their temporary quarters, must be sacred, for they have the relics of Atahualpa with them. You say your children are in that house as well. That may be, but I am helpless to prove or disprove it. It is horrible, I agree, but I am powerless. You say that my soldiers are guarding the house? That is not true. I am nobody in all this. Who put them there? Oviedo Runtu. They are Oviedo Runtu's soldiers."
He paused for a moment.
"Who is Oviedo Runtu? A bank-clerk whom you may have had dealings with at Lima? Yes, and no. He is a bank clerk, but he is also the master of every Quichua in the country. Yes, he dresses like a European, and earns a humble living among us, but meanwhile he is studying all our institutions, our financial methods, all our secrets. He earns two hundred soles a month behind a counter, and he is perhaps a king. I don't know.
"King or not, all the Quichua and Aimara chiefs are his slaves. Huascar, your former servant, is his right hand.… If you ask me, a man who has dreamed the regeneration of his race! That's what he is…. When I was preparing this revolt at Arequipa, Huascar came and offered me Oviedo Runtu's aid, and I accepted the alliance because I could not do otherwise. Do you understand now? It is not I, but
