264^ IN THE OLD WEST 



ing his legs under his body, reclined in the man- 

 ner customary to him. There was a prodigious 

 quantity of liquor consumed that night, the 

 hunters making up for their many banyans ; but 

 as it was the pure juice of the grape, it had little 

 or no effect upon their hard heads. They had 

 not much to fear from attacks on the part of the 

 Californians ; but, to provide against all emergen- 

 cies, the padre and the Gachupin were '* hobbled," 

 and confined in an inner room, to which there was 

 no ingress nor egress save through the door which 

 opened into the apartment where the mountaineers 

 lay sleeping, two of the number keeping watch. 

 A fandango with the Indian girls had been pro- 

 posed by some of them, but Walker placed a de- 

 cided veto on this. He said " they had need of 

 sleep now, for there was no knowing what to-mor- 

 row might bring forth; that they had a long jour- 

 ney before them, and winter was coming on ; they 

 would have to streak it night and day, and sleep 

 when their journey was over, which would not be 

 until Pike's Peak was left behind them. It was 

 now October, and the way they'd have to hump it 

 back to the mountains would take the gristle off a 

 painter's tail." 



Young Ned Wooton was not to the fore when 

 the roll was called. He was courting the Sonora 

 wench Juanita, and to some purpose, for we may 

 at once observe that the maiden accompanied the 

 mountaineer to his distant home, and at the pres- 



