“It may be he will show the place. He asks me if it is a good life to live with your people, also if you would take him away when you go.”
“Oh––ho!––he fears what would happen if he was left behind after telling––he fears they would kill him?”
“Not so much of the to kill is he afraid. He was a medicine man. He knows what the other medicine men could do. He would wish for the to die many 232 times and they would not let death come near to his cave in the rock.”
“By their magic?” asked Don Ruy.
“By their magic, Excellency. Of all the head men is he afraid, but of Tahn-té the Po-Ahtun-ho who has the sight of the dark is he much afraid.”
“The sight of the dark?”
“It is so, some men are born into the world with it. They know the thought of the other man,––they see the hidden things. Tahn-té has the strong medicine and the eyes to see. He is much afraid of Tahn-té the Ruler.”
“You see the power of these necromancers with their satanic arts?” said Padre Vicente. “We must make it plain to these people that such fear is to be driven out only by the true church and the power of its saints.”
“If we wait for the gold until we teach them all that, the profit of this journey will be to our heirs and not to ourselves,” decided Don Ruy. “Pay the renegade for the secret he should have forgotten, take him along with us, and convert him at your leisure. In all good time, and with a larger guard of men, you can come for the further conversion of the tribe.”
“There is wisdom in what you say,” replied the padre, “for converts here will mean a waiting game. But once let us take to Mexico the golden proof of the wealth in this province and there will be eager troops and churchmen in plenty to cross the deserts and defend the faith. But for that devil-possessed Po-Ahtun-ho the road to success would be shorter.”