In this there was no trace or sign of travel--no appearance of its having been entered by man or animal.
Yet the horse ridden by Roblez, and the pack-mules coming after, entered with as free a step as if going into a well-known enclosure.

True, the chief of the party, mounted on the Kentucky steed, had gone in before them; though this scarce accounted for their confidence.
Up this unknown gorge they rode until they had reached its end.

There was no outlet, for it was a _cul-de-sac_--a natural court--such as are often found among the amygdaloidal mountains of Mexico.
At its extremity, where it narrowed to a width of about fifty feet, lay a huge boulder of granite that appeared to block up the path; though there was a clear space between it and the cliff rising vertically behind it.
The obstruction was only apparent, and did not cause the leading savage of the party to make even a temporary stop.

At one side there was an opening large enough to admit the passage of a horse; and into this he rode, Roblez following, and also the mules in a string, one after the other.
Behind the boulder was an open space of a few square yards, of extent sufficient to allow room for turning a horse.

The savage chief wheeled his steed, and headed him direct for the cliff; not with the design of dashing his brains against the rock, but to force him into a cavern, whose entrance showed its disc in the facade of the precipice, dark and dismal as the door of an Inquisitorial prison.
The horse snorted, and shied back; but the ponderous Mexican spur, with its long sharp rowel-points, soon drove him in; whither he was followed by the mustang of Roblez and the mules--the latter going in as unconcernedly as if entering a stable whose stalls were familiar to them..