Lost in the Canon

boys living out there at that time are only just beginning to think themselves young men-an

, for dah ain't de least

el shot-gun in his arms, stood at the base of a towering mass of bare rocks, and looked eagerly up at two other youths creeping alo

oung hunters bespoke him an Indian of the purest type. He wore a close-f

and curly yellow hair that told of a pure white ancestry. His name was Samuel Willett, and though not much more than sixteen

d his well-worn equipments told that he was not out

heep into the mass of towering rocks which they were now searching; and that the

, foh dar ain't de least

Ike, so have patience!" Sam shouted down,

at was greater than his love for the chase, began circling about

ain antelope, whose strength, speed and daring among the rocks and ca?ons are not the

mals can leap from immense heights and land on

th at the towering, volcanic cliffs, the bighorn

means of escape was to leap across a chasm fully thirty

s the bighorn gathered himself up and eye

accuracy that would have insured a landing on the other side, but just as it sprang into mid-air two shots rang out wit

a baby. All the power of the old-fashioned weapon must have been in the report and recoil, for the former sounded like the

e might have thought when he had reached the bottom that the anima

p?" asked Sam, as he helped the o

Mistah Sam?" demanded Ike, a

re is the meat you have be

in his arms. "I ain't used her bad; ain't fired her off for more'n six months afore we kem out har

took in the situation his fine, almost effeminate face was wre

nd without any accent, he

must hurry if we would re

dis ar venizon home," said Ike, now wide

n his belt, and they soon proved that th

an eastern butcher, they skinned and cleaned the animal, sever

lthy young fellows they did not seem to mind their burdens, as

grander or more desolate land than that which met the gaze

tastic shapes rose into the

which they hurried, a stunted sagebush or a dwarf cactus suggeste

ere rain but seldom falls, where the streams flow through frightful gorges, and where men a

he way-that its gloomy ravines contained gold, led hundreds of hardy miners and adventurers to loo

strode ahead, the deepening shadows of the mount

se, but kept on as unerringly as a bird of passage, till he came

ths he could see a white ban

near the base of the cliff, and the barking of a dog-the sound appe

did not hesitate, but at once plunged down to w

constructed trail that afforded secure footing t

their way to the bottom of the rift and forded the

feet above the stream, what seemed like a number of illuminated pigeon holes. This was the

corted them up the other side to an irregular plateau, about a hundred f

of the cave, in which the

ne bespoke him a Chinaman, the second was dressed like a hunter, and the third, a ta

the tall man, as the foremost o

reply, "and we have b

didn't think thar was a pound of liv

" cried the excited Chinaman, who was

ters entered the remarkable cave-of which we sha

, as he fondly kissed his son, "meat is very desirable, but

spring that rose from the floor of the cave close to the fir

pany. In nearly no time he had steaks broiling on the coals, the savory odor of

with Ike's aid, had a most excellent supper spread on a table consisting of two roughly-hewn cedar slabs, supporte