"If yore vitals is as close to your hide as what you claim," Casey had said impatiently, "an' you don't want any punctures in 'em, git to work an' git that hide of yourn outa sight.

It'll take some diggin'; they's a lot of yuh to cover." Barney, therefore, dug like a badger with a dog snuffing at its tail.
Casey, on the other hand, climbed laboriously in the darkness a bluff he had not attempted to climb by daylight.

It was hard work and slow, for he felt the need of going quietly.

What lay over the rim-rock he did not know, though he meant to find out.
Daylight found him leaning against a smooth ledge which formed a part of the black capping he had seen from the road.

He had spent the night toiling over boulders and into small gulches and out again, trying to find some crevice through which he might climb to the top.