HOUSE 
 
 Dawn 
 
 MA OAH fS RYAN 
 
 1 LrvrYrMJ L-iJLJLjiitJ;-; Iva/ilX
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 BOOTH
 
 ^ 
 
 ^
 
 of tfje
 
 Books by Marah Ellis Ryan 
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN. Illus 
 trated by Hanson Booth. Crown 8vo. net $1.35 
 
 THE WOMAN OF THE TWILIGHT. 
 
 Illustrated by Hanson Booth. Crown 8vo. nei 
 $1.35 
 
 PAGAN PRAYERS. Boards. Decorated, 
 net 60 cents 
 
 INDIAN LOVE LETTERS. Designs 
 and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. 16- 
 mo. net $1.00. Special ooze calf, boxed, net $1.50. 
 "Distinctive leather" net $1.75. 
 
 FOR THE SOUL OF RAFAEL. A Ro 
 mance of Old California. Nineteen illus 
 trations and decorations in tint. Crotvn 8vo. net 
 $1.35. "Distinctive leather" net $2.50. 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Co. Publishers 
 Chicago
 
 When Sancha Dared the Trail Alone. 
 
 [Page 214]
 
 House of ike Damn 
 
 In, 
 
 MARAH ELLIS RYAN. 
 
 A-utKcxr 
 "Irtdietn, Love Letters" 
 "For iKe Scml of Raf euel" 
 "The Womaa of the Twilightretc 
 
 riktstrated and Decorated 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 A. c. MCCLURG & co. 
 
 1914
 
 Copyright 
 
 A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
 
 1914 
 
 Published October, 1914 
 Copyrighted in Great Britain 
 
 I. y. %M Printing Co..
 
 3To nuj 
 Jfrtenfcs, 2U&, ano Hfjtt?, 
 
 of tfje 
 inhtan lesfert
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I Don Juan Tells It 1 
 
 II The Betrothal 7 
 
 III The Things Forbidden 19 
 
 IV In Mexico 33 
 
 V The Lesson of Lispanos to Heretical Souls 47 
 
 VI Tristan the Ranger 62 
 
 VII The Amusements of Dona Perfecta . . 84 
 
 VIII Sancha to Alphard 98 
 
 IX The Trial of the Faith 109 
 
 X The Coming of Sancha 138 
 
 XI The Passing of the Penitents . . .157 
 
 XII The Love Trail 169 
 
 XIII The New Master of Camp . . . .191 
 
 XIV Riding the Trail Alone 211 
 
 XV The Finding of Anita 236 
 
 XVI In the Painted Desert 260 
 
 XVII Among the Serpent People . . . .290 
 
 XVIII The Canon of the Divine Ones . . .317 
 
 XIX The End of the Trail 349 
 
 XX On Santa Fe Hill in New Granada . . 368 
 
 XXI The Insurrection of 1680 . . . .384 
 
 XXII Under Blessings of Pagan Gods . . 399
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 
 When Sancha dared the trail alone . . Frontispiece 
 
 The recognition 166 
 
 The finding of Anita 256 
 
 The excommunicated lovers ... . 400
 
 The House of the Dawn 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 DON JUAN TELLS IT 
 
 I, too, Perdida, would venture my soul 
 If your heart true should love me! 
 If your lips red should touch me! 
 I, too, Querida, would venture a soul 
 If your white hand should lead me! 
 
 UNDER my balcony in the Mexican night a singer 
 sweeps the strings of his guitar until they 
 thrill and plead to the maid behind the bars 
 in the house opposite. So much is she of the 
 shadow there that I only see her when a white bodice 
 presses forward against the grating or a little hand 
 lets fall a yellow rose in the starlight. 
 
 His eyes and his thoughts are for her, and hers go 
 to him with the rose. Their own little romance looms 
 so big with import that to neither comes special 
 thought of the song itself, or the " Dona Perdida " of 
 whom the song was made. 
 
 Yet it is not so long ago a mere yesterday. Either 
 of the lovers opposite might have gazed up at her 
 grandeur as she looked with young, eager, seeking eyes
 
 2 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 from the balcony of the viceroy s palace that palace 
 from which her trail was planned to the northland of 
 the Indians. 
 
 No, it is not so long ago. I am still here waiting 
 word of her, yet those two children of the yellow rose 
 and the guitar have their own way of making a man 
 feel old ; and that song of " Perdida " 
 
 It is not to be thought that our Sancha was christened 
 " Perdida " or the " Lost One " far from it. Her 
 cousin, the Archbishop and Viceroy, could have told 
 them how nearly royal was her blood and how weighty 
 her name. But he, good man, had closed on himself 
 the doors of a monastery in Spain ere the Brotherhood 
 blotted out her name from the lists of Christian folk 
 here in Mexico. 
 
 " Perdida," heretic, without the faith, they said when 
 her name was publicly burned at the auto-da-fe. Yet 
 the saints knew* she had strong faith a faith so large 
 that it bridged ocean and desert. By faith alone 
 her vision of love grew into a living thing so great 
 that all the needs of smaller souls fell from her as a 
 garment cast aside. Not once, I know, did she ever 
 look backward with a sigh to that garment of gilded 
 magnificence. I cross myself as I write it, lest the devil, 
 who is always busy, think that I approve her mad sacri 
 fice, and the angels know my will was good to put a 
 stop to it in the very beginning, had it been in the power 
 of a lad, half sick with his own love, of which he was 
 too young to tell. 
 
 But the years change one, and while I wait, or while 
 I seek, I shall make record of the days in the land of 
 the barbarians, for not again in one life may a man
 
 DON JUAN TELLS IT 3 
 
 come close to so great a love, whether in outlaw or 
 true son of the church; and beside me there is none 
 left alive who knew how the bond grew between those 
 two, and how it strengthened with each hard stroke 
 of fortune until the courts and palaces of men seemed 
 but trifling things in exchange for sanctuary in the 
 " House of the Dawn." 
 
 Bernal Diaz, after his campaigns, made written record 
 of the things he saw and did in the pagan cities and 
 the wilderness, and it is good and true reading, though 
 at times terrible, as one must expect a soldier s tale 
 of conquest to be. For myself, I must set down plainly 
 that I got not even a smell of conquest such as his, 
 though I crossed the water with all the faith of Sancho 
 Panza in winning, at the very least, a governor s staff ; 
 and like him had more routings than any lad of adven 
 ture ever sees in his most dismal dreams. Gold there 
 was, and silver in plenty but the brown people took 
 their toll. 
 
 Added to all this was the fact that I followed a 
 mistress instead of a master and a mistress whose 
 beauty was an unbelievable wonder of earth. All boys, 
 and even men, feel like that concerning the charm 
 some one maid has given out to the world, but the 
 charm of our Sancha is a living charm today, here in 
 this city of Mexico; and the singing of that song 
 " Perdida " brings it back to me like a sweep of 
 music in a night of roses. 
 
 It was but yesterday I heard a padre chiding a 
 singer of the song; also he discoursed on the devilish 
 impiety of it. I stood aside, silent, and listened while 
 he said plainly that the nameless " Dona Perdida " was
 
 4 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 bewitched and enchanted by one of the workers on 
 earth for the prince of darkness, and that the singer 
 must do penance by ten Ave Marias before the miracle 
 picture of Our Lady in the Chapel. 
 
 Muttering and admonishing the singer, he shuffled 
 into the cool dusk of the sanctuary and bent where the 
 wonderful face smiles from the frame like a living maid 
 gazing down from a golden window of paradise into the 
 world. As if on the top of the world she stands there, 
 with the drifting clouds of white back of her, the silver 
 white doves above, and the sun s rays touching the 
 white drapery over her head like a glory crown. 
 White all white but the rose-leaf flesh, the wide, gray, 
 seeking eyes, and the dark braids of hair down either 
 shoulder and near touching the fawn on which her 
 hand rests. 
 
 I had thoughts of my own as to the horror of the 
 padre if I should tell him that the lost soul of the for 
 bidden song and the Virgin of the Fawn were one and 
 the same, and that the radiant glory crown was inspired 
 by a full white skirt drawn upward over the head of 
 the maid as a shield from the sun on a far-away hill of 
 Andalucia. Even the home forest of that fawn I could 
 have told, and solved a knotty problem ; for the graceful 
 animal of soft shy eyes had caused much discourse 
 among the ecclesiastics, by the reason that no record of 
 the Holy Evangelists held any word of such a com 
 panion of the forest for Our Lady of Light. A lamb 
 might have been understood but a wild, care-free 
 creature of the wilderness! I know Padre Felipe gave 
 advice that it be painted over, and that lilies be painted, 
 instead. His reason was that pagan false gods of old
 
 DON JUAN TELLS IT 
 
 Rome were such wild things of forest or sylvan places ; 
 among them a piper of devilish music, with the horns 
 and haunches of a goat. I never dare inquire too 
 closely as to the relationship between a kid and a fawn, 
 or betray special interest in the controversy content 
 that it has quieted down, and that the symbol of the 
 wilderness is left beside her in her high place against 
 the sky. 
 
 So I kept to myself what I knew of the miracle of 
 that picture, having no desire to follow the convicted 
 of sin in line to the next roastings at the quemadora 
 and if I had but hinted that my own hands had made 
 the sandals for the slender feet of the virgin on the can 
 vas, well at the very mildest I would have been 
 possessed of a devil, and sheltered the rest of my days 
 in a monastery, and my worldly goods divided between 
 the King and the Holy Brotherhood. 
 
 They have already made some blessed and fanciful 
 tales about the picture, intended to affect anyone prone 
 to heretical doubts; for even a Jew must believe when 
 it is shown that the artist painted it in prison with no 
 woman to look at, and that Our Lady herself came to 
 him and showed herself, that his soul might be saved 
 by faith and the church be made a place of pilgrimage 
 in her honor, which it is today. Sermons have been 
 preached on that picture, and I have been sorely puz 
 zled at some of them, since it would seem that Our 
 Lady s discernment was at fault in that she elected to 
 show herself only to a heretic possessed of the devil, 
 who still continued, in spite of her graciousness, to be 
 possessed by devils. 
 
 But, as I wish to live in comfort if I am to live at 
 
 1
 
 6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 all, I keep a long face and my tongue between my teeth 
 when these mystical tales are told, and in time I gain 
 almost the name of being a religioso because of the 
 many times I kneel at that altar, and dream away the 
 hours there. 
 
 I go to look at the dear little bare feet in the sandals 
 I made, and it gives me comfort to see the serene joy 
 of life in her eyes, and know that if she continues to 
 live the joy is still hers for if it ever left she would 
 die, and that of course would be best. There are 
 women, and men too, who live on with a life all patches 
 and scraps of what they meant it to be, but I know our 
 Sancha, whose name is forbidden, would go into death 
 as to a royal audience, gracious and unbroken.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE BETROTHAL 
 
 A LITTLE queen, Sancha seemed to me, that 
 far-away day of her betrothal ! She was twelve, 
 and Marco nineteen, and he was to sail in a 
 week with his uncle, Rodrigo de Ordono, to 
 one of the provinces of Mexico. I was fourteen and 
 was jealous of him because he was going out into a 
 world of mysteries, and it was easy to see from the 
 petting of the women that life was arranged for him 
 in pleasant places ! His suit of velvet was darkest blue, 
 with silver buckles on shoes, and silver buttons wher 
 ever there was space for them, and the emerald ring 
 of his father on his hand, while cousin Sancha was 
 laced into a brocade of rose, with the wedding veil of 
 our grandmother, the Marquesa de Llorente, falling to 
 her little slippers, even though caught in many loops 
 through the ancient girdle of golden wires and jeweled 
 butterflies. I always have had suspicions that the girdle 
 was come by through that infidel Moresco grandee, 
 who, it is said, came into the family some generations 
 ago. However, with conveniences to Christian souls 
 and it may be by some expense to treasure chests no 
 mention above a whisper had been made of him for a 
 lifetime or two. If a family urges itself not into forget- 
 fulness of heretic blood, the Holy Brotherhood have a 
 
 7
 
 8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 way of smelling the trail to it, if there is a maravedi to 
 confiscate or a monastery in need of more lands. 
 
 Pearls were also about her neck the first time 
 Sancha had been given the joy of wearing jewels. 
 They at least did not blazon their early pagan pos 
 sessors, but lay lustrous as moonlight on the flushed 
 marble of her shoulders. 
 
 So gorgeous a butterfly she was, and she knew it - - 
 the child coquette glancing sideways at Marco, and 
 giving look for look at the older men who praised her ; 
 kissing Don Rodrigo, her guardian, but with her eyes 
 on Miguel Alrada, the page of Sefior Cura. You never 
 would have thought she had lived always among the 
 blessed nuns of St. Dominic, and that when the days of 
 the betrothal fiesta were over she would go again up 
 into the gray walls on the gray hills for five years, until 
 Marco de Ordono, with happiness well arranged for 
 him, came back from Mexico to claim her. 
 
 It is not easy for a shy lad of fourteen to love a tall 
 gallant of nineteen summers when there is a maid 
 between them, not even though he be, in a way, a cousin ; 
 but this lack of love was aggravated that day until in 
 my jealousy, and with my murderous thoughts of what 
 I should do to him when I had doubled my height, I 
 was obliged to make confession to Padre Juan of my 
 homicidal intentions. 
 
 It was not that he had married her to me all that 
 betrothal formality in the presence of the family was 
 as a bona fide wedding fiesta but I was furious be 
 cause he could have eyes and ears for other maids there. 
 I I could only sit like an owl in my holiday finery, and 
 blink and wonder at the beauty of her, while he not
 
 THE BETROTHAL 9 
 
 only had smiles and honey words for others but danced 
 with them after the supper! 
 
 It never entered my loyal mind to question why she 
 also was gay as a bird of springtime, and in no way 
 chary of her hands, or her glances, or her soft laughter, 
 as she chose to dance with every eager youth. I was 
 not jealous of them. I have grown to know I was jeal 
 ous for her in truth I was a little fanatic who resented 
 that there should be other idols in the world than 
 my own. 
 
 Even now, when I think over those child hours, I 
 cannot see why, in her brocade, and the pearls, and the 
 wonderful lace, she was not more inspiring to an artist 
 than on the hill with bare feet in sandals, and her white 
 skirt over her head; but poets and artists are curious. 
 I, perhaps, keep the only picture of her in the betrothal 
 dress, and that is in my mind, stamped there by the 
 information that in future she was to belong to Marco 
 de Ordofio. 
 
 It is a mistake to think children do not suffer deeply ; 
 within their hearts are the seeds of all tragedies. A 
 strange painter was there from Valencia, and the 
 portrait he had painted of Marco was framed and in 
 the sala, for all to see. Don Rodrigo, who had arranged 
 the betrothal, as I thought later, to get the Llorente y 
 Rivera treasures in his own family chests lest they come 
 to me, well, Don Rodrigo was all smiling, and every 
 body s friend that day. He had great good nature in 
 the arrangement of the money of other people most 
 of his own had been lost in various venturings. So he 
 had made decision that before they set sail for Mexico 
 he would have the portrait made to comfort admiring
 
 
 vr/ 
 
 10 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 aunts and a grandmother who mourned the departure 
 of Marco s handsome self. 
 
 And it was a picture! All of velvet suit and satin 
 linings, and the sword of his father, the general, in his 
 ringed hand. People came in and looked at it, and 
 praised. Marco took all the prettiest girls and asked 
 each one to gaze on it sometimes and think of him 
 when he was risking his life among the red barbarians. 
 I know, for I heard three of them offer to pray for 
 him. I think I waited near it to hear if cousin Sancha 
 would also offer to pray for him, but Sancha was occu 
 pied with that lank Miguel, and coquetted till I was 
 sorely tempted to remind her that Sister Teresa would 
 give her short space for the wearing of brocades, and 
 back in the convent she would be but a little student 
 again, of as little importance as myself. 
 
 It was there, while looking at the picture, that I 
 noticed Tristan Rueda, the foster brother of Marco. 
 I had never known him to come much where the gay 
 crowds were, and I had heard he was a poor relation, 
 but whose relation I did not know. He did not look 
 poor, and was taller than Marco. I knew they had the 
 same nurse, Luiza, who once lived in the mountains, 
 and had married a soldier, Mateo Gomez, and gone with 
 him to Mexico; and it was thought a convenient thing 
 that Don Rodrigo and Marco would go where a good 
 housewife would be, as it were, waiting for them, and 
 glad to be once more under the old family rule. 
 
 All those matters were talked over in the preparation 
 for their journey, and I was wild with impatience at my 
 lack of years, so eager was I to take ship and cross seas, 
 and conquer worlds!
 
 THE BETROTHAL n 
 
 I did not know that height or years could not always 
 win the thing desired. While I sat, glowering at the 
 fine picture and eating my heart out with a boy s long 
 ings, Rodrigo stopped to talk to Tristan where he stood 
 looking at the painting in the gorgeous gilded frame. 
 
 " You write a pretty letter, Tristan," he said, " and I 
 have thought of it much while you were at the school, 
 but it suits not my arrangements that you should go 
 with us now. For one more year I need you here ; then 
 come and welcome. In a year my cousin Carlos will be 
 back from Austria. In his hands all the properties will 
 have good care. But until then I must leave some one 
 in trust, and who knows so well as you all the lands, and 
 the herds, and the accounts? For five years you have 
 saved me every coin that was saved in the timber or 
 the herds Marco has no head that way ! " 
 
 " True, Marco has not," agreed Tristan. He looked 
 sulky, and not a traveling companion to wish for. 
 
 " No and softly, Tristan, lad I fancy there are 
 even moments when he is more than a little jealous that 
 you are as my right hand. So, for a year, it seems to 
 me as well that you have a different way of life. One 
 year will do much with a spoiled boy; he will be so 
 sick for home that he will welcome you with a warm 
 heart, and it will be better for both of you to wait until 
 that time." 
 
 " Jealous of me when he has all this ! " Tristan 
 looked ugly as he said it, but in a moment bowed before 
 Don Rodrigo as if in apologizing for a rebellious 
 thought. 
 
 " I do not forget, senor, that to you and to the General 
 de Ordono I owe a debt of which we never speak. I
 
 12 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 cannot pay it to the general except it be by devotion 
 to Marco, his son. I made my vow when I was very 
 little, senor, but each year I repeat it : so long as I live 
 I owe my life to your house ; and somewhere, somewhere 
 in the world, another man, perhaps, still lives under the 
 shelter of a monk s robe, and it may be that for his life, 
 also, I owe your house allegiance. I will stay, senor, 
 until Don Pedro comes back from Austria, though my 
 heart will go ahead of your ship into New Spain." 
 
 Don Rodrigo stared at him, and then sat down. His 
 face had gone pale and red again as he looked at Tristan 
 Rueda, who spoke so quietly. 
 
 " Holy saints ! " he whispered. " Then you do remem 
 ber? " 
 
 Tristan said nothing, and Don Rodrigo wiped his face, 
 and looked as sick as a fat man sitting upright could 
 look, and I made myself small in the corner behind a 
 black carved chair taller than myself. I did not under 
 stand at all, but Don Rodrigo was the good-natured, 
 gambling soldier, yet strong in all family councils, and 
 a thing to frighten him was surely a thing of much 
 import. I had no desire to listen, yet dared not move 
 for fear of drawing their attention. 
 
 " You are a man," said Don Rodrigo after a silence in 
 which I wondered my heart thumps did not give warn 
 ing that I was so few paces from them. " Years do not 
 always make the man, but you have held the secret of 
 men since you were the height of my knee, and asked 
 never a question! Santa Maria, lad, how could you 
 remember? " 
 
 " I remember because I was carried all a long night 
 ride from the mountains under a man s cloak; the man 

 
 THE BETROTHAL 13 
 
 kissed me, and we wept together. I did not know why. 
 It was to this room he brought me, and from the window 
 I saw the river and the ships ; that was the first time I 
 had looked on ships, and I could not forget that. Gen 
 eral de Ordono put his hands on my head, and said I 
 was not to be afraid; also that Marco would be as my 
 brother. I do not recall the days after that for a long 
 time only that one day and that ride in the dark." 
 
 " Yet you speak of another life another," Don 
 Rodrigo almost said the words in a whisper, and caught 
 the sleeve of Tristan, looking up into his face, for the 
 lad was still standing as at first, looking at the gorgeous 
 picture of Marco. 
 
 " Yes, sefior, but that was afterwards, long after 
 wards. General de Ordono was dying, and priests came. 
 One who came was the man of that night ride. After 
 the funeral there were ships sailing to Mexico, and you 
 took Marco and other children and me down to the 
 shore to see the people. Among them was my man of 
 the ride. He went away in the boat, and until now I 
 have been waiting to follow to Mexico. I do not ask 
 his name. I heard you call him Fernandito, and you 
 said the robe of a monk was a better garment for him 
 than a sanbenito. I do not know what he had done to 
 earn the sanbenito." 
 
 " He did no wrong to any one, unless it be the holy 
 saints, and they are good to forgive," said Don Rodrigo, 
 crossing himself, and I was well frightened then, for 
 while the monk s robe is for the service of the saints, 
 the sanbenito is the yellow, glaring, hideous thing worn 
 by heretics on the way to the auto-da-fe when there is a 
 burning of sinners for the purifying of the world.
 
 
 i 4 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 That was a big day in my boyhood. I had wished for 
 height and years because I was jealous of Marco de 
 Ordono, but hidden there in the corner, I was willing 
 to give up even the inches I had, so eager was I to shrink 
 and be safe from discovery, for as in a bad dream I was 
 afraid of the things I was hearing, yet scarcely knew 
 why. 
 
 " You are a man, comrade," said Don Rodrigo, " but, 
 Santa Maria, you have given me a fright! To think 
 that the head of a child could hold all that danger for 
 years, and never speak ! " 
 
 Then the fine painter of the picture came in, and other 
 friends, and Padre Juan, and in the crowd I could slip 
 from my corner and stand among them unnoticed, and 
 hear the words of praise, until Padre Juan put his hand 
 on the shoulder of Tristan Rueda, and said before them 
 all: 
 
 " Here, also, we may have a Velasquez or a Murillo 
 some fine day! For his own joy he painted on our 
 chapel of Santa Cecelia for a year, and did more of the 
 angels in the frieze than the foreigner who got the 
 pay for it." 
 
 This caused much surprise to me, for I had only heard 
 of Tristan Rueda as the assistant of Don Rodrigo, and 
 he looked red and sulky, with all eyes turned to him. 
 
 " So," said the painter in a sweet and honeyed way, 
 as if to a child, " so you have ambitions? That is to be 
 commended; but the labor is great, and only the few 
 succeed." 
 
 " My ambitions, serior, will seem to you but slender. 
 I have only made drawings to pass time while herding 
 sheep," said Tristan, and his shrug and glance at the
 
 THE BETROTHAL 
 
 canvas in the gold frame were very nearly insulting. 
 He would not be patronized by any one, and it was easy 
 to see he did not relish the kind padre s good intent. 
 
 " Ah, only pastime for a shepherd ! " and the painter 
 stroked his beard, and measured the lad with his eyes. 
 " Then as a shepherd, will you give us your free opinion 
 of this portrait of Senor Don Marco de Ordono? " 
 
 " Since you request it, senor, I would say that Marco 
 is handsome enough without all that gold; you have 
 made him grander than the pope. Also, to my eyes, the 
 sword of his father has no fit place in the lily hand you 
 have given to Marco. It is not the great general s son 
 you have painted, senor, but a pretty page; only petti 
 coats are needed to make him a fine lady in waiting." 
 
 And with a really beautiful bow to the painter, and 
 the padre, and Don Rodrigo, he walked out and left 
 them staring, and I think I was the only one of them 
 all to see that Marco himself was at that moment about 
 to enter from the patio with another maid to view the 
 picture. They had halted, heard every word, and the 
 girl, with her head held high in anger, drew Marco away 
 along the corridor and this time the girl was cousin 
 Sancha herself! He seemed to be trying as best he 
 might to loosen her fingers from about his arm, but gave 
 it up; that child was strong as a young tigress, and 
 she was tense with the dread of duels and death, and all 
 the other tragic dreams so much a part of a girl s 
 romance. 
 
 I did not wait to hear how Padre Juan and Don Rod 
 rigo smoothed the ruffled humor of the painter. No 
 doubt they told him that the lad had in truth lived his 
 summers with the herdsmen and the timber cutters, and
 
 16 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 had gained a certain rustic disdain of the luxurious. But 
 however they patched it up, I ran after cousin Sancha 
 and found her half in tears with rage. 
 
 "Who is he this Tristan Rueda? " she demanded. 
 " No, I have never seen him. How should I see sheep 
 men in the convent? No, I saw only the back of his 
 head, but that was enough! Rueda! / shall call him 
 El Negrido, because he has black hair curled at the 
 ends like a Moor ! I know he is hideous ! I do not see 
 how it is, Marco, that you ever were friends with him 
 he is not worthy since he mocks at your beautiful pic 
 ture him El Negrido! " 
 
 In her fine rage and her attack on Tristan, Marco felt 
 himself much comforted, and when I left them he was 
 giving fond promise to spare Tristan s life, but also 
 promised to ignore him from that time forth; which, by 
 the way, he could not so easily do, as that " lady in wait 
 ing " got abroad and caused some laughter, and the 
 following day a threat was made by Marco to chastise 
 Tristan, whereupon Tristan hurt his pride some more, 
 also his body, and made Marco go and confess to Don 
 Rodrigo why it was done. 
 
 I thought of course Tristan would go back to the 
 hills at once, that day of the betrothal, or to the house 
 of Padre Juan; but long after the moon was up, and 
 the music of the dancing had caused me to fall asleep 
 on a seat outside the window of the sala, I was lifted 
 in strong arms and carried to the room across the patio 
 where the boy guests were to sleep; and as my 
 fine holiday shoes were slipped off, and my clothes 
 were unfastened with care, my curiosity conquered my 
 sleepy head for a little, and I was made sorry to see it 

 
 m 
 
 THE BETROTHAL 17 
 
 was Tristan Rueda who cared for me for if cousin 
 Sancha could find no good in him, how could I, her 
 devoted slave, accept his favors? I comforted myself 
 with the thought that she had not actually bound 
 me with a promise to refuse his friendship, well though 
 I knew she would have done so had she thought of it ! 
 
 " Oh, Don Tristan ! I thought you had gone back to 
 your sheep, or to pray to your angels in the chapel," I 
 whispered, " for she is very, very angry, and she will 
 not let cousin Marco be friends with you, ever." 
 
 " That may be," he said as he slipped off the sleeves 
 of my jacket. 
 
 " She does not know you, of course, or she would not 
 call you El Negrido instead of Rueda," I continued. 
 " It is because your hair is so black. She only saw 
 your head, and heard your voice ; and you you did 
 not get to see her at all, and she is so fine ! " 
 
 " So very fine," he agreed. So he must have seen her 
 while I slept. " But you also have black hair, little com 
 rade, yet she is kind to you." 
 
 " You do not know how terrible Sancha can be when 
 she is in a rage," I persisted. " I have seen her break 
 things when she is in anger. It is better, I think, if you 
 make more angels, and pray to them. She hates you 
 very, very much." 
 
 " I know," he whispered, and if he said anything more, 
 I did not hear it. He laid me on the pillow, covered me 
 over, and blew out the candle, and I knew nothing more 
 until the other boys were throwing their shoes at me 
 in the morning, and daring me to come with them and 
 run naked down to the river for a swim before anyone 
 but Santiago, the old watchman, was awake.
 
 i8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 And that was the end of the betrothal day of cousin 
 Sancha. Looking backward, it seems that while it was 
 a great and full day to me, of which I was conscious, it 
 was a day of fate for others more important than I, and 
 their after years were framed by it.
 
 in" !. 
 
 flii 
 
 Tar 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE THINGS FORBIDDEN 
 
 IT IS strange how quickly a slip of a girl makes a 
 boy feel that she is a woman, while the boy is still 
 a boy. 
 
 So quickly did cousin Sancha shoot up tall and 
 slender, like a young palm by a living spring, that I 
 flushed hot and cold as I kissed her six months later, 
 and she patted my cheek and called me " Juanito Chi- 
 quito," and thanked me for a pet fawn I had sent, and 
 asked me if I wanted to see the Indian dolls sent her 
 by Marco from Mexico ! 
 
 I cared as little as most boys for dolls, but I lied 
 graciously, and with Padre Juan I spent a wonder day 
 at the convent and looked at dolls, and spelled out the 
 letters sent with them, and was too surprised to make 
 comment when I saw the letters were not from, but 
 about, Marco. He was at the De Ordofio mines in the 
 interior, not convenient to the seacoast, or in the way 
 of letters; thus a monk who was a friend of Don Rod- 
 rigo wrote for them all family letters, and they were 
 sent to the good abbess, Mother Maria Cecilia, so that, 
 as far as I could see, the letters were for the relations, 
 and Sancha was regarded as a babe for whom only dolls 
 were fitting pastime. 
 
 But the pages glowed with the beauty and the fine 
 
 19
 
 20 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 success of Marco as communicated by the writer, Fray 
 Fernando Alcatraz. The Ordono mines at San Luis 
 Potosi were in a fair way to make all their fortunes ; the 
 only difficulty was to secure a steady supply of native 
 slaves for the work; there had been some rebellious in 
 various ways, but in the end all would come right; 
 Marco was attached to Fray Payo, the venerable Arch 
 bishop and Viceroy, and was in a fair way to climb high 
 in the viceregal court ; and so on, and so on. 
 
 All the letters were of the same things, and each car 
 ried the love and the blessings of Don Rodrigo and 
 Marco and the priest who wrote it and a doll or a 
 string of beads. 
 
 " From Fray Payo and Don Rodrigo and Marco and 
 the learned priest, I get dolls and strings of beads," said 
 Sancha with disdain, " beads of turquoise, and of wood, 
 of berries, and stone, and shell. I shall weave them all 
 into a robe for the wedding dress, there will soon be 
 enough to cover me ! " 
 
 We laughed over how she would look in the wedding 
 dress of beads, and then we fell to choosing which of 
 the dresses of the Indian dolls would be most becoming. 
 They were of even greater variety of material than the 
 beads, and ranged from husks of maize to carvings of 
 stone. I know now that those things which the white 
 people named dolls were really effigies and figurines of 
 their false gods and goddesses, and I wonder much that 
 they escaped the sharp eyes of the officers of the Inquisi 
 tion. 
 
 One doll wore woven sandals of grasses, and on these 
 Sancha set her heart she so dearly loved to run shoe 
 less, and sandals like these would be so nearly nothing
 
 
 THE THINGS FORBIDDEN 21 
 
 on her feet. I had watched the village girls braid their 
 hats from the straw of the wild oats until I had the trick 
 of it, and with the footgear of the little Indian field god 
 for a pattern, I took strips of palm and braided them 
 and formed the fabric to her foot, and added to the 
 band across the ankle the silver buckles from my own 
 shoes, so that I had the joy of seeing her dance in them 
 with delight and spread her petticoats in a profound 
 mocking bow to me. And at that very moment the 
 Abbess and Padre Juan came into the garden, and tried 
 to look severe, and ended by laughing. Then they took 
 us in to the refectory, where we had bread and honey 
 and milk before we went back to the town below. 
 
 Sancha, with Sister Teresa, walked with us along the 
 path, and the fawn was led by Sancha, for already it had 
 learned the hand from which its food came. I looked 
 back at them as they stood at the edge of the olive wood, 
 and noted that Sancha was taller than little Sister Teresa, 
 and that over her head, in a way she had, she cast the 
 soft white skirt from the back as a shield against the 
 sun. The straight long folds of it either side her face, 
 and down to her feet, added to her height. It was not 
 as if a long white scarf had been flung over her head, 
 but rather as if close folded wings of white were either 
 side the slender figure, meeting overhead. It made her 
 look very curious with the flare of the sun back of her. 
 I thought of an angel I had once seen in a picture with 
 Joseph the carpenter. Yet Sancha herself was not like 
 an angel at all/ 
 
 As we went down the steep way of the hill, Padre 
 Juan remarked that he must ask Tristan Rueda to send 
 some competent man to repair the chapel of the convent
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 where a storm had done damage ; there were some capa 
 ble lay brothers at the monastery who could do the work 
 and repair the frescoes, but Tristan always knew the 
 one who would be best, and it might be that he would 
 himself give an eye to it, despite the fact that his days 
 were very full with preparations for the voyage through 
 the sea of the north to the New World. 
 
 Don Carlos had made the journey back from Austria 
 sooner than hoped for. Within a week the San Clemente 
 would spread her wings for the western shores and, if 
 the saints willed, Tristan would be aboard of her, free 
 at last to live his own life. Through all his boyhood, he 
 had seemed, in some strange way, a willing, yet dominat 
 ing vassal of De Ordoiio s. 
 
 Padre Juan grumbled about this vassalage more than 
 a little that day, for he had a great belief that Tristan 
 came perilously near to being a genius a lad who 
 could manage herds, and cure the murrain in sheep with 
 the skill of the devil-possessed Moors, and who could 
 copy in fairest beauty the ancient writings of the 
 Fathers. An entire volume had he done for Padre Juan 
 on the life and works of the well beloved San Juan Bau- 
 tista, his patron saint, and each page had its own illum 
 inated letters of blue and of gold, as was custom with all 
 holy books of an older day I should see it ! Not an 
 other like it anywhere ! Padre Juan thought he painted 
 no more saints or angels; Tristan had never talked of 
 such work since a day when the Bishop had warned him 
 it would mean much gold and a lifetime. Also there 
 had been some ill feeling among the De Ordono cousins 
 against him because of that ugly estimate of the portrait 
 of Marco for which much good money had been paid.
 
 THE THINGS FORBIDDEN 23 
 
 Tristan had so much of almost heretical independence 
 about so many of the things of life that Padre Juan 
 could never understand why he made himself do the 
 will of the De Ordono family, even to smothering his 
 own talents that their sheep be rightly tended, and their 
 olive and orange orchards rightly cared for. 
 
 So the padre grumbled and discoursed over his favor 
 ite pupil all down the road to the town, and thus I 
 learned that Tristan Rueda did not tell all of his life 
 and thoughts at confession, which unsafe habit helps to 
 make a path for the devil to walk over and whisper 
 heretical things, especially in the ears of a genius. Did 
 not that word mean to be possessed by genii? And 
 were there not malicious spirits together with saintly 
 ones in that list? If not, why did the church and the 
 priests have to work so endlessly to exorcise them? 
 
 I had these thoughts, but I dared not offend Padre 
 Juan by speech of them. Orphan as I was, with only 
 Sancha, Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera as a near rela 
 tive, it was kind Padre Juan who made the world seem 
 like a home place to me, just as the good abbess of the 
 convent was mother to Sancha. Two nestless birds 
 were we, despite the countless branches of the family 
 tree on which we might roost and welcome. 
 
 For myself, I confess that the only branch holding 
 dreams of mine was that one most powerful, across the 
 seas in New Spain. To have a great-uncle who was 
 both archbishop and viceroy of Mexico made me count 
 the days until I, too, might fare forth to adventure, and 
 I was ever measuring my height, and walking with head 
 high held, to make myself grow tall more quickly. 
 
 Also, I was like the shadow of Tristan Rueda from
 
 24 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 the time I learned he was to sail in the San Clemenle. 
 I had a holiday of two weeks from school, and all of it 
 was spent to fetch or carry for him, or seek out the 
 things he needed for the far journey. He was always 
 gentle with me; took me into shops and among boat 
 men ; bought himself a strong chest from a home-coming 
 merchant, and together we packed it in joy. At my wish, 
 he wrote a letter for me to Fray Payo de Rivera, the 
 Viceroy, asking that some place be made for me, if it 
 were but to lace his shoes a boy would need no great 
 height for that ! I also asked his gracious notice for my 
 friend, Tristan, and signed the letter with the name of 
 my mother, who had been with the angels before I 
 could even recall her, and also my own name in full, 
 Juan Estevan Maria Llorente y Rivera, that he might 
 not fail to see I was of his own family. I think now 
 that my determination to go was made when I read 
 those letters with report of the high estate of Marco de 
 Ordoiio under the patronage of a viceroy of our family. 
 Between jealousy of Marco and emulation of Tristan, 
 I was well nigh sleepless during those last days before 
 the sailing. We slept together in the De Ordono home, 
 for Tristan was commissioned to take charge of much 
 wealth in goods for Don Rodrigo. There were bales of 
 fine cloths, casks of Greek and Spanish wine, priests 
 vestments with wonderful embroideries done by the 
 blessed nuns in the convent, and silks of richness, 
 worked over and bordered with threads of gold. Also 
 there were statues of four saints for the church of San 
 Carlos, carved of wood, with eyes of glass, and a won 
 derful enamel of wax, painted to the life as to face and 
 hands. A bit of the gold on the carven lace draperies 

 
 THE THINGS FORBIDDEN 25 
 
 had been rubbed off by some accident, and at the last 
 Tristan spent precious time in regilding them, that no 
 little curve or edge should be less than perfect. 
 
 This pleased Padre Juan very much. I heard his 
 commendation at the same time that he was giving 
 priestly warning concerning all books to be taken, for 
 strict though the Holy Brotherhood might be in loyal 
 Spain, it was but mild ruling to that of Mexico, where, 
 perhaps because of the native converts, religion must 
 not even be discussed, and those who went to the New 
 World for greater freedom found themselves there 
 under the iron heel of the Inquisition. 
 
 " Yet I have heard there are lands of the north coast 
 where the Dutch and English and some French live who 
 have cast free from Rome," said Tristan. 
 
 " Keep you far from such shores, lest the seas rise 
 up to engulf the lands! Whence comes your knowl 
 edge?" 
 
 " I hear the sailors talk, and the merchants ; there is 
 always talk of the new lands. We all listen." 
 
 " Then take not Juan with you to the warehouses, no 
 good can be learned from the discourse of heretical 
 travelers." 
 
 "Yet," ventured Tristan, "if Christoval Colon had 
 not listened to the heresies of a round world, we would 
 not be sending these saints to the western heathen this 
 day." 
 
 Padre Juan looked at him strangely. 
 
 " Tristan, you are only a youth, yet I must warn you 
 not to say words like that, the San Clements might sail 
 without you if such words reached the Brotherhood. 
 It savors of careless speaking of forbidden things. And
 
 26 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 that name Colon, and Christoval, why give the Span 
 ish name to a man of Italy? " 
 
 " We hear it sometimes." 
 
 " Then you should also hear that it has been for 
 bidden." 
 
 " I was reading the letters in his book at the monastery 
 to learn things of New Spain, and all the letters are in 
 Spanish and were so signed; none in Italian, so I 
 thought " 
 
 " Think no more, and speak no more on that matter," 
 said Padre Juan in a tone that set me quaking. " The 
 reasons why are not to be spoken of; it is forbidden." 
 
 " Yes, father," said Tristan obediently, and went on 
 with his careful work on the statute, though I slipped 
 out of the strong room as soon as might be, and was 
 relieved to see Padre Juan follow soon. I sat on the 
 veranda to watch if by any chance he turned towards 
 the office of the tribunal, but to my relief, he went on 
 the way to the chapel. I never before had heard Padre 
 Juan speak with severity to Tristan Rueda it was as 
 if my world were turning topsy-turvy. 
 
 And the night was the equal of that day in surprises. 
 It may have been the excitement by which I was kept 
 wakeful, or the very dread of that shadowy Holy Broth 
 erhood whose eyes were everywhere. Be that as it 
 may, I wakened suddenly with a fright at the silence, 
 for there was not even the sound of the breath of Tristan 
 in the room, and in the sickly light of the old moon, I 
 crept to his bed and found his pillow empty. Also the 
 bed was cold. Scarcely within an hour had he lain 
 there. 
 
 The wonder is that I did not call aloud. It was the
 
 THE THINGS FORBIDDEN 37 
 
 thing I wanted first to do. But that warning of Padre 
 Juan s still ringing in my ears brought me a terror, and 
 also a desire to find Tristan in silence, if I alone could 
 find him at all. 
 
 The cocks were crowing, though there was no dawn. 
 Could it be that he had risen while it was yet night to 
 work on his tasks? 
 
 Quiet as might be, I slipped into clothing, and, with 
 out shoes, went through the halls and down the stone 
 steps to the door of the strong room where the things 
 of merchandise were kept. Beyond were the foreign 
 wines and other importations. In the anteroom his 
 work on the carven saints had seemed finished. 
 
 But through the keyhole a light came, and I heard 
 strange noises as of an auger and then of muffled ham 
 merings. Try as I would, I could not see farther than 
 the little circle gained by one eye at the keyhole, but 
 the ancient musty treasure chest of General de Ordono 
 was in the corner. I saw Tristan open it with a key 
 and then I scarcely dared breathe so eager was I to 
 see the treasure there. 
 
 I might as well have taken my comfort in bed for all 
 the treasure, not a thing could I see but rolls of parch 
 ment and some brown books ; then with a sharp knife, 
 Tristan cut the leather cover from every book and tossed 
 the covers back into the open chest ! That was a thing 
 so at variance with his every previous act that I was 
 given a fright by it. There was no sacrifice Tristan 
 Rueda would not make if, by any privation, he might 
 earn or borrow books. He had the knack of languages, 
 and would chaffer with a Greek sailor for even a book 
 of prayers in a foreign tongue. His love of books was
 
 28 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 so pronounced that Padre Juan was wise in giving him 
 warning as to the laws of Mexico. 
 
 When one is startled or badly frightened, he does not 
 think, he only feels ; and I was filled with an unreason 
 ing fear that Tristan had gone mad, all alone there in 
 the night. In a shrill whisper I tried to reassure him 
 of my presence, though I was strongly put to it not to 
 turn and run blindly, screaming for everybody. 
 
 Tristan opened the door, perhaps fearing the thing 
 I was tempted to, and his face was death white in the 
 light of the candle, as he dragged me in, his hand over 
 my mouth. 
 
 " You have risked your life, your freedom, and more 
 than that," he said ; " but now that you are here, stay 
 you must to the end. You may have it in your power 
 for the rest of your life to send me to hell, when the 
 thought comes to you, Juanito. Tend your thoughts 
 that way? or may I trust the man your boyhood will 
 make?" 
 
 My teeth were like castanets in their chatter, for I 
 could only shake and stare at that which I saw. San 
 Pedro, with the keys of heaven in his hand, lay flat on his 
 back on the floor, and was made hollow from his feet up 
 and in that cavity were packed rolls of parchment. 
 Santa Cecilia was treated likewise, but a block, cun 
 ningly contrived, fitted over the work and was fresh 
 painted with blue and gilding. I saw then why Tristan 
 had much care of the saints donated to Mexican chapels. 
 Also there was a cask of Greek wine emptied into a 
 great jar, and the cask was packed with books to the 
 right weight, and around them fresh straw. 
 
 " Speak you, Juanito, but speak in whispers."
 
 THE THINGS FORBIDDEN 29 
 
 " What what would chance to you if " 
 
 " There would be a fine burning at the next auto-da-fe, 
 but first there would be one here, for the brandy in that 
 corner would take fire and all within these walls would 
 go up in smoke before you would be let go to give warn 
 ing. Even then it might be thought that you only 
 dreamed all you think you see here ! It would be a loss 
 to learning if the books were destroyed, and men are 
 hungry for learning. Speak now, Juanito, but think if 
 you have faith in yourself to be silent always." 
 
 I tried to think, but all that came in my head was the 
 voice of Don Rodrigo when he had said to Tristan in 
 the sala, " You are a man, comrade ; years do not always 
 make a man, but you have held the secret of men since 
 you were the height of my knee." 
 
 I had been thrilled by that praise, for it had been 
 wrung from a frightened old soldier, and now I was to 
 be put to the test as to whether I also could ever compel 
 such approval. That, I am sure, was the thing which 
 urged me to whisper, " I can be silent, Tristan." 
 
 With a bit of old canvas he covered again the keyhole 
 from which a draft had made it fall, and then in silence 
 he bound my eyes, and led me to a seat. 
 
 " It is only that you see no more than you already 
 have," he said, " for that will be trouble enough for you 
 to keep ever out of your confessions. I can waste no 
 time taking you back to bed, and what is to be done 
 must be finished before dawn." 
 
 So I sat there and shook with fear, and smelled the 
 paint, and heard him use the muffled hammer, and move 
 heavy casks, and at last gather up in a canvas all the 
 broken wood bored from the central blocks of the
 
 3 o THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 wooden saints, and when my eyes were uncovered, we 
 bore it to the river and cast it in. 
 
 The gray of day was coming when we climbed the 
 stairs and were back in our beds. 
 
 " For the comfort of your own soul, Juanito, I will 
 tell you that there is no word of evil in all the books you 
 saw hidden there. The man who turned the key on 
 them was General de Ordofio. He was a stanch son of 
 the church, but also a loyal friend. The books belonged 
 to a friend who is dead to the world a letter I found 
 tells me this and the knowledge in the books is now 
 for me, if God, the Father, sends good wind to our sails." 
 
 It was a comfort that he assured me there was no evil, 
 for Tristan was ever truthful to boldness. 
 
 No other word passed between us concerning that 
 night of work in the strong room, but he put his hands 
 on my shoulders and looked very hard into my eyes 
 before the last boat left shore for the San Clemente, and 
 then he took my hands close in his. 
 
 " Juanito, you have a friend waiting in the New World 
 if ever you should set sail there," he promised, and then 
 he said no more, but bent his head to the blessing of 
 Padre Juan, and I went back, sad enough, to the chapel, 
 with the hope that my viceregal uncle would send for 
 me soon as might be. 
 
 The secret of that night gave me vast importance in 
 my own thoughts. I had asked no question of the books 
 and parchments, sure that if the General de Ordono had 
 hidden them away, it must have been for a good purpose. 
 It never occurred to my childish mind that the general 
 was not as much scholar as soldier, or that the contents 
 of the books were not known to him. Like Don Rodrigo,
 
 THE THINGS FORBIDDEN 31 
 
 his brother, he had been the ranging adventurer rather 
 than the student. 
 
 As the years passed after Tristan s going, strange tales 
 came eastward over the seas in every ship, until all the 
 youth and half the priesthood were stung by the gadfly 
 of unrest to garner gold or heathen souls in the New 
 World. Padre Juan, traveling to Cordoba, brought me 
 a wonder feast of intelligence from the letters of Tristan 
 the De Ordofio mines were even more rich than Don 
 Rodrigo had hoped ; Marco was in such favor that it was 
 said a high official would not be averse to giving his 
 daughter to a husband of such riches, though Don Rod 
 rigo would see to it that this should not come about, for 
 his heart was set on uniting the families of De Ordono 
 and De Llorente y Rivera. 
 
 Of Tristan there were no great riches told, but adven 
 tures even more dear to the heart of a boy. He had gone 
 north into the heathen land with a godly friar whose 
 mission work was as a miracle, so many of the pagans 
 had he won for salvation. Into the far wilderness they 
 had gone, and the walls of chapels and convents were 
 rising toward heaven as quickly as the poor heathen 
 could shape the timber and make the bricks. 
 
 Not so much news did he send of the cities of the new 
 land, except that they were unduly housing too many 
 of the idle adventurers who lounged in sun or shadow, 
 waiting newly arrived riches from the mines, and all 
 the gay carouse of the gamblers heaven. He, Tristan, 
 escaped all such danger by lack of gold, and by the garb 
 of the convent. He went as a lay brother with Fray 
 Fernando, as the dress of the order was a help in herding 
 the flocks of heathen lambs. Already he was learning 

 
 s 
 
 32 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 the language, and noting down many of their strange 
 thoughts of the false gods to which they had in ignor 
 ance given worship. 
 
 Padre Juan was very happy over this word. It was 
 as if his pupil were already on the golden ladder to a 
 Bishop s mitre, at least. If he was not to be a painter 
 of saints, he might do even better and become a saint 
 himself in his zeal for converts ! 
 
 Our good Padre Juan read into that account more, I 
 think, than he got out of it. I had not seen so much of 
 saintliness in the spirit of Tristan Rueda; and that he 
 wore on his journeys the robe of a monk, was as if he 
 had protected his legs with a new sort of boot or armor 
 to fit the desert he was to cross. 
 
 Of cousin Sancha, Padre Juan had little to say, except 
 that she had grown more tall. There is not much else 
 a priest may tell a lad concerning a maid. 
 
 But I was soon to need no messenger to tell me any 
 thing. From the archbishop came the word for which I 
 had prayed rather than hoped. I was to see a bit of the 
 world, and fit myself in good time for even a place at 
 court, if need be. I was chosen as one of the pages in 
 his train, and this ended my school days and took me to 
 Seville for the requisite preparation. 

 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IN MEXICO 
 
 SO AGAIN I saw Sancha, and felt myself more 
 dumb and stupid than ever in the light of her 
 beauty, for which there were no words. 
 
 " But you are a woman ! " I found myself 
 saying as I stared at her, and she laughed the dear, 
 lighthearted, reckless laugh the good nuns could never 
 tone down to a discreet smile or simper. 
 
 " A woman, Juanito mine, and either a married woman 
 or a nun before I am grown much more in height," she 
 said, nodding her pretty head, and her gray eyes dark 
 ling. " I am sick of gray walls, and priest letters, and 
 there is no one to tell it to but you. I sang with joy 
 when I heard you were coming. We will go into the 
 orchard where I will bring my love gifts to show you, 
 and there we can talk." 
 
 It was like paradise to be with her, and I choked back 
 a sigh as she spoke of her love gifts. Though I should 
 bring down the moon out of the sky for her, she would 
 regard it only as a kinsman s gift. 
 
 She came back to me in a little while, with her skirt 
 gathered up and loaded full, as a peasant woman would 
 carry cabbages or onions, and then with a laugh in 
 which there was derision of herself, she let fall her load 
 at my feet and I stared, and laughed, and then grew 
 sober enough as I saw her eyes. 
 
 33
 
 34 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 These were her love gifts from over the sea for all the 
 years, and not one thing but the Indian dolls and beads 
 and toys such as had been sent in the very first ship ! 
 
 " Every homeward vessel shows me I am not for 
 gotten," she said with a little crooked smile. " Yet who 
 is it remembers me? Some one to whom I am still a 
 little child! Here are the letters; they are the same. 
 They come to the Mother Abbess. When that monk, 
 Fray Fernando, was north among the heathen there 
 were no letters. But the end has come. There are lovers 
 in Spain if not over the water and I have written and 
 told that to Don Rodrigo. 
 
 "You have sent a letter, one you wrote?" Our 
 women were not bookish. To read the lives of the 
 saints it was good enough to know how, but the writing 
 of letters was not so well for maids. And in the end 
 you will see that was where the plain trail for trouble 
 began for Sancha. 
 
 When I told her that I myself was to sail in the next 
 vessel, and that I would carry the message to Don Rod 
 rigo or to Marco, she was wild with protests that we all 
 could journey to see the world, while for her, a maid, 
 there was nothing to do but stay close at home, and 
 make endless prayers. 
 
 " But not to Marco shall you carry word for me," she 
 declared with pride. " It is to Don Rodrigo, Padre Juan 
 is writing the word, for it is only poor old Don Rodrigo 
 who sends the letters and selects these," and she 
 touched the heap of dolls with her foot. " Poor Don 
 Rodrigo! He made the betrothal, and now he sends 
 all the love gifts ! No, if Marco de Ordono thinks he has 
 taken a step upward in the favor of our family, it may
 
 INMEXICO 35 
 
 be as well he is given a lesson. I will write him a 
 reminder. I thought I was married to him that day he 
 sailed away, but my mind is changed. If ever I marry 
 him it will be after he has wooed me and gifts of 
 Indian dolls will not serve." 
 
 Here was a new sort of trouble, for I was boy enough 
 to fear that a bearer of fiery messages would lack the 
 welcome I longed for in New Spain. Yet what was 
 there but to do her will, and do it with the best grace I 
 could muster? 
 
 She wept at our parting, and kissed me, and after that 
 I knew little of how I tumbled into the small boat 
 at the shore, or how I went up over the side of the ship 
 and landed on the deck, striving as might be to remember 
 that as grandnephew to the viceroy of Mexico I was a 
 personage of importance aboard ship, and that to shed 
 the tears I felt would not be in keeping with my dig 
 nities. 
 
 From the Azores I sent back a letter to Sancha, telling 
 her all that had happened, and then we set sail out over 
 the untracked waters to the west, and with every dawn 
 ing and every nightfall the wonder grew in my mind as 
 to the bigness of the man who first ventured there, for 
 we had calms and hurricanes and our own share of sea 
 troubles ; added to which was the ever restless watch for 
 English pirates and French corsairs. But at last our 
 stubborn vessel proved her worth by bearing us all safe 
 to Hispaniola where we rested a week for the mending 
 of ship, the taking on of fresh water and other pro 
 visions; and I, who, during the hurricanes, had strong 
 conviction that food of earth could never more attract 
 me, was astonished at my own appetite, for surely never
 
 36 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 had fruit or meat such wonderful delicacy as that of 
 the tropic land. This was the effect of the many weeks 
 of salted pork, and, at the last, none too much of that. 
 
 From there, in due time, the Santa Maria sailed west 
 ward through sea gardens, for the days were few when 
 we saw neither palm isles, nor canoes of the natives or 
 traders with fruits, nuts, or fowl for sale. 
 
 At Havana ill word was waiting. A ship from Mexico 
 was in harbor, and there was much of surmise over 
 changes to be made because of an illness of the viceroy. 
 His physician had made the statement that his years of 
 work for church and crown had left their mark, and that 
 a new archbishop and a new viceroy would be named, 
 for the good Fray Payo was making arrangements to 
 resign and end his days in a monastery in the old home 
 land of Spain. 
 
 Here was a new turn to my wheel of life. Were all 
 my dreams of viceregal grandeur to melt beneath the 
 tropic suns? In my excitement I had ill thoughts of a 
 man who could remain viceroy and archbishop, yet 
 choose a monk s cowl instead. Why, it was to be a 
 king so far as power was concerned, and even the 
 unknown grandnephew might hope to fare well under 
 such patronage. 
 
 Whatever else I heard of concern passed me unheeded. 
 Even my boy s joy of new sights and new lands was 
 dampened, and my greatest fear was that I might be 
 called upon to face about and journey back with him 
 through the hurricanes to Seville. Yet, would a monk 
 in a monastery need a page? Could I not hope to live 
 in New Spain if Marco could live there? I assured 
 myself yes, and remembered with gladness the words
 
 INMEXICO 37 
 
 of Tristan Rueda. There, at least, I would have a 
 friend though all the people of our own family should 
 fail me. 
 
 Thus I argued myself across the seas from Havana, 
 and questioned with eagerness the first man aboard at 
 Vera Cruz. The viceroy was able to walk again, but 
 he had gone through two months siege of fever, and 
 was peacefully preparing for retirement. The man 
 spoken of as his successor was Don Tomas Antonio, 
 Marquis de la Laguna, Conde de Parades, and it was 
 said that the ruling of the new day would have diversions 
 of its own and have little likeness to the six years of the 
 rule of the good priest, Don Payo de Rivera. 
 
 By this I gathered that the new ruler would at least 
 be of the world, worldly, and that a page of his would 
 see gayer life than with an archbishop. In fact and in 
 truth, I see myself now as a selfish little animal, measur 
 ing the greatest only by their ability to confer favors. 
 I was at the same time homesick, if I may call it so, at 
 losing the only relation I knew of in Mexico. He had 
 seemed to me as a bond with Sancha, though he had 
 never seen either of us! 
 
 Each new thing I saw on the great journey I wished 
 for the able pen of a Diaz that I might make clear the 
 picture of it for her, but when the great enchantment 
 of white Orizaba met my eyes above the palms, I knew 
 no pen was equal to the writing of its beauties. The 
 natives call it Mountain of the Star, and Tristan told 
 me, long after, that it was used by the ancient priests as 
 a range finder for the stars forming the heart of heaven 
 our Polaris and his circling companions of the Serpent 
 and the Eagle,
 
 38 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Of all that paganism I knew nothing then or of the 
 mythology of the red tribes, but it is easy to believe 
 when looking on Orizaba that its meaning was linked 
 with the sky and its sacred things. 
 
 A slender, pale priest with a curious Indian rosary of 
 crude turquoise and shell was with the cavalcade going 
 up from the seashore, and he told us much of the strange 
 land and places, and at Pueblo de los Angels he was 
 greeted with glad looks. Little brown, naked babes 
 were held out to him for his smile, and doors were open 
 to his friends. I was told that in an epidemic he had 
 remained to care for the stricken, after all other help 
 had fled, and the Indians came near to worship of him. 
 His help had been great to Fray Payo, and he knew the 
 tribes from Yucatan to the pueblos of the Rio Brava del 
 Norte. He could speak in the tongue of many, and was 
 called " El Sabio." I heard that term so often that I 
 took it to be his title. And then an old soldier whom we 
 met on the trail doffed his hat and saluted him as Don 
 Fernando, and I knew that the slender man with the 
 face like old ivory was the friend of the De Ordonos and 
 the writer of the letters to the abbess ; also he was the 
 miracle worker with whom Tristan had made the jour 
 ney to the far north ! 
 
 It was the first time, I think, that my mind was con 
 sciously impressed by force of character apart from all 
 the trappings of circumstance and state. Don Fernando 
 wore a habit that was old and somewhat frayed as to 
 sleeves and hem, and we had some richly dressed mer 
 chants, together with men of family, in that group of 
 travelers; yet among them all the quiet Don Fernando 
 won central place without striving, and the most pre-
 
 INMEXICO 39 
 
 tentious listened when he spoke. I learned that the 
 turquoise and shell beads were gifts of Indio tribes. 
 
 He bade me ride beside him, and showed me such 
 kindness as a traveler might, but of the many questions 
 concerning Marco and his magnificence he could tell 
 me little ; only, Fray Payo had opened the door for him, 
 and his handsome face had won its own way to prefer 
 ment. 
 
 As to Tristan, he had made great headway with the 
 strange picture-writing records of the heathen, and 
 already he had ranged afar on every quest the church 
 could send him, thus adding greatly to this knowledge. 
 Also, he had painted in a chapel a frieze of angels, and 
 the native chiefs had been duly impressed by those spirit 
 faces gazing down from the clouds. The result had 
 been curious. Tristan, though not in holy orders, or 
 like to be, had been given high place in the minds of the 
 brown people; his fame had traveled because it was 
 thought by them that he could see the spirit people 
 whom the heathens were convinced were everywhere. 
 While the brown priests could see them only after long 
 fasting and prayers, this white youth with the brushes 
 could see them at all times ! When a revolt threatened 
 at the mines, he had saved the lives of Marco and Don 
 Rodrigo by learning of the secret leader, and painting 
 his portrait with a fiery devil peering over his shoulder. 
 The sight of it frightened every native to his knees. 
 The leader was shunned and would have been killed by 
 his comrades but for Tristan, who saved him and sent 
 him north to his own forests. Thus he both bettered 
 conditions and saved lives, and despite his short stay in 
 Mexico, his fame had traveled in strange ways into far
 
 40 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 deserts and jungles. Don Payo would gladly have held 
 him in the town, but Tristan had the blood of rangers in 
 his veins, and was restless for the free wild places. 
 
 Thus I learned more in riding beside Don Fernando 
 than ever went over the seas to Spain. The name of 
 Tristan was as a key to his heart, and while love and 
 loyalty were as a blanket to cover the acts of a De 
 Ordono, I could easily perceive that Marco, with all his 
 pride, stood not so high as Tristan, the ranger, might 
 stand if he chose. 
 
 Lad though I was, I could see why the walls of palace 
 and monastery were left behind him, despite all exalted 
 patronage. It was the first time he had ever ranged free, 
 and of patronage, in a way, he had been given more than 
 made for his happiness, since it chained him to a cer 
 tain allegiance to the house of De Ordono. 
 
 The air was like wine to me where we rode hour by 
 hour above the palms and into the oaks and pines, with 
 ever the snow peaks white in the sun, or rosy long 
 after the sun was gone. I wondered not at the witchery 
 by which Marco was held from Spain, though it was 
 true he could not even think how fair Sancha had grown ! 
 
 Don Fernando knew also Luiza, who had married the 
 soldier Gomez, and to her home he took me that I might 
 make myself fit for the presence of the viceroy after 
 all the journey, and when I saw pretty Anita there, the 
 daughter of Luiza s first husband, I wondered that no 
 mention of her was in all the letters home ; for Anita 
 Gomez was sparkling as the water of a fountain in the 
 sun, a slender flitting wisp of a girl, with big eyes of 
 brown. 
 
 Luiza wept at the messages sent from home, and
 
 Lrn 
 
 1NMEXICO 41 
 
 showed all deference to Don Fernando, and many kind 
 nesses to me, and made plans to house me in her own 
 home, if by chance the illness of the viceroy should make 
 delay as to my comfort in the palace. 
 
 So I found a good nest, and a welcome comforting to 
 a strange lad in a strange land. Through the little court, 
 Anita took me to the cell-like room of Tristan s choice, 
 and showed me his Indian mats, and rugs, and strange 
 arms and paintings. 
 
 " But those we never touch, for the records are 
 pagan," she said with a little shrinking. " He studies 
 out the meanings, and puts them in good Spanish for 
 the archbishop. But these days he is out somewhere 
 with the tribes, and you can have his room if need. Tris 
 tan is rich in beds, for there is ever one for him at the 
 monastery of San Carlos. They are glad when he goes 
 there, for he is helping Fray Bernardino with the 
 paintings. 
 
 " And what of Marco, senorita? " I asked, and thought 
 how much prettier she was when the red flushed her 
 cheek at the question. 
 
 "I I am not so exalted that your excellency should 
 give me senorita ," she said slowly, and when the color 
 went again from her face it left her pale. I did not know 
 then what I learned later, that pretty Anita was a child 
 of love, and that Luiza did a Christian thing when she 
 married the father, and took the little orphan to her own 
 heart. 
 
 "But what of Marco? does he also abide with you 
 when here from the mines? " I asked. 
 
 " Not now," she said. " Since Don Tristan is here, 
 Don Marco is more with his palace friends, and it is
 
 42 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 very gay there. This is very plain, as you see, senor." 
 Anita had the pretty, friendly ways of a servant who 
 has pride in service, and quickly made clear the remem 
 brance that I was not only a tired lad off a journey, but 
 that I was a Llorente y Rivera and the grandnephew of 
 the viceroy. But as I put on my finest apparel, I was 
 more than a little oppressed, and longed for a voice of 
 other shores that would call me " Juanito." 
 
 My luck would have it that my regal and priestly 
 relative was sleeping when I made my visit, and a very 
 learned gentleman, Don Martin de Silva, the vicar gen 
 eral, saw to it that I was provided with a companion of 
 my own age, Gilberto Lanchitas, whose uncle was prior 
 of the consulado. Together we climbed stairs and looked 
 from towers out over the wondrous valley of the Mex- 
 icos ; and the perfection of it all was enough to astonish 
 even the most loyal Sevillan, for it was no new city, as 
 a Spaniard might expect, but everywhere there were 
 traces of ancientness and mysteries. An old temple was 
 being torn dov/n in a garden back of Chapultepec, where 
 we went on horseback, and the brown people stood by 
 and watched the carven stone being carted on wooden 
 wheels for the building of a stable; and I thought, and 
 crossed myself at the same time, of the chapel of Charles 
 the Fifth, set in the midst of the Moorish marbles of 
 Cordoba. Even as a boy it seemed to me sacrilege of 
 beauty. 
 
 But Gilberto took little heed, and could tell me little 
 enough of Mexico. All his thought was centered on 
 learning the latest news of Spain, and what was said of 
 the death of Don Juan of Austria, and what of the queen 
 mother and the court intrigues, and so on. All I heard
 
 INMEXICO 43 
 
 from him was gossip of the viceregal succession and 
 the probable archbishop. There were aspirants for both 
 posts of honor and also questionings as to whether 
 new dignitaries would be sent out from Spain. Gilberto 
 had an eye to his own advancement, and plied his arts 
 to make his virtues known to me, as a relative of the 
 viceroy; as if he had not spent years himself in shadow 
 of the palace, whilst I was the stranger. 
 
 Such discourse was of small profit to me, for he was 
 of the milk-and-water sort, ever intent on his own 
 apparel and questions of the latest fashions and favor 
 ites at court. So, soon as might be in courtesy, I slipped 
 away to range alone and, though I knew it not then, I 
 crossed with an adventure my first day in the garden 
 of the palace. 
 
 I had no intent to listen, but the voice inside the barred 
 window of the patio was the sweetest one could wish to 
 hear ; it had the deep seductive notes and again the light 
 ness of love music. Truly, to this day, I have not heard 
 more wondrous tones in a speaking voice than those of 
 Dona Perfecta de Dasmarinas. 
 
 She was laughing gently as if teasing some one, and 
 then she said, " But truly, Don Marco, if you in truth 
 seek to serve me, how is it that your friend, Don Tristan, 
 never again comes as I request? If he paints angels for 
 a chapel, why should he not paint another face it may 
 be for a palace? " 
 
 There were some hesitant murmurings in a voice I 
 knew after all the years, and those two names Marco 
 and Tristan made me hold my breath. 
 
 " It is not for myself I care," continued the lady, " but 
 when one has been married to a man, the padre ever
 
 44 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 tells a woman to seek to pleasure her husband, and this 
 is a thing upon which his mind is set. Who knows what 
 honors there will be to divide when Don Payo goes? Is 
 your friend blind, that he ranges with the brown people 
 for empty learning, when his talents should hold him 
 here?" 
 
 Marco assured her that he had only returned from 
 San Luis Potosi that hour, and that he had faithfully 
 borne her message to Tristan of the honor she had sug 
 gested, also that Tristan had been booted and spurred 
 for a sally to the north, and made comment that the 
 painting of beauty was a joy not allowed to a maestro de 
 campo. 
 
 Perhaps the lady knew Marco was framing his words 
 as best he could to please her, for she was silent a bit 
 as if in thought, and then said, " Remember that I have 
 trusted you in this. Don Eduardo wants the portrait 
 of me, yet will he value it the more if I surprise him with 
 it, and " she laughed softly " when the new viceroy 
 comes in, I may have friends to ask favors for." 
 
 Then a youthful lady quickly crossed the corridor and 
 entered the room. I heard her called Dona Mercedes 
 by Marco. 
 
 " Perfecta," she said with coldness, " your husband is 
 waiting. He thinks you in the chapel at confession." 
 
 " I am this little minute returned through the garden 
 and stop to greet Don Marco. He is as a stranger from 
 those rich mines of his. Shall we ask him to the ball 
 with us tonight? " 
 
 Then their voices went away, and I hurried through 
 the garden and around to the entrance of the palace that 
 I might see them come out.
 
 IN MEXICO 
 
 Dona Perfecta fitted her seductive voice. Her hair 
 was of red gold and her eyes brown, and her every move 
 ment had the slow grace by which you were made to 
 wonder that each turn of her head, or her eyes, was more 
 lovely than the last. And to think that Tristan turned 
 away to barbarians when he could paint such beauty ! 
 
 Dona Mercedes was not beautiful, but looked very 
 capable also she looked not well pleased, and she 
 stepped into the waiting carriage without the helping 
 hand of Marco de Ordono. He assisted Dona Perfecta, 
 saluted the gentleman who entered the carriage with 
 them, and then stood uncovered, a very courtly, hand 
 some figure, as they drove away. No wonder Sancha 
 had held him so long as an ideal in her heart. I thought, 
 and still think, Marco de Ordono the very handsomest 
 man I ever had sight of. 
 
 That he had joy in seeing me again he gave every 
 sign of in courtesy, though he looked me over, made 
 comment on my growth, and wondered at my coming. 
 Why had I journeyed from my comfort to far uncer 
 tainties? 
 
 I told him that Sancha decided those far uncertainties 
 must have great and strange charms that he did not 
 return from them to claim his betrothed. He laughed 
 at that, and stared at me, and looked after the carriage. 
 
 " Is that her wording, or your own? " he asked, " and 
 are there messages for me? Come within." 
 
 I was presented to people of distinction, and noted 
 how, even in their courtesy, they were curious. Thus at 
 the very gate of the new life I saw the uneasiness of the 
 office-holding, office-seeking men, for whom life might 
 be changed by the threatened new rule. The very
 
 46 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 courtiers, and some of them men of talents, had the 
 natural curiosity as to a new seeker of even a small 
 office, especially one of the blood of the viceroy. 
 
 Through these several signs and the banter of Marco 
 de Ordofio, my heart was low enough in my boots ere 
 the time came that I should be brought to his eminent 
 excellency, the priestly viceroy. Strange enough it is 
 that the little, frittering minds take the courage out of 
 one, while the big, simple souls provide with a glance 
 all that you lack. Thus it was with Fray Payo Enriqez 
 de Rivera, the archbishop and viceroy of Mexico. His 
 hand met mine, and his other hand was on my shoulder 
 as he gave me welcome, and at once he spoke signifi 
 cantly: I was not to lose courage in the new land for 
 want of a patron; he would make that his own charge, 
 whether he stayed or sailed for Spain. 
 
 Fray Fernando was by his side, and, I gave a guess, 
 had divined my boyish uncertainties. Thus life, at a 
 moment, took on a different color to me, and I could 
 enter into the gaieties of the youths, and take less to 
 heart the raillery of Marco over a stray lad seeking 
 adventure. 
 
 Also I was housed in the palace, and to give me 
 acquaintance and ease of mind, was made page, and 
 Gilberto s was the task of guide and friend in the new 
 and care-free office to which I was assigned.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE LESSON OF LISPANOS TO HERETICAL SOULS 
 
 THE frail health of Don Payo made clear that his 
 viceregal office was a burden he would gladly 
 lay aside, and in the following days I had many 
 opportunities of seeing how, little by little, he 
 was making all plans to shift safely the weight of both 
 church and state from his own shoulders. 
 
 To Marco I said little as might be of Sancha all 
 the more so that she had sent him no direct message by 
 me. All that came was safe within the scroll to Don 
 Rodrigo. From the gossip of Gilberto I divined that 
 Marco had no need to languish for maids across the 
 water, when the best doors of Mexico were opened wide 
 for him. I fancied it gave him a swaggering arrogance 
 when her name was mentioned, knowing well that I 
 dared not express in words my own dumb rage at his 
 carelessness. Between women and the desire of Fray 
 Payo to show preference to the son of General de 
 Ordono, Marco was at a point where, without surprise, 
 the hand of a king or the glove of a princess might be 
 offered him without his special wonder. Thus his hand 
 some face had spoiled him, and, as was apparent, secret 
 meetings were given him by lovely ladies who should 
 have been at confession. 
 
 And back in Seville Sancha must make herself content 
 with Indian dolls and prayers and strings of beads. 
 
 47
 
 48 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 So, to all Marco s questions as to word from Sancha, 
 I gave him nothing, since the word was to Don Rodrigo, 
 and was well sealed. 
 
 My great desire was to make the journey to the mines, 
 but Don Fernando advised against it, as the Indian clans 
 had been making trouble in that region, or in one I 
 should have to cross, and Don Rodrigo would be in the 
 city as soon as all grew quiet again. 
 
 It was while I was waiting his return, and learning the 
 ways of the town and people, that I gained knowledge 
 that Padre Juan, back in Seville, was well informed as 
 to the strictures placed on all of Mexico by the Holy 
 Brotherhood. The rule of Fray Payo was questionably 
 mild in their eyes, and as I saw long lines of the peni 
 tents doing the stations in the garb of shame, I heard 
 much of grumbling that the Judaizing apostates, or 
 the pestilent Lutherans, were shown prolonged mercy 
 under Fray Payo and the penance of weekly pro 
 cessions and edifying sermons was little short of encour 
 agement to iniquity. There had been no burnings out 
 of sinful souls for many weeks. More than one of the 
 devout openly prophesied either epidemics or earth 
 quakings, if holy church grew lax in its prosecutions of 
 heretics. 
 
 So a company, including Marco, was sent riding 
 bravely north to Texcuco where, report said, a new 
 Christian family had refused to eat good pork, and added 
 to this the further damning evidence that neither father 
 nor son worked the fields on a Saturday. Therefore the 
 case against them was heavy with dire import. Many 
 maintained that so flagrant an affair must be beyond 
 even the mercy or lenient word of the viceroy. And thus
 
 LESSON TO HERETICAL SOULS 49 
 
 did I learn, little by little, of the warring of factions, and 
 the reasons why a man, old in service as was Don Payo, 
 would be glad to put aside the honors, and the endless 
 fight for lives. 
 
 Marco rode back looking like a hero, with his arm 
 in a sling from some accident, and the suspected men 
 and women were led with their hands tied and ropes 
 about their necks, staggering at the heels of the horses. 
 They were pelted through the streets to the prison, and 
 there was more excitement than over a fight with 
 Indians, for it was said that heretical books, and even 
 a Bible, had been found hidden under their shelled maize 
 in the bins. 
 
 A great scandal was made over the matter, for the 
 Lispano family were not insignificant. Their holdings 
 in land were important, as was even the tax to the crown 
 on their mines at Zacatecas. I found the good Luiza 
 weeping over their downfall, for their province in Spain 
 was her own. But Anita, exclaiming with youth s 
 impetuosity against the trailing of ladies of delicacy 
 through the dust at the heels of troopers, was given a 
 word of caution and hard query by her confessor. What 
 sympathy could a true daughter of holy church hold for 
 those who made plain choice of the devil and his instru 
 ments? To either read of religion or discuss it was for 
 bidden, as she well knew and there was the damning 
 evidence of a pious mestizo major-domo that pork was 
 not eaten at the Lispano table ! Of a certainty the evil 
 would be burnt out of their souls and their bodies at 
 the next auto-da-fe. 
 
 For myself, I cared not much for the meat of a pig, 
 where fish and good chicken were in plenty, despite
 
 50 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 which, for many a day after that, I refused every dish, no 
 matter how tempting, unless pork was somehow used 
 in it. 
 
 Thus was my mind impressed by the sight of the 
 white-haired man and his drooping daughters stagger 
 ing in weariness through the dust. Sons and a nephew 
 were also there, but they were more able. I saw Dona 
 Perfecta look down from a balcony and heard her com 
 ment on the white skin of the shoulder of one prisoner ; 
 it had not occurred to her that a Jewess was so fair. 
 
 It was my first sight of the work of the Brotherhood 
 in the New World, and has never left me. It is not 
 that it was more severe than in Spain. Yet in the older 
 land affairs were conducted with a difference. A man 
 might be caged, or he might wear chains through the 
 street to prison, but a certain decorum was observed; 
 there were no white-faced girls with half-naked backs, 
 drawn with ropes at the heels of prancing horses. Marco 
 rode well, and lifted his feathered hat to Dona Perfecta, 
 and to his saddlebow was tied the rope of the youngest 
 maid. And back of this triumphant procession for the 
 faith stood groups of the dark-skinned natives, staring 
 at the pious work of civilization in their land. 
 
 The prison was full, due, said the grumblers, to the 
 inactivity of Fray Payo to order executions. But Fray 
 Payo was again ill in health and could not have the care 
 of even so important a matter, so it was left for the 
 audiencia to assist the Brotherhood as well as may be, and 
 in the end the Lispano family were prisoned in a ware 
 house double guarded for lack of dungeon room. 
 
 I tell of this unfortunate family whose names I had 
 not even known, because out of their trial, and their
 
 
 LESSON TO HERETICAL SOULS 51 
 
 end, came illuminating things to me. They were judged 
 and condemned, as all knew, before any open audience 
 was given to the evidence. But in the end a public sen 
 tence was the usual form, whereby all might be warned 
 against apostasy. I do not recall that a word was 
 uttered by the prisoners, though the recorder read aloud 
 their words and admissions under the torture. There 
 was no recanting except by the nephew, so all knew he 
 would be conducted as a trophy of glory in the next pro 
 cession. The others were sullen and dumb as they heard 
 the sentence that they be burnt together, and their lands 
 and mines revert to the crown, except for the gift to the 
 mestizo of a certain competence in proof that the Brother 
 hood ever favored its faithful sons. 
 
 Yet all this was a thing of custom; and I listened 
 beside Don Fernando and felt the tremble of his slender 
 hand on my arm. Always he was white, yet at their 
 sentence his face grew whiter, or his eyes burned more 
 darkly, for I could but note it, and ask if he were ill in 
 health. 
 
 I had no answer, for he was staring at the recorder, 
 who, with the help of another monk, was fishing from 
 a rawhide bag the pestilent books found hidden in the 
 maize bins. The Prosecutor for the Faith assured all 
 who listened that in the pages of those volumes, without 
 covers, was contained iniquity enough to either raise 
 devils from hell, or sink all the land under their feet to 
 the regions of the fiends themselves! He admonished 
 one and all to attend a special mass for the reason that 
 their eyes had even rested on the forbidden and outlawed 
 volumes. Among them were translations from the dis 
 graced Luther, books in Hebrew, and more than half of
 
 52 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 a Bible all contentious and pernicious, and prone to 
 establish insurrection and heresy wherever introduced. 
 
 Many at the trial got away quickly, or turned their 
 glances otherwise than on that stack of condemned 
 iniquity. But my own feet seemed stuck fast to the tiles 
 of the floor, my eyes bulging at the stack of books in 
 front of the stubborn, silent, prisoners. Not one of the 
 books had a cover, and, as in a dream, I thought I saw 
 again the open chest in the storeroom of the De Ordonos, 
 and beautiful covers of books flung, one after the other, 
 into its shadows and the lid clamped shut. 
 
 But it was not the lid which fell ; it was I, and after 
 my head struck the hard tile, I knew nothing until I 
 found myself in a bed in the palace, with Don Fernando 
 beside me, and heard voices saying that even a sight of 
 those volumes of craft cast a spell over me and some 
 woman also had fainted on hearing they could raise the 
 devil ! 
 
 I was yet dazed and shaking, and Don Fernando sent 
 the others, Marco and Gilberto among them, reluctant, 
 from the room. 
 
 And when I did speak it was whisperingly, and with 
 a dazed mind, for I asked if Tristan were safe. 
 
 Don Fernando bent his head, and there were tears in 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Safe," he said, " thank God, he is safe somewhere 
 in the wilderness among savages and wild beasts." 
 
 Then he sat beside me in silence, until I, feeling better, 
 would have risen, but he took my hand. " It is growing 
 dark," he said, " lie you still and think and some day 
 tell Tristan. He is eager for books because it is in his 
 blood. He is the son of scholars, yet today you and I
 
 53 
 
 have seen souls under a curse because of that hunger. 
 Tell him of that all of it! In Catholic lands today 
 scholarship must rest. Under the robe alone will he 
 dare study religions, and then only in the books of faith 
 of the one religion. I say this because even the study of 
 the pagan gods may bear ill fruit, and with Fray Payo 
 gone from Mexico, and with me gone, it might at some 
 time of life go hard with him. Even the gods of the sun 
 and those of the stars are held in disrepute by the 
 Brotherhood. Thus you must tell him, for no new arch 
 bishop will protect him in his searchings, or ask trans 
 lations for scholars of the future." 
 
 " But you, Don Fernando, he would set more store 
 by word from you on such a serious matter." 
 
 " I may not give it, boy. Who can tell the things to 
 come? But if aught should chance me, give to him my 
 blessing and tell him of my pride in him. The pride is 
 great, as my faith in him is great ; to Don Rodrigo say 
 I leave to him the thing most precious on earth, and 
 that I take the seal from his lips." 
 
 Then he gave me a cup of some bitter tea to quaff, and 
 made the sign over me, and went away. I must have 
 gone to sleep at once for I knew no more until the next 
 day s sun was in my eyes, and Gilberto had me by the 
 shoulder shaking me awake, and babbling of a guard 
 killed, and another one wounded it was Mateo 
 Gomez, the husband of Luiza and it was the opinion 
 of Gilberto that now, indeed, the town must have some 
 sanctified burnings to make room in the prison, for it 
 was proved to all that the warehouse would never do. 
 
 That sleep of mine was so curious that it was hard to 
 shake out of either my head or my legs, and I wrestled
 
 54 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 myself stupidly into my garb, grunting my comment 
 on his discourse, and was put to it to unravel head or 
 tail of it. 
 
 But a sniff of fresh air and a cup of- cocoa took the 
 numbness out of me, and I had sense to sit in silence 
 while Gilberto talked. There were tales abroad of 
 enchantings of the devil, for no- locks had been broken, 
 and no eyes had seen the going. Yet the Lispano family 
 had certainly been borne away every he and she of 
 them by their Master of Evil! 
 
 Questioned as to special points, all that was known 
 was that a pious monk had obtained order from the 
 Brotherhood to use his utmost strivings to bring the 
 victims of Satan to open confession as to the accursed 
 volumes found in the maize bin. Armed with the order 
 of the Holy Office, the doors had opened to him, but no 
 one had ever seen him come again from behind the heavy 
 locked doors of the warehouse. Yet was the warehouse 
 empty ! One guard was found who looked as if the devil 
 himself had had the strangling of him, for iron fingers 
 had most certainly sunk into his throat until the life was 
 gone. Also Mateo Gomez, the husband of Luiza, was 
 found without senses, and with a cut on his head. This 
 discovery had been at the change of guard at sunrise, 
 and the captain of the guard was up for reprimand, and 
 was a deposed man at the very mildest. Gilberto won 
 dered who would be named as the new captain, and 
 mentioned the name of Marco, for Marco had helped 
 bring in the heretics. 
 
 And from that, in another minute, Gilberto was back 
 at his old subject of preferments and intrigues, and 
 thought it in the power of Don Eduardo Vidal de
 
 LESSON TO HERETICAL SOULS 55 
 
 Dasmarinas to see that Marco had first chance, and his 
 word would go far. 
 
 I heard it all with little thought of Marco or his 
 chances, for my head was in a whirl as to the enchant 
 ments sent by the devil to free the old man and his 
 daughters. It had all been done in a haste scarcely 
 human, for there were men of degree and women 
 too held safe behind the prison bars for suspected 
 heresy these many years. We saw them in the lurid 
 sanbenitos the very color of flames each week in the 
 procession of the penitents. Yet this family, convicted 
 of apostasy, heresy, and traffic with the Prince of 
 Darkness, had rested in prison but one setting of the 
 sun after their sentence had been thundered at them by 
 the Prosecutor for the Faith. All the evidence was most 
 certainly in favor of infernal agencies a fact dwelt 
 upon by the Holy Office as the only method by which 
 their own efforts for the faith could have been made 
 void. For myself, the question I most wanted to ask 
 stuck in my throat, and I made my way to the house of 
 Luiza to ask after Mateo, for whose health I cared little. 
 He was the scheming, truculent member of a household 
 otherwise pleasant. His subservience to me as the rela 
 tive of the viceroy was embarrassingly pronounced. I 
 had the custom of visiting the good Luiza when the 
 husband was on duty elsewhere. 
 
 But that morning I was as one driven there to hear 
 the thing I dared not ask, and I found the two women 
 all but frantic between the crippled man and the curious 
 crowd, from which came every variety of tale as to 
 demoniac assaults and their consequences. Poor Luiza 
 knew not whether to pray for his physical recovery, lest
 
 5 6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 the devil should still withhold his wits, and Anita was 
 weeping in sympathy and lamenting the absence of Don 
 Tristan for with him at home he would surely find 
 Don Fernando, and that was the only intelligent name 
 Mateo had muttered. 
 
 "Was Fray Fernando his confessor?" I asked, with 
 my eyes on the floor and my heart thumping. 
 
 " Surely not it is Fray Felipe, and already he has 
 been here, and was of comfort. But know you not that 
 it was Fray Fernando himself who was spirited away 
 with those heretic Lispanos who chose to follow the 
 dead law of Moses rather than the way of the cross? " 
 
 " No one has told me," I said. 
 
 " Well, it is so. I shed tears to see those ladies 
 dragged by soldiers through the dust of the streets in 
 shame before even their own brown slaves. But I might 
 have saved my pity, as Fray Felipe told us both ; for the 
 fiend himself was certainly master of the beauty of those 
 Lispano girls, and it has proved itself. How else could 
 all within those walls have been thus suddenly spirited 
 awiay? " 
 
 " Ay," ventured Anita, " even Don Fernando, whom 
 all knew as a holy person, who else than he, so wor 
 shiped by the Indios? For his sake they would make 
 themselves as a carpet for his feet." 
 
 I looked at the ugly cut on the head of Mateo. He 
 had been struck down, and fallen on a sharp stone. The 
 fall had been heavy, and there was a fracture of the skull, 
 but there were no other marks. Evidently only one 
 stroke had been needed. 
 
 "If Don Tristan were only here!" moaned Luiza, 
 over and over. " What can a woman do with a wounded
 
 LESSON TO HERETICAL SOULS 57 
 
 man on her hands, and a guard outside her door? My 
 wits are all but gone." 
 
 " I am here at your service," I said with kind intent ; 
 " and there is Marco de Ordono, your nursling as well 
 as Don Tristan. It is even said that his name is men 
 tioned as captain of the guard. You will have an official 
 friend in high places." 
 
 I spoke lightly to reassure her, but was little prepared 
 for the frightened look she gave towards pretty Anita, 
 who was at the moment outside the door, listening to the 
 condolings of a woman neighbor. 
 
 " Send Don Marco not here, lest there be troubles for 
 a priest to mend ! " she mumbled apart to me as she 
 changed the wet bandages and rilled a basin with water 
 fresh from an olla. " Know you not that Don Tristan 
 has laid a threat against him? " 
 
 This was news to me, as I had learned nothing to 
 indicate there was ill will between them, and I said so. 
 
 " Not on other matters," agreed Luiza, " but the girl 
 is as a little sister to Don Tristan, and as you may 
 know Don Marco whispers at many windows, and 
 wins his way through many doors. The saints alone 
 know how hard it is to guard a girl, but Don Tristan 
 knows somewhat, and Don Marco had his warning to 
 walk in other streets. It makes it hard for me, for Mateo 
 favored him, as it was one ladder to a step up at the 
 palace." 
 
 " What do you mean by all that? What girl? " 
 
 She nodded her head towards Anita. 
 
 " God alone knows how it will end," she said, " for the 
 child no longer opens her heart to me. She trusts and 
 reverences Don Tristan for his brother spirit, but what
 
 58 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 she dreams of the other, no soul can tell. I never trust 
 her out of my sight but for confession or mass, and then 
 a neighbor walks beside, for how could I live if a boy 
 and girl love should end in a murder? Don Tristan 
 made the threat to trail him to hell if he did her wrong, 
 and the threat of Tristan was a thing to fear." 
 
 Here was a new turn in fortune s wheel in the new 
 land where I had thought life would be free and simple. 
 I recalled the blush of Anita when I had asked of Marco 
 that first day. At one time he had housed there; no 
 doubt he still would have had that pleasure but for the 
 most unchristian threat of Tristan. 
 
 I went back to the palace, and listened to words of 
 sympathy over my faint of the day before. Two women 
 had also fallen unconscious through the devilish enchant 
 ments abroad, and one of them had become a mother in 
 the night. So, in one way and another, there were waves 
 of gossip surging about me, and I could easily sit silent, 
 and listen to good purpose. Fray Payo was ill from the 
 excitement, and would see no one, and to Don Martin 
 de Silva was given the task of dealing with the Holy 
 Office, and getting to the bottom of the affair. 
 
 But all I could learn was that it was Don Fernando 
 himself who had put in the reasonable request that the 
 " reconciled " nephew of Lispano be separated from the 
 convicted apostates before an attempt be made to reach 
 their sinful souls. And it stood to reason, also, that a 
 priest who had won savage idolaters from their false 
 gods would be the one man most like to win these 
 heretics from their pernicious ways. But for all the 
 wisdom, and reasonableness of it, the officials had noth 
 ing left but a dead man, an empty prison, and no trace
 
 LESSON-TO HERETICAL SOULS 59 
 
 of two maids and four men who had gone under the 
 earth or into the air. 
 
 The guards were questioned at every side of the city, 
 but except for an Indian fiesta out by Tlacopan, and 
 some of their brood going and coming, the streets had 
 been still of all traffic ; neither man nor woman had been 
 abroad more than was the custom until the hour of early 
 mass at the cathedral. I heard Marco tell Dona Perfecta 
 and her cousin Mercedes all this, as he rode in after 
 making a circle of highways north and south to establish 
 the fact that no such group of refugees could have passed 
 the guards on the way to either coast. And how could 
 they have carried with them a man so noticeable as 
 Don Fernando? 
 
 It was the opinion of Marco that Don Fernando had 
 been killed by the heretics, and would be found in due 
 time, under the tiles, or in some other secret place. 
 
 Thus was all conjecture seething and bubbling to no 
 purpose, when Don Rodrigo rode into the city. In Spain 
 I had not loved Don Rodrigo beyond reason, but at sight 
 of him in Mexico I could have kissed his dusty boots. 
 Don Payo was by far too eminent for a confidant, but 
 Don Rodrigo was nearer the earth and, it was reason 
 able to suppose, would know the other half of most I 
 had to tell him. 
 
 As soon as might be, I followed him from the house of 
 Luiza to his lodgings near the monastery, and gave my 
 self credit for even that patience. I had stood by, silent 
 as a fish, while he had been overwhelmed by all the news, 
 and all the surmises of the many others, but when I 
 tagged at his heels, he bade me come along as a good- 
 natured man may throw a kind word to a stray puppy.
 
 60 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Not that a companion as mute as I was a thing to wish 
 for, but after all, I had messages from home, and must 
 be accepted as the bearer. 
 
 Had I been less near to bursting, I might have had a 
 certain pride in changing his mind, or in the mere aston 
 ishing of him, but I was far beyond all that in my 
 suppressed terror. 
 
 I gave him the folded and sealed packet from the 
 abbess, which he accepted with the sigh of a martyr. 
 Well he knew it would involve a letter of duty the 
 aftermath of his long-ago matchmaking. His manner 
 plainly betrayed that the reading of that might wait until 
 supper had been eaten. 
 
 So long as others were in hearing I told him the latest 
 news of his friends and family and the captain I sailed 
 with, and all such topics of common question. 
 
 Then, while I poured for him a cup of Greek wine sent 
 by Padre Juan, I gave him the message of Don Fer 
 nando. 
 
 He let fall the cup, and the wine soaked into his sleeve 
 and dripped to the floor while he stared at me. I poured 
 him another cup, for he looked as if he needed it. 
 
 " Say that again," he whispered, yet put out his hand 
 to stop me when I would have spoken aloud. 
 
 " Lower," he said, and I repeated: 
 
 " To Don Rodrigo I leave the thing most precious on 
 earth, and I take the seal from his lips. " 
 
 " God ! " he said, and quaffed the wine, and sat staring 
 at nothing for what seemed a long time. I knew he was 
 thinking of the trial and the mystery. 
 
 " Holy God ! " he whispered again, " then he knew it 
 was the end of him! "
 
 LESSON TO HERETICAL SOULS 61 
 
 I had thought as much myself, yet it spelled out 
 none of the riddle of his disappearance. 
 
 " Indians," he said in the same tone, " Indians ! For 
 him or for Tristan they will do the impossible things. 
 Yet what could the Lispanos mean to him? Fernando 
 was not heretic." 
 
 " But he had love of study. He he gave me a 
 warning against seeking knowledge except in churchly 
 books," I ventured. " The holy prior said there was 
 enough of evil in the Lispano books to enchant an 
 army. It may have been that they began in all inno 
 cence with the books and then the evil grew in 
 them. I only know he left a warning with me, and 
 went away." 
 
 I did not tell him the warning was not for me, for I 
 could see that of the books he knew nothing. Books 
 might be housed under his very nose for a lifetime, yet 
 he would not have thought to turn a leaf. 
 
 " Indians ! " he said again, " and it will go hard in the 
 mines without him. The Indians rebel at another con 
 fessor there his strength lay." 
 
 " And what of Tristan s strength? " 
 
 " The less said of that the better. The lad gets under 
 their skin as though he had suckled the same breast. A 
 new day will come to us all when Fray Payo goes and 
 the less said of Tristan and his Indian strength the 
 better. It came some way by the help of Fernando, but 
 the pupil out-distanced the master. And if you are a 
 friend, you will caution him that pagan records had best 
 be forgotten : no new viceroy or archbishop will serve as 
 patron in that and there is the Holy Office with its 
 thousand eyes ! "
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 
 
 THE letter from Spain was forgotten by Don 
 Rodrigo in the excitement of the Lispano mat 
 ter, and the mystery of Don Fernando. He was 
 careful not to betray all he felt concerning the 
 latter, not sure of the wisdom of open avowal. The 
 clergy grew cautious about expressing themselves, and 
 were alert for every word of interest that was dropped 
 by anyone. The common people might have their own 
 fancies regarding diabolical agencies in the matter, but 
 the Holy Office had ears open for temporal evidence. 
 I myself was never so devoted to the interests of Don 
 Payo. I scarce moved away from the antechamber of 
 his excellency, and came near to losing the use of my 
 tongue, lest I should say the wrong thing. 
 
 Then, one day of beauty, when the winter rain made 
 the world sparkle anew, Tristan Rueda rode from the 
 north; and when he was hailed, I stared and choked, 
 and tried in vain to say the civil thing, but could not, 
 for my own amazement at the new Tristan, who now 
 had the look of a sad and bitter man stamped on the 
 features of youth. 
 
 I was not alone in the wonder. There were many 
 questions asked of his health, and I heard comments of 
 various sorts. He had ridden away ruddy and careless, 
 
 62
 
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 ^MMMMMM>MMWMMMaMMVMM^HHMHWMMMV*MMMttMMpWM^MHHVnHMHHHHVaMMWHMWMMMMBHi 
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 63 
 
 and came back pale and hard, as from a campaign where 
 he had fared ill. 
 
 Yet he took both my hands in the old friendly way, 
 and looked in my eyes, and when he went in to Fray 
 Payo, I was the only one who went with him. To the 
 message of Don Fernando he had listened with sudden 
 tears, and he did not let go my hand. My venerable 
 relative smiled on us both, and the others in the room 
 were sent away. 
 
 Then Tristan took from under his cloak a girdle of 
 cord and a rosary of brown wood and turquoise and 
 shell beads with a silver crucifix, and laid them on the 
 knee of Don Payo. 
 
 Don Payo knew that crucifix, and his hands trembled 
 pitifully as he touched it. 
 
 " Where? " he said, and that was all. 
 
 " In the waters north of the Panuco." 
 
 "Dead?" 
 
 " Dead many days, and alone. There was a boat and 
 a storm. If others were there they escaped north or 
 went to the bottom, but the Indies found no boat." 
 
 Fray Payo asked for a map, and traced with his finger 
 the long line of coast past Florida to the Virginias. Then 
 he traced the great river from the north, and sat in 
 thought. 
 
 " That way the countries of the French could be 
 reached," he said, "but the wide lands of the pagans 
 would have to be crossed and with women! It took 
 Alvarado and his men ninety days to reach Panuco, and 
 they had no women. It is seven years since the French 
 Jesuit and the merchant came down the mighty river 
 whose source is said to be somewhere in Kathay. It
 
 64 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 may be that people of a colony have followed their trail 
 by ship or land, and that beyond the Texas, these ref 
 ugees will be hidden and guarded. But the way is 
 through such a wilderness as to appall the bravest. Such, 
 Tristan, is the only refuge for the benighted souls fleeing 
 from the true God." 
 
 Tristan was white and silent while that wonderful 
 old mind thought out the chances against escape of the 
 scholarly, refined Lispanos, who had been accustomed 
 only to the luxuries of life. 
 
 " Leave these with me," he said at last, " and to both 
 you lads silence! Careful thought must be given ere 
 a brother monk is held forth to blame or shame, and 
 such a brother ! Every turquoise bead and every silver 
 one here is some pledge of prayer from some brown 
 convert. This is a matter as of our own family." 
 
 Then Tristan went out, and I beside him. He had to 
 listen to all the rumors and conjectures I had learned 
 by heart, and I wondered that he kept his face steady, 
 knowing what he knew. 
 
 " These are the ends to which a fool s hunger for 
 knowledge may bring his friends if they try to help 
 him ! " he said to me. " Be you content, Juanito, with 
 the little learning of a harmless man." 
 
 And beyond this he uttered no word, either then or 
 later, of the books, or of the people who had hidden 
 them; but I saw him often poring over the maps of 
 that north shore, and knew that he thought much of the 
 trails to be taken for safety, for away beyond there to 
 the east was the country of the French, and the heretical 
 Lutherans, and in no other place in the lands of the 
 New World was there refuge from the Holy Office 

 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 65 
 
 unless, indeed, a sinner might risk himself with the 
 brown pagans, and few souls could brave that choice. 
 
 Yet, in after days, I took note that from every trader 
 or traveler Tristan added to his knowledge of these 
 foreign coasts and the tribes or rulers, and though he 
 said little, his ears were ever open to the older men 
 concerning the missions of the north. These men held 
 much converse over the strange loss of Fray Fernando, 
 whose zeal among the heathen had been great. 
 
 Mateo, when he got his wits and his tongue, could tell 
 nothing of that strange going. Don Fernando had gone 
 in to the heretics, and the door had closed. In peace he 
 had done guard service and seen no one ; then a blow 
 had made him senseless. He could tell nothing. 
 
 But the Lispanos were all burnt in effigy at the next 
 auto-da-fc and their names execrated as enchanters and 
 evil heretics. 
 
 For myself, I had the feeling that one of the huge 
 volcanos might be fuming and groaning under the very 
 city, so fearful was I that some sort of explosion was 
 due from all the thoughts suppressed. But as the days 
 went by, and nothing further happened, I began to 
 breathe freely, and be a boy again, instead of a scared 
 child. 
 
 Don Rodrigo had a touch of the fever, and was bled 
 until some of the color left his ruddy face, and there were 
 days when I was more his page than Don Payo s, for 
 always there was some seasonable thing sent from the 
 kitchen of the viceroy to the old soldier in the inn by 
 the monastery. From there was but the flight of a 
 chicken to the house of Luiza, and thus I saw most of 
 our friends daily.
 
 66 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Tristan had quietly fitted himself into the niche of the 
 cloister life because of some saintly figures with which 
 he was helping Fray Bernardino for the chapel there. 
 Why he did not go as he so easily could on some 
 of the adventurous expeditions north or west, would 
 have been a puzzle to me, had it not been for the memo 
 ries of the Lispano family and the books. He plainly 
 meant to stay in the center of things ; yet by taking up 
 the painting he was leaving himself free from all offices 
 by which his feet might be chained, did he again feel the 
 hunger of far quests, and to all Marco s urging he would 
 take but little share in the affairs of state at the palace. 
 Only when Fray Payo sent a call, did he go and go 
 willingly, and his service was great in many matters 
 dealing with the tribes. 
 
 To me it was as if he had put aside that search for 
 adventure and strange lore, and was striving to take up, 
 in body and spirit, all the work for the brown pagans 
 which Don Fernando had laid down. 
 
 To Don Rodrigo he was doubly devoted in the illness 
 caught in the night mists, or from the evil waters of a 
 bad camp, and Don Rodrigo had much of sympathy for 
 himself over many things those days, when he sat, 
 shaded from the sun, by the great rose tree at the edge 
 of the monastery wall. A ship was to sail for Spain, 
 and by trick or craft a letter must go in exchange for 
 those I had borne to him under seal. Of the contents 
 he had never spoken in my hearing, so I had only my 
 guess as to the messages of Sancha. All I did know was 
 that he had urged Marco to sail for Spain in the train 
 of Don Payo, and had been given good excuses instead 
 of consent.
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 67 
 
 So I found him one day, grumbling and blinking 
 sleepily across the plaza, where the Indian carriers, with 
 bent backs, passed in line under the pepper trees. They 
 bore loads so great that all but their feet were hidden 
 as they walked patiently on in the sunshine. I have not 
 to this day ceased to wonder at the grave repose of those 
 people who pass on fatefully with our burdens, while we 
 lounge, fretful, in the shadow of walls built from stones 
 of their temples. Whence the endurance? 
 
 But Don Rodrigo, fingering the letters from Spain, 
 frowned and looked at them, yet saw only his own 
 troubles. 
 
 " They have no cares but for a bowl of meal or a cup 
 of their native brandy," he insisted. " And I look at 
 the loads I carry! To avoid marriage until my age, 
 yet have the matches to make or hold steady, for every 
 young gallant of the family ! What use to pray to the 
 saints if they never keep a man out of trouble? " 
 
 " Yet without doubt you will go on paying for good 
 candles the rest of your life," I said, eager to hear his 
 discourse of the letters. 
 
 He stared at me. 
 
 " A man must be a Christian soul in spite of the devil," 
 he affirmed solemnly, as if recollecting the duty of in 
 structing youth, " and the light of altar candles does 
 give a glow of righteous satisfaction over all." Then, 
 after another stare, " Did you know the jade had learned 
 to write?" 
 
 He regarded me as if he thought I was somehow to 
 blame for this objectionable acquirement, but I could 
 only confess I had heard somewhat of her mind on the 
 matter, though I had seen no written evidence.
 
 68 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Well, it is here," he acknowledged morosely, " a dic 
 tated letter to me by the hand of Padre Juan, and a 
 threat of worse to follow! A prayerful letter from the 
 abbess, because with neither guardian nor husband to 
 control her, the little Arab is like to do some wild thing. 
 Then to Marco a writing of her own and nothing less 
 than a return by his own hand will content her ! " 
 
 I had a glimmer of light on a puzzling matter. 
 
 " Is it for that reason the hand of Marco has still the 
 wrappings of a lameness? " I asked. " I was so silly as 
 to think it more excuse for the sympathy of ladies ; they 
 ever love a man to need their ministrations." 
 
 " The cowl of a monk to you, you learn fast ! " he 
 growled. " Yet under a cowl there is peace, and I half 
 regret I turned from it at your age. Fine work for me 
 to have this marriage business on my hands with the 
 two of them half a world apart. If Fernando rest his 
 soul had lived " 
 
 The whistle of an old Moorish air came along the 
 corridor. Don Rodrigo listened and then nodded his 
 head as one who had found a solution of his problem. 
 
 " Tristan always knows," he observed ; " every man- 
 jack down-at-the-heels scholar in the city is more or 
 less in his knowledge. He will find me someone to do 
 the letters instead of a priest, and as no letter by Marco s 
 own hand has ever gone to her, how is she, with all her 
 temper, to know the difference? It will be a discipline 
 she sorely needs, and it is a kindness, too for Marco 
 writes a vile, unreadable scrawl. We will get her an 
 cscribienie of elegance." 
 
 Tristan swung along the corridor, humming the air 
 he had ceased to whistle. His step, in the soft leather
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 69 
 
 boots, had the virile spring of life in it, eager, yet not 
 impetuous. He looked a strong animal held in check, 
 almost an idler for want of a task he fitted and dan 
 gerous fuel for the fates. I did not reason it out thus, 
 I was too much of a boy, but I was set athrill by the 
 force within him. 
 
 He was momentarily elated over some completed 
 work in the chapel. Fray Payo had sent some painters 
 of note to view it, and their praise was high. Fray 
 Bernardino gave him credit, and they had protested 
 against a youth of such talent wasting time on Indian 
 chronicles. 
 
 " That marches with my own thought," decided Don 
 Rodrigo ; " why rope an Indian in the lake and drag 
 him to shore for baptizing? If they have souls, they 
 have also a saint to drive them in for confession when 
 the time comes." 
 
 " Many would wait long for that." 
 
 " And better so than that good men should be wasted 
 on them. Think of the army of priests now in the north." 
 
 " Mines of turquoise are there, and it is said gold," 
 commented Tristan ; " that should be good cause to you, 
 if not the souls." 
 
 " Yet the true mines of Mexican gold have never yet 
 been found, with all the aid of converts," grumbled the 
 old man. " A little here and a little there yes, and 
 much of silver but the real mines, the great treasure 
 houses, where are they? With all your journeyings 
 have you traced them, or with all your converts? " 
 
 " The gold is sacred to the sun god, and to their houses 
 of dawn," said Tristan. " I have never sought by words 
 to find trails to their sacred things. If they want you
 
 7 o THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 to know they will tell you with an open heart. If they 
 are made to answer, they will only lie." 
 
 " All hopeless sinners given over to the devil ! But it 
 was not of their red souls I would talk. It was to ask 
 how far you would go to favor a friend." 
 
 " If you are the friend, Don Rodrigo, you know these 
 many years I am bound to your house." 
 
 " Hark now ! That is it, lad ; it is for the house of 
 De Ordono itself I need loyalty, else how is the house to 
 continue if there are not marriages? and how are mar 
 riages to be if there is not love-making of some sort 
 or pretense? " 
 
 Tristan smiled, and it was the first smile of his I had 
 seen in Mexico. 
 
 " If it is love-making, why not do it yourself? " he 
 asked. " You are substantial, and comely to the eye, 
 even after all your bloodletting." 
 
 " But this is a serious matter ! " protested the old man. 
 " The ship sails in less than a week, and Marco is use 
 less, and " 
 
 " Tell me," said Tristan. 
 
 " It is this. Don Fernando God rest his soul has 
 written all the letters for us since we came from Spain. 
 He is gone, yet the letters must be written, more than 
 ever they must be written, for the girl has the devil in 
 her, and demands things. You remember the child, 
 Sancha?" 
 
 " I remember." 
 
 " Good ! Gifts have gone to her from Marco all these 
 years I myself sent them. Letters have gone for her 
 to Padre Juan or to the abbess I had them written." 
 
 " All this I know," said Tristan, " for all of the letters
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 71 
 
 from there were among papers of Don Fernando, and 
 Fray Payo gave me the task of sorting them." 
 
 " Praise to the saints if you have not destroyed them ! 
 This is a day of good fortune. You are yourself so good 
 a scribe and scholar that you will know every worthy 
 scribe in the city who hires his pen and his time." 
 
 " That is true, senor. Many of them, failing to find 
 the El Dorado of dreams, are glad to keep accounts, or 
 act as scribe, or turn monk at the last ! " 
 
 " Softly and with care ! Your careless speech may 
 earn for you a trial of the faith some dark day if you 
 guard it not. Monks are vowed to God s service." 
 
 " And a fat living here," grinned Tristan. 
 
 " Had you and Fray Fernando so fat a living when 
 you were on that desert trail to the north? " 
 
 " Let me not remember that time of the lost way in 
 a land of plenty. We dug roots and ate snakes. But 
 Don Fernando was never a monastery man. To me he 
 was ever the soldier who had somehow broken into a 
 cloister." 
 
 " That is true, that is how it was," said Don Rodrigo, 
 and sat in silence a space ; I started as if to leave them, 
 for it was always a pain for me to hear of Don Fernando 
 in the presence of Tristan. Pie was guarded even while 
 he seemed careless, and our eyes ever avoided each 
 other. 
 
 Don Rodrigo put out his hand to detain me. 
 
 " Stay you here, Juanito, unless you are needed else 
 where. You may serve as help, you saw the little spitfire 
 later than I." 
 
 " Your pardon, sefior, but she is no longer so small," 
 I said.
 
 72 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Her height has kept pace with her temper, then? " 
 
 " About that, senor," I conceded. 
 
 " You see, Tristan, that is what I have to deal with 
 a temper of pepper, and the height of a woman ! I have 
 asked little help of any but Don Fernando, and he " 
 
 " Senor, many of the tasks he did have been given to 
 me by Fray Payo. That I work here at the painting for 
 pure love of it, does not mean that I take no other 
 duties." 
 
 " I could wish Marco as willing. He ever has some 
 errand of state if I need to talk sense to him and that 
 ship must carry a letter to Spain. When I did remind 
 him of it, he gave me leave to write it ; schoolmaids, he 
 said, were not to his fancy. She could wait there safe 
 in the convent until he went back; so stands it with 
 Marco. But Marco should recall that the girl is a little 
 Arab of temper ; truly there was the blood of Moresco in 
 that family. This letter is not at all an you will, your 
 excellency ; it is a shoulder stroke, direct ! An you do 
 not, there are other men, also there are cloisters ! She 
 is wearied of letters from priest to abbess, and with her 
 own hand has she learned to write that she may say 
 this." 
 
 " Life of my soul ! this grows amusing. And does 
 your rebel lady demand of you a letter of love from 
 Marco?" 
 
 " Ay, she does and if it does not in the first ship, 
 there are others comely gallants nearer home and 
 there are cloisters." 
 
 " That ever Marco should drive a maid to a cloister 
 for lack of love-making ! " said Tristan. " If she were 
 this side the water he would not let her go begging. I
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 73 
 
 had a bad hour with him ere he ceased tossing roses or 
 sweetmeats over the wall to the child, Anita. He took 
 it ill at that time, but seems again a friend. And now, 
 senor, to serve you, how can I? " 
 
 " Read the letters, and have reply made that is courtly, 
 and what it should be. Save the child s name if you 
 can. And have replies sent to Marco in your care. Thus 
 the maid will be content in the thought that he writes 
 them, and no harm will be done. If you will do this 
 and get the letters to ship, it will be all heavenly har 
 mony instead of cat scratches. It will not be for long; 
 our intent is to go back another springtime." 
 
 " Marco knows? " 
 
 " Marco knows, and laughs, and says I started it and 
 must finish it. I, who have worked with heart and care 
 to join a marquesa of Llorente y Rivera and De Ordofio! 
 He is an ungrateful donkey, and knows not his own 
 good fortune. Also, he says she should have faith as has 
 he, and no letters would be needed. For myself, I do 
 deplore even the thought of letters, and it goes hard to 
 chide the lad for the same natural feeling. We De 
 Ordonos have never been much with a quill." 
 
 " Faith, as he has ! " repeated Tristan. " The maid 
 locked tight in a convent, and he ranging the world for 
 pleasure ! Which recalls to me a small matter : Is it not 
 by the friendship of Senor Don de Dasmarinas that 
 Marco has lately been shown some special preferences? " 
 
 " It may be so ; he has said nothing." 
 
 " Then you say something, Don Rodrigo, and save 
 troubles to come. Tell him to range elsewhere for 
 sweethearts than so close to forbidden ground. I inter 
 fered in one direction, and he would think me turned
 
 74 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 spy if I should speak of another. At the very mildest, 
 he would take it ill." 
 
 " That is true. What is wrong? Are you rivals? " 
 
 " Not at all, my heart is at the feet of Mercedes, the 
 cousin of Dona Perfecta. She is safely betrothed to my 
 friend Ernesto Galvez and is not for me; but she is 
 wise that girl and sees things. Dona Perfecta will 
 also be wise to hasten the wedding, lest Mercedes see 
 too much. That beauteous Perfecta is a woman am 
 bitious for special place at the palace, and uses all tools 
 to her hand. Also she is a pretty cat, no, rather is she 
 a tigress, and likes pretty boys instead of kittens to 
 play with! " 
 
 " Marco would say then that you were safe," said Don 
 Rodrigo, rolling a cigarro, and watching the face of 
 Tristan to see if he flushed, or paled, or lied. 
 
 But Tristan only smiled. 
 
 " It is true," he said, " my beauty will not make trou 
 bles for me. If I told Marco all I could tell, we would 
 end by fighting, and that would win pleasure for none 
 of us. Where is the letter? " 
 
 " It is here all three of them from the abbess, the 
 priest, and the girl, and the last deserves better treat 
 ment than it is getting." 
 
 " Also, here is Marco de Ordono," I warned them as 
 I sighted him across the little plaza. " It will be a joke 
 on Marco that you help save a wife for him from the 
 cloister." 
 
 " If there is a joke, it will be on me, that I plan letters 
 of love for a girl over seas when I am thinking only of 
 Mercedes Herrara here in Mexico!" 
 
 Later I knew how bravely he lied about that little
 
 ;frTu 
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 75 
 
 matter, though at the time I had a boy s sorrow for him. 
 I knew how it was to adore a divinity at a distance. 
 
 Marco shrugged and smiled when he saw the creased 
 and crumpled letters. Don Rodrigo had evidently taken 
 his worries to bed. 
 
 " So you have Tristan in it now," he jeered ; " but I 
 have a better task for him. Whether with good or ill 
 will, your presence is entreated soon as may be at the 
 house of Senor Don de Dasmarinas. The fame of your 
 churchly paintings is abroad; you are asked again to 
 paint the portrait of the loveliest lady of the land." 
 
 Tristan looked at him and smiled. 
 
 " One woman at a time," he said ; " and if her time 
 ever comes, it must come second." 
 
 " Let him alone, Marco," said Don Rodrigo. " He will 
 be our salvation if you give him a free hand. A letter 
 must go on that ship if you want ever to join the De 
 Ordofio with the illustrious family of Llorente y Rivera." 
 
 " Does she fancy we carry secretaries to the mines? " 
 growled Marco. 
 
 " What she fancies is not spelled out here, though the 
 letter of Padre Juan makes much plain. Here she says, 
 It is five years, and I have grown tall. I pray you con 
 vey to Don Marco that the Indian dolls he sends have 
 made much merriment for the nuns here at Santa Maria, 
 also that I lately hung each one of them by the neck to 
 a pomegranate tree, and if Padre Juan has a mind to tell 
 you what I said of them he is free to write it in this 
 letter, for I am making sanbenitos for each one, and the 
 little pagans will all go into the fire on some fine day ! 
 
 " The little Arab devil! " said Marco. " She was ten 
 when we came from Spain, was she not? "
 
 76 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Twelve," said Don Rodrigo, " and should she ever 
 hear you call her Arab there would be troubles 
 enough. That Moresco blood was proud as any in Cas 
 tile ; it was used to ruling in other days. And this word 
 of hers is more than the whim of a child. Look to it, 
 Marco, that you lose not a pearl you would gladly 
 wear ! " 
 
 " In a year we will go back, weighted with treasure 
 is that not good reason enough for delay? How can a 
 man make love to a girl in far Spain when there are as 
 pretty, here to one s hand?" 
 
 " There needs no love-making ; the child has never 
 had it, and cannot miss it. But letters of your own 
 writing she does demand." 
 
 " I will marry, as I will die, when my time comes," 
 said Marco sulkily, " but to wear out my brain with 
 letters to a little vixen like that I can t and won t ! 
 Also my hand is lame, even if I would also you can 
 get another priest to write, for after all she has never 
 seen writing of mine. Who is to tell her the difference? " 
 
 He looked at me as though I might not be trusted, but 
 Don Rodrigo spoke for me. 
 
 " We can trust Juanito. He is too fond of Sancha not 
 to want her happy and safe wedded." 
 
 " If it makes her happy," I said, and had doubts. 
 
 " How else will it be if only she is quiet and tame for 
 a little longer? " 
 
 " A clerkly wife is the last thing I should have asked 
 the saints for," growled Marco, looking at the letters, 
 and throwing them back on the table. " Why could she 
 not be content with trinkets, as would any other maid? " 
 
 " Because there is not like her any other maid any-
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 77 
 
 where in all the rest of the world ! " I declared. " She 
 has a brain to think with, and your trinkets have been a 
 jest to her since ever you came away ; also your ladies 
 of Mexico are tinsel beside her gold, and no maid of the 
 house of Llorente y Rivera need go pleading for a hus 
 band, Senor de Ordofio. She is loyal, but she has no 
 love for you, she only thinks she loves the memory of 
 you." 
 
 How I said it to thrust my tongue into their man s 
 discourse I could not tell. Never before had I pre 
 sumed before my elders, but my blood was hot with 
 anger at his easy confidence. 
 
 Tristan put his hand on my own as if he feared my 
 effrontery might make trouble, but Marco was so amazed 
 he had no time to be angry. And Don Rodrigo watched 
 me with a curious look. 
 
 " It is the same blood, Marco, safe and loyal, yet prone 
 to wild doings in the older days. You had best take 
 that little warning, for wild blood may lead your maid to 
 strange decisions there is always a cloister and she 
 mentions that there are also men in Spain ! " 
 
 " I have thought over the accursed matter until I am 
 past thinking," said Marco, suddenly truculent. " But 
 you and Tristan are not the ones to desert a comrade in 
 trouble. I would as soon hope to preach a sermon as 
 write a letter, while this escriblente can write easily as 
 he can eat. Come, Tristan, refresh yourself with a cup 
 to give you heart, and help a comrade. Get a letter 
 written for me before the ship sails." 
 
 " I ll write for myself," threatened Tristan, " and steal 
 your maid and her fortune, and the latter, as I see it, 
 would be your greater loss ! "
 
 _ 
 
 78 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Lads, lads, this thing is no jest, but a serious matter. 
 The fractious jade says plainly there are gallants in 
 Seville who are not too busy to woo, also that she has 
 misgivings that the convent life may be her true voca 
 tion. If no letter goes to her by next ship, I wash my 
 hands of you both, dolts that you are." 
 
 There was laughter among us at Don Rodrigo fuming 
 over a letter of love, and Tristan, noting that his heart 
 was in it, spoke up. 
 
 " The letter shall go, senor, if it will give you content. 
 Marco must write it, else you and I will do it, and shame 
 him!" 
 
 " Done ! " said Don Rodrigo, eager as a boy. " We 
 will toss dice to decide which does the task, though if 
 chance be that Marco writes the letter he will drive the 
 maid to a nunnery rather than wed anyone of his name 
 or family. Even the reckonings at the mine he could 
 not keep in a way to be deciphered." 
 
 So, with a new jug of wine to give them courage, the 
 dice were thrown, first by Don Rodrigo, who threw 
 seven, then by Marco, who sang in glee and did a caper 
 when he threw but six. And Tristan sat silent when 
 the fates, or the saints, sent double six to his hand that 
 he write letters to the wilful maid across the sea. 
 
 There was much rejoicing on the part of Don Rodrigo 
 over this, for he, in all honesty, feared that a letter from 
 Marco would hurt his suit more than help it, and Tristan, 
 once his word was pledged, would carry it through 
 bravely. 
 
 Thus it began the jest in the shade of the monastery 
 wall in Mexico. For myself, I think the guardian angels 
 of all three were taking a siesta that day.
 
 1..1 i i> Ifl. -; LJ~:/iJ L3 " . . [ I/. - " . 
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 79 
 
 Once it was settled, Marco was gay as a lark, willing 
 to discuss the letter and advise regarding it, but Tristan 
 had the better of him there. 
 
 " You will play your hand, or you will keep out of the 
 game," he directed. " Also the letters must come to 
 my hand." 
 
 "That is as it should be," and Don Rodrigo passed 
 over the letters. " This donkey this burro has sent 
 her only strings of beads until she is all but lost to us. 
 Now, the saints willing, all will go merrily and smooth 
 till we sail home for the wedding, with treasure chests 
 well filled." 
 
 " And you, Tristan, shall be my second, and salute the 
 bride," offered Marco in high good spirits. 
 
 " Take him away ere I do him harm," said Tristan to 
 Don Rodrigo, " and if he has not made his daily call on 
 the family of De Dasmarinas, this is the hour." 
 
 " Family? but there is no family but Dona Perfecta, 
 and " 
 
 " She is quite enough in herself," commented Tristan 
 unfolding the letters, and not even looking up to see the 
 red flush in the face of Marco. " Get you gone and find 
 a messenger to bear the letter to the ship captain. If I 
 am to attend to your affairs of love, give me, at least, 
 privacy." 
 
 So they left him, Marco going without further words 
 for a messenger, and Don Rodrigo hobbling in to his 
 couch. When I returned from waiting upon him, Tris 
 tan still sat by the table with the unfolded letter in his 
 hand. 
 
 " Strange it is that the pearls of life sink often to low 
 usage," he said, when I sat myself quiet beside him;
 
 8o THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " and strange that his heart is not touched by that which 
 is good in this." 
 
 " Is it truly done by herself? " I asked, for while she 
 had boasted of her new accomplishment, I had seen none 
 of it. 
 
 " It truly is and it is a shame to deceive so fair a 
 soul even though I made promise. His name, at least, 
 I will not sign. I will find some lie to cover that. Who 
 could trick a child heart such as shows itself here? God ! 
 how strangely the pearls are portioned ! " 
 
 This was a new turn, after the jests, and the wine, 
 and the dice, and I knew not whether to take myself 
 away, or how to speak. 
 
 " You were right, Juanito," he said at last, " the child 
 but tries to be loyal to a dream of childhood. Hear to 
 this." 
 
 Then he read me the letter Marco had laughed at. 
 
 To Don Marcos de Ordono of Mexico, 
 
 Excellency: 
 
 This will be the first of letters writ by my hand. You did 
 not know I write. I have learned for the reason I am weary 
 of priest letters. If you are to be my husband, it is right you 
 should have my first letter. I look at the stars and wonder if 
 the same ones shine where you are now, and I have sent mes 
 sages some days with the white butterflies, and wished the 
 messages had wings, that they go to you. My own saint is 
 the beautiful one of the white bees who is called the Saint 
 of the Impossible; not yet is she made a saint by the church, but 
 in our hearts she is one. I am not a saint or I could go through 
 the sea to where you are, as did she through walls of stone 
 for holiness. But the mother abbess says a maid must abide 
 at home and wait and make prayers, thinking not of sea jour 
 neys. Yet when the stars go over to you in the west I do think 
 of it; and also I make prayers for you in your far travels.
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 81 
 
 It is not gay to have a life always in a convent, though that 
 thought may not have come to you. This I have told Padre 
 Juan to write for me; but no more priest letters will I send 
 nor will I read. The letters are most fine, but the only letters 
 I want are from him I am to marry. I cannot marry the priest, 
 also he would not want me. Padre Juan tells me I am rebel 
 lious, but I think it is not that. I but ask to know the true 
 thought of the man I may wed. 
 
 Therefore my own hand writes, and I am, 
 
 Your friend in graciousness, 
 Encarnacian Maria Emanuella de Llorente y Rivera. 
 
 " Proud little lady lonely, though exalted ! " said 
 Tristan. " Think you she would pen this if she knew 
 the course he runs in Mexico? " 
 
 " You will not tell her? " I asked, recalling how Don 
 Rodrigo had said that ranging youths often made the 
 best of husbands after the settling down had come. 
 
 " No, that I could not do, but the child shall no longer 
 be lonely. It is as a work sent because my own thoughts 
 are not good company. In this I may forget, for a 
 little while." 
 
 I did not ask what his own sorrows were ; I had grown 
 fearful of knowing too much. 
 
 " You will keep this secret? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, if it is the only way for her happiness," I said ; 
 for, of course, I believed that when she saw Marco she 
 would be in love as most maids were, and the letters 
 would be forgotten no matter who did the writing 
 of them. 
 
 "You promise?" he insisted. "For I know she is 
 dear to you as a sister." 
 
 " That is true. But I give my word. When you, your 
 self, tell her, I may ; but not before."
 
 82 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " When I tell her ha ! " and he had a bitter smile. 
 " It is so likely that I, of the name of sorrow, should tell 
 a Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera that I had dared to 
 write to her letters from a lover ! Yet that is my task 
 take yourself away while I prepare my soul." 
 
 I did so, looking back at him as he sat, chin on hand, 
 with the jug, and the wine cups, and the open letters on 
 the table. 
 
 It did not seem to me so fitting an altar for the prep 
 aration of a soul, and I had my own doubt of a letter to 
 our Sancha if sent from such a place, yet the very place 
 may have brought its own help, for the letter was sent, 
 and in after days my own eyes saw it, and this is it : 
 
 To the Lady of the White Butterflies: 
 
 It did not come to my mind that you, exalted on the convent 
 hill, could wish for letters from one far below. But when I 
 have the word of your hand, my thoughts go over seas to you 
 more swift than any letter made by man. 
 
 I do see the white butterflies here, great ones with wide wings 
 and velvet soft bodies, but it was the reading of your letter by 
 which I was able to know the message they strive to give me. 
 They will never be far from me now, and if I were a knight of 
 old bearing shield, the butterfly of white should be marked 
 on it. If I were indeed the knight of an older day I might plead 
 also for a worn glove. Know you a fair and gracious maid of 
 the convent hill who would be kind in that? 
 
 The land here seems in some things like a country of enchant 
 ment it is so very, very old, and had been sleeping so many 
 ages when the conquerors came in with rude awakenings. This 
 is not what is often told, but it is truth, and much evidence of 
 the truth was swept away or burned by Cortez, and by others 
 after Cortez. 
 
 If you were here you would learn new things of the stars, for 
 they come close to earth in this high air. Also the pagans had 
 their own love and worship of them. They call the moon
 
 TRISTAN THE RANGER 83 
 
 " mother," and greet her with gifts of grain meal and flowers 
 of the night, tossed upwards. Their sanctuaries were many on 
 the high places, and their shrines in the " houses of the dawn " 
 were dear as are your altars in old Spain. The white butterfly 
 is to them the symbol of the spirit of life, and their other sym 
 bols are many. 
 
 Do you ever look at the still star of the north, around which 
 others circle? That star is as a god to them for the reason 
 that it is enthroned steadily. Do you ever see that Cassiopeia 
 has the wings of a great eagle, and the curve of the Dipper is 
 like a serpent half twisted in coil? Ever these two change 
 places in the sky. When the eagle is high in the sky the serpent 
 is under the throne of Polaris, and again the eagle circles low, 
 and the serpent curves above. Thus in their pictures these 
 pagans show this endless battle of sky things and earth 
 things, good and evil, light and darkness, and the enthroned 
 star, Polaris, holds the balance. Their standards bore the sym 
 bols of this meaning. In desert nights these thoughts, held 
 sacred by them, are told at times, little by little, to a friend, 
 and they make one see how God prepared man by all these 
 wonders for the revelation of the greater Wonder! 
 
 I write of the stars because you ask of them, and I see your 
 own constellation in the sky as I write. I saw you once on the 
 convent hill above the olive trees, standing clear against the 
 sky, with the white doves about you. You were Virgo to me, 
 white and serene, I have looked at Virgo many times since then 
 from the wild corners of Mexico, and my thoughts have gone to 
 you little maid on the hill! 
 
 Be lonely no more, but look at the stars at night. Under the 
 feet of Virgo stretches the great Hydra, with the Solitary One, 
 Alphard, beating there its steady warmth as the heart of it. I 
 am thus at your feet, White Virgo! At your feet I will be all 
 the days I have to live, and here I write, that you may know it, 
 the name of 
 
 Alphard.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE AMUSEMENTS OF DONA PERFECTA 
 
 AFTER the ship sailed away with that letter, 
 decided by the dice, Tristan kept me closer to 
 him than before, and the barrier was down re 
 garding Sancha. Never before had he spoken 
 of her, but it was, I think, as he said to talk of places 
 or people over seas took his thoughts from matters 
 troubling him, and they were many. 
 
 The plans of Fray Payo were made, and we were both 
 given choice of service in his train. But I looked at 
 Tristan, and his decision was to stay. Don Rodrigo, 
 despite his good days, was not well enough for a journey, 
 and fretted his soul over the mining matters until twice 
 Tristan rode across the wilderness to set things right 
 for him, and I an adventurer of the wilds at last 
 rode with him. 
 
 But I cared not much for the living at the camps where 
 meat was scarce, and little else plenty but the rich silver 
 in the ore. My own money had gone into shares there, 
 and slaves to work with, but the camp life was tame, 
 and I was glad to ride back. 
 
 With the ship of Fray Payo went another letter to 
 Sancha, and then Tristan settled down to make a finish 
 of the painting, and complete some tasks of records left 
 by the departing viceroy. 
 
 84
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF PERFECTA 85 
 
 There was great change of ceremony and state when 
 the new viceroy went in, but it did not lessen the im 
 portance of the De Dasmarinas. The office of secretary 
 bestowed upon her husband by the new viceroy, Don 
 Tomas, Conde de Paredes, gave Dona Perfecta oppor 
 tunities to show favor to whom she chose, and this time 
 it was not Marco who was sent with the message ; she 
 came herself to visit the chapel, and Tristan, in a tat 
 tered old monk s gown smeared with paint, could do no 
 less than bow when the Fray Bernardino brought her 
 in to see the holy saints all in a row, on either side 
 the altar. 
 
 " Is it true, Don Tristan, you have grown so devout 
 that you paint only heavenly things these days ? " she 
 asked, and watched him approvingly with those brown 
 slumberous eyes of hers. No one would call Tristan 
 handsome, as was Marco, yet heads did turn to look 
 after him, and his strong dark face made him remem 
 bered. 
 
 " I dare not say they are of heaven," he answered ; 
 " no poor worker of earth may hope for that." 
 
 " You might hope for more than you know," she said 
 softly, as Fray Bernardino shuffled away to send some 
 one with wine and sweets to the visitor. " The message 
 that I sent with Don Marco should have told you that." 
 
 " Marco is scarce a safe messenger, especially for 
 exalted ladies, Excellencia," and when Tristan said it 
 he looked at her very hard, and with no more of courtesy 
 than he would bestow on a dealer who offered wares he 
 disdained. 
 
 " Send that boy away," she said. " How is it you are 
 never alone, whether in the palace, or monk s cell? "
 
 86 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " It is, perhaps, that I have found a comrade." 
 
 " Send him away," she said again, and this time she 
 was close beside him, looking up to his face. 
 
 " Juanito, the Dona Perfecta would have you see 
 that her carriage is waiting at the portal," said Tristan, 
 and I saw him step back as she caught at his arm. 
 
 " You shall not ! " she said. " Listen it is a year 
 since you said " 
 
 " I was a boy a year ago, senora ; also I was proud that 
 you desired the portrait. But in a year one learns " 
 
 " What did you learn that sent you away what? " 
 
 " Only that my art is not fine enough for your face, 
 Excellencia," he said, and I was so eaten up with curios 
 ity that I peered back and saw the ugly smile on his 
 face. 
 
 " It is not that I know it ! " she insisted, and again 
 she caught his arm. " What did that girl tell you 
 Mercedes? It will be well the day she is safe married, 
 and no time left to play spy ! " 
 
 " I have no memory of anything told me," he said 
 coldly. " Is his excellency, your husband, Don Eduardo, 
 visiting the monastery today? " 
 
 " You know he is not. Listen things are changed, 
 Tristan. I have power now and " 
 
 " So it is said, Excellencia," and his words were like 
 ice, and again the ugly smile was there. 
 
 " Who dares say it? I can make them pay if I choose. 
 We have not now a viceroy who is a saint." 
 
 " So it is said, Excellencia," and again he smiled. 
 
 " Ah ! I could could break my fan in your face ! " 
 
 " And then, Excellencia? " 
 
 " Then weep because I had done it," she whispered,
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF PERFECTA 87 
 
 and again went close to him. " Tristan, why did you 
 steal away to the Indian deserts, and why " 
 
 " The Indian Desert is a good safe place for weak 
 mortals afraid of temptations, senora." 
 
 " Afraid ! You? " and she laughed. " You are no more 
 afraid than you are weak. You are only devil-possessed 
 not to grant me that which I desire." 
 
 " There are better painters of portraits than I, senora." 
 
 " But if I think not? If I have both the viceroy and 
 Don Eduardo eager to please me and give you a good 
 price? Can you not see it is favor from the palace I 
 bring to you? What more can I do? " 
 
 " Senora, you do more than I may find thanks for." 
 
 " It is not thanks for which I am here it is that I 
 shall not go out the portal till you promise. The por 
 trait I must have. I will see that the viceroy himself 
 asks for it if I fail." 
 
 Tristan looked at her in thought though many a 
 man would lose every sane thought at sight of her. Per 
 haps he saw the contest would be endless, and I couk 
 plainly discern that the favor shown Tristan by her 
 was not a new thing. He could have first place, even 
 while he jeered at Marco for coveting it. 
 
 " I will not put his Excellency to the trouble of a 
 request," he said. " If my poor talent is of service, I 
 will, of course, endeavor to make of you a portrait." 
 
 " Ah ! " and she was a sparkle of gladness in her de 
 light. " And you will come to the palace to paint, and 
 doff that monk s robe, and be human once more?" 
 
 " I shall be human enough for the task." 
 
 " Task ! You speak as if I set you a penance for sins. 
 Yet look you, Tristan, you have promised, and I shall
 
 88 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 give you else to think of than your pale saints on the 
 wall. You will forget them all." 
 
 " All but one perhaps." 
 
 " Which one? " she demanded, and turned to look at 
 those of the chancel. 
 
 " The one I have not dared to paint," he said. 
 
 "Where is she?" 
 
 He smiled, and reached up, catching at a sunbeam 
 making clear its bar of light against a shadow. 
 
 " It is that, senora, the unattainable." 
 
 " Tah ! " and she laughed in derision, " only that ! But 
 for these drawings did you get their faces from sun 
 beams alone? " 
 
 " Not all. I have a little foster sister who is a pretty 
 maid, and she has sat still as a mouse, many times, that 
 I might make drawings of her head or eyes." 
 
 " It would please me to see this maid. I bid you bring 
 her to me at the palace." 
 
 " The mother must say as to that ; and I think she 
 will say no." 
 
 " What? Do places go begging in the palace of the 
 viceroy?" she said smilingly. "We will make her 
 future if she is fair. Did I not tell you I would have 
 favors to confer ? " 
 
 " Favors of the palace are dangerous sometimes to us 
 common people of the cots." 
 
 But at that she laughed again, and looked at him. 
 
 " You of the people of the cots ! You look royal enough 
 for a throne, though your name tells me nothing. Tris 
 tan, who are you?" 
 
 " An adventurer whose name is Tristan which 
 means sorrow. Find a gayer painter, Dona Perfecta."
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF PERFECTA 89 
 
 " I will have only you. There will be long hours of 
 the work, and you will tell me the things of the far 
 deserts you love more than women." 
 
 Then Fray Bernardino came in with the prior and re 
 freshments, and Tristan got away with what civility he 
 could. Dona Perfecta talked with the prior a long time 
 while her horses fretted beyond the portal. If there 
 were any questions she failed to ask concerning Tristan 
 and the family of his foster mother, Luiza Gomez, they 
 were few indeed, and at last she swept away, leaving 
 the impression that she meant to give patronage to all 
 of them, also to send some special gifts to the monastery 
 of San Carlos for the pleasure of her visit. The prior 
 accompanied her to the carriage, well satisfied that he 
 had gained the favor of the new rule in Mexico. 
 
 It was not a matter of great surprise to me to learn 
 later that Dona Perfecta had sent for Luiza, who was 
 vastly flattered at preference shown Mateo, who was 
 given place as guard at the palace, while Anita was 
 offered chance to learn embroideries and other fine 
 handicraft, and have training beyond the hope of a 
 pretty paisana, which she, in truth, was. 
 
 The rage of Mateo and the dismay of Luiza were great 
 when Tristan broke in on the pretty plan with some 
 oaths a Christian could not approve. 
 
 " Have I fought and made threats to keep her out of 
 dangerous influences, only to have you toss her into hell 
 to hold patronage for Mateo? " he asked. 
 
 " But her excellency, the Dona Perfecta " 
 
 " Ay yes, I know all of that ! " he assented, but he 
 could not say that her excellency had but a whim to 
 learn if Anita were the reason her own enchantments
 
 go THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 had failed! He knew it, and I knew it, but the good 
 Luiza would have thought me mad had I spoke it. Tris 
 tan with his somber eyes and monkish learning was not 
 thought of as a gallant, though it is true that when he 
 rode down the street, heads turned to look at him, and 
 questions were asked by strangers. 
 
 Like Dona Perfecta, I had often in my heart the query 
 " Tristan, who are you? " 
 
 Mateo was more than a little surly, and poor Luiza 
 was in despair between the two of them, and out of the 
 despair came an idea. 
 
 " Listen, Don Tristan," she begged. " We all know 
 you are right in your thoughts, and always wise, and 
 with gracious care for Anita, but remember your warn 
 ing against the advances of Don Marco. You told her 
 he had more sweethearts than fingers to his hands and 
 that his thoughts are all for the people exalted and im 
 portant. Tristan, she is a good child, and she loves you 
 as a sister, but in her heart she does not believe one 
 thing you said, from the smallest to the greatest. The 
 heart of the child is so full of the thought of him that 
 he is to her like an angel of God on the throne. It will 
 always be like that unless we make her see. How can 
 I, when she goes not away from our door but to con 
 fession or mass? But at the palace she will see with 
 her own eyes. So I think the saints have sent us this 
 chance to make her sensible, for she is a pious child, but 
 overmuch in love for her own good." 
 
 Luiza talked it all over with me many times after 
 wards, and told how, little by little, Tristan gave way, 
 though he said at the last, " Then you leave me nothing 
 but to keep my word."
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF PERFECTA gi 
 
 " Tristan, your word was to deal him death if he did 
 wrong to her, but that he would not do, and that you 
 could not do." 
 
 " Then tell Anita, that I may not be called to," he said. 
 " In all things I am loyal to the De Ordono except where 
 two maids are in question." 
 
 "Two, Don Tristan!" 
 
 " Two, and Anita is one of them. Give her warning. 
 She may guard him by guarding herself in the midst of 
 all that tinsel." 
 
 So, very quietly, as if there were no gallants ready 
 to war for her, pretty Anita went with Mateo to the 
 palace one morning, and there was passed from guard to 
 lackey until the breakfast room was reached, and Mer 
 cedes Herrara looked her over, and took her in charge. 
 
 " Though you are too fine of grain to easily find tasks 
 for," she observed, " and I wonder much why the senora 
 has called you here." 
 
 But when Tristan came for the first drawing, a light 
 task had been found for her, and she wore a dress of 
 white, and drew the threads for an altar cloth to be 
 embroidered by Dona Perfecta. 
 
 " It will be given to the good prior in memory of the 
 visit to the saints," she said, looking at Tristan with a 
 little crooked smile. " N ow that I have one of your 
 angels before my eyes in life, I see how good the like 
 ness was made." 
 
 " Yes, Anita sits very still, and was good to copy 
 from," said Tristan. 
 
 He confessed later that he felt ashamed of his fears 
 over Anita when he found her thus among the women, 
 petted, and talked to, yet not unduly. No men were
 
 92 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 present, and Dona Mercedes had a kindly notice of the 
 girl. 
 
 Dona Perfecta watched carefully the first meeting of 
 Tristan and Anita there, and then turned radiant, and 
 was graciousness itself to everyone, even to me, whom 
 she had sent out of the chancel that she might vent her 
 humor on him! 
 
 And having seen that Anita was nothing to Tristan 
 but a kindly charge, it did not enter the thoughts of 
 Dona Perfecta that the quiet maid could ever aspire to 
 the very handsomest gallant in her own following! 
 
 The beginning of the picture making, with all the 
 group about her, gave me distrust of Tristan s judg 
 ment. Why hold out so stubbornly against the favor 
 other painters envied him? I found myself deciding 
 that he had read monkish books and lived with old 
 thoughts until his views of life were curious. 
 
 When I was there Marco never but once entered the 
 room, and then with a brief message from Senor de 
 Dasmarinas. He gave Tristan a playful thrust or two 
 because at last he had been chained and dragged from 
 monastery walls, and then, with a gay salute to Dona 
 Perfecta and a teasing word to Dona Mercedes, he took 
 himself away. If he even glanced at Anita it was as if 
 he had noted a pretty bit of furniture, and the ladies 
 certainly gave no note to her flushed cheek and shy eyes. 
 His familiarity with palace ways and people certainly 
 appeared like a high barrier between them, and though 
 she might admire him more than ever at a distance, she 
 must plainly see that her world of life must ever be 
 far below the ladies who smiled on him there. To me 
 it seemed that the reasoning of Luiza had sense.
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF PERFECTA 93 
 
 After the second day, Dona Periecta found useful task 
 for her in teaching Indio maids the linen work, and 
 under Dona Mercedes there was a gay group of the 
 young girls in the ramada intent on spacing and stitches. 
 I passed them, and spoke. Later I learned that Don 
 Eduardo had made a week s journey to Michoacan, and 
 that Dona Perfecta had sent for Tristan that the paint 
 ing of the picture might be continued without delay in 
 the sala. 
 
 It is not a gracious task to write the record of an ex 
 alted lady who makes opportunities for gallants, and 
 I will only set down here that no one is ever like to know 
 what did chance in the sala that morning. But with the 
 unthinking folly of youth, I did not note the closed door 
 until I had tried to open it, and found the bolt held 
 fast. 
 
 With what haste I could, I was making retreat when 
 I heard a chair crash to the floor, and a wicked word or 
 two from Tristan. 
 
 He shot back the bolt, and I heard the silks of the lady 
 rustle across the floor. 
 
 " Tristan, Tristan ! " she said, and he halted in the 
 half-open door lest she echo the call where there was 
 more danger. " Tristan, you will not go like that? And 
 the portrait " 
 
 He stood very straight and looked at her. 
 
 " As I told you, senora, the deserts or the monastery 
 walls are safest! I find I cannot work in this light. I 
 grieve at being a trouble to you, but if Senor de Das- 
 marinas wishes the portrait, he may be able to arrange 
 to bring you to the monastery the workroom of Fray 
 Bernardino is a better place."
 
 94 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " I will not go there I will not ! Tristan " 
 
 " Then I regret I cannot " 
 
 " You do not mean it you are mad ! I can win you 
 favor, or I can work you ill." 
 
 " Surely, yes," he said, and bowed low. " Adios, 
 senora." 
 
 " No! Tristan, I will go to you, I will do as you say 
 for the portrait. But you are mad, Tristan, quite mad ! " 
 
 She laughed a little, nervously, as though to pass the 
 scene by as a jest, but he only bowed again, and walked 
 out without seeing me where I stood in the shadow of a 
 pillar. The door of the sala was slammed shut, and I 
 heard the bolt click again. 
 
 Tristan lied complacently, and growled that the light 
 came from three sides in the sala, and was a devil of a 
 place to paint anyway ; he liked a good tile floor where 
 a bit of trodden charcoal or a drop of paint would make 
 no difference. 
 
 And the next day the carriage of the de Dasmarinas 
 was again at the monastery with the lovely Dona Per- 
 fecta. And there the painting went on, the Dona Merce 
 des seated demurely by, with her little embroideries and 
 her velvety black eyes. 
 
 Tristan worked, silent and square jawed, while that 
 lovely glowing creature made a blaze of color in an 
 amber silk the color of her eyes. He would stand off 
 and stare at her as if the gracious and exalted lady had 
 been one of the least important of the lay brothers in 
 an old cowl. 
 
 Once her husband came to cast an eye on the very 
 safe appearing group, and once the carriage of the 
 viceroy halted there by chance, and the prior was made
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF PERFECTA 95 
 
 to feel that Tristan was, indeed, bringing special pat 
 ronage through the using of Fray Bernardino s work 
 shop. But with it all, Tristan was irritable, and not so 
 good a companion. Always he was courteous to all 
 women; and Dona Mercedes he smiled at as at a com 
 rade, but I could see him hold himself tense if Dona 
 Perfecta came close or touched him. He hated the 
 woman beyond reason, and his very coldness attracted 
 her by its novelty. She sent him letters which he 
 burned, and even to me she made affairs pleasant that 
 he might see all his friends were shown favor. Some 
 times she sent a message to him by me, for Marco was 
 getting sulky on her hands, and was not in good humor 
 if Tristan was praised over much. 
 
 I tried, as I might flattered by her sweet voice to 
 show Tristan what he was throwing away with his sad 
 lack of tact, but he shook me and laughed, and bade 
 me keep clear of her net. 
 
 " She is a fair devil, but there is a loathsome feeling 
 here in my heart for her so what use to reason? 
 Others are glad of her favors, and, as you see, her hus 
 band has been made of necessity to the viceroy because 
 of her beauty. If she keeps all those lads dangling 
 Marco and his sort His Excellency may well think it 
 is as a careless cloak to cover other sociabilities. But 
 for me she is a sweet poison thing, and if this keeps 
 up " 
 
 He broke off and laughed, and burned the letter I had 
 taken, and then sought among some old Indian relics 
 until he found an ugly little carving of a woman s figure 
 with the robes and fan of the ruling class. 
 
 He looked at it, and laughed again.
 
 \3 v <~J \~J vcr^ \-JU <^y v^ V^/ VzSU <zJj\~r\~J Vr/v=i) VrJ 
 96 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Yesterday she wanted a flower to hold, or some 
 other thing to give her hands occupation," he said, " and 
 it is this I will give her. Thus will I write thoughts 
 into her portrait which every Indio may read as he runs. 
 She hates the Indies also I think she would need to 
 fear them if chance should take her their way. They 
 often measure rightly the people who would look down 
 on them." 
 
 " But the little statue? What is its meaning? " 
 
 " She was a queen once here in Mexico, and was a 
 very powerful lady," he said. " Her name would mean 
 nothing to you, but this is the thing for the hands of 
 Dona Perfecta to hold. It will make her own beauty 
 more glowing by contrast." 
 
 This he told her when she came, and again when she 
 demurred at the queer little statue and its queer smile. 
 
 " But it might be a pagan god, and have evil power ! " 
 she protested. 
 
 " It is not a god, but a princess so charming that many 
 men died for love of her," said Tristan, carefully mix 
 ing his colors, yet watching her with amusement as she 
 held the little gilded figure so curiously made. " There, 
 senora, that is just right for you to hold, and, as I said, 
 the lucky figure shows your white hands more white." 
 
 It was the nearest to a compliment she had wrung 
 from him during the painting, and her face flushed with 
 the triumph. 
 
 " And men did die for her truly? " she asked. 
 
 " Truly they did. So famous was the love felt for her 
 that images were made also of many of the lovers after 
 they were dead all this that the land should not for 
 get one who charmed so well."
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF PERFECTA 97 
 
 I could see a laughing devil in the eyes of Tristan 
 while the wife of De Dasmarinas, the friend of a viceroy, 
 held the image, quite content at his words and tone. He 
 even hummed an air as he worked, and then broke off to 
 regard her with pleasure. 
 
 Thus went on the portrait he had made protest against 
 doing. All was in harmony except, perhaps, Marco, who 
 fretted at sight of the carriage of Dona Perfecta so often 
 out by the monastery, and once at the palace I saw her 
 slip her hand on his as she chided him for it. 
 
 With all this, I think most of us forgot that the 1 girl 
 Anita, with her pretty tasks, was left without company 
 of the ladies for at least an hour or two each day. But 
 Luiza was much pleased that she was seeing the world 
 a little, and acquiring a dignity from the palace air. As 
 for Mateo, he was so proud that two of the family were 
 under patronage of Dona Perfecta that he was slavish 
 as a dog for her, and would have either done murder at 
 her word or made himself a rug for her feet.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 SANCHA TO ALPHARD 
 
 IT WAS the day of the last sitting for the picture that 
 word came from Vera Cruz a ship from Spain was 
 in, and it was my pleasure to ride south, meeting the 
 carriers. Besides a letter for me, there was a thick, 
 soft packet addressed to " Don Marco de Ordono by 
 the hand of Rueda at Convent of San Carlos in Mexico." 
 
 By going to meet the train of packers, I headed the 
 bearer straight to the monastery with no risk of the let 
 ter arriving at the hands of Marco. Her own letter to 
 me, full of joy and excitement, showed me that happi 
 ness was hers, and I was of a mind that it should not be 
 made subject to the jeers of Marco. 
 
 There was a flutter among the women when I en 
 tered, waving my letter in triumph, and gave the packet 
 to Tristan. 
 
 He held it, staring at the writing on it, and his face 
 flushed warm. His first movement was to put it aside, 
 but the mockery of Dona Mercedes and the half closed 
 eyes of Senora de Dasmarinas warned him that secrecy 
 was not in high favor. An open face would make the 
 matter forgotten more quickly. 
 
 So, careless as might be, he lifted a knife from a bench 
 of brushes and tools, cut the cord, and lifted the seal. 
 With the first unfolding of the paper there was a scream 
 
 98
 
 SANCHATOALPHARD 99 
 
 of laughter from Dona Mercedes, and the little carved 
 figure slipped from the hand of Dona Perfecta as she 
 stared. 
 
 For, from the folded paper there fell a soft glove of 
 kid, fringed with silver, and lay, a white spot on the 
 red tile at the feet of Tristan. 
 
 " Ai, ai ! " laughed the Dona Mercedes. " The man 
 has made my Ernesto jealous that I am so often in this 
 place of paint and brushes. Now I can tell him he can 
 rest his soul ! Don Tristan is guarded by a mistress who 
 sends the glove as promise of the hand. Ai, ai ! " 
 
 Her merriment gave Tristan a chance to smile with 
 her, and he lifted the glove and thrust it, with the letter, 
 in his belt under the old robe. 
 
 " You will note, lovely lady, that I turned nowhere 
 for glove or letter till the day of your betrothal," he 
 said, and she laughed again, and teased him. Those two 
 were ever care-free comrades, and I had been told it 
 was Tristan who had helped Ernesto Galvez to his woo 
 ing. Galvez was in the north, and Dona Mercedes made 
 embroideries for her wedding, and jested happily while 
 waiting his return. 
 
 Then Tristan lifted the little carven figure and placed 
 it in the hands of Dona Perfecta, and went on with the 
 picture. 
 
 " It is the last day I shall tire you, senora," he said, 
 " but there are the last little touches a worker must 
 linger over." 
 
 Dona Perfecta said no word, and sat there as steady 
 and cold as the carving of the dead princess of many 
 lovers. Dona Mercedes had eyes for all, and smiled 
 over her pretty silken webs. Her life had not been one
 
 ioo THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 of joy in the house of De Dasmarinas, where, beyond 
 doubt, she saw enough to make her dread domestic up 
 heavals any morning she opened her eyes. It was easy 
 to perceive that her heart was glad of that glove and 
 letter of mystery ; it gave a new color to her day, and she 
 ceased not to make merry over it, even singing softly 
 a love song for Tristan of a loved one far away. 
 
 But in the midst of it, Dona Perfecta arose, and rustled 
 her silks ovet the tiles, and stood close to Tristan to look 
 at the picture. 
 
 He bent to write with a brush like a needle a strange 
 name on the base of the little carving, then stepped back 
 a pace. 
 
 " It is done, Excellencia," he said. " Were it not a 
 portrait it should be called Two Queens of Mexico. " 
 
 " That would be treason," said Dona Mercedes, " since 
 there can be only one vicereine in Mexico." 
 
 " I doubt if Don Tomas would punish a loyal subject 
 for naming a lady queen of loves," said Tristan. 
 
 He was so little given to compliment, and so beyond 
 reason cold to the lady the viceroy certainly delighted 
 to honor, that I was puzzled to understand his words or 
 his mocking smile, for the picture itself was not a thing 
 to smile at. Once at work he had forgotten that she 
 was the sweet poison he had once said, and the painting 
 seemed to me a quite glorious thing, her face like a 
 flower, a string of topaz girding her golden hair, and the 
 amber silk in soft folds about her. One red flower lay 
 in her lap, and her jeweled hand held the ugly Mexican 
 statue while she looked at it as if she would read its 
 riddle of colors and symbols. 
 
 " It is then done ! " she said, and looked at Tristan.
 
 SANCHATOALPHARD 101 
 
 " Go you out, Mercedes, and see that the carriage is 
 ready for it." 
 
 " There would be wisdom in letting it rest here until 
 the drying is complete," he observed. 
 
 " And my visits would not be needed for that ! Go 
 you out, Mercedes, while I speak with Senor Rueda." 
 
 Of course, at that, there was nothing for me but to go 
 out also, which I did, and Dona Mercedes laughed and 
 made a mocking bow to Senora de Dasmarinas when 
 once the corridor hid us. 
 
 " Go you out, Mercedes ! " she mimicked with slight 
 respect. " Small care she has of me, to send me out with 
 a gallant and no duenna ! " 
 
 We laughed at and made merry over this in the cor 
 ridor. 
 
 But for all that, we were given a long wait, and I was 
 made to see that Dona Perfecta s selection of a com 
 panion had been thought out with care. An older 
 woman could not be dismissed with such briefness, nor 
 keep so silent. 
 
 " For the first time in her life Perfecta is made mad 
 by a man unlike all the others," she whispered. " I do 
 not know that she would look at him twice if he were 
 at her call as is Marco de Ordono perhaps not. On 
 my soul, I think if he but satisfied her pride to seek 
 her, she would delight in seeing the viceroy send him 
 on missions so far he could never get back! It is her 
 pride he offends at every turn ; but it is over a year now, 
 and I never knew her to show favor so long." 
 
 "What becomes of those forgotten?" I asked, not 
 because I cared, but the wait was long, and one must 
 not be dull.
 
 loa THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Mercedes looked at me, suddenly grave. 
 
 " God knows ! now that she has power," she said. 
 " When Don Eduardo was but governor of a southern 
 province, there were always troubles with the natives. 
 Young soldiers were needed, and many never came back. 
 It is a nice sign of favor, you know, to be made a lieuten 
 ant of guard over the heads of older men ! Most youths 
 think it a feather in their cap." 
 
 "What of Marco?" I asked. 
 
 " Oh, he is safe ! Betrothed to a very exalted lady 
 and due to return to Spain any day. She has use for 
 Don Marco and they are well matched. He may be of 
 use to her in Spain if ever she goes back, and she has 
 been of special use to him here. They understand each 
 other those two! But who understands Don 
 Tristan?" 
 
 When Dona Perfecta joined us at the portal, it was 
 without the picture, and only the prior was with her. At 
 that moment the viceroy drove by with Don Eduardo 
 beside him in the carriage, and there were lifted hats 
 and smiles, and all looked so harmless one would never 
 guess the adventures under the thin surface of things. 
 
 I made excuse to Dona Perfecta, who was so gracious 
 as to ask me to drive with them, and once they had 
 rolled away, I rushed back to Tristan to read him my 
 letter my first letter from Sancha! That matter of 
 the glove was a mystery for me as well as for the ladies, 
 and it was many days before it was made clear. 
 
 He was alone, the yellow glow of the picture was 
 already turned to the wall, and the letter was open 
 before him. 
 
 " Come out into the garden," he said. " There is still
 
 SANCHATOALPHARD 103 
 
 the odor of palace perfumes lingering here. Come out 
 under the sky." 
 
 " See what you have done ! " I protested angrily. " You 
 have made her in love with Marco, so in love that she 
 has even kind thoughts of you because you have done 
 him service. I learn new things of him each day, and 
 love for him is the last thing she should know. Read 
 the letter!" 
 
 So he read aloud: 
 
 My dear Cousin Juanito: 
 
 I send my blessings and my love to you. I feel today love 
 for all the world! No more dolls have come, but a letter from 
 his own hand. His wisdom is beyond that of all the padres. 
 How sweet it is that you can see him, walk by him, and hear 
 his voice! Why must maids be left behind? I am wild to fol 
 low you! Nothing happens here but what happened to our 
 grandmothers, and where you are there are new things, and 
 wonderful things. 
 
 Sister Teresa tells me that when the next ship sails, nuns go 
 to Mexico to establish a convent for Indian maids. I would 
 wish myself a nun if it were not that he could not wed a nun 
 and some day he is to wed with me! I was very wicked to say I 
 was not his wife; that was childish of me, for I know now in my 
 heart that the betrothal was as a marriage. Why cannot I also 
 go over sea when all I love is there with you? I am not now 
 a child. What use of gold if it takes me not to my dreams? 
 The world here is empty. Write me by every ship and tell 
 me how he fares. By the address I see he is friends always 
 with that Tristan Rueda of whom the padre wrote when he 
 saved the life of Marco in the wilderness. I think it was he 
 who put me in a rage once when Marco s picture was new. I 
 thought of him as a cruel black bear after that, but perhaps he 
 is not so bad now. I love all who are near to Marco, so give 
 Tristan Rueda my blessing. Also to Don Rodrigo my saluta 
 tion. What word would he have for me if I became a nun that
 
 i l BW *BMPa**^"^*""^"^**^M"""^"""^^^^"^"^""^**^*^^*>*W**"*^"^ BllM * a * 
 
 104 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 I might go to Mexico? Frighten them with that so they come 
 home, and quickly! 
 
 A good safe ship to take this to you and the love of your 
 cousin, Sancha. 
 
 " You see ! " I said, shaking my head with the wisdom 
 of nineteen years. " You all sat here, and threw dice, 
 and made jests, and thought she was a child but you 
 have made her love him, and raised the devil ! " 
 
 He looked at me, laughed at my fuming, and then 
 sighed. 
 
 " So it seems," said he. 
 
 " And the glove that too was for him," I blundered, 
 " what to do but give it to him, and save trouble in the 
 future for all of us? " 
 
 " And have him flaunt it in the sala of Dona Perfecta 
 to make others jealous? " 
 
 That silenced me on the matter of the glove, though 
 I thought the least he could do was to give it to me, her 
 kinsman. 
 
 " And God only knows what she wrote in the letter," 
 I grumbled. 
 
 " God only," he said, " and I." 
 
 I saw by that how little use there was to question, 
 though I did sulk over it a little. I had run to him with 
 a free heart and let him read her writing with his own 
 eyes, even her good words of him. And he buckled close 
 his own message, and did not even let me touch the 
 glove. 
 
 Yet the letter was to come to me as he least expected, 
 and thus I learned the new Sancha. I give it here as 
 it was written :
 
 /i^S^t^MuEsG^lB^ 
 
 SANCHA TO ALPHARD 105 
 
 To Alphard in the Sky: 
 
 I send the glove because I may not send the hand to you. 
 Think in your heart that I only whisper what I say here for 
 how else might Virgo send message to Alphard but by whisper 
 on the wind? So wise you grow that I write in fear of my 
 simple words, but I think you do know I look at the circling 
 stars to find the wonders you read there it makes you closer 
 to me. Did you know that long ago there was a legend of a 
 Moor of Granada in our family? He was a prince, and also 
 most wise in star knowledge. That seems true to me now, for 
 your letter wakes things sleeping in my mind, though I have 
 no memory of when they went to sleep. It may sound childish 
 to your wisdom but that is what you make me feel. I have a 
 wish that the sea were not so wide, that I might go where you 
 are and see with you the wonders you write. You write of 
 serpent things which have been things of fear, but as I read, 
 I remember the tale in the " Pentameron " of the serpent who 
 was a prince under enchantment. Then a maid gave him ten 
 derness so that his true spirit awoke, and they lived in happi 
 ness in a palace. I do not ask -a palace, but your deserts and 
 " houses of dawn " speak their mysteries and beauty to me. This 
 night there is a new moon. I kissed a rose and tossed it up in 
 my gladness to be alive and in your thoughts, then I knelt in 
 the grass and looked and looked as the crescent sunk far in 
 the sky going the path to you. I was trying to know what the 
 red pagans feel when they make the moon prayer, and tears 
 came into my eyes at the beauty of the night, and the wish that 
 you might kneel beside me. Will that night come? I think of 
 the wilderness shrines under the sky, and wish much to know 
 of the " houses of the dawn." It is a marvel that you learn these 
 prayer thoughts and places. Juanito will tell you I have had 
 wild hours of desire to go where you are but even Juanito 
 does not know how wild! Could Virgo step down and go 
 a-journeying? Why may I not travel when all the others do? 
 I am making prayers to my Saint of the Impossible that this 
 may come to pass. I said a prayer to her when I wrote you 
 my first letter. She made the reply to come on the first ship 
 is that not a true miracle? For I knew not then there was
 
 io6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 anyone in the world to think of me as you think yet she 
 brought it to be! Shall we build a shrine to her some fair 
 day in some secret place where white butterflies are? That is 
 a dear wish of mine. Is it yours? 
 
 Virgo trembles at thought of the great glowing heart of 
 Hydra under her feet; she would lift him high as her heart 
 and journey together in the skies where souls grow big and 
 full of beauty. Thus you will read that Virgo is only a lonely 
 maid who awaits the day of enchantment when a dream comes 
 true. This from the hand of Sancha. 
 
 In my letter by the next ship I gave what wise warn 
 ing I was able against roving maids, and added a cau 
 tious word against dreaming that Mexico was another 
 heaven on earth, for, despite the work of the church, it 
 yet had its own hells. The men were not yet saints, 
 nor the women angels. In my own opinion, it would be 
 better that Marco be called to Spain with Don Rodrigo, 
 who was ill in health. 
 
 I did not add, as was my desire, that no land would 
 be the richer of him, however far he might journey, for 
 in every country alike can be found pretty youths who 
 grow to pretty men and sport a cock s feather, and a 
 strut, and know how to wear a cloak or hide a woman 
 under it ! So far as I could see, the travels of Marco had 
 given him no vision broader than that. 
 
 But of what use my advice and labored wisdom, when 
 another of those letters of the dice went forward in the 
 same ship? I do not think Tristan had a mind contrary 
 to my own, but of a certainty he had a way of writing 
 his thoughts in a different manner and the effect was 
 beyond our knowing. I still think my own the wiser 
 way, thought it might not so quickly enchant a maid as 
 this of his.
 
 SANCHA TO ALPHARD 107 
 
 White Butterfly Lady: 
 
 That heart in the sky is at once lifted high at your words, 
 and I wish it were wise to leave go all earthly things on this 
 shore and cross over to your world, or say to you "come!" 
 and count the hours until I dared look on your face. 
 
 But even your Saint of the Impossible could scarce bring 
 that to be. Believe me when I say it were an easier task she 
 had when she brought roses from under winter snows. Won 
 drous with strange beauty though this land may be, all hearts 
 are not joyous here. I could not sadden you with troubles of 
 the earth, and for that reason bade you look to the things of 
 the sky. 
 
 The Houses of the Dawn are many from Peru to New 
 Granada. They are the sanctuaries of sun worship, where a 
 priest stands with lifted hands of adoration when his visible 
 symbol of God comes to him out of the darkness. Some of 
 these houses were things of beauty, but many have been 
 destroyed for the gold of their vessels, and for the salvation 
 of souls. In secret places of the deserts and forests they still 
 stand to catch the light on certain high places, and are thought 
 holy. They mean more than a house; they have a sky spirit to 
 lift earth spirits out of darkness. For this reason are they both 
 sanctuaries and places of refuge to the pagan mind so sure 
 are they that the god of the sun has a care of them. 
 
 Records have been made of such matters for Don Payo, but 
 many good Christians do not approve, and there is feeling 
 against speech or writing of these pagan things, and I must 
 write not so much lest your confessor give you warning. 
 
 The glove is with me. It is truly to me as the rose of your 
 Santa Rita from under the snow a blossom I never dared 
 hope would cross the seas to touch my hand! If I could write 
 that which is within me, I could cover much paper to you, but 
 words are weak and even strength must often choose silence. 
 I write here a little song of that silence: 
 
 If Love were mine 
 
 The love of maid divine to me! 
 
 I d build a shrine 
 
 Within my heart where none could sec.
 
 io8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 And there my litany 
 Of heart beats, endlessly 
 Would whisper all the vows 
 I dare not say! 
 
 Once when I dreamed of you in a wonderful desert place to 
 the north, I woke with that song singing in my heart. It was 
 long ago, little maid. At that time I did not know white Virgo 
 would ever whisper a warm word to Alphard, who has ever 
 been, in all the night skies, the solitary one. The song is 
 simple, for the reason that the writer is many other things, but 
 not a poet. Yet he does think poet thoughts when Virgo comes 
 into the Mexican sky out of the east. He cannot ever be the 
 prince of the legend of enchantment for you, and his hand can 
 never lead you to a king s palace, but it would be joy to build 
 with you a shrine to the saint of your prayers. I dare not pray 
 at any shrine for that which you make me wish. I am neither 
 wise, nor great, little maid of the white butterflies. I am only 
 a man who wished to make you less lonely. Surely of all the 
 stars of the sky, the Solitary One knows best the hurt of lonely 
 lives. For that I have written you, and for that I bid you know 
 that far below your feet is stretched the guardian one, whose 
 heart is Alphard.
 
 1 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 
 
 ANEW expedition of colonists was fitting out 
 for New Granada of the Rio Grande del Norte, 
 and I was of half a mind to go, for the sheer 
 adventure of new lands, but Don Rodrigo re 
 mained stubbornly ill. Thus there were some weeks of 
 nursing, and Tristan was so closely held that I could 
 hope for neither help nor encouragement from him. He 
 was full of regret that he had not urged the old soldier 
 to take ship with Don Payo, and be among his own home 
 kindred if serious sickness should come. 
 
 For while there were neither words nor grieving from 
 him, there was little doubt that the loss of Don Fernando 
 was as a support wrested from him, and this, so quickly 
 followed by the departure of Don Payo, left the old man 
 bewildered between illness and the new regime into 
 which it was not so easy to fit himself. 
 
 Tristan was the only confidential support left him, and 
 the cares of Tristan made a very full seven days in the 
 week ; thus he was ever provided with fair excuses when 
 the messages from Dona Perfecta or Don Eduardo would 
 entreat him to the palace where the portrait was a 
 source of praise. Marco was half inclined to go north 
 because of some gorgeous tales of turquoise found there. 
 Ernesto Galvez had returned, and brought much fine 
 
 109
 
 no THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 stone, and some encouraging washings of gold. There 
 was a fever in the air over it, and it seemed plain that 
 Dona Perfecta encouraged it so far as Marco de Ordono 
 was concerned. She stood ready to be his advocate for 
 position and honor, since there should always be men 
 of the ruling class to keep up the dignity of a cavalcade. 
 
 Dona Mercedes, happy over her approaching wedding, 
 smiled at me when Marco told us, with a bit of swag 
 ger, of the proffered honors. 
 
 "Is it that Dona Perfecta would change courtiers?" 
 I asked her. 
 
 " It may be, yet he is useful to Perfecta, and I would 
 rather hazard a guess that there is jealousy some 
 where." 
 
 "Her husband?" I asked, scenting a fine scandal if 
 he should make troubles so late in the day. 
 
 "No Don Eduardo thinks only of holding political 
 powers, or adding to them he sees little else." 
 
 " Then " 
 
 " There is a higher official, you know, than Don 
 Eduardo," she said with a little shrug. " Also there is 
 an old friendship between him and Perfecta. It may be 
 he grows tired of seeing the same pets in the palace. 
 Thank God I shall be safely married and out of it ere 
 long ! It is not so easy, Don Juanito, to be an undowered 
 maid in a house of political intrigues. I have learned 
 so much I will scarcely be able to trust my own husband 
 when I get him ! " 
 
 " Yet there are those who envy you the chance to 
 live at a palace." 
 
 " Foolish they ! But a soldier s orphan must take 
 what offers. Perfecta has no love for my presence; it
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH in 
 
 is the safe, placid Don Eduardo who deemed it wise to 
 remember a far relationship. It left Perfecta not alone 
 among strangers if he was absent, and odious gossips 
 would have less to whisper. He is a good soul in intent. 
 I would have sorrow if she should forget it utterly. She 
 was but a child widow when she married him yet not 
 a child! She picked, not the richest suitor, but the 
 safest, and one of family. You see already what she 
 has made him. Yet she encourages him to think he did 
 it himself, and that she is his greatest admirer! Men 
 are curious." 
 
 To myself I thought women were. 
 
 "Tristan knows all these things think you?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "Why not? He knows old soldiers of her father s 
 troop. Now that she has won apartments in the palace, 
 their memories may not prove keen for she has power, 
 and God knows what ambition. Vanity alone stands 
 chance to win her ; for she has ever seen lads fight for 
 her and needs for her content to ever see it ! " 
 
 Scarce a week went by after that until she saw more 
 of it than the greatest coquette could wish, for Marco, 
 after carrying and showing his commission as maestro de 
 campo for a week, grew suddenly jealous and let the col 
 onists go north without him. 
 
 Some way Dona Perfecta got grace for him on the 
 ground of illness, and another man took charge, for the 
 whims of Marco had already made too many delays for 
 his own comfort. 
 
 Thus affairs stood, with Marco stalking about sullenly, 
 when Tristan was called to the palace to help make 
 straight some records left over from Don Payo s day,
 
 ii2 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 a simple enough thing to everyone else, but a thing of 
 import to the jealous, watchful eyes of Marco. 
 
 Dona Mercedes, who told me of it, knew only that 
 Tristan, in leaving the work completed in the hands 
 of Don Eduardo, chanced to halt on the gallery to speak 
 with Anita, who was screened from the garden by the 
 blossoming vines. Tristan had no thought, perhaps, 
 that he was standing outside the private apartment of 
 Dona Perfecta, and after a few words with Anita, passed 
 on and out, to be met by Marco boiling with fury. He 
 saw in Tristan the sole reason of his commission to the 
 provinces, and what he said was heard by all who cared 
 to listen. He accused Tristan of scheming to put him 
 out of favor with the viceroy, and whatever he could 
 recall of patronage accepted by Tristan, he flung in his 
 face under the eyes and ears of all who thronged the 
 court. He fumed that Tristan was trying to climb by 
 clinging to the skirts of a woman, and then he spoke 
 of him as ingrate and baseborn a peasant who strove 
 to climb palace steps! 
 
 Then it was that Tristan, having no weapon, struck 
 him down with his hand, and left him there, stretched 
 on the tiles, with the blood from his nose not adding to 
 his beauty. A cry went up to halt the man who had 
 struck down a gentleman within the palace grounds, but 
 the call came too late, for those nearest had already 
 shrunk back to give Tristan room, and he walked out 
 without a word from first to last. 
 
 Straight to the house of Luiza he went, for it was there 
 Don Rodrigo was being nursed. The good woman made 
 many a prayer there, as in spite of all good nursing, the 
 color came not back to the old man, and the flesh was
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 113 
 
 shrinking until his face held deep wrinkles instead of its 
 former plump glow. 
 
 Tristan walked past her as he had walked past the 
 people at the palace, and for the first time in his life he 
 had neither courtesy for woman, nor mercy on age. To 
 the comfort of Luiza, Don Rodrigo was having a fairly 
 good sleep, but the hand of Tristan fell on his shoulder 
 as if he might have been a sentry sleeping on post. 
 
 " Awake and talk to me," he said. " Who was my 
 father?" 
 
 Don Rodrigo opened his eyes, and looked in fear at 
 the hard face. 
 
 " Tell me now," said Tristan. " I have had patience. 
 I have had courtesy, I have waited long. But whatever 
 it may do to me, I want the truth if you know it. You 
 must know it if he does ! " 
 
 " He? " and Don Rodrigo was trembling, " he? " 
 
 " Marco he said I was some peasant s bastard whom 
 his family protected." 
 
 " Holy God! What did you do? " 
 
 " I struck him down in the palace. I want the truth." 
 
 Don Rodrigo signed Luiza to leave, and she did, and 
 knelt praying in her kitchen, feeling as if her world were 
 rocking. As boys, Tristan had been master, and now 
 as man he had struck down his foster brother. 
 
 " The truth," said Tristan when she had gone. " Who 
 was my father?" 
 
 " Tristan, have you never guessed? " 
 
 " Yes, many times. You, General de Ordono, and 
 even " 
 
 Don Rodrigo drew from under his pillow a rosary of 
 brown beads with turquoise and shell interposed.
 
 u 4 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " It came to me from Don Payo. It is now yours, 
 Tristan, for he was the man: Fernando." 
 
 And Tristan knelt to receive the rosary, and laid his 
 head on the bed, and hid his face because of the tears. 
 
 " I dreamed that, and hoped it," he said, " yet it is a 
 bitter word for all that. He gave his life trying to make 
 amends for a folly of mine and I gave him love as I 
 gave no other." 
 
 " So long as he lived you were not to know but he 
 took the seal from my lips. He saved the life of Pedro, 
 Marco s father more than his life, for they were pris 
 oners of the Moors held for ransom. All he ever 
 asked of the De Ordono in recompense was shelter and 
 secrecy for you." 
 
 " If there was secrecy then Marco told the truth 
 you have all hidden," said Tristan, but Don Rodrigo 
 shook his head. 
 
 " See that the door is closed tightly," he said, " for I 
 give you the secret of souls gone to God, and it might 
 be better if I never told ; I do not know." 
 
 " If I am not of shameful blood, give me the truth of 
 it," said Tristan. 
 
 " It were hard to do, if it were not that you have ever 
 read books, and know some things of history which I 
 lack," and the old man was plainly averse to the task. 
 " And so you know there were very wealthy, and very 
 learned Jews of Spain who were banished, and took with 
 them the mr.gic, and it was said accursed knowledge 
 that was theirs." 
 
 " I know these things, for even Cristoval Colon would 
 never have got the blessing of the pope or consent of the 
 crown, if a whisper had been let fall of his Jew ancestry."
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 
 
 " You have heard that, too? " whispered Don Rodrigo. 
 " It is still unsafe to speak of it the Holy Brotherhood 
 smothered that knowledge when they found it, for Colon 
 himself was a good Christian." 
 
 " Though his relations were burnt as Jews in Pont- 
 evedra," said Tristan. " I have seen the records." 
 
 " Then forget them ere another sun comes up," 
 warned the old man "that, and your own family 
 might " 
 
 " Ah ! " and as if a revelation had come to him Tristan 
 said, " Then that is the secret ; I am a Jew ! " 
 
 " You are not a Jew ! Your mother was so good a 
 Christian she was as a saint. My brother loved her, too, 
 but Fernando won her. You have read, perhaps, the 
 name of Abarbanel." 
 
 " The very learned Jew who was banished? " 
 
 " Yes, your mother was of that blood, exiled from 
 Spain. In Morocco they made marriages with the 
 priestly Kahn class, but her father married a Christian. 
 The father saved Fernan and my brother, Pedro, and, 
 dying, asked one favor that his daughter Dolores be 
 brought away from the land of the Moors. They brought 
 her smuggled somehow, with her ropes of jewels 
 worn under the dress of a serving maid. It was the great 
 adventure. Up in the hills of Antequera Fernan found 
 a priest, and Pedro was their marriage witness. Up 
 there Fernan hid her, but the jewels made trouble. A 
 few were sold and one was a famous gorget, a royal 
 gem. The crown and the Brotherhood went on the trail, 
 for the family holding those trinkets had been sentenced 
 to perpetual exile; also the officers had stripped those 
 exiles of gold and lands and jewel casket, and then woke
 
 n6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 up to find the casket held only imitations. So it was a 
 serious matter; the jewels had been claimed for the 
 crown and the crown had been cheated. It may be your 
 mother did not even know of this until the search for 
 her was taken up. She was hidden with you, in many 
 places even in hill caves and hunted out. Then 
 Pedro took you, and Fernan strove to go north with her 
 and take ship. Well, there was another child, and she 
 went to God on the Galician shore, and her babe went 
 with her. Yes, she was Christian, but she had the blood 
 of Jewish priests, and her family was so strong that no 
 member was to ever set foot on ground of Catholic 
 Spain. She was only a child in those days, and Fernan 
 was only a boy; they thought the Brotherhood would 
 take no note of one little child woman but they did 
 not know ! " 
 
 " Does Luiza know? " 
 
 " Nothing but what she may think and that is that 
 you were no doubt of our family. Her first husband 
 gave credit to me, as I was the one bachelor among us. 
 He was planning to make some money by holding my 
 secret, when the devil took him." 
 
 " Then I am a Jew," said Tristan again. 
 
 " Don t say it ! " begged Don Rodrigo. "Fernan and 
 your mother were good Christians ever." 
 
 " But my blood is Jewish my brain is Jewish. It 
 is like a curtain lifted! It gave me the hunger for the 
 study of the gods of the pagans ; I wonder, Don Rodrigo, 
 if I searched for the unknown god because I was search 
 ing the way back to the god of the ancient Kahns for 
 that was a royal house, and its symbol was the serpent 
 of wisdom, also there is the same name in the sky gods
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 
 
 of these people, and the symbol is the same. It is a 
 priestly caste." 
 
 " God forbid you should go deeper into such abomina 
 tions for the reason that I tell you of your Jewish 
 blood! " groaned Don Rodrigo. " Yes, it was blood of 
 power, too much power to please the kings of Spain. 
 Also, jewels to outshine an ambitious queen are dan 
 gerous possessions." 
 
 " Then why should Marco shout baseborn at me? " 
 demanded Tristan, but the old man reached out his hand 
 in pleading. 
 
 " He does not know ; he is an angry child with a lost 
 toy, and blames you, perhaps. But Tristan, your two 
 fathers loved, and starved, and shared prison together. 
 He can never be told that. Are you big enough, Tristan, 
 to know it all and hide it, and not be hurt by his words? " 
 
 " I would rather tell the truth in the plaza for all to 
 hear," said Tristan. " Am I to show shame of my blood 
 when kings of old were proud of it? " 
 
 But Don Rodrigo caught his hands, and begged him 
 to unsay the words. 
 
 " Your friends will be caught in the toils as well as 
 you if ever the Holy Brotherhood should add you to the 
 suspected heretics," he reminded. " You are safe 
 as was your father under the wing of the church, but 
 only the monk s robe saved him at the last. Remember 
 these things, Tristan. No drop of Jewish blood was 
 in him, and no heresy ; yet he had to live in shadow and 
 silence because he had fathered the son of the house of 
 exiles. We guarded you as a child, Tristan. He left 
 you to me. You would not undo the work of his life for 
 your safety? "
 
 u8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " No I will not do that. But silence is bitter ; I am 
 proud of the truth, yet must act shame." 
 
 " For my sake, Tristan, the sake of an old man. And 
 what of your quarrel with Marco? " 
 
 " I would do him no ill except as he earns it. He is 
 much to you, I know, but give him a word that will 
 warn him if ever I need lift hand to him again." 
 
 " And you are not cast down at the word I have given 
 you? " asked the old man. 
 
 " I ? You have opened a window for a dark soul ! 
 Don Rodrigo, I have entered this day into a royal heri 
 tage, and I have learned why my mother called me the 
 name of sadness." 
 
 Then Don Rodrigo told him there were some family 
 records among Don Fernando s papers; they would 
 show him the ancestry of his Christian family. And 
 with some kindly words, the old man wearily turned his 
 head on the pillow, and fell asleep, worn out by the doing 
 of the task he had long promised to do when the time 
 came. 
 
 The resentment against Marco seemed to slip out of 
 Tristan s mind, when he learned how very ignorant he 
 had been of all the truth also how senselessly jealous. 
 
 I had been told of the scandal at the palace, so I was 
 waiting outside at a word from Luiza, and when the door 
 opened, and Tristan came into the street, his face held all 
 the radiance of a new day. He walked beside me, scarce 
 heeding my blundering attempts to explain Marco and 
 his jealous furies. 
 
 " That will look after itself," he said ; " she has him 
 frantic that she seeks importance for him elsewhere 
 than at the palace. It was easy for him to believe I had
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 119 
 
 her ear; he could not see it was Anita with whom I 
 spoke." 
 
 "But the insult?" 
 
 " It was an ignorant one for which I may yet give 
 him the sound thrashing he well earned. Yet, for the 
 sake of Don Rodrigo, I might find myself doing him a 
 favor after the thrashing! The old man has been my 
 friend this day. I would do much to make his days con 
 tent, there may not be so many of them." 
 
 There was not in his face a sign of the anger from 
 which the group at the palace had shrunk away, and I 
 had my own wonder as to how a man could, for anyone, 
 show favor after such an insult. But I was soon to 
 learn this, and other things. Marco de Ordono was only 
 a spoiled and petted child, yet out of his jealous whims 
 came tragic things to all of us, and that encounter in 
 the court was but the beginning. 
 
 Dona Perfecta had her own tasks to explain why two 
 men quarreled under her window. Even Don Eduardo 
 was aroused to an interest in this, and there would have 
 been an arrest of Tristan, but for the desire to let the 
 matter go quietly to sleep. 
 
 But again did Marco and his jealousy prevent. Notes 
 were exchanged, and Dona Perfecta, with intent to 
 prevail upon him that he follow quickly after the colon 
 ists, gave him secret audience of which only Anita was 
 witness. That poor child was desperate with her own 
 secret, as was learned later, and eager to go where 
 Tristan might not follow. 
 
 However they planned it, there was some lack of 
 cleverness, and some hand to write a note of warning 
 to Don Tomas ; the viceregal palace was used for
 
 120 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 rendezvous which might make scandals for the future. 
 That writer was never known, but I suspected the man 
 who would have liked to hold the office of secretary, 
 instead of Don Eduardo. 
 
 The first I knew of it was a note to Tristan without 
 signature. 
 
 If you have power such as is thought at the palace, the 
 nephew of Don Rodrigo is in danger there, in the room of a 
 lady, and the order has come to post extra guard tonight. 
 
 Tristan read it, and looked at the time. 
 
 " The guard is changed in a few minutes, that will be 
 the time," he said. " In the rooms of a lady that means 
 she either wants him caught, or urges him to leave the 
 city. In either case " 
 
 He girded the old robe about him, the cowl over his 
 face, and was out into the darkness before the thought 
 was voiced. 
 
 In either case, it was the viceroy who was alert instead 
 of the husband. That posting of the guard had its own 
 significance. Ernesto Galvez was of the guard, and was 
 a friend of Don Rodrigo. Evidently he did not want 
 Dona Mercedes in any way concerned with a message. 
 
 It was not until later I had time to think this out, for 
 at that time I could only tag at the heels of Tristan, and 
 see him enter by the gate of the garden. Then I strolled 
 to the back to take note of guards and saw none, only 
 three horses held by a young fellow who gave but un 
 gracious greeting as I passed him in the darkness. 
 
 I had but reached the corner when a figure in robe and 
 cowl came flying out of the gate.
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 121 
 
 " Up ! " he said to the youth holding the horses. " Up 
 and away ere he finds you ! I have the pass." 
 
 Whereupon they both tumbled into saddles, and went 
 into darkness, and while I thought the voice was that 
 of Marco, it is not easy to tell of a voice by a whisper, 
 and I was frozen with dread lest I had seen the escape 
 of Dona Perfecta, and her most troublesome favorite, 
 and the scandal would be great. 
 
 The echo of the horse hoofs had scarce ended when a 
 troop of men filed along the wall. From the other 
 side of the narrow street I could hear one laugh, " What 
 sort of night bird, think you, we spread the net for?" 
 he asked. 
 
 There was no answer, for at that moment a door 
 opened in the wall at the back, and a light from the 
 garden came through, and in the light stood Tristan 
 as he stepped quickly out to the darkness. 
 
 But not quick enough, for from each side a guard 
 moved. I was standing square in the light ; it was dim, 
 yet enough to show him my face, and with a hurtling 
 run he staggered back the guard and leaped across the 
 space to me. I could only stare, for it was as if he 
 meant to assault me that he plunged forward ; and, step 
 ping back, I did trip and fall, and he dropped beside 
 me. 
 
 It surely looked to the others as if he had stumbled 
 over me, but his knee touched the ground only enough 
 for the ruse, and his hand was on my breast, and under 
 my cloak was thrust a flat small packet, filling me with 
 fear. 
 
 Then he arose, and the guards were upon him, and he 
 laughed as he turned to walk with them.
 
 122 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " You are wrong, my friends," he said. " I am not 
 a brigand that you need arms to take me, now I know 
 who you are. I deemed you highwaymen when I sought 
 to leap clear of you." 
 
 They led him away for all that, and I followed, at a 
 distance, past the palace, where naught was to be 
 learned. A word with Dona Mercedes showed me she 
 was panic stricken, Dona Perfecta knew nothing, or 
 would tell nothing. 
 
 And I, failing to see Tristan or learn aught at the 
 prison, made my way back to bed and tossed, sleepless, 
 until morning, with the little packet under my pillow. 
 He had uttered no word to me, but I knew that the glove 
 I had coveted was at last in my keeping yet no 
 pleasure came with it. 
 
 The viceroy had not caught the man he hoped, and 
 someone had to pay for that. I do not think in the 
 beginning he would have given special thought to the 
 affair of Tristan, had Dona Perfecta not lost her head. 
 But she was more than a little amazed to learn that 
 while Marco had escaped, it had not been alone. Anita 
 Gomez was also gone, and Luiza in the first fright, had 
 asked concerning Marco, whereupon others about the 
 palace remembered many things! Dona Perfecta was 
 quite happy over this matter of Anita. It made clear all 
 the jealousy of Marco it was Anita with whom Tris 
 tan talked back of the lattice, and was the plain cause of 
 the quarrel, and so on, and so on ! 
 
 All was fish to her net, and the going of Anita was to 
 her a blessing sent by the angels. 
 
 And then the real thunderbolt fell, and her little 
 power dwindled until she was frantic. Just as she
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 123 
 
 had planned how to appear as a guardian angel to Tris 
 tan, and thus make him her debtor forever, a stronger 
 hand than hers was laid upon him, and beyond that was 
 terror and sickness of heart for all of us. 
 
 For Mateo Gomez went to confession. 
 
 That sounds as slight a thing as that Marco had shown 
 jealous temper. 
 
 Yet all these lives were entwined until I began to 
 think no look or word was without weight, and the 
 confession of Mateo was a weighty matter indeed. It 
 placed a guard at the door of Don Rodrigo, and gave a 
 definite charge against Tristan, who had failed to accuse 
 himself of the evil of Jewish blood! 
 
 And poor Luiza, who retired to pray during that con 
 fession of Don Rodrigo, had given no thought that 
 Mateo was in bed in the adjoining room, and was, in one 
 hour, more important in the eyes of the Inquisition than 
 ever before in his entire life. 
 
 Don Rodrigo was questioned by the officers, and came 
 near to dying at the first shock, then braced himself like 
 an old soldier facing a charge and told all, as Mateo had 
 heard. The people were all dead his brother Pedro, 
 his friend, Fernando Alcatraz, and the Christian girl, 
 Dolores Maria Kahn. Yes, many jewels had been in 
 her hands, so he had been told, and because of that 
 hidden wealth, she had been searched for until she 
 died, so he had heard, and his brother who would have 
 wedded her but that Fernando had her love, was their 
 friend while he lived, and hid the child for them. Jewels 
 and books also he hid, for the father of Dolores was very 
 learned, and a great collector of knowledge, and the 
 books were for the son of his daughter if there should be
 
 i2 4 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 one, for he believed that the God of Moses would in 
 time lead his people into peace, and they must know the 
 records of their race and their clans. 
 
 No, Don Rodrigo knew not what had been the end of 
 the books. Pedro had them in charge in Spain, but 
 Pedro died. It might be Fernando could have told, but 
 Fernando also was dead, and as for the boy how could 
 he be blamed for all this of which he knew nothing? He 
 had not even known the name of either father or mother. 
 
 So all at once everybody knew at least that Marco was 
 wrong for a Kahn and an Abarbanel could not be 
 base in caste, however evil their souls might be through 
 following the dead laws of Moses and ignoring the sanc 
 tified path to the new dispensation. 
 
 With all the help of Dona Perfecta, who was most 
 willing to help, I could get no glimpse or speech with 
 Tristan other than to look on, as all the town did, at 
 the procession of the penitents for the mass at San Fran 
 cisco, and even there the guard encouraged no discourse. 
 But I could see him walking strong and with head 
 high held. All the moody dark was gone from his face. 
 At last the mystery was over ; he knew now the reasons 
 he had been hidden under a strange name, and there 
 was a most unchristian pride in his glance. 
 
 Dona Mercedes whispered a prayer as she gazed. 
 
 " It is as though he welcomed martyrdom," she whis 
 pered. " What is in his heart that he walks like that? " 
 
 " It is the thought of his people, and his pride to 
 know of them," I said, and I read him truly in that. 
 
 " But he is Christian he wears a rosary," persisted 
 Dona Perfecta. 
 
 " Yet he has uttered heretical words according to
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 125 
 
 report," said Don Eduardo. " His statement that the 
 tribes of the deserts have no devil and get along very 
 well without one has been discussed with much feeling, 
 and you perhaps have not heard of his statement that 
 our blessed Lord lived a Jew and died a Jew." 
 
 " Does he dare to argue in words like that in the very 
 shadow of death? " gasped his wife. " If he were a 
 saint from heaven he could not hope for help." 
 
 So thought we all, and wondered much that there 
 was no word of torture; for they were suddenly con 
 necting this with the Lispano matter, through Fray 
 Fernando, but for reasons of their own did not press this. 
 And that Tristan wore the rosary of Don Fernando was 
 made clear, with no attempt at secrecy. It had been 
 found on the drowned body and entrusted to Don Payo ; 
 this could be verified when a ship sailed. 
 
 But under the tiles in the cell of Fray Fernando there 
 were found some curious things, very puzzling. There 
 were books, and there were records of note: the two 
 century old list of the outfitting of the first expedition 
 to the Indies, and the names of the various Jews who 
 furnished the money Santangel and Sanchez at the 
 head both marranos, though high in affairs of state. 
 Diego de Deza, the learned theologian of Jewish blood, 
 who had Columbus received at Salamanca. There was 
 also the account of the second expedition, financed with 
 Jewish money this time, however, it was taken in 
 tribute from exiles. The list was very long and com 
 plete in its devilish intent, and proved that Jewish gold 
 opened up a new world, and that there had been no royal 
 gifts from the crown ; all given by them was the permit 
 to sail, and honors if the navigator earned them.
 
 126 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 These were things long whispered of but never before 
 seen in writing by the Inquisition in Mexico. All such 
 records were thought to have been burned by the faith 
 ful. Yet here it was, beside a copy in Latin of " The 
 Hope of Israel," by Menasseh ben Israel. This con 
 tained a devilish record of native Jews among the Indians 
 of South America, and part of the contents was the 
 copy of an address to a man named Cromwell, in an 
 attempt to gain freedom for Jews to abide in England. 
 
 All this was a firebrand, indeed! But Tristan told 
 gladly all the officers of the Inquisition had to ask. He 
 had read this record as he read every record telling him 
 aught of the origin of the tribes of America. If they 
 came from ancient Jews, then it should be an easier task 
 to learn their histories. He confessed that he did not 
 himself believe the tribes were, or ever had been, Jews 
 it was even easier to think that these Indians were the 
 older people. 
 
 " What meaning had your impious words of the dead 
 tribes of Israel and the false gods of these red Indios? " 
 demanded the prosecutor, and all who heard were sure 
 at last that Tristan could have no chance, for his inter 
 est in the pagan creed was known to be great. 
 
 " I do not recall what I said, holy father, but I knew 
 the Kahns were a priestly caste that even kings had 
 been known to change records that they might claim 
 descent from them, the highest. Also that word, kan, 
 means the sky and the things of the sky to certain of 
 these tribes, and their priest-kings use it also in their 
 names. It seems the pagan mind goes ever to the sky, 
 and the sun, and the stars, for their god-thoughts. To 
 me it was strange they should thus use the word by
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 127 
 
 which the family of Aaron, the high priest, was called ; 
 these have also their high priests, who, after death, they 
 pray to as gods, and know by that sky name ! " 
 
 And Tristan was so suddenly interested in tracing 
 these strange links of human thought, that he was eager 
 as a boy to follow a game, and forgot he was on trial 
 for his faith and his life until the prosecutor frowned, 
 and pointed to the dangerous volume of Menasseh ben. 
 Israel. 
 
 " Did you not know you committed the deadly sin 
 by application to the works of a heretic? " he demanded.. 
 
 " Holy father, much of my work for three years has 
 been making records of the pagan beliefs here for the 
 archbishop. Thus was I ever delving in heretical ma 
 terial and constantly adding all I might to my knowl 
 edge. Some saintly priests have done the same and 
 were not questioned." 
 
 This of course was a fact, for under Fray Payo free 
 dom of a sort had flourished. 
 
 " Do you not know," thundered the prosecutor, " that 
 your inheritance of blood has given you a pernicious 
 tendency to read evil into the records where a Christian 
 would read good?" 
 
 " I have not been conscious of the evil." 
 
 " Do you deny the Jew blood animating you? " 
 
 " No, holy father, they tell me I have it, and it is a 
 new matter to me. My parents were Christian." 
 
 " You deny the Jewish blood? " 
 
 " How can I ? You have there my family records. 
 You can prove me the same amount of Jewish ancestry 
 as possessed by Christoval Colon of Galicia, but that 
 blood gave us this kingdom."
 
 128 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " That is a claim of the iniquitous Jews." 
 
 " I never have heard it made by one ; for two centuries 
 they have hidden all they knew of the records, and the 
 crown feared the anger of the pope if it was made clear. 
 Even Spain had to think of what the world would say 
 if it took a new world by the hand of one Jew, and at 
 the same time drove his brothers into exile." 
 
 " And this has been the training you have had at the 
 hands of Fray Fernando, and by the sanction of Fray 
 Payo," said the priest coldly. " These records will go 
 .to Spain for his reading. We will see what the ship 
 brings back. You will wait that coming in prison." 
 
 There was much wonder at such leniency and long 
 waiting, though the fact was that the revival of the 
 Lispano affair in connection with Don Fernando had 
 aroused doubt as to the sound doctrine of other friends 
 of the Lispanos. While the ship took letters of inquiry 
 to Fray Payo in Spain, there would be many months in 
 which to observe Tristan and the people who would 
 seek to favor him. He was the first key they had found 
 to secrets they suspected, and the Holy Brotherhood had 
 no intent to wear out the key ere the door was found. 
 The ecclesiastical mind had decided, to its humiliation, 
 that Fray Fernando had lived a double life under their 
 eyes, with his own son under his guidance. The fact 
 that Tristan had not known it was, in a way, in his 
 favor. Yet it all made a direful buzzing and all the books 
 found under the tiles of Fray Fernando s cell were sent 
 under seal to the church of San Francisco to await the 
 final trial of Tristan. 
 
 In the excitement of those days, the arrest of Tristan 
 in the palace garden was all but forgotten, or if remem-
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 129 
 
 bered, no separate cause was assigned to it the Holy 
 Brotherhood took its victims wherever they were to be 
 found. All smaller matters were swallowed up in the 
 greater, and the going of Marco and Anita was but an 
 episode to all but poor Luiza. 
 
 That good soul was in torture over all the righteous 
 act of Mateo, and the unrighteous words of Tristan as 
 they were repeated to her by hearers, the child Anita out 
 in the world of wilderness, and the honored Don Rodrigo 
 at the door of death in her house. 
 
 He never rallied after that first examination. He was 
 reprimanded for heretical silence on a matter belong 
 ing to the confessional, and it may be he saw in his mind 
 the dispersion of the treasure he had been five exiled 
 years garnering. 
 
 Be that as it may, he called a priest and an alcalde, 
 and arranged his will, in which good "Luiza was provided 
 for, and the rest of his belongings divided between 
 Marco and Tristan, the son of his friend. To me he left 
 a good gift, and named me as executor, and then, as 
 though in the dread of what he might yet have to face, 
 he turned to the wall, and spoke no more. 
 
 And I, a lad not twenty, was alone in the big world of 
 exiles with but one friend of the old days left alive near 
 me, and the walls of a prison about him. 
 
 I took up my abode with Luiza after that, though it 
 irked me to meet Mateo there. Yet he kept his distance, 
 and it rested her heart to have one of the family to 
 wait upon. Weeks went by like that waiting what 
 would chance Tristan, and waiting news from the north. 
 The little we had from there was ill news, for Anita was 
 unused to hard travel, and their first week on the trail
 
 130 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 had given her illness, yet were they pushing on to join 
 the cavalcade. 
 
 " It is as well Tristan does not know," said Luiza, 
 " else bars would scarce hold him. He warned us and 
 we would not see." 
 
 As well as I could, I tried to comfort her ; since Marco 
 had stolen the girl for all the world to know, he would 
 do what a Christian might, short of wedding her for 
 there was Sancha back in Spain ! 
 
 I had my own quandaries those days, but in the midst 
 of them was allowed the grace long asked for, that I 
 might provide the meals for Tristan in prison. So I 
 hid the letters and the glove, and went gladly forth to 
 visit. 
 
 As I expected, they searched me well, and I knew 
 they would set a watch lest I left, or carried away, a 
 message. But Tristan asked only of the death of Don 
 Rodrigo, and such matters of family. He had known 
 the old man would not recover, and was grateful that 
 he had lived to tell the truth, and had the courage to 
 tell it. 
 
 " And Marco? he got away? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, he got away," I said, and professed to have 
 heard nothing more. 
 
 " It will not be so long a time now until a new ship 
 comes in," he observed. 
 
 " No," I said, " and so eager am I for news that I will 
 ride down the valley myself when the word comes." 
 
 He smiled on me at that, and understood. Despite the 
 guard, we had spoken our message. 
 
 Then the Brotherhood regretted that an able man 
 should be idle when there was work to do, and at a hint
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 131 
 
 from Fray Bernardino, Tristan was given sentence to 
 perform certain labors calculated to enlighten his soul 
 until the final sentence. Fray Bernardino was yet occu 
 pied with the chapel decorations and needed a helper. If 
 Tristan was indeed a Christian, he had his chance to 
 prove it with one not to be deceived, for it was a picture 
 of the Virgin he was to paint, and it was his great chance. 
 
 There were many prophecies and prognostications 
 over this. The more devout anticipated nothing less 
 than a paralysis if he was allowed to attempt it. But 
 Fray Bernardino had a good word to say of his craft, 
 and of the money it would save if he succeeded. Even 
 though he failed, no harm would be done beyond what 
 prayers to Our Lady would cure again. 
 
 But that he did not fail, the picture is there to testify, 
 and after the work was entered upon, Tristan went into 
 it with all his soul. There is no doubt that he felt it 
 was his last work for earth, as he was not lulled into 
 hope by the special leniency shown him. However 
 that was, the word went out that he had assumed the 
 task and no eye but his must rest on the work until 
 ended then they could hang or burn him as they 
 elected, but he would have done the one picture in his 
 heart. 
 
 Dona Perfecta tried by all means to see it, but was 
 told it was more than a penance put upon him it was 
 the work of a vow upon which none could intrude. So 
 there was much wonder and expectation. 
 
 " How comes it that whether behind prison walls, 
 or ranging free, there is no one like this priest s son 
 to keep everyone at question?" demanded Dona Per 
 fecta. " It has not been the custom to give prisoners the
 
 132 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 liberty of deciding who shall look in upon them, and his 
 heretical argument makes it doubly strange." 
 
 " Have no fear," said her husband. " They suffer 
 him many privileges that they may catch his heretical 
 friends in the net ere the end comes. His art alone is 
 no excuse for leniency. The Holy Brotherhood is not 
 napping. They are busy on records left behind by Don 
 Payo. No priest of any order since Bernardino de 
 Sahagun has given such countenance to heretical knowl 
 edge of the false gods." 
 
 "And what was the end of De Sahagun?" 
 
 " He was discountenanced by his own order, and all 
 obstacles placed in his way by the church. Not until he 
 was eighty was he allowed to translate his papers on the 
 pagan gods, and all the translation disappeared after his 
 death." 
 
 " But Fray Payo, as archbishop, had more power than 
 a mere priestly student." 
 
 " It remains to be seen how far that power can reach. 
 All these mysteries of Fray Fernando, and the Lispanos, 
 and the heretical books, came into Mexico some way 
 while Fray Payo was at the head of affairs. Also it is 
 shown that he was told the place of the death of Fray 
 Fernando, yet kept silence. The Council of the Indies 
 will hear all of this, and the curious encouragement 
 granted to heretical scholars may even yet cause strange 
 echoes for the ears of Fray Payo ! It is not for nothing 
 this free-tongued painter is granted rope to hang him 
 self and perhaps others more exalted." 
 
 Dona Mercedes turned pale as she looked at me, and 
 slipped her hand into that of Ernesto. Those two had 
 been wedded the week after Marco s flight.
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 
 
 " You think, then, there is still danger that Tristan 
 be put to the final test? " she asked. 
 
 " Say, rather, there is still hope for it," corrected Don 
 Eduardo. " What else would you have for an apostate 
 who hesitates not to say that Columbus and the Virgin, 
 and the Son of the Virgin were one and all of Jewish 
 blood?" 
 
 " It is of course an abomination, and to be deplored," 
 she acknowledged. " It would have saved many lives 
 if God the Father had chosen a virgin of another people." 
 
 " What are fleshly lives compared with souls? " asked 
 Don Eduardo. " To me it seems your mind is wander 
 ing in strange and forbidden conjectures." 
 
 " It is in the air," said Ernesto. " People are talking 
 of religions who never talked before. Tristan, with his 
 open statements, has started it going, and the saints 
 alone know what the end will be ! But it is true, I think, 
 the Brotherhood permits it for this time, and with a 
 purpose! The end for Tristan will be the stake when 
 they have netted his friends." 
 
 " And you are openly his friend even now," said Dona 
 Mercedes to me. " Have you no fear? " 
 
 " I have indeed, for him," I agreed, " yet of his dan 
 gerous opinions I have no part. Don Rodrigo had love 
 for Don Fernando though he married a maid of for 
 bidden descent. It is said that Abarbanel was of the 
 strain of David, and the Kahn is known to be of the 
 caste of Aaron. Yet despite this friendship of Don 
 Rodrigo for a suspect, he lived and died with evil to 
 wards no man. Why not I? " 
 
 " You may not die so happily, if you show approval 
 of this heretic, Tristan," warned Don Eduardo.
 
 i 3 4 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " But I do not approve ! I deplore and shrink from 
 the knowledge he has acquired. If I had influence I 
 would beg him to forget every written line but the credo, 
 and urge him to repeat it forever for the love of God ! " 
 and I all but wept as I said it, knowing as I did that Tris 
 tan would. rather be dead in the flesh than limited in 
 range of the mind. 
 
 But thus, in diverse ways, was I made to hear, over 
 and over, opinions and warnings, many for my own 
 sake, a few, I hoped, for his. I felt there were some who 
 sanctioned in him that which they never could imitate. 
 Forgotten ancestral blood within them clamored un 
 voiced admiration of his daring. The very youth of 
 Tristan must have emphasized this, though I heard Fray 
 Felipe make statement that it was no youthful soul, but 
 some very old Jewish demon, who spoke through his 
 lips. 
 
 So, as Dona Perfecta stated, though hidden from sight 
 within prison walls, the spirit of him caused much con 
 troversy, and Dona Perfecta had more than a little 
 anxiety lest, if he be put to the torture, questions might 
 be asked as to the night of arrest, and the cause of his 
 presence there. All of his actions would be given 
 weight, and it was not to be supposed that he would sac 
 rifice himself for Marco, or for her, a second time. 
 
 Names were not mentioned by Tristan during the 
 brief meetings when I took him food as permitted. In 
 a general way he asked of the outer world, yet had the 
 quiet content of a soul to whom the world is not neces 
 sary. 
 
 " I am more free than before," he asserted when I 
 asked him of the weary days. " I am doing the same
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 135 
 
 sort of work, yet doing it better. My life is widened by 
 knowing my origin, and my spirit unfastened its bonds 
 when I openly took the burden of my race, and felt that 
 others were not bearing my part of the load." 
 
 " But how can you, a Christian, feel the burden of a 
 Jew? " I asked in dismay at his frankness. 
 
 " I do not feel it as to creed ; it is scarcely under 
 standable in its many sides. Yet it has nobleness, else 
 it could not send forth both a Moses and a Jesus. Does 
 the spirit of God descend upon a mean people?" 
 
 I could not answer, for I was oppressed by the sense 
 of danger to him. He saw it, and smiled. 
 
 " Go you out, Juanito, without trouble or care for 
 me," he said. " I am nearer happiness than you have 
 ever seen me." 
 
 Which was another perplexing thing not to be under 
 stood at that time, for at that time I had neither glimpse 
 nor thought of the picture to be done as a test and a 
 penance. 
 
 Then came a day when the priests were let in to view 
 it, and the viceroy and other dignitaries. Nuns of St. 
 Dominic were there, and the ladies of the court, and all 
 went in a soft rustle to their knees on the tiles before 
 the chancel. I had but caught glimpse of the pictured 
 summer sky blue and white under the shadowy 
 dome, when Dona Perfecta, beside me, twisted her fan 
 until I heard the sticks break. 
 
 " Santa Maria ! " she whispered, " he has done it he 
 has painted the thing he grasped at in the sunbeam ! " 
 
 " He has done the impossible thing," said Dona Mer 
 cedes, dropping to her knees. " It is a miracle sent as 
 proof of a holy faith."
 
 136 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 It may be that she was right. As she knelt I saw 
 over her head, and from the painted sky I looked to the 
 figure of the virgin in white, and then I sank beside her, 
 and no one in the church stood in that presence. The 
 nuns lifted up their voices and murmured the Sa/ve Reglna 
 as a prayer offering for the beauty of it, and I, after that 
 first look, knelt on the tiles with bent head, and the 
 tears fell on my hands tears for the hungry heart of 
 Tristan. 
 
 I knew then what he meant when he said he was 
 nearer happiness than ever before. After that picture 
 I could never fail to understand Tristan. A man would 
 have to live with a spirit of love, waking and sleeping 
 through the years, to paint that consecration he had 
 placed upon the altar. 
 
 He had painted her as she was, divine to him, and 
 at her feet knelt his enemies and lifted their voices in 
 adoration. 
 
 Though behind prison bars, he had won a victory 
 beyond all dreams. 
 
 " It is a miracle no apostate could win the power 
 to paint like that." 
 
 " It is not as a painting, it is as if Our Blessed Lady 
 had swept down from the sky to stand like that and look 
 out upon us," said another. " I never will believe it 
 a thing of paint unless my hands touch it." 
 
 " No hands should be permitted to touch it," said 
 proud Fray Bernardino. " Did I not tell you a prize 
 would be ours if you but let the lad do his will? " 
 
 " We will hold discourse of this," stated Fray Felipe ; 
 " there has been mystery about this work. Who is to 
 prove the hand that did it? "
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE FAITH 137 
 
 " I, who locked him in, and put no one with him," 
 stated Fray Bernardino. " If he had aught of help, 
 it came from Our Lady herself." 
 
 And thus was one of the legends begun. 
 
 Dona Perfecta stared, and stared. " He has caught 
 his sunbeam and formed it into a woman," she said. 
 
 " But where," said Dona Mercedes, " is there a child- 
 woman on the earth with that royal pride and gra 
 cious sweetness? The look in her eyes is a benedic 
 tion." 
 
 " He has caught the sunbeam," repeated the ether 
 in a strange, grudging tone, " yet he has painted her 
 as above the earth ; her feet in the sandals barely touch 
 the grass on that hill." 
 
 Thus the voices went around me, while I could 
 not see for the tears in my eyes. As soon as might be 
 I slipped away, and walked alone until the night came. 
 That was the night I unfolded and read the letters. 
 My boy s mind was so oppressed by the weight I had 
 to. carry that I had to know. And reading in them 
 what I read in the picture, I thanked God that Sancha 
 was safe in Spain.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 
 
 I SENT food and messages to Tristan but let days 
 go by before I saw him again. On every side were 
 voices speaking in awe and wonder of the painting 
 in the chancel. There were many pious doubts 
 concerning the work either the accused man could 
 not have painted it, or else he could not be a Jew and 
 a heretic! 
 
 Dona Perfecta tried as she was able to strengthen 
 the last idea yet how could one accomplish much 
 to contradict his own mad acceptance of Jewish 
 ancestry? 
 
 " He shows pride in it, and not humbleness," stated 
 her husband, " and in all ways is a dangerous man. 
 Fray Felipe tells me that there are many pious people 
 who firmly believe that he is linked with the devils of 
 the pagans and inspired by them." 
 
 " Yet one thing given in evidence of his heresy is 
 that he said the pagans had no devils, and were the 
 better for having none." I ventured this with a cer 
 tain trembling, for fear my privilege of sending his 
 food should be taken away, yet it was occasion for Don 
 Eduardo s reading me a lecture. 
 
 " How make converts but by scaring them with the 
 devil?" he demanded. "How comes true form of re- 
 
 138
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 139 
 
 ligion but in the fear of the Evil One? This heretic 
 painter had best be reading the lives of the saints, rather 
 than the unedifying discourse of the pagan gods of the 
 sky. More will come of this, for his words of the high 
 priests here, and their clan name akin to the clan name 
 of ancient Jewry, are beyond all human or divine reason, 
 and these are the things by which he will be led to the 
 stake when the time comes." 
 
 " But it is not as if he had linked those pagan things 
 with Christian names," I said. 
 
 " Else his life would not be spared so long ! " he 
 answered coldly. " He has declared that the Son of 
 God was a Jew, and after that, what evil thing would 
 he halt at?" 
 
 I could not say. Yet I went away knowing that 
 while the painting had given them an awe of him, it 
 had not lessened the bitterness of the pious his art 
 was to them a certain indication of devilish possession. 
 
 I said some prayers of my own to the Saint of the 
 Impossible, and then went, after those days of pon 
 dering, to see Tristan. 
 
 " Have you been ailing? " was his first word at sight 
 of me, and I truthfully said yes, for my nights had been 
 without sleep and my days without security. 
 
 " The days of waiting are now grown irksome," he 
 confessed ; " and my hands are idle, for my work is 
 done, and I have painted them a virgin." 
 
 " I know," I said. " I saw all the people kneel there." 
 
 " You did that? " and he was eager as a boy, " they 
 knelt to adore her? Ay, that is happiness, Juanito. If 
 you live to be old, and she does, tell her of it when I 
 am gone."
 
 140 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " No words could tell her," I said ; " only the picture 
 itself could do that, and the picture she never can see." 
 
 " That is so," he assented ; " her paths of life will 
 lead into happier places than this, and that is better. 
 But they did kneel they did see all the heavenly 
 beauty of her? " 
 
 " How did you hold it in your mind all these years, 
 and then glorify it like that?" I asked, and he smiled. 
 
 " Rather, how have I kept from painting it into each 
 face I have had canvas for? You perceive I did resist 
 that until they gave me a last task." 
 
 " Tristan, have you no thought of what the people 
 say?" 
 
 " Why should I? I shall be dead and out of it before 
 anyone comes who knows the face, and it may be that 
 even now she is changed until only you and I, out of 
 all the world, remember." 
 
 I could not say anything after that. His words, " I 
 shall be dead and out of it," told me the Holy Brother 
 hood could have no surprises for him. He lived with 
 out hope while biding their time. 
 
 " I would wish to write one letter before the end 
 comes," he said ; " some day your eyes will look on her 
 again." 
 
 I nodded my head and went away, for it was like hear 
 ing a man prepare for death, and I was only a boy. I 
 asked Fray Bernardino to let him have paper and pen 
 so long as he wrote no heretical record, for I knew 
 Fray Bernardino was very happy over the picture, and 
 disposed to think the inspiration of Tristan not an 
 evil thing. 
 
 Gilberto Lanchitas met me at the palace with word
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 
 
 that a ship was in, and the carriers had been sighted on 
 the far slopes, so we rode out together to meet the mail. 
 I would rather have gone alone for my own reasons, 
 as Gilberto was constantly alert for all new enterprises. 
 Yet my anxiety was without cause, for there was no 
 letter. 
 
 I had planned every conceivable way to get and hide 
 it when it arrived, but for its non-arrival I had made 
 no provisions, and Gilberto laughed at my face when I 
 showed my disappointment. 
 
 " Is it a lover left behind? " he asked. " Your eager 
 riding and long face would indicate that." 
 
 Then he asked questions of the ship, and passengers, 
 and the journey. All arrived well but a noble nun of 
 St. Dominic, who had come with a band of sisters for 
 mission work. She was ill in Vera Cruz, and their 
 journey delayed, but the other travelers were coming 
 up the mountains soon as might be. I recalled the men 
 tion Sancha had made of the nuns, yet gave them little 
 thought. The lack of a letter was most in my mind. I 
 rode back, wondering, and went to Fray Bernardino. 
 
 " I had asked Tristan for help with a letter," I said, 
 " but a ship is in, and no letter has come for me. Will 
 you tell him?" 
 
 " I will tell him, but already the letter for you is writ 
 ten by him, and I am to give it to your hand. No evil is 
 in it, and there seems no fair reason why you should not 
 have it. A letter of love it might be, yet prayerfully 
 writ as a farewell might be. It will make you a poet 
 to the lady, and anon is certain to bring you gracious 
 word." 
 
 The good monk looked at me, and smiled as if encour-
 
 i 4 2 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 aging young love, and smiled more when my face burned 
 red. 
 
 " Go with God, my son," he said in kindness, " it 
 is the spring of the year with you." 
 
 I took the letter and went my way after slipping a 
 gold piece into his warm hand. It was a comfort to 
 know a heart like that was near Tristan, even though 
 his power could not be great when it came to the things 
 of life and death. 
 
 There was a note to me, and it said, 
 
 Don Juanito: 
 
 I would do much more for you than to write the letter which 
 I send, but the things I may do are not many, and I dare not 
 plan for the days of tomorrow. This hour I have is all I call 
 mine, and in it I write. The future hours are yet with God. 
 May they bring you blessings. Tristan. 
 
 Then I opened the letter the monk had said would 
 win me a gracious word from a lady. With Don Rodrigo 
 dead and Marco gone, all the weight of the letters of 
 the dice was mine to bear, and I had to know. The 
 letter showed me that after the task of the picture was 
 accomplished, Tristan expected nothing of future re 
 spite, for this was indeed the farewell. 
 
 White Virgo: 
 
 So long as the skies of earth are before my eyes, my mind 
 sees you poised, serene and queenly between Hydra and Leo. 
 It is thus I will think of you when the last hour comes. 
 
 The skies grow dark where I am, and I go, perhaps, on a far 
 journey. Words of mine may not reach to you again for a 
 long and weary while, but in the place you know, I will be 
 waiting. You will never quite forget to look at the circling 
 stars of night, and it may be that a wandering butterfly will
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 143 
 
 help you remember. Hold close your dreams to your saint of 
 the white bees, and lay a rose on her shrine for me, to whom 
 she brought the joy impossible. 
 
 Give deep thought to a man before giving your trust, for 
 your white life is so precious a thing that you are placed on an 
 altar in a heart here in this far land. May all the light of the 
 " houses of dawn " enshrine you, for this means the stars of 
 the morning, and the young sun, and the white thoughts they 
 bring to a soul. 
 
 More I may not say, and when this prayer comes to your 
 hand, the writer may have found the long trail to the place at 
 your feet the place of rest to Alphard. 
 
 I had been past all further wonder when I looked on 
 her face smiling its glory on the world from the shadowy 
 chancel, and the letters belonged to that dream life of 
 hers, as she believed, through her Saint of the Impos 
 sible. The saint had decreed me the one soul left to 
 help keep her dream as long as might be, and I folded 
 and sealed the letter, and had it addressed and sent 
 with the first carrier. Nothing gave me the feeling of 
 safety and I never knew when I might be searched, 
 or even placed where I could not start the letter on 
 the way to her hand. Also I did not want the heart 
 ache of seeing again a hopeless man s farewell, and 
 whatever the future might bring to Tristan, I knew 
 I should never be able to see him as I saw other men. 
 Whether heretic, or true son of the true faith, I should 
 only see the painter of her wonderful face, the finder 
 of the key to her wonderful dreams. 
 
 And then, having fought out my own battle with 
 my boyish self, in spite of my own sorrows, and having 
 made the letter safe, there was little to do but see him 
 as I might, either within the prison or on the street
 
 i 4 4 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 in the regular round of the penitents led to mass with 
 neck in halter, and the robe of shame. It was a sor 
 rowful thing at best, yet he ever walked with head in 
 the air and eyes looking above and beyond the faces 
 of the street. 
 
 A week after the sending of the letter I saw him thus, 
 but his face was bitter and hard as he ranged his eyes 
 over the crowd until he saw me, then there was the 
 slight lifting of the chin, and the old look of command 
 in the eye. I knew nothing of what it boded, yet I 
 saw he was still human enough for anger, and that he 
 commanded me to come to him. 
 
 I went, early as might be, the next morning, and he 
 gazed at me in hard question and reproof. 
 
 " You have known it ever since that night," he said 
 bitterly. Then I knew he meant Marco and Anita. 
 
 " And I risked my life for a De Ordofio for that ! " 
 and he laughed shortly. " Does he forget my promise? 
 I told him if he touched that child, I would trail him till 
 he died or I did. Does he hold my word so light a 
 thing?" 
 
 "But, Tristan, within these walls what can you do? 
 What but sorrow could the telling bring you? So I 
 kept silent." 
 
 " No added breach of their rules can add to the les 
 son they mean to make of me here when the time 
 comes," he said grimly. " Though I followed him 
 to death, they can only kill me once for all, and that 
 they will do in their own way some morning of holiday. 
 Juanito, if a change should come to me and any 
 change means death whether soon or late go you 
 back to Sgain, and remember your blood kindred to
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 145 
 
 Don Payo if you have need of a friend. Take this to 
 your heart and remember." 
 
 " Tristan," I said, and my heart was sick and shaking 
 within me, " Tristan, have you heard, then, aught of 
 your sentence? " 
 
 " Nay," he said, " it is only that I have sentenced 
 myself for a task to be done if chance offers. Be safe, 
 Juanito, go you back to Spain, and comfort as best you 
 may the exalted maid whose name we do not speak." 
 
 I went back to Luiza, and told her Tristan knew, and 
 was bitter, and said strange things I could not under 
 stand. And in trying to understand, I fretted myself 
 into a fever of illness that night, and had two days of 
 nursing and medicines ere I was on the street again, and 
 then it was to see in the plaza and before the palace a 
 gathering of people to give greeting to the reverent 
 mother of the Dominican nuns who was to be the guest 
 of the viceroy, together with others of her sisters. 
 The viceregal carriage had gone with an escort to meet 
 them at the borders of the city, and the superiors of 
 other convents were already invited to the palace. 
 Altogether there was an impressive group of ecclesias 
 tics gathered there, and with Ernesto Galvez I stood 
 at one side of the portal using my eyes as a boy will at 
 any new pageant. 
 
 Don Tomas himself came there and bent the knee 
 to religion as shown in the person of the mother supe 
 rior, and led her graciously through the line of ladies 
 to the seat of honor between himself and the arch 
 bishop. Following came the other sisters in their white 
 robes of the pure in heart, and as one weary woman 
 looked like another to me, I was turning away, feeling of
 
 146 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 no use, when from the carriage of the viceroy there came 
 a high sweet call like that of a happy bird, 
 
 " Juanito ! O Juanito ! " 
 
 Eyes turned to me ere I could locate the voice, and 
 then through the group she came running, with her 
 hands outstretched and all her face alight. 
 
 " Juanito ! I have come I have crossed the seas to 
 come ! I am really here, Juanito ! " 
 
 Gilberto the lank cub grinned at the dismay in 
 my face, and that brought me to my wits. 
 
 I took her two hands, and kissed them and bowed 
 in my best manner, and presented Don Eduardo. 
 
 " My cousin, the Dona Encarnacian, Marquesa de 
 Llorente y Rivera," I said, and had my own revenge 
 to see plumes sweep the tiles as she passed. 
 
 She looked all of sweet girlhood in the soft folds of 
 the novice garb, yet she bent graciously as a young 
 queen before the viceroy, and kissed with humility 
 the ring of the archbishop. 
 
 There was more than the usual flutter over a pretty 
 maid as the mother superior took her hand with a little 
 smile of humor, and glanced at the viceroy. 
 
 " Here is a very worldly young mocking bird in the 
 raiment of a modest wren," she said. " Our Dona 
 Encarnacian would go adventuring, and had our pro 
 tection to your court, Your Excellency." 
 
 " The court is honored. The apartments of Don 
 Payo have had no occupant since his going, and are at 
 disposal of his kinswoman." 
 
 While Dona Perfecta was introduced, I made bold 
 to speak aside to Don Eduardo, asking that time for 
 consultation should be allowed, for it might be that my
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 147 
 
 cousin would prefer not to be of the gay palace guests 
 when she heard of Don Rodrigo, and of other things. 
 The convent might prove a more restful retreat. 
 
 Don Eduardo smiled as he watched her, all alive with 
 interest in new scenes and new people. 
 
 " Her excellencia does not give appearance of a seek 
 er of rest," he observed. " She flashes color not to be 
 quelled by all the nun s robe." 
 
 Which was the truth. She was seated by the viceroy, 
 who warmed wonderfully to this sparkling masquerader. 
 Dona Perfecta joined them, and regarded Sancha cu 
 riously. Her gay freedom, which was yet not boldness, 
 made her difficult for the older woman to understand. 
 
 " Our men of Mexico will bless the reverend mother 
 for sheltering you on the journey, Marquesa," she said. 
 " Spanish brides are still so rare that our men speak 
 for wives soon as a girl child is christened." 
 
 " That is why I came ! " confessed Sancha, smiling. 
 
 " Your pardon ! You came because brides were 
 scarce? " 
 
 " Not that, quite," and Sancha blushed, and looked at 
 me the only wretched devil-driven soul in all the gay 
 group "I came because I was spoken for in child 
 hood, and the man is here, Your Excellency." 
 
 " May I ask his name that I may add to your hap 
 piness by sending for him? " asked Don Tomas. With 
 an arch glance at me, she whispered Marco s name to 
 the viceroy. 
 
 His face changed, and he lowered his eyes as he 
 bowed. 
 
 " I regret I may not serve you on the instant as I 
 could wish," he said, " but Don Marco de Ordono has
 
 i 4 8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 undertaken an expedition for the state into the deserts 
 of the north. It is a journey of sixty days." 
 
 " I know it is far his letter told me that but sixty 
 days more is not much when I have crossed the seas to 
 follow." 
 
 " His letter? " I muttered, and got near enough to 
 touch her arm, my wits all but gone in the sudden 
 silence around her, "what letter?" 
 
 " One meeting me at Vera Cruz," she said eagerly. 
 " Think of it, Juanito ! I might have missed that letter 
 if it had not been for the ship captain who knew I 
 hoped for one. He brought it to me at the convent 
 where we nursed Mother Maria Ynez. So I knew Marco 
 was going but I did not know where." 
 
 Then everyone began talking at once, and the viceroy 
 kindly turned to speak to the Mother Ynez and left 
 me to draw Sancha away to a window overlooking the 
 plaza. 
 
 "Is it not wonderful?" she whispered, pressing my 
 hand in excess of joy. " What difference can a little 
 sixty days make after I am actually here? Tell all 
 you know of him, Juanito, for I am not the girl you 
 left in Spain his letters have made all the world a 
 different place." 
 
 " His letter has not, perhaps, told you the sad thing 
 we have had to meet," I said, and then I told her of the 
 death of Don Rodrigo, and that I alone was now in 
 Mexico to do her will since Marco had gone as the 
 viceroy informed her on an expedition for the state. 
 
 " Poor Don Rodrigo! " she murmured, " what a trial 
 I was to him and what a lecture I was prepared for ! 
 His soul to God for he was a good and kind man."
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 149 
 
 Then after a bit of silence while my mind was in a 
 whirl, she asked softly, " Tell me truly, Juanito is it 
 a journey of great danger on which he is sent." 
 
 " Who? " I asked stupidly. 
 
 " Marco. I feel sure it is so. His letter fills me with 
 strange fears for him every day was a week down 
 there at Vera Cruz by the sea. I would have ridden 
 alone to come, but the nuns were horrified, so I had 
 to wait for them. But the letter of farewell for the 
 far journey makes for me a heartache. He is very 
 lonely is he not, Juanito?" 
 
 " How can I know? " I asked, and she smiled and 
 sighed. 
 
 "No, you cannot know, Juanito. No one can know 
 but me, and for that reason is he more mine than we 
 ever could have thought." 
 
 The reverend mother elected to remain at the palace 
 while rooms were being arranged at convents, also she 
 elected to keep Sancha with her. It was no pleasure 
 for me to see her there, where Dona Perfecta held a 
 suddenly discreet sway. Yet, since it was so decided, 
 I could put forth no objection that she remained under 
 the charge of Mother Maria Ynez, Countess de Monde- 
 jar, for whom the palace became as a great reception 
 hall for ecclesiastics of note. Mother Maria Ynez 
 promised to be a person of importance in mission work 
 and, as sister of a cardinal, was a social acquisition of 
 value to any establishment. 
 
 The viceroy sent for me, and was in all things gra 
 cious. Mine was to be the pleasant task of page or 
 guardian of the two noble visitors. My relationship 
 to the Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera made me the most
 
 150 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 fitting and agreeable person to arrange their drives, and 
 learn their wishes. Also I was to take up my old lodg 
 ings in the palace as in the days of Don Payo. To house 
 in the cottage of a soldier of the guard was scarce in 
 keeping with my importance. 
 
 When this had been concluded, he made excuse to 
 send Don Eduardo from the audience, and smiled at me 
 shrewdly. 
 
 " Now tell me of this brilliant and lovely cousin. It 
 is true that the marriage is arranged?" 
 
 " So true that my wits are near gone at the shock of 
 her coming at this most unhappy time ! " 
 
 He had a bit of serene amusement at my dismay, and 
 serene vanity enough to cope with it. 
 
 " Surely the courtiers of Mexico can serve to enter 
 tain her after a fashion until the wanderer can be 
 brought back," he suggested. 
 
 " But who is to bring him? " 
 
 " There will be no difficulty in that. I can send a 
 courier." 
 
 I knew he could but would he? Lovely maids of 
 degree were not so plentiful; Don Tomas had a record 
 for gallantry, and a long waiting in the city might bring 
 Sancha knowledge making her less eager for that one 
 stray. So I voiced my doubt as to whether she would 
 be content to wait; she was alive for an adventure, 
 and had even spoken of going north to Sonora where 
 a convent was to be established by Mother Maria Ynez 
 or by the money she donated to the task. Four nuns 
 were to go, and already Sancha was studying maps and 
 reckoning how short a way on paper the trail 
 looked from Sonora to Sante Fe on the Rio Bravo.
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 151 
 
 " Let us hope she will be content with adventures in 
 safer places," he said easily ; " there are many novel 
 things to be seen here in Mexico." 
 
 When I told Sancha this, she laughed. To her there 
 was only one thing worth her while in all the world 
 and she meant to find it. 
 
 " By all means let the viceroy send courier," she 
 said. " But why may I not cross the lands, and be of 
 aid to the nuns, and meet Marco half way on his return? 
 I am helping with the cost of this new convent. Why 
 may I not, in courtesy, ride with them, and learn what 
 other needs they may have? " 
 
 I saw that she was indeed a different maid from the 
 one I had left in Spain. She was alert to every point 
 in favor of the thing she meant to do ; added to which, 
 she had the good will of the mother superior. If the 
 child wished to serve God by such labor, the nuns 
 united in wishing that she make the journey with them 
 rather than wait idly through the long months until 
 the return of her betrothed. 
 
 What I could, I said, but she only took my face in 
 her two hands, and laughed at me. 
 
 " Not only will I go when the train is ready, but you 
 shall go with me as escort," she decided. " Think of 
 it, Juanito, to ride through the forests together day 
 after day, and see the wonders of it the birds, the 
 butterflies, the stars at night " 
 
 " With the addition of snakes and other creeping 
 things," I added, " and who knows what prowling 
 savages to thieve each thing left unguarded." 
 
 " All the more will I need you, Juanito. We will 
 ride north as two knights protecting the holy women
 
 i 5 2 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 on their mission, and you shall tell me all the wondrous 
 things of him we are riding to find." 
 
 The wondrous things I most wished to tell of him 
 grew silent on my lips as I saw her joy in the thought 
 of him. 
 
 " You have spoke scarce two words of him since I 
 came," she pouted, " yet you lived near him all these 
 months, and heard him discourse. He has grown so 
 very wonderfully wise, Juanito." 
 
 I said nothing to this of what use was it when I 
 saw that light in her eyes? 
 
 " Perhaps he does not talk to you as he writes me," 
 she went on, a bit more shyly, as the little dimples 
 deepened in her cheeks. " His letters to me are so 
 wonderful they drew my heart ahead of the ship all 
 the journey." 
 
 She touched her bosom where I knew the letters lay. 
 Though she had changed her garb of the nun s robe and 
 wore silk of a sapphire blue, I knew that in all her mag 
 nificence her most precious jewels were the words 
 written and hidden under her laces the words decided 
 by the toss of the dice! 
 
 I wanted to kneel at her feet and tell her she was 
 cheated that there was no honesty in anyone any 
 where and that the safer thing was to don again the 
 nun s robe, and wear it forever. 
 
 " Little cousin," I said, " men are sometimes one thing 
 on paper, and another thing in real life. If If Marco 
 should not prove what you think? Men are not saints, 
 you know, and their rovings take them in strange 
 places." 
 
 " I know," she said softly, " but he is very lonely in
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 153 
 
 the strange places ; his heart tells that loneliness to my 
 heart, though no one else in all the world might think 
 it. Dona Mercedes says he is handsomer all the time, 
 and of course he is grand favorite yet deep in his 
 heart he is the most lonely of men and that is why 
 I am here." 
 
 " But he may be in a fury with me if I let you go into 
 the wilderness," I protested weakly, and she laughed 
 and caught my hand. 
 
 " Look at me, Juanito ! " she said. " If you had been 
 writing your very heart out to me, and you suddenly 
 turned a corner and found me in your arms, could you 
 have anger with any soul on earth who helped me on 
 my way to you? " 
 
 " But I am not Marco," I said, and looked away rather 
 than at her as she commanded. It was quite true no 
 man but must have been glad of her. Eyes turned her 
 way at every chance, and I saw more than one person 
 look at her in puzzled wonder, while I grew hot and 
 cold with fear because of the question in their minds. 
 
 Dona Mercedes voiced it when she said, " I have never 
 been in Seville, senorita, yet you made me feel that I 
 had seen you in a dream somewhere. I thought it 
 was the robe of the novice which you wore but it is 
 not. It is very puzzling almost I place you, and then 
 you smile, or turn your head, and I lose you again." 
 
 I breathed more freely, for Sancha was smiling or 
 turning her head most of the time, and it was true that 
 only with her face in repose, and the eyes looking 
 straight out over the world, did she have likeness to 
 the Virgin of the Fawn in the chancel of San Carlos. 
 
 It was as Tristan had said she had grown different.
 
 154 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 The mouth was no longer wistful, but tremulous with 
 the happiness of her heart. The face had more color, 
 and only the eyes of velvet softness were the same 
 yet out of all the world, who but Tristan and I could 
 be sure? The reflected light from the blue silk of the 
 dress made even her eyes look different. So I praised 
 the dress, and urged that she wear such color always. 
 
 " That may not be possible on the trail," she said, 
 " for I shall wear, as I wore in coming, the dress of a 
 novice. You know I made promise that I would wed 
 or turn nun." 
 
 She laughed at the past promise, made in a temper, 
 and then was led away by Ernesto Galvez to see some 
 birds of wondrous hues brought up from the south. 
 
 " What if she knew what we could all tell her? " asked 
 Dona Mercedes. " Are we friends that we do not? " 
 
 " It will all come right," said Don Eduardo. " The 
 viceroy will send a courier. But a word would be wise 
 in Don Marco s ear when he finds his bride he would 
 best wed as soon as may be, and take first ship for 
 Spain. He is not high in favor these days except for 
 courtesy to Dona Encarnacian." 
 
 " Think you he can wed, and take ship, and leave her 
 none the wiser of his love days in Mexico? " 
 
 "Why not, if his friends are loyal?" asked Dona 
 Perfecta, and at that moment Don Tomas halted out 
 side the window, looking after Sancha in the garden 
 below. 
 
 " Loyalty to Don Marco is a poor investment of either 
 head or heart," said Dona Mercedes. " See what Don 
 Tristan got for his loyalty I shudder to think what 
 would happen if he were free."
 
 THE COMING OF SANCHA 155 
 
 " It would make useless the journey of the Marquesa 
 de Llorente y Rivera," observed Don Eduardo, " for she 
 would have no gay gallant for the wedding day. Tristan 
 would kill him like a dog. I hear he vowed it." 
 
 Dona Mercedes laughed. " Of murders I do not ap 
 prove," she said lightly, " yet in my heart I feel as if it 
 would be for the happiness of Dona Sancha if the vice 
 roy should select Tristan as courier to the north." 
 
 " For her happiness," echoed Don Eduardo in horror, 
 "when the girl is mad with love for him?" 
 
 " If he were sent to heaven she would keep on loving 
 him which is more than a sane woman could do who 
 had to live with him," she retorted. " It is not Marco 
 de Ordono she loves it is the man he pretends in his 
 letters to be, and I maintain that a courier like Tristan 
 would be the safe one to send. It would end all this 
 tangle for a sweet and honest maid." 
 
 " What unchristian hate you have for him," said 
 Dona Perfecta reprovingly. 
 
 " Yes I think I have," confessed Dona Mercedes. 
 " He is too pretty for a man a sheltered, luxurious 
 cat ! But I will say a rosary in penance for my jealous 
 dislike of his complexion ; " and with a hard look at 
 Dona Perfecta, she passed out the sala, and went to join 
 Sancha and Ernesto in the garden. 
 
 " I am glad, my angel, that you inherit none of the 
 waspish tongue of your relative," said Don Eduardo, 
 and Dona Perfecta slipped her hand in his, and looked 
 up in his face with the smile of an angel. 
 
 " Dear Mercedes, I am sure, will grow to have more 
 charity," she said hopefully. " I will say a prayer for 
 her."
 
 I 5 6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Then they also passed out, and I followed after with 
 out turning my head. Yet I knew the viceroy still stood 
 there by the window, and that he had heard the heart 
 less suggestion as to the choice of a courier. Why had 
 he not betrayed it, or as usual, joined the little group? 
 Was some one member of it in ill favor at court? Since 
 the coming of Sancha, he had been even more gracious 
 than was his wont in regard to plans and pleasures for 
 the ladies of the household. I walked away thinking 
 of this, and of a remark of Gilberto that a new beauty 
 at court took five years from the age of Don Tomas.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE PASSING OF THE PENITENTS 
 
 IN those two days of joy and dismay at her coming, 
 I had seen naught of Tristan, and the wish of Sancha 
 that I ride up into Sonora with her filled me with 
 dread of what might chance while I was away. I 
 dared not try to see him more often than was discreet, 
 yet it was a comfort, so long as they let him live, that 
 I might remain near enough for slight service. 
 
 On the third morning I strove to see him but was 
 reminded by Fray Bernardino that it was the day of 
 an execution of a witch, and all the accused were led 
 to mass and to witness. That day, as I knew, no vis 
 itors were permitted. I returned to the palace little 
 comforted at his respite, for I felt it a duty to tell him 
 she was here yet how could I? And I felt also the 
 duty to keep her from the quemadora many pious souls 
 regularly witnessed the horrors there as a matter of 
 discipline to their own souls. 
 
 But Sancha had made plans equally troublous. She 
 was waiting for me in the garden, bent on being taken 
 to San Carlos, where her letters had been addressed. I 
 told her all I could to convince her that San Carlos was 
 nothing remarkable, merely an old monastery, and an 
 old chapel, and a century-old inn beside it, where the 
 names of many notables were written on the plastered 
 
 157
 
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 walls. But she had heard of the giant rose tree by the 
 monastery, and that there was some picture of a late 
 miracle there all the nuns were talking of it, so, for 
 pious reasons, it was a good place to go for prayer 
 Mother Maria Ynez was going. 
 
 Sick with dread, I walked beside her. The rose tree 
 was in bloom by the monastery wall, and shed its petals 
 over the stone benches and over the age-weathered table 
 where the dice of the letters had been tossed. The inn 
 across the little arcade was in holiday dress, and its 
 patron saint, with the crown of feathers and dyed cot 
 ton, was placed in the niche outside the door, in honor 
 of the visit of the reverend mother and her flock. 
 
 It was a morning with the smile of God on it in 
 beauty, and the chatter of Sancha made music bitter 
 sweet to me the odor of roses to this day brings it 
 all back. 
 
 Fray Felipe walked with Mother Maria Ynez, and 
 Don Eduardo on the other side, and Sancha and I 
 behind all the visiting nuns, and their convent guides. 
 Like a flock of doves in white robes they crossed the 
 plaza, placid in their pious intent. 
 
 They entered the chapel, while I grew suddenly alive 
 to the historic importance of the ancient inn where Don 
 Rodrigo had lived, and been loved by the keeper, and 
 had eaten his breakfasts under the rose tree, also I 
 showed Sancha the names of famous soldiers and a vice 
 roy or two whose rubricas made the old inn of San 
 Carlos well known as the monastery itself. 
 
 "And he also came here Marco?" she asked, for 
 all her knowledge of Mexico began and ended with the 
 thought of him.
 
 PASSING OF THE PENITENTS 159 
 
 " Yes, of course he came here, everyone does," I said ; 
 " the cook and the wine are good." 
 
 " And perhaps sat here at this same table? " she said, 
 and slipped into the stone carven bench under the rose 
 tree. 
 
 " Yes he did," I agreed, and felt she should be told 
 that it was there, where her blue silks rustled, that he 
 had sat to toss the dice by which the other man was 
 given the way to her heart. I wanted to say it, but was 
 dumb before the radiance of her face. 
 
 " I am glad glad that you brought me here," she 
 murmured, and sighed as she touched a drooping rose 
 over her head. " I feel closer to him here than in the 
 palace closer to the thoughts in the letters he sent. 
 And he sat here in this same place perhaps read 
 here the letters I wrote! It is sweet of you, Juanito, 
 to bring me, for I feel close to him in this place." 
 
 Then Dona Mercedes appeared from the chapel door, 
 as if looking for laggards from prayer, and Sancha arose, 
 and smoothed her gown, and plucked white roses, as 
 she said, to remember the first place where she had 
 found him in Mexico. 
 
 I was dumb as a fish while I listened, and walked 
 beside her. At the chapel door I doffed my hat, but 
 kept beside her instead of following, and as we entered 
 the shadows of the portal, I slipped my hand into hers. 
 
 Without lifting my eyes from the tiles, I yet saw her 
 face turn to me in inquiry, convulsively my hand closed 
 on hers as I drew her to kneel beside me. I sank down 
 because my legs had all they could do to bear me, and 
 her silks rustled beside me, and then 
 
 I heard the quick gasp, the choke in her throat, and 

 
 160 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 I coughed to hide it. But the cough could not hide also 
 the fact that only one person in all the chapel was not 
 kneeling in prayer, and it was Sancha. 
 
 The time seemed endless while she stood there, star 
 ing over the bent heads of the others. Then, almost by 
 force, I drew her down beside me, where she half 
 crouched, looking at me. 
 
 Heaven knows what of accusation was in her eyes 
 it might have been my own hand painted it, so hard 
 was her gaze. She said no prayer there, only stared 
 first at the picture, and then at me. 
 
 The nuns arose, and passed out into the sunshine, and 
 the others followed, yet still she crouched there. 
 
 " Come," I said, " they will wonder, and you are say 
 ing no prayer." 
 
 " Why should I pray to an image of earth? " she 
 asked, and rose to her feet. " Who did it, Juanito 
 who?" 
 
 " It is the miracle picture done by the hand of a man 
 accused of heresy," I answered ; " some say it was done 
 by influence of demons and others that a devout monk 
 did the work. No one knows." 
 
 " They should know," she said coldly. " Has Mexico 
 so many men who can paint like Murillo? That 
 vaporoso feeling is his very own and and Juanito, 
 if that is the miracle picture, how can I go out into the 
 light facing all the people? " 
 
 She was trembling, and clung to me, half frightened 
 as she faced that wondrous serene figure on the very 
 top of the world. 
 
 " And Nanita, too ! " she whispered, " I loved her so ! 
 Did I ever look like that? It is a saint who is also a
 
 PASSING OF THE PENITENTS 161 
 
 child I was never a saint, Juanito. Take me out and 
 away from the others. I feel as if I am under some 
 enchantment. I am frightened take me away ! " 
 
 I did so, walking with her out the side door and 
 around again to the table under the rose tree. 
 
 "Is it enchantment?" she demanded. "What have 
 I done that this should frighten me here? It is like 
 raising the dead for that girl is not I, yet once was. 
 What have I done?" 
 
 She sat trembling, and tears were in her eyes. 
 
 " You have done nothing but let someone look on 
 you some fair past day, and he did not forget none of 
 us forget, Sancha," I said. 
 
 " Juanito, do you know who it was? " 
 
 " No one saw the work or the worker it is a mys 
 tery. The picture was painted behind locked doors. 
 Only the officers of the Inquisition could tell what you 
 want to know, and that, Sancha, is what we dare not 
 strive to learn. It is better that we forget that the 
 girl ever stood there as we once saw her nothing is 
 left of that memory but the Virgin of the Fawn." 
 
 " The picture is a glorified thing it is more beauti 
 ful than any human maid could be but even the 
 sandals on the bare feet, Juanito the sandals were 
 of your making ! " 
 
 " I know," I said, " but we must forget." 
 
 She sat a long time, her elbows on the table, and her 
 face hidden by her hands. 
 
 " The Virgin," she said at last in a whisper 
 " Virgo ! " 
 
 Then she slipped from her bodice the letters and 
 read them one by one.
 
 i6a THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Virgo," she repeated " against the sky ! Juanito 
 you do know it is Marco ! " 
 
 " Marco ! " and at this last mad bestowal of love on 
 him, I was near to losing my last trace of wit. " How 
 could it be Marco? When did Marco ever learn to paint 
 holy things?" 
 
 " O Juanito, he is wonderful, and you never have seen 
 it ! " she breathed softly. " When did he learn the 
 wonderful things of his letters to me? The painting 
 is no more wonderful to me than that! And here he 
 tells me, I saw you once on the convent hill above the 
 olive trees, standing clear against the sky with the white 
 doves about you. You were Virgo to me white and 
 serene. Juanito, that is what he painted! I did stand 
 there with the fawn and the doves did circle above 
 us and in his heart he glorified it all until that picture 
 is on the altar, and his words are here for my heart! 
 That is why there is mystery over the painting he has 
 done it in secret, and had the help of the priests to hide 
 it. That is the work of a heretic? O cousin mine: only 
 a true believer could have painted the soul of the Virgin 
 into a little barefoot maid on the hill ! " 
 
 Her eager words fell over each other in her great joy 
 of discovery, and I, who could have laughed aloud, or 
 cursed at the way all things worked together to exalt 
 him I could see only one gleam of safety in her 
 thought. 
 
 " Since you think this, you must see that if he did 
 the picture, he has striven to hide it in secrecy for reasons 
 of his own. Ours is the task to help him keep the secret. 
 The man who painted it did not dream that your eyes 
 would ever look on it here in Mexico."
 
 PASSING OF THE PENITENTS 163 
 
 " That is true," she said, " it is his secret but, O 
 Juan! He has a genius greater than we could dream; 
 all those silent years he has been painting secretly, and 
 we never knew! Do you wonder that I followed him? 
 No, I followed my heart that followed him! I did not 
 know how he was great, yet he made me feel he was 
 great." Then after a silence she added, " His last letter 
 the dear, sad, last letter told me I was enshrined 
 on an altar here but how could I ever think how 
 wonderfully ? " 
 
 Tears were in her eyes, but when I made attempt to 
 comfort her, she smiled. 
 
 " My weeping is for very joy, Juanito, yet it is also 
 in humbleness. What am I, that he should place me 
 so high in his heart? " 
 
 I dared not try to answer that, and she continued to 
 discourse on the greatness of Marco until I all but lost 
 control of my tongue, and arose to follow the nuns. 
 She, however, slipped her hand into my arm. 
 
 " I can go in and pray now," she said, " I could not 
 before I was too frightened. But now we will pray 
 together for his safety, and not again must you urge 
 me to remain here in waiting. I must follow." 
 
 I knelt, but my prayers that day were far from clear. 
 I did, however, thank my patron saint fervently for 
 any excuse to prevent further question of the painting. 
 
 Sancha stood before it, her hands clasped over her 
 breast where the letters lay. " O Love most wonder 
 ful," she whispered, " my Saint of the Impossible will 
 find the way to you ! " 
 
 Temptations came to me there yet I held my 
 tongue. My promise to Tristan overshadowed me my
 
 164 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 promise to keep the secret until he himself should tell 
 her. How wild and far away that chance seemed at 
 that time, yet here she was before his work, worshiping 
 the thought of it. And, scarce the flight of an arrow 
 away, he waited beyond stone walls the sentence of 
 death waited the torture which all predicted would 
 be needed to subdue his spirit ere it was sent to God. 
 
 " Come away," I said and took her hand. " You are 
 right, Sancha; it may be that even the wilderness is a 
 better place. No mysteries are there to overcome a 
 soul. I will go with you when you go." 
 
 She sighed happily, and pressed my hand. 
 
 " It is the most wonderful day I have lived," she said. 
 " His letters cleared my path to it. And some day 
 some happy day when we are together we will build 
 a shrine to Santa Rita, who has made the impossible 
 come to be." 
 
 I went back with her, thinking hard as to how I could 
 get away alone, and see Tristan in the morning. Sancha 
 walked as on air and said little, her face illuminated 
 by the revelation of the day. 
 
 There was much discourse among the nuns concern 
 ing the Virgin on the altar. Mother Maria Ynez spoke 
 of the marvel of the picture, and compared it to certain 
 work of Murillo, wondering much as to the training of 
 the man who did it. From Don Eduardo she heard the 
 opinion of many that it was the work of a pious monk 
 whose identity was hidden. 
 
 I drew Sancha away lest the name of Tristan be men 
 tioned not yet had it chanced to fall on her ears. 
 " The heretic " or " the apostate painter " had served 
 Don Eduardo with the nuns.
 
 PASSING OF THE PENITENTS 
 
 Dona Mercedes slipped down beside me in the window 
 of the sala, and her friendly eyes were keen. 
 
 " It is not so easy to make hourly a hero of Marco for 
 the pleasure of a lady is it, Don Juan?" she asked. 
 " You look dead with the weariness of the task." 
 
 " Which is ingratitude in any man," I observed. " One 
 should be willing to make a hero of the devil, if by that 
 he could win so sweet a maid for company." 
 
 " You are too gallant for a cousin ! " she said. " But 
 I warn you, take a leaf out of Don Eduardo s book when 
 your heretic friends are in question. Did you mark how 
 little he knows now of that painter? not even the 
 name! Who would think that so short a time is gone 
 since Tristan had the open door here as had almost no 
 other? And one would think that painting of Perfecta 
 had been done ages ago and forgotten so little are 
 they inclined to mention his name in connection." 
 
 " They are very fickle for he is no different as a 
 man." 
 
 " It is the way with courts, and you are out of fashion," 
 she retorted. " But truly, Don Juan, it would be better 
 if you did go north, and let people here forget that you 
 are ever at the call of Tristan." 
 
 "Who says it?" 
 
 " No one, in words. But take a leaf from Don 
 Eduardo he is preparing wisely for a storm if one 
 breaks when a ship comes back from Spain. Go north 
 in good company, since you can do him no good by a 
 stay outside his prison walls." 
 
 " At least I can know he eats good food." 
 
 " He shall have the food even when you are gone," 
 she said kindly. " I do not speak in idleness when I
 
 166 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 urge you. The child is alone in Mexico, with her head 
 full of false dreams of that pretty gallant. Who knows 
 how she may meet him in the wilderness, and learn the 
 truth?" 
 
 " That meeting is the thing I fear," I confessed, " and 
 I am already of a mind to go and hasten the going." 
 
 While we talked there, others entered the sala, and 
 there was gaiety and soft laughter. Don Tomas was 
 making a jest of Sancha s determination to wear a nun s 
 robe on the journey, and he gave names of gentlemen 
 who had suddenly grown devout and desired above all 
 things to do guard service for the nuns into the northern 
 wilderness. 
 
 Then, through the laughter and raillery, we in the 
 window heard voices intoning a dolorous chant coming 
 nearer and nearer along the street. Dona Mercedes 
 looked at me and sighed. 
 
 " God find peace for their souls ! " she said, and crossed 
 herself, and then I knew it was the return to prison of 
 the heretics who had been led to prayers and to witness 
 an execution at the quemadora. 
 
 In the plaza below, people moved silently in groups 
 to the place where the penitents would pass; some fell 
 on their knees, and others took up the hymn as the flare 
 of the candles of the " reconciled " came nearer, while 
 the unreconciled carried green candles without light. 
 That saddest music came up to us, and the gay jests 
 were silenced by the shuffling of the many feet and the 
 tramp of the guard. 
 
 " How terrible ! " said Mother Maria Ynez, as she 
 looked down upon them. " To this new land one could 
 have hoped that no heretics would be allowed to take
 
 The Recognition.
 
 PASSING OF THE PENITENTS 167 
 
 ship. The native pagans are in darkness until we come 
 to them and that is natural. But those unregenerate 
 are against nature, and against God." 
 
 I could have wished to draw Sancha back from the 
 doleful sight, but Dona Perfecta made place for her on 
 the balcony, and together they looked down, in their 
 shimmering silks and their glitter of jewels, upon the 
 men and women who wore for their faith the robes of 
 shame. 
 
 " God enlighten them ! " said Sancha, and made the 
 sign of the cross. In doing so she let fall a white rose 
 as she leaned over the balcony. It fell, touching the 
 bent shoulders of an old man, who saw it not, but it 
 caused the penitent with unlit candle who followed him 
 to lift his eyes to the window above. 
 
 Then there was a gasp as of fear from Dona Perfecta 
 as she shrank back, for the candle of the penitent was let 
 fall, and he stared, with a strange look in his eyes, 
 directly up at her balcony. 
 
 It lasted but an instant, and his face, as he passed on, 
 was not so clearly outlined as the others with candles lit. 
 The guards closed up a space at the mishap, but the 
 procession did not halt and the twinkling lights went 
 on down the plaza, and the sorrowful chant came back 
 to us long after all the people of the street had risen 
 from their knees, crossed themselves, and gone their 
 way. 
 
 "How terrible were his eyes he looked murder!" 
 breathed Dona Perfecta nervously. " God send their 
 ropes are strong to bind." 
 
 " Why should he do so ? " asked Sancha, marveling 
 at her terror, " who is he ? "
 
 i68 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " He is the son of a priest, and accused of heresy," I 
 said before others could speak. " It is not a matter for 
 the telling of maids." 
 
 The reverend mother nodded her approval to me ; she 
 plainly decided I was discreet and careful for my years. 
 Sancha, at that hint, asked no more of the matter. She 
 had scarcely seen the man who had startled Dona Per- 
 fecta with his stare. Except to add a prayer for them, 
 Sancha thought little of those who had put themselves 
 outside the grace of God. All her thoughts were for the 
 wonderful lover for whom she had crossed the seas. 
 
 !
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE LOVE TRAIL 
 
 THAT night was the night Tristan escaped to 
 the hills ! 
 There was to me a curious mystery about it 
 for the reason that little outcry was made and 
 there was little to be learned of it. Don Eduardo was 
 plainly distressed, but the viceroy put it by as a slight 
 matter. 
 
 " When the state or the Inquisition have need of him, 
 he will not be hard to trace," he remarked. " Who 
 knows that it is not another trap of the Holy Brother 
 hood to learn the friends who would shelter him? " 
 
 This was a natural thought. Yet if it were the true 
 one, would he voice it in my presence, when, out of all 
 the town, I was the one who had asked privilege of pro 
 viding for his needs? 
 
 However placid the viceroy or the Brotherhood, it was 
 far different with Dona Perfecta. The eyes of Tristan 
 had frightened her as they glared up at the balcony; 
 Tristan should either be pardoned and exiled that he 
 have no animosity or revenges else he should be 
 guarded so close that none should get sight of him. 
 
 " That is a new thought the thought of a pardon 
 for him," said his excellency, the viceroy " and you, 
 Dona Perfecta, are the first to speak of it. One instant 
 
 169
 
 iyo THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 you are frightened of him and the next you speak of 
 pardon. Will you explain, Dona Perfecta?" 
 
 She saw she was trapped by her own fears, and said 
 she dreaded what might chance if he crossed the trail 
 of Marco and pretty Anita, and no one wanted a scandal 
 now that the Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera was a 
 guest at the palace. No one could guess what Tristan 
 would attempt if free and desperate; his stare up at 
 the balcony had been strange, and, she thought, threat 
 ening. It might be that even the highest could be in 
 danger and some plot against the viceroy 
 
 But she blundered, and floundered, as the viceroy 
 smiled at her. 
 
 " I am not doubling my guard," he said. " I can recall 
 no grievance he has against me; yet if you know of 
 aught " 
 
 " I know his grievance against Marco de Ordofio and 
 I fear a scandal for your guests," she said. "The rever 
 end mother might not approve some of the deceptions 
 we have all tried to make. If that heretic escapes your 
 soldiery and finds De Ordono far in some wilderness, 
 it would be a simple matter, but if their meeting should 
 be here under your windows Your Excellency would 
 have difficult problems to face." 
 
 " Yes," he said. 
 
 Something in the way he said it made her turn sharply 
 and look at him in silence, then her eyes narrowed in a 
 strange smile. 
 
 " I see," she said "I see ! The game does grow." 
 
 Then she laughed shortly and walked to the window 
 looking down into the court. 
 
 " The Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera goes with the
 
 THE LOVE TRAIL 
 
 nuns and is very much in love, Your Excellency," she 
 observed. " It is not worth risking too much in making 
 plans for her, she is very capable of making her own 
 plans ask Don Juan here. Also, Tristan is a danger 
 ous tool for any one to use even to give so lovely a 
 lady fair freedom from a ranging lover." 
 
 I did not understand this, but I could see that for 
 some reason she was angry, and that the viceroy was 
 half amused and yet watchful. 
 
 " Then it is not for a reason personal that you advo 
 cate stronger walls of exile?" 
 
 "Personal?" and she seemed to take on an inch of 
 height in her disdain " if it was another than Your 
 Excellency who asked that " 
 
 " Let me show you something," he said, still smiling, 
 and they walked into the other apartment where the 
 portrait of Dona Perfecta hung. I could not hear what 
 they said, but he pointed to the little figurine of the 
 Mexican princess. I could see her puzzled amaze, then 
 heard a sharp cry. 
 
 " No ! He could not dare." 
 
 " Is there anything you can think of that he does not 
 dare? " asked Don Tomas, as they walked back together. 
 " Do you still ask pardon and exile for him? " 
 
 " No," she said very coldly. " I have asked nothing 
 for him. I only asked you to be cautious for your own 
 sake. Turn loose the dogs or the Indian trailers on his 
 track and hunt him as you would hunt a brute in the 
 jungle." 
 
 " The Indians would only trail him to warn him," 
 said Don Tomas; " he has a certain friendship with the 
 tribes, but every port will be watched, and there will
 
 172 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 be only one trail open to him we know what that 
 trail is, and if ever we want him, we can find him there." 
 
 " Then kill him there," she said bitterly ; " never again 
 let him walk the streets, or look on me." 
 
 Their quarrel seemed half a jealous one on either 
 side, and a final adjustment through her sudden concen 
 trated hate of Tristan. I did not understand it, but 
 I saw Dona Perfecta hold her head high in pride until 
 she passed from the range of Don Tomas, and later I 
 learned from Dona Mercedes that Perfecta had a strange 
 attack of rage by which she was made ill and was 
 locked in her room, weeping, and refusing to see any 
 one but Fray Bernardino, and she had sent for him. 
 
 For the first time I gave careful note to the portrait 
 of Dona Perfecta, and on the base of the little statue, 
 I spelled out the letters " Hija de Axiakatzin." The 
 daughter of Axiakatzin did not look a matter of im 
 portance, and the letters were so small that few eyes 
 would see it was not an Indian attempt at decoration 
 yet I knew that no other thing but that statue had 
 caused the fit of sick rage. 
 
 I sought out Ernesto Galvez who had been long in 
 Mexico, and had ranged with Tristan. 
 
 " Who was Axiakatzin? " I asked. 
 
 " A king in Mexico." 
 
 " And who was his daughter? " 
 
 He smiled at that, for the daughters of kings are 
 many. 
 
 " But a daughter of his famous enough to have her 
 statue preserved to this day?" I persisted. 
 
 " I only heard of one she was not famous she 
 was infamous the princess of a hundred lovers."
 
 fciU 
 
 THELOVETRAIL 173 
 
 " That is the one the princess for whom men died." 
 
 " They did indeed and quickly," he said. " Her 
 old favorites were secretly murdered to make way for 
 new lovers. She was wife to a king, but she was put 
 to death on the shrine of adulterers, and her family was 
 disgraced. She was a very remarkable lady." 
 
 " Fortunately we have none like that today," I 
 observed. 
 
 " None of them have the same power today else 
 who knows ? " he said, and laughed. " Why are you 
 searching for word of her? Do you take up records 
 of these pagan kings and gods where Tristan laid them 
 down?" 
 
 " God forbid ! " I prayed. " They are not of healthy 
 flavor to my mind." 
 
 I could see plainly now what had happened. By some 
 chance, the name of that Mexican king had come to the 
 ears of Don Tomas, and his sharp eyes told him the rest. 
 If he had ever, for a moment, felt a jealous mistrust of 
 Tristan, it was cleared away by that statue, and he had 
 used it now to check her remarks as to his interest in 
 the latest favorite at the viceregal court Sancha, 
 Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera. 
 
 I saw that in wisdom the one thing for peace was to 
 urge that northern journey soon as might be. The 
 jealousy of a younger face might prove Dona Perfecta 
 a maker of troubles for all of us. 
 
 I saw Fray Bernardino that day go into the sala where 
 the portrait was hung and bolt the door, and in the 
 morning I was not surprised to find red roses in the 
 hand there, and no trace of the pagan statue left to 
 cause comment.
 
 <-> 
 
 174 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " I like it better thus," said Dona Perfecta in my hear 
 ing. " Pagan and infidel things should not be put in 
 the portrait of a true believer. Fray Felipe is also of 
 a mind to have the fawn painted out of that Virgin of 
 the altar." 
 
 " But the pretty fawn is not a pagan," I ventured. 
 
 " Animals have ere this been brought to trial by the 
 church," she said coldly, " devils are known to possess 
 them at times. Fray Felipe is making search to learn 
 if such thing as a forest creature should be at the feet 
 of Our Lady." 
 
 " The doves are over her head they also are wild," 
 I said. 
 
 " That is a different matter," she stated, " doves are 
 permitted by the church." 
 
 I perceived that my opinions were not in high favor, 
 and sought the reverend mother and Sancha to say that 
 the arrangements for the pilgrimage north were well 
 under way, and that the guard who had come with them 
 from La Puebla de los Angeles was yet in the town and 
 begged to continue as servants on the trail. 
 
 Mother Maria Ynez approved of this, for the reason 
 that so many offers came from the town men that it 
 was a task to make choice ; but by holding the old guard 
 it would be simple; also, Sister Maria Clemente, who 
 was to be superior, already had confidence in the Pueblo 
 men and they were not as strangers. 
 
 My own decision would have been different, for the 
 men could know well the road to Mexico, yet were men 
 of the lowlands, and might know little the life to the 
 north. 
 
 But in this, and other matters, my opinion was not
 
 fi 
 
 THELOVETRAIL 175 
 
 asked. I was but the boy at court who chanced to be 
 Sancha s cousin, and that most headstrong maid must 
 have me ride beside her. 
 
 In plain truth I had to be content to ride behind her 
 for the first few leagues, since His Excellency, Don 
 Tomas, who chose to make a holiday of it, rode, as he 
 often did, with his guard into the plantations of the 
 valley, and this time Sister Maria Clemente and Sancha 
 were taken in his own carriage while their horses were 
 led by a guard. Mother Maria Ynez gave them her 
 blessing, and Dona Perfecta smiled them her farewells, 
 and asked many questions as to provisions for their 
 comfort, while Dona Mercedes came forward with sweet 
 blossoms for Sancha. 
 
 " That you may ride to peace, Excellencia ! " she said 
 kindly. But Sancha kissed her cheek, and smelled the 
 fragrance of the blossoms, and laughed. 
 
 " I will find more than peace ! " she said frankly, " for 
 my heart is ahead of me on the road, and I ride to hap 
 piness." 
 
 Thus smiling, radiant-eyed, and sure of joy waiting 
 for her at some turn in the love trail, she rode north, 
 and the eyes of Mexico, either jealous or friendly, never 
 looked upon her face again. 
 
 At the far boundary of a valley plantation, Don Tomas 
 himself lifted her to the saddle with some remarks of 
 gallantry, and assurances of service which Sancha 
 acknowledged as lightly as a child. She rode into 
 Mexico and out of it with no knowledge that the middle 
 aged dignitary was caught in the snare of her smile, 
 and that Dona Perfecta had her own content at the 
 departure.
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 But to Sancha the adventure had not rightly begun 
 until the viceroy s carriage had disappeared in the fringe 
 of a palm avenue. Then she laughed, clapped her hands, 
 and petted the horse that was to be her companion on 
 the long trail. 
 
 I rode beside her into the new life, and we- repeated 
 tales of the crusaders, and dreamed that our pilgrimage 
 was of equal importance, and in the pure high air of 
 Mexico felt that we were above the world of mundane 
 things. 
 
 For many days we rested at some plantation or 
 hacienda or mission church on the way. Then, after a 
 breakfast at early dawn, a call to prayer by Fray Jose 
 Moreno, the loading of the beasts, we took the trail 
 with good wishes of our hosts, who often accompanied 
 us a full day on a journey, and more than one addition 
 was made to our cavalcade by persons of degree who 
 wished to journey to Guadalajara under our guard. 
 
 Thus the days were never dull for Sancha, who, in 
 the freedom of the mountains and the forests, echoed 
 the bird songs, and learned strange things from the new 
 land where the atmosphere, pure and luminous, had its 
 own charm, and each day was a golden promise taking 
 her nearer to Marco. 
 
 At Guadalajara there was a week of rest and enter 
 tainment ere we went into the wilder lands of the north. 
 
 These were adventurous days to me, and I strove to 
 read the brown faces of the Indians who brought out 
 great baskets of corn for us from their little rancherias. 
 They were courteous in many ways, but a sad people, 
 and I wondered by what manner Tristan and Don Fer 
 nando had found the way to their dark minds.
 
 THELOVETRAIL 177 
 
 Sancha at times gathered the little naked children 
 about her and to their delight gave them beads of glass, 
 and they would follow after her to the great distress of 
 Mother Maria Clemente, who could by no means come 
 by cloth to clothe them all, and lamented that the smaller 
 ones had seldom any cover other than the shade of their 
 vine covered ramadas, or at best a coat of mud when 
 near an arroyo. 
 
 But Sancha had joy in them in her own way, and de 
 clared that their brown skin was a thing of beauty, and 
 their nakedness not a thing to offend, as could easily be 
 with a people of white race. Thus our Indian guide who 
 heard this found way to have the freshest and ripest 
 melons brought to the maid who laughed. 
 
 Padre Jose had a good word to say for her to Mother 
 Clemente, for of such souls so he said came the 
 good workers in the Lord s vineyard. The primitive 
 mind responds always to the happy heart and the 
 heart of Sancha was full of a joy not to be overshad 
 owed by trials and mishaps of the journey. 
 
 For we had mishaps of many sorts, also word discour 
 aging to Mother Maria Clemente in regard to that far 
 northland of pagans eager for divine grace. By reports 
 of a lay brother who was on the way south with mes 
 sages to the Franciscan convent at Queretaro, they were 
 vastly more eager for new arms of the Castilian in order 
 to fight each other. The horses had been all stolen from 
 a mission north of the Haqui. No maize had been 
 planted in the low lands of the rivers, and word had 
 come south for stronger guard at the few presidios of 
 Sonora. 
 
 All this made no proper impression on the mind of
 
 178 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Sancha except anxiety for Marco. She asked all the re 
 ports of the cavalcade going into New Granada, and 
 had joy to know that it was after their passing in safety 
 that the tribal outbreak had come between Indians of 
 the hunting grounds of the eastern highlands and the 
 lowland people of the rancherias. 
 
 The grave black eyes of the Indies looked at us with 
 inquiry as these tales were repeated in various forms 
 through the weary weeks of the journey. Some of the 
 packers understood Castilian, and in many of the towns 
 were the descendants of red slaves captured at the north 
 in earlier days. The deserts of their land and poisoned 
 arrows and foul wells had taken rich toll for the cap 
 tured slaves, and to my mind their eyes had the silent 
 question as to whether we might not add to that toll 
 claimed by the wide ranges. 
 
 At Culiacan came the final outfitting ere we left be 
 hind all the life of cities. Beyond that we could only 
 hope to find Indian ranches, an occasional mission with 
 its many visilas, and the rare presidio with its handful 
 of men as guard over a land half the size of Portugal. 
 
 Sancha bought strings of beads many colored, in 
 thought for the brown children and their pagan mothers, 
 also bright ribbands and scarlet cloth, but as it fell out, 
 she might as well have saved herself the costly 
 troubles. 
 
 It is ill remembering occurrences and incidents of a 
 long trail when each day carries us over a changing land. 
 The Indian names of the wells, and the hills, the rivers, 
 the arroyos, were such as no Christian soul could re 
 member or repeat a day after passing over. The early 
 mission fathers gave to nearly all of them a good saint s
 
 THE LOVE TRAIL 
 
 name as they passed, but the next one who came did 
 the same thing according to his likings, and no two 
 maps yet made have much likeness to each other away 
 from the coast, but only by keeping inland could be 
 found the wells and pastures for the cattle. Of wild 
 life our hunters sometimes sighted deer on the mesas, 
 and there were birds strange to us and of wondrous col 
 oring. Natives were sometimes waiting on our trail 
 with quills of fine gold to exchange for anything we 
 might offer, but when asked from whence it came, they 
 evaded reply, or in one case, a man made statement that 
 it came to the earth by the hand of Elder Brother. 
 Mother Clemente was startled to discover that they 
 called their god by this familiar title also by another 
 which I do not recall. To her pious mind each was to 
 be reprimanded, which proved difficult because of the 
 lack of a common speech. 
 
 But Sancha, riding beside me, smiled in kindness on 
 the poor pagan, and gave him some white beads. 
 
 " For the Mother Moon, " she said, and the inter 
 preter looked at her in a way curious, for he was a 
 Christian and the son of a Castilian father. 
 
 But for all that, he put it into the language of the 
 Indio, who breathed on her hand, and went away, and 
 at a bend of the trail far ahead he was waiting and with 
 him was his wife with honey of the hills in a painted 
 bowl. To Sancha it was offered, and she held such dis 
 course with them as might be with gestures of the hand, 
 and smiles, and looks of the eye. Thus were the long 
 hot days broken by things pleasant to help us forget the 
 otherwise unfriendly land. 
 
 " You see how wonderful it would be on this journey
 
 i8o THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 of adventure if Marco was here rather than ahead of us 
 from him I learned that they pray to the Mother 
 Moon, and see you what a friend it has made for me ! " 
 
 " Mother Maria Clemente is saying a prayer for you," 
 I cautioned, " and surely the interpreter has his wonder 
 ment. How should a pious lady of degree in Spain learn 
 of pagan gods in Mexico?" 
 
 But all the words of the letters were sacred to her 
 because of the lover who wrote them, and, to my incon 
 venience, she expected me to be wise because I had 
 lived in the radiance of his countenance. It was even 
 a worse thing when she called me in the night, or at 
 early dawn, to tell her things of the stars as they came 
 over the mountains of the east, and in my hearing she 
 more than once said good-night to King Polaris! We 
 watched together the stars in which she saw the Indian 
 serpent and eagle, and took note of other things of the 
 night and the wilds such as was no part of the natural 
 education of a maid of her family. 
 
 Thus, while every soul who goes into the pagan lands, 
 has his own troubles, I had more than my own. Mexico 
 City had seemed a good place to get away from, yet 
 there were hours when I would have had joy to change 
 the northern trail for any safe, sheltered abode there 
 even though it bristled with iron bars. The good nuns 
 had their recompense in thought of the souls they might 
 save for God, but I had only the devilish certainty that 
 I was helping take her nearer to Marco and her false 
 dreams. 
 
 At the fording of the Del Fuerte an accident brought 
 us ill luck in that Padre Jose had a fall by his horse 
 going into a sink hole. He was dragged out with some
 
 THELOVETRAIL 181 
 
 bruises and a broken leg, and there was no other thing 
 to do than bind it with split wood, and make a litter on 
 which he was started back to the presidio in Sinaloa. 
 This took two men and two burros from our cavalcade, 
 and we could ill spare them. 
 
 We had reached the land of the Haquis who were 
 at war with their neighbors on the east, and a double 
 guard was kept each night. Thus the loss of Padre 
 Jose was important. The nuns had been aided by his 
 advice in all things, and the camp felt the lack of spir 
 itual guidance until such time as the unfortunate priest 
 could reach a mission and send a substitute to follow 
 after. 
 
 We were aware that we were watched by Indies in 
 the wilderness, and from the mesas, but they showed 
 no ill will, and we were put to inconvenience by not 
 finding the families at the temporales or summer ranch- 
 erias where their farms were. We had counted on 
 their local guidance as to water for the beasts, and more 
 than once went far either east or west of the trail for 
 lack of that aid upon which we had been assured all 
 travelers could depend. 
 
 All of one morning we had been journeying along a 
 dry arroyo bed because of tracks of horses and burros 
 there. With the hope that they were heading for water 
 and knew where to find it, we could think of no better 
 way than to follow after. 
 
 Desert willow was there, and palo fierro trees, and 
 at every turn our hopes were high that a well, or even 
 a camp, might be found. The hills on the east came 
 near, and in any land we had known there would be 
 wells somewhere in the canons.
 
 182 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Thus I rode ahead alone while the scouts were spread 
 out like a fan north and west in search of water as 
 marked on a map of the trail. Sancha begged to go also, 
 but for once I was ungallant enough to refuse, though 
 the greatest joy I had on the long way was when we 
 rode together ahead of the others, and she remembered 
 poems or romances and repeated them for me and 
 called me at times the name of the hero, and made pre 
 tense that she was a captive Moorish maid whose soul 
 I was to save by my own piety. This last jest was be 
 cause of her joy in frightening me by spiritual converse 
 with the pagans, of whom she asked no questions, but 
 would offer a flower, or make them the sign of the cross, 
 and the circle in the north sky, and looked with a child s 
 reverence on their prayer things, until I was bewildered 
 between her jests and her strange way of standing well 
 with them. All my reason told me that a proper maid 
 should have a godly fear of these as had the nuns but 
 not Sancha. 
 
 Yet I rode away from her through the white-green 
 brush of the arroyo, troubled over delays and mishaps 
 of the journey, and with ever near me the fear of danger 
 for her in the wilderness, also a dread of that day when 
 she must know the difference between a pictured lover 
 of childhood, and the man whose thoughts held her 
 heart as in a net. 
 
 Then, suddenly, my horse stopped short in fear in 
 the willows, and I saw a small huddled figure of a 
 woman on the ground with her back to me, and the 
 sound of her weeping came to me while the cast of a 
 lance away, a man bent over a dead Indio to place it in 
 a shallow grave scraped in the sand.
 
 THELOVETRAIL 183 
 
 He turned at sound of the horse, and stood erect, 
 but I knew him at sight of the shoulders and the strong 
 hand below the monk s sleeve it was Tristan ! 
 
 The thought of him had been so close to me through 
 all the many leagues, that I should not have had affright 
 to look on him. Yet so afraid was I that I fairly fell 
 from the horse, and my first thought was of gratitude 
 for the broken leg of good Padre Jose ; which was a sin 
 in itself. But Padre Jose would have known Tristan. 
 
 " You must go you must go ! " I heard myself 
 mumble. " If anyone knows you they will take you 
 back to death ! " 
 
 " Not from here," he said, and the Indian woman 
 came and stood beside us and her looks at me had no 
 kindness in them. Tristan put his hand on my shoulder 
 and looked at her. 
 
 " Quatzi " he said " friend of mine," then she 
 nodded her head, and looked at the dead man, but 
 turned quickly away again, tears of grief in her eyes. 
 
 I wondered not that she turned away, for the face 
 of the man was no longer a face, a poisoned arrow had 
 pierced the cheek and death had come only after all 
 the bones were bare. 
 
 " She is of a north tribe enslaved and knew not the 
 remedy for poison of the south," said Tristan, " so I 
 found him thus. Their rancheria is beyond the mes- 
 quite trees above." 
 
 "And water," he said, making a sign to the woman 
 who took the horse and left us to bury her man. But 
 ere the sand was over him, there was a sound of other 
 feet, and two of our guard rode up with questions. 
 
 But they were men of Puebla, and saw in Tristan
 
 i8 4 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 only a lay brother performing a pious duty his face 
 meant nothing to them. 
 
 But the older man, Salvadore Serri, was given joy and 
 courage even at sight of the robe, and plead with all 
 respect that Tristan come with haste to comfort Mother 
 Maria Clemente by word of these warring tribes, and 
 tell us all how to avoid meeting them on the road to 
 Kavorka. 
 
 " It is true then that women of religion are to risk 
 their lives here as men do and for what?" asked 
 Tristan, but Serri scarcely heeded, so full of gladness 
 was he that a man who knew the land had met them, 
 and one who knew also the places of water. 
 
 From first to last I was tongue-tied; first with 
 the surprise, and horror of the dead Indio by which I 
 was made sick, then when Serri rode up. Tristan had 
 no look or word for me. He took the horse offered 
 and they rode away to camp while I could follow as 
 might be when the pagan woman led back my horse. 
 
 But she would not speak to me, though I had seen 
 she understood Castilian, she sat herself down again in 
 the sand as if I had never ridden that way to disturb her. 
 
 I reached camp as Mother Clemente was speaking 
 her pleasure, and thanks to God that a traveled man 
 was with them on the trail. As no euro was now with 
 us, she declared, it was a blessing from heaven that we 
 had been without water and left the road to seek it as 
 we did. 
 
 " But I am not in orders, Holy Mother," said Tristan, 
 " I have only been an assistant with the Indies for men 
 more exalted." 
 
 " Then be our assistant since no one else can have
 
 THELOVETRAIL 185 
 
 greater need," she said in pleading, and I could see by 
 his face that he was like to yield. 
 
 " I have a task, set for New Granada, and go north 
 as soon as may be," he said. " But that can be 
 after I have seen you safe to your mission, though I 
 am earnest to persuade that you go back on the trail 
 and rest at Sinaloa while this tribal trouble rages. It 
 is wider than you know. There will be no maize 
 planted, and in the hungry months the Indies will dig 
 roots and go to the hills for seeds of the trees. You and 
 your holy ladies cannot live in that way, Excellencia. 
 You can only make Christians of Indios if you have 
 food to offer." 
 
 " Then the food will come if the work is to be blessed 
 by Our Lady," declared Mother Clemente. " Were not 
 the fathers of the church fed in the deserts by the grace 
 of God? and is not our cause worthy? We will 
 continue." 
 
 " You are a good soldier, Mother," said Tristan, " and 
 while I do go with you, I give you earnest warning 
 that this war of the tribes is not a little thing. If they 
 come together where we are, your guard is not strong 
 enough to turn them back. I have been tardy for my 
 own task because I halted to work with them for peace 
 but the fight is on. I have already had Indio friends 
 killed in this province and I buried one this day. Also 
 you may not know that Indio war is a very terrible 
 thing." 
 
 "We will continue," said Mother Clemente. "We 
 feel more safe with you to guide us. The tent of Padre 
 Jose will be yours, also there are garments his guard 
 could not bear back with him, all these are for the
 
 i86 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 service of God; I bid you make free of them. Don 
 Juan de Rivera will conduct you to the place of storage. 
 Juanito, my son, this is Senor Alcatraz whom the saints 
 have sent to us." 
 
 I made my bow to the Senor Alcatraz, and grinned 
 in my sleeve at that credit given to the saints, for to 
 my mind the devil himself was taking a hand in both 
 the beginning of it and the end of it. 
 
 I led him to the packs, and Salvadore gladly offered 
 to find all the senor cura required, and bear it to him. 
 So in courtesy I led our new guest to the shelter of a 
 palo fierro tree where my horse was feeding on that 
 gracious herbage of the Desert. 
 
 " I look in sore need of the reverend sister s gifts," 
 he said, looking down at his frayed robe. " It is plain 
 to see that I have traveled over no broad highway since 
 leaving the fair city. I bargained with Indio friends 
 for a deerskin garb it was moving well in the making 
 when this war swept them to death." 
 
 " Tristan you trail him north to kill him ? " I mut 
 tered, caring nothing for his garb, or his pagan tribes 
 but burning hot and cold with my fears. Though I 
 spoke low, and no one was near, he put his hand out 
 in warning. 
 
 " That is with God," he said, but smiled as he said 
 it; and by the smile I perceived that he meant neither 
 God, the Father, nor anything of earth to keep them 
 apart. " She is there in Mexico " he went on in a 
 low, even, strange tone as though it was a thing he had 
 said over and over many times in the solitude of desert 
 days and nights. " In all her purity of a white soul 
 she waits for him there no, Juanito do not speak !
 
 THELOVETRAIL 187 
 
 You hid it from me until I saw her look down from 
 the viceroy s balcony with that fair cat beside her. Be 
 tween them, when he goes back, she will be trapped 
 like a caged bird, and serve as a cloak for their intrigue. 
 And north beside him journeys the ruined life of the 
 maid who is become as his slave, and will be the mother 
 of his child. This the Indies have told me who saw 
 them pass. At one presidio he even tried to leave her 
 because she was ill to leave her there with an Indio 
 woman and the soldiers of an otherwise womanless 
 camp to leave her there as the toy of which he was 
 weary ! This came to me because of the quarrel of two 
 soldiers who were each eager to marry her and keep her 
 in honesty, and thus, Juanito, will you see our little song 
 bird Anita, if ever you see her again on earth! So, as 
 I say, if there is justice at the throne of God, the Father, 
 it is written there that I find him, and see him sent 
 to hell." 
 
 He did not lift his voice, nor look at me, but as he 
 said these words in that strange even way, he made 
 me see all he spoke of and see it with the deeps of 
 misery held in his voice and not in the words he spoke. 
 My throat ached, and I choked with weeping as I hid 
 my face there and strove to speak yet could not. 
 
 Then I heard him rise to meet Salvadore to whom 
 he gave some directions regarding horses of his on pas 
 ture near the rancheria of the dead Indio. He said they 
 had a friendly guard of the Pimas there, and that the 
 woman they would find was also a friend. Then I 
 heard my name mentioned, for Salvadore could plainly 
 see I was weeping, also I was shaking with terror.
 
 i88 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " The Sefiorito de Rivera was made ill by the sight 
 of that dead Indio which sight was indeed a terrible 
 thing to view " stated Sefior Alcatraz. " Also he has 
 a chill, and will have a fever if he is not given a quick 
 remedy of herbs. Have water heated that I may pre 
 pare it. As to the robe thanks, senor, I will don it 
 gladly when time serves." 
 
 Salvadore Serri gave him two robes rolled together 
 instead of one, and made haste to the cook, thanking 
 the saints that at last we had a man at the head who 
 knew the thing to be done, and how to do it, also vow 
 ing that my chill was from the last bad well, and was 
 proof that the water there had not been boiled as had 
 been the order of Mother Clemente. 
 
 And I, filled with a fury of resentment at thought of 
 bitter tea of herbs, and at the easy and ungodly lies of 
 Tristan, got to my feet and faced him standing there in 
 his rags of covering, yet ruling already the camp. 
 
 At that instant it was that Sancha, seeing my horse 
 browsing off the low branches of the tree, came over 
 the sands calling to me, and in her arms were long 
 stocks of that which she called star blossoms because 
 they were as sunflowers yet not so big, and she carried 
 also some creeping blooms of a wonderful blue and bade 
 me to learn the name of it for her ! 
 
 Not until she was near did she see that a stranger 
 was with me, and was staring at her as eyes stare from 
 the wooden saints of the Mexicans. She gave him no 
 notice, for all her gaze was to me, who stood with 
 tears on my cheeks, and muttered speech of anger in 
 my mind. 
 
 " Juanito mine ! " she breathed in a frightened way,
 
 THELOVETRAIL 189 
 
 and came close, the yellow flowers of the sun falling at 
 her feet, " Juanito, you have news of evil is it so? 
 Have you had word not good of him?" 
 
 She half whispered the last word in her fright, and 
 I strangled the curse in my throat. 
 
 " Sefior Alcatraz tells me I have a chill or a fever, 
 and that is all," I growled roughly, " may one not have 
 even an illness in peace? " 
 
 So strange was a cold word to her that she flushed 
 red, and her head was held high as she passed over 
 Tristan a slighting glance. 
 
 " Such chill, or fever, seems strange in its sudden 
 coming," she stated, " and since you know not which 
 it is, your new friend may help you discover." 
 
 She turned away, and walked slowly towards the tent 
 of Mother Clemente, while we two stood looking at 
 each other. But her good heart conquered her anger 
 at me, and she called back. 
 
 " When your spirit is more friendly, Juanito, I will 
 hear your word for pardon." 
 
 " So you my friend have cheated me also in 
 this? " he said with frowning eyes. " There in Mexico 
 you hid from me her coming, and here in the Desert " 
 
 Then he was silent, for I laughed aloud with my 
 tears yet wet on my cheek. 
 
 " Yes she is here ! " I declared, freeing myself of 
 the horrors over which I had been all but strangled. 
 " She comes north on a trail of love to follow the man 
 of those letters the wonderful lover who painted the 
 face of her on an altar! His name is Marco; she is as 
 sure of that in her heart that she is to wed with him, or 
 die a nun in the habit she wears ! Now you have it all
 
 igo THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 the things of which I have cheated you. And you 
 
 you go north over the same trail to hunt him for 
 death! Is it not enough to make mirth for the very 
 devils who wait for him there in hell? " 
 
 And then I did in truth have a chill, or a fever, or a 
 faint, and Tristan lifted me in his arms as he had done 
 on a night long ago, and carried me from the hot sand 
 to shelter. And in the end I had to drink of the de 
 tested tea at his bidding, and the only comfort I had 
 was to hear Sancha argue against it, for the smell of it 
 seemed to her an ungodly thing, and she had her fears 
 it might be a poison. 
 
 But for all that, it was poured down me, and was the 
 beginning of the rule of Senor Alcatraz in our camps.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 
 
 SANCHA was in a strange way rebellious at his 
 rule as was no other. Why should a man in 
 rags who rose up from the earth in the Desert 
 step thus to the lead of things? She pitied me 
 much for my sudden attack of fever, and was a tender 
 nurse on the trail. In a way she came more close to me, 
 as if near to jealousy of the stranger to whom I talked 
 when chance offered. It was the first time I had 
 thought for any but her, and her eye was keen for the 
 knowledge that often, though we did not speak of a 
 matter, this Senor Alcatraz and I had mutual under 
 standings. 
 
 "Who is he this Senor cura who is no cura?" 
 she demanded. " I have comfort that he is not in or 
 ders, for confess to him I would not. Do they train 
 the priests for the deserts to ride like that? " 
 
 " Sanchita, you are hard to please," I said as reason 
 ably as might be. " Each day you have made protest 
 at the slowness, and the wasted time in morning start 
 for the trail. We start now at starlight and the cool 
 of dawn, because he arranges all things well." 
 
 " Also he has an unpriestly pride, and looks over the 
 heads of people," she continued. " To see his high gaze 
 
 191
 
 i 9 2 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 you would think we were not reasonable beings or 
 that we did not possess souls." 
 
 I could have laughed at that, had my heart been gay 
 enough for laughter, for I knew there were few hours 
 of the night when he did not himself patrol the tent 
 where she slept, also I dared not put into words my 
 question as to reasonable beings, for none of the things 
 we were doing seemed to me reasonable, though it was 
 not in my power to change any of them. 
 
 After two days when affairs moved well, though the 
 heat was great, our new master of the camp made 
 changes by which our plan would be to travel at night 
 for the sake of the horses. The moon was growing 
 and the nights of the Desert were as a land of enchant 
 ment under the stars. With a week of night travel he 
 hoped to ride clear of the roving bands of Indies who 
 were seen more often now, and who watched us but 
 kept their distance. There was no longer the friendly 
 barter of the earlier days. 
 
 Mother Clemente and the nuns said their prayers and 
 were content with whatever plans were made so long 
 as their course held steadily towards Kavorka and the 
 crop of pagan souls to be saved. But Sancha laughed, 
 and asked if our new cura who rode so bravely was 
 afraid to ride in the light of the sun lest the poor pagans 
 see him? 
 
 Unnoticed by her, he was at the door of the tent when 
 she said it, and he stepped into the light and spoke. 
 
 " It is true, Excellencia, that I am afraid," he said 
 quietly " never before have I had aught so precious 
 to guard. If it pleases you to think it is a coward s 
 plans I make get your laughter out of it while you
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 193 
 
 may. But for your own sake I ask that you keep to 
 the rules of the camp, for we need every man, and I can 
 ill spare one for even a slight change." 
 
 " You have taken a man who was my special servant 
 and added him to your guard," she said accusingly, 
 and at that he smiled. 
 
 " I could wish that you had brought a cavalry troop 
 as special servants, that I could take them as well," he 
 said. " I should certainly take every man I could find." 
 
 "Is this a priestly custom in your Desert?" she 
 asked turning her eyes haughtily towards him, yet 
 dropping them at his steady gaze. 
 
 " The Desert is not mine, Excellencia, else I should 
 have barred you out of it," he said, " also, as I have 
 told the revered Mother, I am no priest. I wear the 
 robe of one because at times it has been permitted to 
 me and at this time because this illustrious company 
 found me in rags and showed itself generous. My one 
 wish is that I may show service in return, and guard 
 you safely to the place you seek." 
 
 " There he will be glad to see the last of us," she 
 made comment as he bowed to her, and turned away. 
 " You see, Juanito, it is as I told you ; he looks over 
 us or down upon us as if we were children playing a 
 trifling game. Also he steals you too often from beside 
 me, and our long talks are broken." 
 
 " But think of riding together under the stars," I 
 made eager suggestion. " It is a most perfect thing he 
 has made the plan of. Have you not rebelled each 
 night of the moons that we had to sleep through the 
 beauty of it? He has done the thing you wished to 
 do yet you have only disdain."
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Why should he know my wishes, and let them be 
 done as if it was to humor a child or forbids the doing 
 as it pleases him? There is only one man in the world 
 whom I want to know things as this man knows them. 
 I am also jealous because you leave me to seek him out. 
 He takes from me everything, and he would bar me 
 from the land if he could you heard him say it." 
 
 " Sancha dear, so would I," I confessed ; " and I be 
 lieve truly that if we ever get out alive from these end 
 less ranges, it will be because of the man you do not 
 like." 
 
 " He made you drink that stuff of the herbs, and I 
 cannot conceive why you should take his part," she re 
 torted. " I should hate him for that if I were you 
 also I asked him not to make you swallow it, and he 
 did. Everything is different since he is here and you 
 no longer have any love for me." 
 
 At that, of course, my heart was all but broken, for 
 I saw the anxiety of Tristan, and had heard the careful 
 orders of which the women were to know nothing. He 
 had made all plans for their safety, yet all preparations 
 for their death if need be. It was a grim and dreary 
 time over which we kept up pretense of light hearts, 
 and I was accused of not loving her when I could have 
 wept in very terror of the dangers, feared for her. 
 
 On our first night ride Tristan ranged his horse beside 
 us in the warm moonlight, and bent his head to Sancha. 
 
 " May I speak with you, Excellencia? " he asked. It 
 was the first time he had sought her, and I held my 
 breath to listen. 
 
 " Is it to tell me again that I am not here by your 
 will, Senor Cura? " she asked mockingly. " When you
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF 
 
 call me excellencia you make me feel ancient as my 
 own grandmother ! " 
 
 " I could wish you safe with her," he said. 
 
 " My thanks to you but she is dead ! " she retorted, 
 " and if I were with her someone on earth must needs 
 say masses for my soul. If you were in orders I might 
 ask you but as it is " 
 
 " As it is we will all pray you need them not for long 
 happy years," he said untouched by her humor or her 
 words. " But prayers for life are needed as well as in 
 death, and it is of that I would speak. I have here a 
 thing of prayer very well known, and very sacred to 
 these warring tribes ; will you wear it until this danger 
 land is crossed? " 
 
 He held out the rosary of Fray Fernando with the 
 turquoise and shell beads in among the brown. She 
 stared at it curiously, but did not touch it. 
 
 " I am well provided with a rosary," she said ; " my 
 own is of amethyst and gold. I think I prefer it to the 
 brown beads, but my thanks to you." 
 
 " It is not as a rosary alone I offer it, but because the 
 priests of many desert tribes have bestowed the beads 
 threaded here. They make it a pledge of peace and 
 friendship to the wearer." 
 
 " If pagan priests had aught to do with it, I should 
 fear it bore enchantments," she persisted. " If you are 
 brave enough to carry it, Juanito and I will ride in 
 your shadow to win merit if it have any but to wear 
 it I should have fear." 
 
 " I could wish that Don Juan might prevail upon 
 you," he said, and said no more; neither would she 
 hearken to me, for she said, rightly, that I knew less
 
 ig6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 of what might be pagan enchantments than did she, for 
 the sacredness of certain prayer thoughts of theirs had 
 been written to her very wonderfully before ever she 
 journeyed from Seville. 
 
 Whereupon she began more amiably to hold converse 
 with Tristan asking of the ways of the Indio for find 
 ing roads in the darkness, and giving special notice 
 when he pointed out the northern stars, and acknowl 
 edged to knowing a few of the Indian names, and their 
 importance in the heretical religions they professed. 
 
 But he betrayed no special interest in these matters, 
 and did little to quell her curiosity. Never, I knew, had 
 she seen a man like him, and nothing in her well or 
 dered life had ever made it possible for a man to arise 
 out of nowhere, and without intent or desire, be given 
 the ruling over respectable and pious souls. Her re 
 sentment was strange as if she shrank from the 
 power of him, and even tried to make little of it to me. 
 And ever and ever in her mind she compared his knowl 
 edge with that of Marco, and found it very much of the 
 earth cares as to pastures and water wells and herbs 
 of the field. 
 
 But not even the saints in heaven could hold their 
 own in her mind if compared with Marco, yet she was 
 a good Christian, and would have been in rage with me 
 had I said that in her heart her lover of the letters was 
 a new god enthroned. 
 
 The Pima friend of Tristan had gone back to the 
 tribe and it appeared plain that the peace with these 
 people had been marred by some young Castilians of 
 the colonists who had passed north to New Granada. 
 The Pima girls were hidden now if strangers came.
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 197 
 
 " Yet Don Juanito says there was a woman with you 
 back there at the wells when you did us the favor to 
 take charge of our camp and brew bitter tea," stated 
 Sancha. 
 
 He turned to her with the rare smile by which his 
 face was made a different one, and his eyes flashed their 
 natural youth. It amused him that the herb tea re 
 mained an unforgivable cruelty to her mind. I knew 
 even then it was not the bitter herbs she resented it 
 was the quiet dominance she had never before seen ex 
 erted except by ruler of church or state. It affronted 
 her to feel such dominance in a stranger who came in 
 rags out of the desert willows, and who confessed that 
 even the rags were borrowed garb ! Also, except in the 
 matter of the beads he had shown no disposition to be 
 tray that in his mind she was exalted beyond the simple 
 nuns who rode whispering prayers in the moonlight. 
 This to Sancha de Llorente y Rivera, late favorita 
 exalted at the viceregal court, was a change she could 
 not readily bring herself to understand. She had raged 
 to me that her sheep herders up in the Sierra Morena, 
 where her people were masters of three towns in the 
 ancient times, would not dare appear before her so 
 nearly naked as had he in his ragged habit that first 
 day. To remind her that she had admired naked skins 
 in the brown Indies only gave her an impatience with 
 me, though Tristan was burnt brown enough by the 
 desert sun to satisfy anyone that he had a good dark 
 serviceable coat. Few would recognize him for the man 
 of the prison pallor who dared raise his eyes to the 
 palace balcony. 
 
 Yet at that mention of the bitter tea, and of the
 
 ig8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 woman, his smile bridged over all her scornful words of 
 pride. 
 
 " I thank your saint, whichever one it may be, that it 
 fell not to my task to order herbs for your excellency," 
 he said with a laugh in his eyes ; " and as to the little 
 woman of the rancheria she has left her field of maize 
 and calabashes to raiders, and travels back to the home 
 in Tusayan for which her heart is sick." 
 
 " Could any heart be sick for desert life ? " asked 
 Sancha with slight belief, " and where is the home a 
 mud hovel by evil smelling waters? " 
 
 " So far from it that I could scarce convey in words 
 the marvel of the difference," said Tristan. " It is 
 scarce to be believed except by men who have looked 
 upon the carven and painted temples of Palenque or 
 Mitla, or the wonderful pagan palaces of Ho in Yuka- 
 tan. Not that there are such carvings in the north, for 
 there the people are as an island of civilization broke 
 free from some mainland. Secluded thus they have de 
 veloped more slowly yet they are alive today and 
 hold to their original gods, while the great body of their 
 brothers who migrated to the hot lands built stupen 
 dously yet died as a nation leaving only carven records 
 of their greatness." 
 
 " They must have been wicked and heretical as are 
 the Jews, who also are dead as a nation," observed 
 Sancha. " It is said they were once kings in their land." 
 
 " They yet remain kings in memory so long as the 
 ancient Hebrew is read," said Tristan. "All the poetry 
 of the Christian bible comes from them." 
 
 " Perhaps that is why our confessors forbid the read 
 ing of it," mused Sancha. " I had not thought of it
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 199 
 
 before, for I knew not that infidels had the writing of 
 it. Is it quite true?" 
 
 " They built a wonderful foundation of a wonderful 
 edifice and gave ages to the building," said Tristan; 
 " then a new thought was grafted upon it as a Nor 
 man tower built upon the frozen music of a Moorish 
 temple, and the weight of the tower crushed its beauty 
 of line, and the fragments are now scattered abroad in 
 many lands." 
 
 " H m ! " murmured Sancha. " I never heard a 
 thing like that before ; but the church gives you to read 
 things not allowed to women. You say you are not in 
 priestly orders, yet they have let you gain knowledge 
 of priestly things. Tell me more of the Indio woman." 
 
 At that I smiled in my silence, for the question of 
 the woman had been curious to her; my own knowl 
 edge had not been enlightening. 
 
 " As a maid she was stolen by the Apache at a time 
 when they fought her nation. They are the Hopitu 
 the People of Peace, and they live in great houses high 
 on rock mesas. From the lower levels they are seen 
 afar off like castles of enchantment against the desert 
 skies. A thousand years they have stood there as 
 islands of civilized people in the heart of a land where 
 other tribes live in shelter of boughs, or under skins of 
 beasts." 
 
 " What are they that they are civilized? " persisted 
 Sancha. " If they are not Christian how are they people 
 of reason? and if not that how civilized? I cannot 
 see them as you say." 
 
 " No you could not," he agreed. " No one could 
 see them by the eyes of another, and no woman who is
 
 200 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 white has ever seen them. They go not out to war, yet 
 are not cowards. Their religion forbids anger or spirit 
 of conquest, and they live to their religion. They wed 
 with one wife, and she is ruler of the children, and the 
 home. They grow maize and melons in their fields sur 
 rounding the high islands of stone where they live. 
 Their weaving of garments is good and their making of 
 burnt vessels of clay has merit in beauty scarcely to be 
 given belief. They are gentle people, yet very strong 
 people. They pray much, and give thank offerings each 
 day to their gods of the sky. Never anywhere have I 
 seen such peace as is theirs." 
 
 " And how came the woman so far in this land? " 
 
 " She was traded by the Apache to a Pima man whose 
 son wanted her for wife. He was a kind man, and their 
 home was a good resting place to me and to other of 
 the Castilians. Her life was content, yet when the pois 
 oned arrow of the Seri struck him she knew naught of 
 the art of healing such wound ; her people have none 
 such poison. Thus he died when I reached him too 
 late, and I bade poor little Movi go north and weep for 
 him among her own people and not in a stranger s land." 
 
 " Why should she weep at freedom when he had held 
 her as slave?" demanded Sancha in high scorn "it 
 betokens a mean blood." 
 
 " Nay love held her and he gave her love," said 
 Tristan. " Love serves freely, thus he was not as other 
 men or masters to her. It may be that to woman such 
 love makes man king even in a rancheria of small fields. 
 It may be so." 
 
 " So it is," conceded Sancha after a silence. " I per 
 ceive now how it is. He was the greatest, mayhaps,
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 201 
 
 she had ever had knowledge of, and I see how it would 
 be if there is truly love; but how, holy father, do you 
 know, when you are too young to confess women or 
 maids?" 
 
 It was her first of gay mockery with him, rather than 
 at him, and it told me that the good nuns with their 
 endless devotions, and my poor art in providing new 
 amusements, had wearied her more than I guessed since 
 it drove her to seek distraction in fraternity with the 
 man she disdained. 
 
 I already felt sadly enough my own lackings, and glad 
 was I that she had at least called truce to her jealousy 
 of him. But when I saw him looking at her in silence 
 looking at her with a gaze belonging to moonlit 
 nights, but not to her desert love trail to another man, 
 my heart jumped, and again I seemed to hear the cold 
 voice of the viceroy when he said " What is there he 
 has not dared? " 
 
 " You do not speak ! " she said pettishly. " Juanito 
 mine, how do priests in convents learn of pagan loves? " 
 
 " I have not had good luck to be a priest in a con 
 vent," I confessed, " and no one has taken pains to teach 
 me loves pagan or otherwise for my own use." 
 
 At that she laughed, and said I was lacking in gal 
 lantry, for she had herself been instructing me always 
 to slight avail. 
 
 " I said, for my own usage, " I repeated ; " to look at 
 love through the eyes of another teaches only the 
 hunger of love, and not any of its comforts if it in 
 deed confers comfort." 
 
 " Infidel! " she laughed, " have you doubts? " 
 
 "Have not you?" I returned. "We take this trail
 
 202 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 for love s sake, and what comfort has it gained for any 
 of us? The weary weeks, and bad water and now a 
 forced trail in the night the sooner to get beyond scalp 
 ing knives ! " 
 
 " O Juanito mine " she breathed. " You are 
 right, only a great love is worth it." 
 
 " Or a great hate," I said, looking at Tristan. 
 
 He turned his horse, and halted to speak to Mother 
 Clemente, who was alarmed at a fire on a hill to the east. 
 To her it looked a signal of danger. He assured her 
 that it was from the west the danger was to be guarded 
 against, and that two more days would see us safe 
 beyond the Pima frontier. 
 
 "How is he so wise?" demanded Sancha, "or does 
 he only make pretense to know? If he is not a priest, 
 how does he know priestly things? " 
 
 "Oh, Sanchita," I said, "how do I know? He tells 
 us he has traveled with mission priests, and studied to 
 give them aid. You take any mongrel on trust who 
 begs of you by the wayside, yet you give out only 
 bitter thoughts to the one man who offers you the most 
 holy possession of his." 
 
 " That is true," she agreed, " he did offer me the 
 beads and it was a strange thing to do. Yes I will 
 believe with you that he means well, but he did not 
 make answer when I asked how he knew about loves; 
 he did not so much as speak to me again. I have con 
 viction that the man owns a bad conscience. He only 
 looks at me when he thinks I do not observe." 
 
 The night wore on, and the dawn came, but Tristan 
 did not return to ride beside us. At times he was far 
 ahead, and at other times he halted to review all, and
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 203 
 
 waited until the last of the rear guards came up. Sancha 
 grew silent, and slept at times briefly in her saddle, 
 drooping like a tired child, but rousing as her horse 
 made an uneven step on the wild trail. 
 
 The sun was high over the hills of the east when 
 we reached the next waterholes having traveled 
 nearly double the distance possible under the hot sun. 
 Trees were there and grass in a near valley, a breakfast 
 was eaten, and shelters put up for the women where 
 they retired for the sleep they so sadly needed. I 
 fell into sudden slumber with my head pillowed on 
 my saddle, and half the guard slept near the horses, 
 with one of their number as sentinel, the others with 
 their heads under any shelter to be found near the camp. 
 
 It was late in the day when I was roused by voices 
 and smell of smoke, to find the cooks busy with the 
 evening meal, and saw Tristan coming into camp on 
 foot from the east, and without a word stretched him 
 self under my bush and settled his head on my pillow 
 wearily. 
 
 " Tristan you have ranged away on foot while the 
 camp rested. Why on foot?" 
 
 " To save a horse for the night much depends on 
 their rest." 
 
 "And what on yours?" I demanded, excited and in 
 a bit of fear at sight of his tired face. " Where have 
 you wandered while we slept?" 
 
 " Three leagues east, and a bit north. I had to see 
 the old men of the clans." 
 
 " But three leagues on foot, and return no sleep 
 and all this hell of heat ! " 
 
 " Enough ! A man of these tribes will make twenty
 
 204 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 leagues on a handful of pinole to munch on the way. 
 A wayfarer in their desert must do as well or fade 
 out of the land." 
 
 " The guard already brings in the horses," I warned 
 him ; " you have scarce an hour to rest." 
 
 " Then if you love me give me that hour, 
 Juanito, and, boy, prevail that she wear the rosary." 
 
 In an instant he slumbered heavily. I, who toss and 
 turn to nurse myself to sleep even on good feathers, 
 stared at him in awe. To me it was scarce a thing 
 of nature that a man should say " I will sleep," and on 
 that instant go into a stupor. Yet that is what he did, 
 and I, sorely troubled, still stood regarding him when 
 Sancha came from the ladies bower looking fresh as a 
 rose in the cool breeze beginning to sift from the 
 hills. 
 
 She came over to me, and then stood in her tracks 
 looking down upon him in derision. 
 
 " I would that Mother Clemente would see him thus 
 that her mind could be at rest," she said mockingly; 
 " the good lady has fear that he never sleeps ! Yet each 
 lazy Indio and guard is up and alert save only he ! " 
 
 " But Sancha " I protested, and took her hand 
 to draw her away lest her voice wake him despite of 
 all. 
 
 She shook me loose and pointed to him. 
 
 " O brave cavallero ! " she said slightingly, " and see, 
 how, even in his stupor, he clutches that rosary of the 
 Indian gifts! He holds to the pagan enchantments to 
 guard even his sleep your brave cavallero ! " 
 
 I drew her away, and tried to make clear that his 
 sleep had been slight yet, as I dared not alarm the 
 

 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 
 
 women by telling the dangers he feared, my words were 
 lame and careful, and she would not even listen. 
 
 "Is he worth so many words?" she asked in con 
 tempt. " Because he talks well of new things, and 
 knows the water holes and red Indians, you and 
 Mother Clemente speak of him as if he were an arch 
 angel sent by God, yet I see him thus when off his 
 guard! Find other idols, Juanito." 
 
 She was very gay over this because she thought it 
 teased me, and I perceived it was not a good time to 
 follow his request, and mention again the beads. 
 Because the Indians of the palm groves and the little 
 adobes under the pepper trees had been to her as grave 
 yet kindly children, she could not see that the savages 
 of wild barrancas and brown hills were a different 
 people, thus she attached no importance to the work 
 of a master of camp beyond the fact that this one had 
 a knack of making the packers move, and that we cov 
 ered space in half the time as when Padre Jose had 
 the word to give. 
 
 The supper was all but over before I dared let Sal- 
 vadore arouse him. I knew he counted the hour of 
 sleep of as much importance as food. 
 
 Carefully he looked over every horse in the herd when 
 he wakened, and saw that every water bottle was filled 
 ere he gave the word to break camp, and then with 
 a quiet word to Mother Clemente he rode on ahead, 
 and out of sight in the canon. 
 
 Sancha looked after him with impatience in her eyes. 
 
 " It would be but civil to ask us to ride with him," 
 she said ; " it is not much pleasure to ride at the heels 
 of another man s horse. You see how he has changed
 
 206 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 everything. You and I used always to ride at the head, 
 and have races, and find surprises." 
 
 I tried to remind her that our races had been in a 
 country where all the roads were plain and where 
 there had been no question of safety, but here for 
 forty leagues was a reach of land of which the rule 
 might change in a day, and all the trails be blocked. 
 
 "What could be done did that really happen?" she 
 asked, incredulous, " our guard carry arms." 
 
 " They would only be a handful between two rival 
 hordes of the sierra and llano," I said : " and I truly 
 have not dared ask what might chance if we did ride 
 into one of their battles, but the most likely thing would 
 be to ride back to Sinaloa and pray for a better year 
 to build missions." 
 
 " Ride back ! " and she turned startled looks on me 
 " ride back I would not. To ride over these hundreds 
 of leagues to meet him only to turn and ride back to 
 Sinaloa? No, I would not. Rather would I ride the 
 other leagues north to New Granada." 
 
 " That could never be. The other ladies are already 
 much worn with the travel, and even the guard did not 
 engage to fight the savages. No, they would turn back, 
 and be held justified." 
 
 " You commend all the things for which I have no lik 
 ing," she complained, "and it never used to be so with 
 you. I think it is the fault of that man." 
 
 Thus she at least gave him credit for strength, since 
 she felt the influence of him in all things. 
 
 The ride thus in the evening was as through hundreds 
 of wonder pictures, for the changing lights of the low 
 sun threw strange colors back to the sierras yel-
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 207 
 
 lows and reds, with deep purples where the shadows 
 were. On the llanos to the west high fog would drift 
 in from the sea of Cortez, and cast bars of shadow over 
 the yellow land. There was no darkness, only a dim 
 half light between the going of the sun and the rising 
 of the moon, and the tall sahuaros stood out like gray 
 phantoms against far silver hills. 
 
 " Yes, it has beauty," agreed Sancha, " but it is a 
 beauty like no other living thing. Each rise of a hill 
 one looks to see some castle of enchantment in some 
 oasis, and there is only an arroya or a tinajia, and we 
 are gladdened if there is water for the beasts. Also 
 when the sun goes down there is a hush about it all. 
 Our guard do not sing in the night here as did they in 
 the palm forests of the south; it is not the weariness 
 of the trail alone, it is the spirit the land has no spirit 
 of joy." 
 
 " True, it does not seem to us joyous, yet it is good 
 to watch the stars come out, and give thanks each time 
 of waking that we are yet guarded safe." 
 
 " Safe ! safe ! " she repeated. " Now again you repeat 
 that man. I grow so tired of his strict ruling that I 
 can almost feel myself riding in spite of him far ahead, 
 for the adventure of it." 
 
 " For all our safety do not dare that until he gives 
 us the word," I pleaded, and would have said more, 
 but she laughed at me. 
 
 " Dare? " she said, " and wait his word? Have you 
 then forgot that we De Llorente y Rivera let not even 
 the priests think for us? Why then a priest s robe? " 
 
 To quell her rebel spirit, I talked of Marco, and the 
 fact that he was now safe in the turquoise land of
 
 208 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 New Granada, and she fell a wondering if there were 
 white butterflies there, and the things of flower and field 
 loved by him, and then she was back, discoursing of his 
 wondrous letters, and his genius, and the bigness of 
 his mind that he sought no credits for the pious work 
 of the picture in the chancel ! 
 
 So, no matter which of the two men we talked of, I 
 had my own troubles. But in my heart I had no 
 thought but that when she learned the truth of Marco, 
 she would decide for a nun s robe, and the journey into 
 the wilderness for planting of a mission was a most 
 satisfying novitiate for any mortal maid of proud 
 temper. 
 
 She laughed with me over the wisdom of primitive 
 things she had gained in the Desert of making fires, 
 of cooking maize, and of mending things with leather 
 thongs or thread of yucca. For a jest she had mended 
 with yucca thread that day her robe torn on thorns of 
 the pale fierro tree, and she confessed she had patched 
 the pocket in which she kept the letters of love always 
 close to her. 
 
 " I pray each night and morning to my wonderful 
 Saint of the Impossible that at some turn in the trail 
 I find him close beside me," she said, " and there are 
 times, Juanito, when I close my eyes and dream that 
 the horse beside me may be his almost I reach out 
 my hand to touch him so real is the sense of his 
 nearness. Does that seem strange to you? " 
 
 It did not, and I told her so, for she had lived with 
 the thought of him all the long journey until the thought 
 was part of her, but I warned her no other would under 
 stand, for no other could know.
 
 THE NEW MASTER OF CAMP 209 
 
 " He will understand," she said, and her eyes were 
 all aglow in the moonlight as she looked at me. " O 
 Juanito ! he is the wonder man of all the world, and it 
 is as though his heart was beating here in my breast. 
 I waken in the night and feel that he is close even 
 though I have not been dreaming of him it is very 
 strange, that! Think you, Juanito, that it is because 
 he has ridden his horse over these wilderness trails 
 ahead of me? Now this instant it is as if around 
 the mesa we will find him waiting." 
 
 She laughed, and lifted her hand, and her horse broke 
 into the easy lope of the range while I followed with 
 what haste I could, yet urging her not to go beyond 
 sight of the cavalcade. 
 
 And around the foot of the mesa was Tristan, his 
 horse across the trail black shadow against the night 
 silvers by which the desert was all a gray garden under 
 the moon. She pulled her horse up short. 
 
 " Santa Maria and Santa Rita ! " she whispered as if 
 in fear. " That is how it is at each turn ! I wish for the 
 one man in all the world, and ever, for my sins, the 
 one sent is the one who makes me have fear, or I know 
 not what! Juanito, does it not seem a thing of reason 
 to you that the pagan beads of that rosary are of evil 
 enchantings? " 
 
 I made the sign of the cross for fear it might be. 
 My own doubts and troubles were many. 
 
 Yet his presence there was a simple matter, for he 
 but stood across the trail and talked with an Indio who 
 spoke briefly and softly in the shadows, and then faded 
 away again among the low shrubs and strange shapen 
 cactus.
 
 210 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Tristan turned to us, and I could see he was troubled. 
 
 " We must take great care, yet cover ground this 
 night," he said. " The Pima sentinels are watching 
 from the hills and see the Haquis come in large bodies 
 from the west." 
 
 " Yet they travel on foot while we have horses," I 
 observed. 
 
 " That is true," he said, " but footmen can run ahead 
 of horses on this trail, and we need to take each short 
 cut until the great body of Pimas and Papagoes are 
 reached." 
 
 Sancha talked to her horse, and petted him, and could 
 not credit that a footman could outdistance him, also 
 she had confidence in our guard brought from the 
 south. 
 
 Tristan looked at her, noting her pettish humor, and 
 rode in silence near us, and after awhile finding no one 
 to argue with, she too fell silent with weariness as the 
 night wore on, and Tristan took the reata and led her 
 horse, so that often she slept.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 
 
 THE dawn broke with coral pink beyond the blue 
 walls of the sierras, and Sancha aroused to the 
 beauties of blossoms of pale lemon scattered 
 among the shrubs and cactus of the trail. We 
 were in a pass where the walls narrowed, and the space 
 between was level as a floor. The way was plain before 
 us, and she looked at me and laughed. 
 
 " You were not gallant," she said accusingly. " I 
 thought you were leading my horse, but when I wak 
 ened, it was that man. I will show him I can ride 
 the trail alone, also that I am tired of never getting 
 away from his eyes so adios! " 
 
 She lifted the bridle, and used the whip only one 
 stroke, but the horse had felt it seldom, and leaped 
 forward. 
 
 " Sancha ! " I called, but she lifted her hand high in 
 salute, and rode her mount to the utmost. There was 
 nothing to do but follow, which I did. Tristan was 
 somewhere at the rear end of the line of travelers, and 
 no guard followed us. They thought it but a bit of 
 childish play, and the road was good. 
 
 I thought little of the road, only of keeping her in 
 sight. Once I did miss her in the jungle of low growth 
 where another canon branched, but it was only for a 
 
 211
 
 212 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 moment, and I rode my utmost to reach and hold her 
 by force if need be until Tristan should come and place 
 her in the very middle of the cavalcade instead of at 
 either end. 
 
 The first bend took us out of sight of all of them, 
 and the second into a beautiful canon where the sun 
 was gilding the view on the west, and the sunflowers 
 reached to our saddles. 
 
 " Sancha ! Sancha ! " I called, and the walls echoed 
 back my cry, for my horse labored wearily after both 
 animals could only be aroused for a spurt, but her 
 weight was the less, and I could only keep in sight her 
 robe, or high flung hand. 
 
 Her laughter came back to me mockingly, and then 
 one scream made the canon walls echo strangely. My 
 heart seemed to be in my throat as I rode forward 
 fearing to see her horse fallen, and with my mind 
 filled with visions of broken bones weary leagues 
 from a surgeon. 
 
 But it was not a fallen horse I found at the bend 
 of the canon, but a girl with a very white face sitting 
 her horse in still horror while around her circled a sea 
 of red brown faces. 
 
 My first thought was to ride forward to her rescue, 
 but my second was to call back for help to Tristan 
 first and last, to Tristan! 
 
 The thought was scarce formed, or my bridle touched, 
 till I saw how useless it was. From a side canon, the 
 Indians swarmed, and above the edges of the cliffs they 
 peered, and there was no calling back. 
 
 I looked in their faces, and without word, I rode 
 forward and halted my horse beside Sancha.
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 213 
 
 " Listen," she said. 
 
 I did, and heard back of us the echoes of firearms. 
 The guards were using arquebuses against an enemy in 
 the rear. 
 
 Even while we listened, the groups of Indios divided. 
 At the word of a man who stood at Sancha s bridle, the 
 mass of them raced back the way we had come, and, 
 with another brief word, a score of the devils circled us, 
 and our horses were led through a narrow break in the 
 cliff. 
 
 I looked back; four men stood sentry at the narrow 
 pass, and behind our horses walked others with lances 
 leveled, and the points of them were the sharp cutting 
 knives of smoked volcanic glass. 
 
 " Thus have you shown him how you can ride the 
 trails alone," I said, furious with her as I heard the far 
 distant reports, and the savage yells. 
 
 She only looked at me, and I felt like a coward. The 
 Indios watched us with smiling faces in which there 
 was little of threat they were rather as exultant 
 children who had made an unexpected point in a 
 game. 
 
 There were no words to us only the dark bodies 
 trotting ahead and back of me, and Sancha at times out 
 of my sight in the winding canon. 
 
 Then we reached a wider place between walls where 
 water trickled at foot of a cliff, and a tree of size spread 
 wide arms. 
 
 Some women were there, and a fire of mesquite poles 
 sent up meager blue smoke, while a boy turned a rab 
 bit on a spit, and a girl heated stones to cook some mess 
 in a basket.
 
 
 
 jlg^ig\ 
 
 214 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 All let go their tasks to stare as we were driven in 
 like cattle before the lances. Sancha won most of their 
 notice for no white women in nun s robe had come their 
 trail. Somewhat in awe they looked on her until her 
 captor pulled her roughly from the saddle, and with 
 some words in their devilish jargon, thrust her towards 
 the women. 
 
 I strove as I might to reach her, for I had still my 
 knife and the orders of Tristan were plain if the end 
 came for the women, and this seemed the end. 
 
 But a stroke from one of the brutes left me sense 
 less, and when I came back into knowledge the blood 
 was holding sand caked against my cheek, and Sancha 
 was roped to the tree. Two women had stripped from 
 her the robe, and a boy had her shoes. Girt as she was 
 with the reatas from our horses, she was a figure of 
 pitiful appeal. My tears blinded me, and I felt for my 
 knife but it was gone! 
 
 The women were having dispute for the robe and the 
 stronger wrenched it free from the grasp of the other. 
 As they did so, there fell on the sand beside me the 
 rosary of Sancha, and something else. One woman 
 with a squeal of laughter saw the jeweled strand and 
 let go the robe. I had lifted the rosary and gave it up, 
 reluctant, to her eager clutch, and in their wrangle, 
 and in the new treasure trove, neither of them saw 
 the flat packet over which I laid my arm. Then I rose 
 and went over by the water to slake my thirst and wash 
 the sand out of the cut, and though I was watched, no 
 one halted me. 
 
 I had wonder as to why I was not deprived of gar 
 ments and liberty as well as Sancha, but I soon discov-
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 215 
 
 ered that the horses were being given water for the trail, 
 and while the leading Indian took Sancha s horse for 
 himself, I was tied on mine, and the men spoke to 
 gether with many nods in my direction, and back to the 
 trail we had come. 
 
 It seemed clear I was to be taken with them while 
 Sancha was to be held in camp with the women and 
 boys. The tall fellow gave some scowling directions 
 indicating that the girl tied to the tree was his prop 
 erty, and then we were headed back between the cliffs, 
 and never once had I been let get within touch of 
 Sancha. 
 
 " They have not harmed me," was all the word I had 
 of her, " but your head " 
 
 The Indio riding her horse heard, and smiled with 
 evil, half closed eyes, and then to my surprise, he spoke 
 Castilian. 
 
 " No time for women, time tomorrows," he said. 
 " Now you people learn how Pimaria like when you 
 take their maidens." 
 
 As I had taken none, or had will to, his taunt had 
 no sting for me beyond the horror of the thought of 
 Sancha. I was certain that his scowling instruction 
 to the women was to guard her for his return and 
 Sancha, perhaps, like myself, without a knife! 
 
 All that ride between the cliffs I saw not the arrow- 
 bush, or the mesquite or the long shadows, but Sancha, 
 bare armed and bare of foot, bound to the tree trunk 
 within canon walls, and the evil-faced native smiled as 
 he saw me striving at every chance to loosen my bonds. 
 
 " No good," he said. " Take you to make talk plenty 
 good many horses maybe for one girl Castilian." 

 
 216 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Thus I saw his plan to make a deal for stock, and 
 hold Sancha for ransom, and the other man smiled when 
 he said horses that much they knew of the white 
 man s language. 
 
 " You are not Pima? " I said as I looked from his 
 face to theirs, and they ceased to smile, and stared. 
 
 "What is your medicine to see?" he asked. "It is 
 true. I am Apache once when little. Know you also 
 my father s or my clan? " 
 
 I perceived that my careless guess had given him 
 suspicion that I had power of divining. I remembered 
 the lore of Tristan, and used it. 
 
 " Do these people with whom you live mention the 
 names of the dead? " I asked in reproof. " To tell your 
 clan, and the name of your father might bring evil on 
 the trail." 
 
 " That is true," he said. " You have the knowing. 
 You can go south for the horses ; a man of medicine we 
 let go in peace." 
 
 To go in peace, and alone, was the last thing for which 
 I craved. My prayers were silent ones as we went on 
 over the brown sand, and fervently I remembered 
 Sancha s Saint of the Impossible. If ever the seeming 
 impossible must happen, and happen quickly, this was 
 the time. I thought ruefully of the holy beads offered 
 by Tristan and disdained so lately would they have 
 proven more potent than the jewels of gold and 
 amethyst? 
 
 As we emerged into wider space between the walls 
 I perceived the thing I had not when I raced by eager 
 to keep her in sight. We had turned into one lane of 
 rock while another had been the main trail where a
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 217 
 
 battle had been fought. The trampled sand and a dead 
 mule told me little of the outcome of it, but the red 
 men scattered north and south, and climbed cliffs like 
 so many squirrels, the while my renegade Apache 
 looked and smiled evilly. 
 
 " All what was caught, we caught," he said with sat 
 isfaction. " The Haqui are driven back with the thun 
 der arrows of the white men and look you here 
 they carried with them their dead." 
 
 Then, by pretense of knowing more than I in reason 
 could, I learned that north of us there had been rights 
 with the Haquis the day before, and that two companies 
 of Pimas had been waiting in the gulch and on the 
 heights to trap a southern group of their enemies who 
 were on the war trail. The thing, as it chanced, had 
 turned in a different way. Sancha and I had ridden 
 from the true road into one company, and our friends 
 had met the fierce Haquis, and each had retreated in 
 what order none could say. 
 
 No doubt Tristan thought us captured by the Haquis, 
 and my mind was certain on one point, the retreat of 
 the expedition meant perhaps not great defeat or 
 injury, but the willingness at last of Mother Clemente 
 to accept advice of Tristan, return to Sinaloa, and wait 
 a more peaceful year for the planting of a sisterhood 
 among the heathen. 
 
 Men from above the cliffs came down, and told of the 
 Castilians turning back on the trail, after their men, 
 headed by their priest, had fought the Haquis and made 
 the canon walls echo fearfully with the thunder of their 
 arms. 
 
 " Have the Haquis followed the trail by the south? "
 
 2i8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 asked the Apache, and by gesture and tone, and 
 nods of the head, I learned they had not. The clash 
 with the white people had been accident, and the enemy 
 of the Pima were not eager to fight against thunder, 
 lightning, and lead hail. 
 
 The Apache scowled and looked at me, and then they 
 sat in the sand and talked. His plan for me was 
 changed if I was sent to ride after the Castilians 
 now, it would not be horses they would get in exchange 
 for the white maid, but more of the same gun fire ; also 
 I could tell how small was their own company, and there 
 would be time to call on help from other Pima clans. 
 
 I could see that the sullen Apache was alone in his 
 scheme for a herd. They quarreled among themselves, 
 and one man pointed to Sancha s horse. Already the 
 Apache had one while the Pima men walked. It was 
 easy to follow their argument. Through it I learned 
 that the Apache was called Kasia, and when no settle 
 ment could be made an older man said some words end 
 ing with " Matiwa," whereupon all nodded and said 
 " Matiwa " except Kasia, who looked sulky that he was 
 voted down. 
 
 Again I was tied on my horse, but driven north 
 instead of the way we had come. Later I learned from 
 the sulky Kasia that Matiwa was an older chief and a 
 Piman; also that there was to be council to decide if I 
 was to be sent back to ask horses in ransom for Sancha. 
 Evidently his adopted brothers were not so eager for 
 trouble with Castilians once the excitement of the 
 adventure was over. 
 
 But ere the night fell we learned it was not over, for 
 up from a barranca swarmed nude brown bodies follow-
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 219 
 
 ing their spent arrows, and my captors fought back, 
 but a running fight, for they were outnumbered, and 
 out of the scramble the horse of Sancha leaped riderless, 
 for Kasia lay with an arrow piercing his eye, and a lance 
 thrust in his throat. 
 
 Another Indio leaped on the horse and led mine out 
 of arrow range, and as I had no mind to change captors 
 now that the Apache was gone, I rode right willingly. 
 To my surprise the enemy did not follow ; evidently the 
 two horses and a Castilian rider caused them suspicion 
 that the Pimans had strong allies. 
 
 There was no sign of grief over the death of Kasia; 
 he had been a strong man but not a favorite and of no 
 blood kindred. His going left me even more alone, for 
 only one youth had few words of Castilian which he 
 used with little meaning. 
 
 The dusk of night came on as we reached a place of 
 water, and a little apart from it was a small shrine place 
 of stones, circled crudely by the dried skeleton ribs of 
 the sahauro. It was still light enough to discover wil 
 low wands to which bird feathers and seed pods were 
 tied with the fiber of yucca some pious pagan had 
 made thanks or prayer there for the dribble of water 
 in the pool. 
 
 Stiff and sore though I was from the rope and the 
 saddle, I was alive to that flat packet rescued by me 
 in the canon camp, and having little doubt but that 
 my garments would be divided as were Sancha s, I had 
 cast about for some way of hiding or destruction for 
 the letters ere the fragments of them be used for charms 
 in medicine bags. To attempt burning might fail, and 
 the shrine place was the only likely haven.
 
 
 220 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 While prno/e and a bit of dried deer were doled out 
 to us, and the horses were held at graze, I broke four 
 twigs of mesquite evenly, stripping the bark, and from 
 my shirt tore bits of linen until four newly garnished 
 prayer plumes were finished. 
 
 With solemnity I did the work putting aside the 
 parched maize until the prayer was made, and then as if 
 not noting the awe-struck, curious watching of all, I 
 arose and walked slowly to the little hedge of the shrine. 
 With gesticulations and bowings, I stood by it, then 
 knelt with my back to the men. One by one I raised 
 the twig with its shred of linen, and lifted a stone that 
 it might be planted firm. Under the largest of the 
 stones went the packet, and it was a true prayer I 
 planted there though the way of it was pagan. 
 
 I felt their eyes on me, and returned to my seat 
 silently, and gathered up my few grains of maize with 
 out looking at any of them. They were as solemnly 
 silent as myself, yet I could feel that they were not 
 disapproving. I had learned from Tristan that the re 
 ligion of every man is sacred to these people so long 
 as there is no attempt to impose it upon them ; for their 
 gods are jealous and peculiar. 
 
 It was plain that the planting of prayer sticks with 
 fragments of my garment did impress the minds of all 
 of them, and I blessed the days with Tristan and the 
 learning of the things I never thought to need. 
 
 My captors were plainly not happy that they had to 
 carry to an older chief the burden of the act of Kasia 
 yet they had decided it thus with the dead man, and it 
 may be that some superstition of their dark minds 
 compelled them to abide by it.
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 221 
 
 I was let sleep in comfort, but two were ever stand 
 ing sentinel, and before dawn when I lifted my head 
 to observe location of the horses, one of the men step 
 ped forward to show me it was of no use to plan escape. 
 
 Breakfastless we took the trail when gray came into 
 the east, and we made our way over the strange land 
 with an energy in proof that neither food nor water 
 was for us until we reached the end. A line of palo 
 fierro trees showed where a river ran in the season of 
 rain, and to the east rose a gray hill one would not for 
 get after once having seen it not that it had a height 
 so great but it was of a character peculiar. 
 
 A village of wattled huts was there, with ramadas, 
 and woven baskets as granaries. The children ran after 
 us staring at my face and my bonds, but no insult was 
 offered, as I learned later was done with Indian cap 
 tives in war. My captors were yet in doubt as to my 
 standing. 
 
 Matiwa, the ancient of the village to which I was 
 taken, ordered them to unfasten my hands and give 
 me food. A woman, who looked strangely familiar, ran 
 past me with words and gestures to Matiwa. She was 
 let enter his dwelling with my captors while I was led 
 elsewhere, and no word came to me of the council that 
 day. 
 
 There was much inspection of the horses, and my 
 heart sank next morning when the youth of the few 
 Castilian words mounted mine, and led away the other. 
 
 " Come womans," he said with a grin, " come 
 womans, all good ; " and then, with a great dash to dis 
 play his riding, he plunged south again into the desert 
 of hills.
 
 222 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Weary though I was, it was a day of restlessness for 
 me; every bone ached from being bound in the saddle, 
 yet the spirit in me was quickened by endless conjec 
 tures concerning Sancha and the pious cavalcade of 
 Mother Clemente, and Tristan. Of Tristan I could only 
 wonder how far he would go south to see them safe 
 ere he turned to seek us, and if chance should lead him 
 wrongly on the trail of the Haquis? 
 
 I tried to read in the faces of the villagers their dis 
 position toward me, and with little success. They were 
 not evil in look as had been Kasia, but my presence was 
 a trouble, and the old chief Matiwa gave me no smiles. 
 He did, however, let me range free with a guard ever 
 beside me, and my garments were not divided as had 
 been Sancha s. 
 
 The strange hill noticed when afar had allurement 
 when in its shadow, for stupendous though it was, it 
 looked as the work of human hands in the long terraces 
 of stone, line above line, rising to the top where vultures 
 nested; and up there was the outline of strange walls 
 or upright columns, and between them the sky was seen 
 in slits of light. 
 
 I paced back and forth, gazing up at them as they 
 seemed to march in line as I moved. It was all most 
 curious, for across some of the upright pillars could be 
 seen a coping or canopy. 
 
 I tried by word or gesture to ask my guide, but he 
 only kissed a feather and blew it upwards, and smiled, 
 and then an Indian woman grinding mesquite beans in 
 a stone bowl spoke haltingly. 
 
 " Senor, it is House of Light very ancient same 
 old as the stars ancient House of Light."
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 223 
 
 She was the dark little woman who looked familiar. 
 Her hair was cut curiously unlike the others, and was 
 not comely, but to my mind she was a very gift of God 
 after the sound of strange languages; yet her familiar 
 look was a puzzle. 
 
 "Where? maid of my language," I said, and sat 
 beside her in eagerness ; but she moved her bowl a little 
 distance, and I learned a lesson. 
 
 " The House of Light, that means House of the 
 Dawn? Is it not so, sister?" 
 
 " That is true, the ancient House of Dawns. It is true 
 also, if you are friend to Ivava, I am as sister." 
 
 Then I knew! It was the weeping woman by the 
 grave in the willows of the south. 
 
 "But what is Ivava?" I asked, and at that she 
 smiled. 
 
 " Ivava is brother : friend you were named by Ivava. 
 So I am telling this ruler Matiwa. That makes you held 
 in this place, and in safety." 
 
 "And you?" 
 
 " Movi me, I grind grain on the trail to my own 
 people." 
 
 Joy and sorrow have I known since that day below 
 the strange worship place of the ancient years, but out 
 from them stand the moments there when I felt the 
 friendship of Tristan cast as a mantle of protection 
 around me even in this far village of red heathens. 
 
 Yet my heart was sick that it had not been in the 
 Indian camp of the canon Movi ground her grains. Her 
 good word might have served, and Sancha s garments 
 and Sancha s letters remained her own. 
 
 I thought much of the letters, for since they were
 
 224 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 hidden away it seemed wisely done as if her patron 
 saint had shown the way to take from her the emblem 
 of a false idol. 
 
 I asked the woman Movi where the horses had been 
 taken and what was meant by the " womans com 
 ing " of the rider. 
 
 " That I no can help," she said gently. " The wife of 
 Hotaku, son of Matiwa, was taken in strength by 
 Castilian men. She come home, she told, and she has 
 gone to Those Above! Now to pay must the white 
 woman come to Matiwa for his son, Hotaku. Thus it 
 is to be." 
 
 I set myself to explain. I made pleadings to her that 
 she take me to the chief and speak for me. All that was 
 possible I said, and all was of no use. 
 
 " You I could speak for Ivava is as son in the 
 heart of Matiwa, so you are fed and you are held sacred. 
 The woman I do not know, but Castilian people owe a 
 wife to the clan of Motiwa. They think their gods have 
 sent this woman for the wife it has been spoken." 
 
 I walked the plain below the great hill of the temple 
 and thought until my heart was sick with thoughts. 
 I looked in the wattled dwellings with horror at the 
 picture that might be. I knew in my soul she would 
 find a way to send her spirit to God ere the son of the 
 red chief claim her and this rude village of the cactus 
 land would thus see the end of the love trail. 
 
 In misery I fled from even my one friend and made 
 my way apart from the voices the chatter of women 
 and children, and all the sight of horrors to which they 
 doomed her our Sancha! My guard followed where 
 I walked, bow and lance as his armament. When I
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 225 
 
 reached the great stone terraces of the lone mountain, 
 he halted me, but in wildness to get above the human 
 things, I pointed upward, and after a moment of steady 
 regard, he nodded his head gravely. There was no 
 doubt that he remembered that I did respect to their 
 shrine near the pool, and without doubt he thought I 
 again craved place for special prayer. 
 
 As we climbed from terrace to terrace, and out on 
 the bastions of stone where the vultures rested, I could 
 have thought it a fortification but for singular weak 
 nesses. Once upon the strange work, each terrace the 
 height of a tall man, there was a temptation to go on 
 and on, for at last I was facing one of the great primi 
 tive records of the ancient people. The mere climbing of 
 this one made me understand why Tristan had ranged 
 far in the seeking of these things of old which were 
 mighty. 
 
 And on the summit was truly the remains of a temple 
 very ancient small wonder that the people of the 
 wattled huts, and the brush shelters, deemed that 
 House of the Dawn of an age with the stars. All the 
 stone had been square and huge, and the lines of pillars 
 held, I knew, some strange record or calculation. Was 
 it the dawn of the various ages of the peoples by whom 
 the land had been possessed, or the dawn of the living 
 sun itself? I was only a boy, but to my mind great 
 wings of mysteries of some Past seemed to hover over 
 the place like a brooding bird. It was a very strange 
 feeling which came to me as if I must stretch my 
 hands high in salute to Those Above! 
 
 It frightened me as a witchcraft would, and I made 
 the sign, and whispered a prayer. The Indio was watch-
 
 226 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 ing me, and at the sign of the cross he smiled, and led 
 me to the center of the lines of stone, and there he 
 pointed to a strange thing for a pagan place it was 
 the four arms of a cross in stones, one fitted close in 
 square blocks, and now worn by the storms of centuries 
 to rounded edges. East and west, north and south the 
 arms reached, and where they joined there was a bowl- 
 like depression blackened by burnings of gums or 
 incense. 
 
 I would have given much to question the man, but 
 could only point to the east and appear to understand. 
 He pointed to the north, and the sky, and smiled as 
 if he would ask if I understood that also which of 
 course I did not, except for the pagan records made 
 by Tristan of the great significance to Indians of the 
 stars of the north. 
 
 It was easy to understand how vast this work, and 
 the thought it held, must seem to the smaller village 
 people of smaller lives. To me it was a cathedral of 
 the sky, and about our feet lay the broken slabs with 
 which it had been walled. Only a few of the upright 
 pillars had the coping left to show where and how they 
 had been placed ; these were the fragments giving so 
 strange a line along the sky as seen from below. 
 
 I gazed down from the height, and to my mind came 
 remembrance that a House of the Dawn was also a 
 house of refuge, and wild hopes came that by some 
 plan, as yet formless, sanctuary might be found there 
 for Sancha, and if Movi could somewhere reach 
 Tristan ! 
 
 I went down from that place with a light of comfort 
 in my heart; at least a hope had come and wild plans
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 227 
 
 were made by me in the days to follow, each move of 
 the people being noted by me. To the old chief, Matiwa, 
 I made attempt to be little less than a lackey, so eager 
 was I to show affection and be claimed, like Tristan, as 
 friend or son. My righteous endeavors, however, did 
 not meet with the success I could have wished. He 
 did smile upon me at times, but there was a grimness 
 to it, and without Movi the village below the great 
 altar would have been a friendless place. 
 
 Not that she showed her friendliness in words after 
 that first day ; there seemed a decorum to be observed 
 by a stranger woman who ground meal to earn her way 
 on the trail, and the records left by some ranging Cas- 
 tilians did not place our superior race above reproach. 
 
 But by reverence to their holy things when I could 
 divine them I was at least deemed harmless to range 
 abroad as might a straying puppy, yet ever followed 
 after by my amiable guide. Thus, each day I was 
 allowed to ascend to the place of ancient prayer and 
 gaze southward, the way Movi said she would come. 
 I never met any of the heathen on the summit, though 
 I did note the coming down of youths at sunrise, and 
 occasionally even the boy children in the care of 
 Matiwa, thus I knew they kept alive some cult on the 
 height even though they did nothing to protect the 
 crumbling ruins. 
 
 "Why not?" I asked Movi. "Is it not the hon 
 ored work of their fathers? " 
 
 "Who knows?" returned the little brown woman. 
 " When a well is dug four times the measure of a man 
 in this place, those who dig bring up cups and broken 
 bowls of most ancient days. The land is an old land,
 
 228 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 but these village people have record of their coming 
 from the great water of the sunset, and who knows 
 the record of the buried ancient people or the high 
 altar builders? " 
 
 After the first visit, I but climbed the terraced height 
 to gaze southward where Sancha was already riding 
 toward me. I thought of her journeying unaware past 
 the shrine where the letters were hidden, and I cursed 
 the fatal trail on which those mad letters had led her. 
 It was one mistake in which Tristan had been a boy 
 at heart, and a foolish one. 
 
 The fourth day the joy was mine, for away in the 
 distance two moving dots were discerned coming 
 slowly through the tall columns of the giant cactus. 
 The pagan shrine was truly as a place of light after 
 darkness at that sight, and the tears were in my eye 
 as I leaped down terrace after terrace, to greet her as 
 she came. 
 
 But my guard was alert as I. His warning call sum 
 moned his fellows who circled me as in a trap ! My 
 freedom was gone, and I was hedged in a hut with 
 bonds about me, and could only peer out as she passed 
 to the house of Matiwa a weary drooping figure in 
 grass cloth mattings, and bare arms burnt in the sun. 
 
 Again Movi was called upon, and the older people 
 of the clan of Matiwa were sent for. It was plainly 
 a thing for council, and Sancha was given place in the 
 ramada of his house where all might look upon her 
 poor proud little marquesa whose wealth had dwindled 
 to her smock and torn shoes! It was evident that 
 other wearers had used the shoes, slitting them for 
 comfort, and as failures they had been given back to her.
 
 RIDING THE TRAILALONE 229 
 
 She looked at none of them, her gaze was over their 
 heads wide eyed, listening ! I felt she was hoping 
 and was not daunted; for weary though she was, her 
 head tilted in arrogance. I could smile at that, even 
 while my tears fell, for her Saint of the Impossible had 
 surely held her unbroken of spirit. 
 
 I could hear the words of Movi, who asked her the 
 questions ordered, and told her she was chosen by the 
 chief, and would be married into their clans. Sancha 
 stared at her and shook her head. 
 
 " Tell your chief I am already chosen and already 
 promised to a man who would sweep to death every 
 village of your people if hands touch me." 
 
 Movi spoke a word of warning. 
 
 " If I tell them you belong to a man, that will please 
 them best, for it was a young wife taken from the 
 son of the chief by the Castilian men." 
 
 " Tell them my man will come like a wide fire and 
 leave only ashes here." 
 
 Movi repeated this threat, and Matiwa smiled grimly 
 as he looked on her. 
 
 " But once can we all die," he said. " The white 
 strangers take our maids and our wives until now we 
 tell them we will only trade. So it is. This time we 
 trade. When Hotaku, my son, comes from battle to 
 claim his new woman, I send the white boy to Mexico. 
 He can take the word to Christian men. It will teach 
 them the thing they some day must learn. Always they 
 have taken, now we take ! " 
 
 Word for word Movi spoke the words to Sancha, 
 and her face became white. She was to be used by the 
 pagans to teach the wandering Castilians a lesson their
 
 230 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 own religion should teach them. But in all her horror, 
 she caught at the one threat. 
 
 " The white boy? And where is there a white boy? " 
 she asked as if in unbelief, but I knew her heart was 
 trembling. 
 
 " I am here, Sancha ! here in bonds," I called to her. 
 " Be brave, for love of God until he comes Tristan! " 
 
 She called to me gladly though I was out of her sight, 
 and at sound of the name " Tristan," Movi spoke lowly 
 to the chief, and they had quiet talk. Then question 
 was again put to Sancha. 
 
 "Know you him the Castilian Tristan?" 
 
 " Say yes ! Say yes, Sancha," I begged, but she looked 
 at them coldly. 
 
 " Who is he Tristan? " she asked, " and how should 
 I know him? If it is the man who has taken their 
 woman, why should I lie for him?" 
 
 " Sancha ! it is a man they hold in honor, a man whom, 
 for some reason, they honor more in these wilds than 
 the viceroy. Sancha, it is only a name have wisdom 
 and say yes for safety." 
 
 But Movi answered me. 
 
 " Not thus must Ivava be used," she said. " The 
 maid does not know him, and does not lie, and that is 
 best." 
 
 " Ask the chief to set me free to speak," I pleaded, 
 and after some words with my guard and companion, it 
 was done. Sancha rose to her feet and held out her 
 hands, but men stepped between when I would have 
 clasped her. 
 
 " You do not understand," I said to Movi, " she is of 
 my house. If freedom is given me because of Ivava, I
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 231 
 
 claim freedom also for her because she is of my own 
 blood." 
 
 Matiwa smiled when I spoke, and turned to Movi. 
 
 " Ask the white woman if this is the man to whom 
 she belongs, he who would sweep us into the sleep of 
 death." 
 
 Poor Sancha tried to be loyal, but knew I was all too 
 much of a boy to threaten tribes with. 
 
 " I do belong to him as to a brother," she confessed, 
 " but he is not the man I meant." 
 
 I could have groaned at that, for what difference 
 would a brother mean to those stolid red devils bent on 
 their own revenges? 
 
 " Then," said Matiwa, " must she rest content and 
 wait Hotaku, my son, and if the other man comes 
 for his woman, he had best come before that time." 
 
 A sentinel from the terraces sent a call, and at once 
 there was excitement and scurrying of feet. The name 
 of Hotaku was spoken. I looked at Sancha, but Indian 
 names meant nothing to her. I looked at the Indians 
 who had knives, and measured distances, and thought 
 of how I could get a blade and use it for my hands 
 were no longer bound and all minds were on the coming 
 of the son of Matiwa. 
 
 Then I heard another name, and Movi looked at me 
 and nodded her head and smiled. I was dazed with 
 the suddenness of all things after the still days of wait 
 ing. The sense of what she meant did not come to me 
 until I saw a horse and a wounded Indian sagging in 
 a saddle. The horse was that of Tristan, and my heart 
 sank, while my eyes weni again to a knife in an Indian 
 girdle.
 
 232 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Not until the horse was halted did I see that Tristan, 
 who looked like the dead, walked beside and held the 
 Indio in the saddle. 
 
 Sancha gave one look one choking cry, and dropped 
 her head on her breast her hair covering her face, 
 and her tattered and slashed shoes were drawn under 
 the manta of grass matting. 
 
 " Water for God s love ! " muttered Tristan, but 
 Movi already had it in a gourd. He drank it with closed 
 eyes, and dropped where he stood. The others carried 
 Hotaku into the house of Matiwa, and Movi helped me 
 bathe the face of Tristan, and the hands, and she 
 brought broth of a rabbit, and a little at a time he 
 swallowed it, and finally looked at us with bloodshot, 
 yet seeing, eyes. 
 
 " Juanito," he said at last. " I have come. Where 
 is she? " 
 
 No one answered, and she who covered herself with 
 her hair seemed to sink more low on the trodden earth 
 under the ramada. 
 
 " Alive, and unharmed," was all I dared say. 
 " Rest you now till we learn how this has come about 
 you are starving ! " 
 
 " For water water," he assented. " Searching, I 
 found my friend wounded, we made the start home for 
 help in the search, and, you see! He was mad with 
 fever and striving for a hidden spring he knew. I 
 fought him, took his arms, and made him ride. He is 
 dying, I think, but he sees his father, and he is my 
 friend." 
 
 Matiwa came out, and took his hand, his face was 
 sad, and Movi spoke for him.
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 233 
 
 " Ivava," he said, " come, speak to Hotaku as you 
 know. He calls for his wife. Tell him there is a new 
 wife, white and young. Make him hear. You have 
 kept life in him, now give him strength." 
 
 Tristan stared at him, and arose, staggering, striv 
 ing against weakness. 
 
 " A new wife, white and young ! " he repeated. 
 
 Matiwa pointed to me, and Movi again spoke. 
 
 " This boy would claim her, but the maid is for my 
 son, tell him you he listens for your voice." 
 
 " The maid the white maid is for your son, 
 Matiwa?" said Tristan very quietly "and what 
 am I?" 
 
 " You are Ivava you are also son, and you are 
 brother," said the old man, " and you bring back to his 
 mother our youngest born." 
 
 "And what may I ask of your clan?" 
 
 " All things we may grant to a friend." 
 
 " Then take me to the maid whom my younger brother 
 has asked of you. Of her have I come in search. Of 
 your clan I ask only the maid." 
 
 " She is yours? " And the eyes of Matiwa were narrow 
 and keen. 
 
 " She is mine," said Tristan and looked at him 
 squarely. " Your son, who is going to God, was to 
 help in search for her she is mine." 
 
 " Yet she calls not out to you in gladness," said the old 
 man with grimness, " and your own eyes do not know 
 her though she sits at your feet." 
 
 Tristan stared at him and at me, but I dared not 
 speak though I saw the wary eyes of Matiwa who 
 thought it all white trickery. Then Tristan looked on
 
 234 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 the crouched figure hidden under black hair and the 
 manta of grass cloth, and his cry was as if his heart 
 had been struck. 
 
 He moved toward her with outreaching hands, then 
 halted aware of Matiwa s suspicion, and turned to 
 his horse. There, tied to the saddle, was rolled a blanket, 
 and the extra robe given him by Salvadore Serri that 
 first day. 
 
 Quickly he unfastened it, and I could see the great 
 beads of water on his brow. He was weak from starva 
 tion, and desperate, and the sight of her thus turned 
 him chalk white. 
 
 He shook the robe loose from the rawhide straps. 
 
 " Arise, Dona de Llorente y Rivera," he said, and 
 his voice was shaking, though his words were cold, and 
 she arose and stood, her eyes on the ground, and he 
 cast about her the robe, and took the brown rosary, with 
 its scattered turquoise and shell beads, and put it 
 around her neck. 
 
 " She is mine to claim before the clans, Matiwa," 
 he said. " By the beads of your friend Fernan, you 
 see that she is sacred." 
 
 " I see it, and my heart is troubled that she was 
 shamed by our people, but it is a time of war. No 
 man shall claim her but you, and my son will be glad." 
 
 " He will be glad," assented Tristan, and then to 
 Movi he said, " little sister, take my lady where she 
 will have rest and comfort. My eyes are glad to look 
 upon you here." 
 
 And Movi touched the hand of Sancha who turned 
 and followed her. Not once had she lifted her head 
 or looked at him.
 
 RIDING THE TRAIL ALONE 235 
 
 " Watch over her, Juanito," he said haltingly, " let her 
 not feel shame." 
 
 And then he sank as if to pray, but from his knees 
 fell prone upon the ground. His last strength had been 
 given, but he had come in time.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 
 
 SANCHA wept when alone, and was curiously 
 silent, asking few questions. Of that I was glad 
 enough, for in his delirium of the night I heard 
 strange things memories of old days in Spain, 
 secret things of forbidden books, and names I dared 
 not whisper even though all those desert leagues from 
 the Holy Brotherhood a word here and there of his 
 escape in the night time Fray Bernardino, and an 
 open gate a saddled horse his own saddle! 
 
 All this, and then the search for trail of the Haquis 
 and white Virgo! The mumblings of thirst, and 
 the records of stars jumbled together. I listened to it 
 through the night hours while herb brews were made 
 and poured down him; also dried blossoms were burnt 
 as incense, of which I half strangled. Yet the pagan 
 cures did have power, for the fever abated, and in 
 early morning he slept. 
 
 But the son of Matiwa went to his gods in the night, 
 and I strove to find excuse to lead Sancha apart from 
 the village ere the ceremonies of death add horror to 
 her mind. 
 
 I found her fresh bathed, her hair smoothed by a 
 broom of grasses, and clothed from throat to feet in 
 
 236
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 237 
 
 the consecrated robe; but while there was sanctity in 
 her garb, there was little hint of it in her expression. 
 
 " Tell this woman she lies," she said, pointing to 
 poor Movi, who was much impressed by all the hap 
 penings. 
 
 " Come away, Sancha, that we may talk alone," I 
 begged ; " there are great reasons. You have lately 
 escaped one danger, are you eager for more? " 
 
 She did not answer, but followed me out across the 
 level until we were in the shadow of the hill. I noted 
 that Movi looked after us strangely. She thought I 
 was stealing the property of Tristan while he slept ! 
 
 " Now tell me where no one hears," I suggested, but 
 her mood had changed. 
 
 " She is but a foolish savage," she confessed, " and I 
 should not heed her words, but she thought the giving 
 of this cloak was a marriage gift! Does your friend 
 sleep?" 
 
 " Sancha Sancha ! " I said, and looked at her. She 
 stared back at me with haughtiness for an instant, and 
 then her tears fell, and she turned away, fairly running 
 until she reached the terraced hill. 
 
 " Go you back and leave me," she said weeping. 
 " You mean that he is my friend most, and that I O 
 Juanito, how is the debt to be paid? What can one 
 do for a man like that?" 
 
 " Is it that you fear to own the greatness of the debt? " 
 I asked, but she shook her head. 
 
 " I do not know what I fear it is like a witchcraft, 
 for Juanito, I tell you truly, I knew he was coming ! " 
 
 " You knew ! " I felt myself go cold at that. 
 
 " Night and day / nen>. I seemed to hear the sound
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 of his horse even in my dreams. I thought of you, also 
 I wished with all my heart and prayers for Marco ; 
 yet it was neither of you, but always the steps of that 
 man I heard. And when he staggered in from the 
 trail, I was not even surprised. It was as if I had 
 been waiting a thousand years until he found me there 
 
 half naked and ashamed." 
 
 I said nothing, but sat down, my head in my hands, 
 while she paced back and forth restless, in the fresh 
 dawn of her new day of freedom. 
 
 " It is very strange," she said, " and this extra robe 
 
 it is as if he too had been waiting this time." 
 
 Some men came down the terraces and passed us. I 
 could see their minds were of their prayer, and made 
 no salute, she turned to look. 
 
 " What do they? " she asked, and I pointed upwards. 
 
 " They go for prayer in the ancient place of refuge," 
 I said. " It is their high House of the Dawn." 
 
 She gave a low cry and stared at me. 
 
 "Are all things coming at once?" she asked; "the 
 things of witchcraft, and the shrines of which his letters 
 spoke? O Juanito, my heart was in the letters and 
 his and they are gone and have changed all things 
 
 the letters the letters ! " 
 
 I strove to comfort her with the thought of her safety 
 and her freedom, but she shook her head. 
 
 " All is changed, Juanito. This girl in the monk s 
 robe is not the Sancha who rode with you under the 
 palms out of Mexico. The letters were as the touch 
 of his hand they led me on! They are gone, and it 
 is as if the end of a trail had been reached. It is most 
 strange ! "
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 239 
 
 Then, after a little she said, pointing upward, " I 
 want to go there, I want to find such House of the 
 Dawn as the letters told me of." 
 
 But I urged that she wait another time. I strove to 
 keep near enough to Tristan for service if need be. 
 
 " What is it that woman calls him Senor Alca- 
 traz? " she asked, and I told her Ivava meant " brother " 
 in Movi s language, and it was all they called him. 
 
 " And Tristan who is that? " 
 
 " I have heard that a man of that name journeyed 
 these parts with a priest for whom they had much love. 
 It may be they confuse the names," I answered. And 
 already her thoughts were afar, and she was easily sat 
 isfied, which was well for me. 
 
 " Is there anything I might do for him your 
 Ivava? " she asked, and I thought that when he wakened 
 he might need to be assured by her own words of her 
 safety. 
 
 So, after the dead body of the Indio had been car 
 ried out, I led her to the rude shelter, and Tristan 
 opened his eyes to find her there, trembling and staring 
 at his thin cheeks. 
 
 " I owe you much Senor I scarce know how to 
 speak of it," she said ; " words are not much but if 
 I may serve you " 
 
 He smiled at that wanly enough. 
 
 " There is no need of words, Excellencia, I regret I 
 have no fitting seat to offer or " 
 
 " Cease, I beg you ! My own pride has brought 
 shame to me and has brought you to this ! " 
 
 " It is a weakness, no more," he answered her ; " we 
 lost the way of the water and the days without food
 
 24 o THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 yet the lack of water was worst. But you are safe 
 and perhaps you will not again disdain the beads I 
 begged you wear? " 
 
 " Never," she said, " never." 
 
 The next day he was up from the couch, and eating 
 the food or broths Movi was ever intent upon. Sancha 
 was courteous, but ill at ease in his presence ; a strange 
 and new thing for her. She would wander away rest 
 lessly towards the terraces, or gather strange desert 
 blooms to learn their names and uses. 
 
 Thus he noted the wretched slashed footgear under 
 her robe, and sent Movi for rawhide, at which Movi 
 laughed aloud even while she complied, and her smiles 
 were ever apparent as she watched him cut the leather 
 with his knife and fashion small boots of deer skin with 
 rawhide soles, and all sewn with the glistening sinew 
 of the deer. 
 
 To me Movi laughed. 
 
 " It is true," she said. " His lady makes me silent 
 when I say he is her man but you see ! Each man 
 of our people makes the boot for his own woman; no 
 other man must do and you see." 
 
 He gave them to me when finished that I might get 
 them to her, and then he proceeded to mend his worn 
 raiment, and take note that the horses were getting 
 rest and food for the trail. 
 
 No word had been said of it, for I waited his strength 
 ere bringing forward new questions, but a trader from 
 the north a Pima man came in with turquoise and 
 blankets, and told of trouble with the Apaches, and 
 of the Castilian colonists who had gone to Santa Fe, 
 and of a white woman they had left for dead with the
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 241 
 
 Pimas, but who was still alive. The Pima medicine had 
 more of virtue than the white magic of the Castilians. 
 
 " Anita ! " said Tristan, and the Piman thought that 
 was like her name. 
 
 " In another day we will go," said Tristan turning 
 to me. " Another day of rest and water for the horses 
 and we can take the trail my poor little Anita ! " 
 
 I did not know that Sancha had walked close and 
 halted in the shadow when she heard an Indian talking 
 with us, but when I went to look at the horses I met 
 her there, and her look was strange. 
 
 " Where do you go? " she asked, and I pointed where 
 the horses grazed. 
 
 " Where is the trail you go ? " she persisted " the 
 trail for his Anita?" 
 
 " I think he goes north," I said. 
 
 " I do not ! " she decided. " To Kavorka we started, 
 and there I will go ! " 
 
 " Sancha ! " I begged, but she walked away. 
 
 " I learn now why he was sleepless on the trail 
 and why we were made ride in the night it was for 
 a woman ! " she said. 
 
 " It was indeed, Sancha," I answered, " he went 
 sleepless to guard a woman who disdained the sacri 
 fice." 
 
 She halted at that as. though to question me, but I 
 gave her no chance. Later I told Tristan Sancha had 
 set her mind on Kavorka. 
 
 "With the Haquis thick between?" he said. "I 
 could find no guard strong enough for that trail these 
 days. She goes with us." 
 
 " But she has set her mind," I ventured doubt-
 
 242 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 fully, whereat he laughed with a grimness in which there 
 was yet sorrow. 
 
 " And her mind has, until now, been the rule for all 
 who came near her," he conceded, " therefore will her 
 dislike of me be even greater that I am the first to 
 change that. She goes with us, and I go north." 
 
 "To find Anita?" 
 
 " Ay : and to find the man who cast her off among 
 savages ! " and he looked a savage himself as he said 
 it though his voice did not reach beyond the ramada. 
 
 "But Sancha?" and my soul was full of fear be 
 tween the two tempers of fire. 
 
 " Tell her it is no more distance north where there 
 are white people and priests than it is back to Sinaloa ; 
 also, the southern trail is fenced now by fighting sav 
 ages, and in the north I am as with my own people, and 
 my people will guard my friends." 
 
 "And I am to be the one to tell her?" I grumbled 
 with no liking for the task. 
 
 "Why not? Will she not see him Marco 
 the sooner? " 
 
 That seemed a good reason, though his bitter smile 
 was not comforting, and in truth I found myself for 
 getting in those days that Marco was in the world. 
 I could even understand Sancha s word that she hoped 
 for him, prayed for him, yet ever heard the voice or step 
 of the other man in her dreams. 
 
 So I took to her the boots, and helped her with them 
 while Movi smiled at us. 
 
 " Now she Hopi womans," she said, " good Hopi 
 boots." 
 
 Sancha asked no questions, but put them on with
 
 
 =41 
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 243 
 
 our help, and Movi showed her the fastenings at the 
 knee. 
 
 " Good boot for trail much strong good mans," 
 approved Movi with her gentle smile, " good trail boot, 
 me too I go." 
 
 Sancha gave little heed to her comment, or its mean 
 ings, and I preferred to tell her when alone that we 
 were all to go north. 
 
 But when I did, she stared at me in disapproval and 
 walked away. Her disappointment in me was plain. 
 
 " But Sancha! " I argued, " what else is there to do? 
 He goes north, and this kind Hopi woman goes north. 
 What is there for you or for me alone in this village? 
 Also their fighting men are away fighting. If their 
 enemy is conqueror, who is to say what tribe may cover 
 the land? Six months may pass before Castilians go 
 the south trail; and even so, this village is not on the 
 trail." 
 
 " He will come Marco. He will find me," she 
 asserted defiantly. " You know he will come." 
 
 " It may happen," I agreed, " and he will find you 
 tied naked under some other tree, or dead in some other 
 canon." 
 
 She pointed to the ruins on the summit. 
 
 " I am going there," she said. " In the letters he told 
 me a House of Dawn was a house of refuge. This is 
 the first House of Dawn on my path and the angels 
 know my night has been dark ! " 
 
 " You must save your strength for the trail," I called 
 after her, but she set off across the little plain. 
 
 " You are with him, and against my wishes," she re 
 torted. " Everyone is with him, and I am forgotten."
 
 ^^v^a/c^^A^^v^U(^v^^^;v^^=^v^ 
 
 244 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 I could make little of that, for daytime and nighttime 
 our thoughts were for her good, yet I could do nought 
 but go back and tell him. 
 
 " And she has gone and alone ? " he asked. 
 
 " Gone she has to find a place of refuge from us," 
 I grinned. " This comes of your teachings. Her heart 
 is set on finding a sanctuary in which to wait for the 
 man who wrote the letters ! " 
 
 He arose, and took a stout stave for walking. 
 
 " It is the better place," he agreed. " I will go up." 
 
 I walked beside him, for I feared his weakness, and 
 we stood and looked as she climbed terrace after terrace 
 where the young vultures tried their wings. 
 
 " She is a child in humors, but she has braveness," 
 he said " look at the black wings above her, and she 
 does not once falter." 
 
 I thought it a strange hour to praise her bravery 
 when it was causing him a climb for which he 
 was none too fit. 
 
 " That height is not a trifle," I warned him, " it is 
 near a thousand spans, and your strength is not re 
 turned." 
 
 " The climb is good to test it," he returned " and 
 it may be we all need the high places of prayer in these 
 days. Strange things come to pass in lives. I never 
 thought to stand beside her at any House of the Dawn." 
 
 Beyond that we did not speak, for I could not well 
 follow his thought. What could he hope to gain in any 
 prayer place, when she fled there in angry mood? 
 
 And there we found her at the very edge of the flat 
 rock of the height, and between us was the ruin of 
 slabs and broken pillar.
 
 . " 1 i .-- l 
 
 iffi 
 
 Over her head she had drawn the cowl of the robe 
 when among the great birds. They were settling them 
 selves in their roosts because of the low sinking sun. 
 
 I halted there by the pillars, but he crossed the sum 
 mit, and his step was so light on the stone floor that 
 she did not know until he stood beside her. 
 
 " May your prayers in the place of dawn bring to 
 your heart happiness, Excellencia," he said, and so 
 startled was she that she made a step away, and would 
 have slipped at the edge but that his hand caught her. 
 
 " Your pardon for me ! " he said, as she stood steady, 
 and he drew his hand away. But she stared at him as if 
 more afraid of him than of the depths below. 
 
 " Are you in league with Indian enchanters ? " she 
 asked. "How knew you that I made prayers? and 
 have you hidden wings that you come to this place 
 without sound? " 
 
 " It is a place for prayer, and I know your spirit 
 though you strive to hide it from me, Excellencia. I 
 may not bring you the answer to the prayer, but it seems 
 a good place to speak with you, for in the village it is 
 not so easy." 
 
 " That is true," she agreed ; " down there I can only 
 see you as you entered staggering, and myself as I 
 was but how know you that it is hard to talk to 
 you before the people? You have helped me, but you 
 make me fear you the thought of you more than 
 the Indians can do, and that leaves me bewildered. 
 Who are you, Ivava Alcatraz?" 
 
 He did not reply to that at once, and I, beside the 
 pillar, held my breath and heard my heart thump 
 would he tell her?
 
 246 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " At least you have called me by the Indio word for 
 brother, and that is much when two people share a trail, 
 and it is also gracious of you, Excellencia. But my 
 name should be written Kahn Alcatraz for Kahn 
 was the name of my mother." 
 
 " It is a strange name," she mused. " Kahn ! Is it 
 Indio?" 
 
 " No, even though Indians have the word, and the 
 meaning of the word, while it is lost in the older world." 
 
 " There," she said suddenly, " it is the things like 
 that which seem enchantment. You are not old, yet 
 you know the things of old, and you walk into a tribe 
 and change their rules, until it seems they too fear you, 
 Is it wonder I deem it strange? " 
 
 " If affairs seem strange to unpleasantness on the 
 trail, ask and I will change what I can," he said. 
 
 " Then you will turn back with me? " and there was 
 gladness in her voice, " to Kavorka if not to Sinaloa, 
 you have come to tell me this? " 
 
 " I have come to tell you, Excellencia, that we start 
 north at dawn, and that the next white faces you may 
 see will be at Santa Fe in New Granada." 
 
 " But I told Juanito " 
 
 " Yes, you did, but this is a trail Juanito cannot 
 make plans for. You gave no reason, Excellencia, 
 and " 
 
 " How dared I give the true reason? and why now 
 do you call me excellencia in that tone?" she de 
 manded. " Is it in mockery? " 
 
 "Mockery of you?" he said, but she was blazing 
 in quick anger, and the tone of his voice meant nothing. 
 
 " You have shamed me more than the garb of grass,"
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 247 
 
 she persisted. " You came to my rescue, but made me 
 a laughing stock. You tell these savages that I belong 
 to you, and now you would drag me north on your 
 trail because of some woman you were seeking when 
 you crossed our path. Well, I will not go ! This I did 
 not tell Juanito, else there would be a day of reckoning 
 for you, and " 
 
 " Would you try, even in your anger, to save me 
 that day of reckoning?" he asked. 
 
 " I must remember you did me service : that I must 
 remember, even though you did tell them you owned 
 me, as if I, a Llorente y Rivera, were but a chattel." 
 
 At that I stumbled forward, and found my tongue. 
 
 " Sancha, Sancha! " I said, " if he is exiled from your 
 friendship for that, I too must go, for I did likewise ! " 
 
 They both stared at me as if I was the Father of 
 Lies. 
 
 " Ay, did I ! but with no effect, you, Sancha, know 
 that is true. Did I anger you when I told them you 
 were mine, of my family? Should I show anger that he 
 called me his brother and saved me? Arid you 
 your life he has given back, and from your head to the 
 tip of your toe he has clothed you, and " 
 
 " No ! " she broke in sharply, " you yourself " 
 
 " I, myself! " I mocked. " What could I do here but 
 by his grace? Sancha, you foster a pride that is against 
 all reason. This is not your life of ceremony in palaces, 
 it is the Brotherhood of the Desert where men and 
 women strive for life together, or loyal death together ; 
 are you above that brotherhood?" 
 
 " Boy ! " he said, and put his hand on my arm look 
 ing at me curiously. I do not know what I appeared
 
 248 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 to them, but her face flushed red and went white again 
 as she stared at me, and I was shaking as I Bung aside 
 his hand. 
 
 " I am no longer a boy she will make old men of 
 both of us on one summer s journey," I persisted. 
 " Even now she does not measure aright your sacrifices, 
 and pou will never speak ! " 
 
 " There is nothing to say," he stated looking at me 
 with a sternness as if in fear I would lose my wits 
 utterly, and blunder further. 
 
 " There is something to say ! " she retorted. " Am I 
 a fool that I do not know it, and feel it? The very air 
 is full of the unspoken ; it weighs me down it makes 
 me afraid. It may be Juanito is right that it makes me 
 also unjust. But it is not pride, Juanito, it is the fear 
 of some unknown thing. Even my dreams make me 
 fear! I come up here above the earth to the House of 
 the Dawn yet the dawn I do not find." 
 
 " It is in your heart you must find the dawn, else 
 a false dawn may bring its deceptions, Excellencia," 
 he said, and I wondered at the steadiness of his voice, 
 for his eyes were devouring the proud loveliness of her 
 face. 
 
 " If it is so, it will be for the reason that neither you 
 nor Juanito give me confidences. You make plans as if 
 for a child ; you keep secrets, and your thoughts are all 
 for some one else some woman on that north trail." 
 
 " If you see her, Excellencia, you perhaps will not 
 have wonder at that," he said gently, " and some day 
 you will forgive Juanito and me any harmless secrets 
 we may have." 
 
 " I do not think I will see her. I do not think I will
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 249 
 
 go," she said pettishly. " Why should I travel deeper 
 into a desert where there is no comfort ? " 
 
 " Have you forgotten so quickly the man you crossed 
 the sea to find?" I asked with brutal curtness, at least 
 I was rougher than I meant to be, for she turned away, 
 and her hands went to her face and she wept despair 
 ingly. I strove to make excuse, to comfort her, but 
 she waved me away. 
 
 " Go, both of you ! " she said. " You are only men, 
 and you are without heart, and go north I will not ; why 
 should I?" 
 
 " Because you are mine to save, and I can only 
 save you by claiming you, and taking you with me," 
 he said steadily. " Never fancy it is a journey of 
 pleasure I am planning for any of us." 
 
 At that she ceased weeping, and turned to me. 
 
 " Since it is made so plain that it is no pleasure to 
 take me, I may at least be excused from gratitude," 
 she remarked coldly. " I am only carried as extra 
 baggage for which there is no safe warehouse ! " 
 
 He made no reply, but his eyes held all of sadness 
 as he watched her walk back to the worn trail. Silent 
 he stood there against the darkling sky, for the blue 
 haze was covering the mesas of the east. In his still 
 ness he looked akin to a detached pillar of the ancient 
 altar. A ray of the afterglow illumined all with a 
 strange golden green light for an instant, and Sancha 
 caught my hand. 
 
 " He looks as if he had stood there from the begin 
 ning of the world," she whispered, " and waiting wait 
 ing for what? He is like no other man on earth." Then 
 after a little she continued. " My first hour at a shrine
 
 250 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 of the dawn is not what I prayed for, but that man ; 
 Juanito, he makes all things fit his own plans, even 
 prayers ! " 
 
 Between the two of them, I was past asking ques 
 tions of her meaning, and I got her safely down the 
 terraces as the dusk came, but the stars were out before 
 he followed. 
 
 My sleep was over light because of my doubts of her 
 going in willingness, yet she came out of the hut at the 
 first call of the white dawn, and looked like a most 
 lovely martyr sacrificed to our selfishness. 
 
 We had our three rested horses, and a burro brought 
 from the hills for Movi, who plainly said she would 
 prefer to walk. Sancha listened to the argument which 
 ended in the obedience of the Indian girl, and then 
 in proud silence she mounted her own animal, and said 
 her farewells to the old chief and those who had shown 
 good intent. 
 
 " It is a new thing for one of our family to leave 
 a poor village no richer for a visit, Juanito," she said 
 with a sort of self pity. " We seem to have fallen into 
 mean estate in the new land." 
 
 Beyond that she favored me with few words, as if to 
 punish me for what she deemed adherence to his cause. 
 She showed her disapproval of us both by riding beside 
 Movi, and that little person was vastly flattered, dis 
 coursing, on request, concerning her own wonderful 
 home of the northern desert, and her eagerness to return 
 to the ancient land of Tusayan. 
 
 We were well supplied with all the outfittings of an 
 Indian camp ground meal, parched maize, and dried 
 deer meat and with an archer s bow for myself and
 
 .. .,^**ui*+^***i*^*Ki*m*im****mr*+**~mM*+*M********i^^ 
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 251 
 
 the arquebus of Tristan, we were fairly provided for 
 defense. For the first day we followed the river to 
 the north and east and reached a peaceful village where 
 we rested for the night, and an Indio guide kept us 
 company for two days longer, trotting beside the horse 
 of Tristan as if the leagues were but a holiday run 
 over the desert, where, to my untaught eyes, there was 
 no sign of a road. At need we made long days to find 
 the best water places, and passed from the desert bloom 
 and giant cactus into valleys where the palo fierro and 
 aliso trees were things of beauty, and the desert willow 
 gave its yellow bloom. 
 
 At the temper ales the summer ranches by the fields 
 and water holes the friendly Indians showed us 
 courtesies in their own way; offerings of mescal roots 
 and sahauro wine were brought, also fresh killed ante 
 lope, and brown beans cooked in vessels of burned clay. 
 All these became things of enjoyment to Sancha until 
 she seemed ashamed of idle hands, and had much amuse 
 ment in being taught the ways of primitive women, 
 until at one place of rest she strove to form a vessel 
 of clay, and was sweet tempered again, and laughed with 
 me when I showed her its crooked side. 
 
 There were hours when she became gay over trifles, 
 and wreathed flowers and vines to wear as shade from 
 the sun, and then there were long moments when she 
 watched Tristan in converse with Indian friends, as if 
 in silent query as to the secret of his influence, and 
 to me she called him " Your Senor Ivava." 
 
 Once he heard this, and smiled. 
 
 " It is honor, Excellencia, to be given as brother even 
 to your kinsman," he said.
 
 252 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Without kindred to the others of the family ! " she 
 retorted, mockingly. " Juanito, you alone are adopted. 
 You can expect an Indian naming and baptizing when 
 we find leisure and find water enough! Movi tells 
 me the baptism of her people is a headwashing in a 
 bowl of foam. Have you shared that pagan rite, Senor 
 Don Kahn Alcatraz?" 
 
 " It was my good fortune," he assented, " else Movi 
 here could not call me brother." 
 
 Thus with quiet courtesy he met either her mockery 
 or her silence, but she regarded him curiously when he 
 said that. 
 
 " And you did not fear it as a pagan enchanting 
 by which your soul would be dangered? " she asked. 
 
 " If ever chance should take you to that people of 
 peace whose very religion is against angry thoughts 
 in the heart, you would know their simple ceremony of 
 baptism could work no ill," he made answer. 
 
 " Would the officers of the Holy Brotherhood agree 
 with you in that? " she asked. 
 
 " I shall not return on the trail to make inquiry," he 
 answered. " None of the officers have ever seen the 
 peaceful lives of the Hopi people." 
 
 " Yet, as a good Christian, you must know there can 
 be but one baptism," she persisted; and at this speech 
 of religions and the Holy Office there came back to me 
 the dread for him, and I begged them to consider more 
 cheerful things than religion, since we were such weary 
 leagues from even a chapel. 
 
 " Talk not of chapels either, Juanito," she said. " I 
 would I had waited back there by the chapel with my 
 dreams."
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 
 
 She walked away from us, and sat alone under a 
 mesquite until the saddles were on, and when I went 
 for her there were tears in her eyes, and she pointed 
 to a white butterfly drifting over low creeping desert 
 blooms. 
 
 " He called me that in the letters and I have lost 
 the letters," she said. " He painted that dream picture 
 of me in the chapel, and I have wandered into the 
 deserts away from the chapel. Juanito, that is not all, 
 
 that place of the House of the Dawn had witchcraft 
 r 
 
 I know it ! I have never been the same in my dreams 
 since that time, and yes, I was weeping because of 
 it! for never once have I thought of Marco until that 
 butterfly comes and will not go away. I am frightened 
 at myself to whom I am a stranger, and my thoughts 
 
 are of new and different things. What but a witchcraft 
 
 
 
 could make that, Juanito? " 
 
 " Come, he is waiting," I said, and at that she 
 laughed. 
 
 " Come, he is waiting ! " she mocked. " All things 
 in the Desert begin and end with him! You also only 
 echo what he thinks. We are dragged along on this 
 trail to some woman whom he seeks, but never makes 
 discourse of. There is some wrong thing covered in 
 all this, Juanito. Why should a white woman remain 
 with others than her own kind?" 
 
 I did not answer, and she caught my hand. 
 
 " Is it that he loves her? " she asked watching the 
 still face of Tristan. 
 
 " I think it is so or has been so," I answered truly, 
 " for at the last camp he had word that she is on the 
 way to death, and as you see, he is a troubled man."
 
 r 
 
 254 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " I see," she said softly, " death must be a sad thing 
 where there is love, and love itself is sad enough." 
 
 I could not see how love could teach her sadness 
 since only the shadow love had come to her the mere 
 dream of a maid, and not the knowledge of truth. Also 
 I rode beside her with a strangely divided mind at 
 thought of love and the lessons of love ; for while, as 
 a Christian, I must pray for the life of poor Anita, I 
 found myself wishing that if the end was near, it might 
 come before we reached her abiding place at the north 
 village, Tuquison. 
 
 But this was not to be. Indians with horses came 
 out to meet us on the trail, for their heralds had seen us 
 afar, and after spoken words of friendliness for our 
 care, Tristan accepted a fresh horse and rode on alone 
 quickly. 
 
 Without word to either of us he went, and Sancha, 
 gazing after him, had a white face of dismay. It was 
 the first time he had ever ignored her presence, or left 
 without courtesy to her, and I tried to explain, but 
 she shook her head. 
 
 " You are good, Juanito, you think it is my pride 
 that is hurt, the pride of a Llorente y Rivera. How it 
 all dwindles and fades here in the great wilderness. 
 What is our rank worth here? Would the viceroy him 
 self have power like this stranger whose word saves 
 us, and whose hand clothes me? Juanito, when a debt 
 is heavy as this it weighs, it weighs ! And, cousin mine, 
 he flings us all this without thought, and rides to find 
 the other the woman who makes him sad." 
 
 It was the first time she had ever betrayed so much, 
 but I could see that despite her resentment, and moods
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 255 
 
 of mockery, she did not underrate his importance as 
 guardian in the wild places. She meant to be just, yet 
 the woman in her resented what she dared not disdain. 
 
 And into that village we rode as in state, for beside 
 us were his Indio friends with smiles and kind welcome, 
 and on Sancha in the monk s robe they looked with 
 wondering eyes, also one of the older men touched a 
 turquoise pendant on the rosary she wore, and pointed 
 to himself that we might know the jewel was his gift, 
 and that it was pledge of friendliness. 
 
 A dwelling was given us at the edge of the village, 
 and there water was brought, and food, but we saw 
 nothing of Tristan. Sancha asked no question, but 
 wandered, restless, about the village, or stood looking 
 north where the heat waves rippled upward, and the 
 candelabra of the giant cactus made dark lines against 
 the blue. When she returned, Movi had disappeared 
 sent for by Ivava, said the wife of the village chief. 
 
 Sancha looked at me half accusingly. 
 
 " You should have kept her until I came," she said. 
 "I I have been thinking about that and if the 
 woman is white " 
 
 " Sancha ! Sancha ! " I said, perceiving her struggle, 
 and knowing her pride. " The Brotherhood of the 
 Desert asks neither rank nor color when sickness comes, 
 or death comes." 
 
 " But it was Movi he asked, and not me," she per 
 sisted. 
 
 " Have you not thought that he also may have his 
 pride? " I asked. 
 
 She pondered this a moment, troubled, and pale under 
 all the tan of the sun.
 
 256 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " I have failed in all things," she said at last. " I 
 resented that woman because he explained nothing, yet 
 it was no fault of hers. You shall take me to her." 
 
 I scarce knew how to do so for Tristan had given me 
 neither word nor hint of his wishes. It was as if he 
 left for Fate to finish that which Fate had so strangely 
 begun. 
 
 With the wife of the chief as guide, we went out past 
 the gardens or little fields to a wattled hut and ramada; 
 beyond were the pools where women filled their woven 
 and waxed water vases. As we approached, Movi came 
 to meet us, and her face was very grave. 
 
 " Ivava goes for other water because she asks it," 
 she said. " Yes, it is far. He is knowing there is no 
 use yet she asks. Sometimes the mind is gone away, 
 and she called for many things but none of the 
 things can he bring but the water." 
 
 Even as she spoke, Tristan appeared beyond the 
 dwelling with a water vase of the desert, and in the 
 shadow of the ramada we saw him kneel, and lift up 
 to drink the woman lying there. 
 
 We had not seen her before so still she lay that it 
 looked like a mere heap of deer skins and a striped 
 blanket of Indio weave. Her face was very white and 
 her eyes had the strange glisten which comes before 
 the end. I had seen it with Don Rodrigo, and thus 
 I knew. 
 
 " Drink, Anita, dear little one," said Tristan in a 
 voice of tenderness Sancha had never heard. She caught 
 my hand, and I could feel her tremble. 
 
 " It is good," whispered Anita, haltingly, " you have 
 come far they call you here, Ivava Ivava, and that
 
 The Finding of Anita.
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 257 
 
 is dear to them ! You will not do him wrong? You will 
 not?" 
 
 " Comfort you, and sleep content, Anita mine," he 
 said lowly, for even as she spoke, her eyes closed, but 
 as he drew away his hand, she muttered, " Do not go. 
 Do not leave me, beloved. I will grow strong a little 
 rest, and I can ride beside you a little rest, beloved." 
 
 " She sleeps, Movi," said Tristan as he arose from be 
 side her, " guard her again until I come." 
 
 He turned away without even sight of Sancha and me 
 standing close beside the wattled hut. I would have 
 spoken, but her hand held me with a grip for silence, 
 and her eyes were fixed on the girl there, and a ring 
 on her hand. It held an emerald, and was the one 
 painted into that portrait so admired by Sancha as a 
 child. 
 
 " The ring of Marco ! " she whispered. " See you, 
 Juanito, it is the ring of Marco she wears! They 
 have killed Marco these savages he calls friends ! 
 it is the ring of Marco! " 
 
 It was, but I tried to lie out of it with some pretext 
 of a copy made of it or such reasonable thought 
 but it was a useless effort, for Anita opened her eyes 
 full on Sancha at the name of Marco. 
 
 "Is he come back Marco?" and her thin voice 
 was sharp with eagerness. " Was it you said his 
 name? Tell him for God s love tell him to come 
 quickly. But how is it? and who are you? and why " 
 
 Her voice trailed out in weakness, and I moved back 
 out of her range as Sancha went forward swiftly. 
 
 " I am Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera," she said. 
 " Who are you to wear that ring? "
 
 258 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " How wonderful you are as they said," mur 
 mured poor Anita, " yet he never gave love to you 
 never never! With me beside him he rode north, 
 and left Tristan to write you the letters Tristan, so 
 dear so good ! But Excellencia he never loved you 
 never never never ! " Then her eyes closed, and 
 she lay whispering " Marco Marco." 
 
 The face of Sancha was staring white. 
 
 "Who is she to say these things?" she demanded, 
 and put her hand on the shoulder of Anita as if to shake 
 her into senses again, but I stopped her. 
 
 " A poor soul who will soon be no more on earth, 
 Sancha," I said, " also she has loved much, and been 
 left behind, is not that enough?" 
 
 " No," she said, and flung off my hand. " No it 
 is not true not true of Marco not " then she 
 stopped and looked at me. 
 
 " The letters ! " she whispered, " did you hear? How 
 did this creature by the wayside know of letters to 
 me? And Tristan! who is Tristan?" 
 
 " Sancha dear come away ! " I begged of her. " You 
 might as well ask who is Juan, or Pedro, or Pablo. 
 Her mind is going, she uses names she does not know." 
 
 " She does know," she insisted coldly. " I heard that 
 name also in the village by the hill of the dawn yes, 
 I did! Not know? she knows too much of me and 
 mine to die not telling. Juanito, if you love me, take 
 yourself out of this matter. Awake girl arouse 
 and tell me! Who wrote the letters? " 
 
 Poor Anita, shocked into life again, lifted her head 
 and strove. 
 
 " Excellencia, he adored you always I think al-
 
 THE FINDING OF ANITA 259 
 
 ways! Marco did not know that no he did not 
 know." 
 
 " Tell me of the letters ! " 
 
 " It was a jest Excellencia. They tossed dice to 
 decide which man should write the letters to you, for 
 Marco had love for none but me, not Dona Perfecta 
 not you for me only Marco ! Marco ! " 
 
 She sank back with his name on her lips, and Sancha 
 knelt, trembling, looking down in the blue white face. 
 
 " It is a lie ! " she said. " It is all a lie ! " 
 
 But even as she spoke she fell limp, and when Movi 
 brought Tristan, he found me between a dead girl, and 
 one who looked like death.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 
 
 IT WAS the third time I had seen death on the long 
 trail the husband of Movi, the warrior Hotaku, 
 and now the poor little maid who had been all alight 
 with the sparkle of love when last I had seen her. 
 What I could, I did, to help Tristan, but his wish was 
 that I wait upon Sancha, and leave to him, and to Movi, 
 the last care of little Anita. 
 
 To Sancha I gave no sign that my eyes had ever be 
 fore looked upon the poor waif of love left by the way 
 side, but when told the grave was ready, she arose and 
 took my hand. 
 
 " Come, Juanito," she said, " she is to us a mystery of 
 the Desert. Yet you say there is brotherhood here 
 among men, why not also sisterhood? I think that she 
 was false, but that is between her own soul and God." 
 
 So she stood beside me, and looked in the placid face 
 of the dead girl, and her voice joined with that of 
 Tristan in the prayer for the dead, while the Indians, 
 sad faced, yet curious, ranged at either side and listened. 
 
 I felt as if in some strange dream as I watched the 
 white man and the maid at either side of that grave, 
 and heard their blended tones in prayer. It was the 
 unbelieveable thing which had happened it made the 
 way clear for Marco and happiness, if only chance could 
 
 260
 
 LflMJ LSriJlHJ 15 UlH 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 261 
 
 wipe the memory of the girl s words from the mind of 
 Sancha. But to me that grave seemed as the close 
 of a chapter in those lives. It was the two living 
 people who filled my thoughts, and not the poor child 
 on the bed of dry grasses in the shallow trench. 
 
 The hands of Anita were folded over her breast and 
 the ring was there. Sancha looked at it, and at me. 
 
 " That is well," she said, " for surely it meant much 
 to her. If it is duplicate, it is hers, and if it is the true 
 ring of Marco de Ordono, then he also is hers if alive, 
 and none of mine. But that I do not believe." 
 
 Tristan heard her, but said nothing and motioned 
 me to take her away as the crude hoes of the Indies 
 scraped the earth on top of the cover of dry grasses. 
 
 " He loved her so that he followed her far," said 
 Sancha, " yet he weeps not at her going. The love of 
 men is a curious thing." 
 
 " Yet if she loved not him, would a wise man mourn? " 
 I asked. 
 
 " She was fond, that we could overhear, and so was 
 he," she replied, and so strongly was she sure of his 
 love for the dead girl that it seemed a safe belief to 
 encourage her in. I was willing she should think all 
 things but the truth. 
 
 With some of his Indio friends, he ate the evening 
 meal, and came not to us until the sun had gone. The 
 Desert was sinking to rest in the blanket of misty blue 
 greens, and the mountains to the north were against the 
 sky in faint amethyst. Sancha had stood, as if fascinated 
 by the beauty of it while it changed through the many 
 tints of pink and purple, and then blended with the 
 dusky plain.
 
 262 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Tristan coming slowly towards us, noted her gaze 
 and turned to look. 
 
 " Forests and running streams are beyond there," he 
 remarked. " For a little journey we will see no desert." 
 
 " But from here we go back ! " she said. " I was 
 looking into the north as a land we will not cross." 
 
 " Cross it I must," he replied, " and in safety must 
 leave you with Governor Otermin of New Granada." 
 
 " The Governor of New Granada is a stranger to me," 
 she said, " and I feel no call to visit his province, my 
 wish is to free myself from this endless trail, and go 
 back to Sinaloa." 
 
 For a moment they faced each other in mute battle of 
 wills, then he smiled slightly. 
 
 " Excellencia, when you chose to ignore my rules of 
 march, and rode your horse out of reach of the guard, 
 you closed behind you the only gate to Sinaloa this 
 year. In October you may have chance with the con- 
 ducta of traders to go south from Sante Fe to El Paso, 
 and thence to Mexico, but first we must guard you safely 
 to Sante Fe. We are at the edge of the Apache lands 
 where only large cavalcades feel safe yet we must 
 find a way past them. Here you could not remain, the 
 water alone would kill you." 
 
 She looked at him with mutinous, unbelieving eyes. 
 
 " You have thought this out for my safety that it 
 may fit your own will," she said coldly. " I heard her 
 the girl who died beg you off from some plan 
 some vengeance perhaps, and it lies on that north trail, 
 she begged you to do him no wrong." 
 
 " But you heard no promise," he reminded her, " and 
 it will not be wrong I do, but right."
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 263 
 
 " Because she followed his trail, how was he to help 
 that?" she demanded, "and because she died on the 
 way ere he was found, you would follow for vengeance, 
 Kahn Alcatraz?" 
 
 He only looked at her, letting her think what she 
 would. 
 
 " If she gave him love instead of you, how can ven 
 geance alter that?" she persisted. "Love goes where 
 it will, it is not to be bound. Who appoints you judge? 
 As a Christian you will do the thing she, in dying, 
 asked of you and you will go back? " 
 
 " No, Excellencia," he said with a little sigh as he 
 looked southward where prison or the stake waited him, 
 " no, it is not so written. I shall not go back." 
 
 " And I must go north beside you whether I wish it 
 or no ? " she asked frowning. 
 
 " So it seems," he said quietly, " there is no other 
 v/ay. None of us wish it, Excellencia but the way 
 through the land of the Haquis is closed these days 
 there is no other way." 
 
 " Do you know that the man you go north to reckon 
 with is the man to whom I am betrothed? " she asked, 
 and he bowed as though receiving a gracious confidence. 
 
 " I would it were another," he said, " but the Fates 
 often arrange affairs without consulting us." 
 
 " To be loyal I announce that I will only ride north 
 beside you to warn him against your intent," she said, 
 and again he bent his head. 
 
 " That is as must be, and we will lose no time on the 
 way." 
 
 " Never fear that I shall be laggard," she retorted, 
 " my love will keep pace with your evil intent.
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 I rejoice you are so frank even in injustice to him, 
 and I shall ride north beside you to to learn some 
 truths," she ended, lamely enough. 
 
 " God send you learn all truth of comfort to you in 
 this world, Excellencia," he said quietly, " and that I 
 may be your guide on the way." 
 
 " I do not know how I may accept guidance or cour 
 tesies from one who bears him ill," she debated. " I 
 know nothing of your family, or even if you are nearly 
 enough to his rank for righting." 
 
 " God, the Father, will enlighten us on that when 
 the time comes," he said, " but of the man you trust, 
 and the little maid in the grave, we will not speak, and 
 on your trail to truths the rank of a desert guide will 
 not be an important thing. We start at dawn." 
 
 He bowed to her and walked away, and she turned 
 to me with appealing outreached hands. 
 
 " Juanito, what other thing could the saints send 
 for my trial of the spirit? " she asked. " How or why 
 should I do else but hate him? Who is he to set him 
 self a task against an Ordono? " 
 
 " Sancha, when we accept food and shelter by his 
 courtesy, it ill beseems us to question whence he came," 
 I said, " for without him we would both be dead in this 
 far wilderness. Hate is the last thing we should give 
 him." 
 
 " I do not agree," she answered, " his gifts weigh too 
 heavily. I tell myself over and over the different ways 
 I should give him dislike." 
 
 " Is it so hard a thing to do that you must school 
 yourself to the task? " I asked lightly enough, but she 
 did not take it lightly.
 
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 265 
 
 " You admire him too greatly to be just, and you 
 are no help to me," she accused. " We should both 
 remember it is an Ordono he is set against. Have you 
 no loyalty ? " 
 
 " Loyalty? Sancha, we may both have our loyalty 
 tested on this journey of yours to learn certain truths." 
 This was as far as I dared go, for she stopped me with 
 a cry of protest. 
 
 " Juanito ! You don t believe it ! That girl was ill to 
 madness, and yes it is true perhaps that she loved 
 him, and that strange things were in her mind at the 
 last, but Juanito, do you not see he could not be to blame 
 regarding her? Why, it proves itself: she was alone 
 would he noble as he is have left her alone if there 
 had been any bond? Never, never in the world! I do 
 not know who the girl was or how she learned" 
 then she halted, and I knew she was back again at 
 thought of the letters. 
 
 " Go you to sleep, Juanito," she said, " and be loyal 
 as you can until the truth is learned." 
 
 She did not make clear to what or whom I was to 
 be loyal, so I gave it my own reading and went to 
 sleep as she bade me, well content. 
 
 She was at least started on the path to the truth, 
 and if the break came when she met Marco, it could 
 not be the shock it might have been but for Anita and 
 her lightning flash of disclosure as to the letters. What 
 a fool he had been, Marco, to flatter a little peasant s 
 vanity by telling her how much she excelled the ladies 
 of rank who waited for him! Yet that was the Marco 
 I knew, and the Marco Sancha had never heard rec 
 ord of.
 
 266 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 A day further in the journey we learned that the 
 peaceful Indians of the rancherias had been raided by 
 their hereditary enemy, the Apache, and a heavy smoke 
 to the north and east showed us that one of them had 
 fired the grasses to halt pursuit; that way we could 
 not go with horses to be fed. 
 
 " It must be the trail past Sivanoki the Casa 
 Grande," decided Tristan, " and you, Movi, will be 
 the sooner home." 
 
 I was not ill pleased at the word that we go through 
 the land of strange contrasts of which I had heard much 
 on the trail. Movi had told willingly of the mystic 
 rites of the Navajo who made prayers in deep canons, 
 and made wonderful singings of ancient songs to their 
 gods. These tales of wild chants of the night, and the 
 strange dwellings of the Divine Ones who once lived 
 on earth, filled my soul with desires for which my 
 confessor would have set me a stiff penance, and the 
 enchantment of it to this day remains in my mind as 
 do the tales of the Arabians or the romances of the 
 Crusades. 
 
 There, however, at the gate of the province of the 
 red and jealous warriors, we outfitted in a different 
 way than when we took departure from Culiacan and 
 Sinaloa. Shields of bull s-hide carried we, every one, 
 with lances and knives, and bows and arrows also for 
 the women. Movi could send an arrow like a man, and 
 in the village where we were captive Sancha more 
 than once had entered into the game of archery with 
 the young savages ; not that she shot well, but her arm 
 was strong and her eye steady, and all she needed was 
 practice.
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 267 
 
 And well pleased she seemed with the new weapons, 
 for, as she explained to me, she would not feel so much 
 the need of being cared for like a child. 
 
 Strange enough they looked, those two in the garb 
 of monks, yet armed with painted shield and good strong 
 bows. Movi made pleasure for us by reading the pagan 
 symbols on the shields we carried. Mine had the light 
 ning, Tristan s had lines of falling rain and a sacred 
 plant of their priests, while that of Sancha was the 
 most important it had the Father Sun and the 
 Mother Moon, and the morning star. 
 
 " But it is not a star, it is a cross," said Sancha. 
 
 " Morning star," insisted Movi. " Morning Star is the 
 son of the Mother Moon. He is in the sky when she 
 goes away, and he calls the Father Sun to come and 
 smile on the earth for people. He is ever between 
 them, and is their child." 
 
 " There," said Tristan, " Excellencia, on that one 
 circle of bull s-hide, you have set forth, without words, 
 the foundation of all religions of man, and their kindred 
 with the sky." 
 
 Sancha made the sign to ward off evil, and looked 
 away from him. 
 
 " Have we not enough of trials on the way without 
 invitation to heretical thoughts ? " she asked, but he only 
 smiled at her, and refused to be reproved. 
 
 " If you heard it in a poem such as comrade Juanito is 
 given to recite for your pleasure, you would deem it a 
 pretty thought," he ventured. " The pagans of Mexico 
 were only won to faith in the Virgin and her Son be 
 cause it fitted with their ancient belief of Mother 
 Moon and the Star which brings in the Day. Also
 
 268 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 the star is the child of the great god, the Father Sun; 
 in no other way can these dark people be made under 
 stand a king in the heavens. The king of whom the 
 Christians tell is beyond their sight, but the primitive 
 sky gods they see daily or nightly." 
 
 " Still, they should not use the cross of Christians," 
 she insisted. 
 
 " Why not, when they used it as a symbol of light 
 before Christianity had emerged from the mists of 
 the past? On your shield it stands for the bright son 
 who is born of the god and goddess of the sky. Who 
 knows but that some such primitive symbol was not 
 foundation for the legend of the cross which you regard 
 differently? " 
 
 " Juanito, you must not give ear to such heretical 
 surmising," she declared, turning her attention to me. 
 " As you came into this wilderness for my sake, your 
 soul is my care, and it is my opinion that Movi, as 
 well, needs some godly teaching." 
 
 " Mayhaps, if you were inclined to priestly instruction, 
 I also might present myself as pupil," said Tristan, and 
 at that she smiled, though she would not look at him. 
 
 " Juanito, tell your friend that the simple faith I 
 own would seem too slight a thing for notice among 
 his vast collections," she said. 
 
 " Juanito, tell your cousin that if simplicity is the 
 thing desired, the symbols on the bull s-hide, and their 
 visible gods of the sky, far outrank us. No matter how 
 we disguise the same creed with words, or weight it 
 down by priestly ceremony, they have the better of us," 
 said he. 
 
 So, as between two fires, I escaped from them both
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 269 
 
 to discourse with Movi, who smiled her pleasant smile 
 on all of us alike, and when she heard those two near 
 to quarrel, she would look at the shoes of Sancha, and 
 then at me, and laugh. To her mind there was certain 
 magic in the boots of white deerskin, and to quarrel with 
 the man after wearing the boots made by him seemed 
 to her a useless thing. 
 
 For a day after our minds had been given enlighten 
 ment regarding the symbols on the shields, Sancha had 
 no word for Tristan, and gave her undivided attention 
 to Movi, 1 and strove to bring her into the ways of 
 church, lest evil or death might meet us on the trail and 
 find her unprepared. 
 
 Movi listened with interest to all the beauties of 
 the heaven in the sky for true believers, and then told 
 her cheerfully that the Underworld of the Hopi gods 
 was the place of her preference, for there the melons 
 were always ripe, and the peaches never failed, and 
 the Father Sun spent the nights there, and all were 
 glad of heart. 
 
 The dismay of Sancha made Tristan smile. 
 
 " She is very honest, Excellencia, she has not learned 
 as perhaps her grandchildren may to pretend in 
 fidelity to her pagan faith. Their honesty is the strength 
 of their clans ; it is a perilous thing to strive to weaken 
 that, even for a new religion." 
 
 " But on my own soul will the blame lie if I strive 
 not," said Sancha, sore perplexed, and he smiled again. 
 
 " You too are honest," he said. " You want credit 
 for a convert, and do not know you will only make her 
 unhappy with the old, and incapable of understanding 
 the new. I need to have little Movi happy on the trail,
 
 270 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 for on the friendship of her clan may depend much of 
 your own safeguarding, so be content with the garb of a 
 missionary, and let go the preaching, or, as I ventured 
 to suggest, turn your discourse to me." 
 
 " I would if I had hope, for you trouble me much," 
 she said soberly; and her tone was so changed that I 
 could believe, like Movi, in the magic of the footgear 
 made by him. 
 
 We reached the great house called Sivanoki, and 
 it looked a palace in form after the wattled huts of 
 the Pima people. Movi ran about it eagerly, looking 
 for stray beads of the ancients, and told us it had been 
 built by southern clans of her own people, but that 
 dwellings on the open plain were no longer safe for 
 reason that the roving tribes had grown too strong. 
 Other things of the strange ruin she told us legends 
 and traditions heard in the winter nights around the 
 fires of her people and the massive walls, and its 
 four stories, surely gave reason to think it built when 
 the clans were indeed strong and sovereigns in a wide 
 land. All about it were crumbled walls and sand-filled 
 ditches where the water had once been led from the 
 river, and the sight of the vast ruined place of Indio 
 pueblos impressed Sancha as words could not. 
 
 " Why, they were indeed people civilized and of 
 industry," she said in amaze. " The thickness of the 
 walls will measure the height of Movi, and that ruined 
 tower was it for sentinal or priest? " 
 
 " I shall use it for the view, to learn if other travelers 
 are in sight," said Tristan, " and if you, as priestess 
 
 He glanced at her robe, and smiled.
 
 Lz!J iE? Ulj LLf\HJ IS Jl_ 1 JFr.rLJ lEi LTLzLl LEzJiHJ LS ulHJ 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 271 
 
 " I also will go up if the way is safe," she said. " I 
 wish I might know it also was one of the high places of 
 light." 
 
 I was content to stay below, and content also if her 
 curiosity took her alone with him as guard, for dear 
 though she was to me, her moods of discontent and 
 disdain of him made troublous work for me in camp or 
 on trail. 
 
 With a fallen beam he made a ladder up which she 
 could walk with help of a reata held by him, and as there 
 was no roving enemy in sight they took time to investi 
 gate the old tower, while Movi and I were content to 
 pick garnets out of an ant hill when her search for 
 beads proved useless. 
 
 And the Indian woman looked at me and laughed 
 when the voices were heard returning to earth, for 
 Sancha was in a pleasant mood, and was voicing thanks. 
 
 " For without you I should never have found it," 
 she said, " and for a certainty the bell proves it a place 
 of ceremony, and the height of it makes clear it was 
 their substitute for a mountain in greetings to the 
 dawn, or study of stars." 
 
 " You learn fast," he said, " and I have joy that it 
 was your hand found their music thing of prayer. Many 
 have gone through the rooms and never found it." 
 
 She carried a little copper bell in which a pebble 
 tinkled, and it had been hidden in the dust of what 
 appeared a break or hole in the wall. Movi looked at 
 it gravely, and said it was a sacred thing, and that the 
 place in the wall had been built for it when the house 
 was built it was still the custom. 
 
 " That is the second time I have stood in a House of
 
 272 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 the Dawn," remarked Sancha, showing the bell to me, 
 " and this time the little bell is as music in the heart, 
 for I come down happily." 
 
 " Their prayer places perhaps keep a holiness of 
 spirit despite the pagan blindness," I agreed ; " and if 
 you can find understanding of it, you will add much of 
 happiness to your own heart on the trail." 
 
 " I think that is true, Juanito, for in each House of 
 the Dawn I have learned a new thing." 
 
 Tristan turned and looked at her, then walked away 
 where the horses were. I could not think what she 
 had learned on the mountain except the thing giving 
 her anger at him, but the trophy of the bell had quelled, 
 for the time, her mutiny, and I was the last to wish it 
 reawakened. 
 
 Few signs of danger had crossed our path, and the 
 spirit of holiday trails did at times come between those 
 two, for, though all their world looked tragic, they were 
 young in life and heart, and the beauties of the days and 
 nights were many. All the wild things of bloom were 
 at their best, and the horses were faring better than 
 we could have hoped. The water was not good until 
 we entered higher lands where the pines grew, but we 
 had few dry camps, and we often traveled by the stars 
 of morning to earn rest through the hours of greatest 
 heat. 
 
 It was in these times of dawn and dusk that we heard 
 from Movi, and sometimes from Tristan, the Indian 
 legends of the stars at the edges of day and night. It 
 was the one theme of which Sancha never tired, even 
 though she made many words of objection to the pagan 
 readings of them. And for comparison Tristan would
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 273 
 
 bring in Greek or Arabian meanings until she con 
 fessed that the Indian had its own charm when inter 
 preted by the faithful Movi. 
 
 Thus journeying, and thus entertained, we crossed 
 the wide lands in safety until we reached the great 
 Desert of Wonderful Color, where a sunrise glow made 
 all the earth of rose, and a sunset would give a sky of 
 green and purple and pink amethyst. Nothing like 
 that had come to us in the south, and the glory of color 
 was like magic to Sancha. She spoke of jewels, recall 
 ing all those she had ever seen, and comparing them 
 with the colors in the sky. In the strange place where 
 our trail led us past forest trees leveled, and turned to 
 stone, she looked at Tristan with wide eyes of question. 
 Many unbelievable things had she seen, but the petri 
 fied forest seemed a thing of enchantment. 
 
 The heat was intense. Many times on the trail the 
 heads of the horses had to be covered from the storms 
 of sand. Many times in crossing the higher ranges we 
 were all but chilled into sickness and fever by the tor 
 rents of cold rain. Many nights of exhaustion the 
 Indian woman changed guard with us when danger 
 came near. Yet we had fared safely withal, and reached 
 the pass of the petrified forest in good condition, and 
 the eyes of Movi glowed with gladness as she recog 
 nized the wonderful landmarks. 
 
 " Homolovi is near then all good," she said to 
 Tristan, and he nodded and looked the horses over 
 approvingly and then regarded Sancha and me much 
 as a general who had brought an army through a hard 
 campaign. 
 
 And hard and long it had been, though no pen could
 
 v o uci v c> v^ Vi, 1 vr^v^j 
 274 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 make record to tell the difficulties lived through. That 
 I have not the courage to even attempt. After a cer 
 tain period of exhaustion, or thirst, or daily threatened 
 dangers have been lived through, no one day stands out 
 clearly from the rest. We knew the names of neither 
 the streams we forded nor the hills we crossed, and there 
 was little to distinguish one day s journey from another. 
 Of all the trail from the river of the Gila where the 
 ancient ruin was, to the north where the Painted Desert 
 blazed its glories of color, and its fantastic forms of 
 mound or mesa, there was nothing to record except the 
 fact that the common dangers drew us very close to 
 each other. I think of that little brown Movi today as 
 of a loyal, ever cheery, sister, and we emerged from 
 that long trail with all the smaller vanities and preju 
 dices burned out of us. Tristan had not changed, for 
 to his unselfishness there was only one duty service 
 to us all, but Sancha had grown more meek even as 
 she grew more self-reliant. Instead of argument or 
 resentment at new things and pagan ideas, she grew 
 thoughtful of them until at times she fairly divined the 
 Indian meanings before they could be explained to her. 
 Thus almost without our being aware of change in her, 
 Sancha was one in the Brotherhood of the Desert at 
 last. To Tristan she gave the respect due a command 
 ing officer, and in those later days there was no ref 
 erence to his unholy quest and her loyal intent to defeat 
 it. She talked to him little, but watched him when he 
 spoke to others, and as to the best thing to be done on 
 trail or in camp she had ceased to assert an opinion. 
 It was as if the very wilderness had tamed Sancha! 
 Thus we came to the village of Homolovi one eve-
 
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 275 
 
 ning of red sunset when the new moon and the evening 
 star gleamed in silver out of the blaze of the afterglow. 
 Tristan halted, and let me pass him while he turned 
 to Sancha. 
 
 "At last I have brought you to the first village of 
 the people of peace," he said, " and we may thank God 
 in our different ways that it has been in safety." 
 
 " The debt is great," she confessed. 
 
 "Yet not enough to buy forgiveness?" he asked. 
 
 " Forgiveness is only bought by repentance," she 
 returned, " and I have had no word of that." 
 
 " True, neither have you," he said. 
 
 Then the herald from a tower of the village wall 
 called loudly to the people, and out on the terraces 
 swarmed men and women, and some of them ran out 
 gladly to greet us when a woman of their own race was 
 seen to be in our company. 
 
 So great was their glad amazement at safe return of 
 her that they made it like a home coming for all. Their 
 best of provision was put before us, and around Sancha, 
 the first white woman they had seen, the women and 
 children gathered in wondering admiration. They said 
 " Loloml! " to her, and of her, and by that word ex 
 pressed all the good and beautiful thoughts they gave 
 her. 
 
 But a more substantial testimony of their good will 
 was given when one of their priests led in four fresh 
 horses from the range to exchange for our own animals. 
 The burro ridden by Movi was especially desired by 
 them, and to gain it they were willing to either trade or 
 lend us their best for the trail. 
 
 A runner had been sent the seventy miles north to
 
 276 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 tell clans of Walpi of the return of Movi to her people, 
 and for that space we were to go under friendly escort 
 for the reason that it was the season of their solemn 
 serpent ceremony to the God of Sun and Growing 
 Things. At that time the people from the far rancherias 
 gather at Walpi as the faithful gather at Rome, or fare 
 forth to Jerusalem. 
 
 It may have been the sense of protection we felt in 
 company of the friendly guard who ran beside our 
 horses, or it may have been the smiling joy of Movi by 
 which our days were lightened, but nothing on the 
 long trail had wakened in our hearts the happiness of 
 new life in a new and enchanted world, such as came in 
 the Painted Desert. 
 
 " But it is not a desert, it is a garden so vast and so 
 beautiful that the angels surely gave help in the 
 planning of it," insisted Sancha. " There are as many 
 blossoms as stars in the sky, and every shrub carries 
 some blessing or fragrance." 
 
 As we journeyed north it had been a growing wonder 
 for her to observe the full sweep of stars around Polaris, 
 but in the great desert of the peaceful people, there was 
 time to observe and delight in them. On the bank of a 
 river we had to wait until a sudden flood subsided, and 
 that night she learned new Indian names for many 
 stars while Tristan sat silent, smiling at her efforts to 
 pronounce the difficult words. 
 
 Suddenly she turned to him. 
 
 " You know so many things of the Desert," she said, 
 " it may be you could tell me which lamp in the sky 
 is the light of Virgo." 
 
 It was the first mention she had made to remind us
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 277 
 
 that the letters were a living memory, and Tristan 
 stared thoughtfully at the skies a moment ere he pointed 
 to Spica glittering in the south. 
 
 "And Alphard?" she added, but at that question 
 he shook his head, and smiled. 
 
 " The great serpent trails across the sky to clear the 
 way for Virgo," he said ; " already the star which is his 
 heart is out of sight over the edge of the world the 
 rest of him is under her feet, hidden in the blue veil." 
 
 "Is that what you think?" she asked, "or did you 
 find it in a book of poets writing? " 
 
 " My days, as you see, Excellencia, give me small 
 space for the reading of poets even if I could come by 
 them," he said. 
 
 She sat in silence a while and then said, " You are 
 a strange man, and know strange things. I would that 
 your heart was clear before God of all revenges." 
 
 " Few of us but have some human fault," he said. 
 " Only the angels in heaven can boast perfection." 
 
 " You are not not politic, or you would include 
 ladies," she said ; but I, remembering her moods and 
 tempers, laughed, and so did she, so that the spirit of 
 jest and comradeship was between us all as never before. 
 She went to sleep that night after telling me that all 
 her fear of the northern deserts was gone, and all her 
 dread of the red tribes. These people had a laughing 
 joy of life by which content was won. 
 
 Then as I agreed with her, and spread a blanket for 
 her where Tristan had plucked a bed of sage, she added : 
 
 " You are dear and good, Juanito, and I talk to you 
 as to my conscience, but do you also find this life in 
 the open a thing to live for? and do you remember once
 
 278 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 when we were very little, and I wept to follow the 
 strolling Zingara who came out of France?" 
 
 I remembered, for I had to bribe her with all my small 
 belongings to be good, and not win me reprimand as a 
 careless guardian. 
 
 " Yes, so it was," she said and laughed, and looked up 
 at the stars, " and after all, I am strolling over half the 
 world, as I wished, and sleep under the open sky, and 
 find it good. Juanito, do you regret Mexico?" 
 
 I thought of the ceaseless intrigues, and endless cruel 
 ties, and then looked over the quiet and peace of the 
 desert night. 
 
 " I have no answer, Sancha. This is to be ever 
 remembered ; but that life more befitted your name and 
 state." 
 
 " So it did," she agreed, " but why should the life of 
 a maid be hedged about by weighty dignities of state? 
 This sky teaches more than I ever learned in school, 
 Juanito, and if only the letters were with me " 
 
 After a little silence, she remembered again my pres 
 ence, and bade me go and find sleep, and half in mockery 
 reminded me that I was to give no heed to words of 
 hers when the stars swung low as they did over the 
 Painted Desert, for they wove enchantment, and made 
 music disquieting to simple minded maids! 
 
 But if the desert stars touched her with witchery, it 
 was only preparation for the day when we descended a 
 mesa trail, and passed fields of growing corn, to see a 
 gray mesa beyond growing into something more than 
 a mesa. So suddenly did the change come to us that 
 Sancha checked her horse with a little cry of wonder 
 and put out her hand,
 
 
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 279 
 
 It fell on the arm of Tristan, who was watching for 
 the moment she would realize it was an eagle s nest of 
 a dwelling-place rising out of the level, and terraced, 
 roof above roof, against the sky. 
 
 " It is a part of the desert enchantment," she said, 
 "for how could savages build like that?" 
 
 " As I told you, Excellencia, these people are not of 
 savage tribes ; I have hoped that you might know it 
 some day. They are the people of a great mystery ; sur 
 rounded on all sides by warlike enemies, they yet hold 
 their fortresses and their independence." 
 
 "And they are your adopted people?" she asked. 
 
 " Rather they have been courteous, and I am grate 
 ful," he answered. " More grateful now than I ever 
 dreamed I might be." 
 
 "Because of me?" she asked, and he nodded his 
 head. 
 
 " Their island of rock above the sand dunes would be 
 a haven of refuge, if refuge be needed." 
 
 " Have we not journeyed through all the lands where 
 enemies might wait for us? " she questioned, but to my 
 surprise he had no ready reply. He was staring 
 upward, where at the edge of the cliff a dark robed fig 
 ure stood beside the watching, half-nude figures of the 
 boys and young men. 
 
 It was amazing to me to see our companions from 
 Homolovi run up those heights like squirrels with no 
 sign of weariness from the desert trail. The training 
 of their boys from earliest youth is to fit them for 
 speed. No horse can keep pace with them on a long 
 journey. 
 
 But we who rode left the steep path to them while
 
 280 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 we wound between the sand dunes, and up the rock 
 trail where the harvests of the fields were carried. So 
 gradual was the rise, with the rock wall on one side, 
 and the sand dunes and clusters of peach trees below, 
 that we did not know the height we had reached until 
 suddenly we emerged from the shadow of walls, and 
 I caught my breath, in amaze as we stood in one of 
 the wonder paths of the world. 
 
 There is no pen can give to another the wonder of 
 that place of the meeting of the trails at the rock shrine 
 of Walpi in Tusayan. There are times when a sun 
 setting will wrap it in flame, and a dawn will lift it into 
 a mysterious world apart from all one could dream. As 
 the red sun set in the west there were strange reflected 
 rays shooting upward from the horizon in the east, and 
 between them we stood on a high trail, where, on either 
 side, the cliffs dropped away, leaving great reaches 
 of the Desert below, in changing colors and shadows so 
 full of beauty that tears were in the eyes of Sancha, 
 and her hands clasped over her breast at the wonder and 
 beauty of it all. 
 
 " It is a very benediction," she whispered. " Juanito, 
 it is as if we stood on a throne of God, the Father. Yet 
 is it the earth, and the haven of a strange people," then 
 she turned to Tristan. 
 
 " This justifies you in much, senor," she said. " To 
 starve or freeze, or to burn on desert trail, is slight 
 enough payment for this you have brought us to. It 
 is the very gateway of a Place of the Dawn. Are the 
 others but lesser copies? " 
 
 He looked at her, quickly smiling. 
 
 " How soon you learn when you let your thought 
 

 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 
 
 have freedom," he said. " Yes, all the artificial hills 
 of sanctuary are in memory of a greater one. The high 
 places of prayer are not alone in sacred books." 
 
 A line of men were coming down with ceremonial 
 greeting and welcome, and Movi slipped from her horse 
 and ran eagerly to meet them, for her brother and father 
 were with them, and they wept in gladness at her 
 return. 
 
 Then they crowded about Tristan, with every sign 
 of fondness and gratitude, and when he spoke of Sancha, 
 and pointed to the beads of the man they had honored, 
 the father of Movi breathed on her hand, and led the 
 horse of Sancha proudly up the trail to the terraced 
 dwellings, while we all followed. 
 
 At the top of the trail waited the man in the robe; 
 it was a priest from a near-by settlement, Oriabe, and 
 his name was Padre Juan de Vallada. At first he had 
 thought it two brother priests who had arrived, and his 
 amaze was great when he learned of the dangers we 
 had passed in the country of the Haquis, and the strange 
 reason for a lady of De Llorente y Rivera wearing the 
 robe of a priestly order. 
 
 He had been for a year in the province of Tusayan, 
 with another priest to share the work, and all the 
 news of the world was dear to him. Letters came from 
 Santa Fe and from a priest at Acoma. The youths of 
 barbaric clans were ever eager to serve as couriers 
 between the tribes, and thus the priests kept in touch 
 with brethren; so also the young men learned the 
 world. Padre de Vallada was at Walpi to frown on the 
 iniquity of their serpent worship, for which his brown 
 charges were eager in the August moon. He was a
 
 282 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 garrulous man, eager to hear words of good Spanish 
 again, and we learned much as we crossed the stone 
 floor of that high cliff, and observed the fortress-like 
 arrangement of all things. In that place a few men 
 could hold at bay a thousand. 
 
 Because these were the days when the pagan priests 
 fasted in the sanctuary, none of us could see the leading 
 men of the snake order. Movi could not see even her 
 own grandfather for the reason that no priest in com 
 munion with the gods may look upon a woman. It 
 seemed that Tristan might enter the sanctuary because 
 he had been taken into the order, but he could discuss 
 no worldly matter there. 
 
 Padre de Vallada looked at him curiously when the 
 message of invitation came from the priests of the 
 snakes. 
 
 " Do you wear the sanctified robe of church into dens 
 of iniquity where the symbol of all evil is worshiped? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " Nay, holy father," answered Tristan. " You have 
 been ill-informed. It is not the symbol of evil to them, 
 rather of immortality, since it comes new out of its old 
 cover each year. But in my visit to the r va I shall wear 
 no robe." 
 
 "You have no fear?" 
 
 " I have gone in once before, and it may be I have 
 made this day s journey on a lucky day," said Tristan. 
 " Their minds will tell them I have crossed all lands to 
 keep the fast here where they made me a brother." 
 
 " At Santa Fe each priest is ordered to serve at mass 
 before each harmless pagan ceremony, but that the 
 hideous ceremony of the snakes be especially forbid-
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 283 
 
 den," stated Padre de Vallada pointedly, " and it seems 
 a curious matter that a Christian should join in their 
 horrors." 
 
 " They have made me brother, and opened the way 
 for me two summers gone," returned Tristan. " All 
 was done with the knowledge and blessing of Fray 
 Fernando. In that way he learned they do no evil; 
 it was the best way in which to learn. Also it has 
 won blessings for me with southern tribes, for it is the 
 most famous order of all these nations." 
 
 " Yet opposed to the church? " insisted the priest, but 
 Tristan told him it was opposed to no order of any 
 religion; all their thought was centered on prayers for 
 strength to the Spirit of the Growing Things. 
 
 Sancha listened in silence to their words, yet it was 
 plain to see her distress at any argument with the priest, 
 for the sight of him had been a great comfort to her 
 own mind, though I liked little enough the suspicious 
 regard he gave to all of us. 
 
 In a house of Movi s clan, a room was given to Sancha 
 a room of white walls, and white floor, a roll of 
 blankets, and great vase of water. Movi and one of her 
 small sisters slept by the door, and my chosen place 
 was on the terraced roof beside her portal. Weary 
 though we were, all were too excited for sleep. The 
 return of Movi, stolen, and given up for lost, was a 
 wonderful thing to her people, and to be brought back 
 by Ivava out of the land of an enemy was of vast im 
 portance. He had proven himself truly a brother to the 
 clans of Walpi, and on the word of Movi they accepted 
 Sancha as a person greatly exalted, since Ivava looked 
 first of all to her comfort.
 
 284 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 After a supper of green corn and the flesh of deer, 
 Tristan, who was now called Ivava, left us on the ter 
 race in the purple twilight. 
 
 " I would that Fray de Lombarde had made the return 
 from Awatobi," mused Padre de Vallada looking after 
 him. " This to me is a strange thing. I have seen no 
 white men to whom their sanctuaries are open, and it 
 has a strange look. What Fray Fernando did he 
 mean? " 
 
 " One very holy, and no longer alive," I told him, 
 and in gossip of other matters he seemed to forget 
 Tristan. He told me conversions were slow, and he 
 thought it a serious matter that only half-breeds should 
 be punished for apostasy, since it was the old men, of 
 pure Indio blood, who were most rigid in evil prac 
 tices, and little could be done for converts, even by the 
 Inquisition, until the old men had died. One most 
 troublous warrior-priest named Pope had been a thorn 
 in the flesh of the godly these several years, and had 
 evil power over many pueblos to the east. 
 
 From that he told of the Indians in the turquoise 
 mines, and their troublesome dislike of work under 
 ground, for which reason the unruly converts were en 
 slaved to that task; so, while Sancha was listening 
 with open ears, my thoughts drifted far, and my mind 
 was not so easy as I could wish over that matter of 
 the sanctuary and the snakes and our one friend 
 down there in brotherly converse! 
 
 And then I was brought sharply back to Sancha, who 
 said, " But that was even more strange than to fare 
 safely through the Desert. Two white maids in an 
 open boat saved by Indians do you hear, Juanito? "
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 285 
 
 I had not, and I asked what questions I might. Fray 
 de Lombarde had heard it in Santa Fe, and the word 
 came from the great river Miche Sepi to the east where 
 the French were ; a half-French trader told of two sis 
 ters lost on the sea in the south, and guarded safely by 
 Indians to a hunting camp of the French. The sight 
 of the maids fitted in with some legend of white-water 
 spirits of that coast tribe, so they were given food and 
 raiment, and they arrived at the French and Indian 
 camp, decked in all feather fineries, but near to death 
 for the proper food of white people. 
 
 No, Padre de Vallada knew nothing except there had 
 been others, and all died but the two sisters; perhaps 
 a ship had gone down, he did not know. But the sis 
 ters were started north along the great river to the 
 French possessions where they would be welcome to 
 the colonists, for white maids were rare in the wilder 
 ness. Padre de Vallada only told of this matter in 
 evidence of the power of Indian superstition, for the 
 maids were fair and were regarded as twin gods or 
 goddesses of the water, and thus were saved. 
 
 I had joy to hear this, for well I knew that the death 
 of the Lispano family was a heavy cloud to Tristan, 
 and if the daughters had thus escaped, perhaps the 
 others might, and the sacrifice of Don Fernando had 
 not been all in vain. There was in my mind no doubt 
 left of their identity when he spoke of their fairness, 
 and again I could see that far-away, stone-paved street 
 of Mexico, and the proud riding of Marco with the 
 young girl tied with his reata, and the sweet bell voice 
 of Dona Perfecta who spoke her wonder that a Jewess 
 should be so fair!
 
 286 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 And well content with the news of the evening, I 
 bade the priest good night, and rolled myself in my 
 blanket to sleep on the terrace. 
 
 The moon was gone, and the still night was a-glitter 
 with stars, when I wakened and heard the voice of 
 Tristan. 
 
 " The trail is not ended, Excellencia," he said, " and 
 it is the time for rest and sleep." 
 
 " It is a night for wonder at the very beauty of earth," 
 she answered. " I have been watching the stars and the 
 land below ever since the priest went away. He 
 looked after you as if in no good mood, Senor Ivava. Is 
 it true there is no evil in these pagan chapels? " 
 
 " No evil is meant there, that is all I can tell, Excel 
 lencia," he made answer ; " but the order is secret even 
 from their own people, and the church frowns on 
 secrecies. Almost a hundred years of white priesthood 
 here has won no snake priest as convert for confession." 
 
 " But you is there no danger for you? I could not 
 sleep the thought of all those serpents ! " 
 
 " Vex not your mind, we have now crossed the deserts 
 of danger. You have reached the priests of your own 
 people, and even though I halt by the way you can find 
 many guides to Santa Fe, Excellencia." 
 
 " Do not call me that it spoils the night," she said. 
 
 " Then must I keep silence when you speak to me? " 
 he asked, and at that she spoke impatiently. 
 
 " You are so proud, Senor Ivava also you are hard. 
 I was a child when I began this journey, and I followed 
 the dream of a child. That life slipped from me in 
 the Desert and I am different. I was seated here in 
 this place of wonder thinking of that. Yes, you are
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 287 
 
 hard. You use words to exalt me, as if in mockery of 
 the unclad beggar you found on the way. Also my debt 
 is so heavy I cannot sleep." 
 
 There was silence after that, and I heard him walk 
 across the roof and back. 
 
 " I may perhaps then call you Dona Sancha without 
 offense?" he said. "But you are a great lady in your 
 own land, while I am only a landless brother of desert 
 tribes. Your kinsmen could think I presumed if I forget 
 that difference because of the chance disaster to you on 
 the trail." 
 
 " My kinsmen ! " she retorted, " the one nearest me in 
 blood, Juan, asleep there, is devoted to every thought of 
 you. Nothing you could do or say would seem but right 
 to him. He tells me often enough you are above us 
 both, and for this, perhaps, I was jealous. I was ever 
 first with him until you crossed our path and made 
 unwelcome rules." 
 
 " First you always will be, Dona Sancha," he answered 
 gently, " but Juan can scarce speak for your illustrious 
 kinsmen of Spain, and, when he has double his years, 
 he also may not look back on our desert trail through 
 rosy glasses. The days of this summer are now but a 
 boy s romance with him. He calls Movi of the Desert 
 sister, and he is enchanted with the changes of the 
 wilderness which is yet a garden." 
 
 "Are we not all?" she asked. "If it were not so, 
 would I be sleepless here on this terrace lest the ser 
 pents do harm to you? You are enemy to the man 
 I will not name to you ; an unjust thought in your heart 
 is against him, and I ought not to have care what 
 chanced you down there in the serpent den with your
 
 288 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 red brothers! Yet here am I, awake under the stars, 
 and the peace of the life, and the people here give me 
 strange thoughts. I wonder why peoples and nations 
 should strive for power in the world, for gold, for the 
 fame of a day? Here there is no strife of that kind 
 and no anger. Is it indeed true these people assert 
 that wrath causes a poison in the blood to drive away 
 the spirits of good? It is a strange thought, yet the 
 curious thing is that no thought, even the wildest, 
 seems strange here! The stars come so close they 
 lift the spirit and make our little plans of life out in 
 the world seem small. All men are equal together here, 
 and the women aid in the governing and claim the chil 
 dren, and sit in council of the clans. That would be a 
 strange thought in another place, for our people are 
 ruled by kings or queens, and are always in strife. But 
 here they have peace without a ruler, and nothing seems 
 strange or wrong not even this, senor," and I knew 
 she smiled " that I sit on a house roof in the night 
 time without a duenna, and talk alone with a man who 
 tells me he is only a landless brother of desert poeple." 
 
 " You are kind of heart, Dona Sancha," he said, " but 
 it is no jest that I am as I say. Whatever of ill you, 
 in the future, may be brought to think, none shall add 
 that I made pretense of more than I am." 
 
 "How could you?" she asked with impatient force; 
 " are you not stronger here than the very priests of 
 Holy Church?" 
 
 " That is an ill power to covet in any land," he said. 
 " Do you not know it alone might shut me out from 
 doors opening wide to you?" 
 
 " You are his enemy, therefore you are mine," she
 
 IN THE PAINTED DESERT 289 
 
 answered, " yet you have been salvation to me in the 
 wilderness. No Llorente y Rivera could be ignoble 
 enough to forget a favor because of hatred, Kahn Alca- 
 traz, and the doors where I go will be open to you when 
 you speak." 
 
 " I shall not hold you to that, or ever remind you of 
 the words, but I will never forget them," he said. 
 " Tomorrow you will remember it was the enchantment 
 of desert stars by which you were made gracious. Good 
 sleep to you, Dona Sancha." 
 
 Then he went down over the terraced roofs, and she 
 stood looking after him, and I went asleep again with 
 the picture of her, wrapped in the blue light of the 
 stars, high on the upper terrace against the sky.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 AMONG THE SERPENT PEOPLE 
 
 I DO not think either of them had the sleep they 
 needed that night, for when I wakened, she was 
 below me on the eastward edge of the mesa, where 
 a cool wind of the early morning carried to her the 
 odor of wide lands of sage brush. Already she had gone 
 for prayer to the house used as a chapel by Padre de 
 Vallada, and then, leaving him with his scattered flock, 
 more curious than devout, she had found her way 
 through an arcade past a strange, natural stone monu 
 ment in the plaza, and out to the rim of the great rock. 
 Below in the Desert patches of mist yet lay in the 
 shadow of far blue mesas. 
 
 I also went down the ladder for prayer, and before I 
 was out again, Tristan had joined her. The evening 
 before she had given him the copper bell as gift to the 
 head of Movi s clan. To her it seemed a trifling thing 
 to give in gratitude for the clean dwelling, and cour 
 teous greetings, yet it meant much to the men in the 
 snake kiva. It was as a voice from their ancestors of 
 the ancient days, and their hearts told them that the 
 gods had sent the bell at this time, and in this way, as 
 a sign that the woman who brought it must be sacred 
 to the clan as Ivava was sacred. 
 
 I joined them as he was telling her this, at which 
 
 290
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 291 
 
 she was gay. It seemed to her a great jest that the 
 crude copper bell as a gift would lift her into import 
 ance with a strong tribe. 
 
 But Tristan did not laugh over it, and asked her not 
 to treat it lightly. 
 
 " Also if they bring you today a garb such as their 
 maidens wear, I beg that you accept it," he said ear 
 nestly. " It will be meant in great kindness, and 
 there may be need of their kindnesses." 
 
 " Shall I also see her with her hair in whorls of the 
 squash blossom?" I asked, and had joy at the picture. 
 After all her disdain of him, and his pagan friends, it 
 would be a thing for laughter to see her in proper cere 
 monial garb of a desert tribe. 
 
 " With all my heart I hope I see you both in the dress 
 of these clans if the thing is to happen which I fear 
 may happen here," he said. " I may not leave until 
 after the ceremony of the serpents and that is at set 
 of sun today, also I may not again have chance to speak 
 with you both, but we must take the trail at the earliest 
 hour tomorrow. Get what rest you can betray no 
 need of haste leave that to me ! But I do ask that you 
 accept every kindly offer or gift, for it is a strange time 
 we have come to this place, and they wish you well." 
 
 Sancha spoke of Padre de Vallada, and ventured to 
 think he would scarce approve even the gift of the bell, 
 if he learned they thought it a sign from their ancient 
 gods, but Tristan was suddenly careful. 
 
 " It is better that you tell nothing to Padre de Vallada 
 of that, or any other thing these people would use as a 
 bond of friendship," he said. " I may not say more, and 
 this only here where no one listens. Things have
 
 2 9 2 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 changed since I was in this place before, and Padre 
 Vallada is not welcome for their days of prayer. They 
 do not tell me this, I only read it in many actions. You, 
 Juanito, keep close as may be to Movi or Dona Sancha 
 when I am out of sight ; you bestowed no sacred bell. 
 
 " That is sadly true," I agreed "I could not even 
 conjure a likeness to a pagan divinity as did stray maids 
 in the boat on the south coast." 
 
 I looked at him as I said it, and he frowned at me, 
 puzzled and incredulous. 
 
 " When was this? " he asked. 
 
 " Not so long ago as time flies in the Desert," said 
 Sancha, " Padre de Vallada told it to show how easily 
 the superstitions of the red people were influenced. I 
 wished he could have told us more of the sisters than 
 that they were fair, and were taken north at their desire 
 to some French camp of explorers." 
 
 " Also they were taken in safety up the great river 
 to lakes of the north where French settlements are 
 made," I added. " It is a great journey by water, but 
 it would lead them to safety, and that is good to know." 
 
 " It is, in truth, good to know," he said, and drew a 
 great breath as he turned away his head. " We will 
 give thanks to God, who found the way for them." 
 
 He walked back to the plaza without looking at us 
 again. I knew it was that Sancha might not see the 
 tears in his eyes, but she did not understand. 
 
 " It is curious," she remarked, " that in the affairs of 
 white people his interests are so small." 
 
 " That you should say it, Sancha ! " I mocked, and 
 pushed the sleeve up from her round arm. " Despite the 
 desert tan, you yet show enough of white to be given
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 293 
 
 audience in civilized courts, yet I see no lack of his inter 
 est in you." 
 
 She twitched the sleeve loose from me, and flushed 
 rose red under all the tan, yet she smiled where a month 
 before she would have withered me with her disdain. 
 
 " Well, the saving of two women through a super 
 stition of the tribes is to me a marvel," she persisted, 
 " yet he asked but when it chanced, and then hastened 
 away to his friends of the serpents does that show 
 interest? " 
 
 " He made clear that affairs new and of import were 
 on his mind," I urged. 
 
 " Yes, and treats us as children who are not trusted 
 with affairs of men ! " she made retort. " But we care 
 little, do we, Juanito? He can go to his serpent sanc 
 tuaries, and leave us to go adventuring." 
 
 " We will first go adventuring to break our fast," I 
 suggested. " I think we are late as it is, for Movi was 
 busy with the fire as I came down." 
 
 We walked back, watching from the mesa the men 
 far down in the fields of maize and melon vines they 
 looked like mice for size and we learned that the 
 dawn always found the workers there, and when the 
 sun stood above, they were back at their homes, resting 
 in a change of work such as fashioning arrows, beads of 
 stone, or weaving robes of rabbit skin for winter. The 
 village was a beehive where each worker did his share. 
 No one seemed idle, and no one hurried unless it be in 
 the ceremonial races with each other, or with the sun. 
 
 So quiet were they all in their waking, and going, that 
 we did not know the young men, and even small boys, 
 had gone at dawn to plant prayer plumes at a spring far
 
 294 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 to the west, and from there made a race with the sun 
 to reach the mesa as it came out of the east. 
 
 From the terraced roof we saw the last of them come 
 up the steeps where the mothers watched in pride the 
 first run of the younger ones, and received them, breath 
 less and exhausted, in their arms. 
 
 Very gay they were in eagle plumes and paintings of 
 white on their brown skin, and all the brightness of 
 turquoise beads and red shell from the far sea. The 
 old runners disappeared at once in one of their z vas, 
 or sanctuaries, but the little fellows paraded all the day 
 with a pride in their nude importance. 
 
 Movi had our breakfast waiting, and was almost as 
 much of interest to the women of the clans as was 
 Sancha. Visitors were gathering for the snake cere 
 mony from the towns on other mesas, and already were 
 climbing ladder and terraced roof to see the only Hopi 
 woman who had journeyed so far and come again back 
 to her people. 
 
 Her relatives were bringing large reed platters heaped 
 with the colored feast bread, red and yellow and blue, 
 that she might give food to all in gratitude, and in mem 
 ory of the long time when food had been given her by 
 strange tribes. 
 
 Thus, without making question, we saw much of 
 tribal things curious and often pleasing, and to Sancha 
 one of the most interesting was a strange and continu 
 ous song in a woman s voice drifting out from one of 
 the many houses. It sounded like a high chant of 
 supreme content. 
 
 Movi laughed when Sancha asked of it. 
 
 " Some day you sing that song maybe so," she
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 295 
 
 said. " That song is the grinding song for wedding 
 meal I let you see." 
 
 She led us over roofs and down a ladder to a room 
 where a woman was coiling the whorls for the head 
 dress of a little maid, and a woven blanket screened a 
 corner where the song was. 
 
 Great meal jars stood in a row against the wall, and 
 in an alcove were ears of corn in even layers piled like 
 fagots from floor to ceiling. 
 
 The floor was freshly whitened, and Movi had pleas 
 ure in our approval of the orderly arrangement of all 
 things, for the people were of her clan, and she drew 
 back the screening blanket with a teasing laugh at the 
 girl behind it. The girl was on her knees at a grinding 
 stone, and the fresh meal was piled beside her in a shal 
 low plaque. Only an instant the curtain was held back 
 and then let fall in mock fear, as if the shy black eyes 
 of the maid held a threat. 
 
 " It is so," she said sagely. " When the work is to 
 do first, and the meal to grind, and prayer songs to sing, 
 it tells the woman if she wants the man for long days 
 is the meal grinding." 
 
 " That is not so bad," I agreed, " it does away with 
 any decision of haste. Thus a bride serves an appren 
 ticeship, and it is a good thought." 
 
 " That is as may be," retorted Sancha, " but what is 
 the task for the man? " 
 
 " He works fields for her father, or gives robes, or 
 some way he is friend." 
 
 " That is not so bad," mocked Sancha " it does 
 away with all the drones. When I wed, the man must 
 also serve apprenticeship ! "
 
 296 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Of all this we made jests, and were about to go up 
 the ladder, when the Hopi woman whose house it was, 
 touched the arm of Sancha, and held out to her a long 
 woven girdle narrow and of yellow and black. Their 
 sheep were few, brought from the far eastern pueblos 
 where the Castilians were, and I knew the girdle was 
 precious. 
 
 " We cannot buy we are but poor strangers among 
 you," I said to Movi, but the woman smiled and looked 
 only at Sancha, saying something in a low, pleasant 
 tone. 
 
 " She says it is not to trade it is the first time you 
 are in her house, and she, Lenmana, makes you the 
 gift. Also, because you are friend, she makes the wash 
 for your hair in this house " 
 
 "Is it the custom?" asked Sancha, doubtful, yet 
 with interest. " True enough the washing is needed. 
 Think you I had best ask the padre?" 
 
 " He would say no, and perhaps lose you the friend 
 ship Ivava bade us foster," I reminded her. " He asked 
 nothing of us but that we help him in some way by 
 acceptance of all kindness. That seems an easy enough 
 task, and if you are made choice of for first favorite, 
 why not be gracious? " 
 
 She consented, after insisting that my own locks 
 needed care as much as hers, and our hostess cour 
 teously showed pleasure that I would accept a head 
 bath a curious custom, but a most grateful one after 
 the long weeks of desert travel. 
 
 Thus, in turn, our hair was lathered and rinsed and 
 lathered again, to the joy of the household, for each one 
 put his or her hand to the task though ever so lightly,
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 297 
 
 and the woman was smiling, and over the head of 
 Sancha said " Poli-kota " and the children also said it 
 shyly, and ran out again into the sunshine. Over my 
 head there was not so much ceremony, but some laugh 
 ter, and when it was all ended, we sat on the terraced 
 roof in the sun to dry it, and to watch the visitors 
 streaming in from south and east. There were even a 
 few traders of the Navajo who came with browned deer 
 skins, and lumps of turquoise. They had their wives 
 and horses, and were great rangers, also they were tall, 
 shapely men. 
 
 Padre de Vallada found us thus among the curious 
 pagans, with the hair of Sancha drifting about her in a 
 dark cloud, and my own inclined to extra bushiness not 
 so becoming. 
 
 " Have you had heretical baptism? " he asked, and 
 looked us over suspiciously, but the fright of Sancha at 
 the thought reassured him. : -<i 
 
 " Still, they do it that way," he stated. " A bowl of 
 suds in the house of any of their magicians, and no 
 sanctity about it ; also they change gifts and it is done." 
 
 But he approved the use of the yucca root they used 
 for washing suds it was good for all things, but 
 especially for the hair. He used it when a good chance 
 came. Then he became interested in some of the new 
 comers, hailed a convert occasionally, and pointed out 
 those of the aggressive pagan element; they were 
 usually the old men. Some of them did not even look 
 up at us on the terrace but most of the younger ele 
 ment was openly curious. 
 
 And I saw Sancha drawing the girdle under her robe 
 lest Padre de Vallada note that it was not there by
 
 2 g8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 chance. That was her first definite move to shield her 
 exchange of courtesies with pagan friends this from 
 our Sancha, who, in the spring of the year, had taken 
 the trail to found a convent, and wipe out all pagan 
 thought by proper conventual prayer! 
 
 But when I teased her about it, she would not laugh. 
 
 " How was I to know the desert tribes have two 
 prayers to every one of ours, and that the smallest 
 children glory in them? " she asked. " My own thought 
 is that our priests should learn the old here, before 
 striving to engraft the new. They do worship some of 
 the same things under different names, but it takes time 
 to learn the names. Their plan of life is not bad at all. 
 Mother Clemente never heard true things of these 
 northern people; they are gentle people and kind." 
 
 " Yet when persecuted they did battle with the fierce 
 Apache," I reminded her. " You need not think because 
 they love you that they are angels ; we all do that, yet 
 our feet are on the earth. 
 
 She smiled, but gave my open avowal of devotion no 
 further attention. With the approach to safety, the 
 spell of the Desert had fallen over her, and she saw all 
 things through a golden haze of illusion. All priests 
 tales of the unregenerate red man in need of civilizing 
 had been denied by her own days among them. Even 
 when a prisoner, she had been treated better than if 
 captured by wild Saxon tribes, or even chiefs in war cf 
 other Europe lands. These things she knew, and was 
 just enough to acknowledge after her first rebellion had 
 burned itself out. But now, strangely enough, with no 
 one to give word or influence, she suddenly glorified the 
 common things of life about her until she no longer
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 299 
 
 lived in the real but in a seeming world, full of a beau 
 tiful strangeness in which mysteries touched her on 
 every side. Always the sky and the stars had been 
 above her and plain to her sight, but now she walked 
 sleepless to watch their beauty, and felt cheated if 
 weariness caused her to lose a single glimpse of the 
 gorgeous dawns. 
 
 I was more bewildered by her in those days than ever 
 before. Her tempers I could understand, and her sweet 
 ness ; her stubborn loyalty to the ideal lover of her child 
 hood, enhanced as it was by devotion of letter and pic 
 tured face all that was the natural impulse of a nature 
 meant for love ; but the still dreaming in dusks and 
 dawns when she slipped away from voices to pace 
 either the sands or the terraces alone, and her sudden 
 great gentleness with all things heretofore disdained, 
 and her quick will to turn critic of even herself and the 
 thoughts of the clergy that was a big and serious 
 thing. Also it was a dangerous thing where we were 
 going. Since the Holy Office in Santa Fe was strong 
 enough, as had been proven for years, to displace any 
 governor not to their liking, what chance was there for 
 even a maid of degree who came out of the Desert 
 with good words for the pagan lives so abhorrent to all 
 proper devotees? 
 
 Thoughts like these had been my company more than 
 once, but were given point there in the terraced town 
 where the clash of pagan and priest had suddenly 
 become vital to me in the dark looks of the old men, 
 and the natural intolerance of Padre de Vallada. He 
 confessed that the old men would have to die off before 
 any but a few women and children would accept the
 
 rj ^ejvsyyojwiJgj^M/^ 1 Tj<g;v^\^v^rv^ 
 
 J"*" 
 
 300 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 faith in truth, though many came cheerfully, even gaily, 
 to baptism, as it was one of their own ceremonies, and 
 they gave no more weight to a sprinkle of holy water 
 than to toss upward a pinch of prayer meal, or puff of 
 smoke, as they did when speech was made of their devil 
 ish gods. 
 
 Padre de Vallada asked for Sefior Alcatraz, and not 
 finding him, called a Walpi youth to interpret for him 
 to the few Navajos. He had hoped he could gain con 
 verts among them if once they were led in by friendly 
 Hopi. I listened while they told whence they came, 
 which place was great Tseye the rift in the earth 
 from which their gods had surely emerged. The Walpi 
 interpreter listened politely to this, and later told us that 
 in the ancient days it was his own people who had lived 
 sheltered in the deep canon walls, but the clans had 
 come a few, and then many out into the sunshine, 
 until now they all lived like the eagles, very high above 
 the lands higher in the air than they had once built 
 deep in the bosom of the earth; also he added that the 
 graves of the ancient fathers of the Hopitu were in 
 Tseye to prove his words, while the Navajo were people 
 of a yesterday. 
 
 Padre de Vallada properly rebuked him for unseemly 
 pride of ancient ancestry, since the pagans of course 
 were all brothers alike, and none of more importance 
 than his fellows. But Sancha smiled on the pretensions 
 of the interpreter, and reminded the padre that it was 
 by such pride of ancestry that every ruling family of 
 Castile held claim on eminence. By their accounts, the 
 Hopi were older than many proud lines of Hispania, and 
 for her part she was hopeful the journey might take us
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 301 
 
 to that oft-mentioned wonder cradle of the clans 
 mysterious Tseye. 
 
 The Navajo watched while she spoke, as did also the 
 other Indio people, for their women speak gravely and 
 seldom before strangers, and do not smile on all as did 
 Sancha. They looked on her robe and rosary, and asked 
 if she was of high medicine orders, also they said that 
 when she journeyed to the east they would be as guide 
 for her through their lands. 
 
 The older men in the Hopi circle exchanged quiet 
 glances when this was said, but Sancha and the padre 
 were in some friendly discussion and did not note it. I, 
 because of the words of Tristan, was alert and making 
 note of all things, and wished him with us to prompt us 
 for reply to this offer. I had to content myself by smil 
 ing on one and all most amicably, and let it go at that. 
 
 As the day wore on, all of Walpi assumed its gala 
 dress. Children ran about garbed in a little paint, the 
 warm sunshine, and strings of beads, while the maidens 
 appeared on the terraces in sober native weavings, with 
 red or green girdles, and their hair in the wheel-like 
 dressing over either ear. There was a subdued sense of 
 importance everywhere. Each good housewife had 
 foods prepared, for visitors or relatives. The Navajo 
 women in their dress of skins, peered with a child s 
 interest into bowls and cooking pots, for they were 
 as folk of the wilderness on visits to a central city. All 
 these things filled the day for Sancha and me, though 
 each of us thought often of the friend who was some 
 where underground in that place of the serpent den. A 
 great sheaf of green boughs was erected in the center 
 of the plaza and appeared of special interest, for the
 
 pn 
 
 302 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 visitors and Walpians gradually moved in that direc 
 tion, chatting, and placing themselves comfortably 
 along the edges of the roofs, and perching on ladders, 
 until from the stone floor of the mesa to the sky line 
 above there was a sea of Indian faces looking down. 
 
 " But for the difference in color and dress, one might 
 think it a fight at home with a bull," said Sancha. " Is 
 it not so?" 
 
 I could not agree that a gathering of pagan barbarians 
 in an infidel ceremony could have likeness to repre 
 sentatives of the finest families of Castile gathered for 
 royal sport. My imagination had its limits. Sancha s 
 had none. 
 
 " Well," she said finally, after I had expressed my 
 thought of it, " if it is danger makes the sport, I should 
 say that these pagans at their prayers handling serpents 
 show more brave blood than all our ancestors sitting 
 in rows to watch a trained man and old horses tease a 
 bull to death." 
 
 We almost made a quarrel over that, but Movi inter 
 fered with her slow smile and gentle voice. 
 
 " Soon the Antelope priests will come from the ivn, 
 and after that the priests of the snake will come," she 
 said. " The clan of my father is of that people, and 
 because of the gift of the bell they ask a new promise 
 of you will you come? " 
 
 Sancha was all alert with interest, yet feared to leave 
 the plaza lest the ceremony of the day be lost, but I 
 reminded her it was a time to return all kindnesses. 
 
 " Yes we will go, but why wait so late, Movi? " she 
 said. " This is the time when all are waiting and watch 
 ing in the plaza."
 
 U w._J LrrrrJ i 
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 303 
 
 " That is so," agreed Movi " and that is the time 
 when no one sees us." 
 
 " Juanito must also come? " 
 
 " Yes that is best, come," said Movi. 
 
 She fairly ran to an opening in a little plaza to the 
 west, where a ladder came up out of the ground, and 
 a woman stood watching. I thought it Lenmana, the 
 woman who had been our hostess in the house where 
 the girl ground wedding meal, but the dress was differ 
 ent, and I could not be sure ; she wore a white shawl, 
 and very white boots. 
 
 There was some hesitation about allowing me to fol 
 low Sancha, but I had been told to keep near, and the 
 haste to get her away from the crowd was curious to 
 me. 
 
 " Take no trouble for me, Juanito," called Sancha 
 from the cavern place. " I think it is a well intentioned 
 thing and you will laugh. Sit you there on the ladder 
 until they are through with me the time will not be 
 long." 
 
 After Movi had finished as interpreter in the iva, 
 she came up, and sat by me on the ladder, smiling. 
 
 " I am not told why it is," she confessed, " but the 
 clan of my father wish to do a kindness, and he thinks 
 it is good she puts off the robe of a priest here this day. 
 There are men from Oriabe here, and they are in anger 
 that is all I know. Your priests have angered them, 
 and a maid in a priest s robe is to them crooked magic. 
 At this time all are making prayers for power that is 
 strong. My people want Poli-kota safe, as Ivava is 
 safe so it is they give to her a Hopi dress, as Len 
 mana gave to her a Hopi name."
 
 304 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Then I knew what they meant by saying the curious 
 word over Sancha s foam white head. It was a Hopi 
 name, and so ugly it would cure her of fancy for Hopi 
 custom. I chuckled over the thought, while Movi 
 patiently explained that Oriabe men had many jealous 
 days concerning Walpi clans, and it seemed as if the 
 priests of the Castilians put them in confusion with each 
 ether. Also she said she had never seen a ceremonial 
 day of any of the brotherhoods when so many of the 
 old men looked darkly on each other. What it boded 
 she did not know. 
 
 My interest in their various factions was slight, and, 
 whatever their discord might be, we would take the 
 trail at dawn and see no more of it or that was my 
 comforting thought. 
 
 So satisfied was I with it, that I listened more to 
 the laughter of Sancha in the woman s r va than to the 
 quiet tones of Movi beside me on the ladder. Whatever 
 was going forward down there in the underground 
 room, it was not a thing of trouble, for Sancha was as 
 gay as a child in accepting their friendship offering. 
 
 But, when she called up that I must close my eyes 
 until she stood beside me, I had little preparation for 
 that which I saw when I looked upon her. It was not 
 alone the dress and girdle, but the hair dressing of the 
 maids of Tusayan, which is, in my mind, the real test 
 to a comely face. 
 
 I knew not whether to laugh or disapprove, for in 
 mockery of me she stood smiling shyly, with the manta 
 of white about her, and the wheels of her dark hair 
 coiled over her ears. 
 
 She looked it all too well, and so I told her; no one
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 305 
 
 who had ever seen her in the palace of the viceroy 
 would know her now for the Marquesa de Llorente y 
 Rivera. 
 
 " I make you my compliments, Poli-kota," I said 
 with my best bow. " I find comfort that you retain at 
 least the rosary of civilization ! " In my heart I dreaded 
 having the padre see her. 
 
 " Poli-kota ! what a thing to call me," and she 
 laughed as she whirled on her toes and then made 
 mocking courtesy. But the small sister of Movi called 
 to us from the terrace, and Sancha caught my hand 
 and made me run with her. 
 
 " Am I not fine? " she asked. " It is a garb of good 
 service for the trail, but I will need a tirewoman for 
 the hair dressing, so difficult it is, Juanito. They tell 
 me there is a wide well on the mesa beyond the shrine 
 where the trails meet; you must take me there before 
 the light goes I want it for a mirror." 
 
 We had reached the plaza, and found again our place 
 en the terrace by the strange column of stone. There 
 was a quiet " Ah ! " went round the swarthy circle, and 
 some said " Lolomi! " and there were smiles given us. 
 
 But we had scarcely been settled, when, as if far off, 
 we heard muffled voices and rattles, and up from a iva 
 came a fearsome group who circled the plaza, and then 
 did a shuffle sort of dance before the green boughs. I 
 turned to Movi, who said it was the Antelope priests, 
 but more than that I could not learn, for a louder and a 
 different note sounded and every head turned to watch, 
 and Sancha took my hand. 
 
 " Listen, Juanito ! even the Indies show their awe of 
 this which is coming. I would he were beside us ! "
 
 306 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 She did not say who, but there was no need, for her 
 wish was my own. The painting of the Antelope priests 
 made them aught but comely, yet their appearance was 
 fairly mild compared with the Snake priests who swept 
 into the plaza with a ruthless force dangerous to any 
 thing in their path. 
 
 They circled the plaza, they sounded before the altar 
 of green boughs their message to the spirit priests of 
 the shadow world, and then the thing they did is a 
 thing not to be believed, but my own eyes saw it, and 
 the shudder of Sancha and the muttered execration of 
 Padre de Vallada told me I was not in a devil s dream. 
 
 For out of that altar of green boughs they drew hand- 
 fuls of serpents big and little, they circled the plaza with 
 them coiled around neck, shoulder and arms. Their 
 shuffling dance, which was of a strangeness in itself, was 
 done with serpents darting here and there between their 
 feet, and all the while there was a monotonous droning, 
 like a wordless chant to which they circled the Snake 
 priests with their coiling serpents, and the Antelope 
 attendants, who stroked with eagle feathers the loath 
 some reptiles. At the last they were all tossed in a 
 great pile and sprinkled with prayer meal, and then 
 gathered in bare hands and borne to the four ways to 
 carry messages to the gods that the faith of the people 
 was great, and the devotion of the Snake priests was 
 strong ! 
 
 " It is diabolical sorcery flung in the face of the 
 church ! " declared Padre de Vallada. " What further 
 evidence is needed that devils out of hell still walk the 
 earth?" 
 
 " Yet harmless to all," said the voice of Tristan back
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 307 
 
 of us. " Did not Jesus, the Teacher, say all faithful to 
 God, the Father, could thus deal with serpents and 
 scorpions? These people do this thing in natural faith, 
 and for that are they condemned, yet in all their cere 
 monies we hear of no one injured." 
 
 "Is not the spirit of man injured if not the body?" 
 demanded the padre, who was livid with horror. " I 
 have heard of these abominations, but now my own eyes 
 have looked upon them, and I shall tell these pagans 
 
 " Tell them nothing today, Your Reverence," said 
 Tristan lowly, " their temper is not good for a sermon 
 after what they have gone through. It has meant eight 
 days and nights in the iva, and fasting since set of sun 
 yesterday. They are exalted for any sacrifice, and it is 
 a time for wise silences." 
 
 " They send you out of their den of evil with advice 
 to a priest of the church? " accused Padre de Vallada, 
 but Tristan shook his head, and kept his voice carefully 
 lowered because of Indians near who were silent and 
 intent. 
 
 " No one has told me, no one has sent me, but there 
 are converts here today, men from Oriabe, and they are 
 not well received in this place. That may seem to 
 you a simple matter, but nothing these people do is 
 without meaning." 
 
 " Even that? " said the priest, pointing to Sancha, who 
 stood with face turned away, suddenly conscious of 
 her hair, half shamed before Tristan though it had only 
 been a jest with me. " Are we to choose their customs 
 to suit their vanities? It is a new way! " 
 
 Then Tristan saw her and smiled.
 
 a 
 
 v [c? 
 
 ^ * V 
 
 ^TQ^^A^V 
 308 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " It is so good a way, Padre de Vallada, that I could 
 wish the clans would offer the same garb to every Chris 
 tian in Tusayan this day," he said with so much force 
 that the priest frowned back, sore perplexed. 
 
 " Why this day, and why Christians ? " he asked. 
 
 " I do not know. I am not told. You and your com 
 rade priest should know each word here, and the cause 
 of it. I came yesterday, I go tomorrow. I give thanks 
 that they welcome my friends, but I am glad to go 
 quickly." 
 
 I led Sancha away lest she have fear at the words. 
 On the long trail the dauntless spirit of her had been a 
 rare comfort, and I had no mind to have it spoiled by 
 Indio factions and their troubles, now that we were 
 at the far gate of the land. 
 
 As it was, she feared Padre de Vallada disapproved 
 of her, and that was bad indeed, but not so serious as 
 would be his anger at Tristan that pagan sanctuaries 
 were open to him when closed against the priests of 
 holy church. 
 
 I thought as much myself, but cared little to dwell 
 upon it, and reminded her of the well on the mesa to 
 be used as a mirror. The sun was sinking, and it was 
 the time when maids and matrons filled the water jars 
 for the morning. 
 
 Willingly she consented, for it was her last chance of 
 seeing herself as a Hopi maid; also, she was eager 
 enough to walk where we could speak freely of the 
 unbelievable thing we had seen. 
 
 "Were they killed the serpents?" she asked, and 
 glanced warily about the trail when I told her they 
 had been carried to the four points of the compass and
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 309 
 
 let go to bear witness to native gods that the faith of 
 the Hopi priests was strong. 
 
 " I would that he might tell us what other wonders 
 he saw underground," she ventured, " but it is scarce 
 to be hoped, since all is secret even from their brothers. 
 It is strange." 
 
 As we passed the great shrine, an Indio followed us 
 by another and narrower way, and halted at the western 
 edge of the mesa watching us. 
 
 " He also sat near on the terrace," she said, " and I 
 think he is of the family of Movi each place I go, I see 
 him near." 
 
 Movi heard us, and smiled. 
 
 " It is my brother, Wisti," she said, " also he speak 
 Castilian and Pueblo for the padres, and now he goes 
 the trail with you to Santa Fe. It is his work to see 
 you all with your own people." 
 
 The man must have heard her, but made no move 
 towards us. Later I learned that his indifference had 
 a reason. He was to guard and report all things, yet 
 run no risk of being thought over friendly lest another 
 be put in his place. The Oriabe visitors had decided 
 that a white woman in trie Painted Desert meant a col 
 ony settlement as at Santa Cruz and Santa Fe, and that 
 was the least desirable of things, so it was the task of 
 friendly Walpi clans to bear the task of proof. He 
 watched, listened, and reported. 
 
 Above the shrine, ancient steps were cut in the point 
 of the cliff, and up there we followed the maids with 
 the water vessels. It was their hour of laughter and 
 careless jests with each other. Some visiting youths 
 were crossing the trail there, and despite an older
 
 3 io THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 woman who served as duenna, there were looks 
 exchanged, and gay railleries as the maids teased each 
 other, and ran up the incline, pausing at the edge to 
 glance down at the men on the west trail below. 
 
 It was a wonderful place up there on the mesa of the 
 well. A cool air followed the sun, and the moon showed 
 silver white above the far blue cliffs. There was the 
 scent of sage in the air; and some other shrub, nearer 
 and sweetly penetrating. Sancha asked of it, and was 
 shown small roses of yellow and its low growing green 
 on the trail. Further ahead it had more height and 
 strength. Sancha was gay as the most carefree maid 
 of them all; in great good humor with herself when 
 once av/ay from the chiding eyes of watchful Padre de 
 Vallada. She even ran races with them, and was left 
 behind, whereupon the visitors ran back to her with 
 smiles and comforting words. Then they led her to the 
 pool that she might kneel there on the stone and bend 
 over to view herself in the curious hair dressing reserved 
 for maidens. 
 
 They were like children in their humor with her, 
 and I stood apart, a guard who was needed as little as 
 silent Wisti, who remained at the head of the stairway. 
 I watched him with a friendly desire to fraternize if he 
 was to be a companion of the trail, but the fact that 
 he spoke Spanish, yet had not betrayed it to Sancha or 
 me, withheld me. 
 
 Noting that the Indian maids were more free when 
 I was not near, I found myself a seat and idly watched 
 a man who ran to the east, past the cornfields. I strove 
 to keep him in sight, but he faded into the shadowy 
 places where canons were, and over all drifted the tur-
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 311 
 
 quoise and soft gray of the sky, and the evening star 
 like a glimmer of gold in the west. 
 
 The place had a beauty so strange that nothing but 
 the quaint garb of the Hopi people seemed right for 
 it. My own worn apparel would have spoiled any 
 picture, and I was as well satisfied not to use the mir 
 ror of the pool. But while watching the others, the 
 thought came that even the peaceful tribes of the south 
 dressed and looked like savages, but these people of 
 many mysteries had a great correctness in their dress 
 regulations. The little children ran naked, and the 
 men in the races almost so, yet when they did put 
 on garments, it was after a rigid manner; and no 
 woman, old or young, was without the enveloping 
 manta, by which, in modesty, the lines of the form 
 were concealed. 
 
 I heard one of the maids laugh and say "Poli-kota," 
 while others flicked water from the pool on Sancha, at 
 which there were little shrieks, as she, with a clay dip 
 per, gave back as good as they sent. Thus without a 
 common language, and only the spirit of youth as 
 medium, they got along very gaily. 
 
 I had never before seen Sancha with groups of young 
 people except when backed by all the convention of 
 Castilian forms. Always I had seen her with people 
 of mature years, and the nuns, and the ecclesiastical 
 flavor of life where there was little of freedom. 
 
 I was thinking of this, and noting how rosy her 
 cheek, and how sweet her laughter, when a step sounded 
 back of me, and Tristan was there. 
 
 He was breathing quickly as if from running, and I 
 asked the cause of haste.
 
 312 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " None, now that I see you both in safety," he con 
 fessed " but I was not told where she had gone, and 
 if by chance it had been on the lower trails " 
 
 " What then? " I asked, and he smiled. 
 
 " Nothing, since you are not there," he said. " But 
 the Oriabe men go home that way, and they are in some 
 way jealous that we are here. It may be a matter of 
 religion, for there is a special feeling against the wearers 
 of robes." 
 
 " Yet you wear one," I said. 
 
 " The Walpi men understand that, but the Oriabe 
 men are of different mind," he said. " I only anger 
 Padre de Vallada when I try to make him see, but 
 there is a strong feeling against his brother priest be 
 cause white children are born now in Tusayan. The 
 heads of the clans have held council on the matter, and 
 there is a brewing of troubles to come. I was even 
 warned that it is better we all turn south again from 
 here, and not try to cross to the Rio Bravo. But since 
 that is not to be, the Walpi men will send a strong 
 friend who knows the speech of other tribes." 
 
 "You mean Wisti?" 
 
 " You learn fast," he said, " and so does your lady 
 cousin; there is no thing more wise that she could do 
 than to wear the dress today and use that coiling of 
 the hair." 
 
 All the vessels were filled, and the women had started 
 back along the trail, when Sancha saw him, and 
 laughed. 
 
 " Have you come with a sermon from the padre on 
 my vanity of spirit? " she asked. " Since it is only once 
 in my life, I come to look at myself." 

 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 
 
 " It is worth your trouble," he answered, " but keep 
 to your priest s robe for the cloak you may need in cold 
 rains. You must not remain away from the village until 
 the dusk comes. I am as the shepherd, whose duty it is 
 to guard you back." 
 
 " Sleepless shepherd ! " she said. " When do you 
 rest? And is it the serpents you have fear of here after 
 dusk? I shall see them in my dreams for many a night." 
 
 " Nay, Excellencia, keep them not in your mind as 
 things altogether of horror. They have a double tongue 
 and carry messages to the gods, also they have ears, 
 and are thought to hear when evil is said of them. An 
 Indio does not say evil of any of the things of nature 
 not even a hurricane because God is in all." 
 
 " We may learn from them in that," she said. " What 
 shall I do to make my peace, or my thanks, that they 
 did not eat me? Movi, what do you to make thanks? " 
 
 " We place prayer plumes for gifts or thanks, and we 
 make shrines for that." 
 
 " Then will I," declared Sancha, " in memory, and 
 when I am gone, you will come to it sometimes and 
 think of the days when we were wanderers in the wide 
 Desert." 
 
 " That will I, Isiwa," said Movi, " and isiva is sister." 
 
 There was a natural elevation in the rock floor, and 
 on it Sancha placed small stones as a child builds a 
 home. Movi helped by bringing others. 
 
 " But ai me ! I have neither prayer meal nor incense," 
 lamented Sancha ; " and, after all, it will only be a pile 
 of stone on the mesa floor." 
 
 "Could you lack incense when you have this?" and 
 Tristan broke sprays of the sweet smelling shrub on
 
 314 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 which were yellow, roselike bloom of much sweetness. 
 As he offered it, Sancha uttered a little cry, for a white 
 butterfly fluttered from its resting place, and hovered 
 over the blossoms, unafraid. 
 
 Movi clapped her hands in delight. 
 
 " It is good ! It is truly most good ! " she said. " This 
 day you get the name, White Butterfly, and at the 
 star time the white one comes to your memory shrine. 
 It is a sign from Those Above, and it is good to you." 
 
 Tristan laid the flowering branch on the little heap 
 of stone, for Sancha did not take it, she was staring 
 at the white thing on the odorous offering, and her 
 eyes were wide, and the laughter was gone from her 
 face. 
 
 Tristan was silent as she. I was half afraid at the 
 way the thing had chanced. 
 
 " What is this, Movi? " I asked, " what is it you say 
 of the butterfly name? We have not been told." 
 
 " Today Poli-kota Butterfly white, that is the 
 name. It is now the Hopi name for the sister of you. 
 Have you angry thoughts that you are now sad? " 
 
 " Not sad," said Tristan, " only it is a new thought 
 and it had not come to us before. The name is a beau 
 tiful name, and it is fitting it should be made very sacred. 
 Surely, Excellencia, you will accept the little rose of the 
 hernava when lacking other incense? " 
 
 " O God of my life ! " said Sancha, and it was as if 
 she spoke through shut teeth lest she scream, " it is in 
 truth a sign, it is in truth! It is fitting that I should 
 build a memory shrine I who have forgotten! We 
 were to build a shrine, the two of us, and the butterfly 
 has come to me in the Desert to show me how far I
 
 AMONG SERPENT PEOPLE 315 
 
 am now from that thought! It has come to tell me 
 that." 
 
 " Nay, Excellencia, it did not come. I brought it," 
 said Tristan. " It was asleep in its quiet resting place, 
 so the fault is mine." 
 
 " Do not call me excellencia, and it is not a fault," 
 she made answer. " It is my own saint has sent me a 
 sign, and it is you who have made the shrine with me, 
 Kahn Alcatraz ! " 
 
 " If it makes you sad, I stand ready for any penance, 
 Butterfly Maiden," he said. 
 
 " I should be sad, yet I am only sore bewildered," she 
 confessed. " Out of all the things of the Desert, why 
 should that name be the choice for me ? And of all the 
 growing things, why should you bring the one on which 
 the butterfly slept? O, you think me deranged! You 
 cannot know what the white butterfly has meant in 
 my dreams; you never dream, because you so seldom 
 sleep ! " 
 
 The afterglow was flaring its rose tints where the 
 blues and grays had been, and as she sank on her knees 
 beside the little memory shrine the reflected light gave 
 her the unreal glamour of the mysterious. Movi 
 touched my hand. 
 
 " At shrines one must not weep," she said, and Sancha 
 heard her. 
 
 " I do not weep, I only remember," she said, " and 
 this place of the shrine is not now a place lightly 
 thought of. It is made here to my Saint of the Impos 
 sible, for the impossible has come in the deserts where 
 I have been protected by her care. It is right I should 
 leave a memory of that on the trail, and what place so
 
 316 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 fit? The mesa itself is as a great throne or altar place. 
 You are right ; the incense is on every side, and strange 
 it is that such fragrance should be rooted in the crevice 
 of the great rock." 
 
 " The fragrance lasts through the years," said Tris 
 tan. "Will you take a branch? It may survive the 
 journey." 
 
 She took that which he offered, but after a moment 
 laid it on the little shrine of stone, and lifted a bit of 
 that on which the butterfly had rested. 
 
 " This will go with me," she said. " And now come 
 away quickly. I want to go while its wings yet make 
 beauty on the yellow bloom." 
 
 We walked in silence along the mesa and saw the 
 shadows changing and deepening while the moon gave 
 silvery light on the gray sage. 
 
 At the head of the stone steps she stood last, and he 
 beside her. 
 
 " It is strange," she said, " how dreams are dreamed, 
 and vows are made, and we drift far, but a vow made 
 must be kept even in places strange as this the saints 
 who guard us bring it to be." 
 
 " That is often true," he said. 
 
 " I am glad it was here," she added as she looked back 
 over the exalted and lonely height. " Never shall I see 
 it again but it will not be forgotten." 
 
 Our silent guard stood by the ancient shrine of the 
 pass as we went up the trail, and looking back, I could 
 see him follow in the twilight. He did not speak even 
 to Movi, his sister.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 
 
 WHEN the herald star of morning shone over 
 the mesa of the east, we descended to the 
 plain, and shadowy forms sped beside us. 
 It was a silent group, strangely silent. 
 
 Movi had wept at our going, and in the house of her 
 father, Hongovi, there had been no sleep. Her brother 
 told Padre de Vallada the route we would go, and he 
 gave us perfunctory blessing, taking his own trail to 
 Oriabe. 
 
 We had scarce left the foot of the mesa when I noted 
 we were going north instead of east. Tristan observed 
 it, and spoke to Wisti. 
 
 " It is so," he said. " It is better you go where no 
 enemy waits on the trail." 
 
 " We make no enemies, for we are friends with all," 
 insisted Tristan. 
 
 " So says my father in council, and so it is I who 
 journey by your side for your happiness," said Wisti 
 briefly, and he bade us not spare our horses the first 
 day for the first day was a trial. 
 
 His father ran beside our horses, and when we 
 reached high places would ever pause to look back over 
 the trail. We were riding away from the strange 
 mesas, and into a land of rolling hills and trees ; flower
 
 3 i8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 carpeted plains and arroyos between. At a curious red 
 cliff where there were cavelike openings suggesting 
 windows we halted, and found there some of the 
 Navajos who had left Walpi before sunset. Wisti 
 showed gladness at sight of them, as did the older men. 
 
 " Now it is over," said Wisti. " Men of Oriabe will 
 not follow into this land if your trail is with Navajo." 
 
 And that was the first I suspected that our comrades 
 were along to guard us from some of their own tribe! 
 
 " It is so," insisted our guide. " They went away 
 from Walpi, but not to home. They wait for you in 
 the canon of Motsovi, for they were jealous of the 
 horses. Their thought was that our tribe should have 
 these horses and not the Rio Bravo men." 
 
 I wondered how much Tristan suspected, but he was 
 ahead with Sancha, exchanging greeting with the 
 Navajo. We made a halt at the nearest place of water, 
 and all ate together, and when it was over, Hongovi, 
 the father of Movi, smoked, and then spoke. 
 
 " When the tornado comes, and levels all standing 
 things, it gives the warning of thunder and shakes 
 the earth. I am your friend, and the Dawn and the 
 Day hear me. Go you back to the south and live. That 
 is the little, far-off trembling of the air for you as warn 
 ing. I am your friend." 
 
 " I also am friend," said Tristan, " but to the south 
 I may not go. If the trail is closed to the east, then I 
 will find my way back to your clan where my friend 
 is." 
 
 " That is good," was the answer. " But my son goes 
 with you. It is his work. If there is life for you, he 
 will help you to it. But if death finds you where I say
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 319 
 
 not to go, then not again may I, your father, smoke 
 with you on earth." 
 
 " That may be so," assented Tristan, " for after the 
 ride to Santa Fe my trail is covered by a cloud, and I 
 have no light by which to see." 
 
 Sancha looked at him strangely, with something like 
 fear in her face. It was the first time she had thought 
 of him as going out of our lives, and my own heart 
 shook. I had striven with myself against thought of 
 that which I knew must come. 
 
 " There are high places of refuge where the Dawn 
 may bring you Light," said the old Indio, " for this, 
 my son goes with you on the trail. But these the 
 friends you love send in haste back to their homes 
 that they may live, and remember me Hongovi." 
 
 " That I will surely strive to do," promised Tris 
 tan, and then smiled and glanced at us. " But these, 
 Hongovi, are very exalted people in their own land; 
 I but serve them on the way, yet have no rule for them 
 at the end of the trails." 
 
 " Make rules, if they are dear to you. I have spoken," 
 said the chief, and then he, with his comrades, bade us 
 farewell and turned back, and we journeyed on with 
 Wisti and the Navajo. We had to wait at a village of 
 theirs by a river while the men sought out a safe cross 
 ing, for the quicksand made it a place of danger for 
 horses. 
 
 So the night was spent there where the curious 
 hogans, or huts, were built of brushwood and clay, and 
 had a mean appearance after the high place of Walpi 
 above the sands. 
 
 But the people were tall and finely made, and were
 
 320 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 kindly disposed to us. Sancha noted that their infants 
 were wrapped in the fine inner bark of the hernava 
 shrub, which was soft as moss and sweetly odorous. 
 The fragrance of that shrub stays with me strangely 
 like mingled cedar and rose, and while I saw it many 
 times on the trail, I only think of it as I saw it first, 
 where it served as incense for the shrine on that 
 mesa mysteriously beautiful. 
 
 Sancha wore her Indian dress, but her hair was 
 braided and a wreath of leaves served as shield from 
 the sun. Wisti talked to us freely now that duty or 
 ceremony did not seal his lips, and noting the interest 
 of Sancha in the women and little children, he came to 
 tell us that there was to be a marriage of the daughter 
 of one of their men of importance; for that reason had 
 the relatives hastened back from Walpi, and there 
 would be a feast. 
 
 The little bride for she was very young looked 
 with shy smiles at Sancha, evidently honored that 
 strangers from afar were guests. There was a fire, 
 and a special vessel of food, and there was neither 
 priest nor other official only the man and the maid, 
 the robe and the dish, and their relatives around them 
 in a circle. Over the shoulders of the maid the man 
 placed the robe, and seated himself in silence beside 
 her. 
 
 I endeavored to make some jest as to the lack of 
 ceremony, but Sancha rebuked me. 
 
 " After all, what matter? " she asked. " Can you not 
 see that they are fond? Could the words of a bishop 
 make them more so?" 
 
 What I began to say in comment I did not say, for
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 321 
 
 Tristan had entered silently and stood by the door, and 
 at her words I saw him for the first time off guard, 
 and gazing at her with half at least of his heart in 
 his eyes. 
 
 Sancha, looking up, saw him, and what she read there 
 made her own face change. In like fashion had he 
 clothed her in the southern desert ! A long instant their 
 eyes met in strange steadiness, but while his face 
 looked gray in the light of the hogan fire, hers flamed 
 red and turned aside. 
 
 That shadowy hogan, with its circle of dark pagans, 
 was a strange place for a revelation of soul. I scarcely 
 breathed, and all our little world stood still, only the 
 eyes of those two spoke. 
 
 Then the Indian lover took from the side of the 
 dish some of the food, and offered the dish to the bride. 
 Her hand took food carefully from the same side, and 
 together they ate, and later drank from the same cup 
 in the presence of their respective clans, and the cere 
 mony ended. 
 
 " If the simple form has your approval, you scarce 
 could improve on that," I ventured, in attempt to lift 
 the strange chill fallen on all three of us; but Sancha 
 stated coldly that it was time for sleep, and walked 
 past me out into the night. There was nothing for me 
 but to follow, and Tristan was left to make a more 
 ceremonious withdrawal. We found the bed for 
 Sancha already prepared, of high piled sage branches 
 with her monk s robe over it, and she dropped down 
 there and covered her face with one of the sleeves. 
 
 " All my life I should keep this robe to humble my 
 pride, and remind me of my nakedness," she said
 
 322 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " also to remind me of other things ! Sleep near me, 
 Juanito, but waste no words on me this night, for 
 the day has been over long." 
 
 The night seemed but an hour of darkness, when 
 the hand of Tristan was on my shoulder and we woke 
 to eat grilled deer meat, and maize that was parched. 
 All were ready for the trail when he waked us. 
 
 We forded the river ere the gray dawn had merged 
 into the yellow dawn of the desert, and the four Navajo 
 men of Walpi went with us, well armed with knives, 
 arrows, and steel lances. Already the coming of Span 
 ish men had improved the war implements of the 
 natives. 
 
 These men we could not speak with except by the 
 help of Wisti, though I had more than a little interest 
 in them. Often they sang as they rode strange 
 songs in which sounded all the calls of the wilderness, 
 and Movi had told us things of their magic which kept 
 me as keen in desire as had the tales of the ceremony 
 of snakes. 
 
 Tristan only smiled with his usual patience when I 
 would have asked of their great healing by prayer and 
 songs, but would not allow me to question. 
 
 " Through some especial courtesy they go with us 
 for our safety, but it is a mystery to me, and the jour 
 ney requires caution. I dare not take risks as to ques 
 tion of their religion. But at least I can promise you 
 one strange trail in their land which inspires to much, 
 and it may aid you to understand a little of the people, 
 for their legends are often of it." 
 
 More than that he did not say, and when we entered 
 a canon where water ran, and the wood doves fluttered
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 323 
 
 ahead of us from the stream, we were glad for the 
 sake of all, yet gave it not much thought until of a 
 sudden, huge walls shut us in, and before us was a 
 great spear of a rock like the monument of a giant. 
 This was where two ways divided, and as we went on 
 ward the spell of mystery and beauty lowered every 
 voice, for we were in the true canon of the Divine Ones 
 as believed by these people, and no soul could journey 
 into the heart of the land there and view the habita 
 tions of the ancients stone walled under roofs of great 
 rock ledges and fail to feel the spirit of awe breath 
 ing there. The age of it, and the bigness of it, made 
 us feel very little and even weak, for the men who had 
 built the eagle nests of homes under eaves of gray 
 rock had been strong men and their building had 
 beauty. The outer walls were white, and the inner 
 walls of many colors pink of the rose, blue of the 
 turquoise, yellow of the sun, all these in many tints 
 were there and strange designs of decoration. 
 
 Before one of these Sancha stood with curious re 
 gard. It was the imprint of a woman s hand dipped 
 in white earth paint, and impressed on the smooth 
 brown stone. 
 
 " It is the hand of a lady, that," she decided ; " see 
 the beauty of the fingers, slender as if used only for 
 fine embroiderings ; yet it would seem as if she had 
 been a worker in clay." 
 
 " Perhaps not so," ventured Tristan. " This was a 
 kiva wall, a sanctuary. Here are the seats for council, 
 and there the altar place. All the designs are prayer 
 symbols, and the mark of the hand may be for a vow 
 made."
 
 IS 
 
 324 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " And long ago? " 
 
 " It may be centuries. This is the place so ancient 
 it is called the home of the gods." 
 
 " Centuries ! and the mark of one woman s hand 
 stands record as if it had been made yesterday!" 
 
 " The hand of a woman, though slender, may weigh 
 heavily, Excellencia," he said, and she looked at him 
 reproachfully. 
 
 " I told you it did not please me to be thus called," 
 she replied, " but this hand interests me. Then the 
 women of these enchanted lands made vows as 
 today?" 
 
 " And broke them, as today it may be so," he said. 
 " Their hearts are as our own, except that our life 
 has given us more cravings and arts than they knew." 
 
 " Do we need more? " she asked wistfully. " I never 
 knew how little ceremony life and happiness needed 
 until we found this magical land. I wish I might leave 
 impress of my own hand here in record of that." 
 
 "Truly?" I said, for he only looked at her as if 
 in wonder if his ears had told him aright. She did not 
 know how much her words had expressed. 
 
 " Truly, Juanito. These places bewitch me, so I 
 think. I want to be of them because I feel the spirit 
 of them is of beauty. Have we not passed many good 
 and profitable places for dwelling? And some of to 
 day s people live in them. But the places of the 
 ancients, whether walled by their own hands, or by 
 nature, are the places of most wonder and beauty in 
 their world. Do you not see it everywhere?" 
 
 I had, but not to spell it out like that. 
 
 " Their ancient prayers are the same," said Tristan.
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 325 
 
 " If they came from Persia and were in a book, you 
 would learn them and repeat them as poems." 
 
 " Know you any? " asked Sancha. 
 
 He glanced below where the Navajo men were rest 
 ing, and the horses were feeding on the grass thick and 
 high at edge of the stream. Wisti was also there. 
 
 " I know one invocation to a sky god of theirs, but 
 this is not a time to repeat it in the hearing of any of 
 them. Our priests have made them distrust all our 
 interest in their religion." 
 
 " Say it for me while Juanito stands guard," she 
 begged, and he did so. It was very long, and I never 
 heard it all again, but I recall the opening words for 
 the reason that Sancha afterwards chanted them as 
 we rode, and said they made her think of words from 
 the Bible read by a padre at the convent. 
 
 " Repeat it not to a padre unless you are ready for 
 a penance," said Tristan " for this prayer is very 
 pagan, and is joyous in its faith." 
 
 O You! 
 
 Who dwell 
 
 In the House of the Dawn, 
 
 In the House of the Evening Twilight, 
 
 Where the Dark Mist curtains the doorway 
 
 The path to which is the Rainbow! 
 
 Sancha stood looking at him in curious wonder as 
 he began the prayer as Fray Fernando had made trans 
 lation of it, and when he ended with the joyous 
 
 Impervious to pain, I walk! 
 Feeling light within, I walk! 
 With beauty before me, I walk.
 
 326 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 With beauty above me, I walk. 
 
 Happily may the roads all 
 
 Find the way of peace, 
 
 And the end of the ways in beauty! 
 
 Her hands were folded over her breast and her eyes 
 closed as if to shut out all but the meaning or feeling 
 of the words. When his voice was silent, she opened 
 her eyes, and put out her hand to him, and it was the 
 first time. 
 
 " O You who dwell 
 In the House of the Dawn! " 
 
 she said, and tried to laugh, but her voice had a tremble 
 in it. " I have heard their prayers are beautiful, but 
 I never knew how they were beautiful until now! 
 Were you one time an Indian, Kahn Alcatraz? And 
 are you now born on earth again to teach us beauty? " 
 
 He looked at her hand. It lay in his by her own 
 wish, and he turned towards the wall and spread her 
 hand there as had been placed that other hand of the 
 woman of the ancient days. 
 
 But over Sancha s he placed his own. 
 
 " This of record in the house of many prayers," he 
 said. " You are a generous comrade, Dona Sancha, 
 but if the beauty were not in your own heart you would 
 not perceive it in my poor chanting of their prayer to 
 heal ills." 
 
 "And it does heal?" 
 
 " It does heal my own eyes have seen that. Thus 
 the prayer always ends happily, and with blessings for 
 every one."
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 327 
 
 " The things of wonder I am learning ! " she mused. 
 " I wish I might leave the mark of my hand there." 
 
 He picked up a piece of soft stone, and broke it to 
 a point to which his knife added. 
 
 " So slight a wish is easily met. I would that all 
 others of yours were likewise." 
 
 Thus I left them there while he used the soft spear 
 of stone as a pen, and made for her the outlines of her 
 hand. The last I heard of their speech they questioned 
 writing her name within the outlines, but decided 
 against it, and he gave her an Indian symbol instead 
 which only she would know, and marked it there. I 
 found her marking the same symbol in the sands when 
 we stopped to camp. 
 
 " But has it a meaning? " I asked, for to me it looked 
 not so much. 
 
 " It has meanings and many," she answered with 
 a pride in her new knowledge. " It is the star shining 
 over Walpi when I made the shrine to my Saint of 
 the Impossible." 
 
 " That star was Venus, and it has a record of its 
 own aside from Indian symbols," I told her, but she 
 gave me little heed, and went on smoothing the sand 
 and marking it, only to smooth it again for another 
 trial. 
 
 From the canon of the Divine Ones we emerged 
 with some difficulties of trail into a land of pifion and 
 shrubs and nodding blossoms, then through the grate 
 ful shade of pine forests where antelope nibbled tender 
 grass in the sheltered places. Birds of many kinds 
 were seen, and I was told that the blue bird and the 
 eagle were each prized highly for the feathers used
 
 328 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 in symbols of prayer one for its strength, and the 
 other because it carries the color of the sky depths 
 and of deep waters. 
 
 After the forests, the Navajo men were more cau 
 tious on the trail, for we passed through lands where 
 the Apaches ranged, and our party was small to with 
 stand any important band. 
 
 One nameless river we followed eastward towards 
 its source, and netted fish in its many pools. To our 
 taste they furnished desirable feasts after the steady 
 meat foods, dried or fresh, of our desert living, but 
 not an Indio but Wisti would eat them. The Navajo 
 men had some religious prejudice against the eating of 
 fishes a myth of theirs gives some clans brother 
 hood with water creatures. So they satisfied them 
 selves with meat, and the wild batata growing in that 
 land and baked in the ashes of the night fires. We also 
 ate it with the fish, and there were many wild berries 
 in canons where water was. Thus we fared well, and 
 on more variety than in the lands of the Pimaria. 
 Also the animals we rode were the better of running 
 water and rich grasses. 
 
 In all this journey, Tristan had sought in vain to 
 learn from Wisti the reason of the warning of Hongovi. 
 But Wisti confessed that he himself did not know; 
 also that his heart was troubled about it, for it was 
 no little thing. He was sure of that by the orders 
 given him, but the orders he dare not tell. And finally, 
 on his own account, he begged that Tristan act on the 
 bidding of Hongovi, and linger not at all in either 
 Sante Fe, or north of the great lava beds. 
 
 "Is it for me alone there is a danger?" asked Tris-
 
 CJ 
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 329 
 
 tan with the thought of the long route he had come 
 north to avoid traders, and the shorter route of the 
 east by which messenger of either the Holy Office or 
 the State might have borne word in advance. 
 
 But it was plain that Wisti knew naught of special 
 trouble for Tristan; he stated that none of the younger 
 men knew : it was a thing in the hearts of the old men, 
 and it might be that one of them had a vision. Wisti 
 thought that must be so, and visions are very sacred 
 things. 
 
 Then came the day when a thing of importance was 
 met on the trail, a spring where there were tracks of 
 sheep many sheep, and one lone burro plainly we 
 had reached the edge of a Spanish range where some 
 lone herder moved up and down the land with his 
 flock. 
 
 The Navajo looked with sharp eyes over all the 
 ground, and affirmed this, then said they would go 
 back to their clans, for we would now be safe with 
 our own people. 
 
 Wisti urged them to continue to the villages of the 
 Jemez and there was considerable argument concern 
 ing the matter. It seemed that the Jemez and Navajo 
 had twice fought together to overthrow the white men 
 and failed, and after that they drew apart and the 
 Jemez men were suspected of stealing Navajo girls 
 and selling them as slaves to the Spanish. 
 
 Sancha was affronted, yet curious as to the purchase 
 of Indian maids by the Christians, and was very cer 
 tain the padres had no knowledge of the traffic. But 
 Wisti told her that when a young Spaniard married, 
 it was a custom to present at least one slave girl to
 
 330 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 his bride, and if the Spaniard could not steal one, he 
 had to buy her. It was a common matter in the 
 settlements, and young men who wished to marry 
 sometimes banded together and went on a hunt for 
 women as gifts to their promised brides. 
 
 It was at the breakfast time these things were talked 
 of, and the Navajo said they would go beside us one 
 more day. Tristan did no persuading, but was con 
 tent to have them. He felt safe now as to Sancha, 
 for in Jemez he was known, and as we rode along to 
 gether he told me he had painted for them some of the 
 god beings they had described to Don Fernando. They 
 deemed painting great magic, and had shown him 
 special friendship. For this reason he felt that, if need 
 be, he could secure us a safe guard in case he should 
 part from our trail ere reaching Santa Fe. I did not 
 welcome that prospect, so made no mention of it to 
 Sancha. She had grown very quiet after the sheep 
 trail, and the evidence that at last, after living through 
 the impossible things, she was again on the border land 
 of her own people. 
 
 And when the shadows began to lengthen that day 
 we saw on a far hillside the moving mass of wool 
 bearers spread like a creeping blanket over the green, 
 and a shepherd dog gave warning to the herder that 
 strangers were abroad. 
 
 The herder was a Jemez Indio in camp by a spring, 
 and part of a freshly killed sheep hung to a tree limb. 
 The man looked at us, startled and uneasy, and asked 
 Wisti if the Navajo men were after women. Even 
 when told no, he continued to give us careful regard 
 not free from suspicion.
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE O N E S 331 
 
 But he was generous of both meat and water, and 
 cuts were broiling on the coals before the saddles were 
 off, and after he had been assured that Sancha had 
 come the incredible trail, and that we were her guard, 
 he opened his mouth, and told the thing of his fear. 
 
 He was all alone, and had his sheep to guard, and 
 on no account, and for nothing, could he leave them, 
 and he did not want that the Navajo men should hold 
 him to blame, but the facts were as follows : 
 
 The sheep had been killed at this place because other 
 company had been with him. He would not give 
 names, but it was three Castilian men, and they had 
 come from the south and had captured two girls. The 
 girls were Navajo, and he thought they would camp 
 early, for they had traveled fast and their horses were 
 wet. At first sight he thought we were on their trail. 
 His own tribe had been blamed often for the stealing 
 of Navajo women when it was indeed the white men 
 who took them, and he thought this was not a time for 
 neighbor tribes to be enemies to each other because of 
 acts of the white men. 
 
 Wisti watched him with sharp eyes like black beads 
 when he said this. 
 
 " This is a true thing," he said " also my father 
 who is Hangovi of Walpi tells me this is the time when 
 the tribes should be friends and brothers." 
 
 " Your father is wise," said the shepherd, " for it is 
 the time." 
 
 And the two men who were of different tribes, and 
 unknown to each other, exchanged looks of import, and 
 said no more. 
 
 The Navajo men talked apart with each other, and
 
 33 2 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 then decided. The horses were tired, but those of the 
 white men were in no better condition according to 
 the shepherd. Their plan was to ride down the thieves, 
 kill the men and take the women. 
 
 " But if the women can be bargained for without 
 battle, would that not be the better way? " asked 
 Tristan. 
 
 They agreed it would be the safer way, for the 
 Spanish had firing pieces yet they doubted any bar 
 gain. Navajo girls were much desired. Also to bar 
 gain would give time for the raiders to plan escape. 
 
 " If we are friends let me do a brother s part in this," 
 said Tristan. " I will demand the girls as your right. 
 If they are not given, my own arms will be for your 
 service this because you have been faithful in spirit 
 to poor wayfarers who can make no other return." 
 
 " The Divine Ones have at times come to earth as 
 poor wayfarers," was the reply they made, " and men 
 who have helped them fell heir to blessings. We will 
 do as you say. You are our friend." 
 
 Sancha was troubled over it all, for the wise and 
 lawful and Christian thing was of course to carry the 
 tale to Santa Fe where the church or the governor 
 would decide for justice, and the women would be sent 
 home safely to their clans. 
 
 "With whom would they be sent?" asked Tristan 
 but of course she could not say. 
 
 " The only safe guides are these men with us," he 
 said, " even if they were sent from the town, which 
 is not a thing to hope for they would be sold or traded 
 to pueblos on the trail, and would never see their own 
 people again."
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 333 
 
 " But with you to speak for them?" 
 
 " I, as I told you, am but a brother of the Desert, a 
 poor wayfarer, and my word of little import with dig 
 nitaries," he made reply. " We like little enough to 
 plan for troubles while you are of our care, but if 
 speech fail, then the women must be taken by force of 
 arms. We are enough." 
 
 Meat was cooked while we ate, and was then 
 wrapped in leaves and lashed well to our saddles that 
 we need not halt for food on the way. The shepherd 
 told us the best trail, and the springs, and passes of 
 the hills, and we rode on in the long shadows of the 
 late day. 
 
 " I know now how it was when you took the trail to 
 rescue me," said Sancha riding beside Tristan. But he 
 looked at her with the wonderful smile in his eyes. 
 
 " No, Dona Sancha, you do not know," he said, and 
 she did not argue, but rode on beside him into the 
 rose and gold and azure lights of the highland sky. 
 
 The rose and gold was cloaked in the blue mists of 
 twilight, and the stars came out, and still we rode on. 
 Wisti was far ahead on the trail leaving signs for us 
 to follow, halting at times until we came near, and 
 using every caution that we not ride close on the 
 quarry, and startle them ere their camp was made. 
 
 And at the last, when the night was late, and all 
 well wearied, Wisti stood in our path, and pointed 
 far down where a glimmer of light shone. 
 
 " They have reached the camp of a Jemez hunter 
 who goes for the sacred eagles," he stated. " He has a 
 cage with the young eaglets, and the fire is his fire, there 
 the three men have stopped, and the girls are there."
 
 334 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Then it means one more native man to help against 
 the raiders," I ventured, but Tristan was not so sure. 
 
 " Slavery is sanctioned in high places if it is prop 
 erly cloaked and named," he said. " It is called bring 
 ing in converts for the glory of God, and the pueblos 
 have it drilled into them as a just affair. Thus there 
 is no telling where the eagle catcher may stand in a 
 dispute." 
 
 We left our horses and crept forward. Sancha still 
 wore the Indian garb, but Tristan unstrapped her robe 
 and gave it to me to carry. The way was steep and 
 movement slow, with every caution used against the 
 starting of rolling stone down the canon wall. And 
 it was Tristan who led Sancha by the hand through 
 the dark of the Indian trail. 
 
 The glint of fire was on a plateau where the forest 
 hid it as we reached the level, but Wisti never wav 
 ered in direction, and led us between the pines until 
 we reached a thick scrub where young growth made a 
 jungle. We could hear voices there, yet see no one. 
 
 There were no words among us. Tristan on the 
 way had used all needed speech. Now he put the robe 
 about Sancha and put her hand in mine, and we all 
 moved forward quietly until we could hear the words, 
 good Spanish words from well-content rangers and 
 the first name spoken clearly was that of Marco de 
 Ordono ! 
 
 Sancha gripped my hand, and I know Tristan laid 
 his hand on her shoulder for silence. 
 
 " Let Governor Otermin give him lieutenant s rank 
 for his pretty face and his name ! " said one man. " All 
 that favor would fail to get him in on a hunt again
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 335 
 
 with me! He took the girl who by right belonged to 
 Roberto here, and for that reason we have to make 
 another, and a more distant raid, before Roberto s 
 favorita will go to the priest with him." 
 
 " O, Dolores would go with me," said Roberto with 
 a certain pride, " but who wants his wife to have not 
 even one woman to start the home with? But I owe 
 Ordofio for that trick. The girl had beauty." 
 
 " For that reason was Ordono s claim made," said 
 the first speaker, and laughed. " He has a trained eye 
 of his own. They tell that the girl he left in the Pima 
 land was also a beauty and white." 
 
 " True, but no one has dared tell the Don Antonio 
 of it. White women are all too scarce, and even Oter- 
 min might have frowned on that." 
 
 " He did not frown on him when he bore back the 
 Navajo girl I should have had," grumbled Roberto, 
 " also De Ordono had no need of serving woman, as 
 there was no marriage day set for him." 
 
 " I thought the girl was Jemez that pretty Marta," 
 said the third man, " she is slender as a red lily, and 
 worth more money than a mere drudge." 
 
 " She had a Navajo mother. It is the mixed blood 
 gives the better grace," stated Roberto. " These two 
 we have here will give good service to the house, .and 
 no fine gentleman of rank will come our way to covet 
 them." 
 
 There was laughter at this, so we could guess the 
 captives were not too well favored. They had ended 
 their supper, and began to speak of who should stand 
 first guard of the night, when Tristan said very 
 quietly.
 
 336 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 "Senors!" 
 
 There was a movement, and then a voice. 
 
 "Who speaks?" 
 
 " A Castilian," answered Tristan, and walked through 
 the tassels of the young pine until he stood beyond 
 its close knit, though narrow, barrier. 
 
 " Life of my soul ! " said the one called Roberto, 
 " you suggest the devil rather than a padre bobbing up 
 from the earth in this hell of a canon. Whence come 
 you?" 
 
 "From Hopi land." 
 
 " It is a strange way of meeting," said the other 
 voice, " and strangers in New Granada are mysteri 
 ous to all. Will you favor us with your name, Sefior 
 priest?" 
 
 " My name is Kahn Alcatraz, and my business you 
 will not approve, though I come in all honesty to save 
 your lives, and it may be, your souls." 
 
 The hand of Sancha gripped mine in breathless ten 
 sion, for it was a weird time there in the thick pines 
 where the odor enveloped us as a veil, and we stood, 
 hearing words, yet having sight of no one ; only the 
 firelight flared on branches of trees high above. 
 
 There was silence for a space after his words, and 
 then a man laughed. 
 
 " Surely, padre, always are you after souls and lives, 
 but it is a curious place to seek them. We are all safe 
 Christians here, unless it be this catcher of eaglets, 
 yet he has been civil enough." 
 
 " It is the trappers of other eaglets with whom I 
 came to deal," said Tristan. " The tribesmen of these 
 maids are here to guard them back to their clans."
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 337 
 
 "By all the saints!" 
 
 " Senor," said Tristan. " I have evidence, Juan ! " 
 
 At that I let go of Sancha, and went through the 
 jungle into the light. 
 
 " This, Senors, is Senor Don Juan Rivera, and is 
 nephew to the Reverend Fray Payo, late Viceroy of 
 Mexico, and of power in both church and state. The 
 reports of the capture of women for barter have not 
 been made special record of in this province, but after 
 today it may be done, if Don Juan here has a mind 
 for it. This is our side, the Spanish side. But the 
 Indio side of the question is a different matter. Unless 
 you go home at once, and leave these girls and the 
 horses on which you brought them here, you will never 
 go to Santa Fe alive." 
 
 "You threaten us?" 
 
 " No, I only tell you. I will call my interpreter and 
 he can bring two of the Navajo warriors to show you 
 that men are here for these women. Wisti ! " 
 
 Afterwards Sancha confessed she sank to the ground 
 in terror at the going of Wisti. She had never known 
 how close he seemed to us until he spoke to the Navajo, 
 and they followed me into the circle of light. 
 
 And a grim trio it was who faced those wonder 
 struck raiders, the Navajo men seemed to loom more 
 tall, and Wisti stepped forward lightly as a cat, and 
 smiling. There was something curious in that smile. 
 The Hopi have disdain of anger for any reason what 
 ever, as it is evidence of lack of control, but to myself 
 I thought I would rather face an angry man than 
 the smiling devil he betrayed himself. 
 
 " I bring only two, Senor. If the women are given
 
 338 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 back, I bring no more than two. They have no Cas- 
 tilian words. I speak for them." 
 
 At sight of the Navajo, the eagle catcher, a man not 
 old, but with gray in his hair, stood up beside his eagle 
 cage, and spoke a few quick words; one of the Navajo 
 nodded his head, and the eagle catcher, with his lance 
 and axe, and bow, stepped across the little circle of 
 light and stood beside them, and the two crouching 
 Navajo women turned from one to the other with 
 smiles. 
 
 " You see, Senors," said Tristan, " thus it will be 
 on the trail. Each Indio will stand with these men, 
 and I can not say the word to save you after you 
 move out of the light of this fire. Also it will not 
 be long I can save you even here. Look in the faces 
 of these men and see." 
 
 He could well say that, for they were like bronze 
 animals, still and poised to spring, four of them. 
 Roberto tried bravado. 
 
 " I see, but they have none but savage arms, while 
 we Castilians with you and Senor Rivera to aid " 
 
 " Yes," agreed Tristan, " but Senor Rivera and I have 
 another task. We may not aid you." 
 
 " What is your task that you would not aid a Chris 
 tian against savage murderers?" 
 
 There was a moment of pause, as Tristan looked at 
 me, and it was I who spoke. 
 
 " We are a part of the body guard of a lady of rank, 
 Senors, the Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera and niece 
 of the former archbishop and viceroy of Mexico. I 
 think, Senors, you will agree it is the right time to give 
 up the captives, and not risk the word her Excellency
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 339 
 
 may carry to Governor Antonio Otermin of New 
 Granada." 
 
 The men stared at us, and then looked foolishly at 
 each other. 
 
 " If it is a game, it is a good one," said one of the 
 men, " but it will take more than a priest s robe, and 
 some titles to make us believe that, and no offense 
 to you either! Since there are six of you in sight, to 
 our three, and the devil only knows how many more 
 around us ! it is wisdom to let the women go. But 
 for myself, I have a fancy to see this exalted lady who 
 comes through these hills of the wilderness. It would 
 be worth the price of two red women if true ! " 
 
 I looked at Tristan for some sign of wisdom, but 
 ere either of us spoke, I heard the quick stepping of 
 Sancha, heedless now of the noise she made. The three 
 incredulous stared at that wall of green as if demons 
 were using it as a nest of iniquity for their undoing, 
 and when I saw them lift their hats and sweep the 
 ground, I knew without turning my head, that she 
 emerged into the light. 
 
 " My cousin, Don Juan, and Sefior Alcatraz are in 
 the right of this, Senors," she said very bravely. " I 
 claim these women, and if you have complaint, I beg 
 that you make it to Governor Otermin of Santa Fe. 
 For the advice given you by Senor Alcatraz, I will take 
 responsibility. There has been no desire to threaten 
 only it is fair to show you the thing to happen if 
 you refuse. We are only three white persons among 
 our Indian friends. To control them might prove a 
 task beyond us." 
 
 " Excellencia," said Roberto promptly, " you need
 
 340 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 give no command twice, and if you care to add to your 
 white guard, I am at your service." 
 
 " My thanks, but I have no orders. Senor Kahn 
 Alcatraz gives all commands, and it well that you re 
 member you would have died somewhere between these 
 canon walls tomorrow, but for his word tonight." 
 
 " Little danger we will forget," stated Roberto rue 
 fully. " It seems the devil himself is against my wed 
 ding day! Come, Ysidro, what must be, must! The 
 cards fall not our way, instead of winning girls, we 
 lose horses. Small use in striving to wed and lead 
 a virtuous life." 
 
 Even Sancha smiled at his idea of virtue, though she 
 was neither glad nor gay at the bloodless victory. It 
 seemed a matter of fate that Roberto should have lost 
 the first girl through Marco, and the next one by Sancha. 
 And we knew that the idle comment on him made by 
 his comrades had sunk deep. 
 
 But she made no sign, and stood there, a serene pic 
 ture in the firelight, while the captives were unbound, 
 and the horses were separated for their use. I had 
 become so used to Sancha in the robe, or the Indian 
 dress, that my sense was dull as to how she must 
 appear to others, but the regard of the men was so 
 open, and so amazed that one could but note it. They 
 made no comment, but her words of authority scarce 
 fitted her Indian garb. 
 
 The Navajo men talked with the women, who smiled 
 and were very gay in their own manner, but the eagle 
 catcher stood apart listening to all saying nothing. 
 His gaze followed Tristan and Sancha in a curious, 
 watchful way.
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 341 
 
 I asked Wisti what it was that made the bond with 
 the Navajo, and was told the eagle catcher had a Navajo 
 wife, also that he could understand Castilian a little, 
 and that the name given him by the priest was Manuel. 
 
 There was no time lost in starting the raiders on the 
 trail. Tristan told them it was better not to trust 
 the temper of the Indians it would be a surety for 
 safety to seek other sleeping place. So they took them 
 selves off, with Wisti and one Navajo to see that they 
 made no halt on that side of the range, and Manuel, 
 the catcher of eagles for prayer plumes to his gods, 
 stood guard while we dropped quickly asleep from utter 
 weariness. 
 
 When I wakened there was a cheery bustle about the 
 camp. The Navajo women had brought water from 
 the canon deeps, also berries in baskets of bark; meat 
 we had, and there was fair show for an appetizing 
 breakfast, but I was the only white person in sight 
 to partake of it. 
 
 The sun was at the edge of the eastern world, and 
 there was flecked gold and rose over the far black line 
 of the pine forest. Wisti still slept, and beside him 
 the Navajo who had, with him, trailed the women- 
 hunters well on their way. 
 
 He wakened as I spoke, and asked a Navajo where 
 the master of the camp had gone, and the lady who 
 was their friend. 
 
 It was then I noted that Manuel also was out of sight. 
 He had stood the guard alone and called no one until 
 the dawn, at which time the lady had wakened, and 
 had spoken with him. 
 
 The Navajo said the morning star was still in sight
 
 342 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 at that time, and that their speech had been earnest, 
 and he thought, was of ancient prayer places in the 
 hills, for Manuel had pointed upward and used words 
 of ancient things. Then the man who was master 
 awoke, and together the three had gone qiuckly into 
 the forest as the great star began to fade in the dawn. 
 That was all he knew, but Manuel was much their 
 friend, for the daughter of Manuel had been stolen by 
 woman-hunters of some tribe, and he was in search 
 wherever he found himself. Both Wisti and the Navajo 
 had been questioned by him. 
 
 While we talked, and all happily lent a hand at 
 the simple breakfast, we heard them coming through 
 the pines, and Sancha appeared, wreathed like a god 
 dess of dawn with pink roses, found, dewy and fra 
 grant, near the trail. 
 
 " And, oh Juanito ! " she breathed as in ecstasy, 
 " to think I have been shown the wonder place of all 
 our many wonders, yet may not tell it to you! It is a 
 vow, an Indian vow, see my hand ! " and she held out 
 her palm. It was white as with powdered lime upon 
 it. " Only to save a life dare we take that trail again, 
 for it is, above all, sacred. It is a true House of the 
 Dawn, Juanito, and we made the vow of secrets as the 
 sun came out of the dawn to watch ! The sacred eagles 
 nest there above a wonderful sanctuary, and we are 
 given these as sign that we have the right of the 
 eagles." 
 
 She showed me an eagle feather marked on one side 
 by the stripping of its fringe in four places. There was 
 a certain individual token in the marking. I noted 
 that Tristan also carried one, but not in special display.
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 343 
 
 " Is there any other gift or honor left to bestow upon 
 you by these desert folk whom you enchant?" I 
 grumbled. " How am I to be a proper guardian for 
 your Excellency if you steal out to secret meeting 
 places while I get my sleep ? " 
 
 She only laughed, and patted my cheek, and promised 
 she would put me under her wing when she fled to that 
 sanctuary of the dawn place for refuge. 
 
 Then she ate her share of breakfast heartily, and 
 confided to me that the secret adventure was a joy 
 to her because of the eagles. That first wonderful 
 place of the terraces in the south gave its own memories 
 of a greatness, yet the wings of the vultures there op 
 pressed her. The place of the shrine at Walpi lifted 
 the soul because it was an unbelievable nature place. 
 But the temple where the roses grew was the work of 
 ancient man, and truly great, and the most sacred bird 
 of strength held guard over it that it be kept inviolate. 
 
 " When we have left the desert life far behind, I 
 may tell you of it, Juanito," she promised, " but not 
 between these ranges. The honor was shown me, I 
 truly believe, because of these beads I wear, and Man 
 uel seems to know of some virtues of your friend, Kahn 
 Alcatraz; thus the two of us were asked to leave 
 record there on the temple wall. But he is more 
 modest than I he does not boast, nor flaunt his whit 
 ened hand." 
 
 Tristan heard her raillery, and his eyes were never 
 long from her direction, yet he was very silent, and I 
 thought, had a look most anxious. 
 
 But he was brief in all arrangements for the divid 
 ing of the trails, and the Navajo women gladly climbed
 
 344 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 on the backs of the horses, and regarded Sancha as 
 more than mortal that she had come, white from out 
 the Desert, and helped to give them freedom. One 
 offered her a narrow obsidian knife, and the other a 
 pendant of turquoise. 
 
 " It is good that you take them," said Wisti. " It 
 is the proving that you have come out of the Desert 
 with friends in three tribes of people. If days come 
 when you need friends, it is good to have a sign to 
 send. These gifts are as the eagle feather, and it is 
 a pledge." 
 
 Then he touched the turquoise in the rosary she 
 wore. 
 
 " This also," he said. " Each man who has given 
 a bead knows or his clan knows. See how it has 
 made easy your way ! " 
 
 The Navajo men asked Wisti to make clear to " the 
 chief " their names and their clans, and if again he 
 crossed their lands, he must send word to them. 
 
 Then they made their farewells, and went back up 
 the trail through the forest, while we went down and 
 outward on the great plateau of a land that is like no 
 other. 
 
 The catcher of eagles went before us, and was of 
 much help. He was a man of few words, and would 
 walk hour after hour beside Wisti and no speech be 
 tween them, for that is the Indio way. And Tristan 
 grew almost as silent and watched their faces, strangely 
 alert. He left Sancha to my care, and gave much time 
 to the men. 
 
 When I asked if he had doubt or fear of the new 
 man, he shook his head.
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 345 
 
 " I have had no doubt of any since we left the Oriabe 
 men behind in Hopi land," he said ; " not even of the 
 three Spaniards whose names we do not know. But 
 strange things are on this trail. I came over the land 
 once with a man they thought next to God, yet these 
 things did not happen. Do you not see that each 
 tribe is giving a pledge, or sign, or symbol, by which 
 we may call on friends in need? There was nothing 
 like this before. It is not doubt far from it! It is 
 their jealous care of us by which I am made anxious." 
 
 " Think you it could be word from Mexico your 
 escape, reward or " 
 
 " No, it is no thing of church or state. It is an 
 Indio matter, and so great a thing that it touches 
 three tribes wide apart from each other. The white 
 men know nothing of it ; all is peace in the province, 
 else men would not be abroad to trap women and 
 plan weddings ; such pastimes belong to peaceful days. 
 I have met nothing with so much of mystery in it, for 
 I truly believe that Wisti does not know yet his 
 father in Walpi does know! Also I think Manuel of 
 the eagles knows, and he tells me he is going with you 
 to Santa Fe." 
 
 " Why say it in that way? Do you not go also? " 
 
 " Juanito, comrade," he said with gentleness. " Do 
 you not know there must be a parting of the trails? 
 This is not to be said before your cousin, but I can 
 help her to nothing in New Granada. There she will 
 find people of her rank to make all smooth for her. 
 You alone must stand as her guardian, and Kahn Alca- 
 traz will be only a name of a desert guide for whom 
 no one is accountable." Then, when he saw the pro-
 
 115 
 
 L. 
 
 34 6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 test in my face, he added, " Think back, Juanito, re 
 member what you have seen of Inquisition work in 
 Mexico, and know it is stronger here. My stay in 
 Santa Fe will be only long enough to find one man, 
 and after that it is not to be hoped we will meet again. 
 I am, even now, a dangerous person for her to know, 
 she will learn this in time ; but neither of us can tell 
 her. I came to you out of one desert, and I will dis 
 appear in another wilderness; beyond that you must 
 know nothing of me. Never you remember hidden 
 things, Juanito." 
 
 " But where in all this land "I began in won 
 der, but he stopped me. 
 
 " Compared with what we have crossed, it is but 
 a summer s day travel east to the great river Miche Sepi 
 leading north to the colonies of France," he said. " If 
 need be, I could live hidden with these tribes where 
 neither priest nor soldier could ever find me. But where 
 those women in a boat could go, I surely could go, and 
 there are yet great lands to discover." 
 
 " You say nothing these late days of Marco," I ven 
 tured, " and I wonder " 
 
 " It wastes time," he said. " Nothing has changed 
 as to him. She will grieve for her pride a little while, 
 and then wed with some governor or viceroy, and re 
 member the desert days as a long dream. Be very, very 
 patient with her, Juanito." 
 
 I knew I should surely need patience and courage, 
 and several other helpful attributes if he dropped out 
 of our lives and left me alone to her questions, and my 
 heart grew faint within me on that part of the trail. 
 
 Then we reached Jemez, and spent the night in the
 
 CANON OF THE DIVINE ONES 347 
 
 house of Manuel. His Navajo wife had a few words 
 of Spanish, and showed every kindness to Sancha. 
 
 Tristan left us to rest, and disappeared somewhere 
 with Manuel in one of their sanctuaries ; no doubt the 
 one where he had so easily secured rank or place by 
 painting their gods as they had dreamed them. It left 
 Sancha and me free to roam, but she confessed herself 
 oppressed by the regard of these people they gave 
 no such sunny welcome as had the people of Walpi. 
 There was a somber note in the life, and Sancha wished 
 for a priest who could tell us of these people who gave 
 us food, but no smiles. Padre Morador of the mission, 
 was absent, visiting some men brought home crippled 
 from the turquoise mine where twenty men had been 
 crushed to death by the caving of walls. 
 
 Wisti learned this and told us very gravely, adding, 
 as he pointed to the turquoise of Sancha " I am telling 
 them you wear it from Navajo, and Pima, and Hopi, 
 not from men made slaves by the Castilian god." 
 
 This death of the enslaved miners made explanation 
 of the dark looks given to white strangers, but Manuel s 
 wife was kind, and noting the worn foot-gear of Sancha, 
 she brought out maiden boots, almost new, and asked 
 Wisti to offer them. 
 
 Wisti looked at them, and then at her own feet. For 
 whom had they been made? 
 
 " Manuel he make for Marta," said the wife, 
 then Sancha came in, and gave thanks when the boots 
 were offered, looking at her own oft mended ones rue 
 fully. 
 
 " But I think I must keep these always," she said 
 " they are my record of the Desert."
 
 348 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 And no one but I seemed to note the name of the 
 girl for whom they had been made, and I wondered not 
 so much then that Manuel meant to journey with us 
 the rest of the way. Those hunters of women had 
 given hint to the trail of the lost daughter for whom 
 he asked of each tribe he met. And he had sat silent 
 beside them at the camp fire in the pines while they 
 told of her slender build, her Navajo mother, her name, 
 and her owner; silent had he sat with no pretense of 
 knowing Spanish that was the Indio!
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 
 
 FROM Jemez I remember less of the way than any 
 other, for that land is a land of bleached canons 
 and forgotten cities. Rifts in blackened rock 
 showed where fires yet burned deep in the earth, 
 and in other places ancient lava cut the leather of 
 shoes and the feet of horses. After we left the high 
 forests, and the Jemez valley, each turn in the trail 
 towards the river showed deeper scars of monstrous 
 cleavage it was the rock ribs of a world bleached 
 white in the sun. 
 
 Sancha murmured prayers in some of the danger 
 places, and bade me do likewise. 
 
 " For it is a place where terrible forces have left 
 record," she said, " and where things of terror might 
 happen." 
 
 My mind was full enough of shadows for the future, 
 since I could not count on Tristan after the passing 
 of the Rio Bravo del Norte. I knew that when all 
 dangers were over for us, he would go out of our 
 lives, and I rode with him ever in sight, though at 
 times tears blurred my vision, for he had been salvation 
 to us, and I was only a boy. 
 
 We passed a village ere the river was reached, but 
 Tristan advised against camping there. Several of the 
 
 349
 
 350 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Indians killed in the turquoise mine had been taken 
 from that place as slaves, and the looks of the natives 
 were not friendly to white people. 
 
 " If you have a river to cross in the Desert, always 
 cross before making camp," advised Tristan, " lest a 
 storm, or cloudburst near headwaters, may lift the 
 stream high in the night." 
 
 No one gainsaid him, for we had grown a silent 
 group. I, because of my own fears, and Wisti and 
 Manuel because of some words exchanged with the 
 people of the village, but they would not tell what they 
 were. 
 
 " It is the tragic death of all those men in the mine 
 of the slaves," decided Tristan. " These tribal men 
 have done great works, as is shown by their ancient 
 building, and canals, yet they never have worked as 
 slaves until now, and to die in that slavery is a serious 
 thing, and the white conquerors should know it is a 
 dangerous thing." 
 
 " What could happen? " asked Sancha, and I noted 
 that Wisti and Manuel listened while one made a fire 
 and the other prepared rabbits for cooking. 
 
 " Much could happen if the tribes knew their strength 
 and were not so constantly fighting little wars be 
 tween themselves," he said. " No white conquerors 
 have conquered either in Mexico, or here, but by the 
 help of Indians. Moctezuma was conquered as much 
 by Tlascalans as by Castilians. These tribes have 
 greater power than they know, and it is the good 
 fortune of the white people that they do not know." 
 
 What else he said, or Sancha said, I did not hear, for 
 my mind was held by the two Indian men. Neither 

 
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 351 
 
 spoke, neither made gesture or ceased their work, but 
 over the little blaze of the new fire Wisti looked at 
 Manuel, and Manuel met him with strange question 
 in his eyes. It was a curious look, and it told nothing ; 
 each questioned, and each was on guard even with the 
 other. I recalled afterwards that I had a chill because 
 of that look, and got to my feet to walk it off. 
 
 When I came back, Sancha and Tristan sat above 
 the river and tossed pebbles like children, and he made 
 a balsa of willow twigs, and launched it with a white 
 primrose as freight. 
 
 " There is your ship of life," he said, " all a white 
 blossom on a muddy stream, Excellencia." 
 
 " Make one for yourself, and I will forgive you the 
 4 excellencia, " she said, and laughed. 
 
 "Will you so?" he asked, and wrapped the twigs 
 and tossed them. " Will you indeed forgive, O Desert 
 Comrade most Wonderful?" 
 
 She put out her hand to him, but leaned over the 
 edge of the bank. 
 
 " O look ! look ! " she said. " They drifted wide, and 
 mine halted and swirled in the eddy, and now the cur 
 rent bears them together until no eye can tell which 
 it is carries the cargo of the desert bloom. Can you? " 
 
 " I do not want to," he said, and looked at her, and 
 she gave one quick look at his face, and bent again 
 over the bank. 
 
 " I know." and she spoke lowly. " If they drift apart 
 each would seem in danger of wreckage, and it fits the 
 peace of the twilight better that we see the two go 
 together like that, lit by the white flame of the white 
 blossom. See! they have passed the place where the
 
 
 352 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 ripples are, and no drop of the yellow spray has touched 
 the white." 
 
 " That is how it will be O White Butterfly Lady." 
 
 " Why do you call me that? " she asked, and he stood 
 up and looked at her. His arms were folded, and to me 
 there was a certain finality in his manner. 
 
 " Perhaps because of the shrine on the desert mesa, 
 and the white-winged thing there. I think I have always 
 wanted to call you your Indian name, and this is the 
 last night." 
 
 " What ! " and I could feel her terror. 
 
 " I have made your bed of the fragrant things under 
 the stars for the last time on this trail, Marquesa de 
 Llorente y Rivera," he said grimly enough. " When 
 the twilight comes on the morrow, your trail of the 
 Desert will be ended. You will be safe among people 
 of your quality, and there will be silken covers for 
 you, instead of desert stars." 
 
 " And you? " she asked. 
 
 " I shall always have the stars, and there may be 
 summer days when white butterflies cross the trail." 
 
 "And you will be content with that?" 
 
 " That will mean freedom to range, and I have been 
 content with less, White Butterfly Lady." 
 
 " You are a mystery to me always, Kahn Alcatraz," 
 she said. " In all these days you ride beside us as a 
 creature of power yet the power always wears its 
 mask even to me. I do not approve of that. Good 
 night, Kahn Alcatraz." 
 
 " God be with you, Lady of White Butterflies ! " 
 
 I stood in my tracks, making no sound, and they 
 turned their different ways without getting sight of
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 353 
 
 me, and that was the last night camp on our unfor 
 gettable trail. 
 
 But in the morning I was startled by a cry from 
 Sancha in the dawn. Close beside her pillow of sage 
 brush, lay a handful of the white primrose of the Desert, 
 and beyond that no sign left of Tristan it was his fare 
 well! He had lain down to his rest as had the others, 
 and no one knew when he had risen and taken the 
 trail. 
 
 In vain I assured her I did not know, and had distress 
 enough of my own without borrowing from her. If 
 the man was weary of our company, I did not feel to 
 blame. I assured her I had ever given him friendly 
 courtesy, and knew no cause of his going without fare 
 well to me. 
 
 She only stared at that, and gave me cold disdain for 
 the first mile or two on the way, then she turned to me 
 after moody silence. 
 
 " But he forgave me my early discourtesy," she pro 
 tested, and thus I knew where her thoughts had been. 
 " He did forgive it all in a comradely way, and I had 
 intent to have all honor shown to him before the gov 
 ernor; for God knows, Juanito, he has been as a very 
 Saint of the Impossible on earth for us." 
 
 " But that saint was a woman," I reminded her. 
 
 " Ay, so they taught me," she answered, " but in the 
 New World there are bewildering new things to be 
 learned." 
 
 That of course was, and is, a fact, and I kept my 
 tongue between my teeth for I knew she had more of 
 the unexpected still to meet, and she would need a 
 litany of saints, or a heavenly faith, to see her through.
 
 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 And to meet it we journeyed over a trail of lava in 
 the hills, but when we went into the lower lands, we 
 could view great pastures and comfortable herds of 
 cattle, which brought the proof that we were at last 
 coming near the governor s seat of the most northern 
 Spanish province. There I turned to her, and made my 
 endeavor to cloak his presence in the land. 
 
 " Sancha dear," I said humbly enough. " He has 
 other cause than we know for his comings and goings in 
 this land. It is as well to say little of a white 
 comrade on the trail. If he is enemy to friend of ours, 
 that comradeship might be hard to explain. We are 
 young, Sancha mine, and we will have to live the rest 
 of our lives on the plans we make in this town of 
 Santa Fe at the end of the trail. Let him go as he will, 
 and mention him only as Ivava, if you mention him at 
 all; it is a good name." 
 
 " It is a good name, for it means brother," she agreed, 
 " and you are not trusting me, Juanito. But if either 
 of you think I will not see him again, it a foolish 
 thought. He had love for that woman, but I have 
 my own reckoning day as well as he in this land, and 
 when it is over I shall see him again. The thought 
 that he is utterly gone is foolish he is only out of 
 our sight. But I will call him Ivava to please you, 
 Juanito." 
 
 So it was decided, and when we halted at a pueblo 
 where good water was, we heard clatter of horses, and 
 a troop of the governor s guard rode up and saluted, 
 and the chief officer, Captain Roque de Lara, gave us 
 welcome. His word was that a padre of Mexico Fray 
 Domingo had given the word to Governor Otermin
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 355 
 
 of our coming, and of our rank. The mystery of this 
 was made somewhat clear by the added fact that Fray 
 Domingo had met some hunters who crossed our trail. 
 
 " But we were told there was a white man with you, 
 and I see none," he said. 
 
 Whereupon with as careless a manner as might be, 
 I stated that the man was but a ranger who had served 
 as guard, and when we were at the edge of safety, he 
 had gone his own way. 
 
 Sancha looked her disapproval of my slight opinion 
 of him, yet she said no word, and permitted herself to 
 be mounted on a fresh horse, and gave joy to Captain 
 de Lara by riding beside him into the town of the 
 Holy Faith of Saint Francis. 
 
 There was excitement enough, and to spare, over our 
 arrival from the wide wilderness of the pagans. So 
 many were the questions, and the strange faces, that 
 it is a blur in my mind to this day. 
 
 His Excellency, Don Antonio Otermin, and his wife, 
 Dona Zelinda, looked to the comfort of Sancha who 
 was housed in the Governor s Palace; a long adobe 
 building, of insignificance to our eyes after the wonders 
 in the ancient homes of the Desert. 
 
 But there was clean linen, and Christian welcome, and 
 De Lara was my friend to lend me needful garments in 
 which to make proper appearance at the governor s 
 table. Manuel had asked with civility to be my servant 
 on our arrival, and as Sancha and I might well employ 
 one between us, I asked courtesy of De Lara for him 
 until we two bankrupts had time to discover what 
 would chance us next. 
 
 Neither of us asked for Marco, and nothing was
 
 356 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 seen of him, but my friend, the captain, laughed and 
 made a remark concerning him, and concerning the 
 chance that Marco would slip into town the back way, 
 and come with no tooting of horn from San Yldefonso. 
 
 When I asked the meaning of that, he told me Marco 
 had gone north a day s journey on some business of 
 Governor Otermin, and had taken his pretty family 
 along lest she be stolen by some one else in his absence ! 
 also that her excellency, the marquesa, might not 
 relish so pretty a serving maid as had been secured for 
 her. 
 
 And by that I saw of course that no secrecy could be 
 made of the betrothal. The vanity of Marco made 
 known all his conquests. 
 
 " But it is by fateful and unexpected adventure that 
 Dona Sancha has reached this frontier land," I ex 
 plained. Her destination was a convent instead of the 
 Governor s Palace." 
 
 De Lara and his comrades were tireless in their 
 question of the wide trail and the tribes of the west. 
 A padre from Mexico had arrived, weeks before, with 
 tales of the Apache war on the Pima, and the difficulties 
 of the eastern trail; we had done well to keep to the 
 west. 
 
 I pricked up my ears as to the padre, and the latest 
 word from Mexico, but my new friend knew only that 
 his name was Padre Domingo Orellano and that he 
 had some business of import for the Holy Office, and 
 was a man made of whalebone by the look of him, and 
 the endurance. In the Apache land he had traveled two 
 days without daring to approach a water hole and 
 was confidently hoping for martyrdom.
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 357 
 
 I met the man, and bowed before him in the house 
 of the governor, and felt his cold gray eyes measure 
 me, and weigh me. 
 
 He asked where our guide had left us ; also his name. 
 I replied that it was Ivava, and he had only remained 
 with us for courtesy and our safety; after the latter 
 was assured, he had gone about his own business which 
 had to do with Indians. 
 
 "Ah!" he said, "ah-h! Indians?" 
 
 I made my face a blank against the gaze like a gimlet 
 in its searching, and his smile was not to my liking. 
 I had a chill of fear at thought of this man hoping for 
 martyrdom for the Faith and on the trail of Tristan ! 
 
 Then Sancha came in with Dona Zelinda and a Dona 
 Ynez Tafoya who had shared the adventures of her 
 young husband in the colony. I was glad of heart to 
 see Sancha safe again under a roof, and garbed in a 
 gown of white linen, and a rebosa of lace over her 
 shoulders. 
 
 Every eye was turned her way and she was well 
 worth it. As a personage, and the niece of Fray Payo, 
 the well beloved, all homage and courtesy was her due, 
 but it was something more which caused each man s 
 eye to lighten at sight of her. Favorite though the 
 Sancha of the viceregal court had been, she was but a 
 hint of the royal beauty the Sancha of the Desert had 
 become. She had been a pale bud of promise, and in 
 the dusty garb of the long journey I had grown used 
 to the change in her by degrees, but the garb of dignity, 
 and the burnished tresses, made her suddenly a revela 
 tion; she radiated beauty graciously as a flower its 
 perfume.
 
 358 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 The women were her adoring admirers as well as the 
 men: for to them she was as the spirit of a romance 
 such as women s hearts feed upon. Welcome diet it was 
 in that adobe town of the frontier, for there was little 
 of change there but to change the guard, and protect 
 the settlements as might be from Apache, Navajo, or 
 roving Comanche. 
 
 Her eyes went quickly over every face in the sala. 
 Then she looked at me in question, but I kept my at 
 tention steadily for Dona Ynez, who was exceedingly 
 gracious. She told me her husband, Don Lorenzo, was 
 expected back from Santa Cruz a day later, and she 
 would pray that he come by San Yldefonso and bring 
 Senor Lieutenant de Ordono quickly to so fair a sweet 
 heart. All the town, with its hundred and twenty sol 
 diers, would celebrate the wedding day. 
 
 " Wonderful proud one ! " murmured Dona Ynez, 
 and looked half pitifully at Sancha ; " it is as well there 
 is a day for preparing, for there must be no thorns on 
 her roses." 
 
 She was a lovely lady, who had come north with the 
 colonists; and there was a comfort to me in having 
 one new friend who knew of Anita, and would help 
 cloak, if need be, all truths from Sancha. 
 
 But it was thin ice we all stood on that night of the 
 first supper at the table of the governor, for Padre 
 Domingo was ever as a watchful puma coming back 
 on the trail ; and suddenly, after Sancha had told of the 
 disaster to the hopes of Mother Clemente, and the cap 
 ture of us by the Sonoran tribe, the padre suddenly 
 asked :
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 359 
 
 " Did you, by any chance, hear of the heretic, Tristan 
 Rueda, on that trail? " 
 
 Sancha looked at him curiously, half smiling, yet 
 wrinkling her brows. 
 
 " How strange to hear that name away here," she 
 said. "A heretic, good father? Truly?" 
 
 "You have not seen him on the trail?" he asked 
 again, and she laughed and shook her head. 
 
 " I never have seen him since I was but a child in 
 Seville, and he angered me so that I was long in for 
 giving. I never have seen him in this land, but no 
 one told me he was a lost soul. I am sad at heart of 
 that thought, for Don Rodrigo loved him." 
 
 " And Fray Payo and many others, Dona Sancha," 
 said Dona Ynez. " He was high in favor with Don 
 Tomas, and had painted the most lovely picture of 
 Dona Perfecta de Dasmarinas. It was enough to cause 
 love for her but to look at it, so beautiful it was like 
 a golden poppy of a woman." 
 
 " Why yes, I saw the portrait, but no one told 
 me it was by the hand of that Rueda," said Sancha, 
 perplexed, and looking at me. " If he knew enough to 
 paint so well, small wonder that he angered me long 
 ago by slighting a portrait I thought entirely the work 
 of inspiration. I was but a silly one at that time." 
 
 " Ay, he knows enough with Satan for his master ! " 
 agreed Padre Domingo. " Angels for the chapel of 
 San Carlos he did, and there is grave doubt now con 
 cerning them it is thought they will be painted over 
 by a true believer." 
 
 " But they were quite things of wonder in beauty! " 
 said the amazed Dona Ynez. " I went there for prayers
 
 360 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 on my wedding morning, and closing my eyes, I can 
 still see them." 
 
 " Things of beauty, yes," agreed Padre Domingo 
 grimly, " things of wonder to make poor souls forget 
 the sins and souls, and remember only the fleshly beauty 
 of color and likeness to life. Spirit is what he was told 
 to paint, and he did instead graceful wenches wreathed 
 in cloud. That is the time he should have been curbed, 
 and never let do that Virgin of the Fawn, which is a 
 pagan false goddess, and not the holy Santa Maria at 
 all." 
 
 "The Virgin of the Fawn!" repeated Sancha 
 with stiff lips, and paling face. 
 
 "Why we never heard of that Virgin," said Dona 
 Zelinda. 
 
 " Nor did any one else in Christian faith ever before," 
 stated Padre Domingo. " The painter was a heretic 
 Jew on trial for the faith, and was given the task in 
 prison to paint an altarpiece of holiness, if Santa Maria, 
 the Virgin, gave him leave. Well, an altarpiece was 
 painted, and his friends say that the Holy Mother 
 helped him. But there is another side of the story; we 
 have painters in holy orders who are modest, and all 
 too lenient. Also after the painting was done, the 
 apostate painter escaped from prison. He started north, 
 but has touched no point on El Paso trail. Thus my 
 question to you; He escaped prison before your excel 
 lency took leave of Mexico." 
 
 " Juanito, did you know? " asked Sancha. 
 
 " I did hear, but who knows the business of the 
 Holy Office? Because a man is no longer seen does 
 not mean he has escaped."
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 
 
 " But, as to the picture? " she persisted, and the good 
 food was forgotten on her plate, and her voice shook 
 despite its coldness. 
 
 " Of the picture there were rumors, as the reverend 
 father rightly says," I replied virtuously. " No one 
 saw the painting of that picture. No one but Fray 
 Bernardino truly knows. The decoration of the chapel, 
 and the altar, was in the hands of Fray Bernardino." 
 
 " That is the true word, and the sorrowful one," 
 said Padre Domingo, " for Bernardino has ever had a 
 soft place in his heart for that adventurer apostate. 
 The evidence points one way ; the painting was credited 
 to the Jewish heretic that true believers might vote 
 him innocent." 
 
 " No heretic could do that picture," stated Sancha. 
 " I saw it. No, no ! the painter of that was not heretic." 
 
 " So I say," decided Padre Domingo. " He may 
 have given help, for he has the devil s cleverness 
 or the Jews ! He has been upheld by men who should 
 be disciplined for it, and all will come out when we 
 find him again." 
 
 " But we knew Tristan Rueda, and he was honest 
 Christian, or so it seemed," said Dona Ynez. " Fray 
 Payo gave him countenance in all things, and he could 
 have mounted high if he had cared for worldly posses 
 sion rather than profitless learning. How could he 
 so quickly turn Jew? " 
 
 " A Jew he was born, or of Jewish ancestry, so the 
 curse is in the blood," said the padre. 
 
 " This is all very strange to me," said Sancha. " I 
 never knew the man, but he stood high in the thought 
 of Uncle Rodrigo."
 
 362 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Your excellency has not been told then that it 
 was the death-bed confession of Don Rodrigo de Ordono 
 by which the Jew s ancestry was made known?" de 
 manded Padre Domingo with a keen look at her, but 
 she shook her head, white, and bewildered. 
 
 " All these things are heard by me for the first time, 
 and they give me a soul sickness instead of joy at the 
 end of the trail," she confessed. " If it is true that the 
 word of Don Rodrigo sentenced that man, then Don 
 Rodrigo died in torment, for he loved him well. I pray 
 your excellency " 
 
 She turned with pleading eyes to Governor Otermin, 
 and he smiled upon her, and lifted his goblet of wine. 
 
 " You are overtired to be entertained by tales of 
 heretics and the laws, Excellencia," he said, " but ere 
 Dona Zelinda and Dona Ynez claim you for the night, 
 I would empty a cup to the most distinguished lady 
 who has ever braved our northern wilderness. We drink 
 to your high courage, to the honor of your house, and 
 to the noble example you have set to ladies of rank. I 
 may hope to double my army on this example, for men 
 will ever come in plenty where maidens venture forth. 
 To your happiness, Marquesa de Llorente y Rivera ! " 
 
 Sancha smiled with stiff lips, as all stood in her honor, 
 and lifted goblets high, and then made a little lane 
 through which she was led by her host. My last sight 
 was of two reproachful eyes, gazing at me above the 
 head of the governor as he bent low over her hand. 
 
 Then the door closed, and the men sat again at the 
 table and voiced their admiration. I alone sat silent, 
 I, and the gray padre watching me, and, after a little, 
 he spoke.
 
 MMMMMMBH 
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 363 
 
 " Is it not strange, Senor Rivera, that the thing of 
 greatest scandal of the Mexican winter has never 
 reached the ears of your cousin, Dona la Marquesa, until 
 tonight?" 
 
 The governor turned a quick frowning face on the 
 padre. 
 
 " That scandal drove away our most lovely guest, 
 father," he remarked. " Is it your intent to send the 
 rest of us to bad dreams? " 
 
 " Nay, rather to get trail of an arch enemy to Mother 
 Church," he said softly, crossing himself. " These chil 
 dren from the Desert might have traveled in perilous 
 company, Excellency, and none to warn them." 
 
 Their exchange of words gave me time to gather my 
 wits. 
 
 " Your Excellency," I ventured. " The reverend father 
 has reason on his side, for Tristan Rueda was a favorite 
 of two viceroys, and much in the speech of men. His 
 brush made one portrait of a lady of rank in the palace 
 so he was a Somebody. But fashions change at 
 court as elsewhere, and when the Marquesa de Llorente 
 arrived, his was a forbidden name there. I am witness 
 that Dona Perfecta, for sake of policy, had a priest to 
 alter points in that portrait of hers, and, as the Marquesa 
 lived in the viceroy s honored circle, and knew no other, 
 how should she hear of this outlawed man? He was 
 never known to her by sight even in her childhood, and 
 for this reason I gave her no confidence in the matter, 
 lest it bring her grief for Don Rodrigo s painful duty, 
 as you are witness now." 
 
 " True," said Governor Otermin, " I have heard it 
 was that honored old soldier who made the betrothal,
 
 364 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 and won such a treasure for Marco de Ordono. By 
 the Faith, she is too rare a creature for a lieutenant; 
 a viceregal palace would be better shelter for such a 
 face!" 
 
 " It is whispered, your excellency, that she could 
 have even that, and without striving," stated Padre 
 Domingo impressively ; " this young gallant should 
 know somewhat of that." 
 
 " I know only her words that she would wed as 
 arranged, or re-enter the conventual life. All her years 
 were lived thus until now." 
 
 " What a waste of beauty ! " said Roque de Lara. 
 " His excellency is right, as always ; such proud loveli 
 ness would grace a palace. How think you Lieutenant 
 Marco may measure up to it? She looked like Sheba s 
 queen to me, though in an Indian dress, and a man s 
 cloak." 
 
 " I started a runner at once with a message to him," 
 said the governor " the most gracious thing I could 
 do for one so proud that she makes no mention of him 
 when his voice is not here to speak welcome." 
 
 " More than pride, that," said the gray padre. " More 
 than pride! It holds its own mystery; which does not 
 fit with her path half-way round the world." 
 
 His tone was quiet and thoughtful, but his eyes never 
 left my face, and the curious smile of his thin lips had 
 too much satisfaction in them for my content. There 
 are nights even now when I dream of those crafty 
 eyes watching watching from under the gray over 
 hanging brows. I had little chills and flashes of fever 
 at his gaze, and I cross myself now when I think of 
 all it meant.
 
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 365 
 
 There were questions asked me of the western pueb 
 los, and their appearance of content, but I was well 
 near to being tongue tied, and could only tell that they 
 were friendly, and the guides they sent proved loyal. 
 Cochiti village showed some sullen faces, but we did 
 not halt there. The governor listened closely. 
 
 " You see, gentlemen, the trouble is not in the west, 
 and is not general. It is the northern groups for whom 
 the guard must never be lax. That crime lately at 
 San Juan is the most troubling thing, for it was Pope 
 himself who strangled the Indian governor there, and 
 Pope has heretofore been politic with all the clans, 
 striving with constancy to incite them to return to the 
 pagan faith. Padre, cannot the Holy Office help us 
 in this matter? This red apostate claims to talk with 
 spirits, and excites the poor natives to distraction. If 
 you have leave to trail one renegade painter for execu 
 tion, why not a rebellious leader who is against church 
 and state?" 
 
 " The execution of that rebellious Indio, your ex 
 cellency, should have been carried out before he gath 
 ered his bewitched and fanatic guards about him. He 
 moves about in state with more courtiers than the 
 soldiers in your garrison. He will be dealt with when 
 the time comes, but the trail of this renegade Jew is a 
 different matter. His knowledge of other secret Span 
 ish heretics may be great. It is not for death he is 
 precious, but to be put to the question as a most learned 
 apostate. His friends in high places did win him re 
 spite, and he has been let run the length of his chain, 
 but it is only to be drawn back as witness for the 
 Faith."
 
 366 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 His words were to the Governor, but his eyes were 
 on me with that mocking, endless stare, as if to read 
 all the thoughts I had ever dared cultivate. Boy as I 
 was, emerging from the months of desert silences, it 
 was a nerve racking time I put in there, with the con 
 sciousness of that death s head gloating over me. 
 
 I welcomed the first move of the captain to go, for I 
 had not the courage to take myself away, much though 
 I craved to. 
 
 As the other men bade good night, and went out, De 
 Lara halted to speak to Governor Otermin of some 
 private matter, and I stood near the door, afraid, in 
 truth, to go out alone lest I should run wildly in useless 
 search for Tristan, and shout to him my warning. 
 Someway I knew he had either evaded the town, or was 
 well hidden, but who was there to tell him the breed 
 of tiger on the trail? 
 
 The knowledge of Padre Domingo was very wide, and 
 I was clear as a piece of crystal to him, for he con 
 tinued to smile as I fumbled nervously with the cuff 
 of my borrowed garment, and strove to look com 
 fortably placed. 
 
 " The length of his chain," said the padre softly. 
 " Don Juan Rivera, you perhaps do not know that 
 Padre de Vallada in the Desert, has the swiftest couriers 
 of New Granada at his call. Do you know now just 
 how long is the chain for Tristan Rueda Alcatraz? " 
 
 So he had known all the time! 
 
 I could only look at him, struck dazed with all it 
 meant. He had played with us as a cat with mice. He 
 had given me a chance to damn myself in the eyes 
 of the Holy Office by withholding testimony. Thus,
 
 THE END OF THE TRAIL 367 
 
 no matter how long a chain was given me, they could 
 also draw me back for service if a day came when I 
 was desired. And their strength on the frontier was 
 above the power of state ! 
 
 More than that one crafty question he did not speak. 
 It was as if he meant to kill me by inches of torment, 
 yet I was so slight and helpless he could afford to let 
 me walk free, knowing the limit absolutely of my range 
 he held the other end of the chain ! 
 
 No one heard him but me. He did not mean to 
 make a scandal in the governor s circle of guests, but 
 I had my warning. 
 
 Someway I got outside, ahead of Roque de Lara. I 
 was voiceless with dread, and began to understand 
 why there had been so little comment on the disap 
 pearance of our guide. 
 
 Had I known then that Tristan, supperless, lay roped 
 and tied in the adobe cuartel not a bowshot away, the 
 fine supper at the table of the governor would have 
 choked me.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 ON SANTA FE HILL IN NEW GRANADA 
 
 M 
 
 Y NIGHT under a roof was one of sleepless 
 dread, in terror at thought of facing Sancha, 
 and in even greater terror of what the keen 
 gray padre meant to do with us all. 
 At dawn Wisti was waiting me at the door, huddled 
 up in a blanket, and his words did not bring comfort. 
 He asked that I get for use the dress in which the 
 White Butterfly Maid had ridden away from Walpi. 
 It had been presented to her for wearing. In the 
 patio of the house of the governor he had seen her in 
 a garb of fine white, but the tribes only knew of her 
 by the Hopi dress, and the gray cloak, and if she was 
 indeed my sister of the heart, I must at once get ready 
 the garments. Also his word to me was that it would 
 be well to take the trail without delay for Mexico; the 
 tribes in New Granada were not content, and it w?s 
 an ill place to come for holiday. 
 
 But he did not tell all this so plainly as I say it. 
 Except for his tremulous anxiety of the dress, no other 
 statement of his was clear. When I strove to learn 
 the thing he hinted, I could get from him only the 
 fact that he was a simple man of the wilderness, and a 
 stranger in the Christian town of Santa Fe. He also 
 made statement that Manuel would take good care of 
 
 368
 
 ON SANTA F HILL 
 
 the garments for me, and Manuel was a friend and 
 server. 
 
 Thereupon I undertook, as early as might be, to 
 come by the desired articles by the hand of sleek Rosita, 
 a half-breed serving maid of Dona Ynez, for Wisti 
 advised that it be secured without question or alarm to 
 Dona Sancha. 
 
 So, after breakfast, the affair moved well enough, 
 and the garments were slipped to me out of a barred 
 window, and Manuel disappeared with them as Dona 
 Ynez herself came from the patio in time to ask if I was 
 already finding myself brown sweethearts among her 
 maids ! 
 
 Over this we jested, and I vowed I was only there 
 to ask of her health, and to learn how my cousin had 
 rested at the end of all her adventures, and at that 
 the kind eyes of her looked sad. 
 
 " She is without doubt mad with love for him 
 is it not so?" she asked. "I think she slept little, 
 and twice she sat at the window looking out in the 
 night, and listening to each sound as if waiting some 
 sound of his step." 
 
 " That listening is a habit of the Desert ; I did like 
 wise," I confessed. " But it may be that she is indeed 
 deep in love, and that she has her own anxieties. She 
 does not speak of them." 
 
 "That is true; did ever you see a girl so cold and 
 proud? Don Antonio insists she should be a vicereine 
 at the least, even the padre spoke of it with warning 
 of too much pride in youth. But the Llorentes and 
 the Riveras have their own excuse for pride, and always 
 they have been an honor to church and state."
 
 370 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 I had scarcely acknowledged properly this fine com 
 pliment, when Sancha appeared in the patio, fastening 
 yellow roses in the bodice of her white gown. She 
 had no pleasant looks for me, but a cold decision in 
 her voice. 
 
 " Juanito, O wise one," she said mockingly. " You 
 know so many ways of this world, know you also the 
 trail to San Yldefonso? They tell me it is only the 
 ride of a day, and San Yldefonso seems the bottom of 
 the well where Truth lies for me. I have asked for 
 our horses, and have the mood to ride that way." 
 
 " Santa Madre ! " whispered Dona Ynez, " never in 
 the world must she do so. Another girl rides with 
 him a slave girl of his ! " 
 
 " I know," I said, and stole another look at Sancha. 
 Her face was a mask, but her eyes were aflame she 
 looked as if she also knew! 
 
 " If you ride forth to the north take me as guide," 
 said Dona Ynez with sudden thought to help. " I was 
 once at Santa Cruz, and know some of the trails, also 
 my husband is there." 
 
 Captain de Lara advised against this plan, and of 
 fered instead to take us pleasuring to an extinct vol 
 cano not far away, and by nightfall, without doubt, the 
 Lieutenant de Ordono and Don Lorenzo would have 
 reached town, also there were various trails to the 
 north, and we would surely miss them in the wilderness. 
 
 Sancha listened, and smiled at us. 
 
 " I do not think I care for dead volcanos," she said ; 
 " there are too many living things of interest to me. I 
 may save a life by riding north, and my cousin here 
 knows the meaning of that."
 
 ONSANTAFEHILL 371 
 
 Dona Ynez stared at her and crossed herself. 
 
 " If such be true," she begged, " come first, for the 
 love of God, and tell the governor or the padre. Padre 
 Domingo has safer messengers than you could be or 
 any of us." 
 
 " That is true," said Captain de Lara. " The Holy 
 Office can pay its messengers more than the state, and 
 controls the best. I heard this morning a new thing 
 a Roberto Sanchez trapped some renegade on the range 
 for Padre Domingo yesterday, and how, think you? 
 Roberto is a lad from the far south and uses well the 
 reata; swish, it circles a man s shoulders, and drags 
 him from a horse. An Indio carted the man in, roped 
 and tied, under a load of corn. He is now in the cuartel 
 back of the church waiting the pleasure of the priests. 
 One man with a greased rope and the job is done 
 for the church, and no one in the town the wiser. But 
 for the state we would have been sent in company, and 
 every street boy know our errand, and the result. It 
 is true, Excellencia, that if you desire haste, the padre 
 has the greater power." 
 
 My own interest was suddenly lost in the desire of 
 Sancha. That cuartel back of the church held all my 
 thought. That was the prison for the Inquisition: not 
 a strong place, except by guard and rope, or chain. The 
 story of the captain had its own suggestion: Roberto, 
 who was a handy lad with a reata, and thought he had 
 an honest grudge of his own to pay! Padre Domingo, 
 by whom the people of Santa Fe learned our coming! 
 I dared not question, yet I was sick with fear. If the 
 long arm of the Inquisition had indeed touched him 
 again, it must have been in the dusk of dawn when he
 
 372 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 rode away to free our skirts of all stigma through 
 comradeship for him. 
 
 Small wonder if Padre Domingo could smile con 
 tentedly over the game he had come a thousand miles 
 to win! and well I knew that but for the encumbrance 
 of Sancha and me, Tristan could have ridden, unher 
 alded, safely into New Granada, and safely out again. 
 
 Filled with dread of that which I dared not voice, 
 I walked apart where the roses grew, and watched the 
 wall of the cuartel. It was not high, and looked a mere 
 walled square back of the church. It might have been 
 a monastery garden for all one could see of it, but I 
 had been told that the prison adjoined the monastery 
 there, and was back of the church. It was the place of 
 restraint for all detained by the Holy Office, and the 
 place of punishing for novices. 
 
 It was again the very mockings of fate if he should 
 be chained within hearing of her voice, and she the 
 honored guest of the governor. I remembered the 
 thing she had said to him on the terrace roof that night 
 at Walpi that doors must ever open for him where she 
 was! 
 
 So oppressed was I, that I lost track of the words 
 of others there ; only Sancha had her mind decided upon 
 San Yldefonso, without any messenger, whether 
 churchly or military. 
 
 Dona Zelinda joined them, and plainly agreed with 
 Sancha. The governor s lady had a heart for romance, 
 and Sancha fitted all her dreams of adventurous love. 
 She ransacked her chests for garb worthy her wear, 
 and in her mind s eye she already saw every chance 
 for the most sumptuous wedding yet seen in Santa Fe:
 
 ON SANTA F HILL 
 
 373 
 
 all this though no one had heard the bride elect men 
 tion Marco by name. But that, they all agreed, was 
 maiden shyness, and more than maiden pride. In later 
 days Dona Zelinda confessed to me that Sancha was 
 overpowering to her in three different ways as a 
 simple convent maid of high degree, in the glowing 
 beauty of her which fitted well a love romance, and 
 in the still pride of all the Llorentes and Riveras by 
 which it was plain she would rule wherever her lines 
 of life were cast. 
 
 " Don Juan is not gallant this fair morning," said 
 Sancha loud enough for me to hear. " He walks apart 
 and mopes to show us he is weary of riding beside 
 a mere cousin. Dona Zelinda, I beg that you find for 
 him a lady worthy his fancy, while I go begging for a 
 cavallero ! " 
 
 " A fine jest," I grumbled, " with all the presidio 
 at your nod. But I have ridden with you on headstrong 
 rides of folly ere this, and once more is a trifle." 
 
 The others laughed, but she put her hand on my 
 arm very meekly. 
 
 " So you did, Juanito mine," she said, " and in weari 
 ness have you paid for the other times; but this 
 is the last one and it will not be long." 
 
 With a proud or angry Sancha a man might argue, 
 but Sancha with meekness in her eye was a power none 
 might resist, and I swept the ground with De Lara s 
 holiday hat, and bent knee before her, playing courtier. 
 She patted my hair much as if I had been a faithful 
 watch dog. 
 
 Manuel came with the horses, and at sight of him I 
 had a new fear. I had no good reason to guard Marco
 
 374 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 from any justice, yet I had no fancy for having Manuel 
 meet his pretty daughter on the highway in the midst 
 of all the troublous coil. 
 
 He looked searchingly at Sancha, and at the rosary, 
 and yellow roses. 
 
 "The feather of the eagle where?" he asked, and 
 Sancha slipped it from the bosom of her gown. 
 
 " It was a pledge," she said. " I remember, and I 
 keep it." 
 
 " It will be good that you do not forget ever in this 
 land," he said guardedly. " It weighs little, but the 
 spirit of it is big. Also the day may dawn when you 
 need that spirit." 
 
 " Manuel," she half whispered that the others should 
 not hear, " Manuel there were two feathers ; you said 
 they were mates, but we have lost the mate. Manuel 
 can you help with the finding? " 
 
 " That is true, Manuel," I added, eager enough to 
 give him other task than to go with us. Then I drew 
 him apart while Roque de Lara helped Sancha and 
 Dona Ynez to saddle. 
 
 I told him all I dared, leaving him to think that if 
 it were indeed our friend who had been roped and 
 thrown in prison, that the man who did the roping was 
 the woman-hunter whose slave we had set free, and 
 that the capture was in vengeance. 
 
 I had touched the right thought, for the eyes of 
 Manuel blazed, and his smile was wicked. 
 
 " I will learn," he said. " Converts of our clan are 
 here with the padres. The eagle feather will win 
 their heart if he shows it. I will learn." 
 
 Well satisfied, I rode out to join Sancha and Dona
 
 j LEi U 1 J ^ c rLi\ . 1 L 3 11* J fl I l^LTL-J L!^i-JL Jl 3 UL_J J 
 ON SANTA FE HILL 375 
 
 Ynez. De Lara could not leave. Don Antonio offered 
 to send fitting escort, but Sancha wanted only Wisti as 
 her guard. 
 
 " This must be only a family party, Juanito," she 
 said. " Wisti has been of us these many days, and 
 Dona Ynez already is a comrade." 
 
 To me Dona Ynez privately expressed the hope that 
 if we met Marco and Don Lorenzo on the way, that it 
 would be her husband the girl rode with, and not 
 Sancha s betrothed. Also she gave as her opinion that 
 Sancha had heard some foolish gossip of the matter, 
 else why this sudden notion to ride north? 
 
 As we rode, I noted little work was being done, and 
 groups of Indio men were coming in from many ways. 
 They looked on us with curious interest, and some of 
 the older exchanged words with Wisti. Once, when 
 speaking, he pointed to Sancha and spoke her Hopi 
 name, and an old man came over, and very gravely 
 looked at the rosary, and the feather she wore, with 
 its curious marking. Then he unfastened a blue bead 
 of turquoise, slipped it on a thread of sinew, and of 
 fered it with a gesture indicating that she wear it 
 on her wrist. 
 
 She did so, thanking him and smiling her most gra 
 cious, but the man did not smile, and he stood in the 
 road looking after us. 
 
 " That man is Ruler what you call Cacique of a 
 pueblo," said Wisti. " Forget not his kind heart 
 thought, Excellencia, for you he will not forget." 
 
 " Have you had such easy conquests all your long 
 road?" asked Dona Ynez wonderingly. "You do not 
 have even a surprise that an ancient comes out of the
 
 376 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 wilderness to offer you a jewel. They do nothing like 
 that for me." 
 
 " On the long trail we learned to value each kindness, 
 and each one seems a link in a chain of service. It is 
 by no virtue of my own that I am heir to these," said 
 Sancha humbly. 
 
 We had reached the top of a long hill where it was 
 worth the time to halt and watch the shadows of the 
 clouds drift over the pastures and fields of corn. North 
 was the forest range of the Sangre de Christo, and 
 back of us the walls of Santa Fe shown yellow, glim 
 mering in the August sun. 
 
 " It looks a picture of endless peace," said Sancha, 
 and halted her horse, " yet my mind is troubled at the 
 strange looks in the eyes of all Indians who pass. Why 
 should that strange and stern old man have chosen 
 me to receive his gift of a blue bead? " 
 
 It was at that moment of her perplexed looking back 
 at the adobe walls, and the straggling Indio travelers, 
 that Dona Ynez did a quick and clever thing. She was 
 ahead on the trail, and with a gesture to me for secrecy, 
 she slipped from her saddle, and ran forward without 
 sound. At the same moment I heard the beat of the 
 feet of horses. Sancha was speaking to Wisti and 
 heard none of it. 
 
 But when she turned, she saw the empty saddle, 
 stared at me in startled question, but never voiced it, 
 for from the trail beyond she heard the voice of Dona 
 Ynez and laughter, and then the tones of a man, and 
 guessed the truth. 
 
 Women are wonderful things! My own blood was 
 jumping, and I fairly shook with the unexpectedness
 
 ON SANTA FE HILL 377 
 
 of it all, but Sancha sat her horse like a queen at a 
 review, her face a cold mask, her eyes glowing and 
 steady. She did not even urge her horse one step 
 nearer, but held him in his place on the very summit of 
 the hill. 
 
 Then, up from the trail of the scrub oak, walked Dona 
 Ynez with the arm of her husband about her. He led 
 his horse, and back of them rode a young Indian girl 
 of beauty and wistful eyes. 
 
 The saints alone knew how the wife of Don Lorenzo 
 had so quickly commanded her husband in one breath 
 less sentence, but command him she did. 
 
 " This is my husband, Serior Tafoya," she said, smil 
 ing and elated at her triumph. " I heard his voice and 
 slipped down to give him the great surprise. And 
 see how thoughtful he has been to bring me a maid 
 who is pretty as a painted saint ! " 
 
 I agreed that the maid was good to gaze upon, and 
 knew I had heard of her beauty in the Jemez mountains. 
 She looked puzzled and even frightened, glancing from 
 one to the other of us, and turning her horse in the 
 road. 
 
 But I rested my hand on the bridle, while Don 
 Lorenzo bent over the hand of Sancha, and spoke his 
 wonder at meeting a lady of Old Spain on a hill in 
 New Granada. 
 
 He had not seen the messenger sent north, neither 
 had Don Marco. He had cut short his stay in Santa 
 Cruz for the reason that there were strange, treasonable 
 matters going forward in the north, and he felt his 
 duty was to bring warning to Governor Otermin at 
 once; more of a guard was needed at Santa Cruz.
 
 378 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 Lieutenant de Ordono felt the same regarding San Ylde- 
 fonso; both were riding with all haste to make report. 
 
 Sancha had uttered no word, had only clasped hands 
 with Don Lorenzo, and smiled her gracious greeting, 
 and the smile of Sancha had a satisfying message of 
 its own. But through that still smile of hers, and the 
 explaining words of the puzzled man, I could see that 
 her every sense was centered on listening listening! 
 
 I could tell the very instant she detected the sound 
 of hoof beats above the nervous chatter of Dona Ynez, 
 for her shoulders squared, and the smile did not vanish, 
 but it did change. By the suppressed excitement of 
 Dona Ynez she knew there was something concealed 
 from her. 
 
 As I learned later many terrible days later, when 
 the Tafoyas and I camped together for the winter at 
 San Lorenzo Dona Ynez had rushed through the 
 thicket to meet them, and bade Marco de Ordono halt 
 in his tracks long enough to recall all his sins for con 
 fession, while she claimed the Indio maid and saved him 
 his honor. 
 
 More than that there was no moment to speak, for 
 her husband had got out of the saddle, and she drew 
 him away, leading the horse of pretty Marta. Marco 
 did halt for the reason that Dona Ynez appeared ter 
 ribly in earnest, but his list of sins was brief according 
 to his reckoning, for his halt was only so long as one 
 might count a hundred on his fingers, and then the 
 forced chatter of Dona Ynez halted on her lips, and she 
 made much to do about getting in the saddle again, 
 for she heard his horse coming. 
 
 Sancha saw him first, as she was highest, and he
 
 came upwards, his hat in his hand, and his face lifted 
 as if seeing visions of heaven instead of a slender maid 
 who sat her horse well, and watched his coming with a 
 look mocking and strange. 
 
 No one spoke because of that look, and Dona Ynez 
 drew a sobbing breath, half of fear. Truly it was a 
 strange welcome for so handsome a gallant. Me he 
 did not see because of the bulk of Don Lorenzo s 
 blankets back of the saddle. 
 
 Thus it was Sancha who was first to speak Sancha 
 of the deep, sweet voice, and the strange smile. 
 
 " The way has been long, Don Alphard, long as your 
 trail across the sky," she said. 
 
 He bowed to the horn of his saddle, and gazed at 
 her in open admiration, and wonder, and did not know 
 her! 
 
 " Excellencia," he began with adulation in his tones 
 and his eyes. Dona Ynez strove to speak, but Sancha 
 lifted her hand in quick warning. 
 
 " Wisti," she said. " The gentleman does not remem 
 ber my name. Will you tell him the name I have? 
 the name given me in the house of Lenmana ere we 
 came east across the Desert? " 
 
 " It is Poli-kota, and the thought of it is the white 
 butterfly, Sefior," stated Wisti as he was bid. " So 
 the Excellencia is to us, and to our clans, the White 
 Butterfly Lady." 
 
 " A name of exceeding beauty, Excellencia," said the 
 bewildered gallant. "I I appreciate the honor of 
 being told. But you mention that I do not remember 
 I, if ever I had known " 
 
 He halted, and let his eyes speak for him. They had
 
 38o THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 been eyes well trained in service to ladies fair, but the 
 smile of Sancha was not encouraging. 
 
 " Then the name is not a name of meaning for you, 
 Don Alphard?" she asked. 
 
 " Only that the beauty of it is well placed," he said 
 glibly enough. " But may I correct you, Excellencia? 
 The name you give me is one I have not heard, it has 
 a sound of the Moor or the Arab." 
 
 " So it has," she conceded, " and yours is ? " 
 
 " A sound Christian name, and at your service," he 
 said with another bow, " Marcos de Ordofio." 
 
 He looked so handsome in his eagerness, and his 
 admiring wonder, that it was an effort to stand speech 
 less there and let him condemn himself out of his own 
 mouth. But if it was the end of her love trail, why 
 not let her decide it her own way? So I thought and 
 held my tongue. Dona Ynez and Don Lorenzo strove 
 to conceal their smiles at what they deemed but a little 
 Comedy of Love begun long ago in Spain and played 
 out on the Santa Fe hill of the north frontier. . 
 
 Sancha saw it all, but Marco saw only her. 
 
 " Ride more close, Senor de Ordofio, since that is the 
 name you have preference for," she said. " I would 
 see your hand." 
 
 " I think you mock me, Excellencia," he said, as he 
 drew his horse touching shoulder with hers, " and I do 
 not know the game you play but if it is for your 
 pleasure, I will be either cavallero or clown," and he 
 held out his hand. 
 
 " You wear no ring, Senor," she said. " If you are 
 the man I brought message for, he wore a ring. Dona 
 Perfecta spoke of its color."
 
 ON SANTA F HILL 
 
 " Dona Perfecta? " he said eagerly. " Yes, she did 
 know me to wear a ring " 
 
 "A ruby was it not?" she asked mockingly smil 
 ing, and he smiled back, straight into her eyes. 
 
 " It was not a ruby, Excellencia. If you have a 
 message from Dona Perfecta, it was to a man of an 
 emerald ring ; but why seek to confuse me by the strange 
 Arab name? " 
 
 " Can you show me the ring, senor ? " she asked. 
 " How may I give the message unless the proof be 
 sure?" 
 
 " Nay, I can describe it as she saw it," he said en 
 tering into her mood, " but the ring itself I cannot 
 show; it was lost in the Desert." 
 
 "So?" she said with lifted brows. "Well, there 
 was also a glove a maiden s glove of white, with a 
 fringe of silver. Was the glove lost to the same slender 
 hand, Marco de Ordono?" 
 
 Her voice was like steel. Dona Ynez and her hus 
 band ceased smiling, and Marco flamed red as he drew 
 back. 
 
 " I know not the glove, nor ever saw it," he said, 
 " nor do I understand " 
 
 Sancha put up her hand. 
 
 " I do believe you, Senor de Ordono ! " she said, and 
 drew a deep breath, turning her face to the sky. 
 " Mother of God ! How glad I am to believe ! " Then 
 in a very different way she added, " Who wrote the 
 letters, Marco? " 
 
 "Excellencia?" and he stared at her incredulous, 
 yet fearful, and I got out from behind the horse and 
 stood beside Sancha.
 
 382 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " Are you entranced, Marco? " I asked. " Have you 
 no wit left to tell you the truth? " 
 
 Then he saw, and went deadly white. 
 
 " That damned Tristan ! " he said. " God send the 
 priests burn him at the stake ! " 
 
 " Tristan ! always Tristan ! " she said with a sob in 
 her throat. " God send that I find him first ! " then she 
 looked at me, and laughed. 
 
 " Tell him, Juanito, where he can find his ring," she 
 said ; " and you tell him also that it might be as well 
 to send that comely slave of his back to her hills. I 
 heard gossip about the matter under my window last 
 night. You have tried to trick me all of you ! Come ; 
 Wisti, it is good for me this day that I have red 
 brothers of the Desert." 
 
 " Yes it is good for you," agreed Wisti quietly ; 
 and she wheeled her horse, and touched him with the 
 spur. It was the best animal of Don Antonio, and 
 little used to urging. He fairly skimmed the ground 
 over the sloping range to Sante Fe, with the Indian as 
 close to her as his horse could keep him. 
 
 There is little to tell of that ride back for the rest 
 of us. Dona Ynez openly wept at the wreck of all her 
 pretty plans for the lovers. Don Lorenzo asked if the 
 beautiful Dona Sancha was not a mad woman, and 
 Marco rode sullenly beside us, cursing his luck, and 
 cursing Tristan Rueda whom he was glad to know 
 was a damned Jew who would be garroted or burned 
 some fine morning. And when he got tired of plans for 
 Tristan, he flung an extra curse at me, and even at 
 the poor Indian girl who strove timidly to express 
 sorrow that some shadow had fallen over him.
 
 ON SANTA F HILL 383 
 
 For myself, I rode along in the unhappy group feel 
 ing that one curse more or less could not make dif 
 ference to me after her bitter words. Marco had been 
 given his deserts, but I could see no justice in her choice 
 of that Indio brother.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 
 
 THAT was the day of panic for all to remember, 
 for the news Don Lorenzo brought of the north 
 ern pueblos was no news to the Holy Office, 
 or to Governor Antonio Otermin when we rode 
 into Santa Fe. 
 
 Two Indians from Tesuque had crept away from that 
 pueblo under cover of the scrub brush, and in fear of 
 their lives, and the word they brought made clear all the 
 strange things of the clans from Tusayan to Santa Fe. 
 
 For the word was out secretly over all the land, and 
 in two more risings of the sun, every clan and tribe was 
 joined in conspiracy to rise against the Castilian priests. 
 In every pueblo they would wipe from the frontier all 
 trace of the white man s god, under whom they and 
 their children were made as slaves! 
 
 So secret was the plot that only the older men knew 
 all. The informers begged that if they could not be 
 protected, they be killed quickly by the men of Don 
 Antonio, and not be given up as captives. Pope, the 
 leader of the revolution, had strangled Nicholas Bua, 
 the husband of his daughter, and the governor of San 
 Juan de los Caballeros, because his loyalty to the cause 
 of the insurrectos was even suspected. 
 
 Governor Otermin was given, according to this in- 
 
 384
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 385 
 
 formation, only two days in which to take all his people, 
 and his loyal Indians, and remove to the south, for it 
 was too late for the saving of Santa Cruz, or any white 
 people outside of Santa Fe, and no hope for them unless 
 the warning was taken quickly. When I heard that I 
 remembered the word of Hongovi in farewell the 
 little far-off trembling of the wind before the tornado 
 and against his urging we had riden into the tornado 
 path! 
 
 The priests doubted the extent of conspiracy, and 
 Padre Domingo had the informers cast into the cuartel 
 for whipping unless they told all names concerned. 
 They would, or could, tell no names except of course 
 that of Pope, the magician whom all knew had a fine 
 record as a breeder of troubles. Then there was Jaca 
 of far Taos, and Francisco of San Yldefonso, but of 
 Tesuque, or of Santa Fe, they would give no names. 
 
 " Five years ago when Fray Andres Duran, of San 
 Yldefonso, was bewitched by the shamans of the Tegua 
 nation, you all know the only way to find justice for 
 that holy man," stated Padre Domingo. " The records 
 tell that forty-three Indians were whipped and enslaved, 
 and four were publicly hanged as a warning to all the 
 clans, and it served. When Pope, that red enemy of 
 Christ, marched here with his seventy followers to ran 
 som the forty-seven conspirators, he and every rebel of 
 them all should have been put to death by the state or 
 the Holy Office. There has been too much leniency 
 with these infidels. That was the time to nip all 
 threatened insurrections in the bud." 
 
 Governor Otermin listened, but as fast as his pen 
 could write orders he was sending calls to the south
 
 386 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 for all scattered troops. The lieutenant-governor was 
 at Ysleta with extra men, and his adjutant, Pedro Leiva, 
 was at Alamillo with forty others. 
 
 " All this is as you say, padre," he agreed, " but in 
 that day Governor Juan Frecencio did his best, accord 
 ing to his light, when he called special tribunal to 
 investigate. He was, as I am, Padre, but one officer 
 with a handful of soliders to guard this province against 
 thousands of the wild tribes. We have begged for 
 colonists here, and now that we have them, we must 
 risk all things for their protection." 
 
 " You forget, Don Antonio, that this word of insur 
 rection means a religious war and not a political one. 
 It is final battle for their false gods against the True 
 Faith. You will have much more than your handful 
 of soldiers, Excellency; you will have back of you the 
 Holy Office, and all its converts." 
 
 " But who will guarantee the converts in the face of 
 swarms of pagans who number thousands?" asked 
 Governor Otermin. 
 
 "Are not the two Tesuque informers, converts?" 
 returned Fray Francisco, the superior of the monastery, 
 with a desire to smooth over the little difficulty. " They 
 show zeal for the cause in the face of estrangement 
 from their people." 
 
 " Ay," agreed the governor. " But they refuse to 
 give names of conspirators here within our walls, and 
 zeal without knowledge may lead us into traps of 
 danger." 
 
 " Don Antonio," said the superior with quiet mean 
 ing, " the report of the two men was made first to their 
 confessor. This makes it our affair to see that they
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 387 
 
 do speak. Padre Domingo will see to this. They have 
 been thrown into the prison with a purpose; every 
 man within the wall will report their words or take 
 the whip in the plaza, for all to witness." 
 
 " Not the men who are prisoned there for other 
 and trifling faults," protested Don Antonio. 
 
 " A spy has been chained with them to make them 
 talk," said Padre Domingo easily; "never fear but that 
 we will get at the right of it with no loss of time." 
 
 " Padre Domingo," ventured Don Antonio, perplexed 
 and troubled, " though you are appointed Inquisitor 
 here by the Reverend Father, you are new to this north 
 land. You have not lived here with the records of 
 these people as have I. May I show you what has been 
 done in one generation, and the difficulties made by 
 the Brotherhood for the governors of this province? In 
 1640 there was special religious exercise in the whip 
 ping, imprisonment, and hanging of forty natives be 
 cause they refused to be converts to our faith. That 
 ecclesiastical action brought on a revolt to be quelled 
 by the soldiers of the presidio here. The Jemez people 
 were also driven to rebel for like reasons, and never 
 laid down their arms until twenty-nine of the leaders 
 were punished by General Arguello through death and 
 slavery. In 1650 the natives realized that the kindly 
 help their fathers had given the Castilians as friends, 
 was exacted from the children as slaves, and the infrac 
 tion of religious rules which they did not comprehend, 
 sent many a man for life to the mines. There was then 
 another rebellion, but again a convert betrayed the 
 leaders, and Governor Concho had the task of hanging 
 nine, and selling the others into slavery. In 1675 the
 
 388 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 feeling against the superior of San Yldefonso became 
 too bitter to quell, and the governor, Don Juan, had the 
 unpleasant task of enslaving many of the leading men, 
 and hanging others. These are but a few of the rec 
 ords, but they are enough to show two things, senor: 
 first, that the strong leaders of the tribes oppose con 
 versions, because it has always been a convert who 
 betrayed his own people in an uprising against eccle 
 siastical authority; second, that the civil officers of this 
 province are continually occupied in the quelling of re 
 ligious troubles, leaving neither men or money for the 
 efficient development of colonial enterprise. By these 
 figures, Your Reverence will plainly see that neither 
 deaths, or slavery, or use of the whip, has ever done 
 aught but check them in a temporary way. It is a lesson 
 of years, Padre Domingo, and if these men who have 
 turned traitors to their tribe, in order to serve us, are 
 whipped today in the public plaza, I dare not even say 
 I could guard the man who used the whip! I would 
 do less than my duty if I laid not this matter before 
 you in all clearness. You, Padre, have come from 
 Mexico where there is a standing army to protect the 
 church. I am hundreds of leagues from an army, and 
 have only one hundred and twenty men against twenty 
 thousand natives ! " 
 
 " You protect yourself well, Governor Otermin," said 
 Padre Domingo, who had listened with half closed, 
 watchful eyes. " But you forget that while the local 
 government of state is, and must be, temporal, the rule 
 of Holy Church remains eternal! Bernardo de Man- 
 dizaval forgot that in the fifties, and was removed from 
 the governor s seat by the power of the Holy Office.
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 389 
 
 Governor Penalosa repeated that forgetfulness, and in 
 stead of the palace of a governor here, he was given 
 the cell of a prison in Mexico. Don Antonio, these 
 are things to remember when the Holy Office has plans 
 to learn the enemies of the True Faith in this land ! " 
 
 " On your head be it ! " said Governor Otermin. 
 " This is not the time for a house to divide against 
 itself. What I can, I will do, but the word of these 
 men of Tesuque was very plain. We have two days 
 before the outbreak is planned. If we make a public 
 example of them in order to learn more, we only hasten 
 the evil hour. We need every hour of grace, Your 
 Reverence." 
 
 All this had come too quickly to bring enlightenment, 
 or clear comprehension to my mind. I was stunned by 
 sight and hearing of these leaders of men as they calmly 
 faced the thing we must prepare for. Don Lorenzo 
 and Marco were detained because of their reports, and 
 questioned as to their suspicions of pueblo principals, 
 while I was unnoticed at the edge of the group. 
 
 Curiously enough, my thoughts were of Sancha in 
 the Indio dress rather than the argument, of the men. 
 I saw them with my eyes, but in a strange double way 
 I saw her with my mind, and every little act of the 
 trail from Walpi flashed before me the Indian gifts 
 of childish things, which yet became important things, 
 ran between the gray padre and me as beads on a string. 
 Hopi and Navajo and Jemez she wore their pledge 
 and the stern old Tehua of the morning had added 
 his blue bead to the others! All this at first had been 
 because of Tristan, and the rosary of Don Fernan, and 
 now, I could but think it was for her own sake.
 
 3QO THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 My head was in a whirl with it. I forgot her dis 
 dain of us all on the hill, and when the superior and 
 Padre Domingo left the governor to the planning of 
 guards, I slipped out, and made my way to the sala. 
 
 Dona Zelinda was there, and in tears; not for dread 
 of self, but for Don Antonio, and his probable fate if 
 he opposed the officers of the Inquisition. Her own 
 memory was alive to the discipline former governors 
 had suffered at their hands. 
 
 " It is days like this in which we remember how far 
 we are from Mexico ! " she lamented ; but Dona Ynez, 
 who had wept at what she thought a quarrel of lovers 
 on the hill, now sat with wide, dry eyes, and pale face. 
 
 " I do not think anyone has ever seen a day like 
 this," she said. " Lorenzo tells me that on one excuse 
 or another, the Indies swarm the hills. It is too early 
 for the hunt, yet in the north there are bands of them 
 with hunting spears." 
 
 I asked for Sancha, but was told she had not come 
 in. Our Indio, Manuel, had been waiting for her with 
 some message, and at once she had ridden to the mon 
 astery with Wisti to see the prior there. 
 
 " But that is Fray Francisco, and he has been with 
 Governor Otermin in consultation," I said. " This is 
 no day for careless riding in a new town. Wisti is a 
 treasure in a desert, but scarce a proper guide for Santa 
 Fe. I must find her, and make her listen, though she 
 hate me for it." 
 
 "The saints guard her!" said Dona Ynez. "I had 
 forgotten her temper out there. Her anger was nat 
 ural when she found the maid was his and the poor 
 maid was not to blame either. He turned her to me
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 391 
 
 as lightly as you would cast an old cloak yet the girl 
 is worth a good price." 
 
 " I lack even a marivada, and so does my cousin," I 
 said, " but we know the father of that girl, and he has 
 done us kindness. Will you sell, at your own price, 
 and await long the paying?" 
 
 "What day is this to trade for slaves?" she asked. 
 " We will do well to save ourselves, and every extra 
 Indio is a danger. Take the girl, Don Juan, and get 
 her quickly as may be out of our sight. She weeps 
 with fright in the kitchen." 
 
 I scarce knew what was in my mind to do, but as I 
 went out in the sunshine of the street, Manuel stood, 
 watchful, and erect, in the narrow strip of shade. His 
 eyes were to the street of the monastery and I knew he 
 waited the sight of Sancha even before he spoke. 
 
 " The mate of the feather is tied with ropes and is 
 behind prison bars," he said. " The padre has done it, 
 and not the governor. A man of my clan is convert, 
 and tells me." 
 
 " Does he tell you of your daughter? " I asked, and 
 he regarded me gravely. 
 
 " He does, and she is in San Yldefonso," he said. " I 
 have not seen her, yet I have found her at last." 
 
 " Come," I said, and led him back through the patio 
 to where, under the ramada of a giant grape vine, the 
 poor, disdained young slave, wept because forsaken 
 among strange faces. 
 
 He turned to me with a wonderful look on his face 
 as he had sight of her bent head. In another instant 
 she was in his arms, and the people who think the 
 Indio disdains love, should have seen them there!
 
 392 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 " She is the gift to you of Dona Sancha," I said. 
 " There is no one to stand in her trail home." 
 
 " And the man? " he asked. 
 
 "Dona Sancha was to be wife to the man, but now 
 she will never be his wife," I answered. 
 
 " That is so," he said gravely. " No one shall be his 
 wife." 
 
 Not until afterwards did I give thought to his speech 
 and then it gave me many thoughts. 
 
 " I would say that you send her quickly to safety," 
 I suggested. " This looks a busy day even without 
 women or girls to care for." 
 
 He looked at me very steadily, and nodded his head 
 in assent, and he went with her out the back way, while 
 I started again to look for Sancha. 
 
 In the plaza I saw the man Roberto with one of his 
 comrades, and he lifted his hand and laughed at me. 
 
 " Will he again play dog in the manger with the 
 maid of another man?" he jeered. "A fine padre 
 you take the trail with, Senor! He fooled you well 
 with his high words and his monk s robe, for he was a 
 renegade heretic in borrowed plumes." 
 
 " It was you who lay in wait and roped him ? " I 
 asked. 
 
 " None other, and he is safe bound now with the 
 other apostates they are bringing out for whipping." 
 
 "You did this at the word of Padre Domingo?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "Why not? He is made Inquisitor General here to 
 deal with the red heretics, and that is an office higher 
 than governor, and higher than superior of the mon 
 astery. When he speaks, we all jump."
 
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 393 
 
 " So it seems," I said, pondering in my mind if any 
 power might secure Tristan respite there on the frontier. 
 That mention of the whipping made me sick. Few men, 
 Indio or white, would retain secrets of danger under 
 the lash of the Inquisition. Padre Domingo meant to 
 show the clans that no partiality would be shown. A 
 white skin was no safeguard when the fight for Holy 
 Faith was in question. 
 
 I felt all this rather than thought it, and as the guard 
 suddenly swung into the plaza ahead of the priests, I 
 knew what it meant. They were bringing out all the 
 prisoners the better to flog the poor Tesuque men into 
 telling more perhaps than they could humanly know. 
 If ever I could win a word of help from the governor, 
 this was the time. 
 
 But the bell of the monastery was ringing a doleful 
 note by which the people were warned of executions, 
 or special disciplining of prisoners, and the houses were 
 soon emptied, and the little lanes and the plaza filled 
 with wondering, questioning people. Yet among them 
 all, I could get no sight of Governor Otermin. Don 
 Lorenzo I saw, and De Lara, each fully armed, and 
 very grave of face, as was every soldier who knew the 
 truth. 
 
 " Find him for the love of God ! find the governor 
 for me ! " I asked each frantically. " There is a man 
 of blood, of rank, of dignity, roped there among those 
 bewildered cattle! Get an order for a shot, and quick 
 death for him if it must be the death a soldier should 
 have but no touch of a lash to fall on him ! " 
 
 Roque de Lara caught and held me, and Marco de 
 Ordofio stood near and laughed.
 
 394 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 "I owe you a shot for your damned treason to me, 
 Juan Rivera," he said, " and I wish it were a whip 
 promised to your own back." 
 
 " Marco ! " I begged, " for the honor of your own 
 house, stand by the honor of your house, stand by 
 the friendships of the house ! He was loyal to you 
 loyal all your life. Your fathers were faithful, and this 
 is your one chance, Marco, your last chance ! " 
 
 I only remember he pushed me back against De Lara, 
 and said I was a crazy fool, and that he knew nothing 
 of my meaning. Then, in the midst of his words, he 
 gave a shout of exulting, and laughed. 
 
 He had seen Tristan, whose hands were roped, and 
 whose head was bandaged with blood-stained linen. 
 The concealing banda prevented me from seeing his 
 face until he was very close, but the laugh of Marco 
 told me that hate had found him first. 
 
 " Hi ! the Judaizing heretic ! " he called above the 
 tolling of the bell, " and that is the friend of rank and 
 blood and dignity for whom he asks a soldier s 
 courtesy ! " 
 
 " Yes, it is ! " I shouted back ; " of blood more nearly 
 royal than our own, Marco! The blood of men who 
 were high priests of God before Christ was born! He 
 asks nothing, and we owe him much. Find the gov 
 ernor ; this is our day for payment ! " 
 
 The yellow face of Padre Domingo pushed my way 
 through the crowd. 
 
 "Is this so?" he asked. "Open confession is good 
 for the soul, Don Juan. For what do you owe the 
 heretic in bonds there? " 
 
 " For life, and a safe journey here," I answered
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 395 
 
 boldly. " He could have saved himself in comfort, yet 
 strove to shelter us." 
 
 " Ah? " he said with a cold smile, " and what is the 
 debt of Sefior de Ordono?" 
 
 " That is for him to say," and I turned to Marco im 
 ploring. 
 
 " Alcatraz, turn your face and look on these men," 
 commanded Padre Domingo. " You have heard their 
 words. What is the debt they owe to you?" 
 
 The eyes of Tristan rested one instant on mine, a 
 wonderful look, and passed me by to look on Marco. 
 
 " The boy owes me not anything, Senor Padre," he 
 said clearly, " and the man owes me for the life of my 
 foster sister whom he stole, and left to die with Indians 
 of Sonora." 
 
 There was a strange hush as he spoke, and Don Lor 
 enzo glanced meaningly at De Lara. All of them knew 
 of poor little Anita. 
 
 But back of me I heard a cry from Sancha. 
 
 "O Ivava! Kahn Alcatraz! your sister?" 
 
 She had ridden up, pushing her horse slowly through 
 the mass of people to the portal of the palace, and I 
 had not seen her coming. Wisti was close behind, and 
 there was a strange meeting of Indian glances when 
 she called " Ivava." 
 
 But Marco scowled in fury. 
 
 " What is this heretic to you, Dona Sancha, Mar- 
 quesa de Llorente?" he demanded. "Does a lady of 
 Spain claim knowledge of outlaws in the street?" 
 
 "What is he to me?" she repeated clearly. "He 
 saved me from Indio slavery! he has gone hungry 
 that I might be fed ! he clothed me when I went naked !
 
 3 g6 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 All I have to put in the balance would weigh but little 
 towards my debt to him! Padre Domingo, will you do 
 me the favor to find for me the governor, and the father 
 superior of the monastery? I must speak of this mat 
 ter to them, and go surety for Senor Alcatraz. A mis 
 take has been made that he should walk in bonds like 
 this. I beg you have him loosed." 
 
 "What is this?" asked Governor Otermin from the 
 portal. "What mistake is this?" 
 
 " It is witchcraft, no less ! " stated Marco. " This 
 lady is to be my wife, our betrothal is of many years, 
 and here, suddenly, she claims she owes this heretic 
 Jew her friendship above all others! It was known 
 that he half bewitched Don Payo ere he sailed away, 
 and this is not the first woman on whom he has worked 
 enchantment! In Mexico he was in league with devils 
 until they fear to use for the altars even the pictures 
 he painted. That is a truth that our reverend father 
 here knows more of than I." 
 
 " It is quite true, Excellency," said Padre Domingo. 
 " He is a man dangerous to the Holy Office because 
 of his heresies. When his bonds are loosed the stars 
 will shine at midday, or you, proud maid of Llorente y 
 Rivera will step down to walk barefoot beside him ! " 
 
 " But the stars do shine at midday ! " cried Sancha, 
 with a half triumphant, half-tearful note in her voice. 
 " I saw it so in a deep canon on the way, and quick 
 Wisti, untie my shoe ! " 
 
 " O great soul, and loyal comrade ! " breathed Tristan. 
 " Juanito, let her not touch the dust! " 
 
 Marco caught the head of her horse to turn it. 
 
 " Let her not shame herself here in the eyes of your
 
 THE INSURRECTION OF 1680 397 
 
 slaves, Don Antonio ! " he called. " I tell you it is a 
 witchcraft. As the lady who is to be my wife, I claim 
 the right to protect her from her own madness, and I 
 ask the church to aid against this apostate ! " 
 
 "Apostate! is it so?" said Sancha looking down at 
 Tristan. " O faithful apostate ! Take your hand from 
 my bridle, Marco de Ordono, and choose better your 
 words. Neither betrothal or marriage will ever be be 
 tween you and me. Since I must say it before all these 
 people, I say it ! " 
 
 " Ay ! " he snarled, catching her wrist, " why not con 
 fess the rest that this accursed Tristan has you 
 bound in some spell of the damned letters until you 
 would lower yourself to the dust with him? " 
 
 "Tristan? The letters?" she said, and stared, white- 
 faced from one to the other. " Tell me, tell me ! This 
 is Kahn Alcatraz this is " 
 
 " Kahn yes, the name of a Jew ! " said Marco, 
 " and Alcatraz, yes, the name of Fray Fernando Alca 
 traz, his priestly father ! But before that, he was Tris 
 tan, the shepherd of our herds! The boy you hated, 
 but the man sent you letters of witch charms until you 
 crossed the seas to him. I see that now see all too 
 plainly! Is there no pride left in you? Are you held 
 in bonds to this outcast? He is convicted by church, 
 and outlawed by state. Do you still choose to walk 
 barefoot beside him?" 
 
 " To the end of the world ! " she said, and more quick 
 than I could see, she slipped the Navajo knife of ob 
 sidian from her belt, and sunk it into the hand of Marco 
 holding her wrist. 
 
 There was a scream of pain from him, and then an-
 
 3 g8 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 other, but she neither heard or saw what happened 
 when Marco crumpled to the ground with another 
 Indio knife between his shoulders. Manuel left it there, 
 and like a flash was beside her as she slipped to the 
 ground, and cut the bonds of Tristan. 
 
 " O Glory of God ! " Tristan cried as her arms circled 
 his shoulders. " White Virgo come to earth for me ! " 
 
 But above the surging tumult, the terrible voice of 
 Padre Domingo sounded in my ears as echo of the ter 
 rible bell. 
 
 " Seize that shameless woman for the trial of Holy 
 Faith ! " he thundered. " No rank of earth can save 
 her here in New Granada! She shall indeed walk beside 
 him in the dust walk excommunicated, and in chains 
 to the flaming staJfe! " 
 
 So sudden was all the rest that no one could tell who 
 gave signal for battle; yet Manuel did make curious 
 call as Marco fell there in his tracks before the portal, 
 and at sound of that call it seemed the very earth 
 swarmed Indians. They dropped from the flat roofs 
 by the score, while the Padre shouted, and like a red 
 wave of war, they launched themselves between Man 
 uel and the guard. I saw Tristan with Sancha in his 
 arms crowded farther and farther away by the mob of 
 fanatic Indians who had been placid servers a moment 
 before, and were now reckless warriors. 
 
 The guard was swept back against the wall of the 
 governor s palace, and then we knew indeed that the 
 Tesuque men had brought the truth. The pent-up rage 
 of fifty years was loosed by that knife stroke of Manuel, 
 and the most terrible insurrection of all the colonies 
 was precipitated by a private hate.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 UNDER BLESSINGS OF PAGAN GODS 
 
 ONE dear memory comes out of that surging 
 hell in the plaza of Santa Fe. Sancha remem 
 bered me, even in the arms of Tristan, and 
 her voice came high and clear where we beat 
 off the wild devils from the portal of the palace. 
 
 "Juanito! Juanito mine! adios!" 
 
 " Adios ! O Sanchita ! " I called, and leaned, panting, 
 and battered, against the wall. Padre Domingo stag 
 gered back, and fell, bleeding like an ox, from a swift 
 blade in the side. 
 
 " You too ! " he said with lifted hand of condemna 
 tion. " Her name is blotted out from Christian souls 
 forever! Bear you the word to Mexico excommuni 
 cation! " 
 
 Then, with his hand dipped in his own blood, he drew 
 the sacred sign on the stone paving, and strove to lay 
 himself on it, but fell there, dead ere Fray Francisco 
 could reach him. Thus Padre Domingo indeed found 
 the martyrdom they say he coveted. 
 
 Once only after that had I glimpse of my lost com 
 rades. Manuel had striven to lead them out of the mob 
 of the street by way of the church of San Miguel, but 
 the sacristy door was barred, and there was delay long 
 enough for word to reach us that the church was seized 
 
 399
 
 400 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 as a fortress by the infidels. Extra troops had joined 
 the prison guard, and the red swarm launching itself 
 in disorder to free the convicted men, found itself giv 
 ing way under the solid front of the governor s soldiery. 
 Back and back, they went with face to the foe, covering 
 with lance and knife the trail of Tristan and others of 
 the cuartel. I reached the door as the relief soldiery 
 entered. Indians were using a broken altar as a bat 
 tering ram to break through the sacristy door, and 
 there, on the altar place in the dim church, stood Tris 
 tan with an Indian spear in his grasp, and his arm 
 around her. One niche at the side held a statute of 
 the Holy Mother, where three candles burned, and the 
 light from it touched the white dress of Sancha, and 
 the white banda on the head of Tristan. Only a gleam 
 of her white dress showed, for he had wrapped about 
 her a gray robe. A moment later I saw how that had 
 chanced, for I stumbled over a lay brother stripped 
 and dead on the stone floor. 
 
 Then the door at the back gave way, and the Indians 
 rushed into the light, while the walls echoed the ex 
 plosion from the firing pieces. 
 
 " Save the man and woman alive ! " called Fray Fran 
 cisco. " The blood of God s anointed is on his head, 
 and the woman makes her choice of perdition with him ! 
 Save them alive ! " 
 
 But they should have known that if those two were 
 saved alive, it must be in freedom. I saw them go out 
 the door, and in all the smoke and turmoil and dead 
 and wounded about them, her face was lifted to his 
 exalted as if to welcome even death beside him! 
 
 Manuel was also there, thus I saw that from the first
 
 The Excommunicated Lovers.
 
 BLESSINGS OF PAGAN GODS 401 
 
 signal for death in the plaza he had never wavered 
 from the trust he had given himself. 
 
 After that there were ten days of hell with the tribes 
 swarming from the hills after the killing of all priests 
 of the pueblos. They came, flushed with victory, from 
 north and south, to aid against the capital, where we 
 fortified as best we could, making short dashes out with 
 small success. The plaza ran red with blood of the 
 prisoners taken, which served us little. On every side 
 we were surrounded. A thousand people to protect, 
 counting women and children, and less than two hun 
 dred fighting men to do it with. Three thousand bar 
 barians sang their songs, danced their victory dances on 
 the hills, and cut us off from the water. We killed more 
 than they, but of what use was it, when the various 
 tribes stood ready to send other bands to the siege as 
 needed? We could not know it until long after, but 
 eighteen priests were slaughtered in New Granada in 
 that week, and every Castilian farmer and his family. 
 
 On the tenth day after the Tesuque men risked lives 
 to warn the people of Santa Fe to go south, and go at 
 once, there was a very sorry cavalcade of us who took 
 that trail ten days too late! The barbarians sat on 
 the hills, and watched us go in peace after all the hor 
 rors. All they asked was the Indian land for the Indio. 
 
 But they sent warriors to follow us, thirty leagues 
 on the way, that we gain no courage from reinforce 
 ments to turn back on the trail. 
 
 A dreary march was ours, with not enough horses 
 for even the sick and wounded, and dreary the winter 
 for us in the huts we built for shelter south at San 
 Lorenzo.
 
 402 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 A year later, I went north again with General 
 Mendoza, only to be turned back by the warring 
 infidels. Governor Otermin, as he had anticipated, was 
 removed from office, and Governor Ramirez appointed, 
 but he would risk no men in the north lands. In eighty- 
 eight I again entered the forbidden land with General 
 Cruzate, a considerable army, and seventy priests for 
 mission work, yet we were turned back at Zia after 
 many skirmishes, and ceremonial councils with many 
 chiefs. 
 
 One chief came who was gorgeous in cloth of scarlet 
 and otter skins. All Spanish names and customs and 
 religion had been wiped from the land, thus I dared 
 not call him Manuel, who had been trapper of eagles in 
 the Jemez hills. I have changed, as all men do if the 
 years are hard ; and while he looked at me much, I had 
 no sign that he had ever looked on me before, and he 
 betrayed no knowledge of Spanish speech. 
 
 But I remembered the twin feathers and their mark 
 ings, and idly, during the council, I took from a hawk s 
 wing fan the broad brown feather, and, little by little, 
 without turning a glance his way, I trimmed it in four 
 spaces divided curiously on the quill. 
 
 I twirled it idly, while the general, and the priests, 
 and chiefs, held weighty converse, and I left it on the 
 seat when the council was ended. As idly as I, he 
 lifted it as he passed, and went out without word or 
 look to me. 
 
 It was two nights later when that which the guard 
 said was incredible, occurred. A boy, who carried a 
 message for me, was challenged by the sentry and my 
 name was written plainly on a strip of fine parchment,
 
 
 BLESSINGS OF PAGAN GODS 403 
 
 such as was used for church records. He spoke no 
 Spanish, but when we were alone, took from under his 
 blanket a roll of the same, well fastened in a painted 
 case. There was no address (it was like their care for 
 me!) and it read: 
 
 At the House of the Dawn. 
 Brother Mine: 
 
 I truly live here in the ancient place of sanctuary not other 
 wise to be named. Each time you have come to the forbidden 
 land we have known it. Come not again, lest all our love should 
 not save you. We are outcasts and happy. Have you memory 
 of a marriage night in the magic Navajo land? Such simple 
 marriage was ours with Indio witnesses, and it has grown 
 more sacred with each of the years. To only you could I say 
 it and not to you again. Has the Holy Office weakened in 
 power that the excommunicated dare be sought in friendship? 
 This you must answer to yourself, and bear in mind that a task 
 is yours for which you need smiles of church and state. The 
 honor of the family is yours to preserve and it is a family of 
 old names, and great pride. 
 
 For the nameless one who stepped out (I cannot say down, 
 brother mine!) you must have no sorrow, and no doubt. We 
 have all the world to wander in, yet we remain happily in this 
 land of enchantings. Here we build our own shrines and make 
 our sacrifices. The stars of the Desert are above, and we have 
 more books than you ever read, for the padres were often 
 learned men, and their written knowledge remains in this for 
 bidden land for us. 
 
 Our days are not idle; the work he did of old, he does here, 
 and every star, with its guardian god, is made record of in the 
 two tongues. Their herbs of medicine, their words of the laws, 
 all these, with the legends of ancestry, and even records of 
 earth-born gods, he has written as work of joy. 
 
 I tell you this that you know we lack no thing of content in 
 our high place of the dawn prayers. And if men of Spain should 
 some day re-conquer there will be other trails for us, and the
 
 404 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 world is wide. Here the intrigues of church and courts are far 
 away. I wear boots made by his hand, and a pet fawn is by me 
 as I write. It looks like your pretty gift across the seas; for 
 that it is dear and for the other reason, not to be named. 
 
 Of him I can no more write than could I of God the Father. 
 But my Saint of the Impossible caused the unbelievable thing 
 to be, and for that a shrine is built to her here on the hills of 
 New Granada it faces the east, and Old Spain. We write 
 your name there for happiness ! 
 
 You seek us, beloved one to save us, or serve us. Go back 
 and take up your burden of the world. I have confession to 
 make. I have seen you once, and been very close, and made no 
 sign. I heard his name spoken, and the tale of his evil deeds. 
 Thus also, I learned that my own name is blotted out from 
 Christian speech. A young soldier sang by the camp fire, the 
 song of " Dona Perdida " as he said they sing it in Mexico. 
 Never let it hurt your heart, dear brother-comrade. My soul 
 was not lost in the Desert it was there I found it! 
 
 This is sent for your own soul s content. 
 
 Then, instead of a name, there was a butterfly drawn 
 with folded wings, and under it was the sign he taught 
 her to make in the canon of the Divine Ones. 
 
 And on the other side of the parchment were his 
 words 
 
 Comrade of ours: 
 
 You, who live by your rank and order, dare not approve, yet 
 the content of her heart is my justification. The blessing of 
 neither pope or priest could make more white the loyal soul of 
 her. 
 
 For myself, I am learning (as no man could learn in another 
 place) the strivings of primitive priests from the time the Spirit 
 of God moved on the face of the waters until the records were 
 made, thought by thought, which we are taught is the word of 
 the living God. Here, today, these red priests strive, in like 
 ways of fastings and prayers, and sacrifice, to learn the Power
 
 BLESSINGS OF PAGAN G O D S 405 
 
 back of all earth power, and go up daily to search for their gods 
 on the heights. 
 
 There is work here for a pen through a long lifetime. We 
 strive to do our little share, ere we find deeper wilderness, or 
 wider range. 
 
 To you, until the end, the blessings of the Divine Ones, and 
 all the stars of light above the trails you tread. 
 
 Tristan. 
 
 I read the blessing of his, over and over, and was 
 reminded of the prayer chant in the sacred canon of the 
 Ancient Gods: 
 
 Impervious to pain, I walk! 
 With beauty before me, I walk! 
 With beauty above me, I walk! 
 Happily may the roads all 
 Find the way of peace, 
 And the ways all end in beauty! 
 
 So I have that last message of theirs for my com 
 fort, and the other letters hidden in the stone shrine 
 of Sonora were brought back by me on the last trail 
 from the north. I know well she did grieve their loss, 
 but it is beyond my power to have them go to her. 
 
 Meanwhile I am learning many things of the French 
 and English and Dutch lands of this new world. There 
 is a great north, and a wide east, where they may find 
 safety when the time comes. 
 
 With Dona Mercedes I talk of these chances at times, 
 and of what might happen if some day I should get 
 word to meet them on the other side of the world! 
 Dona Mercedes is a woman of heart, who remembers 
 our youth, and knew the heaviness of my task when I
 
 406 THE HOUSE OF THE DAWN 
 
 bore the dying command of Padre Domingo to the 
 bishop of Mexico, and heard the excommunication from 
 the altar. For awhile I had my own troubles with the 
 Brotherhood, but Fray Payo reached a strong hand 
 across the seas to help. Since all the men of importance, 
 from the archbishop and viceroy down, had held Tris 
 tan, at some time, more or less in favor, I was finally 
 cleared of evil intent for accepting freedom at his 
 hands ; also my blood relationship to the excommuni 
 cated maid of beauty was at last condoned as no fault 
 of mine. 
 
 But though she is called " Dona Perdida," and they 
 sing today love songs of their mutual enchantings and 
 of his wickedness, I close my eyes, and remember only 
 her joyous voice intoning in the desert nights, 
 
 O you! 
 
 Who dwell 
 
 In the House of the Dawn! 
 
 In the House of Evening Twilight 
 
 The Path to which is the Rainbow 
 
 And I know in truth that he led her into a Dawn be 
 yond the shadows where we grope. 
 
 In memory I go again over the many wonder places 
 of the long trail, and live again, with my comrades, 
 the life of desert ranges and canon deeps, but the pic 
 ture clearest in my mind is of those two in borrowed 
 robes at the edge of a cliff in Tusayan. 
 
 Boy as I was, I was vaguely touched there by the 
 force he strove against, and the enchantment our Sancha 
 dared not confess. Voiceless they were, yet bound 
 so great a love it was by bonds defying even fears of
 
 BLESSINGS OF PAGAN GODS 407 
 
 hell. Though the padres do deny them sanctification, 
 deep in my heart and I cross myself as I write it 
 there lingers ever the message sent to me out of the 
 Desert, " The blessing of neither pope nor priest could 
 make more white the loyal soul of her." 
 
 The End
 
 -Howoti 
 BOOTH
 
 REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000 757 220 9 
 
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