The Argo Goes West

53, Go through the moving rocks, part 1

De Beque canyon with bare rock face of reddish sandstone. The Colorado River flowed slowly with rippling waves. A vast and beautiful panorama at an altitude of 4,951 feet.

Ben Daniels and his men, dressed in khaki uniforms, began pushing an unmanned trolley as Vice President Theodore Roosevelt looked on. The track was slightly downhill, and the trolley was supposed to keep going by the law of inertia once it gained a certain speed. When Daniels and the others let go of their hands, the trolley made a rhythmic sound and started running lightly.

"Coming soon," Ben Daniels shouted to Roosevelt.

A part of the cliff on the other side of the Colorado River suddenly jutted out. It looked like the prow of a ship, but the tip was flat, not sharp. It was as wide as a football sideline. A huge boulder tip crossed the river, over the railroad tracks and crashed into the cliff opposite. There was a tremendous crash and a rumbling of the earth. After a while, the rock began to recede, eventually returning to its original cliff. Roosevelt expected the trolley to be flattened between rocks, but the trolley disappeared without a trace. The rail was intact.

"Because the rock is an inverted triangle and has a dent at the bottom, the rock doesn't hit the rail," explains Ben Daniels.

"I see," Roosevelt nodded. "By the way, where did the trolley disappear?"

No one could answer his question.

"Anyway, let's destroy that moving rock."

"Yes, Sir. Fire!"

Under the command of Hawk Galloway, the 305 mm artillery blew fire.

The cannonball hit a moving rock on the other side of the river. However, the rock sucked the pierced cannonball into itself.

The bombardment was repeated with the same result.

"I know why the minecart disappeared!" said the Vice President. "The trolley was eaten by a rock. That rock is a creature resembling a nepenthes. Do you know nepenthes? A type of carnivorous plant, it lures prey insects into a bag called a pitcher, and as soon as the insect is inside, it closes its mouth and digests its prey.

"If it's a plant, can't it be burned with fire?" said Captain Harris.

"That's a good idea, try it, Captain."

"Yes, Sir."

Captain Harris immediately ordered his men to shoot several flaming arrows into the rock. However, he could not break the rock.

"If we build new railroad tracks," Stryker a pilot began businesslike. "It's a short distance, but it's a mountainous area, so the construction won't be easy. I think we should consider building a new track between Denba and Cheyenne."

"Well..."

Theodore Roosevelt folded his arms with a difficult face.

Miss Craig looked up as she heard birds chirping overhead. A bird was flying over the canyon. It was a small bird with a red belly, flapping its wings little by little.

"A robin," Roosevelt told me.

The robin flew freely through the air, singing cheerful carols. The robin began circling on the moving rock. Humans are indistinguishable from the rocks around them, but the robin seems to know them by intuition in the wild. The robin began to plummet toward the moving rock.

"Don't come!"

Miss Craig screamed involuntarily.

The moving rock noticed the robin's challenge and began to move. Miss Craig was nervous and clenched her fists. She didn't even notice that the nail had dug into her palm and was bleeding.

Moving rocks collided with a loud bang.

At the moment of the collision, Miss Craig closed her eyes in fear. She cautiously opened her eyes and saw a robin circling triumphantly over the receding boulders. Miss Craig was relieved.

"Just before the rocks hit each other, the robin rose vertically," says Roosevelt, who was watching the whole thing.

"Thank goodness!" Miss Craig smiled. Roosevelt thought it was a happy mother's smile for her child's safety.

"Maybe the robin learned from seeing other birds killed. Birds are smart."

Having read a thick book on ornithology, Roosevelt seemed to know a lot about birds.

"I've figured out a way, Miss Craig."

"What kind of way?"

"Let's try what the robins have taught us. With our secret weapon."