164 RECREATION 



heavens, and before we had finished ducted the live ember to his pipe bowl, 



the meal big drops of rain set the camp then he puffed away as calmly as if 



fire to spluttering and drove us to the there was nothing in this world to 



shelter of our tent ; then it rained ! trouble him. 



Lord help us ! "If the gate be shut," he resumed, 



The water came down in such tor- "it will keep out tramps and Injuns." 



rents that on account of the spray we With that he went to smoking his red 



could not see thirty feet ; then came willow bark* again, 



hailstones as large as hen's eggs. But I could not view the situation 



There was some lightning and thunder, so complacently, and when the rain 



but either the noise of the rushing, ceased as suddenly as it commenced, 



splashing water drowned the rumbling, with some difficulty I caught my horse 



or the electric fluid was so far distant and made my way to the gate to dis- 



that the reports were not loud when cover that my worst fears were realized ; 



they reached us. Suddenly there was a large section of the cliff had split off 



a ripping noise, followed by a sort of the Mesa and slid down into the nar- 



subdued roar which stampeded our row gateway, completely filling the 



horses and made the earth shudder. ■ space and leaving a wall of over one 



"Earthquake !" I exclaimed. "Wus," hundred feet of sheer precipice for us 



said Pete, "hit's a landslide." to climb before we could escape from 



Instantly a thought went through my our Eden-like prison, 



brain like a hot bullet and made me Again a wave of superstitious dread 



shudder. "Pete !" I shouted. "Em right swept over me as I viewed the tightly 



hyer, tenderfut, you needn't holler so closed exit, a dread that the curse on 



loud," he answered, and calmly filled the fatal fortune meant to include me, 



his pipe. else why should that cliff which had 



I flung myself impulsively on my stood for thousands of years take this 



companion and grasped him by his big, opportunity to split off and choke up 



brawny shoulders, with my face close the ancient trail ? 



to his. I whispered, "Pete, I believe Then another uncanny idea wormed 



the slide occurred at the gate." its way through my mind. Had the 



"Wull, hit did sound down that-a- wild hunter any connection with this 



way," admitted Pete, composedly. disaster ? Was he in any manner acting 



"Pete," I continued, "the Mesa has as agent for the mother who put her 



caved in on our trail !" curse on the fortune ? Who is this 



"Wull, tenderfut, we hain't hurt, be strange creature? For that matter, who 



we ? Tha's plenty of game hyer fur the is my giant friend Pete ? Where is this 



taken of it and plenty of water, as fine park, this prison, located on the map 



as ever spouted from old Moses' rock, of the United States? I only knew 



right at hand. If the Mesa's out our what Pete had told me, and I must say, 



trail we can live well and not have to when judged from a cold New York 



chew mutton either, I don't reckon I point of view, everything connected 



can go to York with you just yet," with this adventure seemed improbable, 



drawled my comrade in a most provok- unnatural and unreal. What magic 



ingly imperturbed manner, as he slowly charm was used ; what spell was 



freed himself from my grasp and made wrought on old Patrick Mullins which 



for the camp fire, which, being to a induced him to make one of his prec- 



great extent sheltered by an overhang- ious guns for a stranger ? 



ing rock, was still smouldering in spite The longer I questioned myself, the 



of the drenching rain, raking the ashes less was my ability to answer. I sat 



until he found a red, glowing coal Pete 



deftly picked it Up and by jUSrSrlinSf it *Properly speaking, this Western substitute for 



r t ij.ii li u tobacco is not willow bark, but the dried inner 



from one hand to the other he con- b ari< of a scrub Conacecae— dogwood, 



