sleep. All the while he lay listening and at the same
time trying to realize just what had happened to Rube. It was his
excellent habit when puzzling out any such problem as this to imagine
himself to be the other person and to figure himself in that other
person's situation. He did not consider what he himself would do in
the circumstances, but what the other, having a different character,
would attempt.

And so it was now. He imagined himself to be Rube Carter climbing
across the face of a steep precipice overhanging a chasm so deep and
narrow that the level strip of rocky ground at the base of it could not
be seen. A false step, a slip of foot or hand, would mean a fall to
certain death.

But Rube was too good and cautious a climber to make a mistake. He had
got near enough to the eagles to startle them into flight, and this had
happened just before the mist had rolled down the mountain sides into
the canyon.

Now, Rube knew well that to climb down a precipice is always more
difficult than the ascent; and that to attempt the descent in a thick
mist was doubly perilous. Kiddie argued, therefore, that Rube had
either remained where he was when overtaken by the mist, or else that
he had climbed farther up the mountain. This, indeed, was in any case
the safer way, and although it would mean a long and weary tramp back
to camp, still he might be expected soon after daybreak.

From earliest dawn until long after sunrise, Kiddie waited in hope, and
when Rube did not return he resolved to go out in search of him.

If Rube were seriously hurt, it would be necessary to take him home to
Birkenshaw's with the least possible delay. Kiddie therefore packed up
the teepee and the stores in the canoe and left the latter ready for
launching. He took his rifle and revolvers with him, filled his
haversack with food, and did not neglect to take his pocket box of
surgical dressings. In case Rube should return in his absence, he left
a message in picture-writing on the paddle of the canoe.

He followed Rube's direction over the shoulder of the mountain, and
then began to look for tracks, finding them now and again, and
particularly at the point where Rube had left the hill-side to begin
his difficult climb across the face of the precipice. Here he had
dropped a stick that he had carried, and he had evidently sat down to
tighten the thongs of his moccasins. Kiddie had now no doubt of his
way. He knew that Rube would ins