as Brown's creek. The bottom was level and smooth, and a brisk walk of
a half-hour brought them to where a horse was tied to an alder
sapling.

"You mount and ride on ahead until you come to the end of the canyon,"
said Harris, untying the horse. "I will follow on after you, and be
there almost as soon as you."

Redburn would have offered some objections, but the other motioned for
him to mount and be off, so he concluded it best to obey.

The animal was a fiery one, and soon carried him out of sight of Ned,
whom he left standing in the yellow moonlight. Sooner than he expected
the gorge came to an abrupt termination in the face of a stupendous
wall of rock, and nothing remained to do but wait for young Harris.

He soon came, trotting leisurely up, only a trifle flushed in
countenance.

"This way!" he said, and seizing the animal by the bit he led horse
and rider into a black, gaping fissure in one side of the canyon, that
had hitherto escaped Redburn's notice. It was a large, narrow,
subterranean passage, barely large enough to admit the horse and
rider. Redburn soon was forced to dismount and bring up the rear.

"How far do we journey in this shape?" he demanded, after what seemed
to him a long while.

"No further," replied Ned, and the next instant they emerged into a
small, circular pocket in the midst of the mountains--one of those