“Fine music!” snorted Zeke.

“I have heard it said that the snakes and owls and prairie dogs are great friends,” suggested Grant.  “They all live together in the same hole.”

“I don’t know nothin’ about their being friends,” retorted Zeke.  “I’m thinkin’ the prairie dog does most of the work any way you fix it.  He’s the one that digs the hole, then along comes the snake and makes his home in it, and then the owl creeps in and there you have it.”

“I should think they would eat one another,” laughed George.

“Maybe they do for all I know,” said Zeke.  “Now if you’ve had enough to satisfy you with this rattler we’ll start ahead again.”

“But I don’t see,” persisted Grant, “why he didn’t bite you.”

“Huh!” snapped Zeke.  “He didn’t get a chance to coil himself.  They are just like a hair-spring.  They have to get a little purchase before they can do anything, then they do a good deal too, if they try real hard.  I don’t like them, but I never do what a good many guides out here do.”

“What’s that?” asked Grant.

“Why, they’re so afraid of rattlesnake bites that they keep loaded up with whisky all the time.  That’s the best antidote for the snake bite and these fellows must have been bitten about three times a day, most of them.”

Zeke said no more and in a brief time all three were moving steadily across the table-land.

Late in the afternoon Zeke stopped and pointed to a place far in the distance, “Yonder is right near Thorn’s Gulch,” he explained.  “We ought to get there in about three hours.”

“Three hours!” exclaimed George.  “Why how far is it from here?”

“About eleven miles.”

It was almost impossible for either of the boys to believe that the spot to which Zeke had pointed was so far distant.  The air was so clear that the place appeared to be much nearer than it really was and if they had been asked each boy would have stated his opinion that the intervening distance could be covered within an hour.

“There are two ways now which we can take,” explained Zeke.

“You mean we can take them both, or either of them?” laughed George.

Ignoring the question which the guide gruffly referred to as “smart,” Zeke explained that they could go down into the canyon a short distance in advance of them and follow the course until they came to the entrance to Thorn’s Gulch.

“That will be about where John and Fred will come in, won’t it?” inquired Grant.

“I guess that’s so,” admitted Zeke.  “Perhaps it will be better for us to go down the slope and strike Thorn’s Gulch from that side.”

Accordingly the direction was changed and advancing toward a slope that led to the valley below, the boys prepared to follow the lower course and meet their friends at the opening where it had been agreed the meeting should take place.

Each boy still carried upon his back the pack which had been placed there when they had broken camp.  The descent was consequently hampered somewhat by the weight which rested upon their shoulders.  Much of the way was difficult and the three members of the party no longer were able to keep closely together.