“First, my lord, you must have faith,” he announced, his eyes fixed upon mine. “In your heart I read that you doubt, so I must convince you, even against your own will. For many days I have watched you, my lord, as you came onwards towards Mictolan. I have seen you conversing with the priest, Katchilcan, I have seen you in the ancient temple bound by the savages, I have seen you surrounded by the raging waters in the Valley of Death and passing with the chief through the Tunnel of the Serpents; I have seen you cross the Pit of the Alligators, have seen you destroy the fiend Neztpehua and cross the eight deserts. I have watched you in the realm of hot ashes and the blazing mountains, as you led the demon Ixputeque to its death, and I have seen you in the Cave of Bats, lost and wandering in the darkness, until you came unto the Bridge of Light and the maiden Itza and found your fate.” I was thunderstruck. I felt as though I were speaking my own thoughts aloud. Had he read my thoughts? Had he by some form of hypnosis been able to revisualize, step by step, all the scenes and incidents I had been through? I did not know. But I was positive that I was not consciously hypnotized. My mind was functioning clearly, I was reasoning, I was even planning some means, some question that would be a test; something, some secret known only to myself. He had said he had seen me talking with Katchilcan. How much did he know of what had gone before? Could he tell me where I had found the codex that had led to all my astounding discoveries and adventures? “It is all as you say,” I assured him. “But tell me, Nohul Voh, whence came I to the village of Katchilcan?” He shook his head. “To all things there is a limit,” he said. “Does the loftiest mountain reach to the moon? Does the vulture perch upon the stars? Does the maize plant grow to height of the mountain? Does man live forever? No, my lord, even knowledge has its end fixed by the gods. Whence you came to the village of the priest I know not. Neither do I know when nor how you came by the Book of Kukulcan. But that you came by it honestly I know, for otherwise your way would not have been made easy, as was foretold in the prophecy. Is my lord ready to believe what I may show him?”