gardens,
and, at a word from their commander, surrounded the building, a party of
a dozen of them following their leader into the palace, to the
consternation of all who encountered them. This dozen constituted a
search party, which, with drawn swords, systematically swept the
building from basement to roof-tree, gathering together every official
and individual of the palace staff that could be found, until the whole,
with the exception of some dozen or so underlings, had been captured.
Then all were marched out into the vast palace garden and surrounded by
the now dismounted troopers, who meanwhile had made prisoners of four of
the chief officials as they were endeavouring to slink out of the palace
and make good their escape.

Marching the whole of the captives off to a secluded part of the
gardens, where nothing which might happen could be seen save by those
immediately concerned, Umu ordered the chamberlain and his three
immediate subordinates to be brought to him, and said to them:

"Now, sirs, my business here is to ascertain from you what has become of
our Lord the Inca. I have not the slightest doubt that you can tell me;
but whether you will tell me the truth or not is quite another matter.
I intend to arrive at the truth, however, either by persuasion or force,
and I will try the former first: let me very earnestly advise you not to
compel me to resort to the latter. And to make as certain as I can that
the information with which you are about to furnish me is true, you will
each withdraw from your comrades to a distance at which it will be
impossible for you to communicate with each other, and where you will
each inform the officer--who, with a file of men, will accompany you--of
everything that you know concerning the mysterious disappearance of the
Inca--where he has been taken, by whom, and for what purpose. If your
stories, when compared with each other, are found to agree at all
points, I shall consider that I am justified in believing them to be
true; if they do not--" He turned to the other captives and said: "Go to
work at once, collect timber, and build a large fire in this open
space." Then, turning to the officers who had been deputed to examine
the four prisoners, Umu concluded: "Take them away; hear their story;
and then bring them back to me, that each man's tale may be compared
with those of the others."

Umu knew his fellow countrymen well. He was fully aware that while the
South Ame