nd you aright, my good
Xaxaguana, all this means that the lives of my friends and myself have
been put into the utmost jeopardy by my crass folly of last night, I
knew--yes, I knew, when it was too late, that I had been a fool," he
concluded bitterly.

"To be absolutely candid with you, friend Huanacocha, I think you were,"
rejoined Xaxaguana somewhat cynically. "Why did you do it?"

Huanacocha stopped short in the middle of the road and looked his friend
square in the eye.

"Xaxaguana," said he, "when I was Chief of the Council of Seven it was
in my power to do you several good turns--and I did them. Under certain
conceivable circumstances it might be in my power to do you several
others; and if you can indicate to me a way by which I can extricate
myself from my present peril, rest assured that I will not prove
ungrateful. I believe you are my friend; and I believe also that you
are astute enough to recognise that I can serve you better living than
dead. I will therefore be perfectly frank with you and will tell you
all that has been in my mind of late. But see, there is the sun, and
the good folk of the town will soon be astir, and we may be seen
together; let us go over yonder and sit in the shadow of that pile of
rocks; we can talk freely there without risk of being seen, or
interrupted."

Without another word Xaxaguana turned and led the way across the upland
meadow to a somewhat remarkable pile of rocks that cropped out of the
soil about a hundred yards from the road, and, passing round to the
shady side, which was also the side hidden from the road, seated himself
on a bed of soft moss, signing to his companion to do the same. For
nearly an hour the pair conversed most earnestly together; then
Xaxaguana rose to his feet and, reconnoitring the road carefully to see
that there was no likelihood of his being observed, stepped forth from
his place of concealment. Then he hurried across the intervening
stretch of grass, and on reaching the road, once more glanced keenly
about him, and briskly turned his steps homeward. Half an hour later
Huanacocha did pretty much the same thing; and it was noticeable--or
would have been, had there been anyone there to see--that his
countenance had lost much of the expression of anxiety that it had worn
when he set out for his walk early that morning. He had scarcely bathed
and finished his morning meal after his unwonted exertions when his
favourite servant rushed into