ass.

And while he was giving way to unaccountable dread imaginations the
descent was accomplished without mishap.

"I'm glad that's over," he said, breathing more freely. "I hope I'm by
that hanging rock for good and all. Since almost the moment I first saw
it I've had an idea that it was waiting for me. Now, when it does fall,
if I'm thousands of miles away, I'll hear it."

With the first glimpses of the smooth slope leading down to the
grotesque cedars and out to the Pass, Venters's cool nerve returned. One
long survey to the left, then one to the right, satisfied his caution.
Leading the burros down to the spur of rock, he halted at the steep
incline.

"Bess, here's the bad place, the place I told you about, with the cut
steps. You start down, leading your burro. Take your time and hold on to
him if you slip. I've got a rope on him and a half-hitch on this point
of rock, so I can let him down safely. Coming up here was a killing job.
But it'll be easy going down."

Both burros passed down the difficult stairs cut by the cliff-dwellers,
and did it without a misstep. After that the descent down the slope and
over the mile of scrawled, ripped, and ridged rock required only careful
guidance, and Venters got the burros to level ground in a condition that
caused him to congratulate himself.

"Oh, if we only had Wrangle!" exclaimed Venters. "But we're lucky.
That's the worst of our trail passed. We've only men to fear now. If we
get up in the sage we can hide and slip along like coyotes."

They mounted and rode west through the valley and entered the canyon.
From time to time Venters walked, leading his burro. When they got by
all the canyons and gullies opening into the Pass they went faster and
with fewer halts. Venters did not confide in Bess the alarming fact that
he had seen horses and smoke less than a mile up one of the intersecting
canyons. He did not talk at all. And long after he had passed this
canyon and felt secure once more in the certainty that they had been
unobserved he never relaxed his watchfulness. But he did not walk any
more, and he kept the burros at a steady trot. Night fell before they
reached the last water in the Pass and they made camp by starlight.
Venters did not want the burros to stray, so he tied them with long
halters in the grass near the spring. Bess, tired out and silent, laid
her head in a saddle and went to sleep between the two dogs. Venters
did not close his eyes. The canyon