Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/129

115 of the harbor, and Huascar disappeared as he had come. Natividad, pressed against the wall, held Dick's hand in a grip that imposed silence. "Why is it? What does it mean? Perhaps she is in there," the young man whispered.

Signing the engineer to stop talking, Natividad crept toward the door, and at the risk of being discovered, peeped through the uncurtained panes. Dick, looking over his shoulder, saw a room full of Indians sitting at tables, but neither smoking nor drinking. Huascar was walking up and down between the tables, in deep thought. Then he vanished up a staircase leading to some room on the first floor.

Natividad had apparently seen enough, for he dragged Dick into the shadow of a neighboring porch.

"I cannot make it out," he said. "What are they all doing here during the Interaymi? I thought every Quichua in the city had left for the mountains. There should not be one here for the next ten days. But I cannot believe Huascar has anything to do with the kidnaping. He wouldn't tell his secret to all the Indians of Peru, when he knows that nearly every one of them can be bought for a few centavo!" "Wait before you make up your mind. We can at all events find the motor. I am sure