ay for the next. The whole ceremony was exceedingly brief, not
occupying much more than a quarter of an hour altogether; but, brief as
it was, it constituted in itself an education for Harry, who, as he
witnessed the almost slavish humility of the demeanour of these proud
and haughty nobles toward him, now began to realise, for the first time,
the tremendous power to which he had been raised by a most unique and
extravagant freak of fortune. And it did him good; for it set him to
think seriously of the enormous responsibility which he had almost
unwittingly incurred when he so light-heartedly allowed himself to
become enmeshed in the toils of the adventure, and caused him to make
many very excellent resolutions as to the manner in which he would
discharge that responsibility.

With the coming of dawn on the following morning the camp of the royal
bodyguard suddenly awoke to strenuous life and activity. The troopers,
attired only in thin shirts, riding their barebacked horses down to the
lake, where the animals were watered and bathed in preparation for the
return journey to the City of the Sun. Then, having returned to the
camp, the horses were carefully groomed and fed, after which the
troopers spent a busy hour in examining and burnishing their arms and
accoutrements. For this was the great day upon which the re-incarnated
Inca was to make his triumphal entry into his capital, the new holy and
royal city which, during a period of over three hundred and fifty years,
his people had been patiently building and extending and decorating and
enriching in order that it might be worthy the reception of the monarch
when it should please him to return to earth. It was to be the day of
days, the first day in the history of a great, glorious, regenerated
nation, in which much was to be done, and that in a manner which would
becomingly adorn the first page of that history. Then everybody,
including Harry--who, meanwhile had bathed and dressed--partook of
breakfast; after which the final preparations for the journey were
completed. Then Tiahuana and Umu, having first craved audience of their
Lord, presented themselves before Harry to intimate respectfully that
there were two alternative methods of travel open to him, namely by
horse litter or on horseback, and to crave humbly that he would be
pleased to indicate which of the two he would choose. To which Harry,
who was by this time beginning to enter thoroughly into the spi