enemy, where ambush and slaughter was often known. Many captives
had been driven between the high rock walls. Youths and maidens swept
from Te-hua corn fields, and Navahu captives as well, caught by Te-hua
hunters in the hunting grounds to the West,--all came through the one
great pass--and the way of the trail was so narrow that to guard it
was not a hard thing in time of battle.

The rush of the swift water was always near as he went on and on in
the darkness. It had a lulling effect. The whispers of the pines also
spoke of rest. This was the fourth day of the fasting. He, Tahn-te,
had been strong as few men are strong, but suddenly in the night,
earth and sky seemed to meet, and putting out his hands he groped
through a thicket of the young pines, and fell there quite close to
the dancing water--and all the life of earth drifted far. He, Tahn-te,
the devotee of the Trues--the weaver of spells, and dancer of the
Ancient Dance to the God of the Stone, lay at last in the stupor
beyond dreams, helpless in the path of an enemy if any should trail
him for battle.

His sleep was dreamless, and the length of it until the dawn seemed
but a hand's breadth on the path of the stars across the sky.

But with the dawn a vision came, and he knew it again as the actual
form of that which had been so often the vague dream-maid of charmed
moments.

There was the flash of water in the pool--a something distinct from
the steady murmur of its ripples--that was the sign by which he was
wakened quite suddenly, without movement or even a breath that was
loud. Under the little pines at the very edge of the stream he was
veiled in still green shadows, and there before him was The Maid of
Dreams. Those Above had let her come to him that for once his eyes
should see and his heart keep her in the medicine visions of this
fasting time of prayer.

[Illustration: THE MAID OF DREAMS _Page 130_]

Not once did she turn her eyes towards him as she stood, dripping with
the water of the bath. Her slender figure was in shadow, and her
movements were shy and alert and quick.

To the dry sand she stepped, and lifted thence a white deerskin robe.
Two bluebird wings were in the white banda about her loosened hair,
very blue was the color of the wings as the light touched them, and he
thought of the wonderful Navahu Goddess Estsan-atlehi who was created
from an earth jewel--the turquoise, and who is the beloved of the Sun.
If a maid could be moulded