eing, too, in the bright sunshine, when I've
been so long without it. You warned me, Heraka, that I would not know my
fate, nor whence nor when it might come, but instinct tells me that
it's not coming yet, and as one who can see again I mean to enjoy the
bright days."

"Wayaka is but a youth. If he were older he would fear more."

"But I'm not older. This, I suppose, is where we mean to stay awhile?"

"It is. It is one of our hidden valleys. Beyond the stretch of forest is
a Sioux village, and there you will stay until your fate befalls you."

"I imagine, Heraka, that you did not come here merely to escort me. So
great a chief would not take so long a ride for one so insignificant as
I am. You must have had another motive."

"Though Wayaka is a youth he is also keen. It is part of a great plan,
of which I will tell you nothing, save that the Sioux are a mighty
nation, their lands extending hundreds of miles in every direction, and
they gather all their forces to push back the whites."

"Then your long journey must be diplomatic. You travel to the farthest
outskirt in order to gather your utmost forces for the conflict."

Heraka smiled rather grimly.

"Wayaka may be right," he said. "He is a youth of understanding, but in
the village beyond the wood you are to stay until you leave it, but you
will not know in what manner or when you will depart from it."

Will inferred that his departure might be for the happy hunting grounds
rather than for some other place, but it could not depress him. He was
too much suffused with joy over his release from his long blindness and
with the splendor of the new world about him to feel sadness. For a
while nothing can weigh down the blind who see again. It was surely the
finest valley in the world into which they had come!

Heraka gave the word and he and his men rode forward toward the strip of
wood that he had indicated. All the ponies, although strong and wiry,
were thin and worn by their long journey, and some of the Indians,
despite their great endurance, showed signs of weariness. Little as they
displayed emotion, their own eyes had lighted up at sight of the
pleasant place into which they had come.

Will could not tell the length of the valley owing to its curving
nature, but he surmised that it might possibly be twenty miles, with a
general average width of perhaps two or three. All around it were high
mountains, and on the distant and loftier ones the snow line seemed