The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-01-22

hole extended downward beneath the
base of the great stone, and, lying
fiat on his face, HI pushed it up with
his shoulders. The light that came In
as ii rocked backward showed him a
foothold in the granite beneath the
strip of mould that covered it-a rock
ledge. with gaping blackness below.
Then the stone came back into posi-
ton again, and nothing was visible.
CIinging in the darkness to the
edges of the hole, Lee extended a foot
downward. The toe Of his boot struck
a ledge Of rock. Crawling down, Lee
lowered himself until he felt a second
foothold beneath. Below that was a
third.
He found himself descending a lad
der Of rock.
And very carefully he began work.
ing his way downward. The granite
wall was polished as smooth as glass,
each foothold was precariously slip
perry, and he chung like a bat with
hands and knees as he descended. But
in a few minutes a dim light began to
filter upward from below. Lees head
scraped against rock. The light grew
stronger. Flakes of snow whirled in.
Then he emerged into daylight, to
find himself clinging to the interior
lining of the great chasm, like a fly
on a wall, three-fourths of the way
down. The snow was whirling about
him, but the wind had ceased, cut off
by the precipitous walls of the chasm.
Then Lee understood. He had found
an entrance, probably the only one,
into the gorge but someone had pre-
coded him, patiently assisting nature
in the creation and enlargement of the
steps Of that rocky ladder, which had
been eroded, during the curse of
%millenniums, by the action of a now
dried-up waterfall.
Only water could have followed out
that course by the play of the leaping
torrent on the projections of the
granite.
Looking down from where he chung,
Lee saw that a thin stream trfckled
over a sandy bed in the middle of the
gorge below, issuing from n end,
where it burst out of the granite,
carrying with it the debris of the al
Iuvial land above-mud, gravel, and
sand.
And suddenly the idea occurred to
him that in all probability he had
stumbled upon old Pelly's gold mine.
In which event, what more natural
than that PelIy was hiding in that in
accessible spot. where he would be alb
s%olutely secure against discovery-un-
less he had incautiously permitted
some one to share his secret?
And perhaps Joyce knew, and had
come up in order to be with him and
to procure food supplies for him. Let
CRASHED his teeth at the thought of It.
Fortune had played into his hands.
Lee saw that from the point where
he was clinging, there appeared to be
a fairly easy descent to the bottom.
1t was only the upper parts of the cliffs
in the gorge that were unscalable.
But he could go no further now.
Anxiety for Joyce was rising in him.
He was half afraid she might do
something rash.
In some way Railway seemed to be
associated with Pelly perhaps he was
protecting him. Suppose, then, that
the girl had gone back to the Free
Traders headquarters on Siston lake?
Or fled into the storm in her frenzy?
Suppose they had been followed?
remembered his fancy that he had
seen Al Indian watching them. The
Free Traders would surely have been
watching the trail at either end of the
lake, knowing that sooner or later they
must emerge out of the forests.
Then he remembered the shadow in
the log house, and this specter in
which he had disbelieved, now began
to assume in his mind a formidable
Suddenly, as Lee chung there, he
heard a rumbling sound above his
head, and a moment later something
past it and smashed upon the
ground of the chasm. Looking down,
Lee saw the fragments of an enor-
nous boulder lying on the ground inn
mediately beneath him.
He had had a narrow escape. And
reluctantly he turned to re-enter the
tunnel. But before he had thrust his
head and shoulders in, there came IN
other rumble. And this time it was
only the little projecting ledge above
MS head that saved his life.
The boulder struck the edge of it,
out into the air, and, just missing
lin, smashed to pieces below.
Lee looked Up, but the o~verhanging
lifts shut out the view of everything
except the ~overhanging bushes and the
ky.
Whether or not human agency was
.'espOnSible for the fall of the two
,oulders, 1t was certain that the I'M
lel's mouth did not appear to be a
particularly healthy spot at that mo-
nent.