We had been advised that we would find a natural tank of rain water in the vicinity of this place and camped there at nightfall.  We turned our stock out, but our herders did not find the promised water.  Our cook reported that there was not a drop of water in camp, as the spigot of his water tank had been loosened by the roughness of the road and all the water was lost.  Now this would have been a matter of small consequence if Don Juan had not been taken ill suddenly.  He threw himself on the ground and cried for water.  “Agua, por Dios!” (Water, for God’s sake) he cried, “or I shall die.”  “Why, Don Juan,” I said, “there is no water here.  I advise you to wait till moonrise when the cattle are rested and then leave for the next watering place, which is Beaver Head, at the foot of the mesa; we ought to reach there about ten o’clock to-morrow morning.  Surely until then you can endure a little thirst!” “Amiga, I cannot, I am dying,” moaned Don Juan, in great distress.  As I suspected that he had lost his nerve on the Navajo reservation, I felt greatly annoyed, and when he became frantic in his cries I promised to go down to Beaver Creek to get him a drink of water, for I recalled to mind his little daughter who bid me farewell with these words:  “Adios, Senor Americano, I charge you with the care of my padrecito.  If you promise me, I know that he will return to me safely.”

I set out on my long night-walk, stumbling over rocks and boulders in the darkness.  It was a beautiful night, the crisp atmosphere was laden with the fragrant exhalation of the nut pines and junipers and there was not a breath of air stirring.  I got down to water at midnight, the time of moonrise, filled my canteen and started on the return trip.  Slowly I reascended the steep mesa, and when I reached the summit I sat down on a rock in a thicket of junipers.  The moon had now risen above the trees and cast its dim light over an enchanting scene.  The sense of utter loneliness, a homesickness, a feeling of premonition, stole over me, and weirdly I sensed the presence of I knew not what.  From the shadows spoke an owl, sadly, anxiously, “Hoo, hoo!  Where are you?  You!” and his mate answered him tenderly, seductively, “Tee, hee!  Come to me!  Me!”

In the west, far, far away, clustered a range of mountains, spread out like an enormous horse-shoe and in its center arose the form of a solitary hill.  In the heavens from the east drifted a white, ragged cloud.  The solitary hill seemed to rise high and higher and all the mountains bowed before it.  The spectral cloud resolved itself into a terrible vision which enveloped the central hill.  Great Heavens!  Again I saw the phantom dog and fancied that I heard shrill screams of “Perro, perro, gringo perro!” A crackling noise, a coming shadow, and forward I fell on my face, ever on the alert, ever ready.  An unearthly yell and a great body flew over, fierce claws grazing me.  Two balls of fire shone in the bush, but my rifle cracked and a great lion fell in its tracks.  I expected my companions to meet me soon, coming my way.  Instead, I found them, after my all-night’s walk, snugly camped where I had left them.  Don Juan explained that with God’s favor they had found the water soon after I had left them.  He said that they had called loud and long after me, but I did not seem to hear.