CHAPTER XV

THE GIVING OF THE SUN SYMBOL

Two nights had passed over the world, and the day star was shining

over the mountains of the east when the people of Povi-whah saw again

Tahn-té the Po-Ahtun-ho.

It was the sentinel on the terrace who saw him, and he was at the

ancient shrine at the mesa edge, and a flame was there to show that

prayers were being made to greet the god of the new day.

And when he came down from the mesa, and looked at the corn of the

fields torn and beaten low by the great storm, his face showed that he

carried a sad heart, and that he had gone from Te-gat-ha somewhere

into the hills for prayer.

And to his house went the old men, and they listened to that which had

been decided by the council of Te-gat-ha. A man had already arrived

from Te-gat-ha to tell them that same thing, and to tell them that an

evil spirit of the forest who spoke as a Navahu maid, had brought woe

on the valley.

Some said it was the Ancient Star calling on the voice of the wind for

sacrifice, and others said the tornado had come because the maid had

been let go with the sacred symbols of ceremony painted on her body,

and the gods of that ceremony called for her on the wind. But

whichever way was the true way, the maid was linked to spirits of

evil, and the corn of that year would be less than half of a full

year, and the Te-gat-ha men asked that any Te-hua man who found the

evil maid would send a runner to tell of it. Robes and blue beads

would be given for her:--she belonged to the god of the star, or the

god of the mad winds, and on the altar with prayers must she be given

to them, that they be not angry.

Tahn-té listened--and when they said the anger of the sky had come

from the west, as the maid had come, he was silent.

His first day of failure in council had been the day when he shielded

the Dream Maid on the trail.--The woman who had wept in Te-gat-ha had

said she was evil and a witch, and now the men pointed to the killed

corn as the work of her magic!

No word of his could undo these things or wipe them from the Indian

mind. In his own mind he knew that a weakness had come upon him. To

live alone for the gods had been an easy thing to think of in the

other days, but now it was not easy, and his heart trembled like a

snared bird at each plan made by the men for the undoing of the

witchmaid if she should be found.

The runner from Te-gat-ha looked strangely at Tahn-té as he walked

across the court, and to Ka-yemo, he said:

"You men of Povi-whah are good runners always, and your Ruler of the

Spirit Things has left you all behind always in the race. Yet this

time, to come from Te-gat-ha, he stays two sleeps, and follows a trail

no man sees!"

"In the hills he has been for prayers--so the old men say," replied

Ka-zemo. But Yahn, whose ears were ever open, gave stew of rabbit to

the Te-gat-ha runner and asked many things, and learned that the storm

had washed away all tracks of feet, but that the witch maid had

certainly run to the south--every other way was under the eyes of the

sentinel on the wall. By a little stream to the south had her tracks

been seen but not in any other place.

"Tahn-té crossed over the trail," said Yahn and laughed. "The priest

of the men of iron say that Tahn-té is a sorcerer,--who knows that he

did not bury owl-feathers or raven-feathers on the way to hide her

trail? If the witch maid was a maid of beauty, is he not already a

man?"

The man laughed with her, but he had heard of the dance of Tahn-té to

the ancient stone god of the hills! The man who danced there was not

the man for the cat scratches of Yahn the Apache, and though he

laughed with her because she was pretty and a woman, he was not blind

to her malice, and the meaning of her words went by him on the wind.

But the thought once planted in the mind of Yahn did not die. The face

of Tahn-té held a trouble new and strange. He walked apart, and the

old men said he made many prayers that the Great Mystery send a sign

for the going of the white strangers.

In her heart Yahn thought as Tahn-té thought. The eyes of the man of

the priest gown went like arrows through her at times--he looked like

a man who knew all things. To Ka-yemo he talked until she was wild

with desire to know the things said between them. It angered her that

Ka-yemo was flattered by such attention. Padre Vicente she hated for

his keen eyes and his plain speech of her. Don Ruy and the boyish

secretary had too many moments of laughter when her name was spoken of

to Juan Gonzalvo--as it often was! Their gifts she took with both

hands, and did the talking for them as agreed, but she sulked at times

even under their compliments, and Don Diego instructed Säh-pah to

strive that the unruly beauty be brought within the Christian fold.

The success was not great, for Säh-pah was brave in a new gift of

silver spurs--worn on rawhide about her neck, for it was the time of

the Summer dance when the women choose companions, and love is very

free. If the man prefers not to share the love of the dame who makes

choice of him--he makes her a gift--or she chooses one.

The pious Don Diego had the secretary give many lines in the

"Relaciones" of this strange custom where the fair fond ones offered

marriage--or accepted a gift as memento. He even strutted a bit that

the poor heatheness offered to him what best she could afford in

exchange for the divine grace of a good sprinkling of holy water. But

Yahn said things of the baptism not good for ears polite, or for the

"Relaciones," and Säh-pah scuttled back in fear to her new master, and

told him,--and told Juan Gonzalvo, that the veins of Yahn Tsyn-deh

must be cut open to let out the Apache blood, before they could hope

she might be one of the heaven birds in their angel flock!

But Säh-pah did not tell them that the thing of torment awaking Yahn

to wrath had been the knowledge that Ka-yemo was somewhere across the

mesa, and the old people laughed that he could not stay longer from

the new wife, but had gone to seek her in the place of the old ruins.

After that, divine grace had not shielded Säh-pah from vituperation,

and when Juan Gonzalvo came wooing, Yahn told him that across the

hills was a woman waiting for a man, and dressed in fine skins and

many beads:--when he or his men had won Koh-pé the daughter of

Tsa-fah, to come back and tell her. She did not mean to be won easier

than the other, and without a price!

Which was also a novel statement for the truthful record of the

adventurers, and the secretary, on a terrace above, heard it, and

rolled on the flat roof in laughter, and wrote it down most

conscientiously. By such light matters was the dreariness of waiting

days lessened.

For plainly the days were to be of waiting. All the good will of

gift-bought friends helped the strangers not at all to the finding of

the trail of gold. In the sands of the streams some fragments no

larger than seeds of the grass were found, and in the cañon of

Po-et-se some of the adventurers dug weary hours in the strange soil

where the traces are yet plain of black ashes, and charred cinders far

beneath the sagebrush growth of to-day.

But while the Te-hua men gave good will for their digging, yet more

than that they could not give, for the reason that no more than two

persons could hold in trust that secret of the Sun Father's

symbol--and only certain members of the Po-Ahtun order knew even the

names of those two people.

After much patient delving had Ka-yemo learned that this was so, for

the thing was not a tribal matter, but a thing of high medicine in the

Po-Ahtun order. Not even the governor knew who held the secret. When

the time came for certain religious ceremonies, some of the yellow

stone was placed on the shrine of the weeping god with other prayers,

but it was a sacred thing, as was the pollen of the corn, and no man

asked from whence it came. To be told meant that the person told was

made guardian until the death blankets wrapped him. It was a great

honor. No man could ask for it. A brother might not know that his

brother was the keeper of the trust. Only the head men of the secret

order of Spirit Things could know.

In vain Juan Gonzalvo swore, and Padre Vicente used diplomacy and made

wondrous fine impression as the ambassador for the king of all Spain

and the Indian Island!

Don Ruy took the secretary and Yahn Tsyn-deh, and went to the governor

of Kah-po where his reception was kindly, but the information given

him was slight.

That dignitary told him that his men of Mexico might dig great caves

if they chose in search for the yellow metal of the sun symbol, but

that to Povi-whah had been given the secret of the gold at the time

when Señor Coronado had burned the two hundred men at the stake in

Tiguex. All the old men knew that gold was the one thing the men of

iron searched for. Before that time all villages had men who knew

where it was hidden by the Sun Father. But a council of head men had

been called. It had been a great council and long. At the end of it,

one village was chosen, one order of that village, and two members of

that order, and in the ears of those two alone was whispered the

hiding place. No man could know who the two keepers of the secret

might be, for it had to do with sacred things and with strong magic,

and in that way did the villages decide to guard the secret of the

High Sun.

"No chance here for whispers of courtiers and king's counselors to get

abroad in the land," decided Don Ruy as they mounted their horses for

the home ride and Yahn lingered to gossip with neighbors. "In the

south the conquerors could fight for gold and win it--but in this land

of silence with whom is one to fight?"

"Need you the gold so much that you must come between these poor

people and their god in the sky?" asked the secretary doubtfully, for

the attitude of the two had been of extreme politeness and not so much

of comradeship since that morning of confession when the lad had owned

himself a deficient page in the bearing of love messages,--"Is the

finding of the gold a matter of life or of death?"

"It pays for most good things," stated Don Ruy. "How know you that I

do not beggar myself on this expedition? And to go back with empty

hands would win little of favor for me from even the well-guarded Doña

of the Mexic tryst."

"You forget, Excellency," said the lad and smiled, "she is called mad

you know--and to a mad maid you might return in a cloak of woven

grasses, or of shredded bark, and lack nothing of welcome."

"Humph! Only to a mad maid dare I return coatless, and find an open

gate? And suppose it be another than the gentle maniac whom I seek?--a

cloak of grasses would be a sorry equipment to cover my failure."

"There is one right good blanket at your disposal," said the lad

looking straight out across the river, yet feeling the color mount to

his hair as Don Ruy regarded him keenly and then clapped him on the

shoulder.

"I'll claim half of the blanket when the day comes!" he declared--"and

in truth I'd not be so sorry to see the maid of your discourse whether

mad or of sanity. That ever restless Cacique who strives to bar us

out, shows me that more than one Indian may have gone mad in the same

struggle. Think you he must know the keepers of the secret of gold?"

"It would not be strange, since he is the head of the magicians and

the worker of spirit things."

"God send that Juan Gonzalvo gets not that idea strongly in his

mind--it would be the cap sheaf to the stack of his grievances."

"And it would be the one to weigh most heavily with his reverence the

padre"--added Chico. "His soul is set on treasure for the Holy

Brotherhood--and to win in secret where Coronado and the church failed

with all the blare of trumpets, means that no man in the Indies would

have a name written above that of the patient and devout Padre

Vicente."

"You say things, lad, with a serious face;--but with a mocking voice,"

commented Don Ruy. "Tell me truly if the life of a page in the palace

of the Viceroy teaches you so much of politics and holy orders that

you combine the two and grow skeptic to each?"

"A page sees more than he understands--" returned the lad, "it was the

teaching of your mad Doña of the silken scarf who saw things as the

priests told her they were not to be seen,--she it was who taught me

to laugh instead of doing penance."

"And she it was also no doubt who taught you of magic Mexic things in

keeping with the fairy Melissa of Charlemagne's day, and Merlin the

magian of Britain?"

"Heigh-ho! It is precious magic those old romancers did tell of!"

agreed the lad. "Think how fine it would be if we had those enchanted

steeds and lances,--and the fair daughter of the Khan of Kathay for

company through the wilderness!"

"She was too fickle, and too much the weeping fair," decided Don Ruy.

"Bradamante the warrior maid is more to the fancy--she would fight

for the lover she loved--or against him as the case might be, yet give

love to him all the time! She was the very pole-star of those old

romances--but they make no such maids except in books!"

"Not so much pity for that," commented the secretary. "Since she was

too easily won for the hearth stone of a plain man. It is clearly set

down that she spoke with her pagan lover but once, and fell

straightway so deep in love that she would fight either Christian or

Moor to find the way to him. A maid like that looks well afar off, but

it would take a valiant man to house with her!"

"How know you aught of how many times eyes must meet--or words be said

ere love comes?" demanded Don Ruy--"Bantam that you are!--Must a man

and a maid see summer and winter together ere the priest has work to

do?"

"Alas--and saints guard us!--we need not to live long to see denial of

that!" said the secretary and shrugged and smiled. "But since a maid

close to my own house throws lilies to strange cavaliers, it is not

for me to make discourse of ladies light-of-love!"

"Light-of-love!--Jack-a-napes! You know not so much after all if you

get that thought cross wise in your skull! My 'Doña Bradamante' (for

as yet neither you or the padre have given a name to her!) the 'Doña

Bradamante' spoke no word the most rigid duenna could have frowned

down! If you are her foster brother you might have gathered that much

of wisdom to yourself!"

"But--your Excellency--she has never scattered wisdom broadcast on any

one of us! An elfish maid who needed guard of both duenna and

confessor:--how was a mere friend to know that a love of a mad moment

would have made her a wonder of wisdom and discretion?"

Whereupon Don Ruy suggested that he go to the devil and learn sense,

and added that if the famous magic steed, or ring of invisibility were

to be found in the desert regions of these Indian provinces, he would

use them for a peep into the palace of the Viceroy, or the nunnery of

the Doña of the Lily. No ambassador would he trust. For himself he

would see how much or how little of madness was back of the message of

the blossom, or the guerdon of the silken scarf.

"If I were indeed a worthy page I would make a song of your

enchanted--or demented Doña, and pipe it to you to the tombé of the

medicine workers on the roofs," declared the lad in high glee that Don

Ruy again spoke with frankness to him.

But his excellency put aside the offer, content to make his own songs

when there was a maid to listen.

"Dame Yahn Tsyn-deh might listen--and even make herself beautiful for

you."

"The Dame Yahn is like enough to make trouble without the singing of

songs! Whether it is the Indian war capitan, or our own, I know not as

to the favorite. But some game she is playing, and I doubt if it is

for Juan Gonzalvo, despite his gifts."

Padre Vicente and José were walking apart under a group of the white

limbed cottonwoods, as the two riders drew near the village. Their

discourse was earnest, and the voice of the padre was heard in

decision.

"That is how it must be, José--" he said. "You have found the

way,--the gold is as good as ours!"

"By the faith!"--said Don Ruy swinging from the saddle to join them;

"if this be true let us fill wallets and break camp for Mexico!--there

is a gentle maniac over there with whom I would fain hold hands once

more--this womanless paradise pleases me little!"

The padre regarded him with tolerance, and never a blink of the eye to

denote remembrance of any gentle maniac in particular. Since the dame

had served a worthy purpose, forgotten was all the episode!

"It is well you know the good tidings of José," he said--"though there

is no hint that the gold is piled in bars waiting for the lading.

Speak, José."

"It is a man of Ni-am-be," said José. "He has been outcast for a

reason. He lives alone, and the fear of the alone is growing in him,

for he is old! He was one of the men who made medicine to forget where

the sign of the Sun Father hides in the earth. But the medicine was

not good medicine."

"He does not forget?"

"He made a vow to the sky to forget, but the sky did not listen and

take the vow. He does not forget."

"And he will show the place?"

"It may be he will show the place. He asks me if it is a good life to

live with your people, also if you would take him away when you go."

"Oh--ho!--he fears what would happen if he was left behind after

telling--he fears they would kill him?"

"Not so much of the to kill is he afraid. He was a medicine man. He

knows what the other medicine men could do. He would wish for the to

die many times and they would not let death come near to his cave in

the rock."

"By their magic?" asked Don Ruy.

"By their magic, Excellency. Of all the head men is he afraid, but of

Tahn-té the Po-Ahtun-ho who has the sight of the dark is he much

afraid."

"The sight of the dark?"

"It is so, some men are born into the world with it. They know the

thought of the other man,--they see the hidden things. Tahn-té has the

strong medicine and the eyes to see. He is much afraid of Tahn-té the

Ruler."

"You see the power of these necromancers with their satanic arts?"

said Padre Vicente. "We must make it plain to these people that such

fear is to be driven out only by the true church and the power of its

saints."

"If we wait for the gold until we teach them all that, the profit of

this journey will be to our heirs and not to ourselves," decided Don

Ruy. "Pay the renegade for the secret he should have forgotten, take

him along with us, and convert him at your leisure. In all good time,

and with a larger guard of men, you can come for the further

conversion of the tribe."

"There is wisdom in what you say," replied the padre, "for converts

here will mean a waiting game. But once let us take to Mexico the

golden proof of the wealth in this province and there will be eager

troops and churchmen in plenty to cross the deserts and defend the

faith. But for that devil-possessed Po-Ahtun-ho the road to success

would be shorter."

"It is not good luck to say things against the man of strong magic,"

stated José. "Ka-yemo, the war capitan would like if Tahn-té had

never come from the land of the Hópitû--but Ka-yemo says no evil words

of Tahn-té--he knows that Tahn-té has ears to hear far off, and eyes

to see in the dark."

"Do you forget you are a Christian soul?" demanded the padre. "The

holy saints can kill the evil powers even in the sons of Satan! Let me

hear no more of the 'eyes of the dark;'--pagan trickery!"

José said no more, but it was easy to see that the veneer of foreign

ritual had made little impression on the Indian mind. He feared all

the devils of the Christian hell, and most of the gods of the pagan

pantheon. A policy of propitiation towards all the unseen powers is

the wise and instinctive attitude of the primitive mind. He slipped

his prayer beads through his fingers as taught for prayer, but to be

quite certain that evil be bribed to keep its distance, he stealthily

scattered prayer meal as he walked behind the others, and Yahn who was

coming behind them, saw him, and laughed. She was glad of heart to see

that the Te-hua, after years of the white man's religion, was still at

heart, a devotee of the Sun.

"He says that Tahn-té the Ruler has not the strong magic," he said

lowly to Yahn--"but no one else says so in this land."

Yahn did not care to discuss the power of Tahn-té--it was a bitter

thing in her days.

And as the little group went on through the fragrant sage and the

yellow bloom, Tahn-té himself stood almost on their trail, but a

little to one side where a knoll was.

Still as a thing of stone he stood there. His hand shaded his eyes

while he gazed across the sage levels--across the water of the river

and to the yellow and red sands beyond.

Even at their footsteps near, and their voices, he made no sign and

wavered not in his gaze. Don Ruy glancing at him saw that his

expression was keen, yet incredulous. So strange was it that Don Ruy

instinctively turned in his saddle to see the thing at which Tahn-té

looked and frowned.

At first he could see only the wavering lines of heat across the

level--and then he saw the thing, and with a word halted the others

and pointed.

Out of the red and yellow sand and soft green patches of the desert

growth a group of men were outlined against the low hills. Indians

with lances and with shields.

"That is a curious thing," said Don Ruy. "They walk this way yet their

steps bring them not closer! Is it a war party?"

Yahn gave one look, drew her breath sharply, and turned speechless to

Tahn-té. José after a long look crossed himself many times and gripped

the sleeve of the padre.

"Navahu!"--he muttered, the terror of his ancient first captors coming

over him. "Navahu to battle!"

But Tahn-té made a little gesture to reassure the startled interpreter.

"You do not see men alive there," he said,--"these are not men, but

the shadows of men who will come."

"Shadows?"--the tones of the padre were contemptuous.

"Spirit people of the shadows--these things do come to some eyes, some

days, in our land," stated Tahn-té quietly. "This time you have also

been given to see that these things are."

Even as he spoke the mirage of the armed men faded in a whirl of sand

caught up by a wandering wind, and while the others still stared at

the place where it had been, Tahn-té passed them and ran with easy

stride across the levels to Povi-whah.

The Spanish crossed themselves, and even Yahn Tsyn-deh trembled.

Tahn-té had chosen to show the men of iron that his medicine was

strong to bring visions, and what was most wonderful--to bring them

before the eyes of other men!

José was shaking with fear.

"All things he hears," he muttered--"all things! Under the trees we

spoke words--far off they reached his ears! He waited to show us that

his eyes were for the dark or the day--or--the _dead_! The spirit men

were Navahu. Holy Father, he can bring all the men who ever died to

tramp us into the sand! Holy Father, my heart is very sick!"

The others were silent. All were awed, and Padre Vicente was thinking

what was most wise to say. There were enough in the group for strong

witness that Tahn-té had shown them a thing which did not exist;--only

a sorcerer could call up men out of the earth and send them away on

the wind!

"In the sorcery we had no part, my children," he said at last. "The

man who raised those demons fled, as you see, at the sign of the

cross! To-morrow morning we have a mass. It is well to walk in prayer,

when Satan works with his chosen helpers."

Don Ruy looked at him sharply--for the mirage could not be a thing of

wonder for so travelled a man. But his was not the task to correct

eminence as to natural or infernal agencies, and the effect on the

minds of the two interpreters might prove a thing of grace!

Therefore he bent his head, and rode onward, and smiled at the

secretary, who was careful to ride close, and showed none too much of

courage at this glimpse of the magic of the barbarian who clasped

hands with the gods--or the demons!

"What dare be written in the 'Relaciones' of a thing like that?" he

queried.--"You smile, Excellency, as if you carried a magic shield, or

enchanted sword lifted from pages of old romance, but what think you

Señor Brancadori will say to this thing of wonder? It does not belong

to the living world we know."

"Let it not get into your dreams," suggested Don Ruy--"or if you do,

content yourself with the fancy that I indeed bear a magic shield and

am ever near enough for you to hide behind it."

"I am not so much a coward!" retorted the lad,--"to die for a good

cause in any human way is not a thing to fear--but these magical

works--"

"Without doubt they do belong to the sorcery of Satan," said Don Ruy

soberly, yet with an eye on the padre--"and yon supple racer is of

course one of his heirs. Stay you close to me, lad, and forget not

your orisons."

When they reached the camp, a herald was calling to the people from

the terraces. He was calling for all the men to prepare for battle. In

a vision of the bright day had Tahn-té seen the coming of the Navahu.

The medicine of Tahn-té was strong. Not at home would they wait for

battle. To steal women had the enemy taken the trail to the dwellings

of the Ancient ruins in the hills, and there must the warriors prepare

to meet them on the trail.

The names of men were called as scouts, and the response was quick, as

one after another ran to the kiva for orders, and then started on the

run towards mesa and forest.

Don Ruy looked after them with eyes perplexed.

"Does the Cacique regard the mirage with earnestness?" he said to the

padre who also watched and listened. "The man has a quick, good brain

and marvellous understandings,--but to prepare for battle because of a

sun picture in the sand is scarce what I looked for in him."

Padre Vicente smiled with his lips, and stroked his beard.

"You have yet to learn that the Indian magic workers let no tricks go

by to prove their greatness,"--he said. "That wench and José were

witness to the thing--thus he must claim it as his own! When the

scouts find no Navahu warriors, be sure it will be for the reason that

the magic of the sorcerer caused them to turn back in weakness on the

trail!"

"That will but strengthen his power, if it be so," agreed the younger

man,--"and how will you surmount that fear of him, and win the

renegade of Ni-am-be to give the word we need?"

"Protection and a life of ease away from the Indian magicians is a

good bribe for an outcast,--and it may be that fortune plays into our

hands. I could wish that the Cacique would follow the scouts with his

mummeries and incantations. You see how they have taught even José the

fear of him!"

"Yes--I do see, and but for the story that in this one village is held

the gold secret, I should say to move camp to some province where

bookish caciques hold no sway. How account you for the keen brain of

this wonder-worker? We have pampered and tutored numbskulls in

Seville who know not even their own creed so well as it is known by

this heretic barbarian."

"Without doubt it is the power of the Prince of Darkness," and Padre

Vicente gave the opinion with all due force--having in remembrance

that scene of the gift of the rosary in the kiva, and seeing clearly

that the Spanish adventurer had more than a little of admiration for

the unexpected daring of the pagan.--"Witchcraft and sorcery are of

the Devil, and both white men and savages do trade their souls for

evil knowledge. To strip him of his ill-gotten power would be a work

of grace for the Faith--and it is a thing for which each Christian

should gladly say many prayers!"

Don Ruy well knew that these ardent words were directed at his own

luke-warmness in regard to the young Ruler. Maestro Diego and Juan

Gonzalvo had distanced him in setting a good example to the men of the

guard!

A messenger from the kiva approached and spoke to Yahn, and she came

to the Spaniards with a message.

A council was in the kiva. It was about war if war came. The

Po-Ahtun-ho thought it was good that one of the white visitors be

asked to sit and listen; Don Ruy was invited to be that one. The man

José was to interpret.

Don Ruy speculated as to the cause of this courtesy. The Ruler

certainly did not desire the help of the white men--the message did

not even say as much. But it was plain that there were two parties on

that question, and Tahn-té meant to show no fear of his opponents.

They would see he gave them fair chances.

So he went, and José followed, and Yahn watched them--to her great,

yet silent rage.

Ka-yemo only reached the village as the last scout was started for the

trail of the Po-et-se cañon. Ka-yemo was the official for the war

orders, yet the orders had been given without speech with him! Over

his head had it been done, and his protest to the governor, and to the

old men in council brought him little of pride or of comfort.

"On the trail to see your wife you might have died," said one of the

old men,--"or on the way coming home. How could we know? If you die

and we have to fight--we have to fight without you. Before you were

born we fought without you."

"I was not to see a wife!" protested Ka-yemo. "I can stay away like

other men. Some one has talked crooked! I was on the mesa talking with

the guardians who make the arrow heads. To the far away ones I talked.

The women send word to them that they are afraid. A ghost is at Pu-yé.

All the women but the Twilight Woman are much frightened. They want

men."

"Good!" said the governor. "The scouts are already on the trail. If

men are needed, each man is ready and each spear is waiting. To the

Po-Ahtun-ho has been shown a vision of the enemy--it was not a time to

wait for council."

Ka-yemo's handsome face was still sulky. The vision of Tahn-té might

have waited. He had come down with a fine new story of a ghost seen in

the ruins of Pu-yé, and it was ignored because Tahn-té the Po-Athun-ho

had found a vision!

Tahn-té entered not at all into the discussion of the confiscated

rights of Ka-yemo. Even of the ghost frightening the women he asked no

question. Many things of war were talked of if the Navahu should come

to steal women or corn, and the dusk of the twilight crept after the

vanished sun when Tahn-té turned at last to the war chief.

"Ka-yemo, with the men of iron you have spoken much and often," he

said quietly. "Do you know who told them first that in Povi-whah was

held the secret of the yellow metal for which they search?"

The tongue of Ka-yemo became stiff as all sat silent waiting for his

answer.

"The padre asked me,"--he said at last,--"the padre always makes

people speak--I told the padre that which I had heard."

There was a slight stir among the men, but Tahn-té quieted them with a

glance.

"The priest of the iron men has also been told one other thing," he

continued--"and it is well for you all, brothers, that you hear this

thing. Oh-we-tahnh, the outcast of Ni-am-be, was a strong medicine

man. He used magic in a dark way for evil. His power was taken from

him. He was told by the council to forget the secret of the sun

symbol. Brothers, he has not forgotten! He has come to the camp of the

men of iron. He eats their food:--last night he slept by their

walls."

"Our brothers of Ni-am-be will not be glad with us if we let this be,"

stated one man. "The evil magic must be outcast always."

"Send some one and find the man," said Tahn-té. "When the sun of

to-morrow comes, all who listen here may be on the war trail. It is

not good to leave a coyote loose to do harm when no one watches."

In a little while the outcast was brought into the circle. He cringed

with fear, and his eyes were restless as those of a trapped wolf. The

governor questioned him as to his presence there, reminding him that

the council of Ni-am-be had granted him life only if he take that life

out of sight of his kind. Why then did he come to Povi-whah and stay

in the camp of the strangers?

His only reply was that he would go now, and he would go quickly.

"No--not quickly," said Tahn-té. "You will not go quickly any where

ever again. I am looking at you! I say so!"

The man stared at Tahn-té like a bird that was under a charm. All the

others saw the steady gaze of Tahn-té, and saw also that the outcast

began to tremble.

"Hold out your hand," said Tahn-té, and when it was done, Tahn-té took

from his medicine pouch some pieces of yellow gold. They were heavy,

he passed them around until all might see, then he put the gold in the

hand of the outcast.

"Your clan was a proud clan and good, and you made them ashamed," said

Tahn-té. "You had strong medicine and you used it for evil until your

name must not be spoken by your brothers. To these men of iron you

would trade that which is not yours: Without speech of council you

would do this--and to do it would be traitor! Because your heart

wishes to give the sun symbol to these strangers, I send you to them

with what your hand can hold. To the priest of the white god give it!

Tell him I, the Po-Ahtun-ho, send it, and no more than that will he

ever see here in Povi-whah. Tell him that the weight of it makes your

hand shake and your body shake. Tell him that the sickness is now in

your blood, and when the day comes again your tongue cannot make words

to tell him things. Tell him if his men put you in the saddle, or

carry you to the hidden place of the Sun Father, that the light of

your eyes will go out on the trail! I am looking at you!--and you, who

once had a name, and were a worker of magic, know that I look on you

with Power, and that it will be as I say."

He stooped and drew in the ashes of the place of fire, the figure of a

man with hand stretched out, then, with a breath, he sent the ashes in

a little cloud and each line was obliterated.

"To destroy you would not be good,"--he continued. "It is better that

the boys and the young men see the fate given to a traitor. My

brothers,--is this well?"

"It is well!" said the men, but the voice of the war chief was not

loud, and his hands shook until he clasped them together and held them

steady.

Tahn-té looked around the circle as though undecided, and then rested

on Ka-yemo.

"You speak the words of the Castilian man, and like to speak them," he

said quietly, "so it will be well for you to make the words for this

man who carries to their priest the gift of the sun symbol. Forget no

thought of it--for all the words have meaning."

And this speech to Ka-yemo was in Castilian, and was plainly said, and

Ruy Sandoval knew then why the courtesy of the council had been

extended to him.

And the outcast, holding the nuggets in his trembling outstretched

hand shook so that he could not go alone up the ladder to the world

above.

Ka-yemo, with a still, strange face of fear, put out his hand to help

the outcast, who looked as if Great King Death had called his name.

No more words were spoken, and the men in silence followed after.

They had seen a thing of strong medicine, and the Great Mystery had

sent power quickly. That palsy by which the man had been touched had

come with the swiftness of the wind when it whirls the leaves of the

cottonwood. They all knew that the tongue would be dumb, and the eyes

would be blind in the given time if need be.

And Don Ruy like the others, was touched with awe of the man who had

wrought the thing. As he went up the ladder he looked back at the

Ruler who sat still--gazing into the ashes of the place of sacred

fire.

CHAPTER XIV

THE TRUE VISION

The sentinels on the terrace who watched the night in Povi-whah knew

these were nights when they did not watch alone. The Po-Ahtun-ho

was abroad in the night for prayer, and when they made reports in

the morning, they knew that he had not waited for such reports ere

being wise as to each shining path of a bright spirit sent earthward

by the Great Mystery,--or each shadow passing over the Mother of the

Starry Skirt, or the nearness of the visiting Ancient Star to the

constellations on its trail to the twilight land of many days.

They knew he was watching the world overhead. With the Piñ-pe-yé, that

mystic compass of the Milky Way, was he balancing the fate of things

as written in the light of the Sky Mother whose starry skirt was a

garment to which departed souls cling. So many are the souls of earth

people that their trail makes luminous the white way of the sky, and

all the world, and all the people, can of course be seen from that

height of the sky, and when a dart of heat lightning sped earthward to

the west, the sentinels cast prayer meals and knew that Those Above

were sending messages to Tahn-té who prayed as no other prayed.

And on the heights were his prayers, for ever it was to the mesa and

beyond that his trail led since the mighty wrath of the wind by which

the corn was broken to earth. The darkness was often running from the

dawn ere he came downward from the hills into the valley.

A scout, speeding eastward from the mountains in the dawn saw him

coming down from the ancient place of the Reader of the Stars in

Pu-yé--the sacred place where no other reader of the Sky Things goes

in the night. The Lost Others are known to abide there, and mourn the

barren field of the older day.

At times strange magic circles the ancient dwellings of the cliff.

Before a storm, light flickers like fiery butterflies above the fallen

walls on the summit.

For this reason was it deemed holy, and for this reason were the women

of Shufinne much afraid when the ghost of a woman was seen plainly

there between the edge of the cliff, and the silver disk of the moon.

The scout carried this word, and Tahn-té who had been seen coming from

prayers there, listened, but gave little heed;--the women had seen

shadows, and the older men said they were only weary that the men were

so far across the mesas. Fire out of the sky, or out of the earth, had

often danced on those heights, but no woman had been there in a ghost

form ever in the memory of men.

Much more were they intent to know of any trace of warriors on the

hills, but only smoke had been seen far beyond the place of the

boiling water of the hill springs, and the smoke could easily be of

Ua-lano hunters. Other scouts were yet to come. They had made longer

runs. This man had been told to return at dawn of the day.

[Illustration: ONE GIRL WAITED AT THE PORTAL _Page 288_]

So the word went abroad, and in the Castilian camp, Don Diego gave

fervent thanks. He was none too well pleased that to secure records

for the "Relaciones" it might be necessary to carry a spear against

the heathen. It had been plainly understood in far off Mexico that the

people to be visited were not a hostile people. They were to be found

waiting for salvation, and with good gold to pay for it!

The offer of the padre to give aid in battle to their Indian brethren,

had been but a courteous pleasantry when uttered. It was a different

matter when scouts were sent abroad by the pagan Ruler to seek trouble

and bring it home to all of them!

Trouble enough was he brewing by that gift to the padre of the sacred

sun symbol. The pariah who brought it was under the curse medicine of

Tahn-té. Before their eyes he sat dumb, and the Castilians crossed

themselves with dread as they looked on him. He was the visible

warning of a doom awaiting any other who dared speak!

Not alone could he lift water to his own lips. The trembling of his

hand was now the trembling of his entire body. By order of Tahn-té he

was to be taken to one of the little cliff dwellings at the foot of

the mesa. Each seven suns, an old man and a group of boys were to have

the task of carrying to him food and water, and each visit the boys

were to be told by the Ancient why the medicine had been put upon the

outcast. Thus all youth would know that the Great Mystery sent power

against traitors.

In vain Padre Vicente tried to scoff at the reality of it, or the

continuance of it. The men pointed to the palsied man, and prayers

were remembered by many who were not pious. Indian witchcraft was not

to their liking!

"Paracelsus with his necromancy has done nothing worse!" declared Don

Diego. "This barbarian priest lacks bowels in his devilish art! Had he

not sent the gift of gold, the aggravation would have been less

pointed. That insult from the heretic is not to be endured."

"Yet the saints do give us strength for the endurance, Señor," replied

the secretary, "and Don Ruy paces apart, and keeps key on his thoughts

since that council. Think you he fears magic of the Po-Ahtun-ho?"

"A good thing were it true!" decided Don Diego--"overmuch is he

inclined to countenance their pagan practices, and find likeness in

their mummeries to the mysteries of the Greek--and even the Egyptian

of ancient days! The sorcerer has snared him with that ungodly

learning of books. But while we see it, and know it, Chico my son, it

is as well that the thought enters not into the 'Relaciones.' Don Ruy

in the desert is a good comrade, but his Excellency in Madrid could

nip any book in the bud--even the most stupendous."

"He is so great in power?"

"He is--but it is enough to know that he is the darling of princes,

and has not yet been ignored by their sisters! That which he wants in

Madrid comes easily to his hand,--and this wild adventuring is

unprofitable madness."

"Not unprofitable shall it remain," decided Padre Vicente, who had

walked near enough to hear their converse, and whose interest was ever

alert to further knowledge of their patron.--"Let the heathen sorcerer

send what insolent message he will, it does not change the fact the

gold has been put into our hands. It is clear proof that the story of

the Indian mine was a story of truth."

"Strange it is that the abhorred Teo the Greek should have been the

one to carry word of it out to the world"--mused Don Diego. "Write

down in the 'Relaciones,' Chico, that the ways of the saints are

often wondrous peculiar in the selection of evil instruments for pious

works."

"Yes, Señor, and shall I write down also that the piety has not, up to

this date, made so much progress as devout minds could have hoped?"

"You may do so," conceded Don Diego--"but fail not to give the true

reason. Had these poor stubborn barbarians not sent their women away,

the padre would have won many souls for the faith ere this. Women are

the instruments through which religion reaches men. Not until the

women have been frightened back to their homes can we hope for a

comforting harvest of souls."

"There is one soul waiting to be gathered with the harvest," said the

lad, pointing to the outcast. "If Christian prayers could lift from

his shaking hands the pagan doom, it would not do more to make

converts here than wordy argument."

"The governor and the head men approve of his sentence because the man

made camp here without the word of council," stated Padre Vicente. "It

is not well to meddle with their Pueblo laws."

Yahn, who listened, saw the smile on Chico's face, and wondered why

the lad should be humorous because the priest did not venture to

measure saintly prayers with heathen medicine!

Glad enough she was that it was so, and eager she was that some one

should tell to Ka-yemo that his new friends had a weaker god than the

god of the Te-hua people,--even the medicine of Tahn-té--the medicine

of one man--made them respectful!

But her own lips were sealed between anger and jealousy. Like a sullen

figure of fate she had brooded during the days of strange changes.

Sullen also she listened to speech of sorcery, and speech of war if

war came.

To go to battle was the one way by which Ka-yemo could dominate and

make the men of iron see there was another than Tahn-té in Povi-whah.

This thing she thought of by day, and dreamed of in the night.

She heard his name on the lips of the old women and of Säh-pah, again

they talked of the day when the father had been left behind by the

warriors to pull weeds in the corn!

Like a chained tigress she walked the terraces and heard their

laughter, but no word did she say. If once their laughing words had

been said to her, she felt she would kill Säh-pah!

And Ka-yemo gazed at her with burning eyes afar off--yet looked the

other way if by chance they passed each other in the court of the

village. It was true he started over the mesa to Shufinne where the

new wife waited with the other young women and the girl children, but

midway on the trail the thought of Yahn and Juan Gonzalvo had come to

him--and he had turned in his tracks, and the new wife of the many

robes, and wealth of shell beads, was not seen by him.

Phen-tza the governor said hard words to him that his actions made

laughter,--and that he went about as in an angry dream, and that the

warriors asked who was to lead if the day vision of Tahn-té proved a

true vision!

"I did not see the vision of Tahn-té," retorted Ka-yemo--"the people

to whom he made it clear of sight, say it was across the river to the

sunrise--why then does Tahn-té ask for scouts running to the sunset

hills? That is new medicine."

"The council asked that thing while you were yet on the mesa," said

the governor patiently. "The people who saw the vision of Tahn-té saw

only the spirit form of Navahu warriors," and the governor puffed

smoke from his pipe to the four ways to propitiate the gods for the

mention of those who belonged in the spirit land. "But before the

vision was carried away by magic of the wind, Tahn-té saw more than

the others, he saw a dream mountain behind them--and cliffs and a

mountain pass that is known to his eyes. Through that pass they were

coming, and the pass is beyond the sacred mountain to the land of the

hunting ground of the sunset. By that trail he knows they come--or

they will come!"

"You think the vision of Tahn-té is clear, and his medicine good!"

said Ka-yemo--"But the men of iron are wise also. They call

him--sorcerer."

"It is not yet the time to say it aloud," warned the governor. "This

is a time of strange things, and our eyes saw that which came to the

outcast who carried the sun symbol to the men of iron. The medicine of

the white men is strong, and they could be good brothers in

battle,--but not yet has their man of sacred medicine shown magic like

that," and he pointed to the outcast waiting and shaking in the

sunshine against the wall of the village.

Ka-yemo knew by these words that even his own clan watched him

closely--Tahn-té had made the jealous hearts afraid.

Yahn saw him go alone to the river's edge, and sit long alone; his

handsome head was bent in thought and to no one could the thought be

told. From the terrace Yahn watched. It was a time when the war chief

should call men and see that bows were strong, and lances ready. It

was not a time to walk apart and be unseen of the warriors. One man,

who fastened a scalp to his lance for good medicine, talked with

Säh-pah, and the woman laughed and asked who would pull weeds in the

corn if all men went seeking the Navahu!

When Yahn Tysn-deh heard that, she went down from the terrace into her

own dwelling, and made prayers to her own gods of her Apache people.

With a blade of obsidian she made scars until the blood dripped from

her braceletted arms. To the divinely created Woman Without Parents,

she chanted a song of prayer, and to the Twin Gods who slew enemies,

she let her blood drop by drop fall on the sacred meal of the medicine

bowl:--all this that one man be given power--and all this that a

Te-hua clan be not ashamed in the sight of gods!

Through the words of her prayer she heard the hurry of feet, and the

shrill of voices, and past her dwelling tramped men of iron clanging

the metal of their arms, and the voice of Chico was heard calling her

name at the door, telling her the scouts had found the Navahu

camp:--to come quickly to Don Diego. Tahn-té had read aright the magic

of the vision of the sand and the sun!

And Yahn Tsyn-deh slipped shell ornaments over the wounds on her arms,

and went out to make words for the Christians.

CHAPTER XVII

THINGS REVEALED ON THE HEIGHTS

All the Castilians but Padre Vicente and Don Diego went with the

warriors to the western heights. For reasons of his own, the padre

preferred the pueblo when freed of the influence of Tahn-té, and Don

Diego preferred to bear him company,--a secretary could well look

after the records of warfare, if it came to warfare, though for his

own part he believed not any of the heathen prophecy of the coming of

warriors, and wondered much that his eminence, the padre, showed

patience with their pagan mummeries. He assured the padre that it

would be a wrong against Holy Church to grant the sacraments to the

pagan Cacique until that doom of the outcast had been revoked;--To

take the power of high God for the managing of pueblo matters was not

a thing to grant absolution for! And Padre Vicente, to quiet his

anxiety on that score, agreed that when the pagan Cacique came for

absolution, he should be reminded of his iniquity.

And while they settled this weighty matter, the young Ruler who had

prophesied, moved contrary to custom, with the leaders across the high

mesa, and was followed by the Castilian horsemen, in their shining

coats of mail, and on a mule led by Gonzalvo rode Yahn, unafraid, and

with proud looks.

And ever her eyes rested on Ka-yemo who held his place of chief, and

chanted a war song, and was so handsome a barbarian that Don Ruy made

mention of it, and told the secretary that he was worth an entire

page of the "Relaciones," even though not a thing of war came in their

trail.

The great white cliff of a thousand homes of the past, filled the

Castilian mind with wonder. Generations had lived and died since the

ghost city of the other days had throbbed with life, still the stucco

of the walls was yet ivory white, and creamy yellow, and it looked

from the pine woods like a far reaching castle of dreams.

It was nearing the sunset, and a windless heat brooded over the

heights where usually the pines made whisperings, clouds of flame

color hung above the dark summits of the mountain, and the reflected

light turned the ghostly dwellings to a place of blood-tinged mystery.

More than one of the adventurers crossed themselves. Don Ruy said it

looked, in the lurid glow, like a place of enchantment.

"But there are beautiful enchantments," said Chico--"and this may be

one of them! Think you we might find walls pictured by Merlin the

magian if we but climb the steep? Magic that is beautiful should not

be hedged around by a mere ocean or two!"

"This is the place of the ghost woman," stated Yahn,--"and Shufinne,

where the women are afraid, is beyond."

Within sight was Shufinne, and there the Castilians had expected to

camp. But among the older Indians there had been talk--and who can

gauge the heathen mind?

"Two camps will we make," they decided. "Here is most water for the

animals and here our white brothers can wait; at Shufinne will the

Te-hua guard be awake all the night, and give warning if the enemy

comes,--other guards will watch the trail of the cañon. Thus we cover

much ground,--no one can pass to the villages of the river;--and

quickly can all camps help the one where the enemy comes."

"Not so bad is the generalship in spreading their net," said Don Ruy.

"Nor in excluding the stranger from the hiding place of their pretty

maids," added Chico with amusement. "Ysobel--ride you close to me.

This is the place where they herd their women, and guard them,--and

you are not so ill favored in many ways as some I have seen."

Ysobel whimpered that it was not to follow war she had left Mexico and

her own people, and like Don Diego she could see no good reason to

search for trouble in the hills.

"Then why not stay behind safe walls with the padre?" asked Don Ruy,

and Ysobel went dumb and looked at Chico--and the lad shrugged and

smiled.

"Has she not married a man?" he queried, "and does not the boy Cupid

make women do things most wondrous strange in every land? José would

fare as well without her watchful eye, but no power could make her

think it,--so come she would on a lop-eared mule despite all my fine

logic!"

"You--yourself--would come!" retorted Ysobel, "so what--"

But Chico prodded the mule so that it went frisky and sent its heels

in the air, and but for Don Ruy the beast might have left the woman on

the ground.

"What imp possesses you to do mischief to the dame?" he demanded--"and

why laugh that she follows her husband? When you have more years you

may perhaps learn what devotion may mean!"

"Never do I intend to strive for more knowledge of it than I possess

at this moment!" declared Chico--"see to what straits it has led that

poor girl, who, but for this matter of a man, would have been good and

safe working in a convent garden. Small profit this marriage business

is!"

"A selfish Jack-a-napes might you be called," remarked Don Ruy, "and

much I wonder that the woman bears patiently your quips. Give us ten

more years, and we'll see you mated and well paid for them!"

"Ten years!"--and the lad whistled,--"let me wait ten of my years and

I can wait the rest of them!"

"Name of the devil!" laughed Don Ruy--"if you grow impatient for a

mate, we'll charge yon citadel and capture one for you!"

"Oh, my patience can keep step with your own will, Excellency,"

retorted the lad. "I've no fancy for halting the expedition, or of

making a winning through another man's arms."

"Your conceit of yourself is quite up to your inches," observed his

patron. "When you've had a few floutings you'll be glad to send

signals for help."

"One flouting would be enough to my fancy--I'd straightway borrow

myself a monk's robe."

"We all think that with the first love affair--or even the second--"

volunteered Don Ruy--"but after that, philosophy grows apace, and we

are willing to eat, drink--and remain mortal."

Ysobel giggled most unseemly, and Chico stared disapproval at her.

"Why laugh since you know not anything of such philosophy, Dame

Ysobel?" he asked. "It is not given many to gather experience, and

philosophies such as come easily to the call of his Excellency."

The woman hung her head at the reproof, and his Excellency lifted

brows and smiled.

"You have betimes a fine lordling's air with you," he observed. "Why

chide a woman for a smile when women are none too plentiful?"

But they had reached the place of the camp, and the secretary swung

from the saddle in silence. Don Ruy watching him, decided that the

Castilian grandfather must have been of rank, and the Indian

grandmother at least a princess. Even in a servant who was a friend

would the lad brook nothing of the familiar.

Tahn-té stood apart from the Spanish troop while camp was being made,

and a well dug deeper in a ravine where once the water had rippled

clear above the sand. The choice of camp had not been his. The old men

and the warriors had held up hands, and the men of iron were not to

see the women at Shufinne,--so it had been voted.

The lurid glow of the sky was overcast and haste was needed ere the

night and perhaps the storm, came. Since it was voted that Pu-yé be

the shelter, Tahn-té exacted that only the north dwellings be

used--the more sacred places were not to be peered into by strange

eyes!

A Te-hua guard was stationed at the ancient dwelling of the Po-Ahtun.

Near there alien feet must not pass. Where the ruins of ancient walls

reached from edge to edge of the mesa's summit, there Te-hua guards

would watch through the night, and signal fires on Shufinne mesa would

carry the word quickly if help was needed.

A Navahu captive from Kah-po came with men of Kah-po, and was left at

Pu-yé. Juan Gonzalvo stationed his own guards, having no fancy for

sleep with only painted savages between his troop and danger. Ka-yemo

for no stated reason lingered near, and watched the Castilians, and

watched Yahn Tsyn-deh;--so sullen and strong had grown his jealousy

that here in the hills--apart from the padre, he dared think what

could be made happen to the little cluster of white men if the Kah-po

men would join Povi-whah for battle,--and if--

Under the eyes of Padre Vicente no such thought would have dared come

to him,--but he had brief wild desires to win by some stroke, a power

such as Tahn-té held without question. Let the Castilian whisper

"sorcerer" ever so loudly, yet the old men of Te-hua would give no

heed without proofs--and who could make proofs against Tahn-té?

The words of the governor had cut deep--and Yahn who was of the

Tain-tsain clan, would rage if the clan gained not credit by the war

chief,--and Gonzalvo the man of iron,--would then take her to

himself--and--He walked apart in rage. From the ancient dwelling of

the Po-Ahtun he could hear the chanting of a war song. Tahn-té was

invoking the spirits of battle--Tahn-té it was who had seen the vision

of warriors and started scouts to the hills;--on every side was he

reminded that Tahn-té the priest--was looked upon as Tahn-té the

warrior heart!

The Castilians would go back to their own land with that word to their

people, and to their king;--and he, Ka-yemo,--would have no mention

unless it should be of the weeds pulled in the corn!

His heart was so sick and so angry that he could almost hear the

laughter if he returned without honors:--but one man should not

laugh!--He did not know how it would happen that he could have the

Capitan Gonzalvo killed--but that man should not laugh with Yahn

Tsyn-deh!

[Illustration: IN CASTILIAN WAR DRESS HE STOOD _Page 293_]

In his sick rage he had brooded and walked far. Along the summit of

the mesa among the ruins had he walked to the east. The weird dead

city of the Ancient Days was made more weird by the strange brooding

heat of the dusk. No cool air of the twilight followed the setting sun

this night. Sounds carried far. No fires were lit in the camp

below--yet movements of the animals told him where the Castilians

tethered their wonderful comrades of the trail.

At any other time he would not have walked alone on the heights where

mystery touched each broken wall, and wrapped the mesa as in a strange

medicine blanket. But in his impotent rage he felt spirit forces of

destruction working against him, and the dread of them dulled his

senses as to the place where he wandered.

And then his heart jumped with a new fear as the form of a woman arose

from a crevice in the stone wall--did the ghost of the ruin wait for

him there?

The figure halted uncertainly and then ran toward him with outreaching

hand.

It was Yahn Tsyn-deh, and she was half laughing and half sobbing, and

the barrier of anger was brushed aside as if it had never been.

"Ka-yemo!--Ka-yemo!" she whispered--"You dare be highest now;--and

Tahn-té will be under your feet, Ka-yemo!"

She clasped her arms about him as she stumbled, breathless, at his

feet, and his hands clutched her in fierceness.

"Is this a trick?"--he asked. "Have I trapped you with a lover, and

you run to me with a new game?"

"Oh--fool, you!" she breathed--"There was but one lover, and he went

blind, and walked away from me at a daybreak!"

She would have said more, but he caught her up and held her too close

for speech, and she felt in triumph the trembling of his body.

"The man Gonzalvo,"--he muttered--"I was walking to find the way I

could kill him alone because you wear his gifts."

"Fool!" she whispered again. "Shall I then go to a woman at Shufinne

and kill her because her gifts are with you? I let her live to see

that the gifts she brings are little beside my own! I bring you

victory over Tahn-té the sorcerer of Povi-whah! I bring you the trail

to his witch maid of the hills. With her he comes to make prayers in

the night time! For this he guards the dwellings of the star where she

is hidden. Tahn-té the sorcerer shall be under your feet! Ka-yemo--I

bring this to you!"

And while they clung to each other, scarce daring to think that union

and triumph was again their own, Tahn-té the Ruler of magic sat within

the ancient dwelling where the symbols of the Po-Ahtun are marked on

the walls even in this day.

In a shadowed corner a tiny fire glimmered, and by its light he

studied the clear crystal of the sacred fire-stone. With prayer he

studied it long, and the things speaking in the milky depths held him

close, and the breath stopped in his body many times while he looked,

and the prayers said through the Flute of the Gods were prayers to the

Trues to which he sent all his spirit.

Then from his medicine pouch he took the seeds of the sacred by-otle

into which the dreams of the gods have ever grown as the blossom

grows.

Darklings were these, gathered when the moon was at rest, and no

wandering stars swam high in the night sky. The dreams in these shut

out day knowledge, and the knowledge of earth life. For medicine

dreams they shut out all of a man but that which is Spirit, and the

body becomes as a dead body knowing not anything but dreams--feeling

neither heat nor cold.

Of all medicine left on earth by the gods who once walked here, not

any medicine is so strong to lift the soul to the Giver of Life even

while the feet walk here over trails of thorns, or the whipping thongs

cut bare to the bone the dancing flesh of penitents.

When Tahn-té had listened to Padre Luis, and had read of the grievous

pain of that one Roman crucifixion of the founder of the church of

Padre Luis, the boy had not been impressed as the good priest had

hoped. Even then he had heard of the medicine drugs of different

tribes, and the Medicine Spirit granted to some, and as a man he knew

that the man to whom the gods give medicine gifts can make for himself

joy out of that which looks like pain. He knew well that the earth

born who drew to themselves God-power, do not die, and the man on the

Roman cross could not die if his medicine Power of the Spirit was

strong. He knew that he had only gone away as all the god-men and

god-women have gone away at times from earth places.

He knew that strong magic of the spirit could always do this for a man

if his heart was pure and steady, but not to another could he give the

spirit power, or the heart of knowledge.

He counted over the seeds of the By-otle and knew that there were

enough to make even a strong man dream of joy while under torture.

After that he dared look more closely into the shifting lights of the

sacred fire stone, and the Castilians in the camp below, and the

guards on the level above, and the plotting woman, and her regained

slave and master heard the call of the Flute, and intonings of sacred

songs from the century old dwelling of the Po-Ahtun.

"_The battle is here!

The battle of gods is here!

The flowers of shields have bloom,

The death flowers grow!

Among that bloom shall homes be made,

Among the bloom shall we build fair homes.

Brothers:--drink deep of warrior wine,

For our enemies we build homes!

Eat:--eat while there is bread.

Drink--drink while there is water.

A day comes when the air darkens,

When a cloud shall darken the air,

When a mountain shall be lifted up,

When eyes shall be closed in death,

Eat--eat while there is bread,

Drink--drink of warrior wine!_"[A]

[A] Book of Chilan Balam.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE BATTLE ON THE MESA

The stars had marked the middle of the night, and the Castilian camp

slept, save for the guards who paced quietly through the pine groves,

and the Te-hua sentinels on the summit above, who rested in silence at

the places where footholds carved by pre-historic Lost Others in the

face of the rock wall, afforded a trail for the enemy if the enemy

could find it.

Between the Castilians in the pine below, and the Te-hua sentinels on

the rock mesa of the ruins above, there stretched the line of cave

dwellings high in the rock wall. These needed no guard--for there the

Te-hua warriors slept, and Tahn-té read the fate of things in the

crystal, and made prayers.

But to the east where he had forbidden wandering feet, a man and woman

did crouch in a crevice, and watch while the shining ones overhead

travelled to the center of the sky and then towards the mountains in

the trail of the sun.

For Tahn-té they watched--and the watching was so long that the man

slept at intervals in the arms of the woman--but the woman did not

sleep! Victory was too near--and triumph beat in her blood, and like a

panther of the hills waiting for prey did she listen for the steps of

the man who had known her humiliation.

But when the steps did come, they came not from the Po-Ahtun-ho, nor

were they the steps of a man.

A woman crept lightly as a mountain squirrel from one to another of

the boulders on the eastern hill, and at last climbed to the dwellings

of the Ancient Ones, and reached the portal of the sacred place of the

star.

This was the place where the wise men of old watched the coming of the

gods as they gazed upon earth through the mask of the glimmering

stars. It was not a place for women, for no woman had been Reader of

the Stars within known records of the Te-hua people. Yet it surely was

a woman who crept upwards in the night to the place where women feared

to go.

Yahn Tsyn-deh slipped like a snake from the crevice and watched from

the shadow of a rock, and was richly repaid. It was the Woman of the

Twilight who came to the place where Tahn-té had forbidden the

Castilians and warriors to walk, and against the sky Yahn could see

the outline of a water jar borne on her back by the head-band of woven

hemp. She halted for breath, and leaned, a frail, breathless ghost of

a woman, against the wall.

Then with a pebble she tapped on the portal of the star, four times

she made the signal ere another met her in the dusk, and took from her

the burden, and clung to her hand in dread.

In the dusk of the starlight they sat and whispered, for no fire dare

be lit within, and the girl of the bluebird wing ate the bread and

drank water, and breathed her gratitude while she strove to understand

the words of the mother of Tahn-té.

That there was danger she knew for she had seen the many men. Like

things enchanted had she seen them--the men who looked like part of

the animals they rode! In dread and fear had she waited for Tahn-té

while she watched the Ancient Star glowing like an eye of wrath in

the western heavens. It was looking back with an evil look because no

gift had been made to it on the altars of the valley people. Tahn-té

had told her that so long as it shone must she remain hidden. She did

not need to ask why. When with the Navahu savages she had been taunted

at times because the altars of her people knew well the blood of human

sacrifice which they offered with elaborate ceremony to propitiate the

gods of the stars in the sky.

"Tahn-té?" she whispered to the mother, but the mother shook her head.

Apart from all woman-kind must a priest live when times of stress

come. Tahn-té was fasting and making prayers. A girl hidden in the

caves must not go hungry, but the thought of her must not mingle with

thoughts of penance for the tribe. All heads of the spiritual orders

do penance and make prayers for clear vision when the evil days come.

"And they are here?" questioned the girl.

"They are here. The land was smiling, the corn was good, all was good.

Then the Great Star came--and the men of iron came--the corn was laid

low by the God of the Winds. The Most Mysterious has sent signs to his

people, and the signs are evil and come quickly. My son, the

Po-Ahtun-ho, has seen these signs, and the gods have talked with

him."

The maid knew that a mere stray creature could not find room in the

thoughts of so great a man--at so great a time; and she sat silent,

but she reached out and held the hand of his mother. Since he could

not speak with her he had sent to her the woman most high and most

dear. He could not come, but he had not forgotten!

"He will come again?" she murmured, and some memory in the heart of

the Twilight Woman made her speech very gentle.

"He will come again when the battle is over, and the days of the

purification are over. It is the work of the Po-Ahtun-ho to see that

the stranger is ever fed and covered with a shelter. So has he brought

you here, and so has he brought the lion skin robe to you here. When

the young moon has grown to the great circle, and the strangers have

gone again to the camp by the river, then will the Po-Ahtun-ho come to

you here in this place. He will come as the circle moon rises over

Na-im-be hills. Many prayers will be made ere that night time, and he

will come with wisdom to say the thing to be done. Until then the

strangers must not see you, and the young foolish men of our tribe

must not see you."

Not much of this was understood by the bewildered maid who must be

kept hidden in secret even in the land of her own people.

But Yahn Tsyn-deh, crouching in the sand outside the portal, heard and

understood, and her heart was glad with happiness, for a vengeance

would fall double strong on Tahn-té if it touched also the medicine

god woman, his mother!

From the broken, whispered sentences--half Navahu--half Te-hua--did

Yahn know that the hidden woman was indeed the Navahu witch maid by

whom evil spirits had been led from the west into the great valley.

It had been a wonder night in the life of Yahn Tsyn-deh. The love of

her wild heart had been given back to her--and vengeance against his

rival had been put within reach of her hands! The heights of Pu-yé

were enchanted--and the Ancient Star had shone on her with kindness.

It was a good time in her life and she must work in quickness ere the

change came, for the watchful gods of the sky do not stand still when

the signs are good signs.

And she crept back to the arms of her lover, and they watched together

the medicine shadow woman creep downward until the dark hid her.

Yahn counseled that at once they go to the governor and tell that

which they heard, but Ka-yema said "no," for if the Navahu enemy did

come, the power of Tahn-té was needed by the Te-hua warriors--it was

not the time to kill the witch woman or kill the prayer thoughts.

"You are strong to fight without Tahn-té," whispered the girl who made

herself as a vine in her clinging clasp of him.

"But not to fight against Tahn-té and his secret powers of the sky,"

answered Ka-yemo. "The old men know he is strong in visions. When the

time comes that he fall low in their sight, there will be many days

that their hearts will be sick. We must not make these days come when

we have enemies to fight."

"Do you fear?" demanded the temptress petulantly. It irked her that

his first thought was of caution--while hers was of annihilation for

the man who loomed so large that no other man could be seen in the

land.

"If you think I fear would you find me here in this witch place with

you?" he asked. "It has been forbidden that any one comes here--yet

have I come!"

Plainly he felt brave that he had defied the Po-Ahtun-ho in so much as

he had walked to the forbidden sacred places, and Yahn felt a storm of

rage sweep over her at the knowledge. But it had been a storm of rage

like that by which he had once been driven away from her! And she

smothered all the words she would have spoken, and clung to him, and

whispered of his greatness,--and the pride he could bring to the clan

when Tahn-té, the lover of witches, no longer made laws in the land.

In her own heart she was making prayers that the alarm of the Navahu

warriors prove a false thing, and the vision of Tahn-té be laughed at

by the clans. To hear him laughed at would help much!

But that was not to be, for ere the dawn broke, came shouts from

Shufinne--and signal fires, and the Te-hua men of Pu-yé ran swiftly to

guide their Castilian brothers in arms, and the savages who had hoped

to steal women in the darkness, found that thunder and lightning and

death fought for the Te-hua people--and the men of iron rode them down

with the charméd animals and strange battle cries.

When the daylight came there were dead Navahu on the field south of

Shufinne--the flower of the shields had bloom! Two dead Te-hua men

were also there, and a wounded Navahu had been taken captive by Juan

Gonzalvo. Ka-yemo carried two fresh scalps, and Don Ruy lay huddled in

a little arroyo, where a lance thrust had struck him reeling from the

saddle, and Tahn-té had leaped forward to grapple with the Navahu who,

hidden on the edge of the steep bank, waited the coming of the

horseman and lunged at him as head and shoulders came above the

level.

Where the breastplate ends at the throat he struck, and the blade of

volcanic glass cut through the flesh. At the savage yell of triumph

the horse swerved--stumbled, and with a clatter of metals rolled down

the embankment.

As the Navahu rushed downward with lifted axe and eager scalping

knife, an arrow from the bow of Tahn-té pierced the temple of the

savage, and with a grunt he whirled and fell dead beside the

Castilian.

The horse had quickly regained his feet, but the rider lay still, the

blood pulsing from his throat and staining the yellow sand. With

dextrous fingers Tahn-té removed the helmet and breastplate that the

position of the body might be eased. With sinew of deer from his

pouch, and a bone awl of needle-like sharpness, he drew together the

edges of the wound, then turning to where the Navahu lay prone on his

face in the sand, he deftly cut a strip of the brown skin a finger's

width across, and in length from shoulder to girdle; this he took from

the yet warm body as he would take the bark from a willow tree, and

bound it about the throat with the flesh side to the wound.

"Take my horse and follow," whispered Don Ruy, who had recovered

breath and speech,--"I am not yet so dead that I need the grave

digger--you can ride--take my horse and follow."

Tahn-té had leaped to the saddle, when a cry at the edge of the arroyo

caused him to halt, it was so pitiful a cry, and tumbling down through

the sand and gravel came Master Chico with staring eyes of fear, and

lips that were pale and quivering. The flayed back of the savage had

he caught sight of, and the white face of Don Ruy who looked dead

enough for masses despite his own assertion to the contrary, and the

lad flung himself on his excellency with a wail that was far from that

of a warrior, and then slipped silently into unconsciousness.

With the thought that a death wound had struck the lad who had come

to die with his master, Tahn-té turned the face back until the head

rested on the arm of the Castilian, lightly he ran his hands over the

body, and then halted, his eyes on the face of Don Ruy, who gazed

strangely at the white face on his arm. The cap was gone, the eyes

were closed, and the open lips showed the white teeth. In every way

the face was more childish than it had ever appeared to him--childish

and something more--something--

Then Tahn-té, who held the wrist of Chico, laid it gently on the hand

of Don Ruy.

"Only into the twilight land has she gone, Señor," he said softly--"even

now the heart beats on the trail to come back--to you!"

Don Ruy stared incredulously into the eyes of the Indian, and a flush

crept over his own pale face as he remembered many things.

"Doña Bradamante!" he murmured, and nodded to Tahn-té, who leaped on

the horse and rode where the yells of the victors sounded in the

piñons towards the hills. Beyond all the other horsemen he rode, and

saw far above in the scrubby growth, the enemy seeking footholds where

the four-footed animals could not follow. Then, when Ka-yemo had

called the names of the trailers who were to follow the enemy beyond

the summit, Tahn-té the Po-Athun-ho turned back and chanted the prayer

of a prophet to whom the god had sent true dreams.

The Castilians watched him as he came; so proudly did he carry himself

that the men swore an army of such horsemen would win half the battle

by merely showing themselves, and the old men of Te-hua knew as they

looked on him, and as they counted the slain and wounded, that Tahn-té

had indeed been given the gift of the god-sight to save the women of

the valley.

Juan Gonzalvo swore ugly oaths at sight of the horse of Don Ruy. Since

the pagan had taken it as his own, it was plain to be seen that some

woeful thing had chanced to his excellency.

But to their many questions Tahn-té led them to the arroyo where Don

Ruy was indeed wounded, and where a pale secretary was carrying water

in his hat to bathe his excellency's head, and his excellency let it

be done, and exchanged a long look of silence with Tahn-té, who

understood.

The ankle of Don Ruy had a twist making it of no use to stand upon.

The Po-Ahtun-ho made a gesture to Chico to hold the horse while he,

with a soldier to help, put it straight with a dextrous wrench, and

the secretary several paces away, turned white at the pain of it.

Then was his excellency helped again to his saddle, and the men from

Mexico marvelled at the surgery of the pagan priest who killed and

flayed one man to mend another with.

CHAPTER XIX

THE APACHE DEATH TRAP

When the runners carried the word to the river that the vision of

Tahn-té had been a true vision, the padre and Don Diego stared at each

other incredulous. It was a thing not to be believed by a Christian.

Yet the runners said that many Navahu scalps and two dead Te-hua men

witnessed the truth of it, and the men of iron had proven indeed

brothers in the time of battle. The governor made thanks to Don Ruy,

who was wounded, and his Excellency had sent the secretary back to

camp with Ysobel since there was not anything new to record. The

Te-hua men would dance the scalp dance when they came to the village,

and two clans mourned for men left dead on the mesa meadows.

The padre regretted that he had not gone with the troop. Since they

had won honor and thanks, it was the good time to work for the one

favor of the gold in return.

And Don Diego regretted the Te-hua men who had died without

absolution.

The secretary stated that the clans of the dead men were clamoring for

the Navahu captive taken by Gonzalvo, and there was much talk about

it. Also that the Navahu said it was one maid they came searching

for--a Navahu maid who wore bluebird wings--they had not thought to

harm Te-hua women! Of course the Te-hua men thought that was a lie,

for the Navahu always wanted more women.

But the old men of the village to whom it was told looked at each

other with meaning.

It was a strange thing that the men of Te-gat-ha to the north, and the

men of Navahu from the west, took the trail to search for that one

maid of mystery. The ground over which she passed had reached far, and

the evil wrought by her had been great. The wise men of Te-gat-ha knew

that the tornado followed her trail, and the Navahu men who searched

for her, had found death and defeat. Prayers must be made against the

evil of her if her feet should cross the land of the Te-hua people.

And all through the long beautiful twilight the tombé sounded from the

terraces, and the mourners for the dead on the high mesas knew that

prayers were being made against new evil--and that the medicine men

would in an early day demand penance and sacrifice of many if the

cloud of dread was not lifted from their hearts.

Four days of purification must be observed by the warriors ere

entering again their home village after a battle to the death. And

Yahn could not by any means approach Ka-yemo during that time, which

did not prevent her speech with other men. To Juan Gonzalvo she

talked, and Gonzalvo chafed under the restrictions of Don Ruy.

Steadily in his mind had grown that thought of the parentage of

Tahn-té. He was unwilling to think that the native mind could have the

keenness and the logic of this barbarian whose eyes were the color of

the darkest blue violets, and whose diabolic power made even the

Castilians awe-struck, and sent them to prayers more swiftly than did

the sermons of the padre. If he only dared hint it to the padre--if

by some god-given power he, the insolent Cacique, could be delivered

into their hands--if as the son of Teo the Greek, he could come within

the law of the Inquisition for his devilish heresies--the all too

lenient Inquisition demanded white blood in its victims--what a

triumph it would be for the Faith to add the sorcerer to the list! For

such a triumph would Gonzalvo have been willing to tread with bared

feet all the sands of the trail to Mexico.

With such pious intent did he question much of Yahn, who knew

little--and was indeed afraid when the medicine god woman was asked

of. She had seen that which had come to the outcast of Na-im-be who

would have told tribal things, and she had no wish to grow dumb, or

blind, or a trembling wreck in the time of one sun across the sky.

But she did go with him to the place of the well in the sand at

Shufinne at the time when the Twilight Woman went for water. He waited

there and drew for her the water, and watched closely her face as he

spoke a Castilian word of greeting. If he had hope that she had ever

before heard such words his hopes were fruitless. She was so

indifferent to his presence that not even once did she lift her eyes

from the water jar or look in his face, and the fragile figure turned

from him and walked away as if Castilian warriors were seen daily on

the path to that well.

Yahn knew that all the other women wished greatly to be let go down to

the village that they might see and be spoken to by the great

strangers, and she hid in the brush to watch the medicine god woman

and even won courage to ask of her who had filled the water jar so

quickly.

"Was it not then the stranger who is your lover, Yahn Tsyn-deh?" asked

the other, not as one who cares, but as one who states a fact--"the

man whom you give love to in these new days."

"Who says I give love?" demanded Yahn. "Säh-pah the liar, or Koh-pé,

who knows not anything!"

"You walk together alone as lovers walk. The other women do not think

they lie."

"They are fools--the other women!" stated Yahn--"also they are liars.

They are glad if a man of the beard looks the way they are,--they

would make a trail to follow if the men of iron whistled them,--they

would be proud to make their own men ashamed--they!"

For the first time the older woman looked in the face of the girl with

intentness, as though suddenly aroused to interest in the human drama

about her, and the actors in it.

"Then you would not follow, Yahn Tsyn-deh?" she asked. "The others say

you laugh at the men of the tribe and give love to the strangers--they

say you pass Ka-yemo on the trail and your eyes never see him any more

because of the men of iron who give you gifts!"

"A jealous woman says that!" stormed Yahn Tsyn-deh,--"a woman who

maybe lies to him when he will listen! You see this:"--and she picked

up a black water worn pebble with a vein of white through the heart of

it--"Sometime when the Earth Mother was beginning with the work, these

two were maybe not together like this. They were apart--maybe it was

before the ice went from around our world and the mountains sent fire

to split the rocks. Look you now--you are wise, but maybe you do not

know how this is, for you go into shadow lands, and men and women, and

the stones over which your feet walk, are all the same to you--also

the love of a man and a woman are not anything to your thoughts!"

The other looked at her, and beyond her, and said nothing. The words

of Yahn were words of angry insistence on the thought she had never

yet been able to express--and to say it to even the god medicine woman

who sheltered a witch, was to speak it aloud, and have it forgotten!

"You are wise in medicine craft but do you know how this grew?"--she

demanded--"I know--I feel that _I know_!--the mountain fire or the sky

fire broke it that the white stone of fire could be shot like an arrow

into the heart of it. To keep some count it was made like that by the

Most Mysterious;--and in the hand of the Mystery it was held--and the

hand was closed over it while the mountains came down to the rivers,

and the rivers made trails through rock walls. When the hand was

opened and the sun looked on it, it was grown into one;--can you with

all high medicine put them apart?--can you break the black and leave

the white not broke? Can you make two colors of the powder you would

grind from it between grinding stones?--Yet the two colors are there!

Like the two colors are Ka-yemo and Yahn Tsyn-deh. One they were made

by some magic of the Great Mystery, and no woman and no man, and no

lies of women, can break them apart! When you hear them lie another

time, you can look at this stone, and know that I said it!"

She had worked herself into such a passion that the long smothered

rage against the women who spoke her name lightly in the village spent

itself on the one woman of all who lived most apart from such speech.

But aloud had Yahn Tsyn-deh said once for all that her life was as the

life of Ka-yemo, and that no earth creature could make that different,

and for the saying of it aloud she was a happier woman.

And Gonzalvo who listened to her defiance, fancied that the silent

woman of mystery had given her chiding, and that Yahn was doing wordy

battle for the new Castilian friends.

All the more could he think so when Yahn joined him with her great

eyes shining like stars, and braided in her hair some flowers he had

plucked for her--and walked back to the camp with him openly before

all men!

And she said to him;--"I like only men who fight,--men who are not

afraid. Tell your priest who does not like me that now is the time to

speak again to the council of the sun symbol and of brothers. The old

men have seen that your fighting was good, and that it saved them

their women. This will be the time to speak."

"But their proud Cacique--"

"It is a good time to speak--" she insisted--"else will Tahn-té grow

so tall with prophecies that his shadow will cover the land, and the

men in the land,--tell your priest that the shadow has grown too tall

now for one man. Other men have fought well and taken scalps--yet only

one name is heard in your camp--the name of Tahn-té who sees visions

in the hills!"

He wondered at her mocking tone of the visions in the hills, for no

other Indian mocked at the visions of the sorcerer.

Don Ruy was well agreed to get back to the fair camp by the river, and

so pleased with them were their new comrades in arms, that he was

amused to see more than one dame of the village trudging homewards

across the mesa:--they forgot to doubt the new allies who had helped

send the Navahu running to the hills. When he reached Povi-whah he

rallied Chico that he kept close to the camp and found so many

remembered records to put safely down the "Relaciones," when there

were more than a few pairs of strange dark eyes peeping from the

terraces.

But Chico had quite lost the swagger of the adventurous youth since he

tumbled down the arroyo bank almost on top of the flayed savage. The

fainting fit need not have caused him so much of shyness, since his

Excellency had also apparently indulged in the same weakness;--for

Chico on awaking had carried two hats full of water and drenched his

highness completely ere he had opened his eyes and again looked on the

world. However, without doubt that fainting fit of Master Chico's had

taken away a fine lot of self confidence, for ink-horn and paper gave

all the excitement he craved. His audacity was gone, and so meek and

lowly was his spirit, that Don Diego had much pleasure in the thought

that the vocation of the lad was plainly the church, and that sight of

the dead, unconfessed barbarians, had awakened his conscience as to

human duties for the Faith.

This interesting fact he made mention of to Don Ruy, who bade him god

speed in making missionaries out of unexpected material,--and got more

amusement out of the idea than one would expect, and Don Diego hinted

that it was unseemly to jest at serious matters of the saving of souls

when his own had stood so good a chance at escape through the hole in

his neck.

"It may be that I found a soul through that same wound," said Don

Ruy, "at least I gained enough to make amends for the scar to be left

by the wicked lance."

"It is true that the knowledge gained of their savage surgery is a

thing of import for the 'Relaciones,'" agreed Don Diego,--"but only

the infidel Cacique made practice of it, and his acts are scarcely the

kind to bring a blessing on any work--I have been put to it to decide

how little space to give his name in these pages. It is not a seemly

thing that the most wicked should be the most exalted in the

chronicles of our travels."

"Whether exalted or not he must be again considered in this quest of

the gold," stated Padre Vicente, "Gonzalvo brings me word that more

than one of the tribe would have joy in his downfall, and that it is

the good time to talk with the head men openly on this question. Our

men have helped fight their battles:--thus matters have changed for

us. Many of the women are allowed to come home--they perceive we are

as brothers and are not afraid."

"They also perceive that we have a Navahu war captive whom they desire

exceedingly for use on the altar of the Mesa of the Hearts,"--observed

Don Ruy. "They are much disturbed for lack of a sacrifice these days.

They say the Ancient Star will send earth troubles until such

sacrifice is made, some of the clans must donate a member unless the

gods send a substitute--their preference is for a young and comely

youth or maiden. They plainly hinted to Gonzalvo that the Navahu has

been given into our hands by the gods for that purpose."

Don Diego was emphatic in his horror, but the padre explained that

from the heathen point of view it was not so cruel as might be

thought. When the savages went to war they prepared themselves for

such fate if captured. More:--the death was not torture. The

ceremonies were religious according to the pagan idea--chants and

prayers and garlands of flowers and sacred pine were a part of the

ritual. The blade of sacrifice must be sharp, and the heart removed

from the victim quickly and held to the sun or the star behind which

the angry god waited. When it was a sacrifice of much high import, it

was made on the Mesa of the Hearts, and in remembrance a heart shaped

stone was always left near the shrine by one of the secondary

priests:--for that reason one could find many heart shaped stones,

large and small on that mesa. When a medicine man found one, even in a

far hunting ground, he brought it home for that purpose.

"And the body of the victim?" asked Don Ruy--"I have been on that mesa

and seen no bones--what becomes of it?"

"If it is trouble of floods or storm or drouth, the victim is thrown

to the god of the river below. On the mesa to the west is an ancient

circle of stones with the entrance to the east. The ordinary sacrifice

is made there for good crops, and the body is divided until each clan

may have at least a portion which he consumes with many prayers."

Don Diego confessed that such ritual sat ill upon even a healthy

stomach, for his own part the open air seemed good and desirable, and

he was of a mind to return whence they had come, rather than risk

longer unauthorized visits among such smiling soft voiced savages.

Since his eminence had learned thus much of their horrors, who was to

know how many might be left untold?--or how soon the tribes might

have a mind to circle the camp and offer every mother's son of the

Christians on some such devilish altar?

Even while he spoke a curious shock ran through the men, and they

stared at each other in amaze and question. Plainly the floor had

lifted under their feet as though some demon of the Underworld had

heaved himself upward in turning over in his sleep.

Screams and loud cries were heard from the terraces, men came tumbling

up the ladders from the kivas, and Master Chico let fall a slender

treasured volume of Señor Ariosto's romances and ran, white faced and

breathless to Don Ruy, who caught and held him while the world swayed

about them.