Weird Tales, Vol. 4, No. 3

This issue of Weird Tales features "Teoquitla the Golden," a frame narrative by an unnamed author. Dr. Branson, traveling by ship off Cuba's coast, tells fellow passenger Lewis a manuscript story he acquired in Vera Cruz years earlier. A mysterious disguised woman arrives at his home, revealing herself as Maria Rey, a fair-haired American with golden Aztec ornaments. She claims amnesia from severe illness and years living among isolated mountain Aztecs. She proves her connection to explorer Robert Sanderson (missing four years) by recounting his private conversations and locating his hidden gold reserve. After being outfitted with proper American clothing and documented, she departs. The bulk of the narrative comprises her written account, beginning on maguey paper in Aztec hieroglyphics, detailing her life in Nahuatlan, a hidden Aztec city in a remote valley that practices human sacrifice. The story exploits period themes of lost civilizations, mysterious transformation, and hidden American identity.