Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 13, 2025
"From words which I have overheard from time to time of late passing between my Lord Huanacocha and others, especially the new Villac Vmu, I believe that when my master left this house last night he did so with the purpose of accompanying the High Priest and an armed party to the palace in order to seize the person of our Lord the Inca and convey him to the temple, that he might be subjected to the fire ordeal, to prove whether or no "
"Rest assured that I will do so, my good friend," answered Huanacocha; "although 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 am interrupting you; pray proceed with your story." "I will," returned Xaxaguana.
"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 my power to do you several good turns and I did them.
It was to the effect that Huanacocha, and the four friends who had sided with him that afternoon in the expression of a doubt as to the genuine character of Harry's claims to be accepted as Inca, had absented themselves from the feast. "Yes," said Tiahuana, again casting his eyes carefully over the room, "they are all five absent, Lord; and I like it not.
"And I suppose there were no signs no marks of violence on the bodies; nothing to suggest the possibility of of foul play?" stammered Huanacocha. "No," answered Xaxaguana; "the physicians found nothing whatever of that kind. How should they? It is certain that both men died in their beds, within the precincts of the temple.
"Ah! and wherefore so, my good friend?" demanded Huanacocha. "Because," answered Xaxaguana, "last night you betrayed yourself into the committal of a serious imprudence, namely that of presuming 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.
There was a moment's bustle and confusion, and then from the midst of the assembled crowd Huanacocha shouldered his way through, and placed himself near Harry, but outside the encircling guards.
And who is there within these precincts who would dare to commit an act of sacrilege, to say nothing of the fact that, so far as is known, there is no one who would be in the slightest degree benefited by their death, or could possibly desire it." Huanacocha looked at his friend admiringly. "As I said just now, you are a wonder, Xaxaguana," he remarked.
But as the swordsmen sprang upon the dais, with gleaming eyes and threatening points, the voice of Huanacocha rang through the chamber as he shouted: "Take the young fool alive, and harm him not, as you value your lives! He has slain the Villac Vmu; and for that reason, if for no other, he must pass through the fire. Hem him in, take his weapon from him, and then bind him hand and foot!"
It was a result as unwelcome as unlooked for by the prime movers of the conspiracy, and the glance which Huanacocha shot at the Villac Vmu was full of dismay and apprehension. The latter, however, who had noted something of the effect which Harry was producing, saw also how to avail himself of that effect and at the same time achieve his own and his friend's purpose.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking