the temple--were over, it began to be noticed that, when the subject
happened to be referred to, people were acquiring a trick of putting
their heads together and whispering mysteriously to each other. The
trick rapidly developed into something nearly approaching a habit; and
as it did so, the whispers as rapidly changed into plain, open speech,
and the words which were interchanged lost their original air of
confidential mysteriousness, until, finally, people told each other
without very much circumlocution that there was, in their opinion, more
in the strange deaths of Tiahuana and Motahuana than met the eye. And
if they were asked to express themselves more plainly they reminded each
other that the two priests, who had died under such really remarkable
circumstances, were the men who were responsible for the finding of the
white Inca, and the introduction of him into the community, and this
reminder was quite frequently followed by a somewhat pointed question as
to whether, after all, they--the priests--could by any chance have made
a mistake in their method of identifying the Inca, some people even
going to the length of expressing the opinion that it was no question of
mistake, but rather a case of deliberate deception of the people, with
some mysterious purpose which would probably now be never brought to
light, inasmuch as that our Lord the Sun, angry at the change in the
form of the national religion, has cut off the offenders in the midst of
their sins, as a sign of His displeasure. The transition from such talk
as this to openly expressed doubts concerning the genuineness of the
Inca's claim to be the re-incarnation of the divine Manco Capac was an
easy one, made all the more easy by the unpopular character of many--one
might indeed almost say all--of Escombe's decrees. Yet so consummate
was the cunning and subtlety with which the campaign was conducted that
scarcely a whisper of it was allowed to reach the ears of those who were
suspected of being favourably inclined toward the Inca, and not the
faintest inkling of it ever penetrated to Escombe himself. Such extreme
care indeed was exercised by those who were pulling the strings that no
sign whatever of the Inca's fast-waning popularity was for a moment
permitted to manifest itself. The process of corrupting the palace
officials and staff generally was found to be exceptionally tedious and
difficult, for Escombe's genial disposition and straightforward
c