truth gradually with a distinctness that was fearful, that was crushing
to him. That man was the head war-chief, Topanashka Tihua. A series of
logical deductions brought him to ravel step by step the game that was
being played. He saw now why Tzitz hanutsh had been made to bear the
first assault. It was on account of Shotaye. But as the demand was put,
it involved ultimately the question of residence, and consequently an
expulsion of the Water people. This could never have been merely on
account of one woman and in order to get rid of her, since it was so
easy to put Shotaye out of the way by the mere accusation of witchcraft.
That accusation itself appeared to the old man to be a mere pretext and
nothing else. To expel the small Water clan alone was not their object
either. His daughter, the child of Tanyi, was also implicated, and with
this thought came a flash of light. Not one clan alone, but several,
were to be removed, and as he now saw plainly, mostly the clans
occupying houses which were not exposed to the dangers which threatened
the cave-dwellers from the crumbling rock. Tzitz had only served as an
entering-wedge for their design that the house-dwellers should make room
for the others. The more Topanashka thought over it, the more he felt
convinced that he was right. And the stronger his convictions the more
he saw that the plans of the two fiends, Tyope and the Naua, were likely
to succeed. They were bad men, they were dangerous men; but they
certainly had a pair of very subtle minds.

Was it possible to defeat their object? Other men, differently
constituted from Topanashka, might have come to the conclusion that it
was best to leave the Rito with their people at once, without any
further wrangling, and make room peaceably. To this he could never
consent. None of his relatives or their friends should be sacrificed to
the intrigues of the Turquoise people. Rather than yield he was firmly
determined that the Turquoise people themselves should go. But only
after they had done their worst. It was true, as Tyope had said, that a
division of the tribe entailed a dangerous weakening of both fragments;
but then if it must be, what else could be done? Still he was in hopes
that the Shiuana would not consent to a separation, and in his firm
belief in the goodness of Those Above he resolved, when the time came,
to do his utmost for the preservation of peace and unity. But it was a
crushing weight to him. Not a soul had