that lay between, and head us off at once. They
were almost within hail, and I thought I could hear
the clean sharp click of the steel bells on their Spanish
spurs as they descended and disappeared among the
tree-tops as if going down into a sea.
Klamat had learned some comic things in camp, even though he had not learned, or pretended he had not learned, to talk. When the men had dis appeared among the branches of the trees, he turned to the Prince and gravely lifted his thumb to his nose, elevated his fingers in the air, and wriggled them in the direction of the place where the officer was seen to descend.
Every moment I expected to see the muzzles of those pistols thrust up through the pines as the three men turned the brow of the hill. They did not appear, however, and as we arose to adjust our saddles after some time, I stepped to the rim of the hill and looked over to the north side. The hill was steep and rugged, with a ledge, and lined with chap- parral. A white-tailed rabbit came through, sat down, and looked back into the canon. Some quails started and flew to one side, but that was all I saw or heard.
The Doctor had to be assisted to his saddle. He was pale, and his lips were parched and swollen. Slowly now Klamat walked ahead ; he, too, was tired. We had rested too long, perhaps. You cannot get an Indian to sit down when on a long and severe journey, unless compelled to, to rest others. The cold and damp creeps into the joints, and you get
