y, and the cowboys invited us to eat. Two
big Dutch ovens were piled with live coals before the fireplace. I eyed
them with a lot of curiosity until a smiling cowboy lifted the lids for
me to peep within. One was full of simmering tender beef and the other
held biscuits just turning a delicious brown. I made up our minds then,
and we all stayed for supper.

It was late when we started back to our camp on the Rim, and the big car
slid along at a great rate. Suddenly Blondy jammed on the brakes and
almost lost me through the windshield. An enormous full-grown deer
loomed directly in front of the headlights. There he stood, head thrown
back, nostrils distended, monarch of all he surveyed. A moment longer he
posed, then leaped away into the darkness, leaving us wondering if we
had really seen anything.

All too soon it was time for us to start back to the South Rim, and we
made a reluctant departure. It rained on us part of the way, and
loosened rocks made the going perilous. Halfway down the steepest part
we met half a dozen loose pack mules. One of the first rules of safety
for a trail without turnouts is that no loose stock must be allowed on
it. My Indian horse chose that particular time and place to throw a fit
of temperament, and he climbed out of the way of the wild mules by
scrambling up a perpendicular rock and flattening out against the
hillside. I slid off over his tail and landed in the trail on the back
of my neck, but popped up to see what had happened to the Chief. The
pack mules were being urged on from the rear by a fool mule-skinner, and
they had crowded Tony, the Chief's mount, off the trail on to a
good-sized rock that stuck out over the brink. He stood trembling on the
rock and the Chief stood beside him on the same rock with an arm around
the scared horse's neck, talking to him in his usual slow, calm way, all
the time stroking Tony's ears and patting his neck. Inch by inch the
rock was parting from the earth holding it, and it seemed to me I would
just die of terror. White Mountain just kept on talking to the horse and
trying to coax him back into the trail. At last Tony turned an almost
human look on the Chief and then stepped back into the trail, just as
the boulder gave way and went crashing down the incline, carrying trees,
rocks, and earth with it.

"Why didn't you let him go? Why did you just stand there like an idiot?"
I raved. The reaction was so great that I entirely lost my temper.

"Oh,