d it is the prayer
of Tiahuana that he will do so, since there will be much to fatigue my
Lord in the various ceremonies attendant upon his ascent of the throne
of the ancient Incas."

"Thanks, Motahuana," answered Harry; "but I am not in the least fatigued
by what I have gone through during the last twelve days. If anyone were
suffering from fatigue it should be yourself and Tiahuana, for you are
both well advanced in years, while I am young and strong, and, so far
from being fatigued, I feel quite fresh after my long and refreshing
night's sleep; so much so, indeed, that I was just thinking how much I
should enjoy a walk down into that lovely valley. I suppose there is no
objection to my doing so?"

"My Lord is monarch of the valley and all within it," answered Motahuana
with another bow and an expressive throwing apart of the hands. "All is
his; his will is absolute in all things; he has but to express a wish,
and we his slaves will gladly do our best to gratify it. If my Lord
desires to go forth into the open, either on foot or in his litter, he
has but to say so, and we his slaves will make the path smooth for him
or bear him upon our shoulders, as may seem best to him. But it will be
well that my Lord should not venture too far into the valley, for he is
a stranger; and it is undesirable, on many accounts, that he should be
seen by the inhabitants of the valley until all preparations have been
made for his public reception."

"Oh, very well!" returned Escombe. "I have no desire to go very far; a
walk of a mile or two from the house, and back, with Arima as my only
attendant, to show me the way and answer questions, will satisfy me."

Whereupon Motahuana, with another bow, turned away and addressed a few
quick words to Arima in a tongue which was strange to Escombe, after
which the Indian fetched the young Englishman's hat and signified his
readiness to attend the latter whithersoever he might be pleased to go.

Harry's first act, upon getting outside the house, was to walk away from
it some fifty feet, and then turn round and stare at the building to
which he had been so mysteriously conveyed while asleep. He saw before
him simply a solid, rectangular, stone--built structure, plain almost to
the point of ugliness, for it had not a single projection of any kind to
mitigate the severity of its simplicity, not even so much as a window
sill; and it was thatched!--not with the trim neatness characteristic of