CHAPTER XXII

OVER THE GREAT CHASM

There was no particularly difficult task in reaching the Grand Canyon from Denver. In fact the boys could have walked all the distance in time, or they could have gone by train, or in an auto. But their troubles, as they well knew, would not begin at the start. It was after they had reached the canyon itself--that awful gash in the earth’s surface--that they would have a problem to solve. And that problem was how successfully to descend into the gorge, and land on the island.

“And the first thing to do is to find Snake Island,” said Jerry, as they settled themselves comfortably in the airship cabin, after their start.

“Why, all we have to do is to sail along down in the canyon, and pick it out,” suggested Bob. “The canyon is miles wide--twenty in some places--so there will be room enough for us to get around.”

“Yes,” agreed Ned, who, with the others had been reading up some facts about the canyon. “But it isn’t always clear in the canyon. There are sudden storms, snow or rain, there are fogs--and you know you can’t see anything in a fog, even if you have an airship.”

“Oh, well, fogs don’t last forever,” declared Bob. “We’ll just have to keep on the lookout until we sight the island. Then we can lower ourselves, 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 the island when the others were wrecked in their boat, and he may be there yet. It’s a chance worth taking. I understand that a lot of provisions were 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 at certain seasons of the year, and there may be birds, or some kind of animals on the island that would do for food.”

“It would be a sort of Robinson Crusoe way of living, but it might be possible. Of course it must be horribly lonely there, for one man alone on Snake Island,” said Ned.

“With all the snakes,” put in Bob.

“We don’t know that any snakes are there,” remarked Jerry. “That may be just a name.”

“I hope so,” exclaimed Ned with a shiver. “I don’t much care for snakes.”

“Well, we won’t have much to do until we get to the canyon,” declared Jerry. “We can take it easy, and get in trim for the hard work ahead of us. 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 going to 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’s how 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 earth in a quiet spot where they remained until morning. They made an early start, and thoroughly enjoyed the fine, dry, crisp air through which they sailed. They passed from Colorado into Utah, and the next night they were within easy traveling distance of the Colorado River.

The next day they sailed over the great sterile valley, or desert, and in the afternoon they had completed the first stage of their journey, and were at the head of the Colorado, where it was formed by the conjunction of the Green and Grand rivers.

“From now on, we’ve got our work cut out for us,” announced Jerry, as they came to rest that evening, not far from the great river. “We’ll follow it, and as soon as we get anywhere near Grand View, we’ll begin making inquiries about Snake Island.”

“But I thought the island was between Grand View and Bright Angel Trail,” 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 we inquire 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 to show that he agreed.

Their trip over the Colorado, hovering in the air about half a mile above the river, was devoid of incident for the first two hundred miles. They made that in one day, and camped the first night just over the 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 the great canyon. They had been sailing along, talking of the prospect before them, and Professor Snodgrass had been classifying some of the specimens he had caught while at Mr. Montrose’s house, when the aspect of things suddenly changed.

“Don’t you think it’s about time we ate?” asked Bob, with a look at his watch, as he started for the galley.

Jerry happened to look down through the plate glass window in the floor of the main cabin, where they were all gathered, for the _Comet_ was being 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 gash in the earth--a gash a mile or more in depth, and the sides of which were of black rock, mingled here and there with marble colored red, pink and blue, with an occasional bright yellow. Then came sandstone rocks, 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 either side. Cliffs now hemming in the powerful stream, and again spreading out for ten or twenty miles. But the river itself was kept in narrow bounds.

And the very narrowness of these bounds made the stream rush along with such tremendous power, for it was a veritable Niagara in places. White and foam-capped, again black and deep, with awful power it hurled itself along.

Above this scene of awful grandeur hovered the airship, and, as the boys 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, and which 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 make the 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_ in order that all might get a good view, he started the motor again. “Now for 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 he hasn’t starved to death.”