ore. I felt strangely hopeful and exultant--in fact
it seemed as if I were already free.

Riding rapidly we soon reached the valley's lower extremity, and passing
around the face of the cliff upon the narrow ledge described in a
previous chapter, we crossed the crest of the mountain range, and
descended by a zig-zag trail to the plain below.

Our route lay directly across the desert to the eastward, and it was
well into the afternoon before we had passed it and reached the great
grass prairie beyond. On reaching the prairie our course was deflected
to the north, and about sundown we halted at a spring known as the "_Ojo
Caliente_," which the leaders of the party had evidently selected as our
camping ground for the night. The order to halt once given, we went into
bivouac with marvelous celerity. Our horses were picketed in a wide
circle far out upon the plain, as the gramma grass there is longer and
more luxuriant than in the immediate neighborhood of the springs.
Stripping our animals of their equipments, we bring them to within about
a hundred yards of the spring. Each man strikes his spear into the
ground, and rests against it his shield, bow and quiver. He places his
robe or skin beside it. There is his tent and bed. The row of spears are
soon aligned upon the prairie, forming a front of several hundred yards,
and our camp is complete. No drilled troops in the world can equal the
rapidity with which these Indians form or break camp; and yet every
movement is executed without orders, and as if by intuition. Fires were
soon kindled, and strips of tasajo brought forth and cooked. Pipes were
lighted, and the warriors sit in groups around the red blaze, recounting
their adventures, and laughing and chattering incessantly. The paint
glitters upon their naked bodies in the glare of the fires; it is a wild
and savage scene, and yet grotesque in its very savageness. For two
hours we remain about the fires, some cooking and eating, others
smoking, others freshening the hideous devices of the war paint with
which all are besmeared. Then the horse-guard is detailed, and marches
off to the caballada, and the Indians, one after another, spread their
robes upon the ground, roll themselves in their _serapes_ or blankets,
and are soon asleep. For a time I found it impossible to sleep, although
wearied with the unaccustomed exercise of the journey. Reclining upon my
robe in a half sitting posture, I watch the scene around me. The fir