This declivity was rough, and in places every one was compelled to dismount.  Progress was extremely slow, and when the rising sun tipped the peaks of the Continental Range, before them lay the beautiful landscape where the Rio Grande in a hundred mountain streams has her fountain-head.  With only a few hours’ rest for men and animals during the day, night fell upon them before they had reached the mesa at the foot-hills on the western slope.  An hour before nightfall they came upon the first camp or halt of the robbers.  They had evidently spent but a short time here, there being no indication that they had slept.  Criminals are inured to all kinds of hardship.  They have been known to go for days without sleep, while smugglers, well mounted, have put a hundred miles of country behind them in a single night.

The marshal and party pushed forward during the night, the country being more favorable.  When morning came they had covered many a mile, and it was believed they had made time, as the trail seemed fresher.  There were several ranches along the main stream in the valley, which the robbers had avoided with well-studied caution, showing that they had passed through in the daytime.  There are several lines of railroad running through this valley section.  These they crossed at points between stations, where observation would be almost impossible either by day or night.  Inquiries at ranches failed on account of the lack of all accurate means of description.  The posse was maintaining a due southwest course that was carrying them into the fastnesses of the main range of the western continent.  Another full day of almost constant advance, and the trail had entered the undulating hills forming the approach of this second range of mountains.  Physical exertion was beginning to tell on the animals, and they were compelled to make frequent halts in the ascent of this range.

The fatigue was showing in the two younger dogs.  Their feet had been cut in several places in crossing the first range of mountains.  During the past nights in the valley, though their master was keeping a sharp lookout, they encountered several places where sand-burrs were plentiful.  These burrs in the tender inner part of a dog’s foot, if not removed at once, soon lame it.  Many times had the poor creatures lain down, licking their paws in anguish.  On examination during the previous night, their feet were found to be webbed with this burr.  Now, on climbing this second mountain, they began to show the lameness which their master so much feared, until it was almost impossible to make them take any interest in the trail.  The old dog, however, seemed nothing the worse for his work.

On reaching the first small park near the summit of this range, the pursuers were so exhausted that they lay down and took their first sleep, having been over three days and a half on the trail.  The marshal himself slept several hours, but he was the last to go to sleep and the first to awake.  Before going to sleep, and on arising, he was particular to bathe the dogs’ feet.  The nearest approach to a liniment that he possessed was a lubricating tube for guns, which he fortunately had with him.  This afforded relief.