



Produced by eagkw, Charlene Taylor and the Online
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  THE GILDED MAN




  THE GILDED MAN
  A ROMANCE OF THE ANDES

  BY CLIFFORD SMYTH

  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
  RICHARD LE GALLIENNE


  [Illustration]


  BONI AND LIVERIGHT
  NEW YORK 1918




  Copyright, 1918
  BY BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC.




  TO
  BEATRIX




CONTENTS


                                   _Page_
           INTRODUCTION                xi
  _Chapter_
        I. IN WHICH COMET GOES LAME     1

       II. IN UNA'S GARDEN             10

      III. A CHAPTER ON GHOSTS         19

       IV. THE GHOST OF THE FORGOTTEN  30

        V. THE SEARCH FOR EL DORADO    41

       VI. EMBOLADORES ON THE MARCH    55

      VII. LA REINA DE LOS INDIOS      71

     VIII. A RIVER INTERLUDE           89

       IX. ON INDIAN TRAILS           105

        X. AN OLD MYSTERY             125

       XI. IN WHICH ANDREW IS FOUND   145

      XII. A DEAD WALL                157

     XIII. MRS. QUAYLE TAKES THE LEAD 170

      XIV. THE BLACK MAGNET           189

       XV. AT THE SIGN OF THE CONDOR  212

      XVI. NARVA                      230

     XVII. A SONG AND ITS SEQUEL      251

    XVIII. SUBTERRANEAN PHOTOGRAPHY   274

      XIX. A QUEEN'S CONQUEST         293

       XX. LEGEND AND REALITY         302

      XXI. DREAMS                     312

     XXII. A PEOPLE'S DESTINY         325

    XXIII. THE GILDED MAN             344




THE GILDED MAN




FOREWORD


Two dreams have persistently haunted the imagination of man since dreams
began. You find them in all mythologies, and, perhaps most dramatically,
in the Arabian Nights: the dream of the Water of Immortality, and the
dream of the Golden City. Within recent times--that is, during the
sixteenth century--both were lifted out of the region of fairy lore, and
men as far from "dreamers," in the ordinary sense, as the "conquistador"
Ponce de Leon and Sir Walter Raleigh raised them into the sphere of
something like Elizabethan practical politics. Whether or not Ponce de
Leon did actually discover the Fountain of Eternal Youth on the Bimini
Islands concerns us but incidentally here. At all events, he seems to
have died without drinking of it; as death on the scaffold was the
penalty for Raleigh's failure to discover El Dorado. So practically had
the courts of Elizabeth and James regarded the dream of the Golden City,
and so firm had been Raleigh's own belief in it. Though Raleigh's name
is most conspicuously and tragically connected with it, of course it
had been Spanish adventurers for several generations before--exploring
that "Spanish Main" which they had already, and in romance forever, made
their own--who had given that dream its local habitation and its name.
Martinez had been the first to tell how, having drifted on the coast of
Guiana, he had been taken inland to a city called Manoa, whose king
was in alliance with the Incas. Manoa, said he, to opened mouths and
wondering eyes, on his return to Spain, was literally built, walls and
roofs, houses big and little, of silver and gold. His tale, garnished
with many other mysterious matters, soon speeded expedition after
expedition, dreaming across those

                  "perilous seas
    In fairyland forlorn."

All came back with marvels on their tongues. All had caught glimpses
of the gilded domes of the city, but that was all. Gonzales Ximinez
de Quesada from Santa Fe de Bogota was "warmest," perhaps; but he too
failed. Many a daring sailor since has vainly gone on a like quest. Even
in our prosaic times--in the true Elizabethan spirit, that, for all
their romance, actually animated those enterprises of old time--when
men sought real gold as now, not "faery-gold"--an enterprise, with
a prospectus, shareholders, and those dreams now known as promised
dividends, has made it its serious "incorporated" business to go in
quest of El Dorado.

But, elaborate as all previous expeditions and enterprises have been,
and dauntless as the courage of the individual explorer, one and all
have failed--till now. Till now, I say--for at last El Dorado _has_ been
discovered, and it is my proud privilege to announce, for the first
time, the name of its discoverer--Dr. Clifford Smyth.

Dr