"Ova, who was then old, and who, to please her father had married the great chief of his nation when her last hope expired, went with her husband to the spot where the corpse was exposed to the sight of visitors."
"Suddenly she started, and tears darted from her eyes; she had recognised Clouded Snake, as handsome as on the day when she left him with the hope of a speedy reunion. She, on the other hand, aged and bowed down more by grief than years, was weak and tottering."
"Ova wished that the corpse of the man whom she had been on the point of marrying, and whom the evil spirit had torn from her, should be restored to the mine from which it had been removed after forty years. The mine, by the orders of the chief's wife, although extremely rich, was abandoned and shut up."
"Ova ordered a hieroglyphic to be carved on the stone that covers the body of her betrothed, which may be thus translated:—'This sepulchre is without a body; this body is without a sepulchre; but by itself it is a sepulchre and a body.'"
"Such," Doña Esperanza added, as she finished the legend, and laid down the quipos, "is the story of the lovely Ova, daughter of the great chief Twisted Feather, and of Clouded Snake the miner, just as it occurred, and just as Ova herself ordered it to be preserved by a special quipos for future ages."
Doña Esperanza stopped, and there was a moment's silence.
"Well, señorita," the sachem asked, "has the legend interested you?"
"Through its simplicity it is most touching, señor," the young lady answered; "still, there is something vague and unsettled about the whole story, which impairs its effect."
Thunderbolt smiled gently.
"You find, do you not, that we are not told the precise spot where the events of the narrative occurred, that Sonora is very large, and that the town in which Twisted Feather commanded is not sufficiently indicated?"