a club as if I were going to kill him. He waited,
crouching. Finally, in dire extremity, I bethought me of a red flannel
hood that Emett had given me, saying I might use it on cold nights.
This was indeed a weird, flaming headgear, falling like a cloak down
over the shoulders. I put it on, and, camera in hand, started to crawl
on all fours toward Spitfire.

[Illustration: SOME OF OUR MENAGERIE IN BUCKSKIN FOREST]

[Illustration: WHITE MUSTANG STALLION WITH HIS BUNCH OF BLACKS IN
SNAKE GULCH]

I needed no one to tell me that this proceeding was entirely beyond
his comprehension. In his astonishment he forgot to spit and growl,
and he backed behind the little pine, from which he regarded me with
growing perplexity. Then, having revenged myself on him, and getting a
picture, I left him in peace.

XIV

I awoke before dawn, and lay watching the dark shadows change into
gray, and gray into light. The Navajo chanted solemnly and low his
morning song. I got up with the keen eagerness of the hunter who faces
the last day of his hunt.

I warmed my frozen fingers at the fire. A hot breakfast smoked on the
red coals. We ate while Navvy fed and saddled the horses.

"Shore, they'll be somethin' doin' to-day," said Jim, fatalistically.

"We haven't crippled a horse yet," put in Emett hopefully. Don led the
pack and us down the ridge, out of the pines into the sage. The sun, a
red ball, glared out of the eastern mist, shedding a dull glow on
the ramparts of the far canyon walls. A herd of white-tailed deer
scattered before the hounds. Blue grouse whirred from under our
horses' feet.

"Spread out," ordered Jones, and though he meant the hounds, we all
followed his suggestion, as the wisest course.

Ranger began to work up the sage ridge to the right. Jones, Emett
and I followed, while Jim rode away to the left. Gradually the space
widened, and as we neared the cedars, a sharply defined, deep canyon
separated us.

We heard Don open up, then Sounder. Ranger left the trail he was
trying to work out in the thick sage, and bounded in the direction of
the rest of the pack. We reined in to listen.

First Don, then Sounder, then Jude, then one of the pups bayed
eagerly, telling us they were hunting hard. Suddenly the bays blended
in one savage sound.

"Hi! Hi! Hi!" cracked the cool, thin air. We saw Jim wave his hand
from the far side of the canyon, spur his horse into action, and
disappear into the cedars.

"Stick close t