George studied the Indians again. "I think they're just as surprised as
we are. When they discovered themselves here and saw us--and you must
remember we're the first white men they've ever seen--their immediate
instinct was to attack. Now that we don't fight back they're waiting for
us to make a move."
"What do we do?"
"Take it easy," advised George. "Don't look scared and don't look
belligerent. Look friendly and hope some of the modern Indian dialects
we know can make connection with them."
* * * * *
The two scientists began, at a gradual pace, to make their way toward
the old man, the young man, and the girl. As they approached, the girl
drew back slightly. The young man reached over his shoulder and from the
furred quiver slung on his back drew an atlatl lance and fitted it to
his throwing stick, holding it ready. The other warriors, all about,
followed suit.
The medicine man alone stepped forward. He held up a short colored stick
to which bright feathers were attached and shook it at the two white
men. They stopped.
"That's his aspergill," observed Sidney. "I'd like to have that one."
The medicine man spoke. At first the scientists were puzzled, then
George told Sidney, "That's Pima, or pretty close to it, just pronounced
differently. It probably shows we were right in thinking the Pimas
descended from these people. He wants to know who we are."
George gave their names. The medicine man replied, "The man who has
white skin instead of red speaks our language in a strange way. I am
Huk." He turned to the young man at his side and said, "This is Good
Fox, our young chief." He indicated the girl. "That is Moon Water, his
wife."
George explained what he and the other white man with him were doing
here. Huk, along with all the other Indians, including Good Fox and Moon
Water, listened intently; they seemed greatly excited and disturbed.
When George was finished Good Fox turned to Huk and said, "You have
succeeded, wise one, in bringing us forward, far in the future to the
time of these men with white skins."
"This is the truth," said the wrinkled Huk; he did not boast but rather
seemed awed.
Moon Water spoke in a frightened tone. She looked about at the partially
excavated ruins and asked, "But what has happened to our village?" She
faltered, "Is this the way it will look in the future?"
"It is the way," Good Fox informed her sorrowfully.
"I weep for our people," she said. "I do not want to see it." She hung
her pretty face over her bare body, then, in a moment, raised it
resolutely.
Good Fox shook the long scraggly black hair away from his eyes and told
the white men, "We did not mean to harm you. We did not know what else
to do upon finding you here and our village buried."
Ignoring that in his excited interest, Sidney asked, "What year are
you?"
"Year?" asked Good Fox. "What is this word?"
Both Sidney and George tried to get over to him what year meant in
regard to a date in history, but Good Fox, Huk, and Moon Water, and none
of the others could understand.
"We do not know what you mean," Huk said. "We know only that we live
here in this village--not as you see it now--but one well built and
alive with our people. As the medicine man I am known to have extra
power and magic in visions. Often I have wondered what life would be
like in the far future. With this group I conjured up a vision of it,
carrying them and myself to what is now here before us."
George and Sidney glanced at each other. George's lips twitched and
those of Sidney trembled. George said softly to the Indians, "Let us be
friends." He explained to them what they were doing here. "We are trying
to find out what you were--are--like. Especially what made you desert
people leave your villages."
They looked blank. Huk said, "But we have not left--except in this
vision."
In an aside to George, Sidney said, "That means we've caught them before
they went south or wherever they went." He turned back to Huk. "Have
the cliff people yet deserted their dwellings?"
Huk nodded solemnly. "They have gone. Some of them have joined us here,
and more have gone to other villages."
"We have read that into the remains of your people, especially at Casa
Grande," Sidney told him. With rising excitement in his voice he asked,
"Can you tell us why they left?"