least a portion of what lay in his mind, was baffling; he might
have been looking back through the long dead years upon the Tezcucan's
princess: in her eyes were tender passion and a glint that might have
been a reflection of light from the sacrificial knife.

Speculation aside, here was one point which Zoraida herself had vouched
for: since girlhood she had been accustomed to coming here. It would
appear inevitable that the atmosphere of the place would have deeply
influenced young fancies; that what she was now was largely due to
these conflicting influences. What wonder that she saw nothing
unlikely in her dreamings of herself as queen of a newly created
empire? All that Zoraida was, all that she did, all that she
threatened to do, the passion and the regal manner and the look of a
naked knife in her eyes, was but to be expected.

Zoraida led on and he followed. Their way led toward the stonework he
had glimpsed through the shrubs and vines. Here was a many-roomed
building, walls richly carved into records of ancient feasts and
glories, battles and triumphs. They passed in through a wide entrance;
within the walls were lined with satiny hardwoods, the panels chosen
with nice regard to color and grain. Doors opened to right and left
and ahead, giving views of other chambers on some walls of which still
hung ancient cloths; there were chairs and tables and benches and
chests. Zoraida went on, straight ahead and to the doorway of a much
larger, high-vaulted chamber. And again was Kendric treated to a fresh
surprise.

As she stood in the door and he looked over her shoulder, six old men,
evidently awaiting her arrival, bent themselves almost to the floor in
a reverential posture that expressed greeting and adoration. Again
Kendric's fancies were drawn back into ancient Mexico. They wore loose
white cotton robes; their beards fell on their aged breasts; in their
sashes were long knives of itztli, like that upon the sacrificial
stone. They might have been the old priests who sacrificed for the
Tezcucan, their existences prolonged eternally here in an atmosphere of
antiquity.

Zoraida spoke and they straightened, and one man answered. Kendric
could not understand a word. Then, shuffling their sandaled feet, the
six went out through a door at the side.

"I thought you said," said Kendric, "that since your father's death no
man had entered here?"

"And do these six look as though they had come here recent