earance and vanishment of the great shadowy shapes the more inexplicable, not to say alarming. Small

ake of it, Pet

horn spoon!" was th

professor. It was noted, though, that his angular form seemed to be somewhat

Pete. "The things, whatever they

ake any noise, then?" inq

the bunchgrass, and you'll see that

t was really wonderful how silently

ting up a scare on us," su

"besides, there's another thing-I didn't tell you because I thought I

in a perfect roa

d of a josh?" asked Co

on to relate the strange experience that had befallen him when

" said Pete; "but the biggest horses that ever growed never

ggested Walt, "why shouldn't the

. "I'll bet my Sunday sombrero that whatever them things is, there's s

acking our brains to-night over this. The best thing we can do is to set a watch. Then, if they come

ete. "Now, I'd suggest that ther per

eally, I-I have a cold

had really developed serious br

aven't I heard you say that you'd like a chan

aid so, yes. And any other time I should be

ut behind him, accidentally butted him in the small of his back. The others burst into a roar of laughter, which th

in the fire," he explained glibly, "so I jum

professor," laughed Jack. "You should h

ight. The professor, after carefully drawing tight the curtain of his tent, "to keep the cold out," as he explained, ret

the fresh light of a new and glorious day, somehow the affair did not seem nearly so ominous and awe-inspiring as it had the night before.

. Under the guidance of Coyote Pete, they now set out to encircle the strange precipitous formation.

se domains they were about to invade. Jack had a coil of stout, half-inch manila rope, about two hundred feet in length. Walt Phelps' bu

r had asked him, as he noticed the sun-bro

he boys, "you never kin tell in this wale of tears wha

en and there, but, after all, he decided with the rest of the party, that an exploration of the mesa was the first thing of importance to be accomplished. And an

n the rock face. These were evidently intended for windows, as a larger aperture was just as evidently meant for a door. The path, which zig-zagged up the face

roughly, three hundred feet, and its thickness varied from three hundred feet or more at the center, to a few feet at each end. Roughly, then, its basic outline was that of an irregular

narrow pathway leading to the summit. But, as the cow-puncher set his feet on the lo

s a footprint,-sever

e on his desert island could not have looked any more astonished at the imprint of the savage's sole, than did Coyote Pete.

them hoofs was planted there," said Pete; "but as it is, ther feller who wondered how th

ck, who had been gazing in the dust, which lay

sombrero and scratched his ruffled hair, fairly at a

e been prospecto

but, fer one thing, my son, prospect

ck, who at first had greeted

a glittering object which he had just discer

boy?" inquired

the object for

e coin,"

Pete, picking it off the boy's palm an

were here were Mex

finds a Canadian dime in his pocket is a Kanuck. Say," he suggested suddenly, "

t all about, and no footmarks could be discerned. Nor did a careful examination of the grass

certained, "whoever made those foot-marks wasn't here recent, that'

s," suggested

ed Pete, while poor Ralph colored to the roots of his

rt us. Those ruffians of Black Ramon's have been driven out of the country, and, anyway, they would not be likely to come here. As for Indians, their re

'd like ter know what all this means: Big, shadowy shapes flitting aroun

ttering, far-reaching, lonely as the open sea. The only break in the monoto

e to himself, as they began the ascent of the narrow, tortu