Looking down into the canyon, Nestor wondered if an easy route
to the bottom might not be found there. He was already more
than 200 feet below the shelf of rock from which the mine opened.
The floor of the canyon was at least 400 feet below him, and at
the south another cut, running east and west, seemed to connect
with the first. He heard the trinkle of water below, and was
satisfied that there was a succession of canyons leading to the
plain below, in which case descent would be comparatively easy.
This piece of good fortune, Nestor congratulated himself, would
enable the boys to reach the camping place of the renegade and
his men shortly after dark, as the approach to the sandy plain
would be comparatively free of obstruction. This was an
important thing, as there might be many miles to travel before
the next day after Fremont was rescued.
It was not so easy getting back to the shaft, but in a short time
Nestor made his way there and was soon in consultation with his
friends. All were eager to pass through the tunnel, and so, one
by one, they were let down until all were at the slope which led
to the bottom of the canyon.
They found it easy to clamber down the heap of crushed rock to the
floor of the canyon, and also to pass along the bottom at the edge
of the small stream of water which flowed toward the south. The
water had cut a passage under a ledge at the south, and now flowed
eastward, toward the plain.
Following steadily on, now stooping under natural bridges in the rock,
now wading through cuts which the water covered, and which must have
been roaring torrents during time of storm, the boys finally came to
a little shelf looking east from which the renegade and some of his
companions could plainly be seen.
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