t, mounted the last
slow-rising slope; the pinyons failed, and the scrubby pines became
abundant. At length we reached the top, and entered the great arched
aisles of Buckskin Forest. The ground was flat as a table. Magnificent
pine trees, far apart, with branches high and spreading, gave the eye
glad welcome. Some of these monarchs were eight feet thick at the base
and two hundred feet high. Here and there one lay, gaunt and prostrate,
a victim of the wind. The smell of pitch pine was sweetly overpowering.

"When I went through here two weeks ago, the snow was a foot deep, an'
I bogged in places," said Frank. "The sun has been oozin' round here
some. I'm afraid Jones won't find any snow on this end of Buckskin."

Thirty miles of winding trail, brown and springy from its thick mat of
pine needles, shaded always by the massive, seamy-barked trees, took us
over the extremity of Buckskin. Then we faced down into the head of a
ravine that ever grew deeper, stonier and rougher. I shifted from side
to side, from leg to leg in my saddle, dismounted and hobbled before
Satan, mounted again, and rode on. Jones called the dogs and complained
to them of the lack of snow. Wallace sat his horse comfortably, taking
long pulls at his pipe and long gazes at the shaggy sides of the
ravine. Frank, energetic and tireless, kept the pack-horses in the
trail. Jim jogged on silently. And so we rode down to Oak Spring.

The spring was pleasantly situated in a grove of oaks and Pinyons,
under the shadow of three cliffs. Three ravines opened here into an
oval valley. A rude cabin of rough-hewn logs stood near the spring.

"Get down, get down," sang out Frank. "We'll hang up here. Beyond Oak
is No-Man's-Land. We take our chances on water after we leave here."

When we had unsaddled, unpacked, and got a fire roaring on the wide
stone hearth of the cabin, it was once again night.

"Boys," said Jones after supper, "we're now on the edge of the lion
country. Frank saw lion sign in here only two weeks ago; and though the
snow is gone, we stand a show of finding tracks in the sand and dust.
To-morrow morning, before the sun gets a chance at the bottom of these
ravines, we'll be up and doing. We'll each take a dog and search in
different directions. Keep the dog in leash, and when he opens up,
examine the ground carefully for tracks. If a dog opens on any track
that you are sure isn't lion's, punish him. And when a lion-track is
found, hold the dog