But Yahn Tsyn-deh at the head of the stairway looked straight ahead where a man with a strong bow held himself close in the shadow of a great rock. When the twang of the bow string sounded, she loosened not her hand from that of Ka-yemo as he fell, but with her other hand she pulled aside the robe from her breast––also the necklace of the white metal, that not anything turn aside the point of the arrow which was to follow.
And when it came she fell to her knees, and then over the huddled body of the man she had loved and led to death.
She loosened not her hand, and only once she spoke.
“It is a good choice,” she whispered, but he had led the way into the Twilight Land––and she followed as she had said was the right of a woman.
And the clan of Ka-yemo could chant songs of bravery all their days and not know that Yahn the Apache had saved the pride of her father’s people, and had hidden the weakness of Ka-yemo on the heights of Pu-yé!
CHAPTER XXI
THE CALL OF THE ANCIENT STAR
When the moon had scarce reached the center of the sky, a gray faced man slipped through the corn fields of the river lands, and spoke to the Spanish sentry who paced before the dwellings where the camp was made outside the wall.