They first made the effort to get their horses across the narrow ridge, upon either side of which was an abyss a quarter of a mile in depth, seamed with ravines, and looking like the craters of defunct volcanoes.
The first horse tried, Andrew Seldon's own riding-animal, followed his master without hesitation along the dizzy, awful pathway.
Turning, Seldon led him back again, and then the other animals followed slowly, and though nervously, yet without accident.
They were repaid for their fright when turned loose upon the acres of luxuriant grass in the valley.
A fence of poles made a barrier across the narrow entrance of the valley, and so the horses were allowed to roam at will.
A stout cabin was next built, and the two men having made themselves comfortable for the winter, were ready to begin their search for gold, feeling safe once more in their retreat, for who would believe that they had crossed that narrow ridge to find a hiding-place beyond?
And here these two men, so strangely met, with mysterious lives, and both in hiding from the world, settled down to win a fortune from the generous earth, to earn riches that would make them comfortable in their latter years far from the scenes that had known them in other days and to which they dared not return.
Each day they worked several hours in their gold-hunting, and then one of them would take his gun and go in search of game, while the other would do the chores about their cabin.
It was upon one of these hunting expeditions one day that Andrew Seldon found himself belated from having pursued his game much farther than he had thought.
It was some miles back to camp and the sun had long since ceased to send its rays down into the depths of the mighty chasm of the Grand Cañon.