rom the litter his escort ran nimbly up
the steps and arranged itself--four deep on each step, and the remainder
on the platform above--into a wide avenue of spearmen to keep back the
crowds that thronged the steps, and thus afford the young Inca a clear
space in which to accomplish the ascent to the great main doorway of the
building. At the same moment Tiahuana, gorgeously attired in a long
flowing robe of white that was stiff with the heavy gold embroidery
which almost covered it, with a mitre-like headdress, similarly
embroidered, on his head, and a gold wand surmounted by a golden image
of the sun in his right hand, emerged from the doorway, followed by
apparently the entire staff of the priesthood, and stood at the head of
the long flight of steps to receive the Inca.

Contrary to his expectation, instead of being conducted directly into
the main body of the building, Escombe, surrounded by fully a hundred
priests, was led by Tiahuana into an anteroom, where he found assembled
the Council of Seven, under the leadership of one Huanacocha--who,
Tiahuana whisperingly mentioned, was the chief and most powerful noble
of the entire nation--and some five hundred other nobles, to whom he was
now to be presented, and who were thus to be afforded an opportunity of
thoroughly satisfying themselves before matters were allowed to proceed
any further, that the young man was indeed the re-incarnated Manco, for
whose return to earth the nation had been looking forward for over three
hundred years.

Upon entering this anteroom Escombe found himself upon a dais occupying
one end of, and reaching across the entire width of the apartment. In
the centre of the dais, but close up to the front of it, was a throne of
solid silver, with a footstool before it, and upon this throne Harry was
directed by Tiahuana to seat himself, the body of priests immediately
arranging themselves behind and on either side of it. Before him, and
on the main floor of the room, which was some eighteen inches below the
level of the dais, were arranged several rows of benches upon which the
nobles were seated, the Council of Seven, which had governed in the
absence of an Inca, with Huanacocha occupying the middle place, being
seated on the front bench, or that nearest the dais.

The little stir which had been occasioned by the entrance of Harry and
the priests having subsided, Arima--to Escombe's amazement--was
mysteriously produced by Tiahuana and led for