“It would be of no avail, rather a hindrance, could I reveal it,” he replied. “If I should say unto you that death awaited you and the maiden, it would cause you pain and suffering and life would not be worth the living. Should I tell you that you would cross in safety, and you believed me, you would have no uncertainty of the future and life would lose its greatest zest. Nay, my son, of the future I will not speak. But of the past or rather of the present I would say a word. I said I knew you had come by honest means to be the holder of the Book of Kukulcan. I said I knew not whence you came. But this I know, that you are not of my race, are not the son of Kukulcan. No, start not, it matters nothing. In the prophecy it is not said that the symbol should be brought by a man of the Kitche Maya nor of the House of Kukulcan, but by a stranger. And also I know that the people of Mictolan will not be brought forth by you, my lord. Long ago has the allotted time passed. “There is much in the ancient prophecy that none but I, Nohul Voh, can read. “Nay, even Kinchi Haman knows it not, for while much of the Book of Kukulcan is written in the Itzae symbols, yet much was written for secrecy in the symbols of Ziyan Caan, known only to the House of Cocome Voh, of which I, Nohul Voh, am the last. “And in that secret writing it is foretold, that if the messenger comes not with the symbol by the end of the thirteenth Katun, the power of the Kiche Maya will be forever at an end.” I gasped. The thirteenth Katun! I had made a rapid mental calculation as he spoke. That was somewhere about the twelfth century A. D. I had come a mere matter of some eight centuries too late! But Nohul Voh was again speaking. “But even though the Kinchi Haman knows not this,” he was saying, “he knows that the bearer of the symbol foretold in the prophecy must bear upon his breast the mark of the House of Tutul Zius, and my son bears not that mark. He dares not ask my lord, yet he but half believes, and he plots and schemes to see. And though I will reveal nothing of the future, even to you, my son, yet I am your friend and the friend of the Prince Azcopil and I would see the downfall of Kinchi Haman, and, if my lord consents, I will place upon his breast the secret mark of the Tutul Zius that is known only to those of the inner circles. And thus may the Kinchi Haman be betrayed.” I laughed. “Then, O, Nohul Voh, it must assuredly be written in the book of the future that I shall bear that mark placed upon my breast by your hand, and who can escape Fate. So be it, O, Great Sorcerer of the House of Cocome Voh.” CHAPTER XII At the Temple of the Plumed Serpent