“Let’s spell the other word,” suggested his companion. When this had been done, the letters read:
“SKALAENTE”
Mr. Cook eyed it a long time and then shook his head. Finally, he went to the map again, but apparently with no better success.
“Looks like Swedish,” suggested Roy.
Mr. Cook returned to the table, held the sheet at all angles before him and then suddenly broke out into a laugh.
“Escalante!” he exclaimed. “Mustn’t forget the characters are phonetic. That’s the Escalante River—first one south of Horse Creek. I guess that’s it.”
Roy had hurried to the map. With his pencil he drew a line under Mr. Cook’s direction, from Ellsworth mountain to Kaiparowits. Where it crossed the river, he made a cross.
Then, his hand trembling, he wrote at the intersection, “Sink Hole of the Lost Indians.”
“What do you think of Sink’s story now?” he broke out, boy fashion.