t the
hope of the Scarlet Fringe."

Here Kari looked at me, of whom I knew he was thinking all this time,
and seeing that I could overhear his talk, began to speak of something
else.

On the appointed day there was a great gathering of the nobles of
the land, especially of those of the Inca blood, and of all that were
"earmen," a class of the same rank as our peers in England, to hear
the proclamation of Kari as the Inca's heir. It was made before this
gorgeous company in the Great Temple of the Sun, which now I saw for the
first time.

It was a huge and most wondrous place well named the "House of Gold."
For here everything was gold. On the western wall hung an image of the
Sun twenty feet or more across, an enormous graven plate of gold set
about with gems and having eyes and teeth of great emeralds. The roof,
too, and the walls were all panelled with gold, even the cornices and
column heads were of solid gold.

Opening out of this temple also were others dedicated to the Moon and
Stars, that of the Moon being clothed in silver, with her radiant face
shaped in silver fixed to the western wall. So it was with the temple of
the Stars, of the Lightnings and of the Rainbow, which perhaps with its
many colours that sprang from jewels, was the most dazzling of them all.

The sight of so much glory overwhelmed me, and it came into my mind that
if only it were known of in Europe, men would die by the ten thousand
on the chance that they might conquer this country and make its wealth
theirs. Yet here, save for these purposes of ornament and to be used as
offerings to the gods and Incas, it was of no account at all.

But in this temple of the Sun was a marvel greater than its gold. For on
either side of the carved likenesses of the sun, seated upon chairs of
gold, sat the dead Incas and their queens. Yes, clothed in their royal
robes and emblems, with the Fringe upon their brows, there they sat with
their heads bent forward, so wonderfully preserved by the arts these
people have, that except for the stamp of death upon their countenances,
they might have been sleeping men and women. Thus in the dead face
of the mother of Kari I could read her likeness to her son. Of these
departed kings and queens there were many, since from the first Inca of
whom history told all were gathered here in the holy House and under
the guardianship of the effigy of their god, the Sun, from whom they
believed themselves to be descended. Th