CHAPTER XXII
OVER THE GREAT CHASM
There was no particularly difficult task in reaching the Grand Canyonfrom Denver. In fact the boys could have walked all the distance intime, or they could have gone by train, or in an auto. But theirtroubles, as they well knew, would not begin at the start. It was afterthey had reached the canyon itself--that awful gash in the earth’ssurface--that they would have a problem to solve. And that problem washow successfully to descend into the gorge, and land on the island.
“And the first thing to do is to find Snake Island,” said Jerry, asthey settled themselves comfortably in the airship cabin, after theirstart.
“Why, all we have to do is to sail along down in the canyon, and pickit out,” suggested Bob. “The canyon is miles wide--twenty in someplaces--so there will be room enough for us to get around.”
“Yes,” agreed Ned, who, with the others had been reading up some factsabout the canyon. “But it isn’t always clear in the canyon. There aresudden storms, snow or rain, there are fogs--and you know you can’t seeanything in a fog, even if you have an airship.”
“Oh, well, fogs don’t last forever,” declared Bob. “We’ll just haveto keep on the lookout until we sight the island. Then we can lowerourselves, make a landing, get the radium, and come away, and----”
“You forget about the missing scientist,” suggested Ned.
“That’s so. Do you really think he’s there, Jerry?”
“Well, it’s hard to say. There’s just a chance that he landed on theisland when the others were wrecked in their boat, and he may be thereyet. It’s a chance worth taking. I understand that a lot of provisionswere lost out of the boat, and they may have caught on the island,as they floated down. Then, too, there must be fish in the river atcertain seasons of the year, and there may be birds, or some kind ofanimals on the island that would do for food.”
“It would be a sort of Robinson Crusoe way of living, but it might bepossible. Of course it must be horribly lonely there, for one man aloneon Snake Island,” said Ned.
“With all the snakes,” put in Bob.
“We don’t know that any snakes are there,” remarked Jerry. “That maybe just a name.”
“I hope so,” exclaimed Ned with a shiver. “I don’t much care forsnakes.”
“Well, we won’t have much to do until we get to the canyon,” declaredJerry. “We can take it easy, and get in trim for the hard work ahead ofus. I think we won’t make any night journeys. We’ll just land and rest.We’re in no special rush----”
“Unless Noddy Nixon takes a notion to make another trial, Jerry,”suggested Ned.
“Oh, I don’t believe he will. He’s practically stranded. How’s he goingto get an airship, and land on the island?”
“He might go by boat,” suggested Bob.
“That’s out of the question. No boat could live in the rapids. That’show Mr. Bentwell came to be wrecked--he and his friends tried a boat.”
“Then you don’t fear Noddy?”
“Not much.”
The trip that day was without incident, and at night they came to earthin a quiet spot where they remained until morning. They made an earlystart, and thoroughly enjoyed the fine, dry, crisp air through whichthey sailed. They passed from Colorado into Utah, and the next nightthey were within easy traveling distance of the Colorado River.
The next day they sailed over the great sterile valley, or desert, andin the afternoon they had completed the first stage of their journey,and were at the head of the Colorado, where it was formed by theconjunction of the Green and Grand rivers.
“From now on, we’ve got our work cut out for us,” announced Jerry, asthey came to rest that evening, not far from the great river. “We’llfollow it, and as soon as we get anywhere near Grand View, we’ll beginmaking inquiries about Snake Island.”
“But I thought the island was between Grand View and Bright AngelTrail,” said Bob.
“So it may be,” assented Jerry, “but I’m not going to take any chances.It may be either one side or the other of those places, and, if weinquire as we go along, we won’t be so far out. It won’t take us long,and it is better to be sure than sorry.”
“All right, we’re with you,” assented Ned; and Bob nodded his head toshow that he agreed.
Their trip over the Colorado, hovering in the air about half a mileabove the river, was devoid of incident for the first two hundredmiles. They made that in one day, and camped the first night just overthe border of Arizona. From there the Grand Canyon proper starts,though it is of comparative little grandeur until the Little Colorado,a salty stream, joins the main body of water.
It was about noon, the next day, that the boys really got over thegreat canyon. They had been sailing along, talking of the prospectbefore them, and Professor Snodgrass had been classifying some of thespecimens he had caught while at Mr. Montrose’s house, when the aspectof things suddenly changed.
“Don’t you think it’s about time we ate?” asked Bob, with a look at hiswatch, as he started for the galley.
Jerry happened to look down through the plate glass window in the floorof the main cabin, where they were all gathered, for the _Comet_ wasbeing steered automatically.
“Eat!” cried the tall lad. “Eat! Look down there, and then say ‘eat’again if you dare!”
Ned, Bob and the professor looked. Below them they saw a great gashin the earth--a gash a mile or more in depth, and the sides of whichwere of black rock, mingled here and there with marble colored red,pink and blue, with an occasional bright yellow. Then came sandstonerocks, vivid in color. It was like looking into a great winding trough,wherein a painter had mixed his colors.
And, at the very bottom, like a silver thread, ran the river,zig-zagging in and out amid the mighty cliffs that towered on eitherside. Cliffs now hemming in the powerful stream, and again spreadingout for ten or twenty miles. But the river itself was kept in narrowbounds.
And the very narrowness of these bounds made the stream rush alongwith such tremendous power, for it was a veritable Niagara in places.White and foam-capped, again black and deep, with awful power it hurleditself along.
Above this scene of awful grandeur hovered the airship, and, as theboys looked, they saw how slight indeed was the power of their craft,compared to the mighty forces that had cut this gash in the earth, andwhich power still sent the river on its downward way.
“And we’ve got to go down there?” asked Bob softly.
“That’s it,” answered Jerry. “Do you wonder no boat ever lived to makethe passage? Or, at best, very few of them?”
“And that is where the scientist was lost,” murmured Uriah Snodgrass.“I wonder if we shall ever find him--alive--or dead?”
And, as the boys gazed at the foaming river, down in the awful depths,it seemed impossible that human beings could ever have navigated it.But in the airship the problem was much easier.
“Now for Snake Island!” cried Jerry, as, having stopped the _Comet_ inorder that all might get a good view, he started the motor again. “Nowfor Snake Island!”
“And the radium!” cried Ned.
“And my two-tailed toad,” added the professor.
“And, perhaps, the poor scientist,” spoke Bob softly. “I--I hope hehasn’t starved to death.”