“It was to get those strangers and bring them to our queen,” he said, “that I came out here.”
“Well, you have lost them,” sneered Raoul. “But you have me. Why not take me to your queen?”
The two men looked at each other in silence. A faint smile lighted Anitoo’s usually immobile features.
“Yes,” he said; “at last you will reach the place you have plotted against for so many months. But it will do you no good.”
“Don’t be too sure of that,” growled Raoul. “I want to see your queen——”
“You shall see her. But what can you do? Your friend, Segurra, the first traitor to the Land of the Condor, is dead. Your men are defeated——”
“Not all!” shouted Raoul. “Look around you!”
With those who knew him Anitoo enjoyed a reputation for astuteness that had led to his being chosen for the command of the diminutive army considered necessary for the defense of the Land of the Condor. He was valiant, absolutely trustworthy. But he was accustomed to deal only with simple problems, with people of comparatively guileless natures. Treachery was out of the domain of his experience. And now he was to pay dearly for the lack of prudence that had allowed him to send away, on an indefinite mission, the troops he should have kept to guard his prisoner.
Startled by Raoul’s exultant cry Anitoo seized a pike from one of the two men who had stayed with him. If he had fallen into an ambush he would at least make a brave fight to free himself. But resistance from the first was hopeless. The slight eminence on which he stood with Raoul was surrounded by a score or more men who had crept up on him, their lights extinguished, and protected by the impenetrable darkness of the cave. As Anitoo and his two followers still carried the mysterious torches that had excited the wonder of the explorers, they offered an excellent mark to their concealed antagonists. And now the latter, dimly visible on the outer edge of the circle of light cast by these torches, jumped to their feet and, with weapons poised, made a rush for their victims.
“So! Now for your queen!” yelled Raoul.