d."

"That does not comfort me, man. What of Quilla? Did she die?"

"Lord, it is said not. It is said that the Mother of the Virgins dashed
away the cup as it touched her lips. But this is said also, that some of
the poison flew into her eyes and blinded her."

I groaned, for the thought of Quilla blinded was horrible.

"Again take comfort, Lord, since perchance she may recover from this
blindness. Also I was told, that although she can see nothing, her
beauty is not marred; that the venom indeed has made her eyes seem
larger and more lovely even than they were before."

I made no answer, who feared that Kari was deceiving me or perhaps was
himself deceived and that Quilla was dead. Presently he continued his
story in the same quiet, even voice, saying:

"Lord, after this I sought out certain of my friends who had loved me in
my youth and my mother also while she lived, revealing myself to them.
We made plans together, but before aught could be done in earnest, it
was needful that I should see my father Upanqui. While I was waiting
till he had recovered from the stroke that fell upon him, some spy
betrayed me to Urco, who searched for me to kill me and well-nigh found
me. The end of it was that I was forced to fly, though before I did so
many swore themselves to my cause who would escape from the tyranny of
Urco. Moreover, it was agreed that if I returned with soldiers at my
back, they and their followers would come out to join me to the number
of thousands, and help me to take my own again so that I may be Inca
after Upanqui my father. Therefore I have come back here to talk with
you and Huaracha.

"Such is my tale."

CHAPTER VIII

THE FIELD OF BLOOD

When on the morrow Huaracha, King of the Chancas, heard all this story
and that Urco had given poison to his daughter Quilla, who, if she still
lived at all, did so, it was said, as a blind woman, a kind of madness
took hold of him.

"Now let war come; I will not rest or stay," he cried, "till I see
this hound, Urco, dead, and hang up his skin stuffed with straw as an
offering to his own god, the Sun."

"Yet it was you, King Huaracha, who sent the lady Quilla to this Urco
for your own purposes," said Kari in his quiet fashion.

"Who and what are you that reprove me?" asked Huaracha turning on him.
"I only know you as the servant or slave of the White-Lord-from-the-Sea,
though it is true I have heard stories concerning you," he added.

"I am Kari, the