As the squadron of thirty-five horsemen approached Caxamalca a
hailstorm broke over the town and they galloped furiously across the
causeway to escape the sharp teeth of its jagged missiles of ice.
Teresa’s new servant had mounted behind Gaspara. She led him into the
quarters assigned and began at once to question him sharply as to
Molina’s fate.
The man, grateful for his life and charmed by her beauty and
gentleness, became a willing slave and told all he knew with eager
honesty.
“The Spaniard has been attached to the royal household since his
arrival, dear lady. Yma, first of the Sun Virgins, whom you saw leading
their dances to-day, was given him for wife.”
“His wife?” gasped Teresa.
“So the monarch decreed.”
“He lives with her as man and wife?” the girl asked in amazement.
“I only know, dear lady, that Yma lives with him, presides over his
house and ministers to his wants with many servants.”
“And where is he now?” she fiercely asked.
“When your army approached,” he paused and dropped his voice, “he was
imprisoned by orders of the Inca.”
“And why imprisoned if he had taken a wife and joined his fortunes with
the empire?”
“He wished to join his people....”
Teresa laughed in triumph. What he might or might not have done
mattered little; what he would do now, had he the chance, meant
everything.
“Where is he imprisoned?”
“In the great fortress on the crest of the mountain behind the city. We
know that he has been put in chains.”
Again the girl cried for joy.
“In chains, you say?”
“Yes. He tried to escape. Yma caught him, brought him back and the
governor ordered him manacled.”
“I’ll kiss his chains. Lead me to the spot to-night.”
Hastily eating a supper Teresa with Gaspara and her new servant crept
cautiously through the town still beaten by the storm, crossed the
causeway, passed the camp of the Inca and carefully climbed the long
steep stairs of stone.
The man led the approach with the safe tread of a cougar. Only in
flashes of distant lightning could the outlines of the huge pile be
seen. The only possible entrance lay from the upper side where the
massive stone door swung open when released from within.
“Can the guard be bribed?” Teresa whispered.
In vain the interpreter tried to make the simple native understand the
question. It was beyond his ken. Gold was a thing used by the Emperor
for pots and pans, plates and cups and ornaments, but there was no
incentive for any man to accumulate it. It was useless trash to the
average citizen whose wants were all supplied by the State. A guard
could have no adequate motive to risk his life in accepting a bribe. A
man might act for love; he might act for hate, but for gold--that was
a motive unheard of in Peru. There was no use for such stuff in the
Kingdom of the Four Corners of the World. No man or woman in the empire
had ever seen a piece of money until Molina gave one to the Sun Virgin.
And that piece she now wore as her most valuable love charm.
“No, dear lady,” the new servant warned. “No guard would risk his life
and brave the anger of the Inca for that stuff.”
Verily, the soldiers of Spain had invaded a new world--a world turned
upside down, with all known values reversed or destroyed. For a moment
the girl was puzzled.
“In what part of the fortress are its prison cells?” she asked
impatiently.
“There are no cells, lady. The best rooms are used by the guards and
all are located on the western side overlooking the cliff and valley
below. He is in one of these rooms, I have been told.”
“Can it be reached by ladders?”
“The cliff is straight five hundred feet downward. The walls of the
fortress are flush with the cliff. No ladder could be long enough.”
“You know the guards?”
“No, dear lady, but for your sake I’ll know them soon. The trouble will
be that they are loyal to Yma....”
“So much the better that they do not know you,” Gaspara broke in.
“After to-day you will be a marked man if seen with us. Go to-night to
your own house and give every hour of your time learning the secrets of
the prison. Cultivate the guards and when you know them, report to us.”
“I’ll do better than go to my house,” the man suggested. “If you can
find the way down the stairs and back to your people at Caxamalca, I
will enter the fortress to-night as one caught in the storm, ask for
shelter, and begin my work.”
“Good!” cried Teresa. “We’ll find our way, never fear. The moment you
have mastered the inside of the fortress come to me at once.”
“I will, dear lady.”
Teresa withdrew into the dense forest and waited until he called his
distress signal and was admitted to the fortress.