I felt exhilarated by what we were told. This was where the Pawnee would begin anew. This was a land where we could live in peace and harmony, no matter what was down here with us. We could and would survive. This I knew.

We were all left looking out over the valley of the Popotu. It was hard to say how long ago the Popotu lived. The spirit of the Popotu still lived in this place. Even after they lived and died, they believed the truth the Modoray shared with them two thousand years before the ice came. The Law givers, always in charge, told them what they must do to preserve and protect Popotu territory.

The Modoray taught them a better way.

I saw no sign of anyone ever being on this land, except for the monument they left behind. The Popotu lived and died here thousands of years ago, but the Popotu spirit was still strong, and extending the hand of friendship to us from across the great divide.

When I had the urge to look at Running Horse, he was no longer on the throne. I looked down to the base of it, and Running Horse stood on the ground at the corner of the throne. He looked weak and haggard. I went to help him get back to our camp. If past experience meant anything, he needed to rest now.

He needed to drink the drink, but he probably wouldn't eat, which meant he might be a while recovering. Calculating some kind of encounter with the spirits, I brought the things I needed to make the drink. Once he drank it, he lay back on the lush green grass and fell asleep.

No one had anything to say about the morning wakeup call, or the things the Popotu spirits said. We didn't have any idea what we might find, but as discoveries went, even Big Joe was satisfied with this one. We didn't need to be sold on the valley below us. It had once been a good home, and it was now our home. It would take a lot of work to get Running Horse's clan all this way, but once here, we would never need to move again.

We all heard the same thing. Running Horse would decide what to do about it, but the invitation was clear. The Popotu wanted to have what it was we were looking for. Since they put Running Horse on the throne to speak to us, it was clear that they believed he was a fine leader and capable of understanding the invitation.

After eating, Joe walked away from us and Samuel walked with him. The rest of us sat around the firepit, nibbling on the venison I reheated from the night before. We weren't exactly in a talkative mood, as Joe walked along the top of the mesa where we ended up the night before. I had no understanding of where the storm went, but if we had ridden into that black cloud, we would have gone over the cliff where the meadow came to an end. We didn't ride over and the high plains we were on was a fine place to stop, even if it was the cloud that stopped us.

We wouldn't know where we stood until Running Horse recovered from his visit into the spirit world. I had no doubt this is where he was drawn by the spirits, and earlier in the day, they spoke to and through him. They wanted us all to hear that the hand of friendship had been extended to us, and that's all there was to it.

It was all too easy, but I'm glad something finally was easy. I stood next to where Running Horse slept. I stared at the emerald, green valley below us. I followed the river with my eyes, and just across the river was Popotu Valley. Who built the monument on the cliff across from Popotu Valley was a good question, but if you were down there looking up, the monument was all there was to see besides rich green grass.

The horses stood close to us. Their usual desire to chase each other around the meadow had been left out of today's activities. They stood close and kept an eye on us. I don't know if they were as confused by the appearance and then disappearance of a storm that was merely a cloud as I was, but they weren't taking any chances we might leave without them. Maybe the idea they were standing above a five hundred foot drop off might have been a factor. We could all see Popotu Valley, but how did we get down there?

What an amazing story. What an amazing place.

About a half hour later, I watched Joe and Samuel walk along the ridge line as they came back to our camp.

"Twenty minute walk," Joe said. "A trail goes down. I walked a ways, wouldn't want to go on horseback, too narrow. If we lead the horses down, we can let them graze on this side of the river. We can look for a place to cross. The valley is on the far side of the river. There isn't a lot of ground between the cliff and the river. It will be enough to let the horses exercise and graze. There is plenty of water."

I walked to within a few feet of the edge of the cliff, where it began sloping toward the valley below. The river wasn't full or running fast, and there were places to cross. The lush green grass on the far side of the river looked inviting. I heard them invite us to stay here and be safe from the cavalry. Normally, I took everything Running Horse Told me about his visits with a grain of salt. For some reason, someone else telling us had me feeling like I was not only welcome here, but they wanted us to live on the land of the Popotu.

The thought of it didn't bother me at all. Having them invite us to come here to live was as wonderful as it sounded. It was a beautiful place, and there was plenty of room to spread out in all directions but westward. The mountains seemed to start at a rise just beyond Popotu Valley.

I was certain that we would have no trouble finding cold caves to keep the food fresh. The hillside across the river was flat next to the river and then it sloped up, was flat again, sloped up some more, got flat again, and there was one more flat spot as you reached just below where the mountains seemed to start.

I could imagine ice coming down from the mountain, and if it did come, and we didn't react fast enough, there would be no way to climb such a steep cliff, and from the valley you could see the throne where Running Horse was sitting when we got our history lesson. Were the Popotu big enough to sit there or was it merely a monument to the power of the Popotu? We might never know who built the throne.

There wasn't a lot to consider. What did we know about the Popotu or the Modoray? They seemed to be the right people to bring peace to their land, if they were people as I understood people to be. I suppose desperate men will believe anything, if it makes them less desperate, less apprehensive, less chased.

"What do you expect the chief will want to do?" Joe asked, ready to examine the valley below us.

"I expect he will be sleeping a while, Joe. You take your horses and the rest of our people down with you. We've been invited, and I wouldn't want to insult our hosts by not showing our appreciation. When Running Horse is ready to go down, we'll be down. I'll bring our horses. You get to explore, Joe. You can tell us what you found out once we get down there."

I watched them walking off together, toward the trail Joe found. The horses walked behind them, and I sat holding Running Horse's hand. His face was calm and he slept on. I saw him visit the spirit world from our lodge many times. He sits perfectly still and waits for the spirits. They don't always come. Since we went through the canyon into Paradise Valley, they've rarely come, and then when they did come, they weren't the spirits Running Horse knew, but they were the spirits in Paradise Valley.

I do believe, as the Popotu spirit talked to us, Running Horse saw the history as it was being told to us. It's the only thing that explains the tears. I never saw him show any emotion on a visit before. He came back weakened from the experience. He drank the drink and slept for a few hours to a few days.

I knew to bring the ingredients with me. I learned from all those days in the white world, you never knew when someone might need a tonic to get them back into shape. It was the drink I gave John to bring him back from death's door. Medicine Woman gave it to me while I recovered from a broke leg, and it was the same tonic Medicine Woman broke out each time someone was doing poorly. She was the only doctor we had.

I don't know how Running Horse got up on that throne. I don't know how he got down. While he slept, I walked around it several times. Each stone was twenty feet high and there were no marks in the stone to allow you to climb up there. Each column of rock was the same height as every other column.

I thought of the footprint Turtle found in the creek bed. Could there have been a race of men that big? Did one of them walk up to the throne and sit down? It was a big throne.

Later in the day, Running Horse wanted to go down to the valley below to join the rest of our party. He walked ahead of me. I brought both Dobbin and Horse and walked behind him. We stopped several times to look out over the new valley. It looked inviting. It would make a good home.

Then, I thought of the cavalry. No matter where we went, sooner or later, they would come looking for us.

Could they follow us to Underworld? Would they follow us to Underworld?

As we continued down, we saw the firepit Samuel made halfway up the hill above the river. Young Antelope, Big Bear, Barking Dog, and Turtle were there, Samuel and Joe weren't.

I let Dobbin and Horse go once we reached the grassland between the river and the cliff. They ran off chasing the other horses back and forth while we followed the bridge to the far side of the river, climbing to the first level before Running Horse needed to stop to rest.

There were groves of trees that furnished some shade on each level. The trees were both off to the left and sometimes off to the right. We had clear vision to where the firepit was.

I wondered how long since people lived here?

I looked back to see the horses grazing next to a place where they could easily get to the water. I looked up to where the monument stood. As high ground went, and being next to a valley below, it was very high ground, I saw what an advantage the cavalry would have if they should line cannon up on the ridge above us. It wasn't a happy thought, but it was something to be considered.

I heard somewhere that having the high ground in a battle was the advantageous place to be. You shot down into the enemy's encampment, and they made easy targets for the men on the high ground above them.

I looked back to the horses. Dobbin and Horse were drinking while the other horses romped. They showed no sign of still being upset by the black cloud that had stopped us before we reached the cliff. I was sure it had something to do with Running Horse's condition. The spirits knew where they wanted us to stop. They knew what kind of wakeup call we were going to receive at dawn today. It seemed like this was the plan before we left Paradise Valley. This was where we were going when we started out in Underworld.

We had been down twice before, always on foot. If we hadn't found the Cathedral cave, and if Joe hadn't thought up taking horses down in that cave, it would have taken weeks to reach Popotu Valley. All the pieces needed to fall into place, so when we rode away from the cliff, we were on our way here. I had a new appreciation for the spirit world, but it would have been nice to know what was going on when we started and not find out when we were a few feet from riding over a cliff.

Spirits had their own way of doing things.

Once we reached the middle level, where the firepit had been built, we all relaxed for a few minutes.

"Samuel and Joe went off with their bows. They went north, if that's north," Turtle said, pointing to the north.

A few minutes later both Samuel and Joe came into view. They both had rabbits that were almost black, except they had white fur on their neck.

Samuel held his up to show off his latest kill. It was as big as the first rabbit he shot down here, maybe bigger.

Everyone was delighted to stop moving at last, but we knew Running Horse could say, "Time to get moving," at any time.

He hadn't said it, and Samuel got busy working on the fire that would roast the fine looking rabbits.

"Samuel got his rabbit on the edge of the woods, over there," Joe said, pointing at a bend where the natural curve of the valley blocked our vision of what was beyond there. "I got mine when it hopped out of the brush, and he hesitated, like maybe he saw us, and that rabbit was a dead duck."

"Don't let him kid you," Samuel said. "It was fifty yards away, and he nailed it pretty as you please," Samuel said, nursing the fire he started.

When is a rabbit a duck? When Joe gets him in his sights.

We would eat our first meal in the Popotu's valley. It would be nice if we had meals here for years to come. It was a pleasant thought in a pleasant place. The way the hills terraced into three levels was nice. We could build lodges on three different levels, and each level came with trees, bushes, and the natural vegetation we might find in Paradise Valley.

We enjoyed the rabbit. There was plenty of it. The taste was no different than rabbits tasted on the surface. Underworld wasn't that different from the upper world. It still confused me that we went into the ground and came out here.

Maybe it was a land just beyond the cliffs. That might sound good, except I had gone across the top of the western cliffs of Paradise Valley. I stopped when the cliffs became mountains. That is where the Rocky Mountains started. There was no flat land for over a hundred miles once you reached there.

No, we went into the ground to get here, and then, I remembered Joe reading from Journey to the Center of the Earth. They had gone down in the earth, and they did find another land they came to, but at the end, finding themselves in an erupting volcano, it erupted them right back on the surface, so they had no way of knowing where they had been or how to go back there. Maybe we found the way back to that land.

Maybe it was like that. Maybe this land had every right to be here, and we simply had no ability to understand. Man made rules to govern every conceivable situation, but their minds couldn't conceive of things far beyond their ability to reason. Some men decided to keep control of everyone, restraining man's ability to dream of a better life and a better way to be.

The men who made certain they stayed in charge, didn't like the idea of free thought. Why explain their people had free thought. They confined their thoughts to the thinking there was no better way to be, and if the people became too aware of what was being done to them, a good war yanked everyone right back into place.

Remembering Mrs. Taylor's class meant remembering rules that made absolutely no sense. That's how it was since forever, and that's how it will be for all time. I did not think like a white man, and I didn't believe it.

"Take some meat, Pop. I think it's better than on the surface. Tell me what you think?"

Those were my thoughts sitting around the firepit in Popotu Valley. The meat was juicy and the flavor did have a richness that could be a bit more flavorful than the rabbit on the surface. Maybe not.

Running Horse came the rest of the way back by the time the rabbit was ready to eat. We all knew visiting the spirits took a lot out of him, and it made us happy when our chief came all the way back.

We were off our horses and resting our hindquarters, and no one complained about it. We were well broken in for the long ride back, but I was hoping for another day or two before making that trip.

I wanted to be there, but if I could avoid riding back, that would suit me fine.

Running Horse picked out a spot where we would sleep, and I was ready for a full night's sleep. The air was as pure as any air got. It smelled clean and fresh. I wondered if our fire was the first one built down here in hundreds of years, maybe a thousand or more.

I wondered how long ago the ice came off the mountain and ended the Popotu and Modoray?

I slept well and woke at about dawn. Running Horse was seated a few feet away. I watched him for a long time. He couldn't be talking to the spirits already. We just got here.

"We need to get back," Running Horse said as soon as he stood up an hour or so later.

There it was.

Our time to rest came to an end. Within the hour, after eating rabbit, we crossed the river and guided our horses up the trail along the cliff wall. Once on top, we mounted and rode toward home.

We followed Running Horse, and right away Horse was galloping, not walking, and we galloped behind him. We slowed when we reached the creek with what looked like a footprint in it. The horses drank as we munched on rabbit. As quickly as the horses lost interest in the water, we were galloping once again.

It's hard to say how long it took our horses to walk to Popotu Valley. On the fourth night, after dark, we reached the forest on the far side of the lake that was a short walk from the cliffs we came out of.

I knew going back would go quicker than the endless walking pace that took us to Popotu Valley. Riding from dawn to dark was harder on us, but being home in little more than four days meant it was fine with us.

We were dismounting at first light the next morning, after sleeping a few hours. Nothing interrupted the ride home. We dismounted to walk the horses through the black forest. We went at a gallop the rest of the way.

Running Horse was the first into the cave. He didn't light a torch until we were already halfway to the surface in the Cathedral cave. It was safe to move fast and without light, even if the blackness was a bit annoying. I could hear him ahead of me and I knew Samuel was right behind me.

I didn't have time to worry about what the hurry was.

When we came out of the Cathedral cave, the people were still here, although many of the warriors were out and about near the 1st National wagon and the eastern cliff where the wagon sat. Some warriors were up near the exit of the canyon as if the cavalry would come out any minute.

That's what it looked like, because that is what they were doing.

We were surrounded by warriors almost as quickly as they saw us coming toward the main firepit.

"Why the rifles?" I asked, as Running Horse kept moving toward the front cliff.

I had to run to keep up with him.

I heard one word, and no one needed to say anything else.

"Cavalry."

Five minutes later we were looking out at the 1st National Bank's section. Two dozen soldiers were camped there. There horses were grazing nearby.

What were they waiting for?

"Twelve showed up yesterday and they unsaddled their horses and built a fire. This morning there were twice that number," Big Foot told us.

"They are waiting for a force to show up. They are coming from all over, and that's why the slow gathering of troops. They aren't here because it's a lovely place to be," Riggs told us. "We've been waiting to see how big a force it will be. If it's big enough, they might think they know where we are, and they intend to find us."

"No cannon," Running Horse said.

"Not yet," Riggs said.

"They still don't know there is a canyon leading into the valley. We have time until they make that discovery," Joe said. "We need to make the move now, Chief. They might wait a few hours, or even a day for the entire force to be ready to go into action. If we move fast, like we discussed, we could be gone by the time they find their way in here. We could all be in Underworld, and I'll close the door on them."

"Get the men you need, Joe. Start moving the village. There's no time for a meeting to explain it. We need to go, and we need to go now."

"Everyone knows they are out front," Riggs said. "They'll be ready to moveout of here before it is too late."

If we had taken any longer to get back, it might have been all over with by the time we got here. Now, it was time to move and there didn't need to be much discussion about it. They are out there for a reason. This is where they lost us, and this is where the search for us will start. They have no idea we are in here yet.

People could take some belongings down in the Cathedral cave, but we left almost everything behind in the village by the lake in the valley where the river runs. A few items to wear and animal skins were all there was, and everyone was anxious to go to the valley Running Horse claimed was safe.

It was a good claim, but I still didn't know how long it would take the cavalry to figure out where we had gone. Once scouts found the caves, they would be figuring out a way to come and get us.

Joe was busy taking apart the lodges he made by putting four or five pieces together to assemble it so it could be taken apart. After we took the elders and the children down, Joe had the warriors carrying lodges down a piece at a time. The only people on the surface were the warriors, Running Horse and me, Joe and Riggs.

I went up top to look across the trail. Samuel was sitting in the Eagle's nest looking far beyond where the fifty soldiers were gathered. The horses were still unsaddled, and fires burned and soldiers ate. They showed no signs of moving out yet. I watched four Crow scouts ride in from the south. They had no saddles, but they walked away from their horses.

Riggs kept watch after making sure Angel and Herb Woman were on their way down below.

After making a few more trips down to move people and things, I followed Running Horse up top.

"More showed up an hour ago. About a hundred of them now. No movement. Their horses are unsaddled and grazing across what's left of the trail," Riggs told us.

"What are they waiting for? How do they know we are in here?" Running Horse wanted to know.

"Everyone is careful going in and out. Hard to say what they know," Riggs answered.

The next time I saw Joe, he was taking the 1st National Bank wagon apart. I didn't understand at first, but when I saw him taking the wheels and axles down with Moses pulling them behind him, I thought of the wagon he built for John, and the one thing he said he couldn't create.

"Wheels."

Joe was always thinking.

I found out something else once everyone was gone, the lodges were disassembled, and there was nothing left but the canvas top and body of the wagon Joe left behind. The firepit was still smoking when I went back up to see if anything changed.

Samuel was in the Eagle's nest. I had seen Riggs in the Cathedral cave going down, when I was coming up. Underneath Samuel's feet was one of the hundred foot sections of rope. It was enough rope to get Sammy Boy on the ground.

I backed away. I wouldn't beg him to stay with us, because he was part of Running Horse's clan. Samuel was a man, and he knew what he wanted. I had no right to keep him from having it. I turned and went back down. I stopped to look around the valley I loved, my valley.

When I went into the Cathedral cave, I saw something I recognized just inside the entrance. It was a crate about two feet long, a foot wide, and two feet deep. The crate was empty. As soon as I reached the pond with the crack in the bottom, I figured out that Joe knew how to keep the cavalry from coming after us.

Where the torch holders were, dynamite now filled the spots that once held torches. I counted twenty in all as I finished going down. I counted fifty sticks of dynamite lining the walls of the cave. It was easy to figure out where the other fifty sticks were. Once again Joe knew what to do when the chips were down.

Now I knew how Joe would stop the cavalry from following us down to Underworld. He was going to blow up the caves once everyone was safe in Underworld. When I came out of the cave, there were lodges being put back together in the meadow a bit west of the cliff. The elders would all sleep in their lodges tonight, and by tomorrow night, we would all have a lodge to sleep in, and we could sleep without being threatened by the cavalry. It could take years to dig those caves out, and they couldn't be sure that's where we went.

That just about covered it. With everyone down here, the caves would be blown. We were all eating together this evening. Only after we all ate and made sure everyone was present and accounted for, Joe would blow up the tunnels. With what I knew, it sounded like a fine plan to me.

With them so close, just across the mangled trail, how was it they wouldn't hear explosions?

"Dynamite doesn't start until about fifty feet down. They might hear something, Phillip, but it will be such a muffled sound that they can't be sure what it is. The ground under them might shake a little, but not too long ago, the ground did a lot of shaking under them. Shook them right back to where they came from."

What did it matter if they heard and knew exactly what it was, the caves would be blown up, and there was no way they could dig out hundreds and hundreds of feet of rubble the dynamite would leave behind.

I suppose everything was fine. We were safe in Underworld, and the only thing remaining to do to keep us safe was to blow up the caves. I remembered where Samuel was, and I wanted to run back in the cave to go get him, because he was such an important part of Running Horse's clan, but I couldn't go up and try to get him to change his mind. If being with Barnaby was what he wanted, then, I was happy for them.

Samuel was a man now, and I was responsible for making sure he lived to become a man. My responsibility to him ended when those caves were blown.

He had been like my son. I would miss him.

The eating started a few minutes after I was the last one down. I had no appetite, and Running Horse filled a plate for everyone, and some of the women were already planting seeds Herb Woman brought down with her. We would make a new village not far from the cliff we came out of, but this wasn't the place where we were going to end up. We would end up in Popotu Valley. There would be no talk of moving for a while.

It was over and after I went down for the last time, I watched Joe hooking wires to a plunger. It was similar to the one the rancher had when he blew up a damn to get his cows water. Joe was careful when he attached the final wire and pulled up the plunger that would set the dynamite off.

"Everyone move well back. Shouldn't send anything flying in your direction, but it is dynamite, and it is better to be safe than sorry," Joe told us.

We all moved back even if he was about twenty feet beyond the exit of the Cathedral cave.

Joe looked all around him to be sure the people were safely out of range before he pushed the plunger down.

Nothing happened.

He gave it a big build up and nothing happened. I resisted the urge to laugh.

Then, I heard it moving closer and closer to us. It was well muffled, but as the explosions got closer, the ground shook and the noise got louder and louder, until the last explosion sent dirt and dust surging out of the opening to the window and Cathedral cave's exits.

A few rocks blew down on Joe.

He was still holding the plunger. The length of the wires didn't allow him to get any further away.

I stood looking at the wheels and axles off the 1st National Bank wagon. I was thinking of Samuel.

Joe came over to stand beside me.

"I'll make a wagon. We'll need a wagon to get the buffalo meat back to Popotu Valley."

"You'll never get a wagon off that cliff, and the buffalo are on the mesa to the north," I said.

"I plan to widen the trail coming off the mesa. By digging into the hill, I can make it wide enough for the wagon I'll make. That means we will be able to ride our horses up and down too."

"Joe, how do you think things like that up? To me the trail coming off the mesa is too narrow. That's all there is to it," I said.

"My Auntie told me, "When you think that's all there is to it, there's always more to it if you give it some thought."

I laughed.

Of course she did.

Running Horse brought me a plate of food, handing it to me.

"You didn't come to eat."

"Not that hungry," I said.

"I left one of the long ropes in the Eagle's nest," Joe said. "I've watched Samuel looking off toward the horse ranch. Didn't want him trying to climb down. He could fall trying to climb down. I hope I did the right thing."

"You did fine, Joe."

I looked at my plate, and I really wasn't hungry, and then, some motion caught my attention. A very familiar shape was standing in front of the exit to the Cathedral cave. He was reaching his hand high up on the rocks in the exit to the Cathedral cave. I thought I knew what he was doing.

"Samuel," I yelped, dropping my plate and running toward him. "Samuel."

Samuel heard me coming and he turned around just in time for me to give him the biggest hug I had.

"Sammy Boy"!

"What's wrong, Pop? What has you so upset? You thought …"

"He thought you stayed up top," Joe said. "I thought you were going to climb down. It's why I left the rope."

"This is my clan, Pop. I can't leave you. You're the only reason I'm alive. You won't get rid of me that easy."

I cried and I tried to smile, but the ache in my heart was still twisting inside of me. He had come down. I thought I watched the exit to the cave, but I missed him when he came out in Underworld.

At that moment, I was relieved, but it was short lived. The human mind is a funny container. My mind was on losing the boy who was like a son. Nothing else crossed my mind as I made my way down to Underworld for the final time. Even when I stepped out of the Cathedral cave, I thought of going back for Samuel.

"Joe, let me fix you a plate. You haven't eaten. You were too busy blowing things up," Running Horse said. "I won't give Tall Willow another plate until he tells me he won't toss it on the ground."

Joe laughed.

I wasn't hungry and Samuel stayed close, once he knew what I thought happened. Running Horse handed me a plate anyway, and I did pick at it as my innards settled back down. I was so relieved.

"Joe was handed a big meaty bone full of antelope roast. He wasted no time getting as much meat off the bone as he wanted. Once he had done that, he took to looking around.

"Where's Demon. He's usually right at my elbow while I eat."

"He had gotten a bone out of the firepit the last time I saw him," Samuel said. "I never thought about him staying up top to finish with that bone. He's been down here more than he was up top all day."

"I spent so much time worrying about what Sammy Boy was going to do, I forgot about getting Demon," I said.

It wasn't quite as bad as thinking Samuel stayed up top, but in a way it was worse. Demon never hunted for food. Since the first night when I fed him rabbit, I had been feeding him ever since.

"He's never learned to hunt. I think his mother died somehow, or they got separated, and when he found my campsite, I fed him. I have been feeding him ever since. I can't believe I forgot my dog."

Demon was shut out of Underworld, and there was plenty of game in Paradise Valley, but Demon never learned to hunt for his supper.

"He'll need to learn to hunt, or he won't be long for this world," Joe said. "Can't believe I'll miss that wolf."

Joe wouldn't be the only one. I was heartsick. If Demon came down here, he would have been at the firepit waiting for Running Horse to toss him a piece of antelope fat before it was too well done for his wolf taste.

On to Chapter Twenty-Five
"Settlers"
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"Stormy Weather?"
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