ding roar, on the wings of the
wind. Fast on this retreat burst the warm, bright sun.

I faced my course, and was delighted to see, through an opening where
the ravine cut out of the forest, the red-tipped peaks of the canyon,
and the vaulted dome I had named St. Marks. As I started, a new and
unexpected after-feature of the storm began to manifest itself. The sun
being warm, even to melt the snow, and under the trees a heavy rain
fell, and in the glades and hollows a fine mist blew. Exquisite
rainbows hung from white-tipped branches and curved over the hollows.
Glistening patches of snow fell from the pines, and broke the showers.

In a quarter of an hour, I rode out of the forest to the rim wall on
dry ground. Against the green pinyons Frank's white horse stood out
conspicuously, and near him browsed the mounts of Jim and Wallace. The
boys were not in evidence. Concluding they had gone down over the rim,
I dismounted and kicked off my chaps, and taking my rifle and camera,
hurried to look the place over.

To my surprise and interest, I found a long section of rim wall in
ruins. It lay in a great curve between the two giant capes; and many
short, sharp, projecting promontories, like the teeth of a saw,
overhung the canyon. The slopes between these points of cliff were
covered with a deep growth of pinyon, and in these places descent would
be easy. Everywhere in the corrugated wall were rents and rifts; cliffs
stood detached like islands near a shore; yellow crags rose out of
green clefts; jumble of rocks, and slides of rim wall, broken into
blocks, massed under the promontories.

The singular raggedness and wildness of the scene took hold of me, and
was not dispelled until the baying of Sounder and Don roused action in
me. Apparently the hounds were widely separated. Then I heard Jim's
yell. But it ceased when the wind lulled, and I heard it no more.
Running back from the point, I began to go down. The way was steep,
almost perpendicular; but because of the great stones and the absence
of slides, was easy. I took long strides and jumps, and slid over
rocks, and swung on pinyon branches, and covered distance like a
rolling stone. At the foot of the rim wall, or at a line where it would
have reached had it extended regularly, the slope became less
pronounced. I could stand up without holding on to a support. The
largest pinyons I had seen made a forest that almost stood on end.
These trees grew up, down, and out, and