ere anxious to get into a more fertile region before nightfall,
we did not remain longer than was necessary. The shades of evening came
on far sooner than would have been the case in the plain. The cliffs
rose on every hand, towering as high, or even higher, than at the
entrance of the gorge. Unwilling to encamp in a place where we could
get neither fire nor water, Mr Tidey and I volunteered to push on
ahead, hoping that we might find a pleasanter spot for camping than in
the narrow defile, even though we might not succeed in altogether
emerging from the pass. We hurried on as long as a ray of light
penetrated into the gorge, but at length it became so dark that we could
scarcely see a yard before us. Were we to proceed further we might
knock our heads against a rock or fall into some yawning chasm.

"Stop, Mike!" said my companion, "better to suffer present evil, than to
rush into greater we know not of. We must return to our friends, if we
don't break our heads in the meantime, and advise them forthwith to come
to a halt."

So pitchy was the darkness, that we could not see the rocks on either
hand, and we were afraid, should we stumble or turn round by any chance,
that we might be going away from, instead of nearing our friends. In
vain we looked up to catch sight of a star by which we might have guided
ourselves, but not a single one could we see.

"It won't do to halt here," observed the Dominie; "depend upon it, the
captain has come to a stand-still long ago."

Every now and then we stopped and shouted as we groped our way forward,
but no answer came, and at last I began to picture to myself all sorts
of accidents which might have happened to my family. Perhaps their
footsteps had been dogged by the Indians, or a rock had fallen and
crushed them, or the horses, suffering from want of water, had sunk down
exhausted.

When I mentioned my apprehensions to Mr Tidey, he laughed at me, and
tried to dispel them. "The thing is, Mike, we came over the road in
daylight, and we are now going back in the dark, and whereas we were
walking four miles an hour, we are now progressing at a quarter that
speed."

Still, I was not convinced, and dreaded that at any instant we might
come upon the dead bodies of our friends.

Again and again I shouted out. How my heart bounded when I at length
heard my father's cheery voice replying to our hail. Turning an angle
of the pass I saw the light of a fire, by the side of wh