“To-morrow we will visit Humphrey’s Peak,” said Jack, looking at his trip-book. “I was told that we can get one of the finest views of any in the west from the top of that peak. The clerk at the hotel says it is possible, on a clear day, to see over 75,000 square miles of territory—think of that! Don’t forget your kodaks, girls, because you’ll want them once you get to the top of the peak.”
“It seems rather risky, Jack, to try to gain the summit of that peak in this cold weather,” remarked Mrs. Courtney. “The snows will have made the trails impassable, and the guides may have trouble in finding the way.”
“Oh, well, we’ll see how high we can climb without losing our way,” returned Jack, indifferently.
“The auto can carry us part way up the mountain,” added Polly, “and we can ride horses the rest of the way, if the day is pleasant.”
“That’s what I thought,” explained Jack. “Carry the lunch in the car, and eat before we start for the climb to the peak. It will be easy enough to come down again, and then we will be back in the hotel by dark.”
Mrs. Courtney was not so sure about it all, and she determined to inquire of the hotel proprietor, if the trip would be absolutely safe.
When the party of five went to the desk to ask for mail, they were surprised to hear that Mrs. Alexander had paid her bill and departed. All the word she left was that she would meet them at the hotel at Grand Canyon. This news annoyed Dodo, because she felt sure that her mother had stopped to get Algy at Williams, and would go on to Grand Canyon without a thought of being misunderstood by others who knew nothing of her social aspirations. She was gone, however, and nothing more could be done about it.
Jack and his friends went to sleep that night fully convinced that Mrs. Alexander had called for Algy, and then gone on to Grand Canyon with him. And Mr. Dalken, with his two companions, anxious to forestall the Copper Company by securing options on the great tract of land south of Montezumas Castle, believed the little hoax Mr. Alexander had played upon his wife had worked successfully to keep from their competitors all facts about their launching a new company to mine the valuable ore from the Verde Valley. Perhaps it was just as well that no one knew what Mrs. Alexander was doing, and what she contemplated doing for the next few days.
After leaving the hotel at Flagstaff, Mrs. Alexander had boarded the train and went as far as Williams. Here, as Dodo had thought, she expected to find Algy and persuade him to attend her on the way to the Tovar Hotel at Grand Canyon. But she was destined to have another disagreeable surprise.
She had not telephoned nor wired Algy that she would arrive that noon, because she was so sure he would be impatiently waiting for her. To her dismay, therefore, she found that a Mr. Dunlap had been at the hotel for a few days and had struck up a sudden friendship with young Alveston. Then Algy, dissatisfied with his lonesome life at Williams, swallowed the tempting bait held out to him by the wily promoter. When Mr. Dunlap proposed that the young man be his guest upon a little side trip to an interesting point which he was about to visit, Algy hailed the invitation as a godsend. Consequently the two started off in a luxurious limousine at about the same time that Jack and his party left the hotel at Flagstaff for Montezumas Castle.