eat throb, and he fled into the street.

The remainder of the night he walked through the crunching snow, while
the silent stars seemed to gaze with tearful eyes upon him in this,
the greatest misery he had ever known. He walked several miles out of
town to avoid meeting anyone he knew and then presented himself at the
Amos residence.

"I believe it is seven o'clock, Miss Annie," he said, when she
answered his call.

"Yes, and I am ready," was the cheerful answer.

XXII.

A VOICE FROM CENTURIES PAST.

Buchan was ready to throw the lever of his engine and roll out of
Tucson, when a messenger handed him a packet bearing the postmark of
Peru. The missive showed signs of age, and, having traveled much, had
reached its destination at last. He tossed it into his tool box and an
hour later when speeding over the scorched deserts of Arizona, he
opened the packet. The letter was dated at Truxillo and read:

"Dear Don Juan--I have been ill for many months, and I feel that
my end is drawing nigh, but before I go I want to do something for
you. I have heard how Don Rodrigo so justly met his end, and with
this knowledge I die easier. You are young and strong, with a long
life of usefulness ahead, and I feel that in entrusting to you a
family secret, I am only doing that which I would have done had
Felicita lived. She was the last of our house and the heritage of
our family belonged to her. As it is, I make you my heir to the
valuable papers handed down to me from my ancestors. May they
prove to you a blessing. Would that I had more to give you. May
the blessings of the Virgin ever rest upon you.

"Julian."

Accompanying the letter was a parchment scroll, dated Lima, 1752. It
read:

"I, Jean Maldonado, do write of my extraordinary adventures in Nueva
Espanola, wherein I was duly appointed the Commander of an expedition
to the land of Quivera, in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola, in
the service of his excellency, the viceroy of Santa Fe. A barbarian
told us he would lead us unto a land to the far north, where shops
blazed with jewels and common cooking vessels were made of gold; that
the metal was so common as to be of no value. The king of this city
took his noonday meals beneath a golden canopy, hung with tinkling
silver bells. There was a sea upon which this king rode in a canoe,
which would carry twenty horses. Upon its prow w