ead.

At that sign of submission a shout of rapture rose from the crowd; and
as the mysterious maiden retired again to her hut, they pressed round
the English, caressing and admiring, pointing with equal surprise to
their swords, to their Indian bows and blow-guns, and to the trophies
of wild beasts with which they were clothed; while women hastened off
to bring fruit, and flowers, and cassava, and (to Amyas's great anxiety)
calabashes of intoxicating drink; and, to make a long story short, the
English sat down beneath the trees, and feasted merrily, while the drums
and trumpets made hideous music, and lithe young girls and lads danced
uncouth dances, which so scandalized both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that
they persuaded Amyas to beat an early retreat. He was willing enough
to get back to the island while the men were still sober; so there were
many leave-takings and promises of return on the morrow, and the party
paddled back to their island-fortress, racking their wits as to who or
what the mysterious maid could be.

Amyas, however, had settled in his mind that she was one of the lost
Inca race; perhaps a descendant of that very fair girl, wife of the
Inca Manco, whom Pizarro, forty years before, had, merely to torture
the fugitive king's heart, as his body was safe from the tyrant's reach,
stripped, scourged, and shot to death with arrows, uncomplaining to the
last.

They all assembled for the evening service (hardly a day had passed
since they left England on which they had not done the same); and after
it was over, they must needs sing a Psalm, and then a catch or two, ere
they went to sleep; and till the moon was high in heaven, twenty mellow
voices rang out above the roar of the cataract, in many a good old tune.
Once or twice they thought they heard an echo to their song: but they
took no note of it, till Cary, who had gone apart for a few minutes,
returned, and whispered Amyas away.

"The sweet Iniquity is mimicking us, lad."

They went to the brink of the river; and there (for their ears were by
this time dead to the noise of the torrent) they could hear plainly the
same voice which had so surprised them in the hut, repeating, clear
and true, snatches of the airs which they had sung. Strange and solemn
enough was the effect of the men's deep voices on the island, answered
out of the dark forest by those sweet treble notes; and the two young
men stood a long while listening and looking out across the eddies,