of the terrible accusation against his wife and her. If that were the
case there was no immediate danger, since all the Koshare were not
informed of the matter. Returning to the hearth she poked the embers,
placed on them another stick of pitchy wood, and fanned it with her
breath until the flames burst forth, lively and bright. Until then Say
had remained motionless in her seat. She had taken no notice of her
friend's movements; but when the wood flamed and a warm glow began to
spread over the apartment, she started like one whose dreams are
suddenly disturbed and began to speak.

"I must go," she exclaimed anxiously. "I must go home. I must cook for
Zashue! He is looking for me! I must go," and she attempted to rise.

Shotaye tried to quell her sudden apprehension, but she kept on with
growing excitement,--

"I must! Let me go! Let me go! For he is looking for me."

"He is not," assured the other. "Be quiet. He is yonder with his people
in the cave. There he sits and there he will stay till late."

A sudden tremor seized the body of Say. Her hands shook like aspen
leaves. "Is he there?" she gasped. "Then he is coming after me. Is he
not a Koshare?" Her eyes glistened with that peculiar glare which
betokens aberration of the mind.

Any ordinary Indian woman would have concluded from the appearance and
utterances of Say that she was hopelessly insane, and would either have
resorted to incantations or left her in terror. Shotaye, although very
much frightened, did not think of desertion, but only of relief. With
keen self-possession she said in a decided and convincing tone,--

"Fear nothing, sa tao; he will not come, for he knows nothing."

"Nothing?" inquired Say, looking at her with the shy and sly glance of a
doubting maniac.

"Nothing at all!" Shotaye exclaimed, firmly. She had recovered her
ascendency. She directed her glance, commanding and convincing, straight
at the wavering gaze of the excited woman, whose look became dim and
finally meek. Shotaye took advantage of the change.

"Zashue knows nothing at all," she asserted, "and that is very, very
good; for it gives us hope."

"But if they tell him!" and the anxious look came back to her face.

"Let them tell, if they choose," defiantly exclaimed the other;
"afterward we shall see."

Say shook her head in doubt.

"But how did the Koshare come to know about it?" Shotaye again pressed
the main question.

"I do not know," sighed Say; and she agai