At the end of three hours of hard traveling they came in sight of the sheep-station for which they were bound. It was composed of a log cabin and half a dozen large sheds, surrounded by a high fence. Nobody was in sight, and they had to call several times before the care-taker of the place put in an appearance.
"Have you a party of strangers here?" questioned Granbury Lapham.
"Yes," was the answer, "but they are not here just now."
"They started this morning for the top of old Thundercap," said the sheep raiser. "They will be back by to-morrow night."
"Found at last," said the Englishman, joyfully, and translated what had been said to Dave and Roger.
"Back to-morrow night," murmured Dave. His heart began to beat rapidly. "I wish they'd come to-night. I can hardly wait."
The sheep raiser was questioned further, and told them the party was made up of Mr. Porter, Mr. Lapham, and five others, including a Norwegian guide named Bjornhof. He said they had a number of scientific instruments with them, and talked of gold and silver and other precious metals.
"Maybe they are trying to locate a mine," suggested Roger.
"If they are, I fancy they will be disappointed," answered Granbury Lapham. "Norway has been pretty well explored for minerals and the best of the mines have been located."
"This region doesn't look as if it had been explored very much," returned Dave. "It's about as wild and primitive as could be."
The sheep-station afforded but meager accommodations, and they were glad that they had brought along some supplies. There was, to be sure, plenty of mutton, but who wanted to eat that all the time?
"I don't mind lamb," said the senator's son. "But mutton, especially when it is strong, is another matter."
"Which puts me in mind of a story, as Shadow Hamilton would say," said Dave, with a smile. "A young housewife was going to have a number of her husband's friends to dinner, and her husband told her to get a big leg of lamb for roasting. So she went to the butcher. 'Give me a leg of lamb,' she said. 'I want a very large one. I think you had better give it to me from a lamb four or five years old.'"
"And that puts me in mind of another," answered the senator's son. "A country boy went to town and there saw a circus parade including two camels. When he got back home he told his folks that the parade was all right, but he thought it was a shame to drive around such long-necked, hump-backed cows!"