Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/80

66 manner, though he had in truth remained studiously polite.

As if not hearing, as if intent on doing homage to the exploits of those dead Conquistadors, the stranger continued:

"Is there not, señores, is there not, señorita, omething gigantic in this spectacle? This little handful of men confidently starting on an expedition as wild as the wildest deeds of their knights-errant, a handful of men, señores, without clothes or food, almost without arms, left by their comrades on a deserted mountain-side to start on the conquest of one of the most powerful empires ever known. "And among those men there was a Christobal de la Torre.... Señor Don Marques, it is a glorious descent to claim.... And allow me to present myself: your servant Huayna Capac Runtu, head clerk of the Franco-Belgian Bank of Lima.... But we may fittingly travel in company, señor, for I am of royal blood. Huayna Capac, King of the Incas, who succeeded his father at the age of sixteen, married first Pillan Huaco, by whom he had no children. He then took two other wives, Rava-Bello and his cousin Mama-Runtu. I am the descendant of that Huayna Capac and that Mama-Runtu!"

"Now on leave from your bank?" queried the Marquis, almost insolently.