In the topmost cliff was a cave and in it, standing out in bold relief against the shadowy background, were small stone houses. Moss was right—there was a ruin “up there.” In spite of the growing darkness the men scrambled up the canyon walls. Just as total darkness fell, two of them entered the little cliff dwelling. It was the earliest known discovery of a Mesa Verde cliff dwelling by white men. The next morning Jackson and his men returned to the ruin and photographed it. Two-Story Cliff House they named it because of a splendidly-built, two-story structure it contained. Excitedly they climbed about the small village, poking into every dark corner. In the debris of the cluttered rooms they found things that aided them in their wild speculations about the vanished people; pottery, corn cobs, stone tools—the Mesa Verde was beginning to give up its secrets. Today Two-Story Cliff House still clings to the face of its cliff. It has changed little since Jackson saw it and few men have entered it since that fatal day when the Indians left it behind. Long ago the people of Two-Story House were neighbors of the people of Cliff Palace, the great cliff dwelling toward which we are moving. To them it must have been a metropolis, a great city, the largest they ever knew. It took only an hour for them to trot up the canyon to the larger community. Often the men of the little village must have slung their prized possessions over their shoulders and set out for Cliff Palace on trading and gambling expeditions. It was “big town” to them. [Illustration: Two Story Cliff House, discovered by Mr. W. H. Jackson, in 1874] When Jackson was at Two-Story Cliff House he was very near Cliff Palace but he did not see the larger ruin. If he had gone only four miles up the nearest side canyon, he would have found the amazing structure. But he was satisfied with the discovery of Two-Story Cliff House and other small ruins and a narrowly-averted clash with a band of Utes sent him scuttling down the Mancos Canyon and out of the Mesa Verde to safety. Cliff Palace was still unknown but the threat of discovery was coming nearer. One of the early settlers in the Mancos Valley was Mr. B. K. Wetherill, a rancher. In the eighties he and his five sons were living on a large ranch at the foot of the Mesa Verde. It was a typical pioneer family but in one respect the Wetherills were very different from their neighbors. Throughout all of their years of residence in the valley they had been friendly with the Utes. Instead of persecuting them as so many of the settlers did, they befriended the helpless Indians who were rapidly losing the lands they regarded as their own. Indians were welcome at the Wetherill ranch and the bonds of friendship grew strong.