y had been placed there in recent times. Indeed, the more that Fray
Antonio and I looked closely at their wrappings and noted the way in
which their mummied forms had been ranged before this idol--that
certainly belonged to a primitive time--the more were we inclined to
believe that this weird sepulchre belonged to the very far back past.
But for the moment it mattered not to us whence these dead forms came:
the essential matter was that while we remained in the cave with them we
were in absolute safety.

"Well," said Young, when we had reached this comforting conclusion,
"since it's a sure thing that we're all right here, I move that we make
ourselves comfortable. Let's bring in th' stock, an' get th' packs off;
an' then we'll build a fire an' eat another supper. Fightin' Indians is
hungry work, an' I feel as if I hadn't had anything to eat for a
week"--which suggestions were so reasonable that we at once proceeded to
act upon them.

It was hard work for us, wounded and sore and tired as we were, to
unfasten the pack-cords; and still harder work to collect the wood for
our fire. But we managed to accomplish it all at last; and most
comforting and refreshing was our supper amid those extraordinary
surroundings. There was even cheerfulness about our meal--and yet over
in the shadows at the back of the cave, touched now and then by a
brighter flash of firelight, lay before the heathen altar of old the
body of our poor Dennis; and close beside us were the long rows of dead
Indians. I sometimes have thought that it was strange that we then had
any heart to eat at all, surrounded by so desolate a company. But there
is that about killing one's fellow-creatures, and being in imminent
peril of being killed one's self, I have found, that blunts for a while
the souls of those who survive and makes them careless of death's awful
mystery. As the fire crackled and blazed, giving out a plentiful warmth
that in that chill place was most grateful to our aching bodies, our
spirits seemed to brighten with its brightness; and when the rich smell
of strong coffee mingled with the smell of stewing meats told that
Young's cooking was nearly ended, we sniffed hungrily and eagerly; and
when we actually fell to upon our meal I remember that we even laughed
over it.

Yet it is but just to Fray Antonio to say that his fine spirit did not
fall to the level of grossness that ours were brought to by what, as it
seems to me, was an instinctive gla