4 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



climbed the sheer slopes and zigzagged upward 

 through the breaks in the cliff walls. At one 

 place the Bar Z men showed us where one of 

 their pack-animals had lost his footing and 

 fallen down the mountainside a year previously. 

 It was eight hours before we topped the rim 

 and came out on the high, wooded, broken 

 plateau which at this part of its course forms 

 the northern barrier of the deep-sunk Colorado 

 River. Three or four miles farther on we found 

 the men who were to have met us; they were 

 two days behindhand, so we told them we 

 would not need them, and reclaimed what 

 horses, provisions, and other outfit were ours. 

 With Cummings and the two elder boys we 

 were quite competent to take care of ourselves 

 under all circumstances, and extra men, tents, 

 and provisions merely represented a slight, and 

 dispensable, increase in convenience and com- 

 fort. 



As it turned out, there was no loss even of 

 comfort. We went straight to the cabin of the 

 game warden. Uncle Jim Owens; and he in- 

 stantly accepted us as his guests, treated us as 

 such, and accompanied us throughout our fort- 

 night's stay north of the river. A kinder host 

 and better companion in a wild country could 

 not be found. Through him we hired a very 



