palms, when other amusement was not to be found, it pleased him to
see what his brown girl carried hidden even from her master. It took
much persuasions, for she felt that evil would happen if it was shown
except it be a matter of ceremony. Then she at last took from the
pouch, salt from a sacred lake, feather and claw and beak of a yellow
bird, a blade of sharpest flint, and--this!"

He again held the piece of gold that they might see it. Even the
Indians leaned forward and looked at it and then eyed the white men
and each other in silence. To them it was "medicine" as the priest
told the adventurers it had been to the Te-hua girl.

"Your Greek pirate of the good luck went close to madness at the
certain fact that for months he had been walking steadily away from
the place where this was found. To the girl it was a sacred thing
hidden in the earth of her land by the sun--and only to be used for
ceremonies. The place where it grew was a special hidden place of
prayer offering."

"Faith!--we all must learn prayers enough to get our share!--if prayer
will do the work!" said Don Ruy.--"Chico, it means that you get an
Indian primer,--and that you find for me a brown enchantress. His
reverence will grant us all a special indulgence for hours of the
schooling!"

Senor Don Brancadori sat up very straight and shook his head at the
priest:--so well assured was he that enough liberties would be taken
without the indulgences of holy church. Moreover it was not well to
put the deviltries of camp in the mind of so good a lad as Chico.

"And the girl gave to him the gold and told him its hiding place?" he
asked.

"We may say she gave it--thought in truth she declared it could not be
given--it could only be made a barter of for other medicine, but it
must be strong medicine. The blade of flint was to guard her magic
symbols if need be, and the man, her master, saw in that moment that
the mind he had to deal with in this matter was an Indian mind, in
which there is not reason. And to find a 'medicine' potent for charms
was a task set for a man in the place of the palms."

"Then a forgotten thing came into his mind. It had been a vow made to
an enticing creature of San Lucar. She was also devout as a young nun.
The vow was of a return--and no doubt of other meetings. The end of it
was that she gave him a rosary--(his first captors coveted that and
took care of it). But also they ate together of fruit, and as both
ladies and ga