“Then you will rebel?”
“The fortress troops are loyal to me,” said Prince Huaca. “And I hold the Tunnel Way, without which food from the country district cannot reach the city. That is why they would seize me by stratagem and treachery. Open attack upon me here by the palace guard which Cinto’s nephew Guascar commands would be folly. Long have my enemies plotted to compass my downfall, but insidious though they were, the Inca had not reached that stage of suspicion of me that he could be asked to cause my death.
“Now, however,” he added, “Cinto has taken my championship of the truth of what reports you bring from the outside world to work upon the Inca’s credulous mind.
“No, I do not wish to rebel, and cause bloodshed among my people. I do not desire power for itself alone, but in order that I may help my people, not enslave them.”
He was silent, thinking, and Mr. Hampton and the others respected his silence.
“Too long,” he resumed, “have we lived cut off from the world. These marvels of which you have told me, these advantages shared by common men, I want them for my people.”
“And if you are killed,” said Mr. Hampton, “what will happen?”
“Ruin,” said the prince. He arose. “But it shall not be,” he added, with energy. “I shall not be slain. And, on the contrary, I shall lead my people out of ignorance, aye, out from the ignorance of bondage.” He strode up and down. “And you,” he added, halting suddenly before the others, “you shall help me.”
“Willingly, Prince Huaca,” said Mr. Hampton. “But in what way?”
“You say the peoples surrounding us are peace-loving?”