d like magic upon Black Boy, who recognised it directly as his
master's call, and having had his frolic, he trotted slowly towards
where Bart cantered on, suffered himself to be caught, and the party
returned in triumph, none the worse, save the tiring, for the adventure.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE SILVER CANYON.

A week's arduous journey over a sterile stretch of country, where water
was very scarce and where game was hard to approach, brought them at
last in reach of what looked to be a curiously formed mountain far away
in the middle of an apparently boundless plain. Then it struck Bart
that it could not be a mountain, for its sides were perpendicular, and
its top at a distance seemed to be perfectly flat, and long discussions
arose between him and the Doctor as to the peculiarity of the strange
eminence standing up so prominently right in the middle of the plain.

While they were discussing the subject, the Beaver and his
English-speaking follower came to their side, and pointing to the
mountain, gave them to understand that this was their destination.

"But is there silver there?" said the Doctor eagerly, when the Indian
smiled and said quietly, "Wait and see."

The mountain on being first seen appeared to be at quite a short
distance, but at the end of their first day's journey they seemed to
have got no nearer, while after another day, though it had assumed more
prominent proportions, they were still at some distance, and it was not
until the third morning that the little party stood on the reedy shores
of a long narrow winding lake, one end of which they had to skirt before
they could ride up to the foot of the flat-topped mountain which looked
as if it had been suddenly thrust by some wondrous volcanic action right
from the plain to form what appeared to be a huge castle, some seven or
eight hundred feet high, and with no ravine or rift in the wall by which
it could be approached.

All Bart's questions were met by the one sole answer from the Indian,
"Wait and see;" and in this spirit the savages guided them along beneath
the towering ramparts of the mountain, whose scarped sides even a
mountain sheep could not have climbed, till towards evening rein was
drawn close under the mighty rocks, fragments of which had fallen here
and there, loosened by time or cut loose by the shafts of storms to lie
crumbling about its feet.

There seemed to be no reason for halting there, save that there was a
little spr