"Genius is struggling hard for utterance there," said the Professor impressively. "That young man will make his mark; see if he doesn't." Alas, how little we thought he would do it so soon. An hour later, returning that way, we descried our artist high up on the face of the rocks, perched on a jutting fragment, and clinging to a stunted cedar with one hand, while with the other he plied his brush. Fully forty feet intervened between him and the earth. "What devotion!" cried the Professor. "Beautiful spirit," said Mr. Colon, "how soon it commences to climb." "That young man will develop," said Dr. Pythagoras. A few feet more, and the artist and his work were fully revealed. He had developed. A cry of agony came from the Professor's lips; for there in large yellow lines, half blotting out a beautiful stone, our eyes beheld the diabolical letters, S O Z. He never finished the word. The Professor seized a rifle, and brought it to a level with the artist's paint pot. "Come down, you rascal!" he cried. "How dare you deface one of nature's castles with a patent name?" Would he have fired? I think he would. But the man of genius caught his eye, and comprehending the situation, cried, with face whiter than the chalk before him, "O, don't!" "Add the 'odont', you villain," screamed the Professor, "and I'll--I'll fire!" With our first returning wagon, the artist went back to Hays, but his work, alas! remains, and perhaps--who knows?--some future generation may yet point to that wall and tell how SOZ, king of an extinct people, once held dominion over the beautiful valley. CHAPTER XVI. BISON MEAT--A STRANGE ARRIVAL--THE SYDNEY FAMILY--THE HOME IN THE VALLEY--THE SOLOMON MASSACRE--THE MURDER OF THE FATHER AND THE CHILD--THE SETTLERS' FLIGHT--INCIDENTS--OUR QUEEN OF THE PLAINS--THE PROFESSOR INTERESTED--IRISH MARY--DOBEEN HAPPY--THE HEROINE OF ROMANCE--SACHEM'S BATH BY MOONLIGHT--THE BEAVER COLONY.