Blake looked at the two lovely, anxious faces before him, and smiled gravely. "There you go again, and you have yet to see that gulch. But even if you find that it looks dangerous, you wouldn't want me to let a little risk interfere with my work, would you? Think of the fools who climb the highest and steepest mountains just for sport. I am going down there because it is necessary." "But is it?" the girl half sobbed. "Someone must do it, sooner or later," he replied, and he took his wife's hand in his big palm. "Come, little woman, speak up. Do you want your husband to be a shirker and quitter?" "Of course not, Tom. Yet one should be reasonable." "I have had enough experience in climbing to know not to attempt the impossible, Sweetheart," he assured her. "The worst looking places are not always the most dangerous. I promise you to take only reasonable risks." "Have we time enough to look at the place this afternoon?" she inquired. Blake glanced at the sun, and nodded. "The riding is good. We can get back long before dark. Ashton, you had better stretch out and rest." "No, I shall go with you," replied Ashton, his lips set in as firm lines as Blake's. "You cannot go, Lafe, unless you agree to ride my pony," said Isobel. "I'm not going to have Gowan call me a baby again," he objected. "You will need all your strength tomorrow," predicted Blake. "You must ride," insisted Isobel. "Very well--to please you," he agreed. "We shall take turns." Blake again looked at the sun. "As long as we are going, we may as well carry forward the line of levels. We can take long turns nearly all the way, so there will be little delay." "And I shall rod for you!" delightedly exclaimed Isobel. "Only part of the time," qualified Ashton with a sharpness that the others attributed to his zeal to serve her. He filled his canteen from one of the cans of water brought up by Gowan, and rinsed out the mouths and nostrils of the thirsty ponies. This done, he and Genevieve mounted, and the party started off on a route parallel with the canyon, which here trended back away from the edge of the plateau. They soon came to where the surface of the mesa was slashed with gulleys and ravines, all running down into the canyon. Blake swung away from the canyon, in order to head the worst of these ravines or to cross them where they were less precipitous. Presently, however, he struck in again towards the great rift along the flank of a high barren ridge. At last he led over the ridge and down to the side of a very large ravine where it pitched into the canyon at an angle little less steep than the descent of Dry Fork Gulch. The line of levels, as Blake had foretold, had been an easy one to run. It was stopped on the corner of a shelf of rock that jutted out above the gorge. Having provided a soft nest for the baby, the four went out on the shelf and peered down the dizzy slope into the black shadows of the depths.