So it came about that for some little while all of them were more or less busy, Adrian in cutting off the choice portions of the deer; Donald in depriving the unfortunate panther of the sleek covering he had borne all his life; while Billie led the horses, and after them the mule, to water, which he found trickling down the face of the rocks near by. “And,” said the fat boy, after he had completed his part of the programme, “seein’ how close to noon it is right now, why not stop long enough to let me make a little cooking fire out of these dead branches under the cedar, and try a piece of the venison?” and silence giving consent, he proceeded to immediately get busy. CHAPTER VII. THE WITCH DOCTOR. “Well, it’s a little tough, but all the same I like it,” was Billie’s opinion of the venison, after it had been cooked, and they sat around making a meal of it. “You couldn’t expect anything less,” Donald went on to say; “because all meat is more juicy and tender from hanging several days, when the weather allows. Before we’re done chewing on this maverick you’ll agree that I’m right, for it’ll get better with age.” “That’s a cinch!” agreed Adrian. As it was pretty hot around the middle of the day, none of them were very ambitious about making a fresh start, after they had finished eating. In fact, they lay around in easy positions, and waited for the sun to get started toward the west, so that its rays might not be so direct. “Tell me some more about the Zunis, Donald,” urged Billie, thinking that it was a good time to put forward such a plea; for long ago had he not learned that a wise fellow will wait to ask a favor of his father until after dinner, and not when he first comes home, tired and hungry? “Oh! can’t you just hold your horses a little longer, Billie?” observed the other, with a good-natured smile. “Because, you know we’ll drop in on the copper colored gents tomorrow, with any decent sort of luck; and then you’ll be able to see everything for youself.” “Yes, that’s so, Donald,” the fat boy went on in his wheedling, insinuating way; “but I’ve been told that whenever you expect to take a journey into any foreign country the first thing to do is to get guide books, and read up all you can about the people, their strange habits, and so-forth. In that way you can understand them much quicker than if you didn’t know beans about the lot. And so, the more I can hear about these Hopi and Zuni Indians, who all belong to the family of cliff dwellers, and are so different from every other tribe that ever inhabited North America, why, the quicker I’ll understand what a lot of queer things they do stand for.” Adrian pretended to clap his hands as if in applause. “Seems as if he’s got you there, Donald,” he went on to remark. “A heap of sound sense in what Billie says.”