that no man stands more
high. And I--Yahn--will be with you each step of the life trail--and
each step we dare look down on all others and be proud. The songs you
sing can be proud songs!"

The blood of Ka-yemo jumped in his veins at that picture of victory as
drawn by Yahn Tsyn-deh. Now, since she had asked him to destroy Juan
Gonzalvo was he at last content in the thought that her love had not
wandered from him, Ka-yemo! Even in the days of silence and anger had
he held her spirit;--and to do that with a woman is proof that a man
is strong! It made him feel there in the dwelling of Yahn the Apache,
that he could do battle in the open for her with the Castilian capitan
if need be and have no fear;--how much more then would he dare do the
work to be done in secret on the heights!

Thus did Yahn Tsyn-deh spin her web that Tahn-te and the maid of the
forest be caught in its meshes, and it seemed good to her that the men
of iron be killed when chance offered;--especially must the Castilian
capitan not be let live to tell the clan of Tahn-te aught of how the
plan was made;--and above all had she spoken truth to the Woman of the
Twilight by the path to the well:--her life was as the life of
Ka-yemo;--if the Castilian escaped and dared claim the price she
offered--!

At that thought Yahn felt for the knife in her girdle, and had joy
that the edge of it was keen as the steel of the Castilians, and her
smile was a threat as she almost felt her hand thrust and twist it in
the flesh of the man of iron who had dared think himself the equal of
Ka-yemo!

Some savage creatures of the wilderness there are who choose their
mates, and stand, to live or to die, against all foes who would break
the bond. The tigress will watch her mate do battle for her and then
follow his conqueror,--but Yahn Tsyn-deh had not even so much as that
meekness of the tiger in her;--her own share of the battle would she
fight that the mate she chose should remain unconquered. Proud she was
of his beauty and of his grace in the scalp dance,--but more proud
would she be when no serene young Po-Athun-ho looked at her lover as
if from a high place of thought. It was, strangely enough, the
_unspoken_ in Tahn-te against which she rebelled in bitterness. No
word that was not gentle had he ever spoken to her--and to Ka-yemo no
word that lacked dignity. It was as if the man in his thoughts was
enthroned on the clouds:--and at last she had found the way for that