s. He did not dare take
the chance of trying to creep in. It would be more dangerous than our
going into that wolf den."

"The plot seems to be thickening, Frank. It won't be long now before
something is bound to happen. If we could only run across the old Moqui
now, and hear that he carried a message in answer to your note, that
would clear the air a heap, wouldn't it?"

"Well, we must live in hopes," replied Frank, cheerfully. "And now,
after a bite which Charley Moi is getting ready for us, we'll be off
again, and tackle the roughest traveling in the whole canyon, so he
says. But he knows the way, because he was led up here by the old
professor, and told to come back every two months."

CHAPTER XVII

THE WINDOWS IN THE ROCKY WALLS

"Well, here it's the fourth day we've been out, and nothing doing yet,
Frank!"

Bob spoke gloomily, as though the unsuccessful search was beginning to
pall upon him a little. Boys' natures differ so much; and while the
young Kentuckian had many fine qualities that his chum admired, still he
was not so persistent as Frank.

Nothing could ever daunt the boy from Circle Ranch. Difficulties, he
believed, were only thrown in his way to bring out the better parts of
his nature. The more a fellow found himself "up against it," as Frank
called meeting trouble half-way, the stronger became his character.

"Oh! well, now, Bob, I wouldn't say that," he answered the complaint of
his chum. "Just think what tremendous progress we've been making right
along. And if the very worst comes, didn't Charley Moi say that it was
only a week now before he must get another stock of things to eat, and
won't he have to wait at the place of meeting, for the 'learned sahib'
to appear, and take them from him, as he has done so often? Why, we can
be in hiding nearby, and meet the professor, even against his will."

"That's so," Bob admitted, the argument proving a clincher; "and I
reckon I'm a silly clown to think anything else."

"No, you're only tired, after a pretty tough day, that's all," Frank
declared. "When you've had a rest you'll feel better. I'm more used to
this sort of thing than you are, old fellow; but all the same we must
admit that we're getting the greatest view ever of this old canyon."

"That's so, Frank, and it's worth all the climbing and sliding, too. But
every time we've discovered signs of any of those old deserted homes of
the cliff dwellers, why, we find they've been visite