I continued to listen, and after a long time noticed a sound like the
rushing of wind in a pine forest. It was the myriad feet of the
coming flocks and herds, hurrying along the grassy valley. The men
began to assemble about me, all preserving perfect silence, listening
for the approaching Indians.

Another half-hour passed, and over a roll in the surface of the
valley, revealed against the sky, looking many times their actual size
in the uncertain perspective, appeared two tall figures, whose nearer
approach showed to be mounted Indians piloting the captured stock,
which followed close behind.

"Corporal Henry," I said, "drop carefully down into the trail and
skirt closely along the wall until you come to Sergeant Cunningham's
position, and tell him the Indians are close by. Tell him also to
allow the two Indians in advance to pass unmolested."

I sent this order by the younger boy because I suspected he was
feeling that Corporal Frank's expedition to Jemez, with the adventures
of the return trip, had given him a certain prominence to be envied. I
meant Henry should divide honors with his brother hereafter.

The little corporal silently disappeared beneath the wall, and a few
minutes afterwards the two Indians entered the defile, and the goats
and sheep, which had been spread widely over the open valley,
scampered, crowded, and overleaped one another as they closed into the
narrow way. There seemed to be fully two thousand of them,
intermingled with a motley herd of horses, mules, asses, and kine of
all sizes and descriptions, numbering three hundred or more, all
driven by a party of seventy-three Indians.