ected to see the spider scurry away to a dark corner. Not he, for
he came for Jim again. Then Jim picked up a stone and crushed Mr. Spider
with a crunching sound.

"Come and have a look at him, Jo," cried Jim. "He's a beaut."

"I'll take your word for it," I replied. "I don't want to see it."

"Did you ever see a spider like that?" asked Tom, when Jim came out.

"That wasn't a spider," Jim said. "That was a tarantula. He must have
been five inches across. But the gall of him prancing right up to me."

"Lucky he didn't bite you," I said.

"Well, I guess yes," remarked Jim, "I have heard that their poison will
just about lay a man out."

"Judging from the looks of him I should think as much," I said.

"Let's have a look at the roof of this village," proposed Jim.

We searched around until we found a long ladder and we raised it up to
the second story of the town.

"I feel like I belong to a hook and ladder company," laughed Jim. "Do
you remember what fun we used to have running to the fires at home with
the hose carts?"

"Sure I do," I replied, "and I recollect when we paraded with one of the
companies on the Fourth of July and you had a belt that was intended for
a fat man and it went around you twice and then you had to hold it up
and your cap was two sizes too large and the visor was generally over
your left ear. You were the feature of the parade."

"Never mind that now," grinned Jim, "you weren't much more of an
ornament yourself if I remember rightly. Let's see what we can discover
up here."

So he climbed the ladder, with me at his heels, and Tom came tumbling
after. We found part of the roofs covered with other houses like those
below. The roofs were perfectly flat and with round chimneys of grey
adobe standing here and there. There were also square openings to the
houses below where a ladder could be used for an inside stair.

"What is this long string of something, Jim?" I asked.

"Why that long string of something is dried peppers. I bet these Indians
used a lot of it. It will be fine to cook with our meat," and he wound
it gracefully over his shoulders.

We went into one of the houses on the roof and it seemed to be like the
others, entirely deserted. This room of the village was larger than any
that we had entered so far and it had a wooden door which Jim had shoved
open without any difficulty.

I was standing with my back to the door looking around to see if there
were any curiosities in