Norton evidently felt the same way. "You saw no weapon--a dagger?"
he interrupted suddenly.
The young man faced Norton squarely. To me it seemed as if he had
been expecting the question. "Not a thing," he said deliberately.
"I looked about carefully, too. Whatever weapon was used must have
been taken away by the murderer," he added.
Juanita entered again, and Inez excused herself to answer the
telephone, while we stood in the living room chatting for a few
minutes.
"What is this 'curse of Mansiche' which the Senorita has
mentioned?" asked Kennedy, seeing a chance to open a new line of
inquiry with Lockwood.
"Oh, I don't know," he returned, impatiently flicking the ashes of
a cigarette which he had lighted the moment Inez left the room, as
though such stories had no interest for the practical mind of an
engineer. "Some old superstition, I suppose."
Lockwood seemed to regard Norton with a sort of aversion, if not
hostility, and I fancied that Norton, on his part, neglected no
opportunity to let the other know that he was watching him.
"I don't know much about the story," resumed Lockwood a moment
later as no one said anything. "But I do know that there is
treasure in that great old Chimu mound near Truxillo.
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