wanted to leave the trail and take the cut-off, especially that
part where he alluded to their going to h--l. I very much fear the
little piety my mother taught me was badly strained on that occasion,
and I thought of a good many swear words if I did not say them, which I
suppose is about as bad. I could see how cunningly they had managed to
get me to ride their horse that it might serve as the foundation for a
claim on me for about all the money I had in the world.

I hitched my mule in the edge of the town and went in to look at the
place. The houses were situated very much as in other places we had come
through--scattered around over much ground and built low, but had a
different style of roof, a peaked or sloping one, and covered with half
round tile two feet or more long and an inch thick. One course of these
would be laid with the hollow side up, and then a course with the hollow
side down, covering the joints of the lower course. This allowed the air
to circulate freely and was proof against rain. I saw no flat roofs such
as I had seen down along the coast. I saw one gambling house and about
all the men in town were gathered there, and some women, too. This was
the busiest place in town and situated near the plaza. This was the
largest town I had yet been in. There seemed to be plenty of women and
lots of dogs, but the men were as scarce as they had been in any of the
towns--gone to the gold mines to make a stake. I took in the sights
pretty well, and there were a great many new things for me to see, and
when pretty well satisfied concluded I would go back to my mule and camp
in some place just out of town for the night.

Before I reached my animal whom should I meet but my old traveling
companion John Rogers whom I thought to be a hundred miles away by this
time. We shook hands heartily and he told me that Bennett, Moody and
Skinner were camped not far off, and he was still with them. He wore a
pair of blue overalls, a blue woolen shirt and the same little narrow
rimmed hat he had worn so long. I observed, too, that he was barefoot,
and told him I had a dollar or two which he could take and get some
shoes. He said it was no use for there was not a pair of shoes in the
town to buy, and he had not found any material of which he could make
himself a pair of moccasins. I told him how I had been swindled coming
up, and he was about as angry as I had been. I think if I had known that
my friend John Rogers had been so