CHAPTER IX 



NEAR THE TWIN VOLCANOS 



|NE day we reluctantly broke camp and 

 packed over the trail, with mules and 

 horses as before. Mile after mile we went, 

 now galloping- across a level plain, now 

 plunging deep down into a tropical barranca. At high 

 noon we reached our objective point — the great 

 Barranca Vueltran, and across its wide chasm the lire 

 volcano loomed near and grand. But Vueltran proved 

 narrow at the bottom, with most precipitous sides — 

 not a good place to walk and watch for animals and 

 birds, so after a lunch of chicken and eggs, to obtain 

 which we searched for the eggs and killed the chicken, 

 we remounted and turned back upon the trail. 



The sun sank lower and lower, the night loomed 

 black ahead of us, but we rode on and on into a wdld 

 and unknown country, overlooked always by the two 

 voleanos of snow and fire. And still we found no place 

 suitable for camping. We Avere lost, and found our 

 path by hardest search, with only the pale moonlight 

 to guide us. Mexicans — some of whom appeared too 

 much interested in our luggage — passed us with drawl- 

 ins; '^Buenas noches, SeTwres." Weird forms scurried 



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