world above the sun beat down its full
mid-afternoon flood of light, the two men in the abyss could see stars
twinkling in the dark sky around the waving fleck of white.

Blake fired two shots in quick succession, the agreed signal that told
the flag was seen. He then calmly seated himself and began to add
together the vertical measurements taken during the descent of the
gorge. But Ashton groaned and flung himself face downward on the rough
stone.

Blake soon finished his sum in addition, and the result brought a
smile to his serious face. He checked the figures with painstaking
carefulness, and nodded, fully satisfied. Replacing book and pencil in
the deep pocket of his shirt, he opened one of the packages of food.
When he had laid out enough for a hearty meal, he looked at Ashton.
The prostrate man had not stirred.

"Come, Lafe," he called encouragingly. "Time to eat."

Ashton lay still and made no response.

Blake raised his voice--"Come! You're not going to quit. You're going
to eat. You must keep your strength to fight your way through and up
out of here--to _her_!"

Ashton sullenly rose and came to sit down on the rock beside the
outspread food. He was silent, but he ate even more heartily than his
companion. When they had finished, Blake swung his pack and level on
his shoulder, fired one shot, and stepped out into the swift but
shallow river. Wading as far downstream as he could see to read the
rod in the twilight of the depths, he set up the tripod of his
instrument on a rock and took the reading given him by Ashton.

The survey of the canyon itself had begun. Unappalled by the awful
height of the mighty precipices on either side, undaunted by the
uncertainty of escape, heedless of the gloom of the deep, of the
tumult and rush and chill of the icy waters, the engineer boldly
advanced to the attack of this abysmal stronghold of Primeval Nature,
his square jaw set in grim determination to wrest from these hitherto
inviolate depths that which he sought to learn. Whatever might follow,
he must and would unlock the secret of the hidden waters. Afterwards
might come death by slow starvation or the quick dashing down from
some half-scaled precipice. That mattered not now. First must the
engineer perform his work,--first must he execute the task that he had
set himself for the conquest of the chasm that was likely to prove his
tomb.

Vastly different in purpose, yet no less resolute than the engineer,
Asht