Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 201: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

\ - LAN a OF THE SHADOW REQELE. Nee-Nah asked him. He says the folks we call the Incas used to work it; and the necklace which Nee-Nah wears came from the tomb of one of their princesses many years ago.” Jim again became absorbed in his more than pleasant occupation. Don Castro, who had started at the first words of the young man’s response, bent an odd gaze upon him, and pulled reflectively at his big mustache. “IT know that Kelly here has enough to keep him out of the poorhouse,”’ said Jones. “You don’t want ’em, do yeu, Martian?” Kelly shook his red head slowly. ‘ No, Robert, I do not. I feel as Mrs. Jones does. Let us turn back at once and get the little Robert. He is worth all the emeralds in the world.”’, Jones' took from his pocketbook the faded slip of paper which had cost so many heart- aches and the lives of so many brave men. “I am putting it in the hands of one who richly deserves od fortune which it _may bring,” he said, and he handed Cooper’s map to Don Castro. “T hope that I am not giving you ill luck, Sefor de Ulloa. It is understood, of course, that if you care to go after them, I will finance your expedition—and you may reimburse me out of the profits,” he added hastily, seeing in the little Peruvian’s face that his unbreakable pride was about to impel a refusal. De Ulloa bowed deeply. “I thank you, Senora and Senor Jones,” he said; “ but I accept it not as a gift, but as a trust. If the mine shall prove lucrative, the profits shall be divided among all of those who have shared the perils of this expedition.” His bow included. all of his companions. “Nay, senor, I will take it on no other terms.”’ “By George! Ive forgotten some- thing!” exclaimed Arnold, jumping up and with reluctance resigning Nee-Nah to Kath- erine. “ Come along, Tomas.” It was the girl Lanao that Jim had for- gotten. When the defenders of the be- leaguered malocca had quit it, the girl had been overlooked and left lying on its floor. Accompanied by the Aymara, Jim hastened toward the ruined village. . _ They did not have to go to the malocca 483 to find Lanao. Doubly had she rid herself of her bonds. They found her in the gate- _Wway to the compound, lying dead beside her dead father, a smile of fierce scorn upon her handsome features, and her own knife driven through her heart by her own hand. Jim looked, and his eyes were damp as he turned away. After all, she had loved him. “While Jim was upon his errand, Kath- erine related to the others some of the won- ders which Nee-Nah had told her of Paititi, its people and its god—things which the girl confirmed, bt which she did not think wonderful at all, as they had been a part of her daily life for as long as she could re- member. | “Well, I’m not going to try to present a= brief either for or against a thing which, by all the laws of nature, as we know those laws, is an impossibility,” said Jones, who. had foNowed the girl’s relation with intense interest. ~‘* And the best we can do when we get back to civilization is to conserve our reputations as truth-tellers by a deep and dark silence concerning Paititi. These people, besides, did us too good a turn last night to merit their betrayal to a curious world which they do not know and would not welcome. ~ ‘‘ Paititi is not ready for the world; and most decidedly, the world is nat ready for Paititi. duction when he shall see fit. “ All the same I should like to offer a sug- gestion—I will not call it a theory. Miss Nee-Nah, will you please say again the name of your god?”’ “ Pro- Tay - Us,” answered Nee-Nab, puckering her brows in an attempt to follow Jones’s language. “And you call him also the changeful god. You have told us too that his image in the temple at Paititi is a figure half man and half fish; and his signs are a spiral shell and a winged, or finned, serpent—which, by the way, were favorite symbols of the Incas. ‘“When I was in college, we learned in our Greek mythology of a certain ancient sea-god called Proteus, whence our modern word ‘protean,’ which means changeful. This old chap Proteus, who, according to the Greeks, held forth in the Carpathian a igina al trc mM Kee C = Let Father Time make the intro- - DOO SS CO