“Io’,” said Hualpa, in a low voice, “but one of the vases is the ’tzin’s.”
“And the other?” asked the prince, looking up.
Hualpa’s face flushed deeper.
“The other is mine. Have you not two sisters?”
Io’s eyes dilated; a moment he was serious, then he burst out laughing.
“I have you now! Nenetzin,—she, too, has a lover.”
The hunter never found himself so at loss; he played with the loops of his escaupil, and refused to take his eyes off the coming canoe. Through his veins the blood ran merrily; in his brain it intoxicated, like wine.
“And pleasanter yet to be made noble and master of a palace over by Chapultepec,” Io’ answered. “But see! Yonder is a canoe.”
“From the city?”
“It is too far off; wait awhile.”