ndered what you were doing there."

Hank laughed in his silent way, as if it were all a joke, but did not
offer any explanation. Evidently he had some business down there, but,
like most of his kind, was not inclined to make known his secrets when
the necessity did not exist.

"What a tremendous climb that was! And it must have been dangerous to
pick your way down the side of the canyon."

"I s'pose it would have been if I'd done it, but I didn't."

"Then the canyon cannot be as extended as we thought?"

"That depends on how long you thought it was. As near as I can find out,
it is between sixty and seventy miles."

Not wishing to persist in speaking in riddles, Hank added:

"Howsumever, though it's as long as I said, there's a break not fur
away, where the banks ain't more than a few feet above the stream. The
break isn't large, but it don't have to be. You obsarved that the stream
runs into the mountains. It seems to be making a dive fur t'other side,
as if it meant to make fur the Pacific, but it gives it up and comes
back after a while, and finds its way into the Wind River, and so on to
the Big Horn and the Missouri."

"Then you came up the canyon from the break and went back again?"

"I didn't say that. I come up to where you seed me, but instead of going
back I climbed the side to the top."

"Gracious, what a task! It must be a thousand feet."

"It isn't much less, but the sides of the canyon are so rough that it's
just like so many steps. I've done it often, and ain't the only one.
Bart and Mort tried both ways and like the climb better, though Kansas
Jim would never take it. Don't furgit one thing, younkers. When you have
a job like that afore you it's a good deal easier to climb up than it is
to climb down. If you should find yourself at the bottom of the canyon
and hit the right spot, you'll larn that the work is easier going up
than you think, but it's too resky going down for any one to try."

The boys hoped their friend would tell them why he had entered the
gorge, when the act at best was exhausting and accompanied by more or
less peril, but he ignored their curiosity, and they did not feel
warranted in questioning him. When he thought it well he would tell
them, and they could afford to wait until then.

The day was as perfect in its way as its predecessor. The blue sky
showed only a few fleecy clouds at wide intervals, and the sun shone
with a strength that made its warmth perceptible even