ne might say.

The guides had good news for us and bad news too. Emery's wife had
been ill with appendicitis nearly all the time we were on our journey.
We had received letters from her at every post-office excepting Lee's
Ferry, but never a hint that all was not well. She knew it would break
up the trip. Pretty good nerve, we thought!

Ragged and weary, but happy; a little lean and over-trained, but
feeling entirely "fit,"--we commenced our seven-mile climb up the
trail, every turn of which seemed like an old friend. When 1300 feet
above the river, our little workshop beside a stream on the
plateau--only used at intervals when no water can be had on top, and
closed for three months past--gave us our first cheerless greeting.
Although little more than a hundred feet from the trail, we did not
stop to inspect it. Cameron's Indian Garden Camp was also closed for
the day, and we were disappointed in a hope that we could telephone to
our home, 3200 feet above. But the tents, under rows of waving
cottonwoods, and surrounded by beds of blooming roses and glorious
chrysanthemums, gave us a more cheerful welcome than our little
building below. We only stopped to quench our thirst in the bubbling
spring, then began the four-mile climb that would put us on top of the
towering cliff. Soon we overtook the party we had seen on the plateau.
Some of the tourists kindly offered us their mules, but mules were too
slow for us, and they were soon far below us. Calls, faint at first,
but growing louder as we advanced, came floating down from above. On
nearing the top our younger brother Ernest, who had come on from
Pittsburg to look after our business, came running down the trail to
greet us. One member of a troupe of moving-picture actors, in cowboy
garb, remarked that we "didn't look like moving-picture explorers";
then little Edith emerged from our studio just below the head of
Bright Angel Trail and came skipping down toward us, but stopped
suddenly when near us, and said smilingly: "Is that my Daddy with all
those whiskers?"

CHAPTER XX

ONE MONTH LATER

Naturally we were very impatient to know just what success we had met
with in our photographic work. Some of the motion pictures had been
printed and returned to us. My brother, who meanwhile had taken his
family to Los Angeles, sent very encouraging reports regarding some of
the films.

Among the Canyon visitors who came down to inspect the results of our
trip were