The Tehuas would reap many
scalps; she would have had her revenge; and the deed could be so
performed as to make those at the Rito believe that the Navajos were the
perpetrators. This was her plan, and she did not feel the slightest
scruple or compunction. For years she had been, among her own people,
the butt of numberless insults and mortifications. Now it had gone so
far that her life even was in imminent peril. Ere this should be lost,
she would prove to her enemies that she was alive, and terribly alive!

To reconnoitre the ground, to study every detail of it, to store her
memory with everything that might be useful or valuable in the lay of
the land, was what she had come for now. After she felt thoroughly
rested she rose, and continued her walk. Where she had been sitting, the
trail was plain, for there it descended into the gorge. So she only
noticed the place and then went into the shrubbery to seek for plants.
She gathered a few leaves of the dark-green shiutui, sauntered from
juniper-bush to juniper-bush, glanced from time to time upward into the
tops of pines to see whether they bore edible nuts of the kind now
called pinons, or threw stones at the noisy birds that fluttered about.

Again she came upon the trail, and her trained eye could follow it for
some distance until it disappeared in the timber. So far she felt sure
of her impressions for the future and turned away to the right,
penetrating deeper into the forest. She could find her way even at
night, for the moon shone still. Besides, once acquainted with the spot
whence she had to start, it mattered little whether there was any path
or not. The Indian needs only two points to guide himself,--the place of
departure and the spot where he wants to arrive. Moreover, for her
flight it was better not to follow the trail at all. She felt sure of
meeting some one of the Tehuas in the vicinity of the Puye.

The topographical details attracted the woman's attention much more than
the path. She studied them carefully, pretending to hunt for plants.
Unconsciously she went farther and farther, regardless of time, for it
was yet early. The surface of the Ziro kauash is slightly undulated, as
well as the mesa to the south of the Tyuonyi; the timber is relatively
sparse; the pines are grouped together at intervals; and juniper and
cedar bushes cover it uniformly like an extensive, irregular plantation.

Such is the topography of the mesas west of the Rio Grande,