h. Just above the cleft whence Pablo had taken
the sword, graven so deeply in the rock that after all the weathering of
centuries it still remained distinct and clear, was identically the same
figure that Fray Francisco in the far past time had represented in his
letter, and that was repeated also on the far more ancient piece of
gold. Above it was cut an arrow that pointed directly up the canon.

It was a good thing that something came to cheer us just then; for what
with the death of Dennis and of our two poor Indians, and our own hurts,
and the melancholy feeling that must oppress men always--save those of
cruel and hardened natures--when a fight is ended in which they have
spilled freely human blood, we all were oppressed sensibly by a
consuming sadness.

But here was cheer indeed. Not only had we surely found the trail at
last, but we found it leading in precisely the direction that at that
moment we desired to go. For us to return down the valley to the open
country, we knew was full of most signal danger; for the Indians who so
unaccountably had declined to take part in attacking us assuredly were
lying in wait for us by the way. Our only chance to escape them was to
strike into the mountains; and the sign that we now had gave promise
that we should find some sort of a path along which we might go.
Therefore it was with good heart that we set about getting as far into
the depths of the canon as possible before night should be wholly upon
us; trusting, in regard to possible pursuit, somewhat to the
superstition of the Indians which so unaccountably yet so obviously had
been aroused, and also to the wholesome dread that they must have of us
upon finding that every one of their companions had been slain. The
bodies of our poor Otomis we placed in a deep fissure in the rock, and
there heaped stones upon them, while Fray Antonio said over them the
briefer office; but the body of Dennis we carried with us, that we might
give him a more tender and reverent burial in gratitude for his brave
struggle to save our lives when he knew that his own life was lost. As
for the eighteen dead Indians--who had invited the death that so
promptly had come to them--we did not bother ourselves about them at
all. We left them to the coyotes.

IX.

THE CAVE OF THE DEAD.

Very dismal was our procession of faintly see figures moving cautiously
through that wild solitude. At its head went Rayburn, leading his horse,
on which wa