the night. The
professor, after carefully drawing tight the curtain of his tent, "to
keep the cold out," as he explained, retired. Soon after, Jack and the
cow-puncher also went to bed till the watch should summon them to go on
duty in their turn.

But the night passed without any reappearance of the strange shapes
which had so upset the tranquility of the little camp, and, viewed in
the fresh light of a new and glorious day, somehow the affair did not
seem nearly so ominous and awe-inspiring as it had the night before.
Breakfast, as you may imagine, was speedily disposed of, and, having
seen to the stock, the party started out to explore the mesa itself.

As has been said, the side upon which they had camped the night before
was nothing but a sheer cliff. Under the guidance of Coyote Pete, they
now set out to encircle the strange precipitous formation. Their
hearts beat high, and their eyes shone with an aroused sense of
adventure as they strode along.

The professor carried with him a small volume containing a partial
translation of the symbols and sign language of the ancient tribe whose
domains they were about to invade. Jack had a coil of stout, half-inch
manila rope, about two hundred feet in length. Walt Phelps' burden was
a shovel, while Ralph Stetson carried an axe. All bore with them their
revolvers, and Coyote Pete carried, in addition, a rifle.

"Are you afraid of anything?" the professor had asked him, as he
noticed the sun-bronzed plainsman pick up this latter weapon.

"Waal," Pete had rejoined, with a portentous wink at the boys, "you
never kin tell in this wale of tears what you're a-goin' up
aginst--queer shapes, fer instance."

As they strode along, naturally the subject of the shadowy forms which
had alarmed them the night before arose. Jack would have liked to
investigate them right then and there, but, after all, he decided with
the rest of the party, that an exploration of the mesa was the first
thing of importance to be accomplished. And an interesting sight the
great abandoned aboriginal beehive, was, as they rounded the
inaccessible side and emerged upon the portion which faced toward the
northwest.

Pete's recollection had not played him false. There was a rough
pathway constructed up its face upon this side, and at the top were
three tiers of holes bored in the rock face. These were evidently
intended for windows, as a larger aperture was just as evidently meant
for a door