n safety.

Now one asked of the Aztec noble who had gone down with us and returned
no more.

'He has chosen to stay and watch the treasure, like a good and loyal
man, till such time as his king needs it,' answered Guatemoc grimly, and
the listeners nodded, understanding all.

Then they fell to and filled up the narrow shaft with the earth that
lay ready, working without cease, and the dawn broke before the task was
finished. When at length the hole was full, one of our companions took
seeds from a bag and scattered them on the naked earth, also he set
two young trees that he had brought with him in the soil of the shaft,
though why he did this I do not know, unless it was to mark the spot.
All being done we gathered up the ropes and tools, and embarking in
the canoes, came back to Mexico in the morning, leaving the canoes at a
landing-place outside the city, and finding our way to our homes by ones
and twos, as we thought unnoticed of any.

Thus it was that I helped in the burying of Montezuma's treasure, for
the sake of which I was destined to suffer torture in days to come.
Whether any will help to unbury it I do not know, but till I left the
land of Anahuac the secret had been kept, and I think that then, except
myself, all those were dead who laboured with me at this task. It
chanced that I passed the spot as I came down to Mexico for the last
time, and knew it again by the two trees that were growing tall and
strong, and as I went by with Spaniards at my side, I swore in my heart
that they should never finger the gold by my help. It is for this reason
that even now I do not write of the exact bearings of the place where
it lies buried with the bones of the traitor, though I know them well
enough, seeing that in days to come what I set down here might fall into
the hands of one of their nation.

And now, before I go on to speak of the siege of Mexico, I must tell of
one more matter, namely of how I and Otomie my wife went up among the
people of the Otomie, and won a great number of them back to their
allegiance to the Aztec crown. It must be known, if my tale has not
made this clear already, that the Aztec power was not of one people,
but built up of several, and that surrounding it were many other tribes,
some of whom were in alliance with it or subject to it, and some of whom
were its deadly enemies. Such for instance were the Tlascalans, a small
but warlike people living between Mexico and the coast, by wh