d destroy Manoa
and the Temples of the Sun."

"Then wherefore would you slay them, when you must all perish?"

"The people, oh Pachacamac, would have revenge before they die."

"Oh, folly of men!" said the king, solemnly; then he cried: "Lead me to
the Inca; this day you shall not perish. Is it not predicted in the Cord
of the Venerable Knots that I shall slay this monster?"

"Hasten, oh Pachacamac, for the shadow shortens!" said the priest.

"Lead me to the Inca," answered Prigio.

At this the people arose with a great shout, for they, too, had been
kneeling; and, sending a flag of truce before King Prigio, the priest led
him into the palace. The ground was strewn with bodies of the slain, and
through them Prigio rode slowly into the courtyard, where the Inca was
sitting in the dust, weeping and throwing ashes on his long hair and his
golden raiment. The king bade the priest remain without the palace
gates; then dismounted, and, advancing to the Inca, raised him and
embraced him.

"I come, a king to a king," he said. "My cousin, take courage; your
sorrows are ended. If I do not slay the Earthquaker, sacrifice me to
your gods."

"The Prophecy is fulfilled," said the Inca, and wept for joy. "Yet thou
must hasten, for it draws near to noon."

Then Prigio went up to the golden battlements, and saying no word, waved
his hand. In a moment the square was empty, for the people rushed to
give thanks in the temples.

"Wait my coming, my cousin," said Prigio to the Inca; "I shall bring you
back the daughter that was lost, when I have slain your enemy."

The Inca would have knelt at his feet; but the king raised him, and bade
him prepare such a feast as had never been seen in Manoa.

"The lost are found to-day," he said; "be you ready to welcome them."

Then, mounting the Flying Horse, with Dick beside him, he rose towards
the peak of the hill where the Earthquaker had his home. Already the
ground was beginning to tremble; the Earthquaker was stirring in his
sleep, for the maiden of the new song had not been sent to him, and the
year ended at noon, and then he would rise and ruin Manoa.

The sun was approaching mid-day, and Prigio put spurs to the Flying
Horse. Ten minutes more, and the sun would look straight down the crater
of the hollow hill, and the Earthquaker would arouse himself when the
light and the heat fell on his body.

Already the light of the sun shone slanting half-way down the hollow cone