I could see the heads of some dark clouds
peering at us over the mountains and before dark the clouds crept over
the mountain tops and overcast our sky.

It rained all that night in a fitful manner and came to a stop about
four A. M. The wind went down and the air seemed to have lost its
vivacity and life; it was a dead atmosphere; we arose from our blankets
feeling tired and listless.

While we were eating our breakfast dark clouds again suddenly obscured
the heavens and before we had finished the meal big drops of rain set
the camp fire spluttering and drove us to the shelter of our tent; then
it rained! Lord help us! the water came down in such torrents that on
account of the spray we could not see thirty feet; then came hailstones
as large as hen's eggs. There was some lightning and thunder, but either
the splashing of the water drowned the rumbling or the electric fluid
was so far distant that the reports were not loud when they reached us.
Suddenly there was a ripping noise, followed by a sort of subdued roar
which stampeded our horses from their shelter under a projecting rock
and made the earth shudder.

"Earthquake!" I exclaimed.

"Wuss," said Pete, "hit's a landslide."

Instantly a thought went through my brain like a hot bullet and made me
shudder.

"Pete," I shouted.

"I'm right hyer, tenderfut, you needn't holler so loud," he answered,
and calmly filled his pipe.

I flung myself impulsively on my companion, grasped his big brawny
shoulders, and with my face close to his I whispered, "Pete, I believe
the slide occurred at the gate."

"Well, hit did sound that-a-way," admitted Pete composedly.

"Pete," I continued, "that butte has caved in on our trail!"

"Wull, tenderfut, we ain't hurt, be we? Tha's plenty of game here fur
the tak'n of it and plenty of water, as fine as ever spouted from old
Moses' rock, right at hand. If the Mesa's cut our trail we can live well
here for a hundred years and not have to chew wolf mutton neither. I
don't reckon I can go to York with you just yet," drawled my comrade in
a most provokingly imperturbable manner, as he slowly freed himself from
my grasp and made for the camp fire, which being to a great extent
sheltered by an overhanging rock, was still smouldering in spite of the
drenching rain. Raking the ashes until he found a red glowing coal, Pete
deftly picked it up and by juggling it from one hand to the other, he
conducted the live ember to his pipe-bowl, t