, frankly, I can't find any trace of it in your lungs now."
"But ought he to do hard work?" Tom asked.
"I wouldn't let him over-strain," the doctor said, "and if he climbs,make him climb rather slowly. But out here in this wonderful land Idon't believe he need worry much any more. If you can keep him here fora few months more, living this outdoor life, and then if he is carefulwhen he gets back, I think he'll be a well man by the time he gets hisfull growth."
"But we have to get back to go to school," Joe said. "I couldn't let oldSpider lose out on school, even if I did."
"What are you planning to become? What are you studying to be?" the manasked.
"We want to go into the forest service," both scouts answered.
"Oh, fine! That's a coming job, boys, but one that Joe can't take, if heisn't cured thoroughly. Think of this--your life out here is the besttraining you could have for the forest service. You can afford to misssix months of school to learn how to live in the big woods and the wildplaces. If you should camp with Mills till Christmas, say, you'd reallybe going to school, and Joe would be taking tonic twenty-four hours aday. Think it over, boys."
That night, after dinner, which he again ate at the scouts' camp, thetepee camp being again filled up with hikers, he paid Joe at the regularrate of three dollars a day for cooking his meals, and paid for thefood, all except the dinner Joe had got ready the night of the firstclimb, which the scouts declared was their treat. Then he picked up hisAlpine rope and handed it to Tom.
"How'd you like this for a souvenir?" he asked.
Tom gasped. "For _me_!" he exclaimed. "Oh, Dr. Kent, I--I--why, what'llyou do?"
"I'm taking the bus out in the morning," the doctor said. "I've otherropes at home. You boys might like to do a little climbing. But promiseme you'll pick easy grades to learn on, unless Mills is with you."
"Thank you!" Tom cried. "I--I never guessed I'd own a real Alpine rope.Feel of it, Joe--ain't it soft?"
"I move we name this shack of ours Camp Kent," said Joe.
"Carried!" Tom cried. "Camp Kent it is--and I guess we won't forget whomit's named for in a hurry, either."
"Thanks, boys," the doctor laughed. "And I won't forget you. I wish Iwere going to stay here a month, and use the rope with you. But I've gotto get back to the sick people who can't come to the Park for a tonic.Good-bye--and good luck. Joe, keep up the good work--live out-of-doors,keep dry, don't worry, and you'll live to be ninety-nine. Tom--don'tforget to test your anchor stone! I'll be out in the morning early, andget my grub at the hotel. Good-bye."
"Good-bye," the boys said.
And when he was gone they looked at each other, at the coil of soft,strong, beautifully braided Alpine rope, and Tom exclaimed:
"Well, by gosh! you never can tell. When he blew in, with those funnyold blue socks on, and the spectacles, and his talk about theMatterhorn, I thought he was a freak or hot air artist, and so did Mr.Mills. Instead of that he's a prince--that's what he is, a prince!"
"I never said anything at the time," Joe answered. "But I liked him allalong. Gee, I bet he's a good doc, all right."
"I bet he is, too--and he says you're all right now!" Tom cried, givingJoe a punch and a hug. "We can go climbing with this old rope togetherpretty soon. By jiminy, we _got_ to carry our cameras up a cliff and getsome goat pictures. Say, that's the sport! And I'm going to see Mr.Mills about staying on with him, and write home about school, and we'lljust stay here and see the snow come, and get our skis sent on, and,gee, it'll be wonderful!"
"If we do that, I got to get busy and earn money," Joe replied. "I'mgoing over to the Saddle Company offices at the hotel to-morrow and seeabout another cooking job."
"Go to it," said Spider. "I'm willing, now the doc says it's O.K."
But he didn't have to go over to the hotel. That very evening a bell-boyfrom the hotel came for him, and he set out the next morning with aparty on a four day trip. They went over Piegan Pass again, then up intothe Red Eagle country south of St. Mary Lake, then up on to the top ofthe Divide over Triple Divide Peak, where the water from the snow-fieldsflows in three directions--to the Pacific, to the Missouri River, and soto the Gulf of Mexico, and to the St. Mary River, then the SaskatchewanRiver and so to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean.
They descended to the headwaters of the Cut Bank River (so calledbecause of its steep banks) and camped in a lovely canyon. Then, for thenext stage, they climbed practically over the old war trail of theBlackfeet Indians, who went across the Divide over Cut Bank Pass toattack their foes, the Flathead Indians, on the west side. Then, fortheir final stage, they took the so-called Dry Fork Trail, to TwoMedicine Lake. This was a thrilling trip, over a portion of the Dividethat truly deserved the Indian name of the backbone of the world. At onepoint the knife-blade ridge was only thirty feet wide, with yawningprecipices on either side. The chief guide said, "This is the placewhere they say you can spit down into the lake three thousand feet onthe east, and throw a stone more than that on the west." Joe didn't haveto get off his horse and try, in order to believe him. And he was gladenough there was not a gale blowing, too!
The trail finally led down around the base of old Rising Wolf Mountainto the Two Medicine chalets, on the lake, where the party spent thenight.
Early the next morning, the party left for the railroad by bus, and Joewent with them to Glacier Park Hotel, where he caught the Many Glaciermorning bus back to his own camp. It was a fine trip, with splendidscenery, but he missed Mills as the chief guide, and still more hemissed the friendly companionship of Bob, Alice and Lucy, who had madehis first trip so much like a family party. On this second trip he wasjust the cook for a group of three men and their wives. But it meanttwelve more precious dollars for his fund--or, rather, it meant sixdollars for his fund, and six to send home to his mother.
When he got back "home," as he called it, he found Tom had carved asign, "Camp Kent," on a piece of board, and nailed it to a tree by theirtent. He also found Tom full of an exciting piece of news.
"There's going to be a Blackfeet Indian pow-wow here at Many Glacierto-morrow," he said, "and it's going to end with a barbecue, which BigBertha says is almost as good as a Hi-yu-Mulligan-potlatch."
"As a _what_?" Joe demanded.
"No, not a _what_, a Hi-yu-Mulligan-potlatch," Tom laughed. "Big Berthasays out in Washington, where he comes from, when they want to give theIndians a good time they give 'em a potlatch, which means a free feed,and a Mulligan potlatch is one where the free feed is Mulligan stew, anda Hi-yu-Mulligan-potlatch is just a jim-swizzler of a potlatch thatmakes an Indian yell, Hi-yu! Get it now?"
"I get it," Joe laughed. "But what's a pow-wow, and why's it being heldhere?"
"I guess a pow-wow is short for an Indian good time, and it's being heldhere to give the folks at the hotel something to look at--as if themountains weren't enough. The hotel is crammed full, and so are thechalets, and I had three people in every tepee last night. I've beendoing nothing since you left but chop wood, and haul water, and airblankets."
"Poor old Tom," said Joe. "Well, I got twelve cartwheels in myjeans--feels like a ton o' coal, too. That'll help toward the autumn.Now I'll help you get the camp ready for the hikers that are coming into-night."
"It's all ready," Tom answered. "The crowd last night got away earlythis morning. The Indians are going to get here this afternoon, and setup their tepees down on the flats below the falls. We're going to walkdown there now and see 'em come in, so hurry up and get yourself somegrub. I've had mine. I was up at five to-day and couldn't wait for yourold bus to get in at one-thirty."
"I'll be with you in fifteen minutes," said Joe, as he put some bacon ina pan.