The Texans could also see more clearly now the grand height of the mountain chain into which they were climbing. They were evidently in a pass, partly natural and partly artificial. In places which would otherwise have been difficult the narrow roadway had been solidly constructed of massive stonework, for the greater part unhewn. There had been excavations also, but before long Joe was justified in remarking,-- "I say, colonel, this might do for mules, but it won't for mustangs. I'd rather go afoot." He sprang to the ground as he spoke, and his comrades followed his example. Well they might, for at their right arose an almost perpendicular cliff, while at their left the side of the mountain went down, for hundreds of feet, without a tree or a bush to prevent man or horse from rolling the entire descent. "How far have we now to go?" asked Bowie of his guide. "Red Wolf, hold on." "Red Wolf find road," came back in Lipan-Spanish. "Big Knife bring old man. Tetzcatl heap dead." "Pitch ahead, then!" exclaimed the colonel. "Boys, wait here with the critters. I'll go on and find the place. The boy can come back after you." "All right, colonel," replied Jim. "He won't last long now." "On! on!" exclaimed Tetzcatl, his fierce, black eyes burning with the fire of the fever which had set in upon him, caused by his hurts. "We are at the door! I will die in the house!" He was very weak and in pain, but at the end of a hundred yards more of that steep and dangerous pass he halted his mule, slipped off to the ground, and actually stood erect. "Stay here," he said. "No Spaniard ever entered the last house of Huitzilopochtli. I go on!" He turned, bracing himself with all his remaining strength, and went forward as if he believed that his injunctions had been obeyed. "Fever crazy," said the colonel, in a low voice. "Keep just behind him. If we can follow without his knowing." That was by no means difficult, for he did not turn his head, and there were many bushes, but it was best to let him keep a number of paces in the advance. It was a winding pathway as well as steep. There were sudden turns around rocky projections, and now the gorge at the left was deeper and more terrible to look down into. "What?" exclaimed Bowie, as he and his boy companion turned one of these corners. "Where is he? Did he tumble off the path? There isn't a trace of him!" Vacant indeed was the narrow way before them, but Red Wolf sprang forward. The mountain-side above was not perpendicular at this point and there were bushes. "Too much heap bush," said Red Wolf. "Track rabbit into hole. Ugh!" He parted the luxuriant growth as he spoke and uncovered something plainer than a rabbit-track. "Go ahead!" said the colonel. "Don't make a sound. He was trying to get away. He never meant to show it to us at all. Thunder! A man might hunt for this a hundred years and never find it."