in terror. For an instant we held
back, but there was nothing else for it; and in another minute we had
overpowered and bound and gagged them and carried them to a corner.

The children were ugly little devils and the woman very little above a
brute; still we handled them as tenderly as possible. Then we crouched
against the wall where we could not be seen from the corridor, and
waited.

Soon the patter of many footsteps reached our ears. They passed;
others came, and still others. For many minutes the sound continued
steadily, unbroken, while we sat huddled up against the wall, scarcely
daring to breathe.

Immediately in front of me lay the forms of the woman and the children;
I could see their dull eyes, unblinking, looking up at me in abject
terror. Still the patter of footsteps sounded from without, with now
and then an interval of quiet.

Struck by a sudden thought, I signaled to Harry; and when he had moved
further back into his corner I sprang across the room in one bound to
his side. A word or two of whispering, and he nodded to show that he
understood. We crouched together flat against the wall.

My thought had come just in time, for scarcely another minute had
passed when there suddenly appeared in the doorway the form of an Inca.
He moved a step inside, and I saw that there was another behind him. I
had not counted on two of them! In the arms of each was a great copper
vessel, evidently very heavy, for their effort was apparent as they
stooped to place the vessels on the ground just within the doorway.

As they straightened up and saw that the room before them was empty,
their faces filled with surprise. At the same moment a movement came
from the woman in the corner; the two men glanced at them with a start
of wonder; and as I had foreseen, they ran across and bent over the
prostrate forms.

The next instant they, too, were prone on the floor, with Harry and me
on top of them. They did not succumb without a struggle, and the one I
had chosen proved nearly too much for me.

The great muscles of his chest and legs strained under me with a power
that made me doubtful for a moment of the outcome; but the Incas
themselves had taught us how to conquer a man when you attack him from
behind, and I grasped his throat with all the strength there was in my
fingers.

With a desperate effort he got to his knees and grasped my wrists in
his powerful black hands and tore my own grip loose. He was hal