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Updated: May 29, 2025
More than once my mule slips dangerously, and I am debating within myself whether I should not be safer on foot, when I hear a cry in front. "What is it?" I ask Gondocori, for I cannot see past him. "The guide is gone. The madrina slipped, and both have rolled down the precipice." "Shall we get off and walk?" "If you like. You will not be any safer, though you may feel so.
The pool was a thermal spring, and its high temperature fully accounted for the fertility of the hollow and the mildness of the air. But how were we to get out of it? For look as I might, I could see no signs either of an outlet or a current. Gondocori, who acted as pilot, quickly solved the mystery.
All the same, I should like to see this wonderful queen of whom you are so much afraid." "You would be afraid of her, too, and very likely will be before you have done with her. Nevertheless, you may find favor in her sight, and I have just bethought me of a scheme which, if you consent to adopt it, may not only save our lives, but bring you great honor." "And what is that scheme, Gondocori?"
But Gondocori told me that Mamcuna came of a long line of princes who were supposed to be descended from the Incas, and when her father died, leaving no male issue, a majority of the caciques chose her as his successor, in part out of reverence for the race, in part out of jealousy of each other, and because they thought she would let them do pretty much as they liked.
There was, moreover, nobody to whom I could appeal for counsel or help. Gondocori thought me the most fortunate of men, and was quite incapable of understanding my scruples.
After a moment's thought he answered: "Let the lightning kill me, then. It were better for me to die than to return to my people empty-handed; and my death will not be unavenged. But if the pale-face chief will go with us instead of the maidens, he will make Gondocori his friend, and these tame Indians shall not die." "Go with you! But whither?" Gondocori pointed toward the Cordillera.
After we abandoned the mules I had eyes only for Gondocori, and never once looked behind me. "Where are the others?" I asked the cacique. "Smothered in the snow; two minutes more and we also should have been smothered." "Let us go back and see. They may still live." "Impossible! We could not get back if we had ten times the strength and were ten instead of two. Listen!"
It was on my conscience to keep faith with the girls; I wanted neither to kill the cacique nor see his men kill the tame Indians, and whatever might befall me "up yonder" I should at any rate get away from San Andrea de Huanaco. "The die is cast; I will go with you," I said, turning to Gondocori. "Now, I know, beyond a doubt, that my brother is the bravest of the brave. He fears not the unknown."
Of what the dishes set before us were composed I had only the vaguest idea, but hunger is not fastidious and we ate with a will. We had hardly finished when cacique number one, entering in breathless haste, announced that Queen Mumcuna desired to see us immediately, whereupon I suggested to Gondocori the expediency of donning more courtly attire, if there was any to be got.
None of us suffer so much from the cold as poor Gahra. His ebon skin has turned ashen gray, he shivers continually, can hardly speak, and sits on his mule with difficulty. The country we are in is uninhabited and the trail we are following known only to a few Indians. I am the first white man, says Gondocori, by whom it has been trodden.
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