ft. It's a queer place, anyhow. Nothing but
cactus and desert for hundreds of miles, and yet right under the
bluff there's good water and plenty of grass. That's why the bison
used to go down there."

Suddenly we heard a scream above our fire, and jumped up to see a
dark, slim bird floating southward far above us--a whooping-crane,
we knew by her cry and her long neck. We ran to the edge of the
island, hoping we might see her alight, but she wavered southward
along the rivercourse until we lost her. The Hassler boys declared
that by the look of the heavens it must be after midnight, so we
threw more wood on our fire, put on our jackets, and curled down in
the warm sand. Several of us pretended to doze, but I fancy we were
really thinking about Tip's Bluff and the extinct people. Over in
the wood the ring-doves were calling mournfully to one another, and
once we heard a dog bark, far away. "Somebody getting into old
Tommy's melon patch," Fritz murmured, sleepily, but nobody answered
him. By and by Percy spoke out of the shadow.

"Say, Tip, when you go down there will you take me with you?"

"Maybe."

"Suppose one of us beats you down there, Tip?"

"Whoever gets to the Bluff first has got to promise to tell the rest
of us exactly what he finds," remarked one of the Hassler boys, and
to this we all readily assented.

Somewhat reassured, I dropped off to sleep. I must have dreamed
about a race for the Bluff, for I awoke in a kind of fear that other
people were getting ahead of me and that I was losing my chance. I
sat up in my damp clothes and looked at the other boys, who lay
tumbled in uneasy attitudes about the dead fire. It was still dark,
but the sky was blue with the last wonderful azure of night. The
stars glistened like crystal globes, and trembled as if they shone
through a depth of clear water. Even as I watched, they began to
pale and the sky brightened. Day came suddenly, almost
instantaneously. I turned for another look at the blue night, and it
was gone. Everywhere the birds began to call, and all manner of
little insects began to chirp and hop about in the willows. A breeze
sprang up from the west and brought the heavy smell of ripened corn.
The boys rolled over and shook themselves. We stripped and plunged
into the river just as the sun came up over the windy bluffs.

When I came home to Sandtown at Christmas time, we skated out to our
island and talked over the whole project of the Enchanted Bluff,