no longer
loved him. And he would think that, senor, were I to go with you and
leave him here among these dreadful dead gentlemen alone."

It had not occurred to any of us that El Sabio might be condensed
sufficiently to go through the narrow way; but if he truly were the
collapsable donkey that Pablo declared him to be, we had a good deal to
be thankful for. He was a sturdy little creature, and his small back
could bear easily twice as much as any two of ours. With his assistance
we certainly would be able to carry with us all of our ammunition and
arms--of which defensive stuff we could not well afford to spare the
smallest part.

And El Sabio, after Pablo had made a long explanation of the case to
him, and had told him precisely what we expected him to do--to all of
which he listened gravely and with an astonishing air of comprehending
what was said to him--seemed to enter into the spirit of the situation,
and to try his very best to meet its requirements. It is a puzzle to me
to this day how El Sabio managed to shrink himself so that we got him
through that narrow hole; but he certainly did manage it--and then went
down the stone stair-way backward, as though he had been trained to be a
trick donkey from his youth up. When the feat was accomplished, and he
stood safely out in the canon, the expressions of love, and of
congratulation upon his cleverness, which Pablo lavished upon him were
enough to have turned completely a less serious-minded donkey's head.

Such of our stores as we were compelled to leave behind us, including
our saddles, and the pack-saddles, and all the heavier portion of our
camp equipage, we heaped in one corner of the cave and piled rocks
over; and then we turned our poor horses and the mules loose in the
canon, feeling certain that their instinct would lead them out to the
valley in search of food. It went to our hearts to know that these good
beasts of ours were doomed to hard service under Indian masters to the
end of their days.

All being thus in readiness for our advance, we went down the stair-way
beneath the swinging statue, and from beneath pulled out the piece of
rock which propped up the great mass of stone. With a heavy jar it fell
and closed the passage-way, and we prepared to start. Just then Fray
Antonio remembered that he had left on a ledge in the cave--that we had
used as a shelf for the storage of various small matters during our
sojourn there--a little volume that he dea