Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/164

134 "Ay, he might be a good leader," said an Indian named Manangani, with the fierce, bold manner that belonged to him; "but why was he wanting in his duty, and absent from his post on the very night that the schooner arrived with our arms?"

The question elicited no reply. Sambo hung his head in silence.

"Are our brethren aware," continued Manangani," that there was an exchange of shots that night between the schooner and the coastguards, and do they know that the capture of the Annunciation would have been fatal to our enterprise?"

A murmur of assent ran through the assembly.

Sambo now took up the conversation, saying that all who would wait to judge the matter would be welcome.

"And who knows," he said, "whether my son shall not some day reappear? Be patient still. Even now the arms which we received from Sechura are in our keeping; safe they are in the mountain recesses of the Cordilleras, and ready to fullfil their work when you are prepared to do your duty."

"And what shall hinder us?" exclaimed a young Indian; "our weapons are sharpened, and we only bide our time."

"The hour will come," said Sambo; "but do our brethren know on whom the blow ought first to fall?"

The voice of one of the party was heard protesting that the first to perish ought to be the half-breeds who had treated them so insolently, chastising them like restive mules.

"Not so," declared another; "the first that we should strike should be the appropriators of the soil we tread."

"Mistaken are ye altogether!" shouted Sambo, with a voice raised in eagerness. "You must let your blows fall first in another quarter. It is not those of whom you speak that have dared for three centuries to plant their foot upon our ancestral soil; rich as they are, it is not they who have dragged the descendants of Manco-Capac to the tomb. No; rather 'tis the haughty Spaniards who are the true conquerors, and who have reduced you to the condition of being their very slaves. Their riches may have gone, but their authority survives, and they it is who, in spite of any emancipation that should give liberty to Peru, still trample