The Last of the Plainsmen

e indented the canyon wall. By reason of its sandy floor and close proximity to Frank's trickling spring, we decided to camp in it

o see him?" was the r

?" echoed five lusty v

speech had told of our experience, that

h the hair of thet m

o button of his coat, and, fumbling over it, unwound a string of long, white hairs, then said:

three feet long. Stewart examined then in expressive silence,

uliar round holes, and dark cracks, suggestive of hidden vermin, gave me a creepy feeling; and

is hole. I'll bet it's full of spiders, snake

I am not prepared to state. Maybe it was the dry, sweet, cool air of Nail Canyon; maybe my suggestion awoke ticklish associations that worked themselves off thus; maybe it was the first instance of my committing

an' rattlers always rustle with tarantulers. But we never mind them-not us fellers! We're used to sleepin' with t

," drawled fai

ge! There's a centipede on your arm!' He pulled his Colt, and shot the blamed centipede off as clean as a whistle. But the bullet hit a steer in the leg; and would you believe it, the bull

flesh was a blue trail of something, that was

entipedes, as you may imagine, considering how many old tombs, caves and cliff-dwellings I have explored. This Algonkian rock is about the right stratum for centipedes to dig in. They dig somewhat after the

pipe fall from his lips. Frank looked queer around the gi

kes, horned-toads, lizards an' a big Gila monster, besides bugs, scorpions' rattlers, an'

hen the centipedes an' tarantulers begin to drop from their holes in the roof, same as them holes up there. An' when they light on me, I neve

for the extinction of an unoffend

sleeping-bag and crawled into it, vowing I would remain th

the pinnacles and turrets pointed toward a resplendent moon. It was a weird, wonderful scene of beauty entrancing, of breathless, dreaming silence that seemed not of life. Then a hoot-owl lame

have no means to tell; but I was awakened from my trance by the touch of something crawling over me. Promptly I raised my he

ight rustling sounds attracted my wary gaze from the old black sentinel on my knee. I saw other black spiders running to and fro on the silver, sandy floor. A giant, as large as a soft-shell crab, seemed to be meditating an assault upo

e result of memory, enlivening imagination. But it sufficed to bring to mind, in one rapid, con

sciousness of its nature, and carefully pulled the f

k! Jim!" I yelled, from th

ad assurance that they had

rantulas!" I cried, tryin

if it ain't!"

!" added Jim, with a

re's one on your pill

proclaimed the ope

ll save the old warrior's concluding remarks: "! ! ! place I was ever in! Tarantulas by the million-ce

g explosion from Jones proclaimed to the listening world that Wallace had thrown a tarantula upon him. Further fearful language suggested the thought that Colonel Jones had passe

t, with language such as never before had disgraced a group of old ca

ck and white canyon, only one sleeper l

wanted to climb the divide at the break, and go home by way of Snake Gulch, and the Colonel acquiesced with the remark that his sixty-three years had taught him there was much to see in th

nce and skill, I forged ahead; which advantage, however, meant more risk for me because of the stones set in motion above. They rolled and bumpe

walls, two thousand feet high, were cracked from turret to base; they bowled out at such an angle that we were afraid to ride under them. Mountains of yellow rock hung balanced, ready to tumble down at the first angry breath of the gods. We rode among carved ston

only on the north side of the canyon they appeared with dark mouths open and uninviting. One, vast and deep, though

," said Wallace to the C

passage between them and pulled weary legs up, one after the other. So steep lay the jumble of cliff fragments that we lost

e. A gloomy hole, large enough to admit a church, had b

past, give up thy dead!"

forlorn!" quoted I, as

us down fro

of a prehistoric animal

t! If he realized the sublimity o

dges circled from wall to wall. We climbed till we were two hund

on the smooth incline, the result would have been terrible. Our voices rang clear and hollow from the walls. We were so high that the sky

with all the power of

ing, deep echoes bellowed from the ebon shades at the back of the cave, and

irits of ages lay in dusty shrouds; and we crawled down as if

heater being the only rival of Jones's se

e way up we had played the boy's game of spying for sights, with the honors about even. It was a questio

victorious whoop. Digging in old ruins roused in him much the same spirit that digging in old books rous

ed in color and hard as flint, harder than the rocks it glued together. The tomb was half-round in shape, and its floor was a projecting shelf of cliff rock. Wallace unearthed bits of pottery,

alls, all despoiled of their one-time possessions. Wallace thought these depredations were due to Indians of

t?" demanded he,

kably red color of the other tombs; and Wallace, more excited than he had been in

with my glass. The tomb resembled nothing so much as a mud-wasp's nest, high on a barn wa

ec and Pueblo ruins, and here I find no similarity. Besides, we are out of their latitude. An ancie

practical Jones. "Now, how'd that tomb

five hundred from the rim wall above, and could not possibly have been approac

her one," cal

ossible accounts for their position. You observe they appear to be about level with each other. Well, onc

conceivable. No doubt we all thought at the same time

years?" qu

Thousands of years, ages have passed sin

he stood and gazed longingly at the isolated tombs. The canyon widened as we proceeded; and hundreds of points that invit

which took the shape of a figure. This figure, I recollected, had been presented to my sight more than once, and now it stopped me. The hard climb up the slippery stones was fatiguing, but I did not hesitate, for I was determined to know. Once upon the ledge, I let out a yell that quickly set my companions in my direction. The

he commented thus: "Darn me if I ever saw an animal like that? Boys, this is a find, sure as you're born. Because not even the Piutes ever spoke of these figures. I doubt if they k

y are in modern times, but more forceful and original. An odd yellow Indian waved aloft a red hand, which striking picture suggested the idea that he was an ancient Macbeth, listening to the knocking at the gate. There was a character representing a great chief, before whom many figures lay prostrate, evidently slain or subjugated. Large red paintings, in the shape of bats, occupied prominent positions, and must have represented gods or devils. Armies of marchin

last so long? asked Jones,

utely sure the paintings are at least a thousand years old. I have never seen any tombs or

he welcoming chorus of the hounds. Frank and the others had reached the cabin so

ents, watching the glowing embers of the fire; the speaking moments when a red-bloode

ld associations, and I waited silently. By and by Lawson snored mildly in a corner; Jim and Frank crawl

oes dying away in that cave reminded me of the mo

aited, knowing that I was to hear at last the stor