juries. But Van Shaw was
conscious and unless something unforeseen took place, he was in a fair
way to recover.

Everyone was excited and sleep was out of the question. So when
everything possible had been done for Bauer and Van Shaw, Elijah
Clifford told what he knew of the accident and in his own way related
his share in the evening's adventures.

"You see, I had just lighted our lantern and had stepped out of the
chapel to light our folks down the trail when I heard Bauer's cry for
help. I hadn't seen him go out and I didn't know what he was doing out
there, but it's always been a rule of the Mission when anyone yells
'help,' to run in that direction. I fell over an old standard oil can
and broke my lantern and my shins. And I guess while I was down, Bauer
was just getting over the edge of the rock.

"Say! Talk about recklessness, I take it Herr Felix Bauer has us all
beat to a-run-down-the-trail-and-back. You strangers from New York, how
would you like to back off the top of the Flat Iron Building, hang onto
the coping with your fingers for a second and then let go, trusting to
strike a window ledge or something between the soles of your shoes and
Madison Square? Well, that's just what this tuberculosis son of Germany
did, and if it doesn't knock all the snake traditions of this old rock
into piki bread crumbs then I have lost my way and forgotten where I
started from."

"How about yourself?" asked one of the New York tourists. "Didn't you go
down the same place?"

In the light of the camp fire it was not easy to see that Elijah
Clifford actually blushed. But he did, and Miss Gray sat near enough to
note it. If Elijah Clifford had not been so embarrassed by the New York
man's question he might possibly, if he had been looking in Miss Gray's
direction, have seen a new look on her face. A look of shy Admiration
that belongs to the border land of another county called Affection,
which is a near by state to another called Love. But Clifford hastened
to say:

"Oh, I had a light to go down with. When I fell, I broke the glass, but
lucky the light did not go out, so I could see where I was going. And
when I got down, there was Bauer hanging on to Van Shaw's arm in the
most affectionate manner, as if he didn't want to have him leave before
his visit was over. I hadn't more than time to get my foot braced on the
lantern or something, when Bauer turned his friend over to me and for a
minute or two he was on my hands,