hopes that, with the advantage of the start, they might reach that point
far enough in advance of their pursuers to secure some other concealment
that would serve them till nightfall, when they could steal out and try
their chances again.

The saplings growing at every inclination afforded them much assistance,
as they were able to seize hold with one or both hands, and thus help
themselves along. But the vines in many places were of a peculiar running
nature and they frequently caught their feet and stumbled; but they were
instantly up and at it again. All at once Mickey, who was scarcely an
arm's length in advance, halted so abruptly that Fred ran plump against
him.

"Why don't you go on?" asked the panting lad.

"I can't. Here's the end."

So it was, indeed. While pressing forward with undiminished effort, the
Irishman found himself suddenly confronted with a solid, perpendicular
wall of rock. The narrow chasm, or fissure, terminated.

It was like a fugitive, his heart beating high with hope, checked in his
flight by the obtrusion of the Great Chinese Wall across his path. Mickey
looked upward. As he stood, he could, with outstretched arms, touch the
wall on his right and left, and kick the one in front--the only open route
being in the rear, which was commanded by the Apache party. As he did so,
he saw, through the interstices of the interweaving, straggling branches,
the clear, blue sky, with the edge of the fissure fully forty feet above
his head. His first hope was that some of the saplings around him were
lofty enough to permit him to use them as a ladder; but the tallest did