" But she hesitated and even shuddered as she too lay down and
peered into the forbidding place.
"We'll not take any chances we don't have to." He got up and began
immediately to make his few preparations. "Here's the rifle; I'll
leave it handy for you in case our friend Rios should surprise us.
I'll take a handful of stuff with me to burn for a torch. And we'll
have another look out into the canon to begin with."
He drew out the rifle and gave it to Betty. He placed other stones
with the ones she had slipped under the edges of the boulders. And
finally he went to look out into the canon.
"No one in sight," he reported. "And now, here goes."
He sat down at the edge of the opening in the floor, set a match to his
crude torch, grinned comfortingly up at Betty and wriggled over and set
his foot to the first step. As he did so there came to him an
unpleasant memory of the fashion in which Zoraida had guarded her own
secret places with rattlesnakes; he wondered if any of the ugly brutes
lived down here? As it happened the thought had its influence in
saving him from mishap later. For, though he came upon no snakes, he
went warily and thus avoided another danger.
His torch burnt vilely and smoked copiously. But what faint light it
afforded was sufficient. Step by step he went down until feet and legs
and then entire body were lost to Betty above; she had set the rifle
aside and was kneeling, her hands clasped in her excitement.
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