king
unusually impressive, as she seemed to act as shield for her daughter,
slighter, more yielding, but ah, how lovely of face and comely of
person!

Even then Bruno could not help realising those facts, although his
ears were tingling sharply with the harsh accents falling from a far
different pair of lips, those of a tall, muscular warrior whose form was
gorgeously arrayed in featherwork and cunning weaving, rich-hued dyes
having been called to aid the other arts as well.

If this was actually the Prince Hua, then he was a most brutal sample of
Aztecan aristocracy, and at first sight Gillespie felt a fierce hatred
for the harsh-toned chieftain.

As a matter of course, Bruno was unable to comprehend just what was
being said, thanks to his complete ignorance of the language employed;
but he felt morally certain that ugly threats were passing through those
thin lips, and even so soon his hands began to itch and his blood to
glow, both urging him to the rescue.

Swiftly fell the reply made by Victo, and her words must have stung the
prince to the quick, since he uttered a savage cry, drawing back an arm
as though to smite that proudly beautiful face with his hard-clenched
fist.

That proved to be the cap-sheaf, for Bruno could stand no more. He
dashed aside the heavy curtain as he leaped forward, giving a stern cry
as he came, swinging the war club over his shoulder to strike with all
vengeance at the startled and recoiling Aztecan.

Only the young man's unfamiliarity with the weapon preserved Prince Hua
from certain death. As it was, he reeled, to fall in a nerveless heap
upon the floor, while, with a startled cry, another Aztec broke away in
flight.

CHAPTER XXIII. A FLIGHT UNDERGROUND.

That sudden appearance and flight of another man took Ixtli even more
by surprise than it did Bruno, for he never even suspected such a
possibility, knowing Prince Hua so well. Still, the young brave was
swift to rally, swift to pursue, sending a menace of certain death in
case the fleeing cur should not yield himself.

Just then Bruno had eyes and thoughts for the Sun Children alone,
who quite naturally shrunk back in mingled surprise and alarm at his
unceremonious entrance. He forgot his disguise, forgot everything save
that before him stood the fair beings whom he had vowed to save at all
hazards from what appeared to him worse by far than actual death.

Gillespie never knew just what words crossed his lips during t