55 



In the middle of the afternoon, while we were approaching 

 a watering place near a spur of the Cocopah range, we saw a 

 troop of horsemen rounding a point half a mile away. They 

 apparently spied us at the same moment, for they immediately 

 deployed, spurred in advance of their pack horses, and cantered 

 towards us. We soon recognized them as a band of Villista 

 rurales, and when they drew up we perceived that the belts 

 of all were bristling with soft-nosed bullets. While we 

 halted our caravan, the Mexicans gathered around us, and 

 each rider rested by sliding part way from his saddle and 

 hanging by the crook of one leg. They had evidently been 

 on a long scouting expedition, for their mounts and pack 

 horses, though good, looked almost worn-out. The leader 

 of the band, a one-eyed old fellow wearing a gray and red 

 uniform, brought up the rear. When he joined our group, a 

 long, pompous consultation, and examination of our papers, 

 ensued. He finallj' seemed ready to pass us, when one young 

 horseman, clad in blue jeans and carrying around his waist 

 and chest enough rifle cartridges to supply a company, noticed 

 my automatic pistol, which I had neglected to have included 

 in the list of fire-arms named in our permit. The Mexican 

 promptly asked me to empty the magazine and to pass the 

 arm and loose cartridges to the one-eyed chief. The band then 

 rode on toward Mexicali, where they punctiliously turned in 

 the pistol, for I subsequently received it from Colonel Cantu. 



We struck camp early beside a lagoon of the Hardy, because 

 Pancho said that there was no herbage for the horses farther 

 along the trail. While I wrote my journal by the light of a 

 candle and the full moon, strange amphibian voices rang 

 out from the sunken marshland, the only other sounds being 

 the bell on our white mare's neck and frequently a sputter 

 from a browsing burro. 



Next morning I awoke before dawn, when the golden moon 

 was just sinking behind the western crest of mountains. A 

 very heavy dew had fallen, and the lagoon had risen several 

 inches during the night. Killdeers were pipingj nighthawks 

 and bats were darting about, and railbirds skulked stealthily 

 across the wet flats. While I was broiling a cottontail rabbit 



