Chapter XVII

As the squadron of thirty-five horsemen approached Caxamalca a hailstorm broke over the town and they galloped furiously across the causeway to escape the sharp teeth of its jagged missiles of ice.

Teresa’s new servant had mounted behind Gaspara. She led him into the quarters assigned and began at once to question him sharply as to Molina’s fate.

The man, grateful for his life and charmed by her beauty and gentleness, became a willing slave and told all he knew with eager honesty.

“The Spaniard has been attached to the royal household since his arrival, dear lady. Yma, first of the Sun Virgins, whom you saw leading their dances to-day, was given him for wife.”

“His wife?” gasped Teresa.

“So the monarch decreed.”

“He lives with her as man and wife?” the girl asked in amazement.

“I only know, dear lady, that Yma lives with him, presides over his house and ministers to his wants with many servants.”

“And where is he now?” she fiercely asked.

“When your army approached,” he paused and dropped his voice, “he was imprisoned by orders of the Inca.”

“And why imprisoned if he had taken a wife and joined his fortunes with the empire?”

“He wished to join his people....”

Teresa laughed in triumph. What he might or might not have done mattered little; what he would do now, had he the chance, meant everything.

“Where is he imprisoned?”

“In the great fortress on the crest of the mountain behind the city. We know that he has been put in chains.”

Again the girl cried for joy.

“In chains, you say?”

“Yes. He tried to escape. Yma caught him, brought him back and the governor ordered him manacled.”

“I’ll kiss his chains. Lead me to the spot to-night.”

Hastily eating a supper Teresa with Gaspara and her new servant crept cautiously through the town still beaten by the storm, crossed the causeway, passed the camp of the Inca and carefully climbed the long steep stairs of stone.

The man led the approach with the safe tread of a cougar. Only in flashes of distant lightning could the outlines of the huge pile be seen. The only possible entrance lay from the upper side where the massive stone door swung open when released from within.

“Can the guard be bribed?” Teresa whispered.

In vain the interpreter tried to make the simple native understand the question. It was beyond his ken. Gold was a thing used by the Emperor for pots and pans, plates and cups and ornaments, but there was no incentive for any man to accumulate it. It was useless trash to the average citizen whose wants were all supplied by the State. A guard could have no adequate motive to risk his life in accepting a bribe. A man might act for love; he might act for hate, but for gold--that was a motive unheard of in Peru. There was no use for such stuff in the Kingdom of the Four Corners of the World. No man or woman in the empire had ever seen a piece of money until Molina gave one to the Sun Virgin. And that piece she now wore as her most valuable love charm.

“No, dear lady,” the new servant warned. “No guard would risk his life and brave the anger of the Inca for that stuff.”

Verily, the soldiers of Spain had invaded a new world--a world turned upside down, with all known values reversed or destroyed. For a moment the girl was puzzled.

“In what part of the fortress are its prison cells?” she asked impatiently.

“There are no cells, lady. The best rooms are used by the guards and all are located on the western side overlooking the cliff and valley below. He is in one of these rooms, I have been told.”

“Can it be reached by ladders?”

“The cliff is straight five hundred feet downward. The walls of the fortress are flush with the cliff. No ladder could be long enough.”

“You know the guards?”

“No, dear lady, but for your sake I’ll know them soon. The trouble will be that they are loyal to Yma....”

“So much the better that they do not know you,” Gaspara broke in. “After to-day you will be a marked man if seen with us. Go to-night to your own house and give every hour of your time learning the secrets of the prison. Cultivate the guards and when you know them, report to us.”

“I’ll do better than go to my house,” the man suggested. “If you can find the way down the stairs and back to your people at Caxamalca, I will enter the fortress to-night as one caught in the storm, ask for shelter, and begin my work.”

“Good!” cried Teresa. “We’ll find our way, never fear. The moment you have mastered the inside of the fortress come to me at once.”

“I will, dear lady.”

Teresa withdrew into the dense forest and waited until he called his distress signal and was admitted to the fortress.