“She will teach him how to be a priest of the Toltecs, and so well that he will want to be that, and never will go back to his people; that’s the way it always is; she wouldn’t go back to the white people; she is a Toltec through and through, believing everything they do. And it will be that way by and by with this Morgan kid—he will be in time the white priest of these Toltecs. “She thought I was dead. But when she had left the child in the hills by the trail and slipped back to see if she had been followed, and then saw me, with you, she felt that she couldn’t go on again, unless I went with her. That’s what she has told me. And so she planned to get me out of the camp, and I’ve told you how she did it. “And,” he licked his dry lips nervously, “that’s how it happened; and I reckon that’s about all.” “The child is to be kept here?” said Buffalo Bill. “Yes, and be trained up for the high priest of the Toltecs; Itzlan there will see to that. It’s laid on her as a part of her religion to do that, and she’ll do it. The Toltecs felt grieved when she came back with the child, for it was the first they had heard that she didn’t think she would live long. But she says now, has said to me, that since I’ve come back she doesn’t feel that way. It’s queer, ain’t it?” He stared nervously at Buffalo Bill. “So I want you to understand it, so you’ll know how it was, and won’t think too hard about me. That Niobrara matter was bad, and likely you’ll think this one worse.” In spite of all, Buffalo Bill felt sorry for Conover; he could read the mental suffering in his face, which Conover had endured, and he understood the strength of the temptation to which the man had been subjected. “I suppose we are not to be released?” said the scout. “She says not,” Conover answered, turning his gaze away. “I’ve tried to get her to change that, but I can’t; it’s one thing she is set on.” He turned again to the scout. “This is the way she looks at it, and the way old Fire Top looks at it. He’s the chief, and the head of the warriors, and in his way he has more power here than she has. She’s the religious leader, you see. “Well, she and Fire Top believe that the only way to keep white men from coming here and driving out the Toltecs is for the Toltecs to kill all that do come, and so make others afraid to come. She says the white men love gold so that if they knew what was here they could not be kept back, so many of them would come. But the white people won’t trouble the place so long as they don’t know about the gold, and are made afraid to come nigh it. I suppose she’s right about that.” His face was troubled. “I’d do something if I could, Cody, and that’s a fact, though you may not believe it. I’m afraid I can’t do anything. I feel sorry about it, and feel a bit responsible, as I set out as your guide to this spot. I ought to have known better. But I meant well. Only I didn’t know Itzlan was living, you see!”