She saw me looking at them,
and her eyes assumed a far-away, dreamy impression as she murmured
something.
"You must know that we real Peruvians have been so educated that
we never explore ruins for hidden treasure, not even if we have
the knowledge of engineering to do so. It is a sort of sacrilege
to us to do that. The gold was not our gold, you see. Some of it
belongs to the spirits of the departed. But the big treasure
belonged to the gods themselves. It was the gold which lay in
sheets over the temple walls, sacred. No, we would not touch it."
I wondered cynically what would happen if some one at that moment
had appeared with the authenticated secret. She continued to gaze
at the books. "There are plenty of rare chances for a young mining
engineer in Peru without that."
Apparently she was thinking of her son and his studies at the
University as they affected his future career.
One could follow her thoughts, even, as they flitted from the
treasure, to the books, to her son, and, finally, to the pretty
girl for whom both he and Lockwood were struggling.
"We are a peculiar race," she ruminated. "We seldom intermarry
with other races. We are as proud as Senor Mendoza was of his
Castilian descent, as proud of our unmixed lineage as any
descendant of a 'belted earl.
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