One may, I
suppose, pay his money and take his choice. But the point, as far
as we are concerned in this case, is that there is still believed
to be the great fish, which no one has found. Who knows? Perhaps,
somehow, Mendoza had the secret of the peje grande?"
Kennedy paused, and I could feel the tense interest with which his
delving into the crumbling past had now endowed this already
fascinating case.
"And the curse?" I put in.
"About that we do not know," he replied. "Except that we do know
that Mansiche was the great Cacique or ruler of northern Peru. The
natives are believed to have buried a far greater treasure than
even that which the Spaniards carried off. Mansiche is said to
have left a curse on any native who ever divulged the whereabouts
of the treasure, and the curse was also to fall on any Spaniard
who might discover it. That is all we know--yet. Gold was used
lavishly in the temples. That great hoard is really the Gold of
the Gods. Surely, as we have seen it so far in this case, it must
be cursed."
There was a knock on the laboratory door, and I sprang to open it,
expecting to find that it was something for Kennedy. Instead there
stood one of the office boys of the Star.
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