her tremulous girl voice:--and to see the broken
thong, and the symbols of the most primitive of tribal dances,
drove into forgetfulness the thought of all magic that was false
magic. The gods had sent the vision of her in the dawn of the
sacred mountain, that he--Tahn-te--might know her for his own when she
crossed his trail for help. The Navahu goddess of the earth jewel
had surely sent her--else why the pair of blue wings between them?
The symbolism of it was conclusive to the Indian mind, and he
reached out his hand.

"Come!" he said gently. "Little sister,--come you with me!"

* * * * *

When the sentinel on the wall of Te-gat-ha sighted a strange runner
who ran to them, and ran with swiftness, the word went to the
governor, and he sent his man of the right hand to the gate of the
wall.

In times of feasts these two had met before the days when the prayers
were listened to by Tahn-te, and the greeting given to the visitors
was a greeting to a friend.

As they crossed the court, Tahn-te could see that confusion and alarm
was there. A woman who had been chidden was weeping, and the governor
of war had his scouts at the place in the wall where the water ran
under the bridge of the great logs--that was the only place where one
could creep through without passing the gates, where the sentinel
could always see.

"She is a witch!" wailed the woman who was in tears--"The painting was
being done on her,--she would have been complete--and then it was the
pot boiled over in the ashes:--they blinded my eyes, and the child was
in the ashes also, and the body of him was burned. Could I see the
witch when my eyes were blind? Could I hear the witch when my child
screamed? Could I know she would cover herself with a deer skin and go
into the ground, or into the clouds? On no trail of earth can you find
her. She is a witch who brings bad luck to my house!"

But the men, heeding not her words, went over the ground in ways
towards the mountains, and looked with keenness on all the tracks of
women's feet.

Beyond the words of the women, Tahn-te heard nothing more of the
person who was painted almost to completeness ere she went into the
clouds, or into the ground. It was not etiquette to make questions.
The wise old governor gave greeting to the visitor as if no thing had
happened more unusual than the rising or setting of the sun.

Tahn-te had been many times to Te-gat-ha when the