Towards the close of the inadequate, barely satisfying meal, Dick, who had been gazing curiously about him, pointed to an opening in the rocks a few yards away.
“It looks as if a sort of path runs through there,” he remarked.
“Deer-run,” suggested Sandy.
“What would deer be doing up here?” Dick wanted to know.
“Mebbe salt-lick somewhere,” Toma bore out Sandy’s conjecture.
Investigation proved that there was a path, clearly defined and well-beaten, a path which wound away towards the center of the plateau. Following it for a while, the three weary explorers passed through a narrow, broken defile and emerged at length to an opening amongst the rocks. They paused in wonder.
Immediately ahead sparkling like a jewel under the bright rays of the morning sun, was a pool or small lake. A perpendicular wall of sandstone rose sheer on one side, but on the other, a little to the right of where the boys were standing, the shoreline was practically unbroken and level, sloping slightly upward over a grass- and tree-grown space to another wall of sandstone. The whole effect was that of a huge hole or depression sunk into the earth: The small lake occupied one-half of this depression and the green slope the remaining half.
The boys stood for several minutes, struck with the beauty and novelty of the scene.
“I don’t care whether that pond’s a thousand feet deep and cold as a cake of ice,” Sandy suddenly decided. “I’m going to have a swim in it. A cool plunge right now would make me feel like a million dollars.”
He laughed as he spoke, but a surprised grunt from Toma quickly drew his attention to another quarter. As the guide pointed out the cause of his startled ejaculation, both Dick and Sandy gasped in wonder.