“My lord does not know?” he asked. “My lord knows not that he has the book of Kukulcan? That he holds in his hands the prophecy of him who was known to Mayapan as the ‘snake with feathers?’ That he holds the secret of that prophecy and its fulfillment, that he holds the symbols that no other has seen? Know you, then, my lord, that in the long ago, ere Kukulcan the ‘plumed serpent’ departed, he gave unto my people a prophecy. Great should the people of my race be, mighty their power and their conquests, but in the end they should wither and die. Those who builded the temples and carved the stones and placed the great images should vanish, and the gods should be forgotten, and those who remained should war one with another and should be scattered far and wide. And they should each speak with a different tongue and be divided among themselves, and should forget their greatness and their gods and their arts. But some few of the great ones should survive, and they should go far from their homes to a place called Mictolan and there they should remain and worship their old gods and have their temples and should abide, until, in the fullness of the allotted time, they should be called forth by their gods and should once more rule the land and be great again and should cast down the new gods. And that they might know when the gods called them forth, the wise Kukulcan caused to be made a book telling of the prophecy and of Mictolan, and of the hidden people, and bearing the symbol that would serve as a token to let the people know that the allotted time had passed when the book with the symbol was brought to them. And to you, my lord, has come that token, which borne to the people at Mictolan, shall call them forth to rule the land and be great once more and shall cast down the new gods. Blessed by the gods of my fathers is my lord. And that it should fall to a white man to bear the symbol and to fulfill the prophecy is not strange, for Kukulcan the Plumed Serpent was white of skin and was bearded, and it was said in the prophecy that a son of his sons’ sons should bear the book with the token of Kukulcan.” * * * * *