a slender fragile figure
who moved to him swiftly, and noted no others in the dusk of the
council house. In Shufinne the word had reached her of the horror of
Pu-ye--and she had come quickly as might be, and the sound of his
living voice drew her breathless, but thankful to his side, and his
arm circled her in support and in tenderness as he looked over her
head to the Te-hua men of the council.

"I see your thoughts, and I read them," he said. "The men who seek the
gold have put a wall between you and me. That which you have you can
give them;--but remember in your hearts that there are things which
belong to the unborn, and such things you have no power to give them.
Only so long as you keep your own religion, and your own gods, so long
will your tribe stand as a tribe;--no longer! Step by step your
children will have to fight the strangers for that which is now your
own. Only your god-thoughts will bind you as brothers;--the god of the
gold hunters will poison your blood, and will divide your clans, and
will divide your children, until your names are forgotten in the
land!"

"The sorcerer who tells you this is the brother to the serpents in
the Desert!" said Padre Vicente springing to his feet in angry
impatience;--"enough of words have been said of this--."

A sound between a scream and a moan silenced the words on his lips,
and Don Ruy felt his blood run chill, as the drooping figure of the
Woman of the Twilight stood suddenly upright with lifted hand.

"Teo!"--she murmured in utter gladness,--and moved through the half
light of the room towards the Castilians. "Teo!"

"Holy God!" whispered Don Ruy, while the padre turned white. Don Diego
stared in horror--only one named Teo came in his mind--the Greek who
should belong to the Holy Office in Seville;--the man whose word even
now was wanted as to the older days of Christian slave trade in
Europe!

"Don Teo!" she was quite close to him now, and she spoke as a
trembling child who craves welcome,--"I--Mo-wa-the--speak! O
Spirit;--you have come back from the Star--you have come--."

The Te-hua men, and Tahn-te also, waited in wonder. Never before had
the Twilight Woman gone like that to a man--and she was so close that
the man shrank from her against the wall of the room.

"Back!"--he muttered, and he spoke Te-hua now, and his voice was rough
with rage and fear,--"This woman is evil, and brings evil power!"

"She is the Woman of the Twilight--the holy woman o