"The blue-eyed senor from England" - there was a hint of humor in his
tone, - "he it is who steals thy fancy! Is it not so, my Wildenai?"

Then, after a moment: "Right well knowest thou my only wish is to make
thee happy." Again his voice, though gentle, grew serious almost to
sadness. "No mere whim it is that counsels me to wed thee to Cabrillo.
"There is something - " He paused, continuing with effort, - "a reason I
have never told thee why it seems most fitting. Now I will tell thee.
That reason is because, because, my Wildenai, thou art Spanish born
thyself."

The princess drew a hasty breath. In the darkness he felt rather than
saw her startled eyes upon him.

"My father!" The exclamation, filled with pain as well as astonishment,
touched him to the quick. Tenderly he drew her to him. Then briefly, as
was the Indian way, yet with the pictured phrasing which caused each
scene to spring into vivid life before the young girl's eyes, he told
her of the day, already more than eighteen years gone by, when, in the
wake of a long midwinter storm, the first sailing vessel ever beheld by
his people had fled for refuge to their bay; and of the little girl
carefully brought to shore by her old nurse in the first boat to touch
the beach. A mere baby she was, too young to know aught of her
misfortune, yet a princess royal, rudely dispossessed of her right to
the throne of Spain, and smuggled aboard the adventurer Cabrillo's ship
to be dropped in some out-of-the-way corner of the western world. Even
then, he made it clear, she might have perished, - since little recked
the Spanish explorer what should happen, well knowing that upon his
return no questions would be asked, - had it not been for his Indian
wife. She, lacking children of her own, had taken an instant fancy to