The delay was only momentary, when the rancher, with one hand grasping the bridle-rein and the other parting the limbs and bushes in front, began groping his way through the growth of timber, where it was so dark that everyone's eyes were practically useless.
Directly behind the horse walked Dot, with her mother next, leading her pony, and the pack-horse bringing up the rear.
Ten minutes of this cautious progress and the leader checked himself with an impatient expression.
"What is it?" called the wife, in a guarded voice.
"Another stream of water."
"Do you know anything about it?"
"Nothing; I came near tumbling into it, with Dick on top of me; if he hadn't scented it first I would have done so."
"What is to be done?" asked Mrs. Starr, as grievously disappointed as her husband.
"I'm blessed if I know; it may be half a mile deep and ten miles across, with a perpendicular bluff a thousand feet high on the other side."
Leaving her pony, the wife took the hand of Dot and joined him where he had halted on the edge of the unknown stream.