He could not contain himself any longer.  Like a shadow he moved forward and hid behind the trunk of a pine, whence he could see more and better.  From there he witnessed the strange pantomime of Shotaye and Cayamo.  He was too far off to hear the words, but the gestures spoke plainly enough.  As they pointed and gesticulated to the west, north, and south, he thought that they were planning some murderous surprise for the Queres,—­that Shotaye was betraying her own people and conspiring with an enemy of her own stock.  Fierce wrath filled his heart.  Yes, Tyope’s charge was true; the woman was a witch, and had Topanashka been armed he would have sought to kill her on the spot.  But though he had no weapons, his hand clutched a stone, raised it from the ground, and held it in readiness.  The interview ended, the Tehua disappeared, and Shotaye went in the direction of the Rito.  Topanashka felt tempted to follow her at once, to overtake her if possible and secure her person, or even to execute summary justice; but she was sure not to escape him.  She had evidently not noticed his presence and had gone back to her den in the cliffs in complete security.  There, on this very evening, he would seize her, drag her before the uuityam, disclose her shameless and dangerous plots, and doom her to the horrible death she deserved to suffer.

Whither was her accomplice, the Tehua, going meanwhile?  He was probably returning to his people to report, and to lead back those in whose company he intended to carry out the projected assault.  The old man could not stop him, being himself unarmed:  but he could follow at a distance, cautiously and without exposing himself to danger.  For it was possible that the hellish plot had developed much further, and that the warriors from the north were lurking already near by to pounce upon the Queres at daybreak.  It was not only from the instinct of the old warrior scout, it was out of a sense of duty as head war-chief that he determined at once upon following the Tehua.  As soon as Shotaye, too, was out of sight, he went over to the spot where the interview had taken place and examined the soil carefully.  The round impression made by a war-sandal struck his eye; it proved to him beyond any possibility of doubt that his inferences were correct.  The old man straightened himself to his full height.  His piercing glance went in the direction whither the Tehua had gone.  He bent forward again and followed the same line toward the north.

* * * * *

The sun had just set over the Rito.  It disappeared behind dense clouds; a storm was gathering in the west.  Its wings were spreading like tentacles; they pushed on to meet the moon, whose light was just rising in the east as a dim whitish arch.  The orb itself still remained below the horizon.  Gusts of wind whirled up the gorge from the east at intervals, causing the pines to sigh, the willows and poplars to rustle.  The corn whispered and tinkled.  The usual bustle prevailed about the houses and in front of the caves.