“We thank you, Soncco, and assure you that your confidence is not misplaced. We did not intend to visit this place again. An accident brought us here. We had no choice in the matter. We would have given anything to have avoided it. But why talk of it? When we were here before you taught us how to live; now you have come to instruct us how to face the ordeal that is being prepared for us! Am I right?” “No. This time I seek your advice. Tell me how I may meet my fate.” “You, Soncco? What makes you talk like that?” “Because I am compelled to. Was not my name called to-day by Villac Umu, High Priest of the Temple of the Sun? It means that I and all the other luckless ones must perish by the means we suggest for your punishment, for Quizquiz will heed none of us. It is merely a pretext for getting rid of those of us who have won his disfavor.” “We thought the same thing. And while Quizquiz is bad enough, there is another who is infinitely worse; that one is Villac Umu, who is the real ruler. You know that as well as we do. Then why do you meekly submit, like a flock of brainless llamas? Why not be men and fight for your rights and your lives?” “Quizquiz is king. The Inca always has been looked upon as a holy being. In all the history of the nation none has ever resisted him because he is a Child of the Sun, and no one dares question his actions now. He cannot do wrong. If his will seems unjust to us it is only because we lack the wisdom to see the higher aims that are clear to him. We are as nothing compared to his magnificence.” “Soncco, it is hard to believe that you really think that. You seem to be a man of intelligence, but if you are really in earnest it is time you knew better. The Inca is a person like any one else, and is great only because the people make him so. Strip him of his crown, his jewels, and his finery, and he would look exactly like any other human being. Dress him in the rags of a menial, and he would not even be recognized in the street. He eats, drinks, and sleeps just as we do; he is a king because the people are ignorant enough to want some one to worship and to bow to,” Stanley said. “If you were to choose your own mode of punishment, what would it be?” Soncco evaded. “I understand now why he came,” Stanley whispered to Ted. “He knows we should pick out something easy, so he figures on getting off easily himself, for he is to receive what he proposes for us. Let’s humor him. Who knows what it may lead to?” Then to Soncco: “Nothing could be more terrible than to keep us in the valley the rest of our natural lives and to do everything possible to make us live a long, long time. We should be given full liberty, of course, to come and go as we please, and should live in state, like princes. But still we should be prisoners of the Inca.” Soncco appeared to be surprised. “What would be so terrible about that?” he asked.