“Not on your life, old man!  Food will do this knee more good than a bandage.”

“It’s a wonder you wouldn’t offer to help the rest of us out once in a while, Jonas!” Harden looked up from his plate of fish.  “Look at this scratch on my cheek!  I might get blood poisoning, but lots you care if my fatal beauty was destroyed!  As it is, I look as much like an inmate of a menagerie as old goat Forrester here.”

“Too bad the scratch didn’t injure your tongue, Harden,” returned Forrester, sarcastically.

“Nothing seems able to stop your chin, though, Forr!  Why do you have to get sore every time I speak to you?”

“Because you’re always going out of your way to say something insulting to me.”

“Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill, Forr,” said Milton.  “If you fellows aren’t careful you’ll have a real quarrel, and that’s the last thing I’m going to stand for, I warn you.”

“Very well, Milt,” replied Forrester, “if you don’t want trouble make Harden keep his tongue off me.”

“The fault is primarily yours, Hard,” Milton went on.  “You know Forrester is foolishly sensitive and you can’t control your love of teasing.  Now, once for all, I ask you not to speak to Forrester except on the business of the survey.”

Harden shrugged his shoulders and Forrester scowled a little sheepishly.  Agnew, a serene, kindly fellow, began one of his endless Irish stories, and the incident appeared to be closed.  The work assigned for the day was accomplished in shorter order than Milton had anticipated.  By two o’clock all hands were back in camp and Milton decided to embark and move on as far as possible before nightfall.  But scarcely had they finished loading the boats and tied on the tarpaulins when a heavy rain began to fall, accompanied by lightning and tremendous peals of thunder that echoed through the Canyon deafeningly.

Milton, in his anxiety to get on with his task, would have continued in spite of the rain, but the others protested so vigorously that he gave in and the whole party crawled under a sheltering ledge beside the brook.  For an hour the storm raged.  A few flakes of snow mingled with the descending rain drops.  Then with a superb flash of lightning and crash of thunder the storm passed as suddenly as it had come, though for hours after they heard it reverberate among the distant peaks.

At last they embarked and proceeded along a smooth, swift-flowing river for a short time.  Then, however, the familiar roar of falls was heard, the current increased rapidly in velocity and Milton made a landing for observation.

They were at the head of the wildest falls that Enoch had yet seen.  The Canyon walls were smooth and perpendicular.  There was no possibility of a portage.  The river was full of rocks against which dashed waves ten to twelve feet high.

“We’ll have to run it!” shouted Milton above the din of the waters.  “Powell did it and so can we.  Give the Ida five minutes’ start, Hard.  Then profit by the mistakes you see us make.  All ready, Judge and Forr!”