ian camp. One was Jose, and it was
Po-tzah who ran beside him. They went straight to the house of the
dove cote, and Jose waited without while, after a few eager hurried
words, the other slipped behind the twinkling arras of river reeds and
shells.

"What now?" asked Don Ruy coming up, and Jose showed fear at first and
then spoke.

"It is your own horse to which it has happened, Excellency," he said.
"The padre say it is not the fault of any one, for the bush is high
there, and who could see through them? But it is the snake--the one
you say has the castanets in the tail, and it has put the poison in
the foot of your horse!"

Don Ruy swore an oath that was half a prayer, and the pert secretary
did the first thing that was familiar since he was seen with the
company--he laid his hand on Don Ruy's shoulder and felt that the
horse lost was as a brother lost, and Chico had a fancy of his own to
caress it, and even burnish the silver of his bridle.

"And--why come you here to this house?"

"Here is the one man who knows the ways of the snake--if he is not in
prayer they think he may come--but not any man can know what the
Po-Ahtun-ho may do--and the horse beautiful may die on our first day
in Povi-whah!"

But the reeds with their copper and shell tassels tinkled, and Don Ruy
looked to see the old medicine man of spells and charms come forth.

He saw a man young as himself and more tall. Almost naked he was, with
only the white banda in which was a blue bird's feather--the girdle
and moccasins. One glance he gave Don Ruy and his companion, bent his
head ever so little in acknowledgement of their presence, and then ran
beside his friend Po-tzah with the easy stride of the trained runner.
Whatever his knowledge of the snake might be, he waited for no words,
but moved quickly.

Many men were about the animal and Don Diego had bound tightly a cord
of rawhide about the knee, and water was being poured on the foot. But
Te-hua and Castilian alike stood aside as the swift nude figure came
among them--and without word or question went straight to the hurt
animal.

The other natives had approached the four-footed creatures with a
certain curiosity--if not awe, and there had been more than a little
scattering of prayer meal when the mules were hobbled. The braying of
one of them had caused terror in the hearts of the older men.

But this man took no heed of the groups of men or of animals. He led
the injured steed out of t