ut, I shall at least have the satisfaction of not having quit. If you
wish to pray, do so. The sooner we start the better. From now on, the
water will be rising."

"I prayed last night," said Ashton. He added somberly, "And now we are
both going to the devil."

"No," said Blake, with no less earnestness. "There is no devil--there
is no room for a devil in all the universe. What man calls evil is
ignorance,--his ignorance of those primeval forces of nature which he
has yet to chain; his ignorance of those higher qualities in his own
nature which, if known, would prevent him from wronging others and
would enable him to bring happiness to himself and others."

"You say that!" cried Ashton. "You can mock! You do not believe in
hell!"

Blake smiled grimly. "What do you call this?--But you mean a hell
hereafter. I believe this: If, when we pass into the Unknown, we
continue to exist as individual consciousnesses, then we carry with us
the heaven and the hell that we have each upbuilt for ourselves."

"God will not let you escape," stated Ashton. "You will pass from this
hell of water into the hell of fire and brimstone."

"Have it your own way," said Blake. "I lived one summer in Death
Valley. The other place can't be much hotter."

He climbed up the ledges and planted the level firmly on its tripod
above the high-water mark of the spring floods. He called down to
Ashton: "Hate to leave the old monkey up here; but it will serve as a
memento of our present visit, when we come down again to locate the
tunnel head."

"How can it be that we shall ever come down again?" replied Ashton.
"It is impossible--for we shall never go up."

Blake jumped down the ledges to him and pointed to the column of smoke
on the lofty heights.

"Look there," he said. "That is where we are going, if there is any
possible way to go. An optimist would stand here and wait, certain
that wings would soon sprout for him to fly up; a pessimist would sit
down and quit. An optimist is a fool; a pessimist is a worse fool."

"And which are you?" asked Ashton.

"I am neither. I am a meliorist. I am going to face the facts, and
then fight for all I'm worth. What's more, you're going to do the
same. Come! We've still got some clothes left, the rod for you to use
as a staff, this rope, the revolver, and seventeen cartridges. It's
fortunate we have any. We've got to signal that we are going on down
the canyon, instead of back up."

"We may as well sta