When evening came the little party was still far from its destination. As twilight stole over the prairie Buffalo Bill called a halt for supper, and the Indians set to work to build a fire.  
When they had done this one of them took his earthen pot, which he always carried at the bow of his saddle and went to a stream near by for water.
 
He was back in a few moments, and ran up to Buffalo Bill and said:
 
“Come! Bring gun, grizzly coming up!”
 
The border king was on his feet in an instant, and he followed the Indian to a little thicket of trees down by the side of the stream.
 
Peering through the fast-growing darkness, he made out a great gray form advancing toward him. When within about twenty yards, it scented danger and stopped with an angry howl.
 
Buffalo Bill leveled his rifle and fired, but the bear, although mortally wounded, charged forward. When it was within a few paces of the scout, it exposed its flank in turning toward the Indian; and thus gave the border king an opportunity to finish it with a bullet through the heart.
 
“Good! That’s the first grizzly I ever killed with only a couple of bullets,” said Buffalo Bill to himself, as the other men ran up, alarmed by the sound of the shots.
 
The Indians lost no time in skinning the animal. A portion of the flesh was carried to the fire, cut up into strips, and at once cooked. As soon as the meal was finished, the rest of the meat was cut up and divided among the party, who then mounted and rode on, the two Indians again leading the way.
 
Next day they reached the mountain where the Cave Dwellers lived, and found that the Navahos, to the number of over two hundred, had pitched their camp in front of it. But they had been able to do nothing toward the rescue of their chief, for the face of the mountain was a perpendicular cliff, at the foot of which a stream flowed.
 
Buffalo Bill crossed the stream and rode forward to reconnoiter the position, accompanied by several of the Indians. They had not gone more than a hundred yards along the foot of the cliff when a great stone came bounding down from above, striking the ground a few yards in front of Buffalo Bill’s horse and breaking into fragments.
 
At the same moment a shrill yell was heard from the cliff above, and, looking up, they saw a number of the Cave Dwellers on a ledge two hundred feet above them, with their bows bent threateningly.
 
“Back, all of you!” shouted Buffalo Bill. “Their arrows may be poisoned.”
 
Seeing that the party retreated quickly, the savages did not shoot.
 
When they had got out of range, Buffalo Bill called a council of war, but found that nobody had any useful suggestions to offer. Then he mounted his horse and rode along the bank of the river farthest from the Cave Dwellers to get a good view of the cliff. He saw that there were three or four openings in the solid rock on the level of the ledge on which the Indians were posted.
 
He was astonished to notice that above these openings the cliff, which was in this place quite perpendicular, was covered with many strange sculptured figures, some of which still retained the color with which they had been painted in times long past.
 
Evidently the Cave Dwellers had not always been the degraded savages they were at present, or, more probably, a higher race had formerly occupied the caves and made these sculptures.
 
“Now, Eagle Eye,” said the border king, as the Navaho brave came up to his side and watched the cliff with him, “we have to see how this place can be climbed.”
 
The Navaho shook his head sorrowfully.
 
“I’m afraid it is impossible, Long Hair,” he replied in his own tongue. “You see that there is a zigzag path cut in the face of the cliff up to that ledge. In some places, as you can see, the rock is cut away altogether and the path is broken. They must have ladders to cross these breaks, and no doubt they would draw them up at once if they were attacked. You see that the lower ones have already been pulled up.
 
“Likely enough, sentries are posted at each of those breaks whenever they are threatened with an attack. Besides, we must remember that our first aim is not to attack, but to rescue Red Cloud. If they thought there was any risk of our getting up, they would almost certainly kill him without waiting for the feast of Toshak.”
 
“I understand all that, Eagle Eye,” replied Buffalo Bill, “and I have no idea that we could make our way up by that zigzag path. The question is, could the cliff be climbed elsewhere? The other end of the ledge would be the best point to get up at, for any watch that they might be keeping would certainly be where the steps of this path come down to the ground.”
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