t
never leave the gate unguarded when they camp under the walls."

All this Padre Vicente heard, all this and much of it was comprehended
by him. Plainly it was not well to seek converts when the pernicious
tongue of the Cacique could speak in their ears.

"It may be that we abide many days beside you," he said gently and
with manner politic--"also it may be that we visit the wise men of the
other villages, and take to them the good will of our king. The things
said to-day we will think of kindly until that time. And in the end
you will all learn of the true god, and will know that we have come to
be your brothers if you are the children of the true god."

Upon which he held up the cross, and bent his head as in prayer, and
went first up the ladder into the light. He was pale and the sweat
stood on his face. It had been a hard hour.

The others followed in due order, but Don Diego eyed the wizard
Cacique with a curiosity great as was his horror.

"Alone he has studied books without a tutor--sacred books--since his
boyhood!" he said to Don Ruy--"think of that, and of the grief we
had to persuade you to the reading of even the saintly lives!
There is devilish art in this--the angels guard us from further
sorcery--without a tutor! A savage magician to study strange
tongues without a tutor! It is nothing short of infernal!"

But despite all opinion, Don Ruy waited and approached the man of the
white robe and the cruel logic.

"You have been my friend,"--he said--"will you not eat with me and
talk in quiet of these matters?"

"You do not fear then to be marked as the comrade of a sorcerer?"
asked Tahn-te. "You must be a man of strength in your own land,
Excellency, to dare offend your priest by such offer. Is the Holy
Office no longer supreme in Spain?"

"How do you--an Indian--know of the office, of the duties of the
workers there?"

"Two years of my life I lived in the camp of Coronado. To listen was
part of my work. Strange and true tales were told in the long nights.
They are still with me."

"But--you will come?"

Tahn-te looked at him and smiled--but the smile held no gladness.

"My thanks to you, Senor. To you I give the prayer beads--it is good
to give them to you. More than that is not for me to do. My work takes
me from where the feast songs are sung."

Then he wrapped about him the white robe made of deer skins, and it
was as if he had enshrouded himself in silence not to be broken.

With reluc