o feed
ordinary dogs is a matter of throwing them a bone; however, our dogs
were not ordinary. It took time to feed them, and a prodigious amount
of meat. We had packed between three and four hundred pounds of
wild-horse meat, which had been cut into small pieces and strung on
the branches of a scrub oak near camp.

Don, as befitted a gentleman and the leader of the greatest pack in
the West, had to be fed by hand. I believe he would rather had starved
than have demeaned himself by fighting. Starved he certainly would
have, if Jim had thrown meat indiscriminately to the ground. Sounder
asserted his rights and preferred large portions at a time. Jude
begged with great solemn eyes but was no slouch at eating for all her
gentleness. Ranger, because of imperfectly developed teeth rendering
mastication difficult, had to have his share cut into very small
pieces. As for Moze--well, great dogs have their faults as do great
men--he never got enough meat; he would fight even poor crippled Jude,
and steal even from the pups; when he had gotten all Jim would give
him, and all he could snatch, he would growl away with bulging sides.

"How about feeding the lions?" asked Emett.

"They'll drink to-night," replied Jones, "but won't eat for days; then
we'll tempt them with fresh rabbits."

We made a hearty meal, succeeding which Jones and I walked through
the woods toward the rim. A yellow promontory, huge and glistening,
invited us westward, and after a detour of half a mile we reached it.
The points of the rim, striking out into the immense void, always drew
me irresistibly. We found the view from this rock one of startling
splendor. The corrugated rim-wall of the middle wing extended to the
west, at this moment apparently running into the setting sun. The gold
glare touching up the millions of facets of chiseled stone, created
color and brilliance too glorious and intense for the gaze of men. And
looking downward was like looking into the placid, blue, bottomless
depths of the Pacific.

"Here, help me push off this stone," I said to Jones. We heaved a huge
round stone, and were encouraged to feel it move. Fortunately we had a
little slope; the boulder groaned, rocked and began to slide. Just as
it toppled over I glanced at the second hand of my watch. Then with
eyes over the rim we waited. The silence was the silence of the
canyon, dead and vast, intensified by our breathless earstrain. Ten
long palpitating seconds and no soun