an the latter were to observe them. Even if their
flight was interrupted, there were innumerable places in this immense
solitude where they could conceal themselves for an indefinite
period.

The question the pursuers asked themselves was whether the others had
strayed unwittingly from the trail, or whether they had turned off to
elude their pursuers, whose desperate mood they could not but know.
The latter supposition seemed the more likely, since the path was
marked so plainly that it could be lost only by unaccountable
carelessness.

At the first break in the side of the vast mountain walls Vose Adams
again slipped from his mule and spent several minutes in studying the
ground.

"They haven't gone in here," was his comment, as he remounted.

"Make certain that we are not too far back," said the captain.

"I have made no mistake," was the curt reply of the guide. The party
had gone less than twenty rods further, when another rent opened on
the other side of the canyon, which was about an eighth of a mile wide.
It would not do now to slight anything, and Adams headed his mule
diagonally across the gorge, the animal walking slowly, while the
rider leaned over with his eyes on the ground. Suddenly he exclaimed:

"We've hit it this time! Here's where they went in!"

All four leaped from the back of their animals. Adams pointed out the
faint indentations made by the hoofs of two horses. Less accustomed
than he to study such evidence, they failed to note that which was
plain to him; the hoof prints of one of the animals were smaller than
those of the other, since they were made by Cap, the pony belonging to
Nellie Dawson. There could no longer be any doubt that the pursuers
were warm on the trail of the fugitives.

Such being the fact, the interest of the men naturally centered on the
avenue through which the others had made their way.

It was one of those fissures, sometimes seen among enormous piles of
rock, that suggest that some terrific convulsion of nature, ages
before, has split the mountain in twain from top to bottom. The latter
was on a level with the main canyon itself, the chasm at the beginning
being ten or twelve yards in width, but, occurring in a depression of
the mountain spur, its height was no more than five or six hundred
feet, whereas in other localities it would have been nearly ten times
as great. The base was strewn with fragments of sandstone, some of the
pieces as large as boulders, whic