That was precisely what he did, after the sun sank behind the western mountains, and the deep shadows crept up from the ravines and covered everything.
After the moon rose it was easier work, and Steve thought he had never seen anything more beautiful than was the moonlight on the quartz cliffs, and the forest, and the little lakes in the deep valleys, and on the foaming streams which came tumbling down the mountain-sides from the regions of perpetual snow above.
Perhaps he was right, for hardly anybody has ever seen anything more beautiful in its way than such a moonlight view as that.
There was no time to stop and gaze, for Murray pushed on as fast as possible without using up their tough and wiry mustangs.
"We may need all the legs they've got to-morrow, Steve. We must find grass and water for them before daybreak."
It was a good three hours before sunrise, and the moon had again left them in darkness, when they almost groped their way down a steep declivity into a small hollow.
"Can't say how much there is of it, Steve, but this'll do. The Apache ponies have been cropping this very grass within twenty-four hours. Look at that."
"Feel of it, then. Don't you understand such a sign as that?"
"Yes, but I found it ready pulled off, and it hasn't had time to more than wilt a little. The man that pulled it was here yesterday."
Murray did not know it, but no man had pulled that grass. It was a bunch Ni-ha-be had gathered for her pony, and then had thrown at Rita. Still, the guess about the time of it was nearly right, and that was a good enough place to rest in until daylight.
"No cooking this morning, I suppose?" remarked Steve, when Murray shook him out of the nice nap he had snatched, wrapped in his "serape," or Mexican blanket. "No breakfast, eh?"
"You don't know what tales a smoke might tell, or to whom it might tell 'em. Cold meat'll have to do for this time, and glad to get it. After that, Steve, you'll do the most dangerous riding ever you did."
"Can't be many miles. Our first hunt, though, will be for a place to hide our horses in."
"I thought of that, but we may need 'em."
Their morning ride was a longer one than Murray imagined, but before noon he was able to say,
"The backbone of the pass is miles behind us, Steve. All the rest of the way'll be down hill, or kind of up and down."