breathlessly.

"Killed, nothing," he replied, with scorn. "I suppose you fellows think
I had a fall. Well, I didn't."

"You didn't, eh? We saw you slip."

"Oh, go on. I came down that way on purpose. There was no use in picking
my way down like a 'fraid cat, when I could just as well take a smooth
and easy toboggan slide on the bushes all the way down."

Smooth and easy toboggan slide! Well, you should have seen the hillside.
The course was well defined by the torn and uprooted shrubs and the pile
of branches and vines at Dutchy's feet. Whether the hare-brained Dutchy
really imagined he could glide easily down on the shrubbery, his frantic
movements on the way certainly belied his story, and when, the next day,
we proposed that he repeat the trick, somehow he didn't seem to be very
enthusiastic on the subject.

[Illustration: Wichita Indians Building a Straw Hut.]

A PATH UP THE FISSURE.

[Illustration: Fig. 133. The Jacob's Ladder.]

It was up this fissure that we decided to haul materials for our tree
hut. Our first task was to build steps and ladders in the steepest
parts. We had no tool for cutting out niches in the rock, but wherever
natural depressions were formed we wedged in sticks of wood between the
side walls to serve as ladder rungs. If no such niches appeared for
considerable height, we would stretch a rope ladder to the next fixed
rung. In most places the natural formation of the rock was such as to
afford sufficient footing.

ROPE LADDERS.

[Illustration: Fig. 134. Rope Ladder.]

The rope ladders were made of two parallel side straps, tightly
stretched between the fixed sticks, and then at intervals of fifteen
inches we inserted the ends of the ladder rung between the strands of
the rope. Below and above each rung the rope was bound with cord. The
rungs were notched at the ends to prevent them from slipping out.

[Illustration: Fig. 135. A Ladder Rung.]

[Illustration: Fig. 136. The Derrick.]

After providing a means for scaling the cliff (we called it the Jacob's
Ladder), we were still confronted with the problem how to cart our
building materials to the top. It was a very hard task and you couldn't
have hired us to do it under any other circumstances. First, Bill
planned out on paper just how the house was to be built, and we cut all
the pieces to the right size so as not to carry up any superfluous
matter. When all was ready the boards and sticks were loaded on the
scow, and ferr