“Well, that’s one thing I can do,—handle a gun.”
“I hope you’ll not have any more of it to do, though.”
“Do you think, Sid, that we are safe here? I haven’t looked, but I should think the trail that we missed last night must pass through this gorge.”
“Yes, it does. I saw the tracks out there in the sand.”
“I suppose it must be traveled occasionally.” And Raymond stood up and looked along the cañon wall. “That looks like a little ravine coming in up there. Let’s see if there isn’t some place that we can crawl into for shelter.”
“Yes, I guess we’d better.” And Sidney stood up and stretched stiffly. “We are certainly too exposed here. But do you know, Ray, I’m so lame and sore that I can hardly move.”
“I’m not very lame,—just tired, that’s all; but then you worked harder than I did.”
The boys moved slowly along the sand to the cleft in the cañon wall which Raymond had indicated. They found a very narrow chasm that had been cut through the rock by the occasional torrential rains of centuries. Its bottom, for some yards back, was on a level with the sandy floor of the cañon and was not more than ten feet wide. Overhead the cleft was very irregular, in places the two walls nearly coming together. Extending back on the right side beneath the overhanging rock was a sheltered space, very like a small cave.
“Gee! Sid,” exclaimed Raymond, “that’s a fine place, and nobody can see us from the cañon. But, jiminy! where are our blankets? Did we leave them up on the mountain?”
“I guess we did. I hadn’t thought of them at all. But I don’t believe I can crawl up there after them to-night; I feel too gone for anything.”