trying to encourage his young and
handsome wife to go on. She was beautifully dressed for the part in a
marvelous, becoming costume of whipcord--short skirt, high laced
elkskin boots and the rest of it; but in all her magnificence she had
sat down on the ground, her back to the cliff, her legs across the
trail, and was so tired out that she could hardly muster interest
enough to pull them in out of the way of our horses' hoofs. The man
inquired anxiously of us how far it was to the top. Now it was a long
distance to the top, but a longer to the bottom, so we lied a lie that
I am sure was immediately forgiven us, and told them it was only a
short climb. I should have offered them the use of Bullet, but Bullet
had come far enough, and this was only one of a dozen such cases. In
marked contrast was a jolly white-haired clergyman of the bishop type
who climbed vigorously and hailed us with a shout.

The horses were decidedly unaccustomed to any such sights, and we
sometimes had our hands full getting them by on the narrow way. The
trail was safe enough, but it did have an edge, and that edge jumped
pretty straight off. It was interesting to observe how the tourists
acted. Some of them were perfect fools, and we had more trouble with
them than we did with the horses. They could not seem to get the
notion into their heads that all we wanted them to do was to get on the
inside and stand still. About half of them were terrified to death, so
that at the crucial moment, just as a horse was passing them, they had
little fluttering panics that called the beast's attention. Most of
the remainder tried to be bold and help. They reached out the hand of
assistance toward the halter rope; the astonished animal promptly
snorted, tried to turn around, cannoned against the next in line. Then
there was a mix-up. Two tall clean-cut well-bred looking girls of our
slim patrician type offered us material assistance. They seemed to
understand horses, and got out of the way in the proper manner, did
just the right thing, and made sensible suggestions. I offer them my
homage.

They spoke to us as though they had penetrated the disguise of long
travel, and could see we were not necessarily members of Burt Alvord's
gang. This phase too of our descent became increasingly interesting to
us, a species of gauge by which we measured the perceptions of those we
encountered. Most did not speak to us at all. Others responded to our
greetin