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weight of precious stones and much heavier gold.

“My brothers,” Milton said.

The prostrate men arose, looking quickly toward the heap of snakes and where had lain the heap of treasure. There was a shout, a scream of triumph, a babble of dancing joy, an ecstasy of religious exultation. It was some time before they would listen to him, circling in their frenzied dance, flinging handfuls of sacred meal toward the heap of snakes, dancing, dancing, round and round, but finally he made them hear him and commanded their attention. Then he began in slow, solemn speech.

“My brothers,” he spoke in the Hopi tongue, and they settled upon their tucked-under legs as in a daze, or dream, or weary exhaustion. “I have seen. And now I go to tell the Navajo and the Laguna and the Acoma that there is a true people with a true worship. And that I have seen with my own eyes that she has come and accepted of your gifts, and such as she has not taken with her she has left in the belly of the snakes, her angels, so that when they carry your messages for rain and long life she may know that they come from your pueblo and not from another. And when your name is heard among the Eagle clan to the east, or the Water clan to the south, or the Bear clan to the north, they shall have my witness. And now, my brothers, I go, and may peace be unto you.”

And when Milton overtook her below the sand dune and had smiled at her triumphantly and tenderly he said: “And now the snakes have saved the life of one you love, and the life of one who loves you; but what can the one do who loves you, without your love?”

And she laughed a little happy laugh and said to him, “The one I love, sir, is you.”

And he looked at her bewildered and said:

“But you told me they had saved one you love even before they had saved me?”

And she laughed more happily and said, “The other one, you goose, was myself.”