"That is true," I said. I had not seen any reason, earlier, to point this out.

"The rider," he said, "surely only something from the medicine world could have done that to him. It is like finding only a foot in a moccasin."

"Are you afraid?" I asked.

"Yes," said Hci.

"I find that hard to believe," I said.

"You know what it is that I fear, do you not, Cuwignaka, Mitokola?" asked Hci.

"Yes," said Cuwignaka.

"What?" I asked Cuwignaka.

"It is nothing," said Cuwignaka. "It is only a matter of myth."

"What?" I asked.

"He fears that it could only have been the work of Wakanglisapa," said Cuwignaka.

"Wakanglisapa?" I asked.

"Yes, Wakanglisapa, 'Black Lightning, the Medicine Tar," said Cuwignaka.

"That is foolish, Hci, my friend," I said.

"I do not think so," he said. "While I crouched in the grass, awaiting the landing of the tarn, I found something. I would like to show it to you."

Neither Cuwignaka nor myself spoke. We watched Hci return to the place in the grass where he had waited, bow ready, for the landing of the tarn. In a moment or two he had returned to where we stood.

In his hands he carried a large feather.

"It is black," said Cuwignaka.

"There are many black tarns," I said.

"Consider its size, Tatnkasa, Mitakola," said Cuwignaka, in awe.

"It is large," I granted him. It was some five feet in length. It could only have come from a very large tarn.

"It is the feather of Wakanglisapa, the Medicine Tarn," said Hci.

"There is no such beast," I said.

"This is his feather," said Hci.

I said nothing.

Hci examined the skies. "Even now," he said, "Wakanglishapa may be watching us."

I, too, scanned the skies. "The skies seem clear," I said.

"The beasts of the medicine world," said Hci, "may appear, or not, as they please."

"Do not be foolish my friend," I said.

Hci thrust the feather down, like a lance, in the dirt. I looked at it. Its barbs moved in the wind.

"Let us draw the travois ourselves," said Hci. "It will save time."

"Cuwignaka and I will draw it, after we have tied the reins of this tarn to one of the poles," I said. "You go ahead, to fetch the kaiila, and then meet us."

"I think it will be better if we all remain together," said Hci.

"You feel there is danger?" I asked.

"Great danger," said Hci.

"We shall wait then, too, for the slave," I said.

"It is well, unless we wish to risk losing her," said Hci.

"Let us not risk losing her," I said. "She may be worth as much as a kaiila."

"Yes," said Hci. It seemed not improbable that the former Lady Mira of Venna might bright that much in a bartering.

In a few moments the slave had joined us. She had worked swiftly. She had not needed to be hastened with blows.

"It is not necessary to tie me by the neck to a travois pole, Master," she said.

I slapped her, snapping her head to the side.

"Forgive me, Master," she said.

"It seems you still have much to learn about being a slave," I said.

"I am eager to learn," she said, her head down.

"I will help," said Hci.

"No," I said. "Your wound might open."

"I will keep watch on the skies then," said Hci.

"Good," I said.

"What are you doing?" asked Hci.

I had uprooted the feather and placed it on the travois, with the bound tarn.

"I am taking the feather," I said. "It may prove useful."

"I do not know if that is wise, Tatankasa," said Hci. He shuddered.

"It is all right," I said. "I have an idea." If Hci were convinced that such a feather was that of the fabled medicine tarn, Wakanglisapa, perhaps others, too, might so regard it.

I checked that the reins of the unbound tarn were bound securely to the right travois pole, looking forward. I then checked the slave's rope, that it was securely bound on the left travois pole, looking forward, and that a smiliar, uncompromising security was manifested in the neck-knot, at the other end of the rope, under the girl's chin.

"The knots are tight. I am well tethered, Master," she said. When my hands were at the knot she suddenly, desperately, licked and kissed at my wrists. Her eyes looked at me, eseechingly. She lifted her lips to mine. I took her nude, tethered body in my arms. It is glorious to kiss a slave, a woman one owns.

"Let us be on our way, Tatankasa," said Cuwignaka.

"Yes," I said. I disengaged myself from the slave, and slipped into the harness beside Cuwignaka. We would draw the travois tegether. We did not enter the girl inot the harness. We did not wish to be slowed by her shorter steps and lesser strength. I did not doubt, however, that the girl, not having to pull, would be ale to keep up with us. If nothing else the neck tether and blows from Hci would see to it.

"Do you see anything Hci?" asked Cuwignaka.

"No," said Hci.

"You do not believe in Wakanglisapa, do you?" I asked Cuwignaka.

"Sometimes," said Cuwignaka, uneasily, "I do not know what to believe."

"I see," I said.

"There is the feather," said Cuwignaka.

"It is only the feather of a large tarn," I said.

"Something did what it did to the rider, to he of the Kinyanpi," said Cuwignaka.

"That is true," I granted him.

"And it is still out there," said Cuwignaka.

"Somewhere, doubtless," I said.

"It was Wakanglisapa," said Hci.

"Do you see anything?" I asked.

"No," said Hci.

"Then do not worry," I said.

"Tatankasa," said Hci.

"Yes?" I said.

"Leave the feather," said Hci.

"No," I said. I then, followed by Cuwignaka, threw my weight against the harness. The travois moved forward easily. The tarn, even an adult one, is a bird and is light for its bulk.

"One thing puzzles me in this," I said, after a time, to Cuwignaka. "Why would a tarn, if it was a tarn, have attaked a rider in flight. That is extremely unusual."

"It is explained in the legend of Wakanglisapa," said Cuwignaka.

"Tell me," I said.

"It is said that Wakanglisapa prizes his feathers and is jealous of them, for they contain powerful medicine."

"So?" I said.

"Perhaps the rider had found the feather and was carrying it, when Wakanglisapa came to reclaim it."

"I see," I said.

"We did find the feather in the vicinity," said Cuwignaka. "Perhaps it had been dropped by the rider."

"That is possible," I said.

"That is why Hci wanted the feather left behind," said Cuwignaka.

"I see," I said.

"He is afraid that Wakanglisapa may come searching for his feather."

I shivered. "Do you see anything, Hci?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"There is a fire in here," said Pumpkin, from outside of the threshold. "Let me go in first."

Hci, Cuwignaka and I sat behind a fire, in the center of the large, half-sunken, earthen-and-wood lodge of the Waniyanpi. We faced the threshold.

"There may be danger," I heard Radish say, from outside the threshold.

"Do you wish to enter first?" asked Pumpkin.

"No," she said. "No! You enter first."

"I shall," said Pumpkin.

We sat behind the fire, in what, in a lodge of red savages, would be the place of honor.

Mira knelt behind us, in the position of the pleasure slave. I had permitted her clothing, but clothing only of a certain sort.

The lodge in which we waited was not untypical of the communal lodges of the Waniyanpi. It was some fifty feet in diameter, with an earthen bench or projection about the interior edges. Its roof is rounded and slopes upward towards the center. This roof ranges from five to eight feet in height, from the surface level, as opposed to the interior floor level; it is formed of poles covered with sod; it is supported at the edges of the log walls, against which, on the outside, dirt is banked, and by log stanchions arranged in a circle on the floor. At the apex of the lodge is a smoke hole and beneath the smoke hole, at the center of the lodge, is the fire hole. It was in this fire hole that we had built our fire. The smoke hole, incidentally, because of its size, and the size and structure of the lodge, tends to be somewhat inefficient. It is quite different from the smoke holes of the conelike hide lodges common with the red savages which, because of flaps, responsive to the movements of poles, function like efficient, adjustable flues.