f
wood had lodged in the crack; a piece of wood in a crevice in a rock is
not so unusual an occurrence as to excite remark; but when it occurred
to me that we were then far above the timber line, my interest and
curiosity were at once aroused.

The end of the stick was within a short distance from my hand, and
reaching down I grasped the wood and brought forth, not a short club or
stick, as I thought to be concealed there, but a very long pole. The
result of my investigations was so unexpected that I came dangerously
near allowing the thing to slide through my fingers and fall to the
bottom of the canyon. It was a neatly-smoothed, slender piece of
lodge-pole pine which was brought to view, and it had a crooked root
nicely spliced to one end and bound tightly in place with rawhide
thongs. Big Pete was wholly absorbed in the trail, the study of which he
had resumed, and when I looked up he was down on all fours, minutely
studying the ground. Presently he cried, "Le-loo, tha' pesky lad ha'
been over wha' you be after sompen and he took it back tha' again afore
he made his jump! If you're any good you'll find what the lad was
after."

"He was after his barleycorn broomstick," I replied, proudly, "and here
it is, although I must confess it is a pretty long one for a fellow of
his size, and it looks more like a giant Bo-Peep's crook than a witch's
broom."

Big Pete eagerly snatched the pole from my hands and examined it
carefully. At length he said, "This hyer is the end used for the handle;
one can see by the finger marks, an' this crook is used to scrape stone
with, one kin see, with half an eye, by the way the end is sandpapered
off. Over tha' air some marks on the stone which look almighty like as
if they'd been made by the end of this yer hook slipping down the face
of the rock.

"Now, I wonder wha' cud be up tha' on the top of the rock that the boy
wanted," mused Big Pete, and for a moment or so he stood in silent
thought; at length he exclaimed, "Why, bless my corn-shucking soul, if I
don't believe he's got a lariat staked out tha' an' crosses this ditch
same as we-uns aimed to do!" With that he began raking and scraping the
top of the opposite rock with the shepherd's crook, and presently there
came tumbling and twisting like a snake down the face of the cliff, a
long braided rawhide rope with a loop at the bottom end.

"Waugh, Le-loo! tha's no witchcraft 'bout this 'cep the magic of
common-sense; but we hain't