Before their startled gaze stood a slender, white-faced man pressing to his breast a dark-haired maiden clad in black, and as they crouched beneath the underbrush they saw the brother of the moon bend down and kiss the spirit of the sun.
“’Tis Coyocop!” muttered Cabanacte, in a voice of wonder and adoration. “She has come to the forest to drive away the evil demons of the night!”
“Come!” whispered Katonah, urging her lover by the hand toward the woods from which they had just escaped—“come, Cabanacte! I love you! Do you understand my words? I love you, Cabanacte! Come!”
As the dusky giant, a willing captive led back to a joyous prison, followed Katonah toward the haunted glades, he knew that Coyocop had wrought a miracle and had banished from the forest the demons who had warred against his love.
CHAPTER XXV
IN WHICH DE SANCERRE WEEPS AND FIGHTS
“I have searched in all directions,” remarked de Sancerre to Doña Julia, standing upon the river-bank and watching the early sunbeams as they greeted the rippling flood, “and I fear my captain’s people did not abandon the canoe whose contents they left here as a gift from the good St. Maturin. But we are in good case! ’Tis a kindly stream, and its bosom will bear us gently to my friends. The walls of these frail huts will serve us well to form a raft.”
The Spanish maiden watched the golden glory of the dawn, as it made a mirror of the stately stream, with eyes which glowed with happiness and peace. The dread of many perils which beset de Sancerre’s mind found no reflection in the devout soul of Julia de Aquilar. Had not the saints wrought miracles to lead her from captivity? Weak, indeed, would be her faith if she doubted the kind persistence of their aid.
“’Tis but repaying what I owe, señora, if I should make you safe at last,” continued de Sancerre, musingly, taking Doña Julia’s hand in his. “You saved my life. You have not told me how you knew they’d dressed my fish with poison from the woods.”
“Ah, monsieur,” sighed the girl, regretting that he had recalled the sorrows and dangers of the past, which seemed to her at this glad hour like the unreal horrors of a nightmare forever ended. “You must remember that I’ve spent a long, sad year in that City of the Sun. I’m quick to learn an alien tongue, and, without effort, I came to understand the language of the priests. The saints be praised, I’ll know no more of it! And so I heard them plotting in the night outside my door to give you poison in the fish you ate. I prayed to Mother Mary to find a way—and, lo! my prayer was answered, for Noco came to me!”
“Ma foi, how much we owe to Noco!” exclaimed de Sancerre, scanning the river and the forest with searching eyes, as he turned to lead Doña Julia to the hut in which, through the aid of their aged companion, they were to break their fast. By means of the flintlock on his gun de Sancerre had kindled a fire, at which Noco had been cooking cakes of corn-meal, the odor from which now mingled with the bracing fragrance of the cool May morning.