Part 12 (2/2)

The choice, however, was not left to hi; for within five minutes of the discovery of the last arrivals all three of the plesiosauri, as with one consent and at a signal, closed in upon the carcass of their co theave the acco tur to witness, which caused the little cutter to pitch and roll to such an extent that it was al deck Whether the creatures reat lu carcass it was quite impossible to deterration was a speedy one, for in less than ten minutes from the moment of attack all that was left attached to the hook was the head of the defunct saurian

Justly vexed at this malicious interference with his plans, and determined to save at least this last relic as a trophy of his prowess, the young Inca gave orders for the head to be hauled inboard; but upon the first attee rush and seized the head in its great jaorrying it as a dog worries a rat, giving utterance as it did so to a succession of horrid grunting kind of growls that caused most of the hearers to break into a cold perspiration So tenaciously did the brute retain its grip that for a few minutes the onlookers were almost persuaded that it was hooked; but ultiment--which its powerful jaws had by this tinition--and, retreating so back to the yacht, at which it made a furious dash, with the apparent determination to cliht So resolute, indeed, was it in driving ho its two fore flippers in on the boat's deck, scattering its occupants right and left, and al two or three over the side, while so heavily was the boat listed by the weight of theupon the steeply inclined deck, had the narrowest possible escape of being precipitated headlong into the creature's gaping jaws, and indeed only saved hi the snout violently aside, the violence of the thrust luckily enabling him to recover his equilibrium Then Umu--who appeared to be the only native of the party blessed with any real courage or presence of er, as he believed, of being seized and devoured before their eyes, raised his bow, and hastily fitting an arrow to the string, drew the shaft to its very head and let it fly into the reptile's throat, where it stuck fast, inflicting soitself back into the water, roaring and choking, coughing up blood, and throwing itself into the most indescribable contortions

Then a very extraordinary thing happened No sooner did the wounded plesiosaurus begin to vomit blood than the other thich hadexcitedly to and fro, hurled themselves upon it in what seemed to be a perfect frenzy of fury, and a , flying, foa almost instantly deeply dyed with blood, while the air fairly vibrated with the terrifying sounds emitted by the co upon her of the carcass of the dead plesiosaurus, began to slide rapidly away fro monsters, and would soon have left the undertaken to destroy the ferocious reptiles, was by no means inclined to leave his task less than half done He therefore put the cutter about and, to the led astonishment and dismay of his companions, headed her back toward the scene of the co in such a manner as to pass just to leeward of the spot where the violent co with unabated fury Then, as the boat ranged up alongside, with her foresheet hauled to ard, the great bodies of thehither and thither, whereupon the whole party of sportsorous and well-directed fire of arrows and javelins upon theood chance for a shot offered itself The result of this deteret in a splendid shot close behind the left shoulder of one of the struggling brutes, whichthe bullet the great reptile flung itselfa dreadful cry as it did so, and then, falling back, turned slowly over, and with one last writhing, convulsive shudder, sank slowly to the botto two, both severely wounded, flung themselves upon each other with such a maniacal intensity of fury as was truly awful to see

Finally, one of the rip upon the throat of the other, and hung on, despite the frantic struggles of the other to get clear For perhaps two full minutes the commotion in the water was positively terrific; then it rapidly decreased until, probably quite exhausted by the intensity of their prolonged efforts, they lay practically still upon the surface of the water, their only signs of life being an occasional slight twist of the body on the part of one or the other of theood to be h to shoot both the h the head The two carcasses ian to sink; but before they vanished coht, one of the cutter's crew, byone of the defunct saurians with the great fish hook; and by this means the monster was eventually landed, with soinally chosen for the purpose

Thus terreat plesiosaurus hunt, after nearly three hours of thework that Esob had ever enjoyed

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

HUANACOCHA THE PLOTTER

About a fortnight after Esob's destruction of the plesiosauri, it pleased Huanacocha, the late chief of the Council of Seven, to entertain a small but select party of his especial friends at a banquet, which he gave in his house, situate on the borders of the lake, the grounds of which adjoined those of the Virgins of the Sun, which, in turn, were contiguous to those of the royal palace

Huanacocha was probably the most wealthy man in the City of the Sun, next to the Inca himself; for he had held the position of chief of the Council of Seven for nearly a quarter of a century, and previous to the appearance of Esob upon the scene the portion of the national revenue that would otherwise have gone into the coffers of the sovereign had always been awarded to the Council of Seven; while, Huanacocha being not only an astute but also an utterly unscrupulouscharacter, the larger portion of this award had regularly found its way, by various devious channels, into his own private treasure chest He was consequently well able to offer his guests an entertainnificence It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that when the Lord Huanacocha issued invitations to a banquet--which was not very often--the full nu, and being present at the function

Upon the occasion in question the guests consisted of our old friends Tiahuana, the Villac Vether with the Lords Licuchima and Chalihuama, late of the Council of Seven, and the Lords Chinchacocheta and Lehuava--six in all

It is not necessary to describe the banquet in detail; let it suffice to say that, for reasons of his own, the host had given special instructions that neither trouble nor expense was to be spared to make the function a complete success; and that therefore, so well had his instructions been carried out, the entertainment as a whole fell not very far short of that which had marked the occasion of Esob's accession to the throne of the Incas

There is no need to record in detail the conversation that followed upon the dismissal of the servants It is sufficient to say that Huanacocha had arranged this banquet with the express object of eliciting the views of his guests upon a certain project that had been gradually taking shape in his mind, which he believed was now ripe for execution But, to his astonishment and consternation, he now discovered that he had to a very important extent entirelyand so had broken up without result, save that the guests had departed from his house in a mutually distrustful and uneasy frath retired to rest that night not only did he feel sory with hih he had achieved the purpose hich the banquet had been given--which was to elicit a frank expression of opinion from certain individuals relative to the Inca and his schemes of reformation--he felt that he had blundered badly He had used neither tact nor discretion in histhe conversation; he had been reckless even to the point of suggesting opposition to the decrees of the sovereign; and when it was too late, when he had fatally committed himself, he had seen, to his discomfiture, that two of his companions--and those two the most powerful persons in the community, next to the Inca himself, namely the Villac Vmu and his deputy, Motahuana--were distinctly out of sympathy with him True, the Villac Vmu had expressed himself as puzzled, disturbed, anxious at the attitude of the Inca towards the religious question; but it was perfectly clear that the frah to induce hiestion at all savouring of sedition And he, Huanacocha, in his heat and iestion The question that now disturbed him ould be Tiahuana's attitude toward him henceforward in viehat he had said; nay h Priest toward his friends in viehat they had said? Would the Villac Vestion which he had thrown out, that this arded as private and confidential, and treat it as such, or would they consider it their duty to report the affair to the Inca? If they did, then Huanacocha knew that he and his friends would have good cause to regret their i, the late Chief of the Council of Seven had already seen enough of Esob'smonarch would stand no nonsense, particularly of the seditious kind, and that, at the first hint of anything of that sort, if the culprits did not lose their heads, they would at least find themselves bestohere their seditious views could work no h theindividual grew increasingly uneasy, and he now began to fear that he had been altogether too outspoken

For, be it known, thisless than the audacious idea of overthrowing the Inca, and securing his own election in his stead In his capacity of Chief of the Council of Seven he had for a long term of years enjoyed a measure of power scarcely less than that invested in the Inca hiant and do disposition, while the other oing, he had never experienced any difficulty in browbeating them into tolerably quick coht happen to have been As for the people, they had rendered the sa obedience to the Council that they would have rendered to the Inca, had there been one on the throne Having enjoyed this power, together with all the privileges and e a time, Huanacocha had found it particularly hard and unpleasant to be called upon to resign the Esob made his appearance upon the scene Possibly, had Harry chanced to conform to this man's preconceived opinion of what the Inca would be like whenever it should please hiht have accepted the situation with a reasonably good grace; but to be ousted by ”aInca--was altogether too much to be submitted to taue, indefinite, and forht that in course of tirow reconciled to the new order of things, particularly if the young Inca should show hi hand of the Council of Seven, as represented by its late chief But Esob lost no ti it perfectly clear to everybody that he had his own ideas upon the subject of government, and meant to act upon them UponInca had turned a deaf ear to the counsels of Huanacocha, and had carried out his own ideas because he had honestly believed theeous to the community He had put his foot down heavily upon hest nobles, and in this way Huanacocha had suffered perhaps more severely than anyone else For this reason his condition of athered new force and gradually began to assume a definite form which ultimately resolved itself into the determination to cause Harry's ”removal” by some means--he did not particularly care what they were--and procure his own election to the vacant throne, if that ht be; or, if not that, at least the re- instatement of the Council of Seven, with himself, of course, as its chief

With this object in view he had co to rievances fro, and these he industriously spread abroad a that in course of tih to the people theerly adopted by them; which delectable plan certainlysleeplessly upon his bed he realised that he had that evening been both foolish and precipitate: he had seriously mistaken the nature of the views held by the two priests, and had betrayed himself and his friends in their presence Hoould the Villac Vmu and his deputy act, or would they act at all, was the question which he now repeatedly asked himself? Could he by any means ascertain their intentions? He must, by fair norance upon such a vital point after the reckless manner in which he and his friends had spoken Ay, and more than that, he must make quite sure that they maintained silence upon the subject of thathiht upon the uard himself and his friends from the consequences of that folly at all costs But how? Who was there to advise hiuana, the priest who ranked next below Motahuana Of course, he was the very man of all others; for, first of all, he was Huanacocha's very particular friend, and a man, moreover, as deeply indebted to him for many past favours of a so, co, very auana was undoubtedly the man for his purpose, and Huanacocha told himself, with a s of the priest before

But although Huanacocha believed that he saw in Xaxaguana the ”friend in need” for who about, he was still much too uneasy to sleep, and he was up and about with the appearance of the first faint suggestion of dawn, too anxious to reer, yet fully conscious of the fact that the hour was altogether too early for hirave risk of attracting unwelco He therefore decided to take a long walk, and think the whole affair over again while his brain and his pulses were being steadied by the cool, fresh air of the

Was it fate or was it mere chance that caused him to select a route which led him past that part of the temple which constituted the quarters of the priests? Huanacocha told himself that it was his lucky star that was in the ascendant; for as he was passing the building the door gently opened and the very man that he was so anxious to see stepped into the roadway and quietly closed the door behind him Then he looked round and beheld Huanacocha, and a little ejaculation of astonish indeed,” he exclaireet his friend; ”most fortunate; for perhaps you will be astonished to hear that I a you”

”Ah!” thought Huanacocha; ”unless I areatly mistaken thatby this time shaken off his panic to a considerable extent, and once ether, he decided to allow his friend to speak first, as by so doing he would probably be better able to judge what he should hi by re:

”Then it is lucky that I chose this direction forramble, othere should haveme astir so early; but the fact is, my friend, that I was sleepless; I have therefore leftair But I understood you to say that you wished to see o up the road toward the hills,” answered Xaxaguana ”There will be the less chance of our being seen; and it may be well for ood reasons why you and I should not be seen together at this juncture, ood friend?” deuana, ”last night you betrayed yourself into the co to criticise unfavourably certain acts of our Lord the Inca, which, as you are surely aware, is a crime punishable with death Do you ask how I happen to know this? I will tell you It chanced that I was kept late froht by certain business connected with the approaching Feast of Raymi, and I was therefore astir when the Villac Vmu and Motahuana returned from your banquet Youwhich transpires within the precincts of the temple is ever to be referred to, or even so much as hinted at, outside the temple walls It is therefore our habit, ithin those walls, to speak before each other with theone of ouryou even this much I hope, therefore, that should the time ever arrive when you can do me a service, you will reh in my favour”