moment, he
seemed quite incapable of speech; and, to help him out of his
difficulty, whatever it might be, Harry extended his hand to him and
said:

"Well, Umu, my friend, what is it? Are you in trouble, and can I help
you?"

Whereupon Umu, the great and powerful noble, and captain of a thousand
picked warriors, flung himself upon his knees before the young Inca,
and, clasping the outstretched hand in both of his, pressed it
convulsively to his lips, while the tears streamed like rain from his
eyes. But he quickly pulled himself together, and, gazing up into
Harry's face, answered:

"Gracious Lord, pardon this unseemly emotion, I pray you, and attribute
it to the awful ordeal through which I have this day passed. I have
presumed to hasten hither, Lord, to express, as well as may be, the
heartfelt gratitude of myself and my daughter for your gracious
intervention to-day in the temple, but for which my Maia would now be
dead and my home desolate. Lord, you are as yet strange among us, and
may therefore not know that for a maiden to be chosen to be offered as a
thank-offering on the altar of the temple upon such an occasion as that
of to-day is regarded by the Peruvian Indians as the highest honour that
can be conferred upon her and all who are connected with her; and
doubtless it would be so regarded by many. But, Lord, natural affection
is not always to be so easily stifled. I am a widower, and Maia my
daughter is my only child; the love that exists between us is therefore
perhaps unusually strong, and the honour of having given my daughter as
a thank-offering would never have compensated me for, or reconciled me
to, her loss. The shock which I experienced to-day when I recognised
her, bound and decked with flowers for the sacrifice, in the midst of
the priests, I shall never forget, for I had not then been to my house,
and knew not that she had been chosen. And though, having been chosen,
she had wrought herself up to the point of passive submission, she had
no wish to die, for she is young, and the best part of her life is still
before her; moreover she loves me, and knows that without her my heart
and my house would be empty and desolate. Therefore, Lord, I pray you
to accept our heartfelt thanks for her deliverance, and to believe my
assurance that henceforth, let what will betide, we two are your
faithful and devoted slaves unto our lives' end."

"Thanks, Umu, for your assurance of devotion, which, I