:::::::::*' TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO Sfe:;:::::« 



sahe ! " had more of an I-told-you-so accent than ever. 

 But sometimes the faintest of dog-like tracks remained 

 in the sand at morning. 



As witii many mysteries in Natui"e it was when we 

 ceased to think of it that it was solved. One evening, 

 during a week when the moonlight made useless our 

 candle-lanterns, and the trees and bushes and rocks 

 were enveloped in the pale fairy light from the lumin- 

 ary which seemed suspended so close over the bar- 

 ranca s summit, we found the solution to our mystery. 

 The air seemed too full of light to stir — we in the 

 North do not know what real moonliuht is. In the 

 silence I could count each heat of my heart, and soon 

 the rhythm increased in volume and, without abrupt- 

 ness or knowledge of the change. I was listiMiing to 

 the hi'dt-hcat-heat-heat of the Ridgway Whip-poor- 

 will. 



The spell of the sdent night, the rise and fall of the 

 volcano's fire, and the eternal monotone of the bird 

 held me spell-bound, initil mv body seemed but part of 

 the quiet whole. Never have I stood so still in my life. 

 Every nerve and muscle seemed at rest. Instead of 

 a novel sensation, it seemed as if I had stood there for 

 ages. Like Atlas, there would soon spring u]) trees 

 between my feet. 



Before me was the grayish-white sandy bed of the 

 arroyo, with its scattered boulders, shadowless because 

 of the zenith moon. The misty path reflected a cool, 



- «4 2^>4 ^ - 



