Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/51

Rh Pizarro, the Inca priests have sent it to a Spanish girl they had chosen to be the Bride of the Sun. And every one of them has been walled up alive.... I remember that poor Orellana girl laughing and joking about the Golden Sun bracelet! The whole town knew about it"

"The whole town always does have a pretty lively imagination at the time of the Interaymi," insisted the Marquis. He turned to Mr. Montgomery. "You have no idea, my dear sir, how hard it is for our Society to get away from all these weird legends."

"Legends are not things to be despised in research work," disagreed Uncle Francis. "For my part, I am delighted to have found a country where they are still so living."

At this moment a servant came in with a small parcel on a silver tray.

"A registered package, señorita," he said. "Will the señorita sign here?"

Maria-Teresa, having signed, was turning the box over in her fingers.

"It is from Cajamarca," she remarked. "Who from, I wonder? I know nobody there.... Will you excuse me?"

The young girl cut the string, broke the seals and opened the little wooden box.

"A bracelet!" she exclaimed, and laughed a little nervously. "What an extraordinary