After supper he calmed down.

"How about your other man--Mr. Wallace, I think you said?" asked Frank.

"We expected to meet him at Grand Canyon Station, and then at
Flagstaff. But he didn't show up. Either he backed out or missed us.
I'm sorry; for when we get up on Buckskin, among the wild horses and
cougars, we'll be likely to need him."

"I reckon you'll need me, as well as Jim," said Frank dryly, with a
twinkle in his eye. "The buffs are in good shape an' can get along
without me for a while."

"That'll be fine. How about cougar sign on the mountain?"

"Plenty. I've got two spotted near Clark Spring. Comin' over two weeks
ago I tracked them in the snow along the trail for miles. We'll ooze
over that way, as it's goin' toward the Siwash. The Siwash breaks of
the Canyon--there's the place for lions. I met a wild-horse wrangler
not long back, an' he was tellin' me about Old Tom an' the colts he'd
killed this winter."

Naturally, I here expressed a desire to know more of Old Tom.

"He's the biggest cougar ever known of in these parts. His tracks are
bigger than a horse's, an' have been seen on Buckskin for twelve years.
This wrangler--his name is Clark--said he'd turned his saddle horse out
to graze near camp, an' Old Tom sneaked in an' downed him. The lions
over there are sure a bold bunch. Well, why shouldn't they be? No one
ever hunted them. You see, the mountain is hard to get at. But now
you're here, if it's big cats you want we sure can find them. Only be
easy, be easy. You've all the time there is. An' any job on Buckskin
will take time. We'll look the calves over, an' you must ride the range
to harden up. Then we'll ooze over toward Oak. I expect it'll be boggy,
an' I hope the snow melts soon."

"The snow hadn't melted on Greenland point," replied Jones. "We saw
that with a glass from the El Tovar. We wanted to cross that way, but
Rust said Bright Angel Creek was breast high to a horse, and that creek
is the trail."

"There's four feet of snow on Greenland," said Frank. "It was too early
to come that way. There's only about three months in the year the
Canyon can be crossed at Greenland."

"I want to get in the snow," returned Jones. "This bunch of long-eared
canines I brought never smelled a lion track. Hounds can't be trained
quick without snow. You've got to see what they're trailing, or you
can't break them."

Frank looked dubious. "'Pears to me we'll have trouble gettin' a lion
without lion do