That night, the second in Navajo Land, the scout party was entertained by native dances and songs by the Indians in Ganado, and then they retired to the hospitable Mission House owned by the “King.”
Early the next morning the tourists set out, carrying a pair of water-kegs slung across the back of one of the pack-horses. The air was as “heady” as champagne, though the scouts were not acquainted with the effect of that wine, taking Mr. Gilroy’s word for it that it was a stimulant that immediately induced the drinker to feel full of life and free of care, but later would leave traces of wormwood in his soul. Not so this atmosphere of the mesa.
“No wormwood as an aftermath here,” said Mr. Vernon.
As the trail dropped down from Ganado, the scouts rode past hogans where the sheep were corraled in the most primitive manner. Navajo children were seen driving their flocks of sheep to the water and back again.
After riding for a time, Lo pointed out to his party a rim of distant peaks which looked a lilac and green with snow at the tips—“Them San Francisco Mountains,” said he.
The scouts traveled over the miles and miles of gray sea of sage-brush, the delicate perfume of the sage-blossoms greeting their nostrils in a haunting scent. After riding for hours across the mesa, the wonders ever increasing, the tourists came to a forest of cedars. Still going on through these woods that appeared to stretch out and onward forever, the trail continued to descend without the riders realizing the fact. Finally Lo reined in his horse at a spring which was guarded by a wall of stone; upon the face of the stone were stern rules and laws cut in by “first tourists” regarding the value of water in the desert.
“This water-pool ha’f-way to Keam’s,” said Lo, as Tally and he started the dinner.
“Where will you camp to-night, Lo?” asked Mrs. Vernon.
“Mek camp here, Captain; plenty water, good shelter for hoss; early mornin’ we go on trail to Keam’s Cañon. Not to-day. Hard ride all day, better good rest for scout and beast.”
After dinner the scouts started to explore this wonderful spot, but that night the scouts found to their surprise that they were muscle sore.