e arranged the exit by piling up stones,"
came the ready reply. "There is little danger, for the ravine has high
banks, where they are able to go in case of hard luck. But now we have
a tough job ahead, boys. Mind your steps all the time. A slip might
cost you dear."

"Reckon I know that, Mr. Smith," remarked Bob. "I've had experience,
you see. And only for the helping hand of my trusty chum here, I'm
afraid I wouldn't be alive right now. Oh! I'll be careful, I give you
my word."

And he was, seldom putting a foot forward without first making certain
how the land lay below, and that the stone he expected to step upon was
firmly planted.

They were making fair progress when the old miner called out:

"We've reached the parting of the ways, boys. Little Lopez and me have
to turn to the left here, so as to hit the place whar our animals are
cached. You keep right on. Wish you the best of luck, Frank. Hope to
see you some time at my shack. And I tell ye, son, thar's agoin' to be
a ranch soon, with hosses for the gal, an' an ottermobile for the old
couple. I struck it rich in this here lode and pocket. So-long, boys!"

He shook hands with each of them, as did also the girl, whose
astonishing nerve, when facing that terrible grizzly, Bob would never
forget. Then they separated. And a minute afterward there came
another of those fearful shocks that seemed to make the very rocks of
the mountain quiver, as the pent-up force of that great geyser beat
against its prison walls.

"We must be getting down somewhere near the canyon, aren't we, Frank?"
asked Bob, after they had been a long while descending the side of the
rough mountain.

"That's right, we are," replied his chum. "And I've been wondering
whether we ought to take the chances of going along that _barranca_
just now."

"It's the shortest way to where we left our horses, I reckon," remarked
Bob.

"And the only way we happen to know of," Frank went on; "but if that
flood just happened to break loose while we were between those high
walls we'd have an experience that would be fierce, let me tell you!"

"But then, it may not come for hours yet?" remonstrated the Kentucky
boy, who was anxious to be once again in the saddle, and leaving the
haunted mountain well in the rear.

"Oh! for that matter, it may not come at all," Frank went on.
"Although Smith did say he really believed that this was going to
finish the old geyser, which he believed empt