were a part of the
ritual. The blade of sacrifice must be sharp, and the heart removed
from the victim quickly and held to the sun or the star behind which
the angry god waited. When it was a sacrifice of much high import, it
was made on the Mesa of the Hearts, and in remembrance a heart shaped
stone was always left near the shrine by one of the secondary
priests:--for that reason one could find many heart shaped stones,
large and small on that mesa. When a medicine man found one, even in a
far hunting ground, he brought it home for that purpose.

"And the body of the victim?" asked Don Ruy--"I have been on that mesa
and seen no bones--what becomes of it?"

"If it is trouble of floods or storm or drouth, the victim is thrown
to the god of the river below. On the mesa to the west is an ancient
circle of stones with the entrance to the east. The ordinary sacrifice
is made there for good crops, and the body is divided until each clan
may have at least a portion which he consumes with many prayers."

Don Diego confessed that such ritual sat ill upon even a healthy
stomach, for his own part the open air seemed good and desirable, and
he was of a mind to return whence they had come, rather than risk
longer unauthorized visits among such smiling soft voiced savages.
Since his eminence had learned thus much of their horrors, who was to
know how many might be left untold?--or how soon the tribes might
have a mind to circle the camp and offer every mother's son of the
Christians on some such devilish altar?

Even while he spoke a curious shock ran through the men, and they
stared at each other in amaze and question. Plainly the floor had
lifted under their feet as though some demon of the Underworld had
heaved himself upward in turning over in his sleep.

Screams and loud cries were heard from the terraces, men came tumbling
up the ladders from the kivas, and Master Chico let fall a slender
treasured volume of Senor Ariosto's romances and ran, white faced and
breathless to Don Ruy, who caught and held him while the world swayed
about them.

In truth he did not even release him so quickly as might be after the
tremor had passed, but no man had time or humor to note the care with
which he held the secretary, or that it was the lad himself who drew,
flushing red, from the embrace of very strong arms.

"I--I feared you might not know--I came to tell you--" was the lame
explanation to which Don Ruy listened, and smiled while h