Chapter Eighteen.
Pedro finds his father—Murder of the Inca.
I have said that Don Gomez was at my side. As he saw the Spaniards drawing near, he turned to me. “Señor David,” he said, “these are my countrymen. The Indians have lost the day.”
“You would wish to join them. Is it so?” I asked.
“I would. Have I your permission?” he said.
“You were committed to my charge by yonder chief, who, I trust, will be with us soon. If he gives you your liberty, your word will not be broken, though I shall be sorry to part from you,” I replied.
“But the Indians are defeated,” urged Don Gomez. “Am I to remain a prisoner for ever?”
“Till he who received your word restores it to you,” I again answered; and while I was speaking, Pedro reached us. For a moment he was too breathless to speak; and during this interval I observed that Manco had so far got ahead of his pursuers, that their shot began to fall short. They halted; for just then they perceived us on the hills, probably supposing us enemies; and at the same moment a party of Indians, who lay concealed in some brushwood below us, sprang upon them. Had the Indians waited till the soldiers had advanced a little further, every man of the latter might have been killed or captured. As it was, they had time to turn their horses, and gallop off the way they had come, followed by a shower of arrows, which killed one and wounded another of them.