haracter that the simple
Indians had never dared to rear more than one temple in his honour,
which had long since been destroyed. He was aware also that the Inca
was not only an absolute monarch, an autocrat invested with greater
powers than any other earthly monarch, but that he was implicitly
believed to be of divine origin, and that some of the attributes of
divinity still clung to him; he was therefore not only a monarch who
wielded absolute power, and whose will was law, but he was also the head
of the priesthood. Taking these two facts in conjunction, Escombe, with
the extreme assurance of youth, and perhaps not attaching quite enough
importance to the fact that the sun was the deity whose worship had been
especially inculcated and carefully handed down from generation to
generation, thought, as he considered the matter, that he could see his
way first to divert the adoration of his subjects from the sun to
Pachacamac, and afterwards to explain that Pachacamac and the God of the
Christians were one and the same, thus insensibly leading them from the
paths of paganism into those of Christianity. And he resolved to do it.
It was a grand ambition, and it spoke well for him that this should be
the first definite resolution that he had taken in connection with the
tremendous powers with which he had become so strangely invested; for,
singularly enough, it had never occurred to him until within the last
hour that he would be called upon to take any part in the functions and
ceremonies of pagan worship. Moreover, it swept away every one of the
scruples that had been worrying him as to whether or not he was
justified in being present at the impending function; for he felt that,
having come to the above resolution, he was justified in being present,
otherwise how could he offer any suggestions as to a change in the
ceremonial?

By the time that he had thought the matter out thus far, and had arrived
at the conclusion that he believed he could see his way pretty clearly
before him, he had reached the great open space, in the centre of which
stood the temple, and he had time only to run his eye hastily over the
enormous building and gather in a general idea of its aspect before his
litter was deposited at the foot of the magnificent flight of forty-five
broad, shallow steps which ran all round the building, and which gave
access to the spacious platform upon which the edifice was raised.

As Harry leisurely dismounted f