"Let the strangers pass," ordered Huascar, and himself escorted them to the ancient palace gates.
Outside, on the plaza, they met a police patrol. The sergeant, in undertaking to escort them to the inn, was eloquent on their imprudence in coming into a quarter peopled by fanatical Indians on the eve of the Interaymi.
The Marquis wished to thank Huascar, but the Indian had vanished. Maria-Teresa and Dick, both very white, had not a word to say. Uncle Francis was also dumb, and did not take a single note.
At the inn they found only one vacant room, in which they all gathered. Dick was the first to utter the thought which was worrying them all.
"Suppose it was true!"
"Yes, suppose it was true!" repeated Maria-Teresa.
"What? Suppose what was true?" demanded the Marquis, refusing to understand.
"The Virgin of the Sun!"
They were all silent for a moment, bent under the weight of one amazing, absurd, monstrous thought. And they exchanged anxious, frightened looks, like children who are being told some terrifying fairy-tale. Dick broke the spell:
"You heard what Huascar said. 'Who
