The man turned again, with no more expression in his eyes or face than before. He looked at Myrtle steadily a moment, then turned and slowly left the edge, walking to firm ground and back toward the hotel without another glance at the girl.
"I'm so ashamed," said Myrtle, tears of vexation in her eyes as she rejoined her friends. "But somehow I felt I must warn him—it was an impulse I just couldn't resist."
"Why, no harm resulted, in any event, my dear," returned Beth. "I wouldn't think of it again."
They took so long a walk that all were nearly famished when they returned to the hotel for breakfast.
Of course Patsy and Beth wanted to go down Bright Angel Trail into the depths of the canyon, for that is the thing all adventurous spirits love to do.
"I'm too fat for such foolishness," said Uncle John, "so I'll stay up here and amuse Myrtle."
The Major decided to go, to "look after our Patsy;" so the three joined the long line of daring tourists and being mounted on docile, sure-footed burros, followed the guide down the trail.
Myrtle and Uncle John spent the morning on the porch of the hotel. At breakfast the girl had noticed the tall man they had encountered at the canyon's edge quietly engaged in eating at a small table in a far corner of the great dining room. During the forenoon he came from the hotel to the porch and for a time stood looking far away over the canyon.
Aroused to sympathy by the loneliness of this silent person, Uncle
John left his chair and stood beside him at the railing.
"It's a wonderful sight, sir," he remarked in his brisk, sociable way; "wonderful indeed!"