ld take too much time. Because of the steady traveling the
day's journey rarely exceeded five or six hours nor covered more than
twelve to fifteen miles.

Taos reached, the packs were removed and covered by the _aparejos_, each
pile kept separate. Turned out to graze with the bell mule, without
picket rope or hobbles, the animals would not leave her and could be
counted on, under ordinary circumstances, to be found near camp and all
together.

Taos, a miserable village of adobes, and the largest town in the valley,
had a population of a few American and Canadian trappers who had married
Mexican or Indian women; poor and ignorant Mexicans of all grades except
that of pure Spanish blood, and Indians of all grades except, perhaps,
those of pure Indian blood. The mixed breed Indians had the more courage
of the two, having descended from the Taosas, a tribe still inhabiting
the near-by pueblo, whose warlike tendencies were almost entirely
displayed in defensive warfare in the holding of their enormous,
pyramidal, twin pueblos located on both sides of a clear little stream.
In the earlier days marauding bands of Yutaws and an occasional
war-party of Cheyennes or Arapahoes had learned at a terrible cost that
the Pueblo de Taos was a nut far beyond their cracking, and from these
expeditions into the rich and fertile valley but few returned.

Here was a good chance to test the worth of their disguises, for the
three older plainsmen were well-known to some of the Americans and
Canadians in the village, having been on long trips into the mountains
with a few of them. And so, after the meal of _frijoles_, _atole_ and
jerked meat, the latter a great luxury to Mexicans of the grade of
_arrieros_, Hank and his two Arapahoe companions left the little
encampment and wandered curiously about the streets, to the edification
of uneasy townsfolk, whose conjectures leaned toward the unpleasant.
Ceran St. Vrain, on a visit to the town, passed them close by but did
not recognize the men he had seen for days at a time at his trading post
on the South Platte. Simonds, a hunter from Bent's Fort, passed within a
foot of Hank and did not know him; yet the two had spent a season
together in the Middle Park, lying just across the mountain range west
of Long's Peak.

Continuing on their way the next morning they camped in the open valley
for the night, and the next day crossed a range of mountains. The next
village was El Embudo, a miserable colle