ways on the slope, as we
proceeded farther and farther from the solidity of the ridge behind us,
we experienced the illusion of venturing out on a tight rope over
abysses of space. Even the feeling of danger was only an illusion,
however, composite of the falling rain, the deepening twilight, and the
night that had already enveloped the plunge of the canon below.
Finally Uncle Jim stopped just within the drip from the cliffs.

"Here she is," said he.

We descended eagerly. A deer bounded away from the base of the buttes.
The cave ran steep, in the manner of an inclined tunnel, far up into
the dimness. We had to dig our toes in and scramble to make way up it
at all, but we found it dry, and after a little search discovered a
foot-ledge of earth sufficiently broad for a seat.

"That's all right," quoth Jed Parker. "Now, for sleeping places."

We scattered. Uncle Jim and Charley promptly annexed the slight
overhang of the cliff whence the deer had jumped. It was dry at the
moment, but we uttered pessimistic predictions if the wind should
change. Tom Rich and Jim Lester had a little tent, and insisted on
descending to the canon-bed.

"Got to cook there, anyways," said they, and departed with the two pack
mules and their bed horse.

That left the Cattleman, Windy Bill, Jed Parker, and me. In a moment
Windy Bill came up to us whispering and mysterious.

"Get your cavallos and follow me," said he.

We did so. He led us two hundred yards to another cave, twenty feet
high, fifteen feet in diameter, level as a floor.

"How's that?" he cried in triumph. "Found her just now while I was
rustling nigger-heads for a fire."

We unpacked our beds with chuckles of joy, and spread them carefully
within the shelter of the cave. Except for the very edges, which did
not much matter, our blankets and "so-guns," protected by the canvas
"tarp," were reasonably dry. Every once in a while a spasm of
conscience would seize one or the other of us.

"It seems sort of mean on the other fellows," ruminated Jed Parker.

"They had their first choice," cried we all.

"Uncle Jim's an old man," the Cattleman pointed out.

But Windy Bill had thought of that. "I told him of this yere cave
first. But he allowed he was plumb satisfied."

We finished laying out our blankets. The result looked good to us. We
all burst out laughing.

"Well, I'm sorry for those fellows," cried the Cattleman. We hobbled
our horses and descended to