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Updated: May 13, 2025
But he saw it now, as Escombe undressed at a few yards' distance, the light falling strongly upon the dull red gold and the emeralds, as the lad carefully removed it from his neck and laid it upon the top of his clothes ere he rushed, with a joyous shout, and placed himself immediately beneath the foaming water of the fall.
There was, among other matters, an object on the far side of the fire, that looked not unlike a bundle of rags; but when Escombe, in attempting to turn himself over into a more comfortable position, uttered an involuntary groan as a sharp twinge of pain shot through his anatomy, the bundle stirred, and instantly resolved itself into the quaintest figure of a little, old, bowed Indian woman that it is possible to picture.
Had Escombe been ten years older than he actually was he would probably not have hesitated while disclaiming anything in the nature of cowardice to express very strongly the opinion that where there were two methods of executing a certain task, one of them perfectly safe, and the other seriously imperilling a human life, it was the imperative duty of the person with whom the decision rested to select the safer method of the two, particularly when that method offered equally satisfactory results with the other.
Doubtless it is Tiahuana returning with the bodyguard which is to escort my Lord the Inca on the occasion of his triumphal entry into the City of the Sun." "But those fellows are surely mounted, Arima!" said Escombe. "The movement is that of cavalry; and listen! unless I am greatly mistaken, I can hear the clatter of hoofs on the stone pavement of the road."
But, for the purposes of a rough estimate, Escombe assumed them to be of only equal bulk, upon the strength of which assumption his figures informed him that the gold in this vault amounted to the not altogether insignificant weight of close upon fourteen hundred tons.
In a perfect ecstasy of pride and delight that it should have fallen to his lot to become the humble instrument whereby had been made known to his people the glorious fact of the great Inca's reincarnation in the person of Escombe as he never for a moment doubted was the case Arima hurried out to where the remainder of the party lay patiently in ambush, briefly announced to them that all was well, and bade them follow him in perfect silence to the tent in which Harry still lay plunged in a deathlike yet quite harmless sleep.
"Yes, but I want to get hold of someone who saw it. I can't understand his being such an absolute little fool, and I can't worry the kid himself about it just at present." So saying, Escombe swam off once more. Armitage was the next to approach Jack. He looked rather pale, but began by talking rapidly about a paper-chase that was being planned.
It must not be thought, however, that Escombe allowed himself to become so completely absorbed in his work that he could think of nothing else. On the contrary, he understood perfectly the meaning of the word "recreation" and the value of the thing itself.
The utter indifference to the anguish of those chiefly concerned which Motahuana betrayed in this speech made Escombe fairly writhe with disgust and abhorrence, which feelings were increased a hundredfold by the knowledge that this young maiden was to be forced to lay down her life, and her parent's home was to be made desolate, in order that his Harry Escombe's accession to the throne of the Incas might be fitly celebrated!
"Nay, Senor, that I cannot say," answered Arima. "But this I know, that if he is still there when we reach the spot he will be dead." "Yes," assented Escombe, "I fear you are right. And how long will it take us to reach the spot?" "We shall do well if we get there before the sun sinks half-way down the heavens to-morrow," was the answer. "To-morrow!" ejaculated Harry incredulously.
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