CHAPTER IX.

HOW THE VALLEY OF PEACE WAS DISCOVERED.

On the evening of the day that had introduced Todd Chalmers to the modern cliff-dwellers of the Valley of Peace, he and they gathered about a cheerful fire burning on the open hearth of the castle, and the Professor gave him a history of their coming to that place as follows:

"It is now twelve years since I filled the chair of Biblical Literature and American Ethnology in Calvert College. About that time I was confronted by certain problems that could only be solved by a visit to the pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona, in which, as thee doubtless knows, the manner of life remains to-day practically unchanged from what it was at the time of their discovery by the Spaniards. Through the liberality of thy father were the means for making such a visit furnished.

"Apprehending no danger, I brought with me my wife and my only son Reuben, a well-grown lad of eighteen. We travelled from Albuquerque in a light wagon drawn by two stout mules, and provided with all necessaries for our comfort. Everything went well with us until after we left Zuñi for the Moqui towns of northeastern Arizona, 'the seven cities of Cibola,' as they were named by the Spaniards. Toward them we travelled in company with two Mexican traders who, though they had never visited the Moqui towns, thought they knew the way.

"The Mexicans proved unreliable guides, however, and by the time we crossed the Flax River had managed to lead us from the trail. Still, we believed ourselves to be moving in the right direction, and pushed on, though the country became more and more desolate with every mile.

"Toward evening of the day on which we crossed the river our wagon was halted by the breaking of a piece of harness, and the Mexicans, keeping on, were quickly lost to view behind a rise of ground. I soon had the harness mended, and Reuben, who was mounted on a saddle-horse, rode ahead to catch sight of our companions before they should gain too great a distance.

"I followed with all speed, but had not passed the rise when the lad came dashing madly back, shouting: 'Indians! Indians on the war-path!' In another minute he had told his story. A band of Apaches who had broken from their reservation had killed the Mexicans, and were busily engaged in examining their bales of goods. They were so surprised by Reuben's approach that they could only let fly a few arrows as he turned and fled. Being on foot, they pursued him but a short distance; but one of their arrows had struck him and passed through his body, inflicting a most dangerous wound.

"I got him into the wagon, and then, not knowing what better to do, turned it at right angles to the course we had been pursuing, with the idea of making a circuit around the Indians. After that I hoped to regain our original direction, for I knew that in reaching the Moqui towns lay our only hope of safety.

"For three days we wandered over the burning sands and amid the magic paintings of the desert, while our poor lad suffered agonies from his wound. By nightfall of the third day, our horse having already given out and been abandoned, the mules were too weak to travel another step, and I turned them loose to die. One staggered but a few yards before he fell, while the other wandered feebly out of sight.

"That night, amid the crashings of a thunder-storm, our poor boy was mercifully relieved of his sufferings by death, and our only comfort was that we should shortly follow him. But we were to be reserved for further work, and even as we sat with our dead, the cry of one who was to save us was borne to our ears. I stepped from the wagon to listen, and by a flash of lightning saw the figure of a little child standing beside a dark object that lay on the ground. This proved to be an Indian woman, alive and conscious, but too feeble to rise.

"Believing her to be starving, I carried her food, which both she and the child ate ravenously, and by daylight she was able to come to us. By signs I tried to learn from her if any of her people dwelt so near that we might hope to reach them; but she gave me to understand that she was lost, and knew not in what direction they might be found. The child, who was no other than this dear boy"--here the speaker laid his hand lovingly on Nanahe's shoulder--"was in so much better plight than his mother that she had evidently sacrificed her own strength to save his.

"Months afterward we learned that she had been the Moqui wife of a Navajo brave, who had died shortly before our meeting with her. She had hardly been left a widow when a party of Navajos decided to make a raid on the flocks of their Moqui neighbors, and demanded that she should guide them to the best locality for their purpose. This, in spite of all threats, she refused to do, whereupon they drove her with her child into the desert, which they regarded as the place of lost spirits, forbidding her ever to return, under penalty of torture to her child and death for herself. So she, like ourselves, had wandered hopelessly until she had discovered the dying mule that I had turned loose, and followed his trail to our vicinity. From the first I called her Hagar.

"All the previous day we had been slowly approaching a great white mesa toward which, without special reason, I had directed our course. Now we were close beside it, and I conceived the idea that at its base we might find some shaded crevice in which to lay our dead boy. At any rate, I could better bear to leave him there than out on the pitiless desert. So with mother's aid and that of Hagar, I finally succeeded in bearing him to the place I desired. We found a deep cool recess in the rocky wall, and there laying him down, rested for a while before undertaking to complete our sad task.

"We were in so pitiable a plight from weakness and our recent exertions that the woman Hagar seemed to have lapsed into unconsciousness, and allowed her child to wander unnoticed from her side. All at once there came from him a shrill cry, accompanied by a muffled crash from the inner end of the recess, to which he had penetrated. Hagar sprang to her feet and sped toward the sound, while I followed close after. We found the little one lying unharmed at the foot of a rocky slope, while just beyond, as though it had leaped over him, lay a bowlder apparently newly fallen from above.

"Glancing up in the direction from which it must have come, I was amazed to perceive a ray of light shining from beyond the barrier. Cautiously making my way up the slope, I discovered the light to shine through a small opening caused by the displacement of the bowlder already mentioned. Looking through this as through a window, I beheld a sight so marvellous that for a time I could not believe in its reality. I need not attempt to describe it to thee, Todd Chalmers, for thee is already familiar with the aspect of the Valley of Peace, and can judge of my feelings at coming thus unexpectedly upon it.

"Soon after we discovered a ruined hut of stone that told of former human occupancy of the valley, and, as it stood near a stream, we lighted our fire close beside it. Taking Hagar with me, and again visiting the wagon, we brought back a number of things most needful for immediate use. Among them was a fowling-piece, which was the only firearm that I possessed. With this I fired at and killed a rabbit that regarded us from a short distance without the least trace of fear. The effect of that shot was prodigious. It roared and echoed among the cliffs like a thousand thunders, and caused the appearance of such an amount of animal life as satisfied me that we were in no danger of starving so long as we should remain in the valley.

"After a supper of stewed rabbit, thin cakes of cornmeal that Hagar deftly baked on the heated surface of a flat stone, and tea, the Indian woman and I made one more trip to the wagon, from which we brought in all our bedding. Then, after collecting a sufficient supply of firewood to last until morning, we sought our rude couches, and prepared to pass our first night in the wonderful place to which we had been so strangely led.

"The next day we brought in all our effects from the wagon, cleaned out the old hut, rebuilt its walls, chimney, and fireplace, and stretching our wagon cover above it, found ourselves comfortably housed. In all this work Hagar proved herself invaluable, knowing much better than I how to handle clay and building stones, while even little Nanahe, working under his mother's direction, willingly performed such light tasks as came within the limit of his strength."