l earth people who knew it--it has been forgotten!"

"But--without it we will lose our brothers of the new god!"

"Without it you will surely lose your brothers of the new god!" he
assented. "Each time you look on the God-Maid of the mesa who has
turned away her face, you will remember the prophecies of Tahn-te!
Each time the God of Young Winter paints leaves yellow for the sleep
to come, your children will see a sign on the mountain to tell them
that Tahn-te was indeed Brother to the Serpent as that man said in his
mocking!--also that the prayers of Tahn-te do not end. Free I came
from the Desert to you, and I carried the Flute of the Gods, and fruit
for your children:--free I go out from your dwellings and carry my
'witch mother' to rest!"

He gathered her in his arms, and looked once into the pallid face of
her accuser and destroyer. At that look from the pagan priest the
white priest shrank and covered his face with the cowl.

"You--go?" said Po-tzah.

"In the place of Povi-whah another will hear your prayers to the gods,
and I--Tahn-te the outcast--I go!"

No more words were spoken among the men of the council. In silence
they watched him as he walked with his burden up the trail of the mesa
where he had run so gladly to make his boy vow at the shrine.

No happy sign shone for him this time in the sky. It was as he said to
Don Ruy;--those who make vows to the gods,--and forget them for earth
people, pay--and pay prices that are heavy! But above him a bird swept
into the golden sky. He put up his hand to the wings in his hair--and
heard plainly the words of the mate who would wait his call at the
trail's end.

And Don Ruy Sandoval watched the man called "sorcerer" out of sight,
and then went to the dwelling of Jose and gathered to his breast the
secretary who had adopted blanket draperies.

[Illustration: TAHN-TE; THE OUTCAST _Page 326_]

"Sweetheart comrade," he said without proper prelude or
preparation--"There is not anything in this weary world worth living
for but Love, and Love alone. Shall we take the homeward journey and
go where we can guard it?"

"There are tears in your eyes," said his "Dona Bradamante,"--"and you
look as if you make love to me, yet think of some other thing!"

"I have seen a man live through hell this day," he answered. "Never
ask me, Sweetheart--what the hell was. It is beyond belief that a man
could live it, and continue to live after it."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE BLU