lothes--a coarse cotton mantle, and a
short skirt. Here is a jar of dye. You had better strip at once,
and let me color you, and then put on these clothes. It will be too
dark to see to do it properly, when I return. Besides, time will be
short then.

"This small jar contains some dye from the juice of a plant which
will turn your hair black--at least, as they use it for dyeing the
skins of animals black, I suppose it will affect your hair."

Roger at once took off his gaudy attire, and was stained from head
to foot with the contents of the jug, and then rubbed his hair with
the liquid from the smaller vessel. Then he put on the peasant's
clothes.

"You will pass well, now," Cuitcatl said, heading him out in the
moonlight, so that he could obtain a good view of him. "It is only
your height that is against you. Still, some men are taller than
others; though I never saw one as tall as you, and you will
certainly be stared at.

"Is there anything else in the way of arms you would like, beside
the ax and spear?"

"I shall make myself a bow and arrows, when we get fairly away,"
Roger said.

"I did not know you could use them."

"I could not use such little things as those your people carry; but
we still use the bow in England, and every boy is obliged, by law,
to practice with it. With such a bow as I should make, I could send
an arrow three times as far as those puny weapons of yours, and
could keep my foes at a distance; whereas, otherwise, they could
shoot me down as they chose."

"They will not shoot you down," Cuitcatl said. "You may be quite
sure that the orders will be to take you alive, and this will give
you a great advantage, if you are attacked. But I must be going up
now to the palace again, to show myself, for a time, among our
friends. Just as the moon sets I will be here."

"Will you thank the queen and princess for their kindness," Roger
said, "and say that, much as I should like to say goodbye to them,
I would not that they should run any risks by coming to see me?"

"They will come," Cuitcatl said, "unless I am greatly mistaken. The
princess would come, even if her uncle Montezuma were, himself,
watching her."

Roger sat down again, and watched the moon going down. He felt a
certain sense of exhilaration at the thought that he was about to
enter upon a life of active adventure, again. It had seemed to him,
lately, that his life was to be spent in this strange country, cut
off from all chanc