re were two seats of stone,
and a couch of the same material covered with thick hides. In one
corner was a pile of copper vessels; in another two or three of stone,
rudely carved. Some torn hides lay in a heap near the center of the
room. From the ceiling were suspended other hides and some strips of
dried fish.

Some of the latter we cut down with the points of our spears and
retired with it to a corner.

"Ought we to ask our hostess to join us?" Harry grinned.

"This tastes good, after the other," I remarked.

Hungry as we were, we made sad havoc with the lady's pantry. Then we
found some water in a basin in the corner and drank--not without
misgivings. But we were too thirsty to be particular.

Then Harry became impatient to go on, and though I had no liking for
the appearance of that long row of open doorways, I did not demur.
Taking up our spears, we stepped out into the corridor and turned to
the right.

We found ourselves running a gantlet wherein discovery seemed certain.
The right wall was one unbroken series of open doorways, and in each of
the rooms, whose interiors we could plainly see, were one or more of
the Inca Women; and sometimes children rolled about on the stony floor.

In one of them a man stood; I could have sworn that he was gazing
straight at us, and I gathered myself together for a spring; but he
made no movement of any kind and we passed swiftly by.

Once a little black ball of flesh--a boy it was, perhaps five or six
years old--tumbled out into the corridor under our very feet. We
strode over him and went swiftly on.

We had passed about a hundred of the open doorways, and were beginning
to entertain the hope that we might, after all, get through without
being discovered, when Harry suddenly stopped short, pulling at my arm.
At the same instant I saw, far down the corridor, a crowd of black
forms moving toward us.

Even at that distance something about their appearance and gait told us
that they were not women. Their number was so great that as they
advanced they filled the passage from wall to wall.

There was but one way to escape certain discovery; and distasteful as
it was, we did not hesitate to employ it. In a glance I saw that we
were directly opposite an open doorway; with a whispered word to Harry
I sprang across the corridor and within the room. He followed.

Inside were a woman and two children. As we entered they looked up,
startled, and stood gazing at us