128 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



8. The whole Tulare plain is the home of nomadic 

 ranchers, who, as pasturage changes, drive about their 

 herds of horses and cattle from range to range, and, as 

 the wolves prowl around for prey, so a class of Mexican 

 highwaymen rob and murder them from one year's end 

 to another. I judged the swimmers were bent on some 

 such errand, and lay down on the ground by Kaweah, to 

 guard him, rolling myself in my soldier's great-coat, and 

 slept, with saddle for a pillow. Once or twice the animal 

 waked me by stamping restively; but I could perceive no 

 cause for alarm, and slept on comfortably until a little 

 before sunrise, when I rose, took a plunge in the river, 

 and hurriedly dressed myself for the day's ride. The 

 ferryman, who had promised to put me across the river 

 at dawn, was already at his post, and, after permitting 

 Kaweah to drink a deep draught, I rode him out on the 

 ferry-boat, and was quickly at the other side. 



9. The plain stretched off to my left into dusky dis- 

 tance, and ahead in a bare, smooth expanse, dreary by its 

 monotony, yet not altogether repulsive in the pearly ob- 

 scurity of the morning. In midsummer these plains are 

 as hot as the Sahara through the long, blinding day ; but 

 after midnight there comes a delicious blandness upon the 

 air, a suggestion of freshness and upspringing life, which 

 renews vitality within you. Kaweah showed the influence 

 of this condition in the sensitive play of ears and toss of 

 head, and in his free, spirited stride. I was experiment- 

 ing on his sensitiveness to sounds, and had found that his 

 ears turned back at the faintest whisper, when suddenly 

 his head rose, he looked sharply forward toward a clump 

 of trees on the river-bank, one hundred and fifty yards in 

 front of us, where a quick glance revealed to me a camp- 

 fire, and two men hurrying saddles upon their horses a 

 gray and a sorrel. 



