The Frontier Boys in the Grand Canyon Part 22

I got the rope and made a flying return trip to the river. I soon made a la.s.so loop and stood poised on the bank, directly opposite Jim, ready for the throw.

"You stand still now and I bet that I will la.s.so you," I cried.

This accomplishment the captain had taught us and sometimes it came in handy. So I wheeled the loop around my head several times and sent it whirling out over the river. It struck the rock all right, but would have fallen short if Jim had not caught it.

"Pretty good for a first throw," yelled Jim.

"Now, Robinson Crusoe, fasten it around your chest and under your shoulders," were my shouted instructions.

Jim did this and it left his arms free. Tom and I now took the rope and went up the river a ways to the beach. Tom stood on the bank well braced, while I went out in the river as far as I could and have a good foothold.

"Are you rested enough to try?" I yelled to Jim.

"Sure," he replied. "Are you ready?"

"Ready," I shouted.

Jim stood poised on the edge of the rock, then with a spring he launched upstream as far as he could. I drew in the slack as quickly as possible, then I felt the force of the current as it clutched at Jim. It pulled like a powerful runaway horse.

It almost drew us down the river; if Jim had not been able to help himself we would never have made it. But with the rope to give him confidence he fought strongly against the current.

It certainly tested our strength to the utmost. But the sinewy arms that I had acquired and the knotted muscles at the back again stood us in good stead.

I was aroused to the limit, and with a last powerful pull, we got Jim into shallow water and carried him to the little beach, for he was about all in, having shipped considerable water.

We worked his arms and rolled him in the most approved fashion and he soon came around, but he was perfectly willing to lie for awhile on the warm sand. As we worked there we talked over Jim's escapade.

"This will be the last time I'll fool with that river," said Jim ruefully. "It was just by luck that it did not send me down by the underground route."

"You're a pretty game fish to land," I said.

"You branded me under the arms all right with that rope," he said.

"It did raise quite a welt," remarked Tom. "I guess Jo thought you were a maverick when he la.s.soed you."

"You fellows look like white men now," said Jim, "since you've had a bath."

"It seemed mighty good to get to plenty of water," I said, "after coming through the desert."

"We'll be tired of water before we get through with this river,"

remarked Tom.

"It's the trip for me," said Jim cheerfully. "Do you know what it means, boys, to tackle a stream like this that hasn't been navigated except by two parties since the world began?"

CHAPTER XVII

BEGINNING THE BOAT

After we had got thoroughly rested, Jim from being rescued and Tom and I from doing the rescuing act, we went back to our camp.

"It's rather nice," remarked Jim, "to camp under cottonwoods after having nothing but pines over us, or the sky."

"It does seem sort of civilized," said Tom. "This is one of the nicest places we have struck. Just the kind for a picnic."

The broad-leaved trees were over our heads, and there was an open s.p.a.ce amongst them for our camp. The trees were old, and some with bent trunks on which we could sit and swing our feet. After the wide and lonely extent of plains that we had been journeying over, our camp among the trees seemed a cosy shelter.

But as evening came on our enthusiasm received a severe jolt, for swarms of mosquitoes came in from the levels between the two streams. We began to slap around our ears in frantic efforts at self-protection.

"Does this remind you of anything?" asked Tom.

"You bet it does," said Jim. "It was way back in Kansas where they came near eating us alive. I know when I tried to take aim at some ducks they settled so thick on the gun that I could not see the sight."

"Yes, I recollect building a smudge back of black Carl and setting his tail afire, too," I put in.

"We won't stay any longer around here than we have to," said Jim.

"How long do you suppose before we will be ready to start down the river?" I asked.

"We will get to work to-morrow," said Jim, "and we won't waste any time.

It would not surprise me if we were ready to launch out after two days."

The reader will wonder what we will do now that the river is reached. Of course we had no boats with us and there was no place within five hundred miles where we could have them made. Nor did we have the materials wherewith to construct a boat.

As to our ponies we had no other course than to leave them at this point. We could not take them with us because we did not expect to build a Noah's ark. If we had been in striking distance of a settlement, Jim would have taken the horses and sold them.

However, we would not be out anything, as the ponies had cost us nothing, as we had captured them from the Indians, but we regretted having to leave our faithful companions who had once saved our lives when we were in desperate straits.

Of course we had not come so far without some definite plan of action when we struck the river.

"I don't think we could have reached the Green at a better point than this," said Jim, "because we have different kinds of trees to make a raft."

"It's a pity we couldn't have a boat," I said. "It would be so much easier to manage than a raft, and it would make better time."

"I don't know as it would be any safer," remarked Jim. "You could stove in a boat on one of those sharp rocks, but it would take something worse than that to break up a solid raft."

"If we are going to get up so early, we might just as well turn in now,"

said Tom.

"It will be a good way to keep off the mosquitoes," I said.

But we soon found that these pests were very persistent and kept serenading around our ears and settling on any exposed parts of our anatomy, so that we had to keep our head ducked down under the blankets, and thus curled up, we were soon fast asleep.

It was not uncomfortably warm, either, as there was a nip in the air that made the blankets seem all right. We slept a little later than was usual with us, for the deep shade of the trees shut out the rays of the sun, and it was a half hour before Jim roused us.

"Get up, boys, or we will miss our train," he cried, and he rolled us out of our blankets onto the ground.