tumultuously forward with
irresistible power and velocity.

"I can't wade that," said the lad, scratching his head in perplexity,
"and it won't do to try and swim it. If I once got in there it would be
the last of me."

There could be no doubt of that, for the stream was fully twenty feet in
width, very deep, and sped forward like the volume of a river when
suddenly compressed into a mountain canyon. It was walled in on either
side by solid rock, the surface of the water being a couple of yards
below the level where he stood.

"I wonder whether I can't go round it?" he said, after spending some
time in mental debate. "It can't run all the way through the mountain,
but must start somewhere not very far away."

This was not a very plausible theory; but as nothing was to be gained by
standing still, he started out upon his tour of exploration. Better
success followed than he expected. He had started toward the head of the
stream and had clambered along less than a hundred yards, when he
reached a place where it was so narrow that he was confident of his
ability to leap across.

"Yes, I can do that," he said, approaching close to the edge and looking
over the boiling abyss to the solid rock upon the other side. "But
suppose I should miss my footing, wouldn't I catch it!"

It was a pretty good leap, but Ned was active, strong and swift, and he
had made many a longer leap than the one before him. For a minute longer
he stood, measuring the distance with his eye. Then going backward a few
steps, he suddenly ran forward with all the speed at his command, and,
concentrating all his strength, made such a leap that he cleared the
chasm by a couple of feet.

"There!" he exclaimed, with some satisfaction, "if none of the streams
are broader than that, I'll jump them all."

Still full of hope and in the best of spirits he pressed forward until
the sun was at the meridian and the heat became so oppressive that he
concluded to rest awhile. He was in a section of country where, at
certain seasons, the heat is like that of the Desert of Sahara. There
are portions of Arizona and Lower California where the fervor of the
sun's rays at noonday smite the earth with the withering power of the
sirocco.

At times, when Ned was down in the lowest portions of the valley, the
heat was almost intolerable; and then, again, when he clambered to the
top of some elevation, and the cool breezes from the upper regions
fanned his cheeks, it was