your story," urged the man of science.

"Well, it begins some months ago. I was prospecting down along the
Colorado River. It was in a mighty bad place. Don't rightly know just
how I ever got thar, but thar I was. Wonder was I wasn't killed ten
times over 'fore I got to whar I was. But I guess I'm pretty tough.

"That Colorado River is a pretty tough place down where I was.
Nothing but desert all around, and just a swift dashing current at the
bottom of a canyon that looks like it went into the middle of the
earth with steep, dark walls that seem to go straight plum up to the
sky.

"But I was lured on by the thought of making a big strike. At last I
got down to a place where the banks was so high and steep that it was
like twilight even at noon. Grub was gittin' to be a question with me,
and I'd about made up my mind to turn back, but I thought I'd make one
more last try.

"I set to work on a rocky bank with my pick but nary a color--that's
what we call a trace of gold--could I uncover.

"Wa'al, says I to myself, it's up stakes fer you, Zeb, unless you want
to starve afore you git back to civilization. But as it was evenin'
then I decided to stay whar I was that night and strike back early the
next day.

"Here's whar Blue Nose Sanchez comes inter ther story. They called
him 'blue nose,' I guess, because of a premature blast that had blown
powder into his nose and turned it that color. Anyway, he was a mighty
homely specimen.

"It was just gittin' light in the canyon, although it must have been
broad day up above, when I hears an almighty hollering up the gulch.
The next thing I knows, round a bend comes a small boat. There's two
men in it. They must have been crazy to try to make the passage, for
the river is just a mass of rapids and whirlpools, and I never heard
of anyone trying to shoot 'em.

"But thar was these two fellows in this boat, and they was scared,
too, I kin tell you. Wa'al, I stood thar like a stuffed pig on the
bank watching 'em as they came toward me at the speed of an express
train. Suddenly one of 'em, the chap that was trying to steer, twisted
the oar he was guiding the boat with and it cracked under his weight.
He went overboard in a flash.

"The next moment, with a yell of fright that I kin hear yit, the boat
was hurried past me on that water that boiled like yeast in a kittle,
and in a flash it had disappeared round another bend. What became of
it I never knew, but it must have been up