I doubt whether he would do anything to assist in their search, or
would really try to gather from the Indians any clue as to its
whereabouts."

"But, at any rate, the natives could not very well have carried away their
gold-mines."

"Not carried them away, senor,--no; and that the Spaniards had such rich
mines at first shows that they did learn from the natives--by torture, I
daresay--where most of these were situated; but they got more silver than
gold, and even now there is gold to be found in the sands of most of the
rivers in South America, so that I think it was from washings more than
mines that the Spaniards got their gold. Still, we all think that there
must have been rich gold-mines in the times before the Spaniards, and that
when the natives saw how villainously their monarch and all his chief men
were treated, and how the Spaniards thought of nothing but gold and
silver, they may have blocked up the entrances to all their richest mines,
and in a few years all signs of the sites would be covered by thick
vegetation. You see, senor, these things are talked over whenever a few of
us get together, and though there are not many other things that we do
know, you will scarcely meet a Peruvian who could not talk with you for
hours about the lost treasure and the lost gold-mines of the Incas.

"There are many places that I know of where the sand is rich enough to pay
well for washing, but they are all far away from habitations. A man would
have to carry his stores and provisions and tools with him; and then, it
is hard work, and a Peruvian does not care for hard work. As to the
natives, there would be no keeping them at it, they would desert and run
away at once; for not only do they hate work, but, above all things, they
hate to work for gold. They look upon gold as an accursed thing, which
brought about the conquest of the country by the Spaniards, and the
centuries of oppression that have befallen their race; and even should a
native alight upon a rich spot he would go away and never say a word about
it, fearing that if he did, all sorts of trouble would fall upon him."

"Pita is a fine-looking Indian, Gomez."

"Yes, senor; he is a mixture, that is, he is of pure Indian blood, but he
belongs to two tribes. His father was a native of one of the villages
highest up among the hills. He too was a hunter and guide. In one of his
journeys down in the plain country he married the daughter of one of the
chiefs of the