August 5th• . On the following morning we rode out to 
the scene of the mutual surprise party and there found the tell 
which had been cut from the horse*s neck, a pair of hobbles the 
removing of which, just completed, had caused the delay that 
had saved us, and also a pair of fine rawhide lariats dropped 
by the thieves in their sudden retreat. (Photograph of sections 
of the lariats are included herewith.) 
All about were tracks showing what had gone on. We 
then followed the trail of their animals back up the valley and 
discovered that these two men had walked all the way from their 
camp, four miles above, Indian file and that their ponies had 
been brought around to them through a circuitous trail in the 
hills. Pom and John rode up the valley and found their camp 
soon after while Chittenden and I climbed the mesa above to do 
our day’s surveying. The boys were determined to raise quite 
a noise in the wickiup of the supposed guilty redmen but felt 
inclined to give up the idea when they discovered instead of the 
four men seen yesterday, eight ficrce-looking devils croiiching 
over their pipes and looking forbidding enough in their sullen, 
stoic mood. They were neither communicative nor polite, and 
the two boys came away impressed with the notion, as Tom put it, 
n that the savages were determined to give us another deal yet. n 
The audacity of the thieving pirates went ahead of anything we 
had ever heard of. lot only did they stay all night in the 
camp to which we had tracked them but at noon rode boldly down 
