San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-02-09

TO 40 me service, ana because there I
had need of you, white man, answered
Zibalbay, quietly, ''as maybe / shall
have need of you again. Had it not
been for that chance we should have
parted company on the further side of
the mountain"
"In truth wish we had!' exclaimed
the senior.
As / walked on side by side with III
balbay l. spoke to him, saying: You
use sharp words toward him who is my
brother, chief, and therefore toward
me-"
II speak as | must" he answered
coldly. ''Many troubles await me at
the city. Did you not hear what that
knave said last night, that Tikal, my
nephew, whom | left in charge, rules
in my steadP Well. this girl of mine,
who is affianced to him, and through
whom ne hopes to govern in after years,
may be the only bait that will tempt
him from his place, for he looks upon
me as one dead, and it will not please
him to lay down the rod of power. How
should it please him, then, and those
who follow him, TO see white stranger
holding that daughters hand and whis-
pering in her ear?
made no answer, for at that mo-
ment we turned corner and came face
to face with the bearers of the filters
whom Zibalbay had summoned to meet
us.
There were forty of these men or
more; for the most part they were tall
and well shaped, with regular features
and, like Zibalbay and Maya, very fair
for Indians, but the look upon their
faces was different from any that 1
have seen among my people. 1t was
not stupid or brutal, or even empty,
rather did it suggest great WEAKNESS.
WEAKNESS was the master not of their
bodies, but of their minds, and looking
at them could understand what Zibal-
bay meant when he said that his race
was outworn.
Summoning the captain of the bear
ers Zibalbay talked to him while his
companions ate food that they had
brought with them, and l noted that
what he heard seemed togive him little
pleasure. Next he ordered us to enter
the filters.
We started forward down the noun
tain, and in an hour we had left the re-
gion of snow behind and entered the
cedar forests.
fall, we entered the village of corn
growers, a half-ruined place, of which
the houses were for the most part built
of adobe or mud bricks and rooted
with concrete of white lime.
When Zibalbay descended from his
litter all those present Frustrated them
selves and remained thus, till, followed
by some of the head men, he had passed
into a houSe which was made ready for
his use, leaving us without.
Presently messenger came from H.
balbay to summon us into the house,
where we found an ample meal pre-
pared, consisting chiefly of fish from
the lake, baked wild fowl, and many
sorts of fruit. By the time we had
finished eating and had drunk the
chocolate that was served to us in cups
of hammered silver, the night had fallen
completely. l asked Zibalbay if we
should sleep there; to which he replied
shortly that we were about to start for
the city.
Accordingly we set out by the light
of the moon, and were guided to little
harbor in the shore of the lake, where
a large canoe, fitted with mast and
sail and manned by ten Indians, was
waiting for us. We embarked, and the
breeze being off land, hoisted the sail
and started toward the Island of the
Heart, which stood a distance of about
fifteen miles from the mainland.
The breeze was light; but after the
cold of the mountains, the air was so soft
and balmy and the scene so new and
strange, that for one did not regret
our slow progress. Nobody spoke in