Peruvian venture and they tell me at the office that you are a
Peruvian. I thought that perhaps you could advise me."

She looked at us keenly. I fancied that she detected the subterfuge, yet
she did not try to avoid us. On closer view, her eyes were really
remarkable--those of a woman endowed with an abundance of health and
energy--eyes that were full of what the old phrenologists used to call
amativeness, denoting a nature capable of intense passion, whether of
love or hate. Yet I confess that I could not find anything especially
abnormal about them, as I had about Mendoza's.

"I suppose you mean that scheme of Senor Mendoza and his friend, Mr.
Lockwood," she returned, speaking rapidly. "Let me tell you about it.
You may know that the Chimu tribes in the north were the wealthiest at
the time of the coming of the Spaniards. Well, they had a custom of
burying with their dead all their movable property. Sometimes a common
grave or _huaca_ was given to many. That would become a cache of
treasure.

"Back in the seventeenth century," she continued, leaning forward
eagerly as she talked, "a Spaniard opened a Chimu _huaca_ and found gold
that is said to have been worth a million dollars. An Indian told him of
it. After he had shown him the treasure, the Indian told the Spaniard
that he had given him only the little fish, the _peje chica_, but that
some day he would give him the big fish, the _peje grande_.

"The Indian died," she went on solemnly, flashing at Craig a glance from
her wonderful eyes. "He was poisoned by the other members of his tribe."
She paused, then flashed, "That is my tribe, my family."

She paused a moment. "The big fish is still a secret--or at least it
was until they got it from my brother, to whom the tradition had been
intrusted. They drove him crazy--until he talked. Then, after he had
told the secret, and lost his mind, he threw himself one day into Lake
Titicaca."

She stopped dramatically in her passionate out-pouring of the tragedies
that had followed the hidden treasure.

"I cannot tell you more than you probably already know," she resumed,
watching our faces intently. "You know, I suppose, that the treasure is
believed to be in a large mound, a tumulus I think you call it, visible
from our town of Truxillo. Many people have tried to open it, but the
mass of sand pours down on them and they have been discouraged. But
Senor Mendoza believes that he knows just where to bore and Mr. Lockwood