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The tangled thicket and the long slant of dust and little chips of weathered rock and the steep bench of stone and the worn steps all were arduous work for Bess in the clilad of eye, with her hand in Venters's Here they rested The beautiful valley glittered beloith its ht-faced in the sun, and the e towered heavenward, croith blue sky

Bess, however, never rested for long Soon she was exploring, and Venters followed; she dragged forth from corners and shelves a multitude of crudely fashioned and painted pieces of pottery, and he carried them They peeped down into the dark holes of the kivas, and Bess gleefully dropped a stone and waited for the long-colobular houses, like mud-wasp nests, and wondered if these had been store-places for grain, or baby cribs, or what; and they crawled into the larger houses and laughed when they bu in the dust of the floors

And they brought from dust and darkness arht Flints and stones and strange curved sticks and pottery they found; and twisted grass rope that crumbled in their hands, and bits of whitish stone which crushed to powder at a touch and seemed to vanish in the air

"That white stuff was bone," said Venters, slowly "Bones of a cliff-dweller"

"No!" exclaimed Bess

"Here's another piece Look!Whew! dry, powdery smoke! That's bone"

Then it was that Venters's pri, yet unthinking, gave way to the encroachht The world had not beenThe world was old Nowhere could be gotten a better idea of its age than in this gigantic silent toray ashes in Venters's hand had once been bone of a hulooo He saw that Bess had received the sa living, thinking destiny

"Bern, people have lived here," she said, ide, thoughtful eyes

"Yes," he replied

"How long ago?"

"A thousand years and more"

"What were they?"

"Cliff-dwellers Men who had eneh out of reach"

"They had to fight?"

"Yes"

"They fought for--what?"

"For life For their homes, food, children, parents--for their woed any in a thousand years?"