THE COWARDLY COUGAR 



"movie" serials with famous female stars, and 

 he looked forward with relief to meeting a 

 cougar. In addition to him, our party had 

 grown to include Fred's brother and a tired 

 business man from Chicago, both of whom 

 had come along to see if we were really in 

 earnest. 



As a matter of fact, I was not. I had no 

 more intention of roping a lion than had they, 

 it being my desire to act purely in the capacity 

 of a dispassionate witness. Likewise, I had 

 my doubts about Fred. 



"We can't cross here, like I planned," Am- 

 brose announced. "There's too much water 

 in Bright Angel Creek, so we'll go down the 

 Bass Trail, twenty-five miles west. Uncle 

 Jim's waiting on the other side with the dogs. 

 Now then, shed your parade clothes and get 

 into something decent. I'm r'arin' to go." 



None of our party had seen the Grand 

 Spasm of the Colorado. We had heard it 

 highly spoken of, to be sure, but not until we 

 strolled out in front of the El Tovar and the 

 thing hit us in the eye did we begin to appre- 

 ciate what sort of a job we had put upon our- 

 selves what it means to cross that amazing 

 rift in the earth's surface. Without any exag- 



147 



