Part 30 (1/2)
”What dare be written in the 'Relaciones' of a thing like that?” he queried.--”You smile, Excellency, as if you carried a magic s.h.i.+eld, or enchanted sword lifted from pages of old romance, but what think you Senor Brancadori will say to this thing of wonder? It does not belong to the living world we know.”
”Let it not get into your dreams,” suggested Don Ruy--”or if you do, content yourself with the fancy that I indeed bear a magic s.h.i.+eld and am ever near enough for you to hide behind it.”
”I am not so much a coward!” retorted the lad,--”to die for a good cause in any human way is not a thing to fear--but these magical works--”
”Without doubt they do belong to the sorcery of Satan,” said Don Ruy soberly, yet with an eye on the padre--”and yon supple racer is of course one of his heirs. Stay you close to me, lad, and forget not your orisons.”
When they reached the camp, a herald was calling to the people from the terraces. He was calling for all the men to prepare for battle. In a vision of the bright day had Tahn-te seen the coming of the Navahu.
The medicine of Tahn-te was strong. Not at home would they wait for battle. To steal women had the enemy taken the trail to the dwellings of the Ancient ruins in the hills, and there must the warriors prepare to meet them on the trail.
The names of men were called as scouts, and the response was quick, as one after another ran to the kiva for orders, and then started on the run towards mesa and forest.
Don Ruy looked after them with eyes perplexed.
”Does the Cacique regard the mirage with earnestness?” he said to the padre who also watched and listened. ”The man has a quick, good brain and marvellous understandings,--but to prepare for battle because of a sun picture in the sand is scarce what I looked for in him.”
Padre Vicente smiled with his lips, and stroked his beard.
”You have yet to learn that the Indian magic workers let no tricks go by to prove their greatness,”--he said. ”That wench and Jose were witness to the thing--thus he must claim it as his own! When the scouts find no Navahu warriors, be sure it will be for the reason that the magic of the sorcerer caused them to turn back in weakness on the trail!”
”That will but strengthen his power, if it be so,” agreed the younger man,--”and how will you surmount that fear of him, and win the renegade of Ni-am-be to give the word we need?”
”Protection and a life of ease away from the Indian magicians is a good bribe for an outcast,--and it may be that fortune plays into our hands. I could wish that the Cacique would follow the scouts with his mummeries and incantations. You see how they have taught even Jose the fear of him!”
”Yes--I do see, and but for the story that in this one village is held the gold secret, I should say to move camp to some province where bookish caciques hold no sway. How account you for the keen brain of this wonder-worker? We have pampered and tutored numbskulls in Seville who know not even their own creed so well as it is known by this heretic barbarian.”
”Without doubt it is the power of the Prince of Darkness,” and Padre Vicente gave the opinion with all due force--having in remembrance that scene of the gift of the rosary in the kiva, and seeing clearly that the Spanish adventurer had more than a little of admiration for the unexpected daring of the pagan.--”Witchcraft and sorcery are of the Devil, and both white men and savages do trade their souls for evil knowledge. To strip him of his ill-gotten power would be a work of grace for the Faith--and it is a thing for which each Christian should gladly say many prayers!”
Don Ruy well knew that these ardent words were directed at his own luke-warmness in regard to the young Ruler. Maestro Diego and Juan Gonzalvo had distanced him in setting a good example to the men of the guard!
A messenger from the kiva approached and spoke to Yahn, and she came to the Spaniards with a message.
A council was in the kiva. It was about war if war came. The Po-Ahtun-ho thought it was good that one of the white visitors be asked to sit and listen; Don Ruy was invited to be that one. The man Jose was to interpret.
Don Ruy speculated as to the cause of this courtesy. The Ruler certainly did not desire the help of the white men--the message did not even say as much. But it was plain that there were two parties on that question, and Tahn-te meant to show no fear of his opponents.
They would see he gave them fair chances.
So he went, and Jose followed, and Yahn watched them--to her great, yet silent rage.
Ka-yemo only reached the village as the last scout was started for the trail of the Po-et-se canon. Ka-yemo was the official for the war orders, yet the orders had been given without speech with him! Over his head had it been done, and his protest to the governor, and to the old men in council brought him little of pride or of comfort.
”On the trail to see your wife you might have died,” said one of the old men,--”or on the way coming home. How could we know? If you die and we have to fight--we have to fight without you. Before you were born we fought without you.”
”I was not to see a wife!” protested Ka-yemo. ”I can stay away like other men. Some one has talked crooked! I was on the mesa talking with the guardians who make the arrow heads. To the far away ones I talked.
The women send word to them that they are afraid. A ghost is at Pu-ye.
All the women but the Twilight Woman are much frightened. They want men.”
”Good!” said the governor. ”The scouts are already on the trail. If men are needed, each man is ready and each spear is waiting. To the Po-Ahtun-ho has been shown a vision of the enemy--it was not a time to wait for council.”
Ka-yemo's handsome face was still sulky. The vision of Tahn-te might have waited. He had come down with a fine new story of a ghost seen in the ruins of Pu-ye, and it was ignored because Tahn-te the Po-Athun-ho had found a vision!