sible that the elk would choose a bed on the lower slopes.
Almayne was right in regarding this as only a possibility. For more than three years Awi Agwa had found sanctuary on Sani'gilagi's summit. The Cherokees held the mountain sacred because it was a favorite seat of the lightning god and a resort of Tsulkalu, the Slant-Eye, the mythic Master of Game. There was no tribal law against it, yet they seldom hunted on the higher slopes. Hence 'throughout the summers and the early months of fall Awi Agwa had made Sani'gilagi his stronghold and, so long as he kept to the upper heights, had been unmolested by the red hunters.
It was this refuge which he was now seeking. Once, it was true, an enemy had invaded it, but only once; and a hundred times in the past, when Cherokee bowmen had picked up his trail in the lower valleys, he had found safety by heading for the mountain's summit. Instinct told him that he was pursued, that the enemy who had wounded him still followed his trail. He was tired, desperately tired, and his wounded shoulder throbbed and burned; but he knew that by swinging around the precipitous eastern face of the mountain and ascending the more gradual western slope, he could reach the lofty refuge which was his goal.
Nevertheless, the long climb taxed him sorely.
