They did as directed.  None had any desire to play pranks, now that they could barely see where they were placing their feet.  The guide led them safely to the shelf rock, a huge slab of granite as level as a house floor, about thirty feet long and ten feet deep.  At the back towered a solid sheet of granite for a hundred feet or more, while in front the rocks dropped sheer for almost twice that distance.

The girls shivered a little as they peered over the edge of the slab.  The guide unslung a bundle of sticks that he had gathered somewhere in the vicinity and threw them down.

“Unload and get ready for grub,” he directed.  “Here’s enough wood for the supper fire; I’ll get some more later on; I know where to look for it.  Better keep away from the edge.  There won’t be any coming back, if one of you falls over there.”

“Yes, girls.  Keep well back.  We have had quite enough excitement for one afternoon’s climbing.  How do you feel?” inquired Miss Elting.

“Well, Buthter hath a thore nothe,” answered Tommy, speaking for her companion in distress.  “I have thkinned thoulderth and theveral bruitheth.  I don’t know how Jane and Harriet feel.”

“I feel as if I’d been run over by my own motor car,” decided Jane McCarthy.

“My arms and my feet are tired,” admitted Harriet.  “And, now that we have discussed our miseries, let’s think about supper.  We shall all feel better after a good meal and a rest.  Here Margery.”  Harriet spread a blanket, which Buster welcomed by promptly crawling over to it and lying down.  “The rock is awfully hard,” she complained.

“Never mind, dearie; we’ll pour some water on it and soften it for you,” comforted Jane McCarthy.

“Speaking of water, that reminds me:  Where are we to get our water for the coffee?” questioned Harriet.

“There’s a spring on the other side of these rocks.  There isn’t much water in it, but I reckon there will be enough for us.  Never mind.  Don’t you get it.  Don’t you go puttering around where you can’t see,” Janus warned.

A little blaze sprang up from the pile of sticks he had heaped and fired with a match.  The light from the fire soon threw the outer world into black darkness.  They could not make it seem possible that there, almost within reach of their hands, was a precipice dropping down nearly two hundred feet.  But the thought caused them to keep well to the rear of the shelf.

The guide gathered the cups, and, with these and the coffee pot, went to the spring, a mere trickle in the rocks, where he first filled the coffee pot, then the cups, carrying them back and placing them in a row against the wall.  Harriet put the water over the fire to boil.  Miss Elting sliced the bacon, while Jane prepared some rice for boiling.  The latter occupied considerable time in cooking and was not particularly palatable.  Janus said that in the morning they would cook enough of it to last for a day or two.