Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/145

Rh a gold veil … her face was hidden … only her 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 others followed…. Yes, señor, it is true … all these stories you hear in the ranchos.…  Quite true … the dwarfs followed, señor…. Oviedo was there … they had prepared everything in this hacienda.… I believe they murdered the owner and all his people….

"Yes, I saw it all.… I did not care then that I had not been paid.… I watched…. And the Red Ponchos carried off my mistress … they are taking her to the Temple of the Sun.… It is the Interaymi…. But you will find them first…. You must…. And God will forgive me."

Libertad closed his eyes and fell back, but seemed to recover his forces with the last flicker of life, and opened them again.

"What happened to you?" asked Natividad. "Was it in trying to save your mistress?…"

Libertad smiled bitterly, and tried to cross himself, but his arm fell nerveless by his side.

"Huascar," he said. "He came into the room, and when I asked him to pay me, pointed