n beings stood on the terraces
or moved along them. Now and then one was seen to rise from the interior
of the pile to one of the terraced roofs, or another slowly sank from
sight, as if descending into the interior of the earthy heap. On the
outside, beams leaned against it, and on them people went up and down,
as if climbing ladders. Thin films of smoke quivered in the air from
imperceptible flues.

The cliffs themselves extended north of this building and east and west
as far as the range of view permitted, like a yellowish ribbon of
towering height with innumerable flexures and alternations of light and
shade. Their base was enlivened by the bustle of those who dwelt in
caves all along the foot of the imposing rocky wall. Where to-day only
vacant holes stare at the visitor, at the hour on the day when our story
begins, human eyes peered through. Other doors were closed by deer-hides
or robes. Sometimes a man, a woman, or a child, would creep out of one
of these openings, and climbing upward, disappear in the entrance of an
upper tier of cave-dwellings. Others would descend the slope from the
cliffs to the fields, while still others returned from the banks of the
ditch or of the brook. At the distance from which the boys viewed the
landscape all passed noiselessly; no human voice, no clamour disturbed
the stillness of the scene.

Peaceful as Nature appeared, neither of the youth were in the least
struck by its charms or influenced by the spell which such a tranquil
and cheerful landscape is likely to exercise upon thinking and feeling
man. With both it was indifference; for the Indian views Nature with the
eyes of a materially interested spectator only. But the elder brother
had another reason for not noticing the beauty of the scene. He was not
only troubled, he was seriously embarrassed. The hint thrown out by his
little brother about the Koshare had struck him; for it led to the
inference that the child had knowledge of secret arts and occult
practices of which even he, Okoya, although on the verge of manhood, had
never received any intimation. Far more yet than this knowledge, which
Shyuote might have obtained through mere accident, the hint at
unpleasant relations between Okoya and the Koshare startled the latter.

It was perfectly true that he not only disliked but even hated the
cluster of men to which the name of Koshare was given in the tribe; but
he had concealed his feelings as carefully as possible unti