Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/57

Rh the bracelet in some old ruin and didn't know what to do with it ..."

"Oh, let us not talk of it any more," interrupted Maria-Teresa, slightly troubled. "What does it matter!... Besides, we are bound to know, sooner or later.... Some day a friend of father's, back from the Sierra, will ask me why I am not wearing his present That is sure to happen."

"Of course it is," affirmed Dick.

The Marquis, far from satisfied, and still seeking a possible explanation, suddenly turned on Dick.

"You sent it!" he exclaimed, triumphant.

"I? Why, I have only just arrived in the country...."

"But you could very well have bought it when the liner put in at Guayaquil, and then sent it to some agent or other at Cajamarca to have it forwarded here... . You must have read the legend of the bracelet in one of your uncle's books."

"Really, Father!" protested Maria-Teresa. "Mr. Montgomery is an engineer...."

"Yes, yes, I know. Very hard-working.... Come here to try experiments with some new pump to clear the Cuzco gold-mines of water.... I know all that.... But that is no reason why he should not send you a bracelet."