The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-22
The Rno of an Inca King.

The Rng of an Inca King.
 Several years ago had charge of a large hardwood lumber business on the west coast of Mexico. Toward the evening of busy day during which we had been loading one of our large lumber schooners with the aromatic Spanish cedar logs, two men rode up to my jacal, or temporary house Of cane and palm leaves, on the beach where held my office as superintend' ent They had come down from the village of La Chola, where we kept our permanent office, upon my invitation to see us load the lumber vessel.
 One was an Englishman, a mining engineer by the name of Pickwick, who had charge of some gold mines not far from La Chola; the other Dr. Moses, who, as his name implies, was a Jew, He was a man of the world, accustomed to danger, 1.-the quick-eyed and quick witted,a fatalist an expert in games of love and chance generous and friend ly; his morality not of the highest or der; he was a good shot, good liar, good thinker and a good fellow.
 I was glad enough to see him. for a white face is eagerly welcomed in that country of brown ones; and after 1 had shown them the manner of loading the logs on the schooner, and we had watched the big logs battle with the breakers as they were slowly but sure ly yanked out on the endless line, we repaired to the jacal for our supper
 During the meal the doctor enter tained us by recounting his adventures, and showed us this ring which I now wear
 Look closely" said he "and you will see gleaming far down in the liquid blue depths of this bisected ovoid stone a brilliant golden sun with its spark ling corona darting out until it's rays are quenched in sea of sapphire blue"
 We examined it, and greatly admired its beauty. It's central sun shone clearly and steadily. .a....-
 "The Peruvians," continued the doc tor, 'prized these stones very highly They held them sacred and called them Opu, and have very pretty tradition fp regard to them: Whenever an Inca ruler was born, the sun, who, according to their belief, was his father, and whom the Peruvians worshiped as the giver of all things, dissipated a. world a sort of pyrotechnic display in honor of the happy event. All that was pure and good in that world was consecra- ted into this one liquid lump and de- posted somewhere, to be discovered by some lucky person in the empire. When the Inca ascended the throne, this lucky person came forward, pre- scented the sapphire and received from him some high sinecure.
 'The Inca carefully guarded the stone, and usually had it set in a re- splendent sunburst of pure gold. This he wore on his breast as insignia of his office. Thenceforth it was his lucky stone, his guiding star, his life. As long as it's central sun remained bright, so long did that ruler prosper; but when the central sun commenced to pale he knew some danger was coming, and when 1t went out entirely, his death accompanied It's extinguishment.
 with stately pomp they inferred the Inca and placed all his jewels with him, in mute testimony of his earthly wealth. Of the eighteen rulers of the Huacan dynasty there still remain five tombs undiscovered, and if either of you gentlemen feels desirous of pos sessing one of these stones you can take pick and shovel, and go to Peru and prospect. Another curious thing is that no one has ever found one of these stones In the rough, and no one in modern times has been able, as some folks have thought could be done, to cut piece of corundum, the material composing sapphires, in such a manner as to concentrate the rays of light in one spot as this does, and thus produce a sun.
 Now" continued the doctor Sup pose we turn our attention from the dry subject of jewelry and indulge as the French say in ze American game of pokaire. Are you all agreeable?"
 Bidding Donna Maria, the cook, re- move the remains of the supper, and calling for fourth hand Theodore, our Mexican foreman, a protege of mine, who, among other accomplishments, could have instructed Hoyle in card playing, we sat down to play.
 Playing game of poker to me is not very enjoyable, owing, no doubt, to the fact that I invariably lose. It has,
 
 near and tell poker stories, all of course absolutely true; but never in the wild est flights of my imagination. have l known of such luck as that Jew pos sessed, The way he held cards that took in our shekels was awful, atro- cious, blood -curdling; if I had pairs, he had better ones if I had threes, he had a full house; if l had full house, he had fours or a straight flush. This continued until I was thoroughly dis gusted Even Theodore lost
 Presently the doctor, who during the last few moments had grown quite pale, much to my surprise said: Had we not better quit? It is not very val orous in me. who have been winning, to suggest it, but feel sleepy and you have a hard day before you tomorrow, If you wish to finish loading the schooner. You may have your revenge on me at later date" And, notwith- standing our losses, we were very glad to stop.
 In the early mananita. long before the sun had risen, and while the thin