San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-02-24

unG arguments with winch no overcome
all possible objections, but to their sur
| prise he fell in with their views at once.
But he said:
mot i, but Leila, must decide the
question, my friends. Let us go to her
! and ask her now"
They went to her apartment, and as
they entered she perceived that they had
| come upon some more than ordinary err
rand. She paled as she gazed upon their
serious faces, and looked from one to
another with questioning glances.
Taking her hand Eric spoke:
my Leila, Iklapel and Kulcan have
| discovered, know not how, that we
love one another, and they wish to have,
instead of a human sacrifice at the feast
of the Katun, a marriage feast, to make
it day of gladness and rejoicing. and
they have chosen US as the victims.
have left the decision to you"
She hid her face upon his shoulder,
and they had no other answer. In fact
when she raised her head they had both
departed and gone about their business.
In the midst of his happiness Eric was
seized with feeling of insecurity, a
foreboding of evil, which was in truth
the prelude to a period of illness. After
battling with it for awhile he resolved
to avail himself of the only means of
reaching the outside world by releasing
his long captive carrier pigeon. Many
a time its soft eyes had petitioned for
freedom, many a time he had almost
opened the wicker cage, but had checked
the generous impulse, determined to
await the hour of need. Somehow it
seemed to him that the time had now
arrived.
He wrote the message upon piece of
squirrel skin, the parchment of the
priests, and fastened it to the pigeon S
tail. The bird looked bright and WE'LL
it seemed eager to be off as it gazed at
him with its head on one side and strug-
gled to free its wings. Leila took it
from his hands, for it had long been her
pet, and covering it with her scarf she
carried it up to the temple top where no
one would observe them. Here they
released it with a toss into the air.
Straight as an arrow in its flight, for
five hundred feet it darted up, then be-
gan to circle in ever widening sweeps,
faster and faster, ever higher, ever
stronger as its wings gained power,
until at last, high in the armament, it
passed beyond their vision, and the can
yon wall shut it out. They stood 81
lently watching until it had gone from
view; then Eric said with a sigh of
satisfaction:
He's well off! Now if no hawk seizes
him, nor hunter bag him, he will be in
San Francisco in few days"
And them" she inquired obviously.
Then? Well, then in a few more
days perhaps you will see other men of
my kind, many of them, maybe-and
maybe, too, you will find some one far
more to your liking" He looked slyly
at her, but she scorned to reply. She
was so sure there was no man like him
in all the wide world that she could
smile at the very thought.
That night in her dreams she followed
the bird in his flight over the desert and
the mountains, and it seemed that it was
in sight of fair city, but suddenly a
hawk with the face of Chalpa swooped
down and struck it to the earth, then de-
voured it at his leisure. She awakened
with shudder, glad to find it but a
dream She did not tell it to Eric, for
she was superstitious and feared it would
trouble him.
The very next day the council of the
Katun was called. Its duty was to select
victim and arrange for the great feast.
1t was composed of twelve priests, the
Office being hereditary, the only heredi-
tary Office in Atzlan. Some of them
were old, but the majority, were men
under thirty. Chalpa was the chief of
this council and one of the three who
cast the fatal lot to decide which of the
twenty maidens selected by the council
should die.
The council was in secret session
eighteen days; no one knew its decision,
not even the high priest, and the result
of its deliberations would not be known
until week before the feast. This
would be the week of the election, and
the public mind was in a ferment; all
pursuits were neglected and the people
spent their time discussing these two
topics from morn until night. Chalpa
was seen everywhere, using all the arts
of the politician; the priests were busy
AT all hours; the maidens, with fearful
eyes and blanched cheeks, wept and
wove shrouds for themselves, for no one
knew who would be taken.
In the midst of all Eric became i'll
from overwork and lay for ten days in a
delirious fever, tenderly nursed by Leila