Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/252

238 The head of the procession has no more than reached San Domingo. That church, curiously enough, was built on the very foundations of the Temple of the Sun.… I have never met a visitor less curious than you are…. This is the cloister of the Virgins of the Sun.… It has always been the home of virtue and piety, for the Christians turned it into a convent under the auspices of Santa Catarina."

Dick, unable to stand the guide's jargon any longer, began to run toward the noise of the advancing procession.

"You might pay me!" shouted Orellana in his wake. "Pay me what you owe me!" and stooped to pick up the centavos which the young engineer threw on the ground.

Nearing the plaza principale, Dick again found his way blocked by the crowd, and forgot his anger in the relief of finding a friend when Orellana tugged at his poncho again.

"You might as well stop with me," urged the old man. "Hurrying won't help you. I know a little tiny Corridor of Night that will lead us to the Sun, right to the top stone of one of those temples… It's a temple dedicated to Venus.… They call her Chasca, or the young man with the long and curly locks, and he's supposed to be the page of the Sun. Come with me."

Orellana had taken Dick by the hand, and led