"Yes, you need me in your business!" scoffed Ashton.
"Your employer's business," rejoined the engineer. He straightened up from the packs that he was lashing together and gazed gravely at his scowling assistant. "See here, Mr. Ashton, this is no time for you to raise a row. We shall have quite enough else to think about from now on, until we are up again out of the cañon."
"I've enough to think about--and more!" muttered Ashton.
"Understand? I'm not asking anything of you for myself," said Blake. "You are doing this survey for your employer."
"I'm here because of _her_!" retorted the younger man. "I'm here to make it certain that no harm is to come to _her_!"
Blake smiled. "Good for you! I hardly thought you were here for the fun of it. You are going to prove to us that you have the makings. We're both working for her, Lafe. I don't mind telling you now that I am planning to do something big for her." He looked up the ravine wall, his eyes aglow with tenderness. "Belle! dear little Belle! To think that after all these years--"
"Shut up!" cried Ashton. "Stop that! stop it, and get to work! I know what you're planning to do! Don't talk to me!"
Blake stared in astonishment. "Didn't think you were so sore over that old affair. I told you I had nothing to do about your father's--"
"Don't talk to me! don't talk to me!" frantically cried Ashton. "You ruined me! Now her!"
"Lord! If you're as sore as all that!" rejoined Blake, his eyes hardening. "Look here, Mr. Ashton, we'll settle this when we get up on top again. Meantime, I shall do my work, and I shall see to it that you do yours. Understand?"
"Get busy, then! I shall do _my_ work!" snarled Ashton.
Blake pointed to one of the three bundles that he had tied together. "There's half the grub, the tripod and the rod. I can manage the rest. I've dropped a measurement to the foot of the first incline."
He swung one of the other bundles on his back, under the level. The third, which was made up of railroad spikes and picket-pins, he sent rolling down the steep slope, tied to one end of the rope. He had driven a spike into a crevice of the rock. Hooking the other end of the rope over its head with an open loop, he grasped the line and started to walk down the gorge bottom. As he descended he dragged the loose lengths of rope after him.