For a couple of hours young Chadmund had difficulty in traveling. Despite the fact that he was in a sort of valley, with towering peaks and bluffs¹ upon either hand, a great many boulders² and obstructions³ obtruded⁴ themselves in his path, and he did some climbing, clambering, and jumping that would have reflected no discredit⁵ upon a mountain goat. The forenoon was about half gone, and he was felicitating himself upon the excellent progress he was making, when he was brought up all standing⁶ by finding himself upon the bank of a mountain stream, which crossed his route exactly at right angles, issuing from the mountains on the left with a rush and roar and pouring tumultuously forward with irresistible⁷ power and velocity⁸.  
"I can't wade⁹ that," said the lad, scratching his head in perplexity, "and it won't do to try and swim it. If I once got in there it would be the last of me."
 
There could be no doubt of that, for the stream was fully¹⁰ twenty feet in width, very deep, and sped forward like the volume of a river when suddenly compressed into a mountain canyon¹¹. It was walled in on either side by solid rock, the surface of the water being a couple of yards below the level where he stood.
 
"I wonder whether I can't go round it?" he said, after spending some time in mental debate. "It can't run all the way through the mountain, but must start somewhere not very far away."
 
This was not a very plausible¹² theory; but as nothing was to be gained by standing still, he started out upon his tour of exploration. Better success followed than he expected. He had started toward the head of the stream and had clambered along less than a hundred yards, when he reached a place where it was so narrow that he was confident of his ability to leap across.
 
"Yes, I can do that," he said, approaching close to the edge and looking over the boiling abyss to the solid rock upon the other side. "But suppose I should miss my footing, wouldn't I catch it!"
 
It was a pretty good leap, but Ned was active, strong and swift, and he had made many a longer leap than the one before him. For a minute longer he stood, measuring the distance with his eye. Then going backward a few steps, he suddenly ran forward with all the speed at his command, and, concentrating all his strength, made such a leap that he cleared the chasm¹³ by a couple of feet.
 
"There!" he exclaimed, with some satisfaction, "if none of the streams are broader than that, I'll jump them all."
 
Still full of hope and in the best of spirits he pressed forward until the sun was at the meridian¹⁴ and the heat became so oppressive that he concluded to rest awhile. He was in a section of country where, at certain seasons, the heat is like that of the Desert of Sahara. There are portions of Arizona and Lower California where the fervor¹⁵ of the sun's rays at noonday smite¹⁶ the earth with the withering¹⁷ power of the sirocco.
 
At times, when Ned was down in the lowest portions of the valley, the heat was almost intolerable; and then, again, when he clambered to the top of some elevation¹⁸, and the cool breezes from the upper regions fanned his cheeks, it was like a draught¹⁹ of water to the fever-parched patient.
 
He had lain on the ground under the protecting shadow of a rock but a short time when his eye rested upon something which convinced him that he was not the only one in the valley. Looking dreamily off toward the west, up the valley, with the mountains sloping down on the right and left, he noticed what at first seemed a thin bluish cloud, resting against the sky. Then he observed that its form was a little out of the usual order, it being column-shaped, tall, and like a shaft²⁰ of almost invisible vapor............