[Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXVII. HOME AGAIN. Tiger advised us to saddle at once, while he and Owl carefully removed everything that could betray our recent presence here. All the logs were carried into the stream in a deer hide, the horse excreta and scraps of food hidden in the neighbouring bushes, and after giving our camp the appearance as if its occupants had left it some days previously, we led our horses over the firm stones down to the stream where I had shot the stag on the previous evening, and then along it till we could survey our path from a distance of about two miles from camp. Here we led our cattle into a coppice where they were hidden from the Indians by the bushes and rocks. Ere long the latter marched up the path. Tiger recognised them as Apaches who were probably on the road to the eastern trading ports of the United States, as they had their squaws and children and large bales of hides with them. We let them pass in peace. We then rode down the stream to the path and put our horses at a sharp amble in the direction from which the Indians had just arrived. The path led us round many blocks of granite into the glen, down into which we had gazed that morning while stag hunting. John looked up at the overhanging crag, on which his stag and pocket-handkerchief were, but could not see it from here, and only regretted that he could not take the antlers with him as a memento. He spoke about it several times, and said he would willingly give ten dollars to have them. On this Owl rode up to him and said he would procure them for him by the evening, after which he turned off into the rocks. He shouted something to Tiger that we did not understand and disappeared, while we soon reached the spot where the valley turned to the east. On both sides of it rose the barren mountains, and only an isolated yucca or mimosa grew out of the crevices. The valley itself, here about two miles in width, was covered with loose stones, and only from time to time did we notice on the stream that wound through it a small clump of trees or patch of grass. In spite of the great heat we hurried on till the sun was rather low, and the mountain wall that closed the extremity of the valley cast a long shadow into it. From here it trended to the south-west. The crags that enclosed it sank, and we looked down into the valleys of the Puerco River, between which and us lay smaller hills and mounds frequently covered with forest. When the sun sank behind the southern pillar of the mountain gate in front of Paso del Norté, the Diablo Mountains, we unpacked at the first wood we reached after leaving the glen, and camped on the bank of the stream which we had followed nearly all through it. It was one of the numerous exquisite points we had found during our tour, and the wonderful evening light did much to heighten its beauty.