ver, carefully watching its descent. A curious thing
followed. At first it shot straight downward for a hundred feet, when it
impinged against a projecting point of the mountain wall, knocked the
fragments in every direction, as if it were a ball fired from a
thousand-pounder, and bounded against the opposite side, further down,
scattering fragments again. By this time it had achieved an almost
inconceivable momentum, and was shooting downward at a terrific rate.

In the depths of this narrow canyon, where the sunlight never penetrated
for more than a few minutes at a time, it was always twilight. At the
bottom it was almost dark, so that the stream would hardly have been
visible but for its yeasty foam. At some point near the base, when the
flinty stone was speeding forward like a meteor, it abraded a harder
portion than before. Instantly a stream of fire shot out, such as
sometimes flashes from a murky cloud in the sky, and, as if it were an
echo of the impact, the splash and thunderous thump were heard by the
boys at the top.

It was a tempting theme for the imagination, but they were too practical
to linger. Having agreed that the canyon could be readily jumped, they
did not hesitate. Running a few steps, Jack Dudley cleared the passage
and landed on the other side, with several feet to spare. He did not
take the trouble to toss his rifle in advance, but kept it in his hand.

"I had a queer feeling," he said, as Fred joined him, "when I was right
over the middle of the canyon, and knew, if I had made any
miscalculation, I should never stop until pretty well down toward the
centre of the earth."

"It doesn't take long to do a deal of thinking at such time, but what
bothered me was whether I was going to make as good a jump as you. I
believe I beat you by two or three inches."

"You wouldn't have done it if I had tried. But, Fred, since we are on
this side of that split in the mountain, we have got to jump it again to
get back to camp."

"And we must manage to do it before dark, for it isn't safe to take
chances where there is so much variance in the width."

"Fact of it is," remarked Jack, expressing that which had been clear to
both from the first, "there was no need of our jumping it at all. But we
are here, and must make the best of it. It's time we found some game."

And Jack looked sharply around, as if he expected to see a fat deer or
big horn step forward and sacrifice himself for their good.

But th