that venison you stowed away, I hope."

"Come out here, Frank!" called the lad by the fire. "Of all the luck! to
think we'd strike such a piece as this! It's rich! It's the finest ever!
We go to hunt for clues, and here they come straight to us. Talk to me
about the favors of fortune, why, we're in it up to the neck!"

"You seem to be tickled about something, Bob; has that paper any
connection with it?" demanded Frank.

"Well I should say, yes, by a big jugfull," replied the Kentucky boy.
"And you'll agree with me when I tell you it's signed by Professor Felix
Oswald, the very man we're going to search the Grand Canyon up and down
to find!"

CHAPTER X

THE COPPER COLORED MESSENGER

"Do you really mean it, Bob?" asked Frank, with the bewildered air of
one who suspects a joke.

"Take it yourself, and see," replied the other, holding out the
discolored and wrinkled sheet on which the writing was still plainly to
be read.

Frank bent over, the better to allow the firelight to fall upon the
queer document. This was what he read in a rather crabbed hand, though
the writing could be read fairly well:

_"To Whom it May Concern; Greeting!_

"This is to certify to the good character of the bearer, a Moqui Indian
by the name of Havasupai, who has rendered me a very great service,
which proves him to be the friend of the white man, and a believer in
the pursuit of science. I cheerfully recommend him to all who may be in
need of a trustworthy and capable guide to the Grand Canyon.

"PROFESSOR OSWALD."

Frank looked up to see the grinning face of his chum thrust close to
him.

"Think it's genuine, Frank?" demanded the other.

"I can see no reason why it shouldn't be," answered the other, glancing
down again at the crumpled paper he held, and which the old Moqui was
regarding with the greatest of pride on his brown face.

"Looks like that paper Mr. Hinchman brought to my dad; yes, I'd stake my
word on it, Bob, that the same hand wrote both."

"But how d'ye suppose this greasy old Indian ever got the document?"
asked the young Kentuckian.

"We'll have to put it up to him, and find out," came the reply. "He can
speak United States all right; we've found that out already; and so you
see, there's no reason under the sun why he shouldn't want to tell us."

He turned to the Moqui. It was not the same sleepy boy apparently who,
but a minute before, had started to creep into the comfortable tent,
where the blan