On the following morning they mounted their mustangs and started slowly for the rim, where they arrived some time after noon.  The Pony Rider Boys instantly went into camp near the hotel, for it had been decided to take a full day’s rest before starting out on the long trip.  This time they were to take their pack train with them and cut off from civilization for the coming few weeks, they would live in the Canyon, foraging for what food they were unable to carry with them.

The guests at the hotel, after hearing of Tad Butler’s bravery, tried to make a hero of the lad, but Tad would have none of it.  He grew red in the face every time anyone suggested that he had done anything out of the ordinary.  And deep down in his heart the lad did not believe that he had.  Professor Zepplin, however, called a surgeon, who took five stitches in the scalp wound.

On the following morning camp was struck and the party started out for Bright Angel Gulch and Cataract Canyon, in both of which places some interesting as well as exciting experiences awaited them.  Nance had brought three of his hunting dogs with him in case any game were started.

The boys were looking forward to shooting a lion, though, there being no snow on the ground, it would be difficult for the dogs to strike and follow a trail.  How well they succeeded we shall see.

CHAPTER XIV

THE DOGS PICK UP A TRAIL

The man in charge of the pack train having deserted them before the travelers got back from the rim, Dad picked up a half breed whom the boys named Chow, because he was always chewing.  If not food, Chow was forever munching on a leaf or a twig or a stick.  His jaws were ever at work until the boys were working their own jaws out of pure sympathy.

The march was taken up to Bass Trail, which they reached about noon of the second day and started down.  No unusual incident occurred during this journey.  They found the trail in good condition, and though steep and precipitous in places, it gave the Pony Rider Boys no worry.  After having experienced the perils of the other trail, this one seemed tame.

From Bass Trail they worked their way down and across into Bright Angel Gulch, where they made camp and awaited the arrival of Chow and the mules with their tents and provisions.

Chow arrived late the same day.  Tents were pitched and settled.  It was decided for the present to make this point their base of supplies.  When on short journeys they would travel light, carrying such equipment as was absolutely necessary, and no more.

This gulch was far from the beaten track of the ordinary explorer, a vast but attractive gash in the plateau.  In spots there was verdure, and, where the water courses reached in, stretches of grass with here and there patches of gramma grass, grease wood and creosote plants with a profusion of flowers, mostly red, in harmony with the prevailing color of the rocks that towered high above them.  At this point the walls of the Canyon reached nearly seven thousand feet up into the air.