gony took hold of me for I knew that what I bade her, that she
would say, and that perchance upon my answer hung the fate of all this
great Chanca people. If she went they would be saved, if she remained
perchance she would be my wife if only for a while. For the Chancas I
cared nothing and for the Quichuas I cared nothing, but Quilla was all
that remained to me in the world and if she went, it was to another man.
I would bid her bide. And yet--and yet if her case were mine and the
fate of England hung upon my breath, what then?

"Be swift," she whispered again.

Then I spoke, or something spoke through me, saying:

"Do what honour bids you, O Daughter of the Moon, for what is love
without honour? Perchance both shall still be yours at last."

"I thank you, Lord, whose heart speaks as my heart," she whispered for
the third time, then lifting her head and looking Huaracha in the eyes,
said:

"Father, I go, but that I will wed this Urco I do not promise."

CHAPTER VII

THE RETURN OF KARI

So Quilla, seated in a golden litter and accompanied by maidens as
became her rank, soon was borne away in the train of the Inca Upanqui,
leaving me desolate. Before she went, under pretence of bidding me
farewell, none denying her, she gained private speech with me for a
little while.

"Lord and Lover," she said, "I go to what fate I know not, leaving you
to what fate I know not, and as your lips have said, it is right that I
should go. Now I have something to ask of you--that you will not follow
me as it is in your heart to do. But last night I prayed of you to dog
my steps and wherever I might go to keep close to me, that the knowledge
of your presence might be my comfort. Now my mind is different. If I
must be married to this Urco, I would not have you see me in my shame.
And if I escape marriage you cannot help me, since I may only do so by
death or by taking refuge where you cannot come. Also I have another
reason."

"What reason, Quilla?" I asked.

"This: I ask that you will stop with my father and give him your help in
the war that must come. I would see this Urco crushed, but without that
help I am sure that the Chancas and the Yuncas are too weak to overthrow
the Inca might. Remember that if I escape marriage thus only can you
hope to win me, namely, by the defeat and death of Urco. Say, then,
that you will stay here and help to lead the Chanca armies, and say
it swiftly, since that dotard, Upanqui, frets to b