,
fell in a soft curling mass of blue jet down her back to within a few
inches of her ankles. Captain Forest did not know then that it was a
sign of her royal lineage.

Once upon a time in the dim past, so far back that nobody could remember
when it had occurred, a Tewana woman had given birth to a beautiful girl
child with wonderful hair in the same year that a wandering star with a
great tail had appeared in the heavens. The coincidence seemed nothing
short of miraculous to the people. The Sachems of the tribe pronounced
the child to be consecrated and chosen to rule over them by the gods. So
it had been decreed, and ever since then, all Tewana women who had ruled
over the people had possessed this distinctive mark of their royal
lineage and bore the name, "Flaming Star."

Chiquita crossed over to where the Captain still stood leaning against
the tree and, pausing before him, looked up into his face and said:
"What are you thinking of, Sweetheart?" He flung his arms about her and
kissed her.

"I am still wondering," he answered, "how it all happened. It seems so
strange, and yet so natural."

"Just what I, too, have been thinking," she returned. "And yet it is no
more remarkable than what our entire lives have been. It could not be
otherwise."

"No," he replied. "I would not have it different for worlds. It's just
as it should be--just as it has been decreed."

"Come!" she said, leading him over to where her pack lay on the ground.
"I've got something for you," and kneeling on the ground, she began
unrolling her blankets, out of which she took a small package which, on
being opened, contained two pairs of beautifully beaded moccasins; one
pair of which she handed to him.

"It's just like you, Chiquita _mia_!" he exclaimed. "I always wear them
in camp, but in the hurry to get away, I forgot mine. I'm glad I forgot
them though," he added, holding up the moccasins and admiring them. "How
did you come to think of them?"

"I can't say," she answered. "One afternoon about a month ago while at
the _Posada_, I noticed your footprint in the gravel path in the garden
where you had been talking to the girls but a few moments before.
Things, as you know, were rather uncertain then, nevertheless, something
impelled me to take the measure and make them; thinking that possibly
you might want them some day. Besides, it was such sweet work, you
know," she added with a little laugh.

"Chiquita--you're a wonderful woman! You