d, raising his voice, while he bent
forward and darted at the Indian from the Rito a look of suppressed
rage, "that the Dinne should come down upon the Tyuonyi at the time when
the Koshare should fast and pray, and should kill Topanashka, the great
warrior, so that you might become maseua in his place! Now I tell you
that I shall not do either!"

The eyes of the young savage flamed like living coals.

"Then you shall not have my child!" exclaimed Tyope.

"I will get her. You may help me or not!"

"I dare you to do it," Tyope hissed.

Nacaytzusle looked straight at him.

"Do you believe," he hissed in turn, "that if I were to go down to the
brook and tell the tapop what you have urged me and my people to do
against your kin that he would not reward me?"

Tyope Tihua became very quiet; his features lost the threatening tension
which they had displayed, his eyes opened, and he said in a softer
tone,--

"That is just what I want you to do. But I want this from you alone. Go
and see the tapop. Tell him not the small talk about this and that, but
what you have seen with your own eyes about Shotaye, that witch, that
snake,--of her dark ways, how she sneaked through the brush on the mesa,
and how she found and gathered the plumage of the accursed owl. Tell him
all, and I will carry Mitsha to your lodges, tied and gagged if needs
be."

"Why don't you send the girl out alone? I will wait for her wherever you
say."

"Do you think that I would be so silly?" the Pueblo retorted with a
scornful laugh. "Do you really believe I would do such a thing? No,
Dinne, you and your people may be much more cunning than mine in many
ways, but we are not so stupid as that. If I were to do that, you would
rob me of my handsome maiden and that would be the last of it. No,
Dinne, I do not need you to such an extent, I am not obliged to have
you. But if you go to the Tyuonyi and accuse the witch, then you shall
go out free, and Mitsha must follow you to the hogans of your people,
whether she will or not. Do what I tell you, and I will do as I promise.
If you will not neither will I, for mind, I do not need you any longer."

Tyope glanced at the stars with an air of the utmost indifference.
Nacaytzusle had listened quietly. Now he said without raising his
eyes,--

"Tyope, you ask me to do all this, and do not even give me a pledge. You
are wise, Tyope, much wiser than we people of the hogans. Give me some
token that you also will do wh