“_Hi! Hi!--This way, Scotty! Hyar they are--over by the canyon! Wahoo!_” resounded Big John’s voice far off through the timber. Sid yelled, and then heard the shout of Scotty answering Big John and the crash of his horse breaking through the timber. Then came a thundering of hoofs, and Big John rode up to the brim on the white mustang. “Hyar’s the dawgs, Scotty!” he turned around to yell back into the forest--then he caught sight of Sid, down below! “Well, I’ll be plumb teetotally hornswoggled!” he roared. “What in my-gosh-amen are you doin’ down there, Sid? Hey--Scotty!--Here’s Sid! An’ I’ll bet my boots he’s got the varmint down thar with him, too!” CHAPTER VII THE FIRE DANCE OF THE NAVAHO “Hi, old-timer, this-all’s too many for me--I’m a fool and proud of it!” roared Big John down at Sid, as Scotty came galloping up to the brink of Lost Canyon and yelled delighted greetings. “What in thunder are ye doin’ down thar? How’d ye git there, an’ how’d ye lose yore pony? Speak up, _hombre_! We lost a varmint, hyarabouts,--y’ ain’t got him, none, in yore pockets, has yer?” Sid waved a hand up at the cliff dwellings as he laughed back gayly, “There’s your bird, John--up in a cave yonder. Gorry, but I’m glad to see you all! I’ve been shut up here for two days. That’s the Black Panther you’re after and he’s got a lair in a cave back of those pueblos----” “Yeah? I jest knowed it war old Neyani’s identical black sheep-stealer! Eh! Seems like a Navaho god or devil named Dsilyi owns him,--but Ruler, here, he runs across his trail, ’smornin’, an’, very impolite, lights out after the sacred critter! Me, I hops the cayuse an’ oozes along, with Scotty scratchin’ gravel behind me, an’ hyar we is. We found yore pony in Neyani’s corral, Sid,--Say! all h--l pops loose then, you bet! Yore dad’s back thar now, settin’ on the lid and holdin’ the Injuns quiet. You want to show up thar, pretty sudden, or some pore Injun’s goin’ to git lynched.” “But how in the nation are we ever going to get you _out_, Sid?” called Scotty, who had been surveying the canyon intently while Big John was speaking. “It’s all walls and cliffs, as far as I can see.” “Search me!” grinned Sid, shrugging his shoulders. “And how are you two going to get down to help me smoke out the cougar---- Mind the dogs, boys!” he broke off suddenly. “They’ll be tumbling into the canyon, next, if you don’t get leashes on them, pronto.” Ruler and the pups had now worked around to the brink of the granite slide. The big hound was even intrepidly venturing down it, with Pepper at his heels. Big John roared; Scotty yelled; Sid aimed his revolver and spanged a bullet on the rock in front of them, for a sheer fall down into the canyon threatened them if they tried to go any further.