and me along, and we won't be able to see you do it. Just
remember what it will mean to her--just remember that--when you get
him where a shove or a loosened spike--Savvy?"

He went to loosen the diamond hitch of the packs that he had brought
with him from the ranch. Ashton sank back and lay brooding until the
girl came from the tent and called to inquire how he felt. Too
wretched to care about his appearance, he rose and went over to her.

"Oh!" she exclaimed at sight of his haggard face. "You are ill!"

"Only an attack of indigestion and loss of sleep--something I often
have," he lied. "A cup of coffee will set me up. Don't worry. I'm
strong--head doesn't bother me at all this morning, except a numb
feeling inside."

"I shall dress the wound at once, while the coffee is boiling," she
replied.

He would have objected. She silenced him with a look that acted on his
chafed spirit like oil upon a burn. Her kind, almost tender voice and
the soft touch of her fingers on his head soothed his anguish and
seemed to counteract the poison instilled by Gowan. He began to doubt
the puncher and the witness of his own eyes.

When Blake and his wife came to breakfast, Ashton was so cheerful that
they hardly noticed the traces of haggardness that yet lingered in his
face. Blake at once centered the attention of all by explaining his
plans for the exploration of the canyon. In addition to the surveyor's
chain, a hammer, and the rope and spikes,--which were to be used only
in making the descent,--he and Ashton were to carry the level and rod
and a quantity of food. At the suggestion of Isobel, he agreed to take
her father's revolver and fire it at intervals, on the chance that the
watchers above might see the flash of the shots and so be able to
follow the progress of the explorers down in the depths.

Genevieve quickly thought out signals to be given in response. If at
night, a torch was to be cast down into the chasm; if in the daytime,
a white flag, made of a sheet sent by Yuki, was to be waved out over
the brink. As the explorers might become confused in the gloom of the
canyon bottom, the point of the bend opposite Dry Fork Gulch was to be
marked by a beacon fire built on the verge of the canyon wall.

Blake had already arranged everything that he and Ashton were to take
down with them. Immediately after breakfast the outfit was fastened on
the packhorses, together with food, water and blankets for those who
were to remai