I kept thinking about poor Taylor and Nebraska, and there were times
when I felt that I just had to yell and jump out into the black hole
around us. Taggart showed it worse than me. It took us an hour to
traverse that ledge. We'd strike a short turn where there wouldn't be
more than six or eight inches of ledge between us and eternity, and we
couldn't see a thing--I've thought since that maybe it was a good thing
we couldn't. But we could feel the width of the ledge with our feet,
and there were times when my legs shook under me like I had the ague.
Taggart was pretty near collapse all the time. He kept mumbling to
himself, making queer little throaty noises and grabbing at me. Two or
three times I had to turn and talk to him, or he'd have let go all
holds and jumped.
"We finally made solid ground, and it was a full hour before me or
Taggart could get up after we'd sat down, we were that tuckered out.
The girl didn't seem to mind it a bit; she told me she'd discovered the
secret passage that way. She'd been nosing around the mountain one day
and had crept along the edge, finding that it led to the treasure cave.
"There wasn't any time lost by us in getting away from that place.
Ezela told us there wasn't any use hoping that Nebraska and Taylor were
alive, because the canyon was over a thousand feet deep and there was a
roaring river at the bottom.
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