The Holbrook news., 1916-10-20
FINALLY SAVED PETS
THIS YOUNG CALIFORNIA NOUN.
 TAINEER A REAL HERO.
Only Those Who Have Had Expert. ence in Snow-Bound Countries Will Appreciate Magnitude Of
 Work He Had to Do.

Work He Had to Do.
 In the autumn of 1913, William Ru- therford, a young California noun taineer, engaged to remain alone as caretaker at Fallen Leaf lodge, in the Lake Tahoe region of the high Sierras, during the winter. Rutherford was a guide during the summer months, and he kept his animals, a saddle horse and pack mule, named Babe and Mike, at the lodge, intending to use them to haul firewood for the next summer season.
 On December 22, two men came by the lodge from the lake on their way to tho Sacramento valley. They were anxious to reach their homes in time for Christmas, and they begged that they might take Babe and Mike to carry their heavy packs.
 Rutherford demurTed, for he feared storms; but the men persisted, saying that unless they reached home before the 25th, their children would have neither presents nor Christmas din ners. That plea was more than the tender-hearted young man could with stand, and he let them take the ami mals, exacting a promise that they would return them as soon as the sled road opened.
 The travellers started at daylight, taking the trail over the summit. That night a terrific, snowstorm swept the mountains Rutherford was worried, e start had enabled the men to fight their way to the lower country. On January 8, he snowshoed over to Ia hoe post office, where he found a crumpled post card from one of the men, informing him that they had been caught in the storm and had to abandon the animals to save their own lives.
 The next day Rutherford started out to find Babe and Mike. He travelled in the sticky snow across the summit to Bryson's camp, and the next day two or three miles farther. He had hardly expected to find Babe or Mike alive, but as he came round bluff he was delighted to see the two animals stand ing disconsolately side by side. He yelled at them and Babe whinnied back, although he was almost too de- jected and weak to move
 The animals had trampled a place about ten feet square under a tama- rack tree, and had never moved out of it. They had gnawed at the saddle blankets and the hair rope, and had even nibbled each others tails and names. The snow was five and half feet deep all around them.
 Rutherford shoveled a trail to the river, in doing which he fell through the ice three times. He had to undress and wiring out his clothes in the bitter cold Then he wateTed the horses, and immediately set out for Bryson's camp. The animals were too weak to follow. At the camp he got half bale of hay and carried it down on his back, travelling on skis.
 The next day he went to shoveling again, and worked at it all day long. At daylight he got up, carried more hay down to the horses, and put in 12 hours more of shoveling.
 It was terribly heavy work, for there were six inches of soft snow, then four inches of frozen crust, and below that a mass of wet snow. When he got back to Bryson's he was so weary he could hardly crawl up the steps.
 Wednesday it showed hard and filled up his laboriously made path, and Rutherford changed his tactics. He determined to make snowshoes for the horses; but he could find nothing at all of which to make them. Then he thought of putting down board in three sections, two boards wide, moving the horses upon the first ones and then taking up the rear ones. Loaded with hay and blanks, he fought his way into the blizzard. It took him four hours to get down to the horses.
 The next day he carried down more blanks and tried to put his plan into execution. It was a failure boards simply shot out from under the horses in every direction across the crust! Just then two other men whom he knew appeared, coming up from Straw berry camp farther down the noun tain. They told him it was no use, and advised him to shoot the animals. 0uI Iutu6IlOIQ WOulu nCls anu JudL night he thought of the way out of his difficulty. There were some cowhides and sheepskins hanging in Bryson's camp. These he carried down to the tamarack tree where Babe and Mike still stood, and where his two friends of the day before joined him. They quartered the cowhides, put the sheep skins inside for filling, and bound the clumsy bundles round the feet of the animals-one to each foot.
 About three o'clock they were ready for the new experiment. Rutherford says he actually cried when he found it was going to work! Babe and Mike wobbled down to the end of the ditch, climbed out on top of the snow, and made pretty good progress, sinking in only a few inches. They reached Strawberry camp before dark. From there it was not very hard to get the animals down into the Sacramento valley-Youth's Companion.