t to which departed souls cling. So many are the souls of earth
people that their trail makes luminous the white way of the sky, and
all the world, and all the people, can of course be seen from that
height of the sky, and when a dart of heat lightning sped earthward to
the west, the sentinels cast prayer meals and knew that Those Above
were sending messages to Tahn-te who prayed as no other prayed.

And on the heights were his prayers, for ever it was to the mesa and
beyond that his trail led since the mighty wrath of the wind by which
the corn was broken to earth. The darkness was often running from the
dawn ere he came downward from the hills into the valley.

A scout, speeding eastward from the mountains in the dawn saw him
coming down from the ancient place of the Reader of the Stars in
Pu-ye--the sacred place where no other reader of the Sky Things goes
in the night. The Lost Others are known to abide there, and mourn the
barren field of the older day.

At times strange magic circles the ancient dwellings of the cliff.
Before a storm, light flickers like fiery butterflies above the fallen
walls on the summit.

For this reason was it deemed holy, and for this reason were the women
of Shufinne much afraid when the ghost of a woman was seen plainly
there between the edge of the cliff, and the silver disk of the moon.

The scout carried this word, and Tahn-te who had been seen coming from
prayers there, listened, but gave little heed;--the women had seen
shadows, and the older men said they were only weary that the men were
so far across the mesas. Fire out of the sky, or out of the earth, had
often danced on those heights, but no woman had been there in a ghost
form ever in the memory of men.

Much more were they intent to know of any trace of warriors on the
hills, but only smoke had been seen far beyond the place of the
boiling water of the hill springs, and the smoke could easily be of
Ua-lano hunters. Other scouts were yet to come. They had made longer
runs. This man had been told to return at dawn of the day.

[Illustration: ONE GIRL WAITED AT THE PORTAL _Page 288_]

So the word went abroad, and in the Castilian camp, Don Diego gave
fervent thanks. He was none too well pleased that to secure records
for the "Relaciones" it might be necessary to carry a spear against
the heathen. It had been plainly understood in far off Mexico that the
people to be visited were not a hostile people. They were to be found