The Tribal Law

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The basis of the story is an old edict, issued as the result of one of the tribal differences, that death shall be meted out to the Hopi woman who marries an Apache. Crouching Panther is struck by a rattlesnake, and goes to the camp of a party of surveyors. A member of the group, Jose, the Apache graduate of Carlisle, moves quickly. He cauterizes the wound and starts the Panther on his way home. A short time afterward Jose, on a hunting expedition, encounters a trap arranged for some animal and falls, badly hurt. His cries are heard by Starlight, who releases him and takes him to her home. As the injury mends, the two fall in love, which arouses the jealousy of Gray Wolf, a Hopi, himself a tribal marriage ceremony, in which the entire Indian community participates. Following the wedding the husband assumes the garb of a Hopi. As he appears before the bride in his abbreviated costume she discovers on the breast of Jose the mark of the Apache. In terror she tells Jose of the old edict, that she must die if his antecedents are revealed. Jose puts on a shirt, but Gray Wolf has discovered his origin. The chief is informed, and the two are seized. Starlight is forced to run the gantlet. Surviving this ordeal, she is thrown into a room of the pueblo, there to starve. Jose is bound to the side of the pueblo, to undergo the fate of his bride. Just following the marriage ceremony, Crouching Panther has returned and has most cordially greeted Jose, having in mind the signal service the Apache had rendered him on the occasion of the snakebite. The Panther was unable to save Starlight from her punishment, but he goes to Jose at his first opportunity, assuring him of his help. The watcher by the side of Jose is caught off his guard and put out of the way. A second Indian likewise is quickly disposed of. The two then go to the relief of Starlight. She is lifted up to the second floor, where the party await an opportunity to elude the vigilance of the tenants of the strange abode. They are all astir, and there is an animated picture. Finally the three mount horses and ride to the border. There at the dividing line between Mexico and the United States the Hopi gives Jose raiment and belt and pistols. As the light fades the Panther stands watching the two ride into the night. Jose had saved his life when he was injured. The Panther has saved two lives.