" "Yes,"
admitted Kennedy, "I do know something of it. But I should rather
get it more accurately from your lips than from the hearsay of any
one else."
She smiled quietly to herself. "I don't believe," she added, "that
you know that the _peje grande_ was not ordinary treasure. It was
the temple gold. Why, some of the temples were literally plated
over heavily with pure gold. That gold, as well as what had been
buried in the huacas, was sacred. Mansiche, the supreme ruler,
laid a curse on it, on any Indian who would tell of it, on any
Spaniard who might learn of it. A curse lies on the finding--yes,
even on the searching for the sacred Gold of the Gods. It is one
of the most awful curses that have ever been uttered, that curse
of Mansiche."
Even as she spoke of it she lowered her voice. I felt that no
matter how much education she had, there lurked back in her brain
some of the primitive impulses, as well as beliefs. Either the
curse of Mansiche on the treasure was as real to her as if its
mere touch were poisonous, or else she was going out of her way to
create that impression with us.
"Somehow," she continued, in a low tone, "that Spaniard, the
ancestor of Don Luis Mendoza, obtained some idea of the secret.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83