Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/114

100 touches the Virgin of the Sun is a dead man!' Those were his own words!"

"Just a manner of speech," hesitated Uncle Francis. "It cannot be anything else."

"Anything else? What do you mean?" demanded the Marquis violently.

"Well, it could not be ... the other thing. If Maria-Teresa was ... was the Virgin of the Sun, they would not have let her pass out."

"Are we all going mad! After all, we are masters here!" burst out Don Christobal. "There are the police, and the troops. All those rascals out there are our slaves. 'Pon my soul, we are all raving!"

"Of course!" exclaimed Maria-Teresa.

"All the same, I think we ought to get out of Cajamarca as soon as we can," said Dick, going to the window and looking out Night had fallen, and with it silence. The square outside was deserted.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and a servant brought in a letter addressed to Maria-Teresa. She tore it open and read aloud:—"Return to Lima at once. Leave Cajamarca to-night"

"It is not signed," she said, "but this warning comes from Huascar."

"And we should follow his advice," said Dick.

There was another knock at the door. This