r of Niowee still to
secure the point, could not arrest their own momentum, and went over the
startled and dumfounded player in a swift dash, leaving him prone upon
the ground. He was on his feet in an instant, his physical faculties
rallying promptly, but so bewildered and doubtful that he had but one
definite mental process, the resolve to regain for Ioco the point he had
so mysteriously lost. Twice afterward his fine playing focused the
attention of the crowd. Twice their plaudits of his skill rang through
the vibrating air. Then the ball, hardly checked by the web of his
racket, passed through the ball-sticks, and all realized their
bewitchment.

Amoyah heard the gossip afloat concerning the matter before he had well
quitted the course. The Great Bear had torn the net of the ball-sticks
with his claw, one brave was telling another as he passed, because
Amoyah had unveraciously boasted that he had walked by invitation in the
procession of the bears during their annual march with their shadows at
their hidden mysterious town in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Amoyah paused, tired, excited, panting, and critically examined the web.
Surely enough the interlacing thongs had parted in twain in two straight
lines, invisible save on close inspection, as deftly and as evenly
severed as if cut with a keen knife.

It was late in the day. The sun was now on a westering slant. The
parties of spectators were breaking up, some to journey homeward, others
going into the town with friends. The place that the crowd had occupied
had that peculiarly dreary aspect characteristic of a deserted pleasure
ground. Trampled heavily it was, and the charred remnant of a fire
showed black here and there; broken bits of food were scattered in
places where feasting had been; a great gourd that had held some gallons
of water lay shattered on the ground at his feet; a group at a distance
were doubtfully retracing their steps, searching for something they had
lost; at the farthest limits a wolf like a dog, or a dog like a wolf,
was gnawing at a bone, and snarling as he gnawed. It was all frowzy,
jaded, forlorn.

Somehow suddenly he had a sense of freshness, an illumination, as it
were a vision, of the early morning light striking through a network of
bare trees upon the shimmering reaches of a river. And there on the bank
lay his ball-sticks,--quite good and sound then, he would have staked
his life. And now a picture was before him,--being a man of