and blue stones. They had much delight to hear of the
woeful time of the white men. I could stay all my days at Ci-cu-ye and
be precious to them, if I would talk of the trouble trail to Quivera,
but when I had seen that the Padre was indeed gone to the Lost Others,
my work was no more at Ci-cu-ye. I took his books also for my own--and
all these things I have brought back at Povi-whah to make good my
promise when I went away. Some things in the books, I know, and that I
can tell you. Of the rest I will work until I do know, and then I can
tell you that."

"That is good," said K[=a]-ye-fah the Ruler. "You shall be as my son
and in the long nights of the winter moons we will listen. The time
told of in the prophecies of Ki-pah is coming to us. He said also that
in each danger time would be born one to mark the way for the people
to follow--in each danger time so long as the Te-hua people were true
to the gods!"

Tahn-te breathed on the hand of the old men, and went up from the kiva
into the cool night of the early summer.

It was too wonderful a night for aught but to reach up in thought to
the height of the warm stars. They came so close he could feel their
radiance in his heart.

Twice had his name in council been linked to the prophecies of the
wise and mysterious prophet of the ancient days! Always he had known
that the Woman of the Twilight and he were not to live the life of the
others. He had not known why they were set apart for unusual
experiences, but to-night he dared to think. With the words of the
wise men still in his ears--the rulers who could make and unmake--he
knew that no other boy had ever heard the praise and promise he had
heard. He knew they thought they were giving words to one who would be
a leader in the years to come--and this first night under the peace of
the stars, he was filled with a triumph and an exaltation for which
there were no words.

He would be a leader--not of war--not of government for the daily
duties of village life, but of the Things of the Spirit which seemed
calling within him to highest endeavor. He knew as yet nothing of
Te-hua ceremonies--he had all to learn, yet he felt inspired to invent
some expression for the joy which was his.

The new moon seemed to rest on the very edge of the mesa above
him:--the uplifted horn looked like a white flame rising from purple
shadows.

A white flame!--a _white_ flame!

To the Indian mind all signs are symbolic,--and the flame