Prince Huaca abruptly returned to his seat, and placed his head in his hands. He sat, bowed in thought. None interrupted. Presently, he again looked up.
“And are all these peoples powerful?”
“Their numbers are as of the sands of the sea,” said Don Ernesto, thinking to quote an impressive figure. But Prince Huaca merely appeared puzzled, and the Don hastily remembered he could know nothing of the ocean, and amended himself: “They are in number like the leaves of the forest. They have built mighty cities. There is one beyond your mountains to the east called Buenos Ayres where dwell more than two million souls. They——”
“But can they read and write, can they do this?” cried Prince Huaca, eagerly. “Our ancestors, the ancient Incas of Cusco, kept accounts only by means of quippus, knotted strings. But we of Inca lineage here have that knowledge of reading and writing handed down to us by the three priests of de Arguello. This is knowledge, and power.”
“Today, the simplest of the commoners can read and write in that world beyond your mountains,” said Mr. Hampton. “Even Pedro and Carlos, my friend’s servants, have this knowledge.”
Once more Prince Huaca was silent, digesting this. Then he said:
“But has not too much learning made them weak, so that they are like women and cannot fight?”
“On the contrary, Prince, they fight with weapons that slay at great distances, with ships that fly in the air like birds and drop death upon those below. And yet,” added Mr. Hampton, “they seek these peoples, to live in peace with each other. No longer is it considered great to make war. Those who set out to conquer find all other peoples banded together against them.”
Prince Huaca once more fell into a manner of abstraction, from which the others made no effort to arouse him. Presently, he lifted his head, and there was an expression of resolution on his features.
“Senor,” said he, “that is all for the present. These matters that you have told me, however, I shall lay at once before the Council. Do you, therefore, hold yourselves in readiness to appear and be questioned? Meantime, I shall order your possessions restored to you, on one condition.”