“Why,” he said, gazing admiringly at the stone as he turned it about in his hand, “The contents of this chest must be of absolutely incalculable value! This stone alone would constitute a very handsome fortune to its lucky possessor, if I am any judge of diamonds.”
“True, Lord,” answered his companion. “But there are several finer stones than that—this one, and this, for example,” as he fished up a couple of superb specimens. “There are probably no diamonds in the world equal to these two in size and purity of colour. And all belong to my Lord.”
“Ay,” said Harry; “with such enormous and inexhaustible wealth as this at one’s command it should not be very difficult to provide the means of reconquering the country and restoring it to its former state of power and glory. What have you in the other two chests?”
“My Lord shall see,” answered the Indian, as he unlocked and threw back the lid of the next chest, which proved to be three parts full of rubies, every one of which constituted a little fortune in itself, while many were of such exceptional size and superb colour that the young Englishman could only gasp in speechless amazement and admiration.
“Why, Huatama,” he exclaimed at length, “I am at a loss to express my astonishment. Aladdin’s cave was nothing to this, nothing at all!”
“Aladdin, did my Lord say?” murmured the Indian, looking enquiringly at Harry. “I do not seem to remember him. Surely he was not a Peruvian? The name does not—”
“No,” answered Harry with a laugh. “Aladdin knew nothing of Peru; he was an Eastern—a Chinese fellow, or something like that, if I remember rightly.”
“Ah, yes!” remarked Huatama reflectively; “I have seen a few Chinese, down at Lima and Callao, when I had occasion to go there a year ago on business for the Council of Seven. I do not like them; and I hope that when my Lord has subjugated the country he will drive them all out of it.”
“Well, we shall see,” rejoined Escombe with a laugh. “But it is early days as yet to talk of driving out the Chinese; there is a great deal to be done before we shall find ourselves face to face with that question. And now, what does your last chest contain?”
It contained emeralds, and was more than half-full of stones of surpassing size and purity of colour, every one of them being a picked stone especially selected for its exceptional quality. But Escombe’s powers of admiration were by this time completely exhausted, and after having rather perfunctorily examined and expressed his approval of a few of the finest specimens, and commended the treasure as a whole to the unflagging care of Huatama, he returned to his apartments in the palace and flung himself into a chair to endeavour to convince himself that what he had seen in those rock-hewn chambers below was all prosaically real and not the fantasy of a disordered imagination.