CHAPTER XI
THE PERFECT ADVENTURE
"Who cares whether or not my hands are clean? Does God? Wouldn't Godexpect me to punish evil? God is mercilessly just, is He not? Elsewhy disease and grief in the world? If you could only tellme!"--_Enoch's Diary_.
It was nipping cold in the morning. Ice encrusted the edges of thelittle brook. But by the time breakfast was finished, the sun hadappeared over the distant mountain peaks and the long warm rays soonbrought the thermometer up to summer heat. Milton expounded hisprogram at breakfast. Jonas was to keep the camp. Enoch and Miltonwere to climb to the rim for topographical information. Harden was tolook for fossils. Agnew and Forrester were to make a geological reporton the strata of the section.
Jonas was extraordinarily well pleased with his assignment.
"I'm going to finish painting the Na-che," he said. "Mr. Milton, haveyou got anything I can mend the tarpaulins with that go over the decks?"
"Needles and twine in the bag labeled Repairs," replied Milton. "Howabout giving the Ida the once over, too, Jonas."
"All right! If I get around to it!" Jonas' manner was vague.
"Can't love but one boat at a time, eh, Jonas?" asked Enoch.
"I always wanted to have a boat to fix up," said Jonas. "When I was akid my folks had an old flat-bottom tub, but I never earned enough fora can of paint. Will you folks be home by twelve for dinner?"
There was a chorus of assent as the crew scattered to its severaltasks. Milton and Enoch started at once up the edge of the brook,hoping that the ascent might be made more easily thus. But thecrevice, out of which the little stream found its way to the Colorado,narrowed rapidly to the point where it became impossible for the twomen to work their way into it. They were obliged, after a half hour'sstruggle, to return to the camp and start again.
A very steep slope of bright orange sand led from the shore to ascarcely less oblique terrace of sharp broken rock. There were severalhundred feet of the sand and, as it was dry and loose, it caused aconstant slipping and falling that consumed both time and strength.The rocky terrace was far easier to manage, and they covered thatrapidly, although Enoch had a nasty fall, cutting his knee. They werebrought to pause, however, when the broken rock gave way to a sheerhard wall, which offered neither crack nor projection for hand or foothold.
Milton led the way carefully along its foot for a quarter of a mileuntil they reached a fissure wide enough for them to enter. The wallsof this were crossed by transverse cracks. By utilizing these, nowpulling, now boosting each other, they finally emerged on a flat,smooth tableland, of which fissures had made a complete island. At thesouthern end of the island rose an abrupt black peak.
"If we can get to the top of that," said Milton, "it ought to bring usto the general desert level. Is your knee bothering you, Judge?"
"Not enough to stop the parade," replied Enoch. "How high do you thinkthat peak is, Milton?"
"Not less than a thousand feet, I would guess. I bet it's as easy toclimb as a greased pole, too."
The pinnacle, when they reached it, appeared very little less difficultthan Milton had guessed it would be. The north side offered no hopewhatever. It rose smooth and perpendicular toward the heavens. Butthe south side was rough and though a yawning fissure at its base addedfive hundred feet to its southern height they determined to try theirfortunes here. Ledges and jutting rocks, cracks and depressionsfinally made the ascent possible. The top, when they achieved it, wasnot twenty feet in diameter. They dropped on it, panting.
The view which met their eyes was superb. To the south lay the desert,rainbow colored. Rising abruptly from its level were isolated peaks ofbright purple, all of them snow capped, many of them with crevicesmarked by the brilliant white of snow. Miles to the south of theisolated peaks lay a long range of mountains, dull black against theblue sky, but with the white of snow caps showing even at thisdistance. To the north, the river gorge wound like a snake; the gorgeand one huge mountain dominating the entire northern landscape.Satiated by wonders as Milton was, he exclaimed over the beauty of thisgiant, sleeping in the desert sun.
A sprawling cone in outline, there was nothing extraordinary about itin contour, but its size and color surpassed anything that Enoch had asyet seen. From base to apex it was a perfect rose tint, deepeningwhere its great shoulders bent, to crimson. As if still not satisfiedwith her work, nature had sent a recent snow storm to embellish theverdureless rock, and the mountain was lightly powdered with whitewhich here was of a gauze-like texture permitting pale rose to glimmerthrough, there lay in drifts, white defined against crimson.
Enoch sat gazing about him while Milton worked rapidly with his notebook and instruments. Finally he slipped his pencil into his pocketwith a sigh.
"And that's done! What do you say to a return for lunch, Judge?"
"I'm very much with you," replied Enoch. "Here! Hold up, old man!What's the matter?" For Milton was swaying and would have fallen ifEnoch had not caught him.
Milton clung to Enoch's broad shoulder for a moment, then straightenedhimself with a jerk.
"Sorry, Judge. It's that infernal vertigo again!"
"What's the cause of it?" asked Enoch. "Might be rather serious, mightit not, on a trip such as yours?"
"I think the water we have to drink must be affecting my kidneys,"replied Milton. "I never had anything of the sort before this trip,but I've been troubled this way a dozen times lately. It only lastsfor a minute."
"But in that minute," Enoch's voice was grave, "you might fall down amountain or out of the boat."
"Oh, I don't get it that bad! And anyhow, I haven't gone off alonesince these things began. When we get to El Tovar I'll try to locate adoctor."
Enoch looked admiringly at the grim young freckled face beneath thefaded hat. "I see I shall have to appoint myself bodyguard," he said."I'd suggest Jonas, only he's deserted me for the Na-che, and I doubtif you could win him from her."
Milton laughed. "Nothing on earth can equal the joy of puddling aboutin boats, to the right kind of a chap, as the _Wind in the Willows_ hasit. And Jonas certainly is the right kind of a chap!"
"Jonas is a man, every inch of him," agreed Enoch. "Shall we try thedescent now, Milton?"
"I'm ready," replied the young man, and the slow and arduous task wasbegun.
Jonas was just lifting the frying pan from the fire when they slid downthe orange sand bank. The rest of the crew was ready and waitingaround the flat rock that served as dining table.
"What's the matter with your knee, boss?" cried Jonas, standing withthe coffee pot in his hand.
Enoch laughed as he glanced down at his torn and blood-stainedoveralls. "Of course, if you were giving me half the care you giveyour boat, Jonas, these things wouldn't happen to me!"
"You better let me fix you up, before you eat, boss," said Jonas.
"Not on your life, old man! Food will do this knee more good than abandage."
"It's a wonder you wouldn't offer to help the rest of us out once in awhile, Jonas!" Harden looked up from his plate of fish. "Look at thisscratch on my cheek! I might get blood poisoning, but lots you care ifmy fatal beauty was destroyed! As it is, I look as much like an inmateof a menagerie as old goat Forrester here."
"Too bad the scratch didn't injure your tongue, Harden," returnedForrester, sarcastically.
"Nothing seems able to stop your chin, though, Forr! Why do you haveto get sore every time I speak to you?"
"Because you're always going out of your way to say something insultingto me."
"Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill, Forr," said Milton. "If youfellows aren't careful you'll have a real quarrel, and that's the lastthing I'm going to stand for, I warn you."
"Very well, Milt," replied Forrester, "if you don't want trouble makeHarden keep his tongue off me."
"The fault is primarily yours, Hard," Milton went on. "You knowForrester is foolishly sensitive and you can't control your lov
e ofteasing. Now, once for all, I ask you not to speak to Forrester excepton the business of the survey."
Harden shrugged his shoulders and Forrester scowled a littlesheepishly. Agnew, a serene, kindly fellow, began one of his endlessIrish stories, and the incident appeared to be closed. The workassigned for the day was accomplished in shorter order than Milton hadanticipated. By two o'clock all hands were back in camp and Miltondecided to embark and move on as far as possible before nightfall. Butscarcely had they finished loading the boats and tied on the tarpaulinswhen a heavy rain began to fall, accompanied by lightning andtremendous peals of thunder that echoed through the Canyon deafeningly.
Milton, in his anxiety to get on with his task, would have continued inspite of the rain, but the others protested so vigorously that he gavein and the whole party crawled under a sheltering ledge beside thebrook. For an hour the storm raged. A few flakes of snow mingled withthe descending rain drops. Then with a superb flash of lightning andcrash of thunder the storm passed as suddenly as it had come, thoughfor hours after they heard it reverberate among the distant peaks.
At last they embarked and proceeded along a smooth, swift-flowing riverfor a short time. Then, however, the familiar roar of falls was heard,the current increased rapidly in velocity and Milton made a landing forobservation.
They were at the head of the wildest falls that Enoch had yet seen.The Canyon walls were smooth and perpendicular. There was nopossibility of a portage. The river was full of rocks against whichdashed waves ten to twelve feet high.
"We'll have to run it!" shouted Milton above the din of the waters."Powell did it and so can we. Give the Ida five minutes' start, Hard.Then profit by the mistakes you see us make. All ready, Judge andForr!"
Under Milton's directions, they rowed back upstream far enough to gaincomplete control of the boat before entering the falls. Then they shotforward. Instantly the oars became useless. They were carried upwardon the crest of a wave that seemed about to drop them down anunbelievable depth to a jagged rock. But at this point, another waveseized them and hurled them sidewise, half rolled them over, thenuptilted them until the Ida's nose was deep in the water.
They bailed like mad but to little avail for the waves broke over thesides constantly. They could see little for the air was full ofblinding spray. Suddenly, after what had seemed an eternity but wasreally five minutes of time, there was a rending crash and the Ida slidinto quieter water, turning completely over as she did so.
Enoch, as the sucking current seized him, was convinced that his hourhad come, and a quick relief was his first sensation. Then Diana'swistful eyes flashed before him and he began to fight the Colorado. Ashis head emerged from the water, he saw the Na-che land on all foursfrom the top of a wave upon the overturned Ida, then whirl away. Hebegan to swim with all his strength. The mud forever suspended in theColorado weighed down his clothing. But little by little he drew nearthe Ida, to which he could see two dark bodies clinging. The Na-che,struggling to cross a whirlpool toward him, made slow progress. Hehad, indeed, dizzily grasped the Ida, before the other boat came up.
"We can hang on, Hard!" gasped Milton. "Give us a tow to that sandspit yonder."
They reached the sand spit and staggered to land, while Harden and hiscrew turned the Ida over and beached her. She had a six-inch gap inher side.
"Well," panted Enoch, "I'm glad we managed to keep dry during therainstorm!"
"My Lord, Judge!" exclaimed Milton, "your own mother wouldn't own younow! I don't see how one human being could carry so much mud on hisface!"
"I'll bet it's not as bad as yours at that," returned Enoch. "Jonas,as long as it's not the Na-che that's hurt--"
"Coming, boss, coming!" cried Jonas. "Here's your moccasins and here'syour suit. Sure you aren't hurt any?"
"Jonas," replied Enoch in a low voice that the others might not hear,"Jonas, I'm having the greatest time of my life!"
"So am I, Mr. Secretary! Honest, I'm so paralyzed afraid that I enjoyit!" And Jonas hurried away to inspect the Ida.
It was so biting cold, now that the afternoon was late, that all thewrecked crew changed clothing before attempting to make camp or unloadthe Ida.
"How many miles have we made by this venture, Milton?" called Enoch, ashe pulled on his moccasins.
"One and a half!"
Enoch grinned, then he began to laugh. The others looked at him, thenjoined him, and Homeric laughter echoed for a long minute above thesnarl of the water. Fortunately the hole in the Ida did not open intoone of the compartments, so there was no damage done to the baggage.It was too dark by the time this had been ascertained to attemptrepairs that night, so Milton agreed to call it a day, and after supperwas over every one but Enoch and Milton went to bed. These two satlong in silence before the fire, smoking and enjoying the sense ofcompanionship that was developing between them. Finally Enoch spoke ina low voice:
"You're going to have trouble between Forrester and Harden."
"It certainly looks like it, I've tried every sort of appeal to each ofthem, but trouble keeps on smoldering." Milton shook his head."That's one of the trivial things that can wreck an expedition likethis; just incompatibility among the men. What would you do about it,Judge?"
"I'd put it to them that they could either keep the peace or draw lotsto see which of them should leave the expedition at the Ferry. Infact, I don't believe I'd temporize even that much. I'd certainly setone of them ashore. My experience with men leads me to believe thatwith a certain type of men, there is no appeal. As you say, they'reboth nice chaps but they have a childish streak in them. The majorityof men have. A leader must not be too patient."
"You're right," agreed Milton. "Judge, couldn't you complete the tripwith us?"
"How long will you be out?" asked Enoch.
"Another six months!"
Enoch laughed, then said slowly: "There's nothing I'd like to dobetter, but I must go home, from the Ferry."
Milton gazed at Enoch for a time without speaking. Then he said, alittle wistfully, "I suppose that while this is the most importantexperience so far in my life, to you it is the merest episode, thatyou'll forget the moment you get into the Pullman for the East."
"Why should you think that?" asked Enoch.
"I can't quite tell you why. But there's something about you thatmakes me believe that in your own section of the country, you're apower. Perhaps it's merely your facial expression. I don't know--youlook like some one whom I can't recall. Perhaps that some one has thepower and I confuse the two of you, but--I beg your pardon, Judge!" asEnoch's eyebrows went up.
"You have nothing to beg it for, Milton. But you're wrong when youthink this trip is merely an episode to me. All my life I have longedfor just such an experience in the Canyon. It's like enchantment toreally find myself here."
Milton smiled. "Well, we all have our Carcasonnes."
"What's yours?" demanded Enoch.
The younger man hesitated. "It's so absurd--but--well, I've alwayswanted to be Chief of the Geological Survey."
"Why?"
"Why did you dream of a wild trip down the Colorado as the realizationof your greatest desire?" asked Milton.
"I couldn't put it into words," answered Enoch. "But I suppose it'sthe pioneer in me or something elemental that never quite dies in anyof us, of Anglo-Saxon blood."
Milton nodded. "The Chief of the Geological Survey's job is toadminister nature in the raw. I'd like to have a chance at it."
"I believe you'd get away with it, too, Milton," Enoch repliedthoughtfully.
Milton laughed. "Too bad you aren't Secretary of the Interior! Well,I'm all in! Let's go to bed."
"You go ahead. I'll sit here with my pipe a bit longer."
But, after all, Enoch did not write in his diary that night. BeforeMilton had established himself in his blankets, Harden rose and went toa canteen for a drink of water. On his return he stumbled overForrester's feet. Instantly Forrester sat er
ect.
"What're you doing, you clumsy dub foot?" he shouted.
"Oh, dry up, Forr; I didn't mean to hurt you, you great boob!"
"We'll settle this right now!" Forrester was on his feet and his fisthad landed on Harden's cheek before Enoch could cross the camp. Andbefore he or Milton could separate the combatants, Harden had returnedthe blow with interest, and with a muttered:
"Take that, you sore-headed dog, you!"
Forrester tried to twist away from Enoch, but could not do so. Hardenfreed himself from Milton's grasp, but did not attempt to go on withthe fight.
"One or the other of you," said Milton briefly, "leaves the expeditionat the Ferry. I'll tell you later which it will be. I'm ashamed ofboth of you."
"I'd like to know what's made a tin god of you, Jim Milton!" shoutedForrester. "You don't own us, body and soul. I've been in the Surveylonger than you! I joined this expedition before you did. And I'llleave it when I get ready!"
"You'll leave it at the Ferry, Forrester!" Milton's voice was quiet,but his nostrils dilated.
"And I'm telling you, I'll leave it when I please, which will be atNeedles! If any one goes, it'll be that skunk of a Harden."
Harden laughed, turned on his heel and deliberately rolled himself inhis blankets. Forrester stood for a moment, muttering to himself, thenhe took his blankets off to an obscure corner of the sand. And Enochforgot his diary and went to bed, to ponder until shortly sleepovertook him, on the perversity of the male animal.
In the morning Jonas constituted himself ship's carpenter and mendedthe Ida very creditably. Forrester was surly and avoided every one.Harden was cheerful, as usual, but did not speak to his adversary. Thesun was just entering the Canyon when the two boats were launched andonce more faced the hazards of the river.
During the morning the going was easy. The river was swift and ledthrough a long series of broken buttes, between which one caught wildviews of a tortured country; twisted strata, strange distorted cedarand cactus, uncanny shapes of rock pinnacles, in colors somber andstrange. They stopped at noon in the shadow of a weathered overhangingrock, with the profile of a witch. The atmosphere of dissension had bythis time permeated the crew and this meal, usually so jovial, waseaten with no general conversation and all were glad to take to theboats as soon as the dishes were washed.
The character of the river now changed again. It grew broader and oncemore smooth canyon walls closed it in. As the river broadened,however, it became more shallow and rocks began to appear above thesurface at more and more frequent intervals. At last the Na-che wentaground amid-stream on a sharp rock. The Ida turned back to herassistance but Enoch and Milton had to go overboard, along with thecrew of the Na-che, in order to drag and lift her into clear water.Then for nearly two hours, all thought of rowing must be given up.Both crews remained in the water, pushing the boats over the roughbottom.
It was heartbreaking work. For a few moments the boats would float,plunging the men beyond their depths. They would swim and flounderperhaps a boat's length, clinging to the gunwale, before the boat wouldonce more run aground. Again they would drag their clumsy burden ahundred yards over sand that sucked hungrily at their sodden boots.This passed, came many yards of smooth rock a few inches below thesurface of the water, which was so muddy that it was impossible to seethe pot holes into which some one of the crew plunged constantly.
Jonas suffered agonies during this period; not for himself, though hetook his full share of falls. His agony was for the Na-che, whosefreshly painted bottom was abraded, scraped, gorged and otherwisedefaced almost beyond Jonas's power of endurance.
"Look out! Don't drag her! Lift her! Lift her!" he would shout."Oh, my Lord, see that sharp rock you drag her onto, Mr. Hard! Ain'tyou got any heart?"
Once, when all three of the Na-che's crew had taken a bad plunge, andJonas had come up with an audible crack of his black head against thegunwale, he began to scold while the others were still fighting forbreath.
"You shouldn't ship her full of water like that! All that good paint Iput on her insides is gone! Hey, Mr. Agnew, don't drip that blood offyour hand on her!"
"Shut up, Jonas," coughed Agnew good-naturedly.
"Let him alone, Ag!" exclaimed Harden, between a strangling cough and asneeze. "What do you want to divulge your cold-heartedness for? Go toit, Jonas! You're some lover, all right!"
The shallows ended in a rapid which they shot without more than theusual difficulties. They then had an hour of quiet rowing throughgorges that grew more narrow and more dusky as they proceeded. Aboutfour o'clock snow began to fall. It was a light enough powder, atfirst, but shortly it thickened until it was impossible to guide theboats. They edged in shore where a ledge overhanging a heap of brokenrock offered a meager shelter. Here they planned to spend the night.The shore was too precipitous to beach the boats. Much to Jonas'sorrow, they could only anchor them before the ledge. There was plentyof driftwood, and a brisk fire dispelled some of the discomfort of thesnow, while a change to dry clothing did the rest.
To Enoch it was a strange evening. The foolish quarrel between Hardenand Forrester was sufficient to upset the equanimity of the whole groupwhich before had seemed so harmonious. The situation was keenlyirritating to Enoch. He wanted nothing to intrude on the wild beautyof the trip, save his own inward struggle. The snow continued to falllong after the others had gone to sleep. Enoch, with his diary on hisknees, wrote slowly, pausing long between sentences to watch the snowand to listen to the solemn rush of waters so close to his feet.
"I've been sitting before the fire, Diana, thinking of our variousconversations. How few they have been, after all! And I've concludedthat in your heart you must look on me as presumptuous and stupid. Younever have given me the slightest indication that you cared for me.You have been, even in the short time we have known each other, agallant and tender friend. A wonderful friend! And you are asunconscious of my passion for you, of the rending agony of my givingyou up as the Canyon is of the travail of Milton and his little group.And I'm glad that this is so. If I can go on through life feeling thatyou are serene and happy it will help me to keep my secret. Strangethat with every natural inclination within me to be otherwise, I shouldbe the custodian of ugly secrets; secrets that are only the uglierbecause they are my own. It seems a sacrilegious thing to add mybeautiful love for you to the sinister collection. But it must be so.
"I am so glad that I am going to see you so soon after I emerge fromthe Canyon. There will be much to tell you. I thought I knew men.But I am learning them anew. And I thought I had a fair conception ofthe wonders of the Colorado. Diana, it is beyond human imagination toconceive or human tongue to describe."
Enoch had looked forward with eager pleasure to seeing the Canyonsnowbound. But he was doomed to disappointment. During the night thesnow turned to rain. The rain, in turn, ceased before dawn and thecamp woke to winding mists that whirled with the wind up and out of theCanyon top. The going, during the morning, offered no greatdifficulties. But toward noon, as the boats rounded a curve, a reefpresented itself with the water of the river boiling threateningly oneither side. As the Canyon walls offered no landing it was necessaryto make one here and Forrester volunteered to jump with a rope to aflat rock which projected from the near end of the reef.
"Leap just before we are opposite the rock, Forr," directed Milton."When that rough water catches us, we're going to rip through at topspeed."
Forrester nodded and, after shipping his oars, he clambered up onto theforward compartment.
"Now," shouted Milton.
Forrester leaped, jumped a little short, and splashed into the boilingriver. The Ida, in spite of Enoch madly backing water, shot forward,dragging Forrester, who had not let go the rope, with her. Miltonrelinquished the steering oar, dropped on his stomach on thecompartment deck, his arms over the stern, and began to haul with mightand main on the rope. Now and again Forrester, red and fighting forbreath, showed a
distorted face above the waves. The Na-che shot by atuncontrollable speed, her crew shouting directions as she passed.Milton at last, just as the Ida entered a roaring fall, broughtForrester to the gunwale, but having achieved this, the end of the ropedropped from his fingers and he lay inert, his eyes closed. Forresterclung to the edge of the boat and roared to Enoch:
"Milt's fainted!"
But Enoch, fighting to guide the Ida, dared not stop rowing. The fallswere short, with a vicious whirlpool at the foot. One glance showedthe Na-che broken and inverted, dancing in this. Enoch bent to hisright oar and by a miracle of luck this, with a wave from a pot hole,threw them clear of the sucking whirlpool, but dashed them so violentlyagainst the rocky shore that the Ida's stern was stove in and Miltonrolled off into the water. Enoch dropped his oars, seized the sternrope, jumped for the rocks and sprawled upon one. He made a quick turnof the rope, then leaped back for Milton, whose head showed a boat'slength downstream.
Forrester staggered ashore, then with a life preserver on the end of arope, he started along the river's edge. Half a dozen strokes broughtEnoch to Milton. He lifted the unconscious man's mouth out of waterand caught the life preserver that Forrester threw him. It seemed fora moment as if poor Forrester had reached the limit of his strength,but Enoch, after a violent effort, brought Milton into a quiet eddy andhere Forrester was able to give help and Milton was dragged up on therocks.
At this moment, Jonas, his eyes rolling, clothes torn and dripping,clambered round a rocky projection, just beyond where they were placingMilton.
"Got 'em ashore!" he panted, "but they can't walk yet."
"Anybody hurt?" asked Enoch.
"Nobody but the Na-che. I gotta take the Ida out after her."
"She's beyond help, Jonas," said Enoch. "Go up to the Ida and bring methe medicine chest."
He was unbuttoning Milton's shirt as he spoke, and feeling for hisheart.
"He's alive!" exclaimed Forrester, who was holding Milton's wrist.
"Yes, thank God! But I don't like that!" pointing to Milton's left leg.
"It's broken!" cried Forrester. "Poor old Milt!"
Poor old Milt, indeed! When he finally opened his eyes, he was lyingon his blankets on a flat rock, and Jonas and Harden, still dripping,were finishing the fastenings of a rude splint around his left leg.Enoch was kindling a fire. Forrester and Agnew were unloading the Ida.He tried to sit up.
"What the deuce happened?" he demanded.
"That's what we want to know!" exclaimed Harden cheerfully.
"You had a dizzy attack after you pulled Forr in," said Enoch, "androlled off the boat. Just how you broke your leg, we don't know."
"Broke my leg!" Dismay and disbelief struggled in Milton's face."Broke my leg! Why, but I can't break my leg!"
"That's good news," said Agnew unsmilingly, "and it would be importantif it were only true."
"But I can't!" insisted Milton. "What becomes of the work?"
"The work stops till you get well." Harden stood up to survey his andJonas's surgical job with considerable satisfaction. "We'll hurry ondown to the Ferry and get you to a doctor."
Milton sank back with a groan, then hoisted himself to his elbow to say:
"You fellows change your clothes quick, now."
The men looked at each other, half guilty.
"What is it!" cried Milton. "What are you keeping from me."
"The Na-che's gone!" Jonas spoke huskily.
"How'd she go?" demanded Milton.
"A sucking whirlpool up there took her, after we struck a rock at thebottom of the falls," answered Harden. "We struck at such speed thatit stove in her bottom and threw us clear of the whirlpool. But she'sgone and everything in her."
"How about the Ida?" Milton's face was white and his lips werecompressed.
"She'll do, with some patching," replied Enoch.
"Some leader, I am, eh?" Milton lay back on his blanket.
"I think I've heard of a number of other leaders losing boats on thistrip," said Enoch. "Now, you fellows can dry off piecemeal. This firewould dry anything. We've got to shift Milton's clothes somehow.Lucky for you your clothes were in the Ida, Milt. Mine were in theNa-che."
"And two thirds of the grub in the Na-che, too!" exclaimed Agnew.
Jonas had rooted out Milton's change of clothing and very tenderly, ifawkwardly, Agnew and Harden helping, he was made dry and propped upwhere he could direct proceedings.
"Forrester, I wish you'd bring the whole grub supply here," Miltonsaid, when his nurses had finished.
It was a pitifully small collection that was placed on the edge of theblanket.
"I wonder how many times," said Milton, "I've told you chaps to loadthe grub half and half between the boats? Somebody blundered. I'm notgoing to ask who because I'm the chief blunderer myself, for neglectingto check you over, at every loading. With care, we've about two days'very scanty rations here, and only beans and coffee, at that. With thebest of luck and no stops for Survey work we're five days from theFerry."
"Guess I'd better get busy with my fishing tackle!" exclaimed Forrester.
"Ain't any fishing tackle," said Jonas succinctly. "She must 'a'washed out of the hole in the Ida. I was just looking for it myself."
"Suppose you put us on half rations," suggested Enoch, "and one of uswill try to get to the top, with the gun."
Milton nodded. "Judge, are you any good with a gun?"
"Yes, I've hunted a good deal," replied Enoch.
"Very well, we'll make you the camp hunter. The rest understand theriver work better than you. Forrester, you and Agnew and Jonas, patchup the Ida; and Harden, you stay with me and let's see what the mapssay about the chances of our getting out before we reach the Ferry.When the rest have finished the patch, you and Agnew row downstream andsee if you can pick up any wreckage from the Na-che."
Jonas made some coffee and Enoch, after resting for a half hour, tookthe gun and started slowly along the river's edge.
His course was necessarily downstream for, above the heap of stoneswhere he had tied the Ida, the river washed against a wall on which afly could scarcely have found foothold. There was a depression in thewall, where the camp was set. Enoch worked out of this depression andfound a foothold on the bottom-most of the deep weathered, narrowstrata that here formed a fifty-foot terrace. These terraced stratagave back for half a mile in uneven and brittle striations that werenot unlike rude steps. Above them rose a sheer orange wall, straightto the sky. Far below a great shale bank sloped from the river's edgeup to a gigantic black butte, whose terraced front seemed to Enoch tooffer some hope of his reaching the top.
He slung the gun across his back and began gingerly to clamber alongthe stratified terrace. He found the rock extremely brittle and he wasa long hour reaching the green shale. He was panting and weary and hishands were bleeding when he finally flung himself down to rest at thefoot of the black butte.
A near view of this massive structure was not encouraging; terraces,turrets, fortifications, castles and above Enoch's head a deep cavern,out of which the wind rushed with a mighty blast of sound that drownedthe sullen roar of the falls. Beyond a glance in at the black void,Enoch did not attempt to investigate the cave. He crept past theopening on a narrow shelf of rock, into a crevice up which he climbedto the top of the terrace above the cavern. Here a stratum of dullpurple projected horizontally from the black face of the butte. Withhis face inward, his breast hard pressed against the rock, hands andfeet feeling carefully for each shift forward, Enoch passed on thisslowly around the sharp western edge of the butte.
Here he nearly lost his balance, for there was a rush of wings close tothe back of his head. He started, then looked up carefully. Far abovehim an eagle's nest clung to the lonely rock. The purple stratumcontinued its way to a depression wide enough to give Enoch sittingroom. Here he rested for a short moment. The back of the depressionoffered an easy assent for two or three hundred feet, to the top ofa
nother terrace along whose broad top Enoch walked comfortably for aquarter of a mile to the point where the butte projected from the maincanyon wall. The slope here was not too steep to climb and Enoch madefair speed to the top.
The view here was superb but Enoch gave small heed to this. To hisdeep disappointment, there was no sign of life, either animal orvegetable, as far as his eye could reach. He stood, gun in hand, thewind tossing his ruddy hair, his great shoulders drooping withweariness, his keen eyes sweeping the landscape until he becameconscious that the sun was low in the west. With a start, he realizedthat dusk must already be peering into the bottom of the Canyon.
Then he bethought himself of the eagle's nest. It was a terribleclimb, before he lay on a ledge peering ever into the guano-stainedstructure of sticks from which the eagle soared again at his approach.As he looked, he laughed. The forequarters of a mountain goat lay inthe nest. Hanging perilously by one hand, Enoch grasped the long,bloody hair and then, rolling back on to the ledge, he stuffed his lootinto his game bag and started campward.
The way back was swifter but more nerve wracking than the upward climbhad been. By the time he reached the green shale, Enoch was tremblingfrom muscle and nerve strain. It was purple dusk now, by the river,with the castellated tops of butte and mountain molten gold in theevening sun. When he reached the brittle strata, the water reflectedfirelight from the still unseen camp blaze. Enoch, clinging perilouslyto the breaking rock, half faint with hunger, his fingers numb with thecold, laughed again, to himself, and said aloud:
"'. . . . . . . . . . . . . And yet Dauntless the slug horn to my lips I set And blew, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.'"