Part 30 (2/2)

Harry called her naht him by the arood, and you may do her harm If she doesn't answer, it is because she has a reason”

He was silent, but not convinced, and would probably have argued the matter if our attention had not been arrested by arose and extended an ar the cavern fell flat on their faces

”We don't seem to have thinned them out any,” I observed ”I believe there are actually more than before Where do they all come from?”

”The Lord knows!”

”And, by the way, it is now apparent why they waited so long to attend to us The king naturally wanted to be present at the entertainment, and he had to take ti operation

But nohat in the na is to be done in all propriety! Look!”

The king had dropped his ar as Nature had intended they should sit, instead of on their noses And four attendants had approached the throne, bearing a frame of quipos

”So we are to have a fair trial,” Harry observed

”With the king for judge”

”And a hundred dead rats as evidence”

”Right; they can't get even with us, anyway; there are only two of us

And as far as the other is concerned, I have an idea”

The king had left his throne and approached the outer edge of the alcove, until he stood al Pachacamac or the unknown God

To this he knelt and ested a lunatic or a traveling hypnotist Evidently the good Pachacaestions the royal priest corin and struttedthe fraer had faith in Desiree's interpretation of the divine will of the great Pachacae your own enemies

The hand of the Child of the Sun passed slowly up and down the fra a commendable reluctance It touched the yellow cord and passed on; grasped the white and dropped it

”The old hypocrite!” exclai with us?”

Then there was an ihout the vast asseold with a shudder as the king severed with the knife the black cord of death and laid it on the ground at her feet

I looked at Harry; his face beca of a fortitude unconquerable Then we again riveted our gaze on the alcove opposite

An attendant approached fro motioned to Desiree to take up the black cord

For aher head firue the matter, but stooped himself and picked up the cord and handed it to the attendant, who received it with a great show of respect and retired to the rear, where a coment was passed, but as to be the nature of the execution? That uncertainty and the weirdness of the scene gave to the thing an air of unreality that shut out the tragic and adrotesque