The Bride of the Sun

or and a dark cupboard, from which a loud cry for help now resounded throughout the deserted hacienda. Dick, signing

open the windows, while Dick questioned him brutally. "Where is your mistress?" A feeble hand pointed toward the sierra, and Dick sto

into the motor had discovered his sister's cloak there, and was crying over it. He threw hims

ursuit! The irony of it! That motor there, which had served for the crime,

at the far end of the court. Could there be horses in that deserted bodega. It soun

e heavy loads of years, and incapable of carrying even a child. But llamas do not neigh. The boy slipped round the corner of the building, and stopped short in the shadow. Sitting motionless a few yards away w

rt by a shot. A shadow had risen in the night, only a few feet away, and had fired; the rider rolled from his sa

of them," shouted Dick, turning hi

fingers caught in its wool, he checked it with the words one uses to llamas, scrambled up and dashed afte

ch this might have. Nor, to tell the truth, did he forget the value of the Marquis as a witness to this confession, which he regarded in the light of a valuable pie

at the abduction had been long planned, and that the daughter of the Marquis de la Torre had been chosen as the victi

im. All he was asked to do was to drive the motor to a certain spot on a certain day, without looking to see what was

e the bargain with?"

ian bank who sometimes came to see

a-Teresa at Callao, that voyage must have been particularly disagreeable to him. That would explain his close wat

chosen?" questioned Natividad, hol

'Dios anki tiourata' ('good-day,' in Aimara), and that I was to obey that man

what was happening. It was then too late to draw back, and, when the order came, he drove the car to the calle San Lorenzo, where they stopped for a minute before a low door. Huascar came out, exchanged

se?orita, unconscious, being lifted out by three dwarfs with horribly-shaped heads. They took her into

viedo. Huascar was also with them, and ordered Libertad to come into the house. To his surpri

can have no doubts now.... Speak, Libe

e.... You must save her.... She was so good to me.... And I betrayed her... betrayed her for two hundred silver soles.... They did not know

is, bending low over the prostrate figu

so good.... And I sold her f

interrupted Natividad. "Was

eyes, staring sightlessly before her.... The mammaconas were all round her... and the dwarfs were dancing. I saw it all, because they had left me alone, and I looked out of the window... they put her on a mule... in front of one of the mammaconas... and the o

e Red Ponchos carried off my mistress... they are taking her to the Temple of the Sun.... It

t seemed to recover his forces with the la

d Natividad. "Was it in tryi

ried to cross himself, but his

on the table there.... Not one over.... It was not much for betraying my mistress.... I did not know that was what they wanted.

t th

and I escaped, but he followed.... I ran upstairs.... He stabRed me again and again...

d rushed downstairs. They found Uncle Francis by the motor, staring down the road. When they asked him where Dick a

sh across a moonlit stretch of road and vanish in the darkness of a ravine leading into the mountains, and spanned above

the sound of galloping horses came from the right, on the Chorillo