unificent offer, hastened to
accept it, drawing a red line along the wall at the height the Inca had
touched. How remarkable the ransom was may be judged from the fact that
the room was about seventeen feet wide and twenty-two feet long and the
mark on the wall nine feet high. To add to its value, the Inca offered to
fill an adjoining but smaller room twice full with silver, and to do all
this in the short time of two months. It would seem that he would need
Aladdin's wonderful lamp to accomplish so vast and surprising a task.

As soon as the offer was made and accepted, the Inca sent messengers to
Cuzco, his capital city, and to the other principal places in his kingdom,
with orders to bring all the gold ornaments and utensils from his palaces
and from the temples and other public buildings, and transport them in all
haste to Caxamalca. While awaiting the golden spoil the monarch was
treated with the fullest respect due to his rank, having his own private
apartments and the society of his wives, while his nobles were permitted
to visit him freely. The only thing the Spaniards took good care of was
that he should be kept under close guard.

He took one advantage of his measure of liberty. His brother and rival,
Huascar, though a captive, might escape and seize the control of the
state, and he learned that the prisoner had sent a private message to
Pizarro, offering to pay for his liberty a much larger ransom than that
promised by Atahualpa. The Inca was crafty and cruel enough to remove this
danger from his path, if we may accept the evidence of his captors. At any
rate the royal captive was soon after drowned, declaring with his dying
breath that his rival would not long survive him, but that the white men
would avenge his murder. Atahualpa told Pizarro, with a show of great
sorrow and indignation, of his brother's death, and when the Spaniard
threatened to hold him responsible for it, the Inca protested that it had
been done without his knowledge or consent by Huascar's keepers, who
feared that their captive might escape. However it occurred, Pizarro soon
afterward learned that the news was true. It may be that he was well
satisfied with the fact, as it removed a leading claimant for the throne
from his path.

Meanwhile, the ransom began to come in--slowly, for the distances were
great, and the treasure had to be transported on foot by carriers. Most of
it consisted of massive pieces of gold and silver plate, some of