Ernest, though slightly affected with tonsillitis, was loath to leave us here.  It was zero weather on top, we were told, and it looked it.  The walls and peaks were white with snow.  He would not have an easy trip.  The drifted snow was only broken by the one party that we found at the river, and quite likely it would be very late when he arrived at the ranch.  John went up with him a few miles to get a horse for the ride home the next day.  Ernest took with him a few hurriedly written letters and the exposed plates.  The film we were going to save was lost in the upset.

On inspecting the provisions which were packed in here we found the grocers had shipped the order short, omitting, besides other necessities, some canned baked beans, on which we depended a great deal.  This meant one of two things.  We would have to make a quicker run than we had planned on, or would have to get out of the canyon at one of the two places where such an exit could easily be made.

The M. P. as our motion-picture camera was called—­and which was re-christened but not abbreviated by Bert, as “The Member of Parliament”—­had to be cleaned before we could proceed.  It took all this day, and much of the next, to get the moisture and sand out of the delicate mechanism, and have it running smoothly again.  After it was once more in good condition Emery announced that he wanted to work out a few scenes of an uncompleted “movie-drama.”  The action was snappy.  The plot was brief, but harmonized well with the setting, and the “props.”  Dodd, who was a big Texan, was cast for the role of horse thief and bad man in general.  Bert’s brother, Morris Lauzon, was the deputy sheriff, and had a star cut from the top of a tomato can to prove it.  John was to be a prospector.  He would need little rehearsing for this part.  In addition, he had not been out where he could have the services of a barber for six months past, which was all the better.  John had a kind, quiet, easy-going way that made friends for him on sight.  He was not consulted about the part he was to play, but we counted on his good nature and he was cast for the part.  Emery, who was cast for the part of a mining engineer, arrived on the scene in his boat, after rounding the bend above the camp, tied up and climbed out over the cliffs to view the surrounding country.

The hidden desperado, knowing that he was being hunted, stole the boat with its contents, and made his escape.  The returning engineer arrived just in time to see his boat in the middle of the stream, and a levelled rifle halted him until the boat was hidden around the bend.  At that moment the officer joined him, and a hurried consultation was held.  Then the other boat, which had been separated from its companion, pulled into sight, and I was hailed by the men on shore.  They came aboard and we gave chase.  Could anything be better?  The thief naturally thought he was safe, as he had not seen the second boat!  After