at the hour for the
first meal of the day was past, and it became a moot point with Arima
whether to seek Umu at his house or at the barracks of the Inca's
bodyguard. He decided, however, upon trying the house first, and it was
well that he did; for, although Umu was not at home, neither, it seemed,
was he at the barracks. But Maia, his daughter, had an impression that
she knew where he might be found, and Arima had not poured into the
girl's ear half a dozen sentences of his somewhat disjointed tale before
she cut him short by explaining that she was about to seek her father,
and that he (Arima) must on no account whatever attempt to stir from the
house until her return, unless, of course, her father should make his
appearance in the interim. Having bestowed that injunction, Maia, wild-
eyed and white-lipped, rushed into the street and hurried on her way;
for she, too, had heard words said, to which at the moment she had given
scant heed, but which in the light of what was hinted at by Arima now
bore to the quick-witted girl an awful significance.

As it happened, she had not to go very far, for she had not left the
house more than five minutes at the utmost when she caught sight of her
father, mounted, on his way to the barracks, a good mile distant.
Fortunately for her he reined up to exchange a few passing words with an
acquaintance, and that afforded her the opportunity to overtake and stop
him. She did not dare, however, to mention the errand which had brought
her out in search of her father until the two friends had parted, when
she briefly explained that Arima was seeking him, and urged him to
hasten back to the house without delay, at the same time telling him
sufficient of what had passed between herself and the Inca's henchman to
cause Umu to realise something of the gravity of the situation; for he
dug his heels into his charger's ribs and dashed off at a gallop.

When Maia arrived back at the house, she found Arima in the midst of the
relation of his story to her father, and, quite as a matter of course,
sat down to listen. The Indian had, in the interim between her
departure and Umu's arrival, found time to pull himself together and
properly arrange his thoughts, and he related his narrative with due
regard to sequence of events, beginning with such apparently casual
words and trivial occurrences as had come under his notice, and had only
assumed a significance in the light of more recent happenings.