Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1896-09-17
HEART OF THE WORLD.
BY Fl. RIDER HAGGARD.
Strange Story, Taken From q Manuscript Be.
Gueatlied by an Old Mexican Indian to lis
Friend and Con1rade, English.
man Named Jones.
Copyrighted, 1894, by H Rider Haggard.
CHAPTER xxIV.-CoNr1NUED.

COPYRIGHTED 1894 by H Rider Haggard
CHAPTER XXIV.-CoNTINUED
Lords of the council, listen to a tale,
the strangest that you have heard, and
Judge between me and Tikal, my hus-
band, and Maya, my rival, and her
friends. Natal, my father, was known
TO you all, seeing that at the time of
his death, and, indeed, since Tika1 was
appointed cacique, he stood next to him
in place and power among the People
of the Heart, holding the Offices in the
brotherhood which now are filed by
Dimas, and among them that of
keeper of the sanctuary.
''Yet, lords, Natal, my father, was
no true man. Alas! that 1 should have
to say it, seeing that it was more for
my sake that he sinned than for his
own, since he loved me and desired my
welfare above everything on earth. 1t
was this love of his that ruined him,
making him false to his god, to his
beginning, he knew that since was a
child I had set my heart on the Lord
Tikal, who was afianced to the Lady
MAYA, and also that / was ambitious
and desired to be great.
Therefore it was that he deceived
Tikal. pretending that it had been re-
vealed to him by Heaven that the Lady
wilderness. Therefore it was also that
when he had persuaded him that she
was lost to him forever, he pressed it
upon the Lord Tika1 that he should
marry me in place of Maya, his
affianced, who was dead, promising him
in return that he would bring it about
that he should be anointed cacique of
the People of the Heart.
''All these things and others he did,
though at that time I knew nothing of
them and thought in my folly that
Tikal married me because he loved me
and desired me as the companion of his
life and power.
''Then Zibalbay returned on the
night of my marriage feast, and with
him came Maya and the strangers, and
from that hour my husband began to
hate me, because I was his wife in
place of Maya, whom he loved. More,
as have learned since, he went to Iii
ba1bay while he lay in prison and Of
fered to resign his place as cacique in
his favor for so long as he should live,
and no more to oppose schemes If he
would give him Maya in marriage after
I had been put away either by death or
by divorce.
''This Zibalbay would have done, and
gladly, but, as it CHANGED, Maya here
had set her heart upon the white man
during their journeyings together
through the W1lOSTHOSS, dAo ISJuSSu W
be separated from him that she might
be palmed off in marriage upon Tika1.
Yet he might have won his way, for
their case was desperate. and the alter
native was death, had not Natal, my
father. found a plan whereby they
could be saved and remain the wife of
the cacique.
This was the plan, lords: that
prophecy should be set in the symbol of
the Heart yonder such as would deceive
the Council of the Heart and bring it
about that Maya should be given in
marriage to the white man whom she
loved. Lords, this was done. At the
dead of night they crept to the sanctu-
ary, and opening the Heart, placed with
in it that tablet which you have seen,
the tablet that foreshadowed the birth
of a deliverer. The rest you know"
sit is false,'' cried many voices.
tSuch sacrilege is not possible"
st is not false" answered Nahua,
land 1 will prove to you that the sacri-
lege was possible. The Heart was
opened and the false prophecy forged
where it was found by you on the night
of the festival of the Rising of Waters,
this day last year. But when the holy
Heart was opened, behold! it was not
empty, for in it lay another prophecy,
a true prophecy, which was removed
from II, UI1dC the Ile WHICH mas OScSlVe0
you might be set in its place."
Where. then. is that writing?" asked
Dimas.
Here" she answered, drawing the
tablet from her breast. Listen and
she read:
1.-THE eye that has slept and is
awakened sees the heart and purpose
of the wicked. I say that in the hour
of the desolation of my city, not all the
waters O. the Holy lake shall wash
away their sim"
''Take it. lords, and see for your
selves" she continued, laying the tablet
on the altar. 'sAnd now listen again