“Maybe it would have been the three ‘J’s’ instead of two jays,” laughed Joan.
“Girls! some one said we are here!” cried Hester, pressing her face against the window-screen in order to look for the town of Grand Cañon. She saw a few scattered dwellings and a railroad station.
Mr. Gilroy had no idea of allowing the scouts to see the Cañon at once. It was late afternoon when they left the train, and he led them directly to the hotel where they could wash and brush up and then have afternoon tea. He planned to show them their first view of the wonderful chasm with the hues of sunset full upon its walls, and his plan succeeded even better than he could have hoped for.
The eager and impatient scouts ran out ahead of Mr. Gilroy the sooner to view the Wonder they had come so far to see. They reached the rail and looked. The earth lay open before their eyes!
Not a word was uttered. Girlish hands clutched at the rail, and breaths came in short gasps. The sun was sending slanting beams across the gigantic gap before them, and dark purple mist was already veiling the depths of the cañon.
Finally Betty sobbed aloud. The sound seemed to unlock the pent-up emotion of the other scouts. Every one trembled with the wild thrill of the scene, and two of the girls laughed hysterically.
Having taken their fill of this their first view of the Cañon, the scouts followed Mr. Gilroy to a point which jutted out beyond the rest of the cliff.
“It looks seared and scarred like one of those old shamans back on the Desert,” commented Joan, gazing down at the ruin-like mass of rock which apparently held up the promontory upon which they were standing.
“Look, girls! That is what I want you to see,” called Mr. Gilroy, as they all reached the spot out on the projection of earth. He pointed in the direction he wished the scouts to gaze.
A fiery ball was just about to rest itself upon a far-off peak, but in doing so it shed a glory of light over all the crags and chasms, the pinnacles and plateaus, the mesas and monuments of this Wonderland. Quite suddenly, this red sphere seemed to roll behind the peak and as suddenly the glory faded.