About a fortnight after Escombe's destruction of the plesiosauri, it
pleased Huanacocha, the late chief of the Council of Seven, to entertain
a small but select party of his especial friends at a banquet, which he
gave in his house, situate on the borders of the lake, the grounds of
which adjoined those of the Virgins of the Sun, which, in turn, were
contiguous to those of the royal palace.
Huanacocha was probably the most wealthy man in the City of the Sun,
next to the Inca himself; for he had held the position of chief of the
Council of Seven for nearly a quarter of a century, and previous to the
appearance of Escombe upon the scene the portion of the national revenue
that would otherwise have gone into the coffers of the sovereign had
always been awarded to the Council of Seven; while, Huanacocha being not
only an astute but also an utterly unscrupulous man, of exceptionally
strong and overbearing character, the larger portion of this award had
regularly found its way, by various devious channels, into his own
private treasure chest. He was consequently well able to offer his
guests an entertainment of almost regal magnificence. It is not to be
wondered at, therefore, that when the Lord Huanacocha issued invitations
to a banquet--which was not very often--the full number of the invited
generally made a point of accepting, and being present at the function.
Upon the occasion in question the guests consisted of our old friends
Tiahuana, the Villac Vmu, and Motahuana, together with the Lords
Licuchima and Chalihuama, late of the Council of Seven, and the Lords
Chinchacocheta and Lehuava--six in all.
It is not necessary to describe the banquet in detail; let it suffice to
say that, for reasons of his own, the host had given special
instructions that neither trouble nor expense was to be spared to make
the function a complete success; and that therefore, so well had his
instructions been carried out, the entertainment as a whole fell not
very far short of that which had marked the occasion of Escombe's
accession to the throne of the Incas.
There is no need to record in detail the conversation that followed upon
the dismissal of the servants. It is sufficient to say that Huanacocha
had arranged this banquet with the express object of eliciting the views
of his guests upon a certain project that had been gradually taking
shape in his mind, which he believed was now ripe for execution. But,
to his astonishment and consternation, he now discovered that he had to
a very important extent entirely misapprehended the situation; and after
a long and somewhat heated discussion the meeting had broken up without
result, save that the guests had departed from his house in a mutually
distrustful and uneasy frame of mind.
When Huanacocha at length retired to rest that night not only did he
feel somewhat uneasy, but he was also distinctly angry with himself; for
although he had achieved the purpose with which the banquet had been
given--which was to elicit a frank expression of opinion from certain
individuals relative to the Inca and his schemes of reformation--he felt
that he had blundered badly. He had used neither tact nor discretion in
his manner of conducting the conversation; he had been reckless even to
the point of suggesting opposition to the decrees of the sovereign; and
when it was too late, when he had fatally committed himself, he had
seen, to his discomfiture, that two of his companions--and those two the
most powerful persons in the community, next to the Inca himself, namely
the Villac Vmu and his deputy, Motahuana--were distinctly out of
sympathy with him. True, the Villac Vmu had expressed himself as
puzzled, disturbed, anxious at the attitude of the Inca towards the
religious question; but it was perfectly clear that the frame of mind of
the High Priest was not nearly acute enough to induce him to regard with
favour, or even with patience, any suggestion at all savouring of
sedition. And he, Huanacocha, in his heat and impatience, had been
foolish enough to throw out such a suggestion. The question that now
disturbed him was: what would be Tiahuana's attitude toward him
henceforward in view of what he had said; nay more, what would be the
attitude of the High Priest toward his friends in view of what they had
said? Would the Villac Vmu and his deputy accept a suggestion which he
had thrown out, that this momentous and imprudent conversation should be
regarded as private and confidential, and treat it as such, or would
they consider it their duty to report the affair to the Inca? If they
did, then Huanacocha knew that he and his friends would have good cause
to regret their imprudence; for, despite all his cavilling, the late
Chief of the Council of Seven had already seen enough of Escombe's
methods to feel certain that the young monarch would stand no nonsense,
particularly of the seditious kind, and that, at the first hint of
anything of that sort, if the culprits did not lose their heads, they
would at least find themselves bestowed where their seditious views
could work no mischief.
As these reflections passed through the mind of Huanacocha, that
somewhat impulsive and overbearing individual grew increasingly uneasy,
and he now began to fear that he had been altogether too outspoken.
For, be it known, this man Huanacocha had conceived nothing less than
the audacious idea of overthrowing the Inca, and securing his own
election in his stead. In his capacity of Chief of the Council of Seven
he had for a long term of years enjoyed a measure of power scarcely less
than that invested in the Inca himself; for, being by nature of an
unusually arrogant and domineering disposition, while the other members
of the Council had been exceedingly pliant and easy-going, he had never
experienced any difficulty in browbeating them into tolerably quick
compliance with his wishes, however extravagant they might happen to
have been. As for the people, they had rendered the same implicit,
unquestioning obedience to the Council that they would have rendered to
the Inca, had there been one on the throne. Having enjoyed this power,
together with all the privileges and emoluments attaching thereto, for
so long a time, Huanacocha had found it particularly hard and unpleasant
to be called upon to resign them all, practically at a moment's notice,
when young Escombe made his appearance upon the scene. Possibly, had
Harry chanced to conform to this man's preconceived opinion of what the
Inca would be like whenever it should please him to revisit the earth,
he might have accepted the situation with a reasonably good grace; but
to be ousted by "a mere boy"--for as such he always thought of the young
Inca--was altogether too much to be submitted to tamely.
At the first his mental revolt had been vague, indefinite, and formless;
perhaps he had thought that in course of time it would pass away and he
would grow reconciled to the new order of things, particularly if the
young Inca should show himself properly willing to submit to the guiding
hand of the Council of Seven, as represented by its late chief. But
Escombe lost no time in making it perfectly clear to everybody that he
had his own ideas upon the subject of government, and meant to act upon
them. Upon more than one occasion--upon several, in fact--the young
Inca had turned a deaf ear to the counsels of Huanacocha, and had
carried out his own ideas because he had honestly believed them to be
better and more advantageous to the community. He had put his foot down
heavily upon many abuses of power on the part of certain of the highest
nobles, and in this way Huanacocha had suffered perhaps more severely
than anyone else. For this reason his condition of mental revolt,
instead of passing away, gathered new force and gradually began to
assume a definite form which ultimately resolved itself into the
determination to cause Harry's "removal" by some means--he did not
particularly care what they were--and procure his own election to the
vacant throne, if that might be; or, if not that, at least the re-
instatement of the Council of Seven, with himself, of course, as its
chief.
With this object in view he had commenced operations by proceeding to
manufacture sedulously a number of imaginary grievances from which he
asserted that the people were suffering, and these he industriously
spread abroad among his own friends, hoping that in course of time they
would filter through to the people themselves, and be eagerly adopted by
them; which delectable plan certainly met with some measure of success.
But as he lay tossing sleeplessly upon his bed he realised that he had
that evening been both foolish and precipitate: he had seriously
mistaken the nature of the views held by the two priests, and had
betrayed himself and his friends in their presence. How would the
Villac Vmu and his deputy act, or would they act at all, was the
question which he now repeatedly asked himself? Could he by any means
ascertain their intentions? He must, by fair means or foul: it would
never do for him to remain in ignorance upon such a vital point after
the reckless manner in which he and his friends had spoken. Ay, and
more than that, he must make quite sure that they maintained silence
upon the subject of that most imprudent conversation, otherwise--!
He flung himself over restlessly upon his bed: the longer he thought
upon the matter the more glaring did his folly appear. He must guard
himself and his friends from the consequences of that folly at all
costs. But how? Who was there to advise him? Suddenly he bethought
himself of Xaxaguana, the priest who ranked next below Motahuana. Of
course, he was the very man of all others; for, first of all, he was
Huanacocha's very particular friend, and a man, moreover, who was deeply
indebted to him for many past favours of a somewhat exceptional kind;
also he was young, comparatively speaking, very ambitious, and not over
scrupulous. Yes, Xaxaguana was undoubtedly the man for his purpose, and
Huanacocha told himself, with a smile of relief, that he had been a fool
for not thinking of the priest before.
But although Huanacocha believed that he saw in Xaxaguana the "friend in
need" for whom he had been so anxiously casting about, he was still much
too uneasy to sleep, and he was up and about with the appearance of the
first faint suggestion of dawn, too anxious to remain inactive any
longer, yet fully conscious of the fact that the hour was altogether too
early for him to seek his friend without running a very grave risk of
attracting unwelcome attention by so unusual a proceeding. He therefore
decided to take a long walk, and think the whole affair over again while
his brain and his pulses were being steadied by the cool, fresh air of
the morning.
Was it fate or was it mere chance that caused him to select a route
which led him past that part of the temple which constituted the
quarters of the priests? Huanacocha told himself that it was his lucky
star that was in the ascendant; for as he was passing the building the
door gently opened and the very man that he was so anxious to see
stepped into the roadway and quietly closed the door behind him. Then
he looked round and beheld Huanacocha, and a little ejaculation of
astonishment escaped him.
"This is a fortunate meeting indeed," he exclaimed as he stepped forward
to greet his friend; "most fortunate; for perhaps you will be astonished
to hear that I am thus early astir with the express object of seeking
you."
"Ah!" thought Huanacocha; "unless I am greatly mistaken that means that
I must prepare for the worst." But, having by this time shaken off his
panic to a considerable extent, and once more pulled himself together,
he decided to allow his friend to speak first, as by so doing he would
probably be better able to judge what he should himself say. He
therefore responded to Xaxaguana's greeting by remarking:
"Then it is lucky that I chose this direction for my morning ramble,
otherwise we should have missed each other. You look somewhat
astonished at seeing me astir so early; but the fact is, my friend, that
I was sleepless; I have therefore left my bed early, to take a walk in
the early morning air. But I understood you to say that you wished to
see me. Which way shall we go?"
"Let us go up the road toward the hills," answered Xaxaguana. "There
will be the less chance of our being seen; and it may be well for me to
mention, at the outset, that there may be several good reasons why you
and I should not be seen together at this juncture, my Lord Huanacocha."
"Ah! and wherefore so, my good friend?" demanded Huanacocha.
"Because," answered Xaxaguana, "last night you betrayed yourself into
the committal of a serious imprudence, namely that of presuming to
criticise unfavourably certain acts of our Lord the Inca, which, as you
are surely aware, is a crime punishable with death. Do you ask how I
happen to know this? I will tell you. It chanced that I was kept late
from my bed last night by certain business connected with the
approaching Feast of Raymi, and I was therefore astir when the Villac
Vmu and Motahuana returned from your banquet. You may possibly be aware
that it is a rule among us that nothing which transpires within the
precincts of the temple is ever to be referred to, or even so much as
hinted at, outside the temple walls. It is therefore our habit, when
within those walls, to speak before each other with the most perfect
freedom; and, friend Huanacocha, I am breaking one of our most stringent
vows in telling you even this much. I hope, therefore, that should the
time ever arrive when you can do me a service, you will remember this
fact, and allow it to weigh in my favour."
"Rest assured that I will do so, my good friend," answered Huanacocha;
"although methinks that there are one or two services rendered to you
for which I have as yet received no adequate return. But let that pass;
I am interrupting you; pray proceed with your story."
"I will," returned Xaxaguana. "As I have already mentioned, I was astir
when Tiahuana and Motahuana returned from your house last night. They
entered the common room, in which I was at work--possibly because it was
the only room in which any lights were burning--and, flinging themselves
upon a couch quite near to me, began to talk. It was easy to see that
they were much agitated and excited; but, being busy, I paid little heed
to their conversation at the outset, and only pricked up my ears when I
heard your name mentioned. Then I confess that I listened, and soon
heard sufficient to convince me that you, Huanacocha, and your friends
Lehuava, Chinchacocheta, Licuchima, and Chilihuama were, last night,
guilty of such imprudence as may well cost you all your lives, unless
you have the wit and readiness of action to prevent it!"
"But," ejaculated Huanacocha, all his former alarms returning to him
with tenfold force, "how mean you, friend? Surely, neither the Villac
Vmu nor Motahuana will dream of reporting what was said within the
privacy of my house, will they?"
"What was said in the privacy of your house, last night, amounted to
blasphemy," remarked Xaxaguana dryly; "and it is the bounden duty of
every loyal subject of the Inca to report blasphemy, wherever it may be
spoken. From what was said last night I gathered the impression that
neither of the persons mentioned are likely to shrink from the
performance of their duty, however unpleasant it may be; so for this
reason I set out to warn you this morning. And it was for reasons
connected with this that I ventured to indicate the exceeding
undesirability of our being seen together just now."
"But--but--" stammered Huanacocha, completely thrown off his balance by
what he had just learned--"if I understand you aright, my good
Xaxaguana, all this means that the lives of my friends and myself have
been put into the utmost jeopardy by my crass folly of last night, I
knew--yes, I knew, when it was too late, that I had been a fool," he
concluded bitterly.
"To be absolutely candid with you, friend Huanacocha, I think you were,"
rejoined Xaxaguana somewhat cynically. "Why did you do it?"
Huanacocha stopped short in the middle of the road and looked his friend
square in the eye.
"Xaxaguana," said he, "when I was Chief of the Council of Seven it was
in my power to do you several good turns--and I did them. Under certain
conceivable circumstances it might be in my power to do you several
others; and if you can indicate to me a way by which I can extricate
myself from my present peril, rest assured that I will not prove
ungrateful. I believe you are my friend; and I believe also that you
are astute enough to recognise that I can serve you better living than
dead. I will therefore be perfectly frank with you and will tell you
all that has been in my mind of late. But see, there is the sun, and
the good folk of the town will soon be astir, and we may be seen
together; let us go over yonder and sit in the shadow of that pile of
rocks; we can talk freely there without risk of being seen, or
interrupted."
Without another word Xaxaguana turned and led the way across the upland
meadow to a somewhat remarkable pile of rocks that cropped out of the
soil about a hundred yards from the road, and, passing round to the
shady side, which was also the side hidden from the road, seated himself
on a bed of soft moss, signing to his companion to do the same. For
nearly an hour the pair conversed most earnestly together; then
Xaxaguana rose to his feet and, reconnoitring the road carefully to see
that there was no likelihood of his being observed, stepped forth from
his place of concealment. Then he hurried across the intervening
stretch of grass, and on reaching the road, once more glanced keenly
about him, and briskly turned his steps homeward. Half an hour later
Huanacocha did pretty much the same thing; and it was noticeable--or
would have been, had there been anyone there to see--that his
countenance had lost much of the expression of anxiety that it had worn
when he set out for his walk early that morning. He had scarcely bathed
and finished his morning meal after his unwonted exertions when his
favourite servant rushed into his presence and in agitated accents
informed him that one of the underlings of the temple, on his passage
into the town, had given forth the startling intelligence that the
Villac Vmu and Motahuana, both of whom had been his lord's honoured
guests at the banquet of the previous night, had just been found dead
upon their beds!