The old yellowbelly whistler mounted his perch on the high rock and sounded an “all’s-well” whistle. The mesa came to life with the chipmunks singing their chorus, the prairie dogs barking, and the other chips racing about. With the coming of life to the meadow Midnight headed down the trail to cover. The two horses came to the crevice which lay across the ledge trail. It was no longer a barrier, being filled with rocks and torn tree trunks with gravel piled in the cracks. Midnight moved down into the sunken mass and over it. Together the two plunged up the far side. Now Midnight felt secure. With the high walls towering above him and the sheer drop into Shadow Canyon guarding the lower side, there was only the entrance across the debris-filled crevice and that was hidden from the main trail by bushes screening the rocky ledge. He set to feeding and the pinto joined him. They stayed in the shade of the aspen grove which afforded them complete protection from anyone who might halt on the rim above and look down. All such a pair of eyes would see was the pale-green canopy of the aspen grove. They grazed peacefully until they had eaten their fill, then Midnight led the pinto to the bed of needles under the Engelmann’s spruce over near the wall. There they lay down in the cool shade. 13. Tex Takes the Trail Tex followed the trail of the mares until almost dark. He came up with them several times and sent them galloping into the lower valleys. He did not shoot any of them because he wished to leave them as an attraction for the black stallion. With less than half an hour of daylight left he headed over a ridge to one of the high-country cabins where food and horse feed were always kept ready for wandering cowpunchers and for the boys who rode the high range during the summer. As he slid from his saddle he saw that someone else was using the cabin for the night. Yellow light streamed out of its one dusty window and the smell of frying bacon and boiling coffee floated down to the corral. Tex unsaddled the bay, watered and grained him, then rubbed him down. He always cared for his horse before thinking of his own comfort. As he shoved open the cabin door he saw Major Howard and Shorty sitting at the plank table nailed to the wall under the window. They were just finishing a meal of hot biscuit, sugar syrup, bacon, and coffee which Shorty had fixed. “Hello,” Tex greeted them. “Any grub left?” Shorty grinned widely and the major nodded. Shorty shoved aside the packing box he had been sitting on. “I’ll scorch some bacon and warm up the coffee,” he said. “I overestimated the boss’s appetite for biscuits, so there’s plenty.” “Shorty made enough biscuits for six men,” the major said. Tex eased his lank frame down on the packing box. He was ravenously hungry. Reaching for a biscuit he broke it, exposing its snowy center. The major watched him as he crammed half the biscuit into his mouth.