Thus we continued day after day, I can't say how many. There was
a fascination about the thing that was irresistible. However high
the peak we had ascended, another could be seen still higher, and
that, too, must be scaled.
The infinite variety of the trail, its surprises, its new
dangers, its apparent vanishings into thin air, only to be found,
after an all but impossible curve, up the side of another cliff,
coaxed us on and on; and when or where we would have been able to
say, "thus far and no farther" is an undecided problem to this
day.
About three o'clock one afternoon we camped in a small clearing
at the end of a narrow valley. Our arriero, halting us at that
early hour, had explained that there was no other camping ground
within six hours' march, and no hacienda or pueblo within fifty
miles. We received his explanation with the indifference of those
to whom one day is like every other day, and amused ourselves by
inspecting our surroundings while he prepared the evening meal
and arranged the camp beds.
Back of us lay the trail by which we had approached--a narrow,
sinuous ribbon clinging to the side of the huge cliffs like a
snake fastened to a rock.
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