hint of steel in her voice.

Dick obediently ceased his chant of Mountain Lad, but shook his head
like a stubborn colt.

"I have a new song," he said solemnly. "It is about you and me, Paula.
I got it from the Nishinam."

"The Nishinam are the extinct aborigines of this part of California,"
Paula shot in a swift aside of explanation to Graham.

Dick danced half a dozen steps, stiff-legged, as Indians dance,
slapped his thighs with his palms, and began a new chant, still
retaining his hold on his wife.

"Me, I am Ai-kut, the first man of the Nishinam. Ai-kut is the short
for Adam, and my father and my mother were the coyote and the moon.
And this is Yo-to-to-wi, my wife. She is the first woman of the
Nishinam. Her father and her mother were the grasshopper and the ring-
tailed cat. They were the best father and mother left after my father
and mother. The coyote is very wise, the moon is very old; but who
ever heard much of anything of credit to the grasshopper and the ring-
tailed cat? The Nishinam are always right. The mother of all women had
to be a cat, a little, wizened, sad-faced, shrewd ring-tailed cat."

Whereupon the song of the first man and woman was interrupted by
protests from the women and acclamations from the men.

"This is Yo-to-to-wi, which is the short for Eve," Dick chanted on,
drawing Paula bruskly closer to his side with a semblance of savage