"I was anxious, however, to get back the way that I had come without taking a long trip to one of the side canyons, and after losing some time, and also some skin from knees and elbows and other parts of my body, I got back to the place where the horse had first lain. My assistant dropped me a rope--there is always a long rope carried by each party--and I climbed up that rope." "Swarmed up a rope a hundred and seventy-five feet high!" ejaculated Roger, then, with a whistle, he added, "that's an awful climb." "It was not a straight hand over hand climb, my boy," answered Masseth quietly. "You must remember that all those walls are in terraces and every other line of strata would give a ledge. Of course, in some parts they were overhanging and that made it all the harder, but there were plenty of places to rest on the way up and in due course I reached the top. That was the first misadventure, and I hope it will be the last in any of my camps in Grand Canyon work." "And what part of the work are you doing now, Mr. Masseth?" queried the boy. "I was just waiting for you to complete the party," was the reply. "We are going to tackle the Tourist's trail, that is the one I was telling you about, and will go up the other side. Then, from the north side, I will pick out a number of points which I want you--with other members of the party--to occupy. You will then do some work under my assistant, while I cross back to this side, and on an appointed day we will strike a level across the nine-miles gap." "Then we will be working together though miles apart?" asked the boy in surprise. "Yes, and months apart, too." "But how in the world can you do that?" was the amazed response. "Do you carry a wireless telegraph outfit in your vest pocket, Mr. Masseth? Is there anything the Survey can't do?" "You seem to think," responded the chief with a smile, "that the race of wizards has been reborn and christened the Geological Survey, as a visiting diplomat once said of us." "Well, pretty nearly," answered the boy. "We're not quite that," admitted the other, "but," with a smile of mystification, "I do carry a little device by which I can make use of a system of wireless telegraphy which was in existence thousands of years ago." "And can I see it?" "Certainly," replied the topographer, and drawing his hand from his pocket, he showed it open to the boy. "That's just a looking-glass," cried Roger in disappointment, having expected to see some delicate and ingenious piece of intricate machinery. "Just a piece of looking-glass," assented his chief. "What then?" "But how do you work it? What can you do with that?" "That, my boy," answered the older man, "is one of the very many things you will learn while you are in and about the Grand Canyon." [Illustration: "HOW IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO GET UP THERE?" A query for the topographer, which must be answered; a sample of rough country work. _Photograph by U.S.G.S._] CHAPTER VI