of Shotaye’s search.  We know of her intention to take refuge among the northern tribe of village Indians, but she had meanwhile determined upon something else.  She not only wanted to go but had determined upon returning!  Yes, she would return, though not alone.  With armed men from the Puye she intended to return in the stillness of the night.  She would hide her companions at the approaches to the Tyuonyi, and lie in wait for Tyope and the old Delight Maker, for the Chayani also if possible.  The Tehuas would reap many scalps; she would have had her revenge; and the deed could be so performed as to make those at the Rito believe that the Navajos were the perpetrators.  This was her plan, and she did not feel the slightest scruple or compunction.  For years she had been, among her own people, the butt of numberless insults and mortifications.  Now it had gone so far that her life even was in imminent peril.  Ere this should be lost, she would prove to her enemies that she was alive, and terribly alive!

To reconnoitre the ground, to study every detail of it, to store her memory with everything that might be useful or valuable in the lay of the land, was what she had come for now.  After she felt thoroughly rested she rose, and continued her walk.  Where she had been sitting, the trail was plain, for there it descended into the gorge.  So she only noticed the place and then went into the shrubbery to seek for plants.  She gathered a few leaves of the dark-green shiutui, sauntered from juniper-bush to juniper-bush, glanced from time to time upward into the tops of pines to see whether they bore edible nuts of the kind now called pinons, or threw stones at the noisy birds that fluttered about.

Again she came upon the trail, and her trained eye could follow it for some distance until it disappeared in the timber.  So far she felt sure of her impressions for the future and turned away to the right, penetrating deeper into the forest.  She could find her way even at night, for the moon shone still.  Besides, once acquainted with the spot whence she had to start, it mattered little whether there was any path or not.  The Indian needs only two points to guide himself,—­the place of departure and the spot where he wants to arrive.  Moreover, for her flight it was better not to follow the trail at all.  She felt sure of meeting some one of the Tehuas in the vicinity of the Puye.

The topographical details attracted the woman’s attention much more than the path.  She studied them carefully, pretending to hunt for plants.  Unconsciously she went farther and farther, regardless of time, for it was yet early.  The surface of the Ziro kauash is slightly undulated, as well as the mesa to the south of the Tyuonyi; the timber is relatively sparse; the pines are grouped together at intervals; and juniper and cedar bushes cover it uniformly like an extensive, irregular plantation.