June asked permission with her eyes; Mrs. Reed nodded, having overcome her fears of Walker, owing to the substantial credentials which he was able to show. Mrs. Mann put on her hat and slipped her black bag a bit farther up her arm, and stood ready in a moment to join the expedition. Mrs. Reed was to remain alone in camp to watch things, for they had been warned that morning by the hotel people against a band of visiting Indians, who picked up anything and everything that was not anchored at least at one end. It was late in the afternoon; the sun was low when they reached the river. There wasn't anything to be made out of the footprints there. The mouth of the cañon had been visited by a great many tourists, some of whom had ventured within a little way to bring out stones for mementos of their daring days of fearsome adventures in the West. The party stood looking into the mouth of the narrow slit between the high-towering walls. Down there it was already dark; the eye could pierce the gloom but a little way. "There are places in there where the sun never shines, even for a second a day," Walker declared. "And that water goes through there with power enough in it to grind a man's bones against the rocks. There must be a fall of more than a thousand feet." "I don't believe he went in there," said Agnes with finality, after standing as if trance-bound for a long time, gazing after the foam-white river as it roared into the echoing depths. "No," Walker agreed. "He had too much sense for that." They were all cheered and lightened by this conclusion. A daylight study of the terrors of the place was sufficient to convince anybody that a man would have to be driven to desperate lengths before he would venture for the dubious reward or narrow notoriety to be gained by following that wild river through its dark way. "I camped over at the other side one summer," Walker told them as they turned away to go back to Comanche, "and I used to pick up things that had come through--boards and things that people had dropped in over at Meander. It pounds things up, I tell you!" "Did you ever pick up any gold on the other side?" asked June. "I never found a trace of any," said Walker. "I think that's all a sheep-herder's yarn." They saw one of the police force in conversation with Mrs. Reed in front of the tent as they drew near, and hastened forward in the hope that he had brought news of the missing man. Mrs. Reed received them with shocked expression, and a gesture of the hands denoting hopelessness for the salvation of the world. "It's scandalous!" she declared. The policeman, a carpenterly looking man full of sandy hairs, stood by, grinning. "What is it, Mother?" asked June. "I'll not repeat what he says," announced Mrs. Reed. "I will--not--repeat--it!"