he Maid of Dreams.

Not all this talk was spoken of outside the kiva:--only the name of
Yahn had been said--and that Tahn-te would have no wife even when
urged by the old men. But Koh-pe, the wife of Ka-yemo did hear of
it--also some other wives, and Yahn Tsyn-deh heard their laughter, and
carried a bitter heart in the days to follow. She had no love for
Tahn-te, yet--to wed with the Highest--would be victory over a false
lover!

For the feast made for Tahn-te the Po-Ahtun-ho, she would gather no
flowers and bake no bread, and when the dance in honor of Tahn-te was
danced, she put on her dress of a savage, brown deer skin fringed and
trimmed with tails of the ermine of the north. About her brows she
fastened a band on which were white shells and many beads in the
pattern of the lightening path--and on it was also the white of the
ermine--and the warrior feathers of the eagle which she wore not
often--but this day she wore them!

[Illustration: STRAIGHT TO HIM DRIFTED THE BLUEBIRD'S WING _Page 132_]

Also she took from an earthen jar the strands of beads of the Navahu.
With head held high she walked through the village and knew well that
she looked finer than all the dancers. Thus proudly she walked to the
sands by the river's edge, and held the beads against her brow and
bosom--and twisted them about her round arms as she gazed at her
reflection in the water. But the pride and the defiance died out of
her face when there were no jealous eyes to watch, and a tear fell on
the still water, breaking the picture.

For a space she stood--a lonely figure despite her trophies--and the
music of the dance came to her on the wind, and filled her with sullen
rage. A canoe was on the shore above; she pushed it into the water and
stepped in lifting the paddle of split ash wood and sending the craft
darting downwards--anywhere to be away from the voices of people.

And Koh-pe, of the red beads, laughed at a safe distance, and told her
comrades of the terraces that the Apache had gone fishing without a
net--she would come home empty!

CHAPTER XII

COMING OF THE CASTILIANS

Because a runner from Kat-yi-ti had been killed on the trail by a
mountain lion, and because the village of Povi-whah had forgotten the
strangers from the south in the excitement of Tahn-te's return (for
many there were who thought never to see him again!)--because of these
things it was that the men of iron rode unseen by the river, and the
alarm