meant. I used
to wonder at the ease with which a cockroach can climb a perfectly
smooth wall and run across the ceiling. I know now that to do this is
the easiest thing in the world--if you have the proper incentive behind
you. I had gone up one wall of the tent and had crossed over and was in
the act of coming down the other side when Bill burst in, his eyes
blurred with sleep, a lighted lamp in one hand and a gun in the other.

I never was so disappointed in my life because it wasn't a Hydrophobic
Skunk at all. It was a pack rat, sometimes called a trade rat, paying us
a visit. The pack or trade rat is also a denizen of the Grand Canon. He
is about four times as big as an ordinary rat and has an appetite to
correspond. He sometimes invades your camp and makes free with your
things, but he never steals anything outright--he merely trades with
you; hence his name. He totes off a side of meat or a bushel of meal and
brings a cactus stalk in; or he will confiscate your saddlebags and
leave you in exchange a nice dry chip. He is honest, but from what I
can gather he never gets badly stuck on a deal.

Next morning at breakfast Johnny and Bill were doing a lot of laughing
between them over something or other. But we had our revenge! About
noon, as we were emerging at the head of the trail, we met one of the
guides starting down with a couple that, for the sake of convenience, we
had christened Clarence and Clarice. Shorty hailed us.

"How's everything down at the camp?" he inquired.

"Oh, all right!" replied Bill--"only there's a good many of them
Hydrophoby Skunks pesticatin' about. Last night we seen four."

Clarence and Clarice crossed startled glances, and it seemed to me that
Clarice's cheek paled a trifle; or it may have been Clarence's cheek
that paled. He bent forward and asked Shorty something, and as we
departed full of joy and content we observed that Shorty was composing
himself to unload that stock horror tale. It made us very happy.

By common consent we had named them Clarence and Clarice on their
arrival the day before. At first glance we decided they must have come
from Back Bay, Boston--probably by way of Lenox, Newport and Palm Beach;
if Harvard had been a co-educational institution we should have figured
them as products of Cambridge. It was a shock to us all when we learned
they really hailed from Chicago. They were nearly of a height and a
breadth, and similar in complexion and general expression;