:::::::::*; TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO ^jfe:::::::: 



the mules. Our guide stampeded his lightened caravan 



back to the trail, shouting a long-drawn "Adios " as 



he disappeared, and we were left alone. 



Our tents were soon pitched, and Ricardo, our clever 



little Mexican cook and general alde-de-cajiq), had the 



supper prepared before the short twilight fell. It was 



long after our little camp settled to rest that I finished 



arrang-ino- the thousand and one thinos which a nat- 

 es o o 



uralist needs in a country where birds, insects, and 

 flowers are as strange to him as if but newly created. I 

 walked quietly to where the slowly moving water sent 

 back the clear moonlight from its surface, and sud- 

 denly the daring of our expedition came fully upon me. 

 Behind me the tent shone white through the trees, so 

 wee a mark of human presence deep in the maw of the 

 wild harranca. A strong enough quake of earth, and 

 the boulders silhouetted high above against the sky 

 might loosen and slip from their moorings ; a greater 

 bubbling of water from the mountain springs, and the 

 stream would blot us out ; and yet we have left dangers 

 as great in the civilization from Avhich we have fled 

 for a season ; all the risks of train and steamer, of dis- 

 ease and fire, from which here we were free. But what 

 of fierce men and animals ? As a matter of fact, I was 

 then far from being a good shot with a revolver, but 

 at that moment the feelino; of the rouo-h little handle 

 against my hip was infinitely comforting. 



A deep groaning — deeper than the lowest bass of 



- «4 132 > 



