s a pair of black eagles, come down from the Panamints to throw a
fateful circle above _him_, and in all his wanderings it had never
happened before that an eagle had circled his camp. A superstitious
chill made Wunpost shudder and draw back, for the Shoshones had told him
that the eagles loved men's battles and came from afar to watch. They
had learned in the old days that when one war-party followed another
there would later be feasting and blood; and now, when one man followed
another across the desert, they came down from their high cliffs to
look. Wunpost scrambled to his hillock and watched their effortless
flight; and they swung to the north, where they circled again, not far
from the spot where he was hid. Here was an omen indeed, a sign without
fail, for below where they circled his enemy was hiding--or slipping up
through the brush to shoot.

We can all stand so much of superstitious fear and then the best nerves
must crack--Wunpost saddled his mules and struck out due south, turning
off into the "self-rising ground." Here in bloated bubbles of salt and
poisonous niter the ground had boiled up and formed a brittle crust,
like dough made of self-rising flour. It was a dangerous place to go,
for at uncertain intervals his mules caved through to their hocks, but
Wunpost did not stop till he had crossed to the other side and put ten
miles of salt-flats behind him. He was haunted by a fear of something he
could not name, of a presence which pursued him like a devil; but as he
stopped and looked back the hot curses rushed to his lips and he headed
boldly for the mouth of Tank Canyon.

CHAPTER XXI

A LOCK OF HAIR

It is no disgrace to flee the unknown, for Nature has made that an
instinct; but the will to overcome conquers even this last of fears and
steels a man's nerves to face anything. The heroes of antiquity set
their lances against dragons and creatures that belched forth flame and
smoke--brave Perseus slew the Gorgon, and Jason the brass-hooved bulls,
and St. George and many another slew his "worm." But the dragons are all
dead or driven to the depths of the sea, whence they rise up to chill
men's blood; and those who conquer now fight only their memory, passed
down in our fear of the unknown. And Perseus and Jason had gods and
sorceresses to protect them, but Wunpost turned back alone.

He entered Tank Canyon just as the sun sank in the west; and there at
its entrance he found horse-tracks, showi