Many times the flash of Blake's revolver passed unseen by them. Sometimes they had been forced away from the brink; sometimes the depths were cut off from their view by juttings of the vast walls. Yet now and again one or the other caught a flash that marked the advance of the explorers. Towards midday a last flash was seen by both above the turn where the canyon curved to run towards Dry Fork Gulch. Between this point and the sharp bend opposite the gulch the precipices overhung the canyon bottom. Carrying the baby, the two hastened to the bend, to heap up and light a great beacon fire of green wood. Gowan followed with the ponies, cool, silent and efficient. From the first he had seldom looked over into the canyon. His part was to serve Miss Chuckie and her friend, and wait. Like Ashton, he had failed to surmise the real significance of that tender parting between Blake and Isobel. His look had betrayed boundless amazement when he saw the wife of the man take the sobbing girl into her arms and comfort her. But he had spoken no word of inquiry; and every moment since, both ladies had been too utterly absorbed in their watch to talk to him of anything else. At last the exploration was nearing the turning point. Genevieve and Isobel lay on the edge of the precipice near the beacon fire, peering down for the flash that would tell of the last rod reading. Slowly the minutes dragged by, and no welcome signal flashed through the dark shadows. The usual interval between shots had passed. Still no signal. They waited and watched, with fast-mounting apprehension. Could the brave ones down in those fearsome depths have failed almost in sight of the goal? or could misfortune have overtaken them in that narrow, cavernous reach of the chasm so close to their objective point? At last--"There! there it is!" Together the two watchers saw the flash, and together they shrieked the glad discovery. Genevieve rose to go to her crying baby. Before she could silence him, Isobel screamed to her: "Another shot!--farther downstream! What can it mean?" Genevieve put down the still-sobbing baby and ran again to the verge of the precipice. Two minutes after the second flash there came a third, a few yards still farther along the canyon. "They have changed their plans. They are going downstream," said Genevieve. She caught up the long pole of the flag and ran to thrust it out opposite the point where she had seen the flash. Gowan was preparing for the return trip up along the canyon to the starting point. At Isobel's call, he silently turned the ponies about the other way and followed the excited watchers. As he did so, the girl perceived a fourth flash in the abyss, a hundred yards farther downstream. She hastened with the flag to a point a little beyond the place.