The Romance of Golden Star ...Griffith, George Chetwynd
Science
The Romance of Golden Star ...
Griffith, George Chetwynd
Fantasy fiction
So then Francis Hartness turned to the trembling Spaniard and questioned
him, and he confessed freely as soon as he knew he was not to be killed,
and told how Djama had gone to the Governor of Cuzco and told him of my
coming and of a great treasure that he would show him, and of others
that I knew the secret of and might be made to reveal, and how he had
bargained that half of all that was found should be his and the other
half the Governor's, if he would help him to carry it to the coast in
safety and put it on a steamer. The Spaniard told also how the Governor,
who was his own father, had only half believed this story, and had
bidden him bring a company of soldiers to the appointed place and see if
there was any truth in Djama's story, and, if he found there was, to
take Djama and all of us prisoners and carry us back to Cuzco, and put
us into the prison until he could question us the next day.
When he had finished, Djama laughed again and said,--
'There's the honour of a Peruvian! Serve me right for being such a fool
as to trust to it!'
But I bade him sternly to hold his peace till he should be told to
speak, and then, when Francis Hartness had told me in English what the
Spaniard had said, I bade Tupac and Anahuac stand forward and tell of
their share in what had been done, so that all might understand. They
told their story in Quichua, and when I translated it into English to
Francis Hartness I made few words of it, of which the meaning was
this,--
Ever since Tupac and his comrades had recognised me as their lord, and
sworn their faith to me, they, and others whom they trusted, had
industriously spread abroad the news of my coming--though telling
nothing that would make a traitor able to betray us--and, in proof of
their story, little wedges of gold, stamped with the ancient symbol of
the Sun, had been passed from hand to hand as earnest of my promise that
I would use the hidden treasures of the Incas for the benefit of my
people, and make money of gold where now there was only silver and
copper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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