confining the long black hair
and preventing it from falling over his face, but leaving it free to
hang down his back to a point below the waist line.

So absorbed was I in this unique spectacle that I carelessly allowed my
elbow to dislodge a loose fragment of stone which went clattering down
the face of the precipice. This proved to be almost fatal carelessness,
for, with a movement as quick as the stroke of a rattlesnake, the lad
placed an arrow to the string of a bow and sent the barbed shaft with
such force, promptitude and precision that it went through my fur cap,
the arrow entangling a bunch of my hair, taking it along with it.

"Squat lower, Le-loo; arrows has been the death of many a man afore
you," whispered Big Pete in my ear, but even as he spoke another arrow
sang over our crouching bodies, shaving the protecting rock so closely
that their plumed tips brushed the dust on our backs.

"Waugh! Good shootin', by gum! I never seed it beat; if he onct sots
them black eyes on our hulking carcasses he'll get us yit," muttered my
guide, enthusiastically. "He's mighty slender, quick and purty--but so
also be a rattlesnake!" he exclaimed, as another arrow slit the sleeve
of his wamus as cleanly as if it were cut with a knife.

"For God's sake, stop!" I shouted, in real alarm. The boy paused, but
with an arrow still drawn to its head. His eyes flashing, head erect,
one moccasined foot on the ram's body, the other braced against the
cliff; his short fawn-colored skin shirt clung to his lithe body, and
the fringed edges hung over the dreadful black chasm in front of him. It
was a picture to take away one's breath. "Put down your weapon, and we
will stand with our hands up," I cried. Slowly the bow was lowered and
as slowly Big Pete and I arose, holding our empty hands aloft. "Now,
young fellow, tell us your pleasure."

There are a few gray hairs showing at my temples which first made their
appearance while I was crouching behind that stone on the edge of the
chasm.

To my polite inquiry asking his pleasure, the wild boy made no reply but
glanced at us with the utmost contempt when Big Pete went through some
gestures in Indian sign language. The lad mutely pointed to the dead
sheep, the sight of which seemed to enrage him again, for insensibly his
fingers tightened on the bow and the wood began to curve after a manner
which sent me ducking behind the sheltering stone again; but Big Pete
only folded his arms across