Only part of the time," qualified Ashton with a sharpness that the
others attributed to his zeal to serve her.

He filled his canteen from one of the cans of water brought up by
Gowan, and rinsed out the mouths and nostrils of the thirsty ponies.
This done, he and Genevieve mounted, and the party started off on a
route parallel with the canyon, which here trended back away from the
edge of the plateau.

They soon came to where the surface of the mesa was slashed with
gulleys and ravines, all running down into the canyon. Blake swung away
from the canyon, in order to head the worst of these ravines or to
cross them where they were less precipitous. Presently, however, he
struck in again towards the great rift along the flank of a high
barren ridge. At last he led over the ridge and down to the side of a
very large ravine where it pitched into the canyon at an angle little
less steep than the descent of Dry Fork Gulch.

The line of levels, as Blake had foretold, had been an easy one to
run. It was stopped on the corner of a shelf of rock that jutted out
above the gorge. Having provided a soft nest for the baby, the four
went out on the shelf and peered down the dizzy slope into the black
shadows of the depths.

The two ladies drew back shuddering. Blake looked about at them and
seeing their troubled faces, sought to quiet their dread.

"You have not looked close enough," he said. "With spikes and ropes,
the worst of this will be comparatively easy. There are ledges and
crevices all the way down. You cannot see the lower half. When I was
here with Gowan and Mr. Knowles, the sun was shining to the bottom.
The lower half of the descent is much less steep than this you see."

Genevieve smiled trustfully. "Oh, if you say it is safe, Tom!"

"We shall take down the rope and all the spikes we can carry," he
explained in further reassurance. "At the worst places a spike and a
piece of the rope will not only let us down safely, but can be left
for our ascent."

"Then it will be all right!" sighed Isobel.

"For him--yes!" broke in Ashton, his voice harsh and strained. He was
cringing back, white-faced, from the edge of the gulch.

"Why, Lafe!" exclaimed the girl. "If Tom--Mr. Blake goes down, surely
you can't mean that you--"

"He's used to climbing--I'm not!" Ashton sought to excuse himself.

"Oh, very well," she said. "Of course it is not right to ask you to do
it if you suffer from vertigo. I shall ask Kid to take y