Page:Weird Tales Volume 6 Number 4 (1925-10).djvu/83

It was a warm spring night, and rain was drizzling down the valley of the Bear, enveloping the agency buildings in mist and moisture. Mrs. Dachs, crossing the agency yard, was surprized to see what appeared to be a ball of fire passing through the air, waist-high, and not far distant. That she saw it in truth, and was not resting under any illusion, she was quickly convinced, for her house servant, an Indian girl called Mani, who was following her, screamed aloud. "Oh, Mrs. Dachs, it's a witch!"

"Nonsense, you little fool, there are no such things as witches!"

"Yes, ma'am, all my people believe it! But mebbe it ain't to bother us, they say that when an Indian witch begins to witch you to death he comes first like a ball of fire, and then he changes into a fox and barks at you and—"

"Yap!" A single shrill bark cut the air, and before the two women stood a small red foxling.

"Scat, you devil!" cried Mrs. Dachs, and there was a shrillness in her voice betokening a fear she would not admit. The foxling vanished.

"John," said Mrs. Dachs to her husband that night, "I wish you would forbid old Owl Man to come to the agency. The dirty old scoundrel was in today when I was using the telephone. He didn't speak to me, but he fixed those terrible eyes on me with such a look! They seemed to burn me, and I can't help it, he gets on my nerves.

"Now, Flora, he's a harmless old codger, and he was down on business. I haven't any excuse to drive him away. He can't help it if he looks unattractive."

"You don't need any excuse to drive any Indian away. You are the agent, and you have authority over them. A dirty Indian hasn't any rights like white people anyway. I hate the whole boiling of them; they're no better than beasts! What the government had to give them this good valuable land for, anyway, is more than I can see. Why didn't they just take the land and let the Indians starve?"

"Well, Flora, if you say so, I will order the Indian police to chase old Owl Man back home. He isn't educated enough to complain if he gets unfair treatment, and even if he were, we'd find a way to hush him. We always have hushed the others."

Midnight, and a full moon, but a cloudy sky. When the drifting cloud-banks passed by, the agency was lit up with a clear white light, with inky shadows here and there, and the jetty forest shades beyond. Agent Dachs slept soundly, but Flora, his wife, tossed and turned. Her usually florid face was haggard, and she muttered aloud. The door opened softly, and a strange hunched figure slipped noiselessly into the room. Like one of the black moon-shadows outside it seemed to drift across the floor, making no sound as it slithered over the Navaho blankets that served as rugs. It paused by the bed a moment, and then raised itself erect. It seemed to be a bear—an ugly bald-faced black bear, that stood there swaying backward and forward. It bent over the twisting form of Flora Dachs, and spread out its paws. A moonbeam, darting across the room, fell upon a white patch on the animal's chest, and was reflected from a slit in the dried hide whence peered the terrible eyes of Owl Man. Softly the wizard swayed there, then he bent over, placing his very lips on the mouth of his victim. Ensued a horrible gurgling sound like a death-rattle, and for a moment the coarse figure of the woman writhed hideously. Then the bear dropped on all fours and was gone. Scarcely had it vanished from the room when the