were magnificent creatures--tall and well-shaped and vigorous, and the
ease with which they handled the great bars of gold showed how enormous
must be their strength. But so full of venomous hate were the sullen
looks which they cast upon us, and so savage was the effect of their
coarse, dishevelled hair falling down over and partly veiling their
great glittering eyes, whence these angry glances were shot forth at us
like poisoned darts, that I was thankful to see that, all told, there
were not more than a dozen of them, and that three times as many heavily
armed soldiers served as their guard. And looking at these creatures,
who were truly less like men than dangerous wild beasts, I could not
wonder at the grave concern which Tizoc had manifested at thought of the
risk which we ran in taking them for allies. "It's as easy t' start
'em," Young said, when he came to an understanding of the situation, "as
'tis t' start a freight-train down a three per cent. grade. But what I
want to know is, when we want 'em t' stop, how in th' h--ll are we ever
goin' t' set th' brakes?"

[Illustration: THE TLAHUICOS AND THEIR GUARDS]

Yet, dangerous to ourselves though the use of it must be, our hopes of
success rested mainly upon our ability to control and to employ
effectively this savage material. Fortunately, it was not the whole of
our reliance; and it was our intention to leaven this dangerous lump
with the very considerable number of trained and trustworthy soldiers
that we had available as the substantial nucleus of our fighting force,
and also with the larger body of both slaves and freemen--not regularly
drilled soldiers, to be sure, yet many of them trained in the ways of
war--that we counted upon to join us from among the people at large.

This outline of the plan of action that the Council had determined upon
was exhibited to us by Tizoc during our passage down the lake; and I was
glad to find that Rayburn--for whose judgment I had much respect in
such matters--was disposed to think well of it.

"If I expected to stay here, Professor, after the row was over," he
said, "I mightn't be quite as well satisfied with this plan of theirs
for running things. The war part of the programme is all right. They
won't have any difficulty in getting their Tlahuicos to fight anything
in the way of an army that the Priest Captain shows up with. Fighting is
just what will please them more than anything else. Where the trouble is
going to c