“Nay, nay, Carvahal, it is early days to talk in that fashion yet. Remember that presently our errand is one of peace. We must not pluck the fruit while it would kill the tree. El-Dorado is not here; we shall find it beyond the mountains where its master is. Know you not the story that the Scripture tells of the strong man armed? We are not in his house yet. Go on with thy story, de Soto.” A low approving murmur ran round the table and de Soto began again-- “My thoughts were not unlike yours, Don Francisco, even as Carvahal’s would have been had he heard the news that was told me in Huamacucho. The noble who commands the town is no less a personage than one Titu Atauchi, half-brother of the great Inca himself, and from him I learnt that Atahuallpa is presently encamped in the valley of Cajamarca, a great city lying in a broad and verdant plain on the other side of a vast range of mountains compared with which all that we have so far seen are but little more than ant-hills, yet so fast does news fly, by some strange means or other, in this wondrous land, that already he has been informed of our coming, and has sent orders back to the Governor of Huamacucho to receive us with all friendliness and invite you, Excellency, to meet him and confer with him on the subject of your embassy in Cajamarca itself.” Here de Soto paused for a while, and Don Francisco, slowly nodding his head towards him, said-- “That all sounds well enough so far, de Soto, but heard you any tidings of the war that is being waged between the two Incas, and of what forces Atahuallpa has with him?” “It was even that that I was coming to, Excellency,” replied de Soto. “All that we have heard so far is true. The armies of Cuzco have been defeated.” “Cuzco! Where and what is that?” asked Carvahal, again interrupting. “Cuzco,” said de Soto, “is by all accounts the very city after thine own heart, Carvahal. These heathens call it the Navel of the World, but for thee it may be enough to know that it is the very heart of El-Dorado, the city whose streets are paved with silver and whose palaces and temples are walled and roofed with gold. Art thou content?” “Nay, not till I get there,” said Carvahal. “Not until I turn my sword into a reaping-hook to garner the harvest that a good Christian should be able to gather there.” “After the labour the reward, Carvahal. Forget not that!” said Don Francisco, somewhat sharply, as though little pleased by the interruption. “Go on, de Soto, let us know what the labours are first.” “Well, then, Caballeros, as I was saying,” he continued, “if the armies of Cuzco have been defeated by the armies of Quito. Huascar himself is held in close durance in a strong place called Tumibamba, about half-way between the two capitals, and Atahuallpa is camped in or about Cajamarca with an army--a victorious army, mind ye, of some eighty thousand men.”