that you have passed the stone of sacrifice, who might force you to look
again upon the faces of the beings you blaspheme. What worse thing has
been done to your Christian God than has been done again and again to
our gods by your white kindred? But let us talk no more of this matter,
and I pray you, my brother, do not utter such ill-omened words to me
again, lest it should strain our love. Do you then believe that the
Teules will return?'

'Ay, Guatemoc, so surely as to-morrow's sun shall rise. When you held
Cortes in your hand you let him go, and since then he has won a victory
at Otompan. Is he a man, think you, to sheathe the sword that he has
once drawn, and go down into darkness and dishonour? Before a year is
past the Spaniards will be back at the gates of Tenoctitlan.'

'You are no comforter to-night, my brother,' said Guatemoc, 'and yet I
fear that your words are true. Well, if we must fight, let us strive
to win. Now, at least, there is no Montezuma to take the viper to
his breast and nurse it till it stings him.' Then he rose and went in
silence, and I saw that his heart was heavy.

On the morrow of this talk I could leave my bed, and within a week I was
almost well. Now it was that Guatemoc came to me again, saying that he
had been bidden by Cuitlahua the emperor, to command me to accompany
him, Guatemoc, on a service of trust and secrecy. And indeed the nature
of the service showed how great a confidence the leaders of the Aztecs
now placed in me, for it was none other than the hiding away of the
treasure that had been recaptured from the Spaniards on the Night of
Fear, and with it much more from the secret stores of the empire.

At the fall of darkness we started, some of the great lords, Guatemoc