He longed to hasten after the stranger, but felt Inza clinging to him in weakness, which prevented such a move.
And now their friends, having discovered for the first time that something was wrong, came hurrying to the spot, asking many questions.
It was some time before Inza recovered, but in the end she flung off her weakness with a sudden show of resolution, forced a laugh, and declared that she was all right.
"Where is the chundering old bump—I mean the blundering old chump?" spluttered Harry Rattleton. "Didn't stop to say a word? Well, somebody ought to say something to him! I'd like the privilege. It would do me good to give him an unvarnished piece of my mind."
The old man, however, had disappeared. Morgan said he had taken a carriage after hastening from the immediate vicinity of the falls.
"I'm glad he's gone," declared Inza. "I'm sure he was frightened. Perhaps he didn't know what to say under the circumstances."
"I'm afraid this terrible adventure will spoil your enjoyment here, Inza," said Mrs. Medford.
"Not at all," was the answer. "It's all over now, and we'll forget it. What shall we do next?"
It was agreed that the proper thing was to resume their trolley ride around the gorge, and so they took the next car bound down the river.
This ride was one that none of them could ever forget. The tracks ran close to the brink of the great gorge, so close at times that they could look directly downward from the side of the car into treetops far beneath them and see the fearful rush of the river through its choked channel. It was a spectacle almost as impressive as that of the falls, and in some ways, as the car skimmed along the brink of these mighty precipices, it was even more "shuddery," as Elsie expressed it.