"

"Oh--impious!" groaned Don Diego, and crossed himself in horror. "Oh
Excellency--your words are apostate--unsay them and tempt not Almighty
Power!"

The padre turned pale with anger and shut his teeth close under the
dark beard. But he was not a coward, and the habit of domination
through special privileges was a habit of many years, and it served
him against the merely temporal power of even regal influences.

"Of the witch creature I gave them no word," he said--"it was their
thrice accursed sorcerer they were sent in search of. But the two
belong to each other, and the old men of the order know now that their
high priest is in league with devils. Never again will he be the
Ruler. His power is overthrown. He cannot save even his own witch-mate
from the vengeance of the clans. The thing we have crossed these
deserts for will be given to us since his voice against us is
silenced. Is that a thing to regret, Excellency? I thought it was for
this we made entrance to the land--and for this you joined hands for
the expedition!"

He had recovered his ease of manner, and even a mocking tone crept
into the final words. Don Ruy looked around the faces of the
Castilians and Mexicans and saw no more of special emotion in the
light of the gray dawn than they had shown at the dance of the scalps
in the glow of torches so few hours ago.

To them all it was only a witch being led to death, and they had seen
that same thing in Christian lands. It was not a thing for special
wonder,--except that this sorceress was young, and that she looked at
the young Indian Ruler, and smiled often, and little sounds like a
mere murmur of a song came sometimes from her lips.

[Illustration: ONLY A WITCH LED TO DEATH _Page 310_]

"_Just at daylight Doli calls
The bluebird has a voice
His voice melodious
That flows in gladness
Doli calls! Doli calls!_"

The guard shrank away from her as she began. The Navahu captive who
had been long a slave, said it was the song of the Dawn, and that it
was the last song of many songs which were part of the wonderful
"Night Chant" ceremony of his people,--it was a ceremony to heal all
things of the ills of life.

But despite his words the Te-hua men shrank away, and the Te-hua women
had trembling hands as they stripped her, and crowned her with the
sacred pine, and fastened around her a girdle of the feat