The fatigue and excitement of the momentous day were by this time
beginning to tell upon Escombe. If he could have followed his own
inclination he would certainly have called for a light meal, and, having
partaken of it, retired forthwith to rest; but he was already beginning
to learn the lesson that even an absolute monarch has sometimes to put
aside his own inclinations and do that which is politic rather than that
which is most pleasing in his own eyes. Here was this banquet, for
instance. He would much rather not have been present at it; but it was
an official affair, and to absent himself from it would simply be to
inflict a gratuitous slight upon every guest present, and sow a seed of
unpopularity that might quite possibly, like the fabled dragon's teeth,
spring up into a harvest of armed men to hurl him from his throne. With
a sigh of resignation, therefore, he summoned Arima, and, resigning
himself into that functionary's hands, submitted to be conducted to the
bath, and afterwards attired in the festal garments prepared for the
occasion. The bath of warm, delicately perfumed water he found to be so
wonderfully refreshing that upon emerging from it all sensation of
fatigue had vanished; and by the time that he was completely arrayed for
the banquet he felt perfectly prepared to do both himself and the
occasion full justice.
He was only just ready in the nick of time, for as Arima was completing
the adjustment of the imperial borla upon the young monarch's temples,
the lord high chamberlain appeared with the intimation that the guests
were all assembled, and that nothing now was needed, save the Inca's
presence, to enable the banquet to be begun. Whereupon Harry arose,
and, preceded by the chamberlain and his satellites, made his way to the
banqueting hall, which was an enormous chamber on the upstairs floor of
the palace, occupying the entire length and width of that part of the
building in which was situated the main entrance. One row of windows
overlooked that part of the garden which gave upon the main road, while
the windows on the opposite side of the apartment commanded a view of
the piece of garden which lay between the two wings and extended down to
the shore of the lake.
The decorations of this room, if they could not be accurately described
as "artistic", from a European's point of view, were at least impressive
on account of the wanton lavishness with which gems and the precious
metals were used; for, look where one would, the eye encountered nothing
but gold, silver, and precious stones; indeed the impression conveyed
was that the architect had exhausted his ingenuity in devices for the
employment of the greatest possible quantity of these costly minerals.
The huge beams which supported the ceiling were encased in thick plates
of gold, the ceiling itself, or at least those portions of it which
showed between the beams, consisted of plates of silver, thickly studded
with precious stones arranged--as Tiahuana explained--to represent the
stars in the night sky over the city. The walls, of enormous thickness,
with deep niches or recesses alternating with the windows, were covered
with thick gold plates heavily chased into a variety of curious
patterns; and each niche contained either a life-size image of an
animal--the llama figuring most frequently--in solid gold, wrought with
the most marvellous patience and skill, or was a miniature garden in
which various native trees and plants, wrought with the same lifelike
skill, and of the same precious materials, seemed to flourish
luxuriantly. The floor was the only portion of the apartment that had
escaped this barbarously magnificent system of treatment, but even that
was composed of thick planks of costly, richly tinted native timber of
beautiful grain, polished to the brilliancy of a mirror; and, as though
this were not sufficient to meet the insatiable craving for extravagance
everywhere displayed, the beauties of the highly polished wood were
almost completely concealed by thick, richly coloured, woollen rugs of
marvellously fine texture, made of the wool of the vicuna. Nor was the
furniture of the apartment permitted to fall short of its surroundings
in point of extravagance. For the tables and chairs occupied by the
guests were of solid silver, while that occupied by the Inca and such of
his guests as he chose to especially honour by an invitation to sit with
him were of solid gold; and all the table utensils throughout the room
were of the same precious metal, most exquisitely and elaborately
wrought.
As for the guests, as might be expected, they had taken especial care
that their personal appearance should be in keeping with the general
scheme of wantonly lavish display that characterised the adornment of
the banqueting room. Every one of them, men and women alike, were
apparelled in the richest and most brilliantly coloured stuffs
procurable, stiffened with great masses of embroidery in heavy gold
thread, while they were literally loaded with ornaments of massive gold,
encrusted with gems, upon the hair, neck, and arms. And now, for the
first time, Harry had leisure to note--and to strongly disapprove of--
the characteristic ornament which was adopted to distinguish the
Peruvian noble from his plebeian brother. This consisted of a massive
circular disc of gold, wrought into the semblance of a wheel, and
measuring in some cases three or four inches in diameter, which was
inserted into the cartilage of each ear, which, of course, had
previously been pierced and gradually distended to receive it. To
Harry's unsophisticated eye these so-called ornaments constituted a
hideous disfigurement, and he was glad to see that they were worn by men
only, the ears of the women being for the most part innocent of
artificial adornment, although a few of the ladies wore ear-rings of
somewhat similar character to those of their more civilised sisters.
The Inca's table was placed at one end of the room, and raised upon a
dais some three feet high, from which elevation he could of course be
seen of all, and also command a view of the entire apartment, easily
distinguishing the whereabouts of any particular guest whom he desired
to honour especially with a summons to his own table; and to this he was
conducted by the chamberlain and ushers, the guests rising upon his
entrance and remaining standing until he had seated himself. There was
at this moment but one guest at the royal table, and that was Tiahuana,
whom Harry had commanded to sit beside him to act as a sort of "coach",
and generally explain things. And the first communication which the
Villac Vmu made to his young monarch was not precisely of a reassuring
character. It was to the effect that Huanacocha, and the four friends
who had sided with him that afternoon in the expression of a doubt as to
the genuine character of Harry's claims to be accepted as Inca, had
absented themselves from the feast.
"Yes," said Tiahuana, again casting his eyes carefully over the room,
"they are all five absent, Lord; and I like it not. They are men of
great power and influence, and they can easily stir up very serious
trouble in the city if they choose to do so. We must keep a wary eye
upon them; and upon the first sign of a disposition to be troublesome
they must be summarily dealt with."
"Yes," said Harry; "I have been raised to the position of Inca by a very
remarkable combination of circumstances, in the bringing about of which
I have had no part; but, being where I am, I intend to govern firmly and
justly, to the best of my ability; and I will certainly not tolerate the
presence in the city of turbulent spirits bent upon the stirring up of
discord and strife. I have already seen, elsewhere, too much of the
evil results of mistaken leniency to permit anything of the kind here.
But this is not the moment to discuss politics: you hinted, a short time
ago, Tiahuana, that at functions of this kind it is usual for the Inca
to show honour to certain individuals by inviting them to his table.
Now, of course I know none of those present--except Umu, the captain of
my bodyguard, whom I see yonder--so I must look to you for guidance in
the matter of making a judicious choice. There is room for ten at this
table, beside ourselves; therefore, if it be the proper thing for me to
do, choose ten persons, and I will summon them to come to us."
Whereupon Tiahuana, who to the sanctity of the Villac Vmu added the
shrewdness and sagacity of a Prime Minister, named those members of the
late Council of Seven who had accepted Escombe as Inca, and certain
other powerful nobles, completing the list by naming Umu, whom, he
rather satirically suggested, was perhaps entitled to some especial
consideration in recompense for the distinction which he had that day
missed in consequence of the rescue of his daughter from the sacrificial
altar. "And, remember, Lord," concluded Tiahuana, "that it is not
necessary to keep any of those people at your table during the entire
progress of the banquet; let them stay here long enough to taste a
single dish, or to drink with you out of your cup, and then dispatch
them with instructions to send up someone else in their stead."
Upon this principle, accordingly, Harry acted, arranging matters so
judiciously that, under Tiahuana's able guidance, he was able, during
the course of the evening, to compliment every guest whom that astute
old diplomatist considered it desirable especially to honour, and thus
avoid all occasion for jealousy.
It is not necessary to describe the banquet in detail; let it suffice to
say that for fully three hours there was placed before the Inca and his
guests a constant succession of dishes representing all that was
esteemed most choice and dainty in Peruvian culinary art, washed down by
copious libations of the wine of the country, prepared from the
fermented juice of the maguey, for which, it is deplorable to add, the
Peruvians exhibited an inordinate fondness. By the exercise of extreme
circumspection, taking merely a taste here and there of such food as
especially appealed to him, and merely suffering the wine to moisten his
lips when pledging his nobles, the young Inca contrived to emerge from
the ordeal of the banquet not a penny the worse.
The next morning Escombe spent in the company of a sort of committee of
the chief _amautas_ or "wise men", who represented the concentrated
essence--so to speak--of all Peruvian wisdom and learning, and who had
been embodied for the express purpose of instructing the young Inca in
the intricacies--such as they were--of the code of Tavantinsuyu--or
"four quarters of the world"--as it then stood. This code was simple,
but exceedingly severe, the laws, properly so called, relating almost
exclusively to criminal matters and their punishment. The regulations
governing the daily life of the Peruvian Indian--where he should live,
what should be the character of his work, what should be the distinctive
character of his clothing, when and whom he should marry, how much land
he should hold and cultivate, and so on, were the result of ages of
tentative experiment, and were so numerous and intricate that probably
none but the _amautas_ themselves thoroughly understood them. The
committee, however, which had for nearly a month been preparing itself
for the task of initiating the young Inca into the secrets of good
government, had arranged a procedure of such a character that even in
the course of that one morning's instruction they contrived to give
Escombe a sufficiently clear general insight of the subject to enable
him to see that, taken altogether, the system of government was
admirably designed to secure the prosperity of the nation.
Then, in the afternoon, at the instigation of the Council of Seven, who
had now become a sort of cabinet, to control the machinery of
government, under the supervision of the Inca, Harry was conducted, by
an official who performed the functions of Chief of the Treasury,
through the enormous vaults beneath the palace, in order that he might
view the treasure, industriously accumulated during more than three
hundred years, to form the sinews of war for the regeneration of the
race which was Escombe's great predestined task.
If, before visiting these vaults, Harry had been invited to express an
opinion upon the subject, he would have confidently asserted the
conviction that such treasure as the inhabitants of the Valley of the
Sun had been able to accumulate must all, or very nearly all, have been
expended in the adornment of the great temple and the royal palace. But
that such a conviction would have been absolutely erroneous was speedily
demonstrated when the great bronze doors guarding the entrance of the
vaults were thrown open. For the first room into which he was
conducted--an apartment measuring some twenty feet wide by thirty feet
long, and about fourteen feet high--was full of great stacks of silver
bars, each bar being about twenty pounds in weight; the stacks, of
varying height, being arranged in tiers of three running lengthwise
along the room, with two narrow longitudinal passages between them.
Escombe, after staring in dumb amazement at this enormous accumulation
of dull white metal, drew from his pocket a small memorandum book and
pencil which he had found in one of the pockets of his old clothes, and,
with the instinct of the engineer rising for a moment to the surface,
made a rapid calculation by which he arrived at the astounding result
that there must be very nearly eight hundred tons of bar silver in the
stacks before him!
From this room he was conducted into another of about the same size, and
similarly arranged; but in this case the metal in the stacks was virgin
gold, instead of silver, while the bulk of the stacks was, if anything,
rather greater than those in the outer rooms. But, for the purposes of
a rough estimate, Escombe assumed them to be of only equal bulk, upon
the strength of which assumption his figures informed him that the gold
in this vault amounted to the not altogether insignificant weight of
close upon fourteen hundred tons. The sight of such incredible
quantities of the precious metals had so paralysing an effect upon the
young Englishman that he could scarcely stammer an enquiry as to where
it all came from. The custodian of this fabulous wealth replied, with a
smile, that the mountains which hemmed the valley about were enormously
rich in both gold and silver, and that some hundreds of men had been
kept industriously employed in working the mines almost from the moment
when the city had been first founded. "But, Lord," he continued,
flinging open a third door, "what you have already seen is by no means
all our wealth; the most valuable part of it is to be found in this
small room."
Passing through the doorway, which, like the other two, was fitted with
massive doors of solid bronze secured by an enormously strong lock of
the same metal, the young Inca--who, as one of the results of his having
been placed upon the throne, had become the absolute owner of all this
wealth, with power to use it in such manner as might seem to him good--
found himself in a much smaller room, its dimensions being about ten
feet long by the same width, and some twelve feet high. To the sides of
the room were fitted large chests of very heavy wood, three chests on
each side occupying the entire length of the room, with a passage way
about six feet wide between the two rows of chests. Each chest was
fitted with a massive wooden cover secured to it by strong bronze
hinges, and fastened by a ponderous bronze lock.
The custodian unlocked these chests one at a time, and, raising the
heavy cover with difficulty, held the lamp which he carried over the
yawning interior, disclosing its contents. The first chest opened was
nearly full of what to Escombe appeared to be dull black stones, most of
them with at least one smooth surface, ranging in size from that of a
walnut to lumps as large as a man's two fists. One of these lumps
Harry's conductor took out and handed to the young man for his
inspection.
"Well, what do you call this?" demanded Harry, turning the stone about
in his hands, and inspecting it curiously.
"That, Lord, is an amethyst," answered the other; "and, as you see, the
chest is nearly full of them. But, unless we should happen to discover
a new mine, I am afraid we shall get no more of them, for the mine from
which those were extracted appears to be exhausted; and it was never
very productive even at its best. We did not know what the stones were
when they were first discovered, but, as it was suspected that they
might possess a certain value, steps were taken to determine the
question, with the result that we were told they are amethysts. They
are not especially valuable, I believe, but we make a point of never
wasting anything, so it was decided to store these until wanted. Now
here,"--opening the next chest--"we have another mineral about which we
were a bit puzzled at first; but we were in less doubt in this case than
we were with regard to the amethysts, as the appearance of the stone
seemed to indicate that it possessed a value. We dealt with this as we
did with the amethysts, and found that we had chanced upon a
particularly rich opal deposit."
The chest of opals was, like the one previously opened, almost full, and
Harry took admiringly into his hand the great piece of rock representing
the half of a mass of stone that had been accidentally broken in two,
and found to contain a considerable quantity of iridescent, many-hued
crystal. The next chest contained some very fine specimens of sapphire;
but it was little more than half-full, the mine having only been
discovered within the last decade, and even then not very industriously
worked; but there were in the chest a few specimens that Escombe
shrewdly suspected to be practically priceless.
Having completed the inspection of the contents of the coffers on one
side of the room, the custodian crossed over to the other side, and
threw up the lid of a chest, the interior of which at once began to glow
as though each of the stones--looking very much like lumps of ordinary
washing soda--contained within it a morsel of phosphorus.
"Aha!" exclaimed Escombe, plunging his hand delightedly into the chest
and fishing up two or three of the stones; "no need to ask what these
are; there's no possibility of mistaking them. Yes, there's the genuine
soapy feel about them all right," as he ran his fingers over the smooth
surface of the crystals. "But I didn't know that you had diamonds in
Peru."
"There is at all events one mine in the country, Lord, namely that from
which these stones came," answered the Indian. "But the existence and
locality are known only to the few who work it and who guard the
approach to it; for we believe it to be the richest mine in the whole
world, and we are naturally anxious to retain possession of it for
ourselves exclusively. It is not in this valley; it lies a long three-
days' journey from here, in a particularly wild and desolate part of the
country which is practically inaccessible, save to the boldest and
hardiest mountaineers among us. It has only been known for about twenty
years, and the contents of this coffer represent the labour of only six
men during that time. But the mine is enormously rich, and, as you may
see, the size and quality of the stones improve as the miners penetrate
deeper, the largest and finest stones, which are those most recently
extracted, being at the top of the others in the chest."
Harry stooped over and picked up a particularly fine specimen, larger
than one of his clenched fists, which glowed and scintillated in the
light of the lamp as though it were on fire.
"Why," he said, gazing admiringly at the stone as he turned it about in
his hand, "The contents of this chest must be of absolutely incalculable
value! This stone alone would constitute a very handsome fortune to its
lucky possessor, if I am any judge of diamonds."
"True, Lord," answered his companion. "But there are several finer
stones than that--this one, and this, for example," as he fished up a
couple of superb specimens. "There are probably no diamonds in the
world equal to these two in size and purity of colour. And all belong
to my Lord."
"Ay," said Harry; "with such enormous and inexhaustible wealth as this
at one's command it should not be very difficult to provide the means of
reconquering the country and restoring it to its former state of power
and glory. What have you in the other two chests?"
"My Lord shall see," answered the Indian, as he unlocked and threw back
the lid of the next chest, which proved to be three parts full of
rubies, every one of which constituted a little fortune in itself, while
many were of such exceptional size and superb colour that the young
Englishman could only gasp in speechless amazement and admiration.
"Why, Huatama," he exclaimed at length, "I am at a loss to express my
astonishment. Aladdin's cave was nothing to this, nothing at all!"
"Aladdin, did my Lord say?" murmured the Indian, looking enquiringly at
Harry. "I do not seem to remember him. Surely he was not a Peruvian?
The name does not--"
"No," answered Harry with a laugh. "Aladdin knew nothing of Peru; he
was an Eastern--a Chinese fellow, or something like that, if I remember
rightly."
"Ah, yes!" remarked Huatama reflectively; "I have seen a few Chinese,
down at Lima and Callao, when I had occasion to go there a year ago on
business for the Council of Seven. I do not like them; and I hope that
when my Lord has subjugated the country he will drive them all out of
it."
"Well, we shall see," rejoined Escombe with a laugh. "But it is early
days as yet to talk of driving out the Chinese; there is a great deal to
be done before we shall find ourselves face to face with that question.
And now, what does your last chest contain?"
It contained emeralds, and was more than half-full of stones of
surpassing size and purity of colour, every one of them being a picked
stone especially selected for its exceptional quality. But Escombe's
powers of admiration were by this time completely exhausted, and after
having rather perfunctorily examined and expressed his approval of a few
of the finest specimens, and commended the treasure as a whole to the
unflagging care of Huatama, he returned to his apartments in the palace
and flung himself into a chair to endeavour to convince himself that
what he had seen in those rock-hewn chambers below was all prosaically
real and not the fantasy of a disordered imagination.
As he pictured to himself the great chambers with their heaped-up stacks
of silver and gold bars, and the smaller room with its six coffers of
uncut gems, his thoughts insensibly floated away across the ocean to the
modest little Sydenham home, and he tried to imagine the raptures of his
mother and sister, could they but behold the incredible accumulation of
priceless gems that his eyes had rested upon that day. Then he
remembered that in consequence of this extraordinary adventure of his a
mail boat had been permitted to leave for England with no letter on
board from him to his mother, and he began to wonder anxiously what
would happen at The Limes when its occupants fully realised that the
Peruvian mail had arrived, and that there was no letter for them. It
was the first time that such a thing had ever been permitted to occur;
and, although he had been quite helpless to prevent the accident,
Escombe somehow felt that it ought not to have been allowed to happen;
that he ought to have remembered in time, and taken steps to ensure that
a letter had been despatched by some means or other. What was the use
of being an Inca if he could not manage a simple little thing like that?
To summon Arima and enquire of that trusty henchman whether, in the
hurry of departure from the survey camp, he had remembered to pack up
and bring away his master's writing desk was naturally the next thing in
order. Upon learning that the desk had not been forgotten, Escombe at
once had it brought to him, and sat down and wrote a long letter,
addressed jointly to his mother and sister. This letter contained a
full account of his abduction and all that had followed thereupon,
together with an assurance that not only would he contrive henceforward
to communicate with them regularly, but also that if, after the lapse of
a certain length of time to allow the process of "settling down" to
become complete, it should appear that his scheme of government was
likely to prove a success, he would send for them to come out to him.
He added that, meanwhile, the enormous wealth represented by the
accumulations of more than three hundred years was at his absolute
disposal, and that he felt quite justified in awarding himself a salary
of one gold bar per calendar month for his services to the state; also,
that since under present circumstances he had no use for a private
purse, he should dispatch to them the monthly bar of gold for their own
personal use and enjoyment, and that he should expect them to employ it
for the purpose named. This somewhat lengthy epistle concluded by
giving instructions for the conversion of the gold bar into coin of the
realm. Harry also wrote to Sir Philip Swinburne, stating that he had
fallen into the hands of the Indians, but was being well-treated by
them, and believed he was in no immediate danger, also that at the
moment he saw no prospect of being permitted to return to civilisation;
he was therefore writing for the purpose of allaying any apprehension
that might be experienced on his account. Finally, he wrote to
Bannister in somewhat similar terms. Then he sent for Huatama, and gave
that functionary instructions to withdraw one gold bar from the treasury
vaults and have it securely packed in a suitable box for transmission to
Europe.