"After he lost it," she continued reminiscently, "my brother threw
himself one day into Lake Titicaca. Everywhere the trail of that
dagger, of the secret of the Gold of the Gods has been stained by
blood. To-day the world scoffs at curses. But surely that gold
must be cursed. It has been cursed for us and ours."
She spoke bitterly; yet might she not mean that the loss of the
dagger, the secret, was a curse, too?
"There is one other thing I wish to say, and then I will be
through. Far back, when your ancestors came into the country of
mine, an ancestor of your father lost his life over the treasure.
It seems as if there were a strange fatality over it, as if the
events of to-day were but living over the events of yesterday. It
is something that we cannot escape--fate."
She paused a moment, then added, "Yet it might be possible that
the curse could be removed if somehow we, who were against each
other then, might forget and be for each other now."
"But Senorita Mendoza has not the dagger," put in Kennedy,
watching her face keenly, to read the effect of his remark. "She
has no idea where it may be."
"Then it is pure tradition on which Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Whitney
depend in their search for the treasure?" flashed back the Senora
quickly.
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