Transcriber’s Notes: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=). Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. * * * * * _Instructor Literature Series--No. 257_ Kwasa the Cliff Dweller [Illustration] _By Katherine Atherton Grimes_ F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, DANSVILLE, N. Y. * * * * * INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES Kwasa the Cliff Dweller BY _Katherine Atherton Grimes_ ILLUSTRATED BY L. J. WILSON [Illustration] F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, DANSVILLE, N. Y. _Copyright, 1916, by F. A. Owen Publishing Co._ * * * * * [Illustration: “It was one that few boys would care to attempt”--_Chapter 2_] * * * * * Kwasa the Cliff Dweller CHAPTER I The Game on the Terrace “It did,” said Kwasa. “It didn’t,” said Wiki. “But I say there were three reds up,” insisted Kwasa. “And I say one of the dice came up white,” argued Wiki. “Well,” returned Kwasa good-humoredly, “we will not quarrel about a game. I will throw again.” Catching up the three small sticks of cane, painted red on the hollowed inner side and white on the upper part, Kwasa tossed them deftly into the air. They came down all together, landing on the stone pavement with the white sides up. Kwasa gave a cluck of triumph. “Three whites; better yet.” Reaching across the stone slab covered with a pattern of circles and lines which served as a game board, he carefully moved a white pebble from the mark where it stood to one two spaces nearer the center of the slab. Wiki seized the dice eagerly. “Well done! Now it is my turn.” Into the air spun the three sticks again, but as they came down Wiki saw with disappointment that one showed the white side while the other two had fallen with the red uppermost. “No play,” cried Kwasa. “But I have one more throw,” said Wiki, and this time three reds gleamed against the gray rock floor. “One space, anyway,” said Wiki, and this time a red pebble on the farther side of the slab was set one space nearer the center. Kwasa laughed. “When I have beaten you I will show you how to hold the dice,” he boasted playfully. “Old Honau showed me the trick. He can bring down the white every time.” “I am thirsty,” said Wiki, laying down the dice and jumping up. “So am I,” said Kwasa, “but it is too far down to the spring. Let us go to the reservoir.” The lads ran lightly across the long, narrow court and climbed a niche staircase hewn in the rock wall at the back of the cliff. A dozen steps brought them to the top of the wall, from which they looked down into a huge hollow in the rock, which appeared to be partly natural and partly the result of human labor. It was nearly full of water, which fed slowly into it from a small stream trickling down from the higher side of the bluff.