The Pueblo of Taos, divided by the Taos River, proved to be most interesting, its great walls rising on the river-sides to the height of seven stories, two stories higher than the famous Zuria pueblo.
Julie and her friends took many splendid pictures of this ancient fastness of the Taos Indians: the seven kivas; the adobe wall with is loop-holes which surrounds the village of more than four hundred natives; the ever artistic groups of Indians; and other appealing pictures.
Young Adair and his friend Chase had planned to follow the trail from Taos to Las Vegas, but now they changed their itinerary. Mrs. Vernon understood why, but Betty said innocently: “Maybe they’re afraid to take such a long trail alone, Verny; you see, they are perfectly safe with a party like ours.”
“Well, Betty, I’m not so sure of that!”
“Oh, Verny! you know that not one of us would steal their horses,” exclaimed Betty, shocked at the Captain’s words.
“No, not their horses, Betty, but how about their hearts?
“Verny! What do you mean,” gasped the girl, turning to look at the convulsed faces of her scout chums. At the look on her face they lost all control and burst into laughter. But their very merriment assured Mrs. Vernon that they had no sentimental ideas concerning the young men.
On the ride back to Santa Fé the scout-party followed the Rio Grande River, stopping over night at San Juan and Santa Cruz, and from the latter place riding out to visit the great Puye Ruins. It is located upon the Pajarito plateau, and is said to have 1600 rooms. It is built in terraces similar to those at Taos. The caves and shrines are well preserved and many prehistoric implements have been excavated from the sands of centuries.
The scouts had a very pleasant visit, because the inhabitants were friendly and hospitable. Riding down-trail from Española they camped at San Ildefonso, where the Pojoaque River and the Rio Grande intersect. The remaining twenty-seven miles to Santa Fé they proposed to make the next day. As this ride to Taos, with all the side-trips the scouts had made, was a long though interesting one, the girls were most willing to give the horses a good rest once they arrived in Santa Fé.
“The animals may rest in peace, but we, with the sight-seeing germ, ‘go on forever,’” complained Joan, stretching her lithe young form.