nd her dark eyes blazed with
fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her
lithe figure quivered as she spoke:

"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe,
if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered
on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the
sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he
alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly
learn the price of disobedience. I wait."

The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five
minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of
the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension.
Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here,
snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress.
Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as
the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them.

But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her
volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked
by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the
rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the
forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to
right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!"

Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for
terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far
beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back
again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and
superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored
fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the
forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by
every foot in the unruly crew.

It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there,
and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command.
There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men
whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel
between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of
the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two
great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the
desire