cannot tell, Lord, but let us cease from beating bushes. I will help
you if I can, if you will help me if _you_ can, though I daresay that in
the end you, who are not a bigot, must take the law into your own hands,
as perhaps the lady Quilla, who is a moon-worshipper, would be willing
to do also."

The finish of it was that this cunning priest and statesman and I made a
bargain. If I could win Kari over to his interests, then he swore by the
Sun that he would gain me access to the lady Quilla and help me to fly
with her, if so we both wished, while I on my part swore to plead his
cause with Kari. Moreover, as he showed me, there was little fear that
either of us would break these oaths since henceforth each lay in the
power of the other.

After this we passed on to public matters. I was charged to offer an
honourable truce to Huaracha and the Chancas with permission to them to
camp their armies in certain valleys near to Cuzco where they would
be fed until peace was declared, which peace would give them all they
needed, namely, their freedom and safeguards from attack. For the rest
I was to bring Kari and those who had deserted to him on the yesterday
into Cuzco where none would molest them.

Then he went, leaving me happier than I had been since I bade farewell
to Quilla. For now at last I saw light, a faint uncertain light, it was
true, only to be reached, if reached at all, through many difficulties
and dangers, but still light. At last I had found someone in this
land of black superstition who was not a bigot, and who, being the
High-priest of the Sun, knew too much of his god to fear him or to
believe that he should come down to earth and burn it up should one of
the hundreds of his brides seek another husband. Of course this Larico
might betray me and Quilla, but I did not think he would, since he had
nothing to gain thereby, and might have much to lose, for the reason
that I was able, or he thought that I was able, to set Kari against him.
At least I could only go forward and trust to fortune, though in fact
hitherto she had never shown me favour where woman was concerned.

Awhile later I was being borne in one of the Inca's own litters back to
the camp of the Chancas, accompanied by an embassy of great lords.

We passed over that dreadful, bloodstained plain where, under a flag of
truce, both sides were engaged in burying the thousands of their dead,
and came to the ridge whence we had charged on the yes