Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/48

34 Lake Titicaca tribes of Quichuas. She told me that she herself had seen three Spanish girls walled up alive at three successive Interaymi fêtes."

"Where did the girls come from?" asked Dick.

"They were Lima girls."

"But then, any number of people must have known of it," he answered, secretly amused by the grave airs of the two old ladies.

"It was, and is, common property," retorted Aunt Agnes. "The names of their last two victims were known to everybody. One vanished ten years ago, and the other ten years before that."

"Yes, yes, common property!" laughed Don Christobal.

"There is nothing to laugh about, Christobal," said Aunt Agnes drily.

And the duenna repeated in a low voice, "No, no, nothing to laugh about."

The Marquis was determined to have his laugh.

"Let us mourn the poor children," he said, groaning. "Cut off from the affection of their parents at so early an age! How terrible!"

"Christobal, can you tell me what became of Amelia de Vargas and Marie Cristina de Orellana?"

"Yes, what became of them?" urged Irene.