In a short time we reached the entrance to the canon, which was indeed a narrow pass.  Huge rocks, hundreds of feet high, towered above and upon each side of us, their dark, moss-grown surface rendering the narrow passage so gloomy, that, in spite of myself, I felt a cold shiver run over me, that gave me an involuntary sensation of danger, which I could not throw off.

Turning to Jerry, I said, “Isn’t there any danger here?”

“Danger!” repeated Jerry, “of course there’s danger, everywhere in this country.  We ain’t out of danger a minute.  Ha! ha! ha!” and he laughed so loudly, that the rocks above us caught the sound and hurled it against the opposite side of the canon, where it seemed to be detained for a moment by some overhanging cliff, and then sent back, reverberating and re-echoing, now faint and indistinct, then clear and well-defined, to again die away in the distance, to once more approach nearer and nearer, louder and louder, until finally catching upon the sharp edge of some far-jutting crag, it shivered into a dozen, startlingly distinct peals of laughter, that seemed to my terrified senses like the shouts of demons, exulting at our temerity in venturing within their own well-chosen realms.

So terrifying was the effect upon me, that, for a few moments, I could not persuade myself that it was but an echo I heard.  The blood surged to my heart and receeded so suddenly, that I was hardly able to sit erect upon my horse.  As soon as I could speak, I said,—­

“Come, let us go back, Jerry.  I want to get out of this, as soon as I can.”

“We’ve got ter git ter camp, an’ this’s the nearest way; but, ef you’re afraid, we’ll turn back.  That warn’t nothin’ ter hurt, though, it did sound kind er skeery.  Ther shortest way’s always ther best in this country, so let’s go ahead,” said Jerry.

“I don’t know that we are any more likely to meet danger in this canon than we are out of it,” said I; “but it’s one of the most dismal and sunless places I ever was in.”

“Well, ’twon’t be many minutes afore we’re out on the plains agin, so we’ll ride along kind er midlin fast;” and, putting spurs to our horses, we soon emerged from the gloomy defile, out into the bright sunshine again.

Once clear of the shadows, I seemed to overcome the forebodings of danger, that had so oppressed me in the canon; and, in a few moments, the unpleasant sensations produced by the echo, entirely disappeared.

While thus riding along, the sound of a rifle-shot, a long distance away, fell upon our ears.

“That’s them boys, for sartin,” said Jerry.  “They’re in better luck than we be, for they’ve seen somethin’ to shoot at,—­an’ so do I,” continued he in a lower tone, pointing towards a little knoll a short distance away from the trail we were following.

I knew in an instant, from the tone of his voice, that he had made an unpleasant discovery, and was satisfied it was Indians.  Still I looked, and saw, upon the top of the knoll, in bold relief against the sky, two Indians sitting upon their ponies.