Part 13 (1/2)
”Rest assured that I will do so, h methinks that there are one or two services rendered to you for which I have as yet received no adequate return But let that pass; I a you; pray proceed with your story”
”I will,” returned Xaxaguana ”As I have already mentioned, I was astir when Tiahuana and Motahuana returned froht They entered the common room, in which I was at work--possibly because it was the only roo thean to talk It was easy to see that they werebusy, I paid little heed to their conversation at the outset, and only pricked up my ears when I heard your name mentioned Then I confess that I listened, and soon heard sufficient to convince me that you, Huanacocha, and your friends Lehuava, Chinchacocheta, Licuchiuilty of such imprudence as may well cost you all your lives, unless you have the wit and readiness of action to prevent it!”
”But,” ejaculated Huanacocha, all his for to him with tenfold force, ”how mean you, friend? Surely, neither the Villac V as said within the privacy of my house, will they?”
”What was said in the privacy of your house, last night, auana dryly; ”and it is the bounden duty of every loyal subject of the Inca to report blaspheht I gathered the impression that neither of the persons mentioned are likely to shrink from the performance of their duty, however unpleasant itAnd it was for reasons connected with this that I ventured to indicate the exceeding undesirability of our being seen together just now”
”But--but--” stammered Huanacocha, completely thrown off his balance by what he had just learned--”if I understand you aright, uana, all this means that the lives of my friends and myself have been put into the utht, I knew--yes, I knehen it was too late, that I had been a fool,” he concluded bitterly
”To be absolutely candid with you, friend Huanacocha, I think you were,”
rejoined Xaxaguana somewhat cynically ”Why did you do it?”
Huanacocha stopped short in the middle of the road and looked his friend square in the eye
”Xaxaguana,” said he, ”when I was Chief of the Council of Seven it was in ood turns--and I did theht be in my power to do you several others; and if you can indicate to me a way by which I can extricate myself frorateful I believe you are h to recognise that I can serve you better living than dead I will therefore be perfectly frank with you and will tell you all that has been in ood folk of the toill soon be astir, and we o over yonder and sit in the shadow of that pile of rocks; we can talk freely there without risk of being seen, or interrupted”
Without another word Xaxaguana turned and led the way across the upland meadow to a somewhat remarkable pile of rocks that cropped out of the soil about a hundred yards fro round to the shady side, which was also the side hidden fro to his companion to do the saether; then Xaxaguana rose to his feet and, reconnoitring the road carefully to see that there was no likelihood of his being observed, stepped forth from his place of concealrass, and on reaching the road, once lanced keenly about him, and briskly turned his steps homeward Half an hour later Huanacocha did pretty ; and it was noticeable--or would have been, had there been anyone there to see--that his countenance had lost much of the expression of anxiety that it had hen he set out for his walk early thatmeal after his unwonted exertions when his favourite servant rushed into his presence and in agitated accents infors of the teiven forth the startling intelligence that the Villac Vuests at the banquet of the previous night, had just been found dead upon their beds!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
TRAPPED!
The e piece of neas almost painful to see As he listened to the hurriedly told story, poured forth by his e, his eyes see out of his head, and his breath caasps froth he seerasped the purport of the story, he hid his face in his hands, rested his elbows upon his knees, and sat there quivering like an aspen leaf In the course of a few h of such depth that anyone unaware of its ht have almost mistaken it for one of relief, he rose to his feet and,about the difficulty of believing so incredible a story, and the necessity for personally ascertaining the truth, he gave orders for his litter to be brought to the door, and presently sallied forth on his way to the temple, with this intention
The distance to be covered was not great, and by the time that Huanacocha reached the tehting fro his bearers to wait, he cli and, accosting the first person he uana It was perfectly evident, even to one less experienced than Huanacocha into the temple routine and its discipline, that some very unusual occurrence had happened, for everybody about the place seeht; but Huanacocha was, of course, well known to every inhabitant of the City of the Sun, and presently soreat man's request, or command, rather, and in the course of a few e and shown into an eht
Apparently Xaxaguana was busy at the moment, for it was nearly a quarter of an hour ere he appeared, and when he did so his countenance was heavy with concern
”Pardon , my Lord,” he said in a loud voice, ”but this terrible occurrence, of which I presu state of confusion, and when your e reached me I was, in my capacity of senior priest, with the physicians e su to discover the cause of the death of our lamented friends the Villac Vmu and Motahuana” And, as he spoke, he closed the door carefully behind him
”And have they succeeded?” deuana ”They are in coreement that the cause of death in each case was senile decay They were both very old men, you know”
”Senile decay!” exclaimed Huanacocha, in astonishuana Why, they were at ht, as you know, and nobody who then saw thee They were alest of us, and neither of thehtest symptouana; ”nevertheless that is the verdict of the physicians And, after all, you know, these exceedingly old men often pass aith the suddenness of a burnt-out laone I ether surprised; for when they returned froht it occurred to rown very old and feeble; indeed I said as ht to me”
”You did, did you?” retorted Huanacocha ”By our Lord the Sun, you are a wonder, Xaxaguana; nothing less! How did you e it, man, and so promptly too? Why it must all have happened within half an hour of your return houana ”I was still in ued with my protracted labours of yesterday, I overslept ht todead in their beds And they could only have died very recently, for they were neither stiff nor cold”