rfectly still. The
slightest noise could have been heard for a long distance in the
atmosphere of that elevated region--so pure and light that it vibrated
afar with the slightest concussion.

Sounds were heard, but they were not made by either the dogs or horses
of the hunters--well-trained to silence--nor by the hunters themselves.
Both lay stretched in silence; or if they spoke, it was only in whispers
and low mutterings.

The sounds were those of nature--such as it exists in that wild region.
The "snort" of the grizzly bear from the rocky ledge--the howling bark
of the coyote--the "hoo-hoop" of the burrowing owl, and the shrill
periodical cries of the bull-bat and goatsucker. For a while these were
the only sounds that fell upon the ears of the ambushed hunters.

Half-an-hour elapsed, and during all that time never permitted their
eyes or ears to rest for a moment. They gazed up the ravine, and at
intervals glanced outwards upon the plain. There was a probability that
their victim might be abroad--even in the day--and with such men no
probability was allowed to pass without examination. Should it prove to
be so, and he were to return at that time, it would frustrate the plan
they had arranged. But for such a contingency the mulatto had conceived
another--that was, to steal during the night as near the cave as
possible--within rifle-shot if he could--wait until the guero should
make his appearance in the morning, and _wing_ him with a bullet from
his rifle--in the use of which weapon the yellow hunter was well
skilled. To shoot the horse was another design. The horse once killed
or crippled, the cibolero would be captured to a certainty; and both had
made up their minds, in case a good opportunity offered, to despatch the
noble animal.

These men knew a certain plan by which their victim could be killed or
captured--that is, supposing they had been certain he was in the cave--a
plan which could scarce have failed. But yet, for reasons of their own,
they would not adopt it.

It would have been simple enough to have conducted a party of dragoons
to the head of the pass, and there have stationed them, while another
party entered the canon from below. As the sides of the ravine were
impassable precipices, the retreat of the cibolero would have been thus
cut off at both ends. True, to have reached the upper plain, without
going through the ravine itself--and that, as we have seen would have
defeated such a