Jackson Gregory

“ You dare—you dare make light of Yahoya's love?"
Northrup watched her, uncertain of the answer to make.
"If you are a god," she said in the same cold voice, "I, too, am a goddess; then the time will come when I shall learn how to make you twist your great body in suffering. If you are but a man——"
She stooped swiftly, snatching up the prayer-stick from the grass.
"If you are but a man," and she stretched it out over him, "I have but to touch you with this and you wither and die!" ”

“ He, returning her gaze, could see that in the depths of her eyes there was a light as of an inner fire.
"I wonder," she said softly, "are you Sikangwunuptu, God of the Yellow Dawn? Or are you a mere man, Saxnorthrup?"
It was not a question asked of him but of herself and he made no answer. He had told her already; now she was seeking to decide for herself. Suddenly, with that swift gracefulness which was almost like a liquid flowing, she was upon her feet, her arms thrown out toward him as he rose with her.
"What are you?" ”

“ It would be well if you remembered that you are but a Bahana, Saxnorthrup, while I am Yahoya."
And he put out no hand now to stop her as she went swiftly toward the stone edifice under the overhanging cliffs.
"Here's a pretty game for a man to play out," he grunted when she was gone. "If she were just plain girl things would be bad enough. But being a goddess to boot——"
Here he broke off. Yahoya had left her panther-skin behind her. Northrup rolled up in it and went to sleep. ”

“ Just because you are used to Indians about you and I am the first white man——"
"You forget Eddie," she dimpled at him, still confident and undisturbed by his words. "I did not love Eddie."
"Thank God for that! But that's no reason you should think you love me. Nor any reason that I should love you." ”

“ There he stopped hesitantly, trying to see just how to go about telling a goddess that she was just a girl in spite of her many years of belief to the contrary.
"A good many years ago," he began slowly, "some people, a man and a woman and a little girl, perhaps, sought to cross the desert. God knows what drove them or lured them. We may never know that, Yahoya, or it may be that we shall find out sometime. At any rate, just before they came this far, they died. Perhaps their water gave out. The man would try to save his water for the woman ”