g obedience to the Council that they would have rendered to
the Inca, had there been one on the throne. Having enjoyed this power,
together with all the privileges and emoluments attaching thereto, for
so long a time, Huanacocha had found it particularly hard and unpleasant
to be called upon to resign them all, practically at a moment's notice,
when young Escombe made his appearance upon the scene. Possibly, had
Harry chanced to conform to this man's preconceived opinion of what the
Inca would be like whenever it should please him to revisit the earth,
he might have accepted the situation with a reasonably good grace; but
to be ousted by "a mere boy"--for as such he always thought of the young
Inca--was altogether too much to be submitted to tamely.

At the first his mental revolt had been vague, indefinite, and formless;
perhaps he had thought that in course of time it would pass away and he
would grow reconciled to the new order of things, particularly if the
young Inca should show himself properly willing to submit to the guiding
hand of the Council of Seven, as represented by its late chief. But
Escombe lost no time in making it perfectly clear to everybody that he
had his own ideas upon the subject of government, and meant to act upon
them. Upon more than one occasion--upon several, in fact--the young
Inca had turned a deaf ear to the counsels of Huanacocha, and had
carried out his own ideas because he had honestly believed them to be
better and more advantageous to the community. He had put his foot down
heavily upon many abuses of power on the part of certain of the highest
nobles, and in this way Huanacocha had suffered perhaps more severely
than anyone else. For this reason his condition of mental revolt,
instead of passing away, gathered new force and gradually began to
assume a definite form which ultimately resolved itself into the
determination to cause Harry's "removal" by some means--he did not
particularly care what they were--and procure his own election to the
vacant throne, if that might be; or, if not that, at least the re-
instatement of the Council of Seven, with himself, of course, as its
chief.

With this object in view he had commenced operations by proceeding to
manufacture sedulously a number of imaginary grievances from which he
asserted that the people were suffering, and these he industriously
spread abroad among his own friends, hoping that in course of time they
would filter throug