124 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



stolid, brutal cast of countenances, as I thought them not- 

 worse than the average California greasers. 



2. I observed them enough to see that the elder was a 

 man of middle height, of wiry, light figure, and thin, 

 harsh visage ; a certain angular sharpness making itself 

 noticeable about the shoulders and arms, which tapered 

 to small, almost refined hands. A mere fringe of per- 

 fectly straight black beard followed the curve of his chin, 

 tangling itself at the ear with shaggy, unkempt locks of 

 hair. He wore an ordinary stiff-brimmed Spanish sombre- 

 ro, and the inevitable greasy red sash performed its rather 

 difficult task of holding together flannel shirt and buck- 

 skin breeches, besides half covering with folds a long, 

 narrow knife. 



3. His companion struck me as a half-breed Indian, 

 somewhere about eighteen years of age, his beardless face 

 showing deep brutal lines, and a mouth which was a mere 

 crease between hideously heavy lips. Blood stained the 

 rowels of his spurs ; an old felt hat, crumpled and ragged, 

 slouched forward over his eyes, doing its best to hide the 

 man. I was pleased that the stable-man who saddled 

 Kaweah was unable to answer their inquiry where I was 

 going, and annoyed when I heard the hotel-keeper inform 

 them that I started next day for Millerton. 



4. Leaving behind us people and village, Kaweah bore 

 me out under the grateful shade of oaks, among rambling 

 settlements and fields of harvested grain, whose pale-yel- 

 low stubble and stacks contrasted finely with the deep foli- 

 age, and served as a pretty groundwork for stripes of vivid 

 green which marked the course of numberless irrigat- 

 ing streams. Low cottages, overarched with boughs and 

 hemmed in with weed jungles, margined my road. 



5. Trees and settlements and children were soon be- 

 hind us, an open plain stretching on in front, without 



