'
'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
and I, and coming to the water's edge, we found ten large canoes, each
laden with something that was hidden by cotton cloths. Into these canoes
we entered secretly, thinking that none saw us, three to a canoe, for
there were thirty of us in all, and led by Guatemoc, we paddled for two
hours or more across the Lake Tezcuco, till we reached the further shore
at a spot where this prince had a fair estate.
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