The Camp Fire Girls at the End of the Trail

  CHAPTER XI The Canyon

  "There is a song in the canyon below me, And a song in the pines overhead,-- As the sun creeps down from the snow-line And startles the deer from its bed; With mountains of green all around me, And mountains of white up above, And mountains of blue in the distance, I follow the trail that I love."

  When the verse ceased and Peggy had turned around, there was a littleburst of applause.

  The little poem she had just recited was so perfectly descriptive of thescene surrounding the Camp Fire party at this moment that it was almostas if it had been created for the place and the occasion.

  They had come part of the way down one of the easier trails leading tothe Grand Canyon and had reached a broad, flat rock like a table-land. Onit there was a growth of scrub pine; way below the deep, subdued roar ofthe Colorado River and beyond the blue, snow-topped hills.

  Peggy was standing at the edge of the plateau of rock looking down thetrail which descended lower into the canyon, when the lines of the songhad occurred to her and she had spoken them aloud.

  She was one of a group of half a dozen or more persons near enough tohear what she was saying while the others were not far away in thebackground.

  "That is charming, Peggy," Gerry declared when the applause ended. "I doenvy your being able to remember a thing so delightfully appropriate. Inever can at the right moment. But it isn't like you, Peggy, to bereciting poetry; one might have expected it of Bettina. I believe you arein love."

  She spoke good-naturedly but with a little teasing inflection that onlyGerry had at her command among the Camp Fire girls.

  However, Peggy laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

  "Of course I am in love. I am in love with the whole world and I neverhave been half so much so before in my life. Who wouldn't be in such aplace on such a day and in such society?"

  Peggy made a slight grimace and bowed to her assembled friends, but byaccident her gaze rested last on Ralph Marshall's eyes and she flushed alittle.

  "Who of you is going a portion of the way down the trail with Ralph andme before lunch?" she asked. "Mother says she is willing if we don't gofar and are depressingly careful. I have promised not to put one footbefore the other without taking thought."

  "Oh, your mother will trust you to me. I have asked her consent," Ralphprotested.

  Gerry and Sally both giggled. Ralph's speech had been made in good faithand without the least idea of a double meaning, but they were apt to besilly and sentimental on subjects they had better not have beenconsidering while they were Camp Fire girls.

  Fortunately, Peggy did not even see the point in their sudden amusement.She was waiting to have some one except Ralph Marshall reply to herquestion.

  "I do wish you would not go, Peggy. The rest of us are satisfied withthis view of the canyon for today, at least. We did not plan to gofurther down," Bettina Graham protested, looking anxious. "I would gowith you if I dared, but you know how I hate looking down greatdistances."

  Peggy laughed. "Oh, you are not to come, 'Tall Princess.' We would nothave you along for a great deal. Remember what a time we had with you ona much less difficult trail. But I thought some one of the others--" Sheturned toward Sally and Alice Ashton and their companions, Terry Bentonand Howard Brent.

  Terry shook his head, but for some unknown reason appeared a littleuncomfortable.

  "Not today, Miss Peggy. Under the circumstances I don't feel I ought tomake the third."

  But Peggy paid no attention to Terry Benton's refusal, because almostimmediately Howard Brent interrupted him.

  "I am coming along," he announced brusquely.

  Peggy waved her hand.

  "Good-bye; I ought to be safe with two escorts."

  Then, with Ralph Marshall in front and Howard Brent behind, the threestarted down the second trail.

  From the fat plateau of rock a second trail descended to another ledgebelow. The first trail had been gentle and the Camp Fire party had comedown to their present resting place without difficulty. But the secondtrail was a steeper and more dangerous kind.

  It was cut into the side of the rock and filled with loose stones andgravel. After the first turn, the rocks on the one side rose up almostperpendicularly and descended with equal abruptness on the other.

  There were other trails deeper and deeper, down toward the bottom of thecanyon, but these Peggy had promised not to attempt. However, they wouldhave taken too long a time to follow and would have required the serviceof a guide.

  But this particular strata of rocks was still in what is known as thelimestone formation. Now and then blocks of blood red showed through thescrubby patches of underbrush, and then there would be a line of greysandstone, so that the red and grey looked like alternating ribbons.

  Twenty feet below the starting place the little party of three stopped towave to the group above them. They had previously come down through thewhite wall of stone which now rose like a mountain of snow above them.

  Bettina, from her place up above, could not see Peggy's face, but for twoor three moments after they started down again she could see her figure.

  Peggy moved with swift and certain grace. She seemed as totally unafraidand as sure of herself as her two companions. Indeed, she appeared rathermore so, for there are persons with whom the art of climbing is a naturalgift, and others who are extraordinarily awkward.

  Ralph Marshall was in front although it was an unfortunate place for him.The rocky path was deeper than he had expected, and the stones under hisfeet slipped more uncertainly. The experience of descending so steep aprecipice was a new and not altogether a pleasant experience. Ralph hadnot dreamed that one could be expected to walk down the face of a rock,but that was apparently what the three of them had set about doing.

  Yet neither Peggy nor Howard Brent made any complaint.

  Now and then Ralph could hear Peggy laugh as she slipped and regained herbalance.

  But he had no disposition to laugh. Once or twice he thought of askingHoward Brent to exchange places with him and lead the way. They had notplanned to follow this second trail for any great distance, but only tocome down a short way until they discovered a possible resting placewhere the view of the lower walls of rock and the river would be finer.

  Yet Ralph hesitated to speak to Howard Brent. They were not friendly.Indeed, Howard had avoided his society as much as possible ever since theunfortunate conversation he had held with Terry Benton in reference toPeggy. Moreover, Ralph knew that Howard was also scornful of him in otherways. He was so strong and efficient himself in outdoor matters that heconsidered the Eastern man almost effeminate. It was true Ralph coulddance and play tennis, but he was not athletic, because he never had beenfond of really strenuous sports. They had always appeared too much likework.

  Ralph now felt that he would rather come to grief than confess hisnervousness to the other man. Peggy, he would not have minded. She wasnever disagreeable when people did not enjoy exactly the same things shedid.

  Indeed, Ralph was becoming convinced that Peggy Webster was one of thefinest girls he had ever known. He had set about trying to beparticularly friendly with her because of his wager. But, if he had notsucceeded in making Peggy like him by his attentions to her, he hadcertainly succeeded in making himself fond of Peggy. He had nosentimental ideas about her, as he had about many girls with whom heindulged in mild flirtations. For one thing Peggy seemed too young; foranother, she was too boyish and too frank in her acceptance of hiscomradeship.

  Personally, Ralph considered that so far he had lost his wager. PeggyWebster did not care for him in the way he had announced he couldinfluence her to care. But he had never again mentioned the matter of hisbet with Terry Benton, not feeling proud of it. However, he had stillcontinued to devote himself to Peggy, and ostensibly for the reason hehad given his two companions about ten days before.

  But, now, sliding down among the rocks, Ralph's thought was u
ndeniablyfixed upon himself. He was hoping to get out of an uncomfortable positionwithout loss to his own dignity. He would like to have gone back to theiroriginal resting place and rejoined the rest of the Camp Fire partywithout descending another yard deeper into the rocky bed of the earth.But the thing was impossible and he made the best of it. Ralph Marshallwas lazy, but he was not a coward. Moreover, there was no spot where onecould stop and turn back. His hope lay ahead. Once they reached a flatplace, he meant to suggest returning.

  Two or three times Ralph felt dizzy. He had not dreamed of such weaknessin himself and would not give way to it.

  Then he felt the dizziness coming on again. This time he did not care.There--just a few feet beyond--their trail widened and a ledge of rockjutted out over the precipice on their left side.

  Here, at least, was a spot large enough to rest upon and to get one'sbreath.

  Peggy Webster was perhaps only three feet behind Ralph when he made hisdiscovery.

  He walked on to the ledge of rock, beckoning her to follow. As theflattened surface was so small, he was forced to go close to the edge inorder to make room for her.

  And Peggy did follow him. She was standing only a few inches away whenthe rock Ralph was on crumbled.

  His reaching out and seizing her as he fell was not cowardly--it was onlyinstinctive.

  He went over backwards, but she was facing him and was able to keep herfooting an instant longer.

  However, it was only an instant because, as Howard Brent saw them, Ralphand Peggy appeared to slip over the side of the precipice together.

  Howard was a few yards further back, yet in the briefest possible time hehad dropped flat on his hands and knees and crawled out on the crumblingledge.

  There had been no outcry except Ralph's first exclamation of horror. But,how far down they had fallen, Howard Brent could not discover until he,too, was able to look over the side of the cliff.

  Then he discovered that Peggy was only a few feet below, and that RalphMarshall was just beneath her. But Ralph had released his clutch--it wasPeggy Webster who was clinging tenaciously to him. She had managed to getone hand inside his coat, so that she was holding Ralph suspended as ifhe had been a wooden image.

  This would not have been possible except for the fact that Peggy's otherarm was wound about a small tree, growing upright among the rocks asserenely as if it had been planted in the earth.

  As the girl slid down, this tree had been directly in her way, so that itwas intuitive to seize hold on it. The strange fact was that RalphMarshall had not made the same effort as he went past. But the truth was,the back of Ralph's head had struck a heavy stone as he went over and hehad almost at once lost consciousness. Yet his weight was not altogetherheld up by Peggy. Fortunately, a rock jutting out from below gave a kindof resting place. But Peggy had to keep his body in position. When shelet go Ralph must fall face forward.

  And Peggy could not hold on much longer.

  Howard Brent realized that he must do something at once. Yet what was heto do?