Ned turned first toward the point.
When he had advanced, making his way slightly upward all the time,
to where the narrow mesa was not over four hundred feet wide, the
lad was astounded to suddenly discover a deep and narrow fissure or
chasm. It was dark, with sides as abrupt as the cliffs of the mesa,
and too wide to jump across. A cold air was already rising from the
opening into the warmer atmosphere above.
In his astonishment Ned called to his chum.
"What surprises me," exclaimed Ned, "is the character of the
opening. If it extended from cliff to cliff I should say that the
same freak of nature that made this solitary island of rock also
split off this end at some time. But it is closed at each end."
Alan hastened to the end of the fissure, near the side of the mesa.
"It looks to me," he said, "as if it had extended entirely across at
some time and the ends walled up later."
The boys made a closer examination.
"You're right," said Ned when he discovered that each end of the
rift had been filled with closely fitted rock, "and human hands did
it.
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