Yahoya/Chapter 17

T WAS a good fight, my brother!" Northrup, lying upon the couch in Yahoya's little room, Yahoya's hand held in his, looked up to see the tall, gaunt form of Muyingwa in the doorway.

"Now," went on Muyingwa slowly, "am I a great man among my people! Now am I head captain of the People of the Hidden Spring. There is no man among all in the Seven Cities who will not have Muyingwa's name upon his lips. Time may come—who can look into the darkness of unborn tomorrow?—when Muyingwa may step up to be Overlord of all the cities of Chebo! And, my brother, there was a time when we fought yonder, when Muyingwa was close to his death, and Yellow Beard came to fight the fight with Muyingwa, forcing through spearmen like a hungry wolf through little rabbits! Askwali! You are my brother, Yellow Beard! Muyingwa, thirsting on the desert, would share his last cup of water with you."

"As for that," answered Northrup, "we are even. You saved my life for me"

"It was nothing," cut in Muyingwa. "I struck down one man who threatened you. You hurled yourself upon many. You shall see that I am no man to forget. We wait here until your wounds are whole; then we move on to Chebo. There already has Inaa run to tell his lies; but men shall know them for lies. I shall enter the city as a great man; Nayangap shall go at my side, a great lady for great ladies to wait upon. And you, at my right, shall go, not as the other Bahana who died like a coward, but as Muyingwa's brother. As Muyingwa rises, you shall rise, Yellow Beard!"

Had one spoken thus to the old Sax Northrup, saying, "I will lead you to rich cities unknown to white men, where perhaps there is wealth to be got and power!" there would have been only eagerness in his heart. But now—he shook his head.

"Muyingwa," he said slowly, "it seems to me that it is only a little thing I have done for you, no greater than the thing you have done for me. So let us put it aside. You are a man as I am a man, Muyingwa, and you have called me brother. We may speak plainly with each other.

"It is not in my heart to go with you to Chebo to become a great man under your hand. It is my wish to be what I have always been, a man free to follow what trail he wishes. The trail I must follow leads away from you, and back to the world of the Bahanas. You must let us go, Yahoya and me."

Muyingwa stared at him frowning. Northrup, looking into the man's hard eyes, felt his heart sink. Yahoya pressed his hand softly.

"We shall be happy even here, Saxnorthrup!" she whispered.

Muyingwa silently lifted his hand. A dozen of his men came into the main room of the kiva.

"Tell Yellow Beard," said Muyingwa to the man who stood at their head, "what are the vows the soldier must take when he is no longer a boy, but a man, when the Chief Priest and the Overlord of the Seven Cities put spear and knife into his hands."

The man looked at him curiously as he answered:

"The young soldier swears that in all things he will obey blindly the command of the captain above him; that he will die before he break one of the Five Priestly Orders; that torture will not drive him to forget what is the chief cause of his people."

"Tell him," went on Muyingwa, "what is the oath a soldier must take when he becomes such as I, a head man."

"That he will, in all things, obey the command of the Overlord; that the Five Priestly Orders are supreme in his heart; that though the gods themselves commanded he would not forget the chief cause of his people."

"Tell him," said Muyingwa, "what is this chief cause of our people."

"It is this," answered the man: "There shall come among us no Bahana to despoil our empire. If a Bahana come he shall be as a prisoner among us; and above all things, no Bahana shall go forth from us to talk of what he has seen."

"You hear, Yellow Beard?" demanded Muyingwa, his tone seeming suddenly to have grown savage.

"I hear," answered Northrup.

"Then," cried Muyingwa, so that the sound of his voice reverberated strangely in the stone room, "hear what Muyingwa says to you! Before Muyingwa there may be great riches and honor, or there may be death. Today you saved Muyingwa's life, and he used great words of his gratitude to you. He called you brother. Now it is in your heart to go back to your own people. What is my answer? You are a man as I am a man. You love a maiden as I love a maiden. I have said 'Brother' to you! Here is my word:

"You are no liar as was the Man of Wisdom. Tell me that you will tell no living man the way to come upon the people of the Seven Cities, and I will believe you. I will go with you, you and Yahoya, across the desert, leaving Inaa to spin what lies he likes in the ear of the Overlord. I will bring my men with us, bearing in their hands things of gold, to make a great lord of you in your own land. And then I will leave you and come back to what awaits me in Chebo. When Muyingwa says 'Brother,' it is with his heart."

Northrup stepped forward swiftly, his breast swelling deeply to the emotion bursting from his heart, his eyes shining, his hand shutting hard, hard upon the hand of Muyingwa.

"What you ask, I promise," he said simply. "I give you my word—Brother!"

For a moment these two strong men, who in verity had come from the ends of the earth, stood, hands locked, looking deeply into each other's eyes. And as the two hands fell away, through the stillness of the room could be heard Northrup's sigh and Muyingwa's as one.

"It is better," whispered little Nayangap, "to be a man than a god!"

Yahoya slipped swiftly to her feet, came to Muyingwa's side, and lifted his hand to her lips. Her eyes were bright, and there was the glitter of tears in them.

"You are a man of a great heart," she cried softly. "For does not Yahoya know that in Chebo you will have to stand trial before the Overlord for the thing which you have done? That Inaa, whose power is great, will cry loudly for your death? That only if Muyingwa's power has grown in the night and he has the secret ear of Kish-Taka will death be averted?"

"Muyingwa is not without power," was the calm answer. "Not without favor in the eyes of Kish-Taka, the Overlord. And Muyingwa is not a coward."

THERE came a star-filled night when Muyingwa's tall form, leading his men, was turned away from them as he slowly moved back into the desert toward the hidden cities. Northrup and Yahoya, standing side by side, watched him until at last the night swallowed him.

At the foot of a great mesquite were buried in the sand the things which Muyingwa's men had brought from the place of the People of the Hidden Spring, many things of heavy gold. To-morrow Northrup would come back here for them. Now they had passed out of his thought.

"For there is a thing greater than gold!" he whispered, as he opened his arms for her. "And we have found it, Yahoya."

So as Muyingwa turned back to seek that which lay in the future for him, Sax Northrup and Yahoya turned their eyes toward the shadowy outlines of their own dreamings.