grass in it for tired and
hungry horses, and To-la-go-to-de at once decided that there they
should halt for the night.

It was little beyond the middle of the afternoon, and a war-party of
Lipans has neither tents to pitch nor much baggage to care for. Little
time was lost in mere "going into camp," and even before that was done
every fifth brave was ordered out to look for game. Not only would
fresh meat be better than dry, if they could get any, but it would save
their somewhat slender stock of provisions for another day.

"Steve! Steve Harrison!"

"What is it, Murray?"

"I've spoken to old Two Knives. You and I are to hunt."

"Hurrah for that! Which way are you going?"

"Most of the others seem to be setting out southerly. I guess they're
right, so far as game is concerned. You and I'll try that gap to the
north-west. There's no telling where it may lead to."

The "gap" he pointed at was a sombre-looking chasm, the mouth of which
opened into the little valley where they were, at a distance of about
half a mile.

Nobody could tell, indeed, where it might lead to, nor could any one
have guessed, until he was actually in it, what a very remarkable gap
it was.

The two white hunters, little as they looked like white men, had chosen
to go on foot, and not one of their Lipan friends had accompanied them.
If they were men to be "watched" at any other time, even the sharp eyes
of Indian suspicion saw no need for it among the desolate solitudes of
those "sierras."

They did not hear To-la-go-to-de say to some of the red hunters:

"No Tongue great hunter. Bring in more antelope than anybody else.
Yellow Head good, too. You beat them? Ugh!"

They would try beyond doubt, but more than one Lipan shook his head.
The reputation of Murray as a slayer of game was too high to be
questioned, and he had taught Steve Harrison like a father.

"Murray," said Steve, "do you mean that such a gap as that offers me a
chance?"

"To get away?"

"Yes. That's what I'm thinking of."

"Can't say about that, my boy. Probably not. I don't believe it comes
out on the western slope of the mountains."

"What do you want to try it for, then?"

"I don't exactly know. Game, perhaps. Then I want to teach you
something more about mountains and finding your way among them. More
than that, I don't want to go the same way with any of the rest."

"I like that, anyhow. Seems as if I had ever so many questions to ask
that