elow it.
But as I looked longer I saw that it was faced by a ledge cut out of the
friable soil, on which I was now able to descry the pronounced white of
two or three tent-tops and some other signs of life, encouraging
enough to the eye of one whose lot it was to crawl like a fly up that
tremendous mountain-side.

Truly I could understand why those three men, probably newspaper
correspondents like myself, had turned back to Santa Fe, after a glance
from my present outlook. But though I understood I did not mean to
duplicate their retreat.

The sight of those tents, the thought of what one of them contained,
inspired me with new courage, and, releasing my grip upon the rein, I
allowed my patient horse to proceed. Shortly after this I passed the
divide--that is where the water sheds both ways--then the descent began.
It was zigzag, just as the climb had been, but I preferred the climb. I
did not have the unfathomable spaces so constantly before me, nor was
my imagination so active. It was fixed on heights to be attained rather
than on valleys to roll into. However, I did not roll.

The Mexican saddle held me securely at whatever angle I was poised, and
once the bottom was reached I found that I could face, with considerable
equanimity, the corresponding ascent. Only, as I saw how steep the climb
bade fair to be, I did not see how I was ever to come down again. Going
up was possible, but the descent--

However, as what goes up must in the course of nature come down, I put
this question aside and gave my horse his head, after encouraging him
with a few blades of grass, which he seemed to find edible enough,
though they had the look and something of the feel of spun glass.

How we got there you must ask this good animal, who took all the
responsibility and did all the work. I merely clung and balanced, and at
times, when he rounded the end of a zigzag, for instance, I even shut
my eyes, though the prospect was magnificent. At last even his patience
seemed to give out, and he stopped and trembled. But before I could open
my eyes on the abyss beneath he made another effort. I felt the brush of
tree branches across my face, and, looking up, saw before me the ledge
or platform dotted with tents, at which I had looked with such longing
from the opposite hillsides.

Simultaneously I heard voices, and saw approaching a bronzed and bearded
man with strongly-marked Scotch features and a determined air.

"The doctor!" I involu