Undoubtedly other boats had been seen flying overhead, since that particular section of country was being combed by a host of swift craft gathered from various quarters, all engaged in the humane task of striving to find the missing air mail pilot.
But Jack gave no evidence of a desire to drop down in the vicinity of the great hotel with its throng of guests—they could give him no information and the time could be more profitably used in commencing a systematic search. It would be time to descend when their stock of supplies in the line of food fell short or the gas tank gave promise of becoming empty. Nothing less must distract them from the task they had been commissioned to carry out with all their ability.
“I c’n see people comin’ up out o’ the canyon now,” Perk asserted with emphasis, “an’ seems like they must be mounted on mules or donkeys, ’cause no hosses c’n climb up an’ down sech steep slopes. Say, ain’t that worth comin’ out here to see? I’ll tell the world it sure is! Mebbe, ’fore we starts back to old Cheyenne, we’ll get a chance to go down into the bowels o’ the earth like them folks have been doin’, an’ seein’ the hull panorama from the bottom.”
“Who knows, Perk?” quoth the unmoved Jack, “but in the meantime we’ve got to stick on our job and do our level best to find Buddy—because of his mourning mother if for no other reason—and that goes!”
“I like to hear you say that, partner,” cried sympathetic Perk, “an’ me to back it up to the limit. My eyes! what a peach o’ a pictur’ that sure is! Somethin’ never to be rubbed out while you live. Beats anything I ever set eyes on by big odds. Niagara was fine enough, but say, it ain’t in the same class as this paintin’ o’ Old Dame Nature’s.”
“I’d call it sublime, and let it go at that,” Jack admitted, “for words never were coined that could do justice to such a tremendous thing in the way of natural scenery.”
The hotel was now in their rear and rapidly growing fainter in the distance, while below lay the wide reaches of the enormous canyon, dug through uncounted ages by the swift current of the famous river that miles further on would disappear from sight between walls that reared their heads hundreds of feet aloft.
As if to give them both a comprehensive view of the entire opening, Jack had reduced their speed to a minimum and was following the canyon gap with Perk keeping his eyes glued to his glasses, unable to tear them away for a single second lest he lose something of absorbing interest, possibly the most entrancing object in all that long category.
So it was that Jack felt a shock when he suddenly heard Perk giving tongue as though gripped with some fresh cause for excitement.
“Hey! what’s this I’m seein’ partner?” he yelled.