THE HIDDEN CITY
It was strange, weird, fascinating, this march of the Mayas. The rhythmic
chant, the all but inaudible pat-pat of their bare feet, the sighing wind
in the palms that waved like plumes above their heads, all this stamped
deep into the minds of the boy and the girl impressions that time will
never erase.
It was a march, a grand processional, but where to? What was to be the
end of it? Armed to the teeth, these men had but a short half hour before
been following, surrounding them, perhaps planning to kill them as
intruders in their secret land. What of the present? Was this a march
done in their honor? Was Johnny being thought of as a hero because of
having saved the life of that beautiful Indian girl, and was this march
given in his honor? Or was it a ceremonial march which would end with
their being sacrificed to some gods, black, green or gold?
As he pondered these questions, Johnny remembered something he had read
in Hardgrave’s book, something that had made his blood run cold. The
Mayas did offer sacrifices to their gods, or at least they had in olden
times. And now, as he recalled it, he understood the presence of those
pools along the trail. The Maya country was a land without streams. It
was a limestone country. All the water ran in underground grottos. From
time to time one of these grottos caved in, forming a pool. That was the
secret of the pools they had seen. Some of these pools held more terrible
secrets. Some of them were thousands of years old. A party of scientists,
coming upon one of these in a territory that had been abandoned by the
Mayas, had found not only rich treasure in ornaments of gold, silver,
onyx and jade, but human skulls as well. The lives of those whose skulls
lay hidden for so many years beneath the water had been sacrificed to
some god. What god? The god of the rising sun? of the noon-day sun? of
the setting sun? of fire? of water? Who could tell. There lay their
skulls, mute testimony of the death they had died.
“So we, too, may die?” Johnny whispered to himself. “Who knows?”
As for Jean, knowing nothing of this, she was enjoying the experience to
its full. And why not? Why dream of tragedy in the sunlight of a glorious
day?
The march came to a halt before a long, low building, and at once an
elderly man, dressed in an embroidered cape which, with his dignified
bearing, gave him quite an air of distinction, came out to greet them.
At once the beautiful Indian girl broke away from the ranks of the
warriors and began a long and excited speech. Accompanied by many
gestures and many a nod of her head in the direction of the white trio,
this speech was impressive indeed.
“What’s it all about?” asked Roderick.
“Don’t understand Maya,” smiled Johnny, “but as far as I can tell, she is
Pocahontas and I’m John Smith. She is pleading for my life before the
great chief. If I’m not mistaken there’s a strong family resemblance.
She’s his daughter.”
“Pleading for your life?” exclaimed Jean.
“My life and yours perhaps,” Johnny smiled. “These Mayas have a way of
sacrificing folks to their gods. Also I’ve heard that white people are
not at all welcome.
“Roderick,” he said suddenly, “what sort of god would you prefer to be
sacrificed to—a black one, a green one or one of pure gold?”
Roderick shuddered, but did not reply.
“Surely you are romancing!” exclaimed Jean.
“Indeed I’m not. Never was more in earnest in my life. Men have
disappeared into the jungle. Many have never come back. Do you think all
have perished of hunger and fever? Not much. I read it all in a book.
Besides, Hardgrave has told me.”
It was the girl’s turn to shudder.
“I’ll put the question more picturesquely,” Johnny said, turning to Jean.
“Would you prefer to be sacrificed to the god of the rising sun, the
noon-day sun, or the setting sun?”
“The rising sun,” she answered quickly. “The morning is so full of
promise. Surely that would be the god to choose if there really were such
gods, and one were to be sacrificed.”
All this talk came to a sudden end as the chief, stepping forward, took
first the hand of the white girl, then that of her companion. After that,
nodding to Roderick and the Mayas, he led them into his house.
There, seated on mats, with a cool breeze floating in from open windows,
they were soon being served to a refreshing drink and to food that was
familiar, but that seemed passing strange in these weird surroundings.
“Hot tamales!” Johnny exclaimed as a great mahogany tray of tamales was
set before them.
“Mm-m!” murmured Jean as she tasted hers. “Wild turkey tamale. How
delicious!”
“They should understand the making of them,” said Johnny as he took a
generous mouthful. “Unless I am mistaken the Mayas invented them. They
probably served them on plates of gold before Columbus discovered
America; yes, or even Solomon found his mines.”
“How—how picturesque! How romantic!” murmured the girl.
Johnny agreed with her, but in his mind many questions were constantly
bobbing up demanding an answer.
That night as he lay alone on a comfortable bed of mats with a heavy home
woven blanket for protection from the night chill of this higher
altitude, he thought of many things.
As he heard the steady pat-pat of a sentry’s feet as he paced before the
door of that long, low house, he realized that they were virtually
prisoners. They were being treated very well, and would be in the future,
he hoped. But would the Mayas allow them to return home? He doubted it.
The trails to this hidden city of the wild Mayas—it was truly a city and
already Johnny had seen thousands of the little brown people—were secret
trails. How Roderick had come to stumble upon the trail they had
followed, he could not tell. Well enough the native chief knew that to
allow these uninvited guests to depart was to throw away the key to his
castle and city.
What, then, would happen? Would they be detained there indefinitely, be
given the privilege of becoming members of the tribe, of learning the
secrets of their ceremonies and initiated into hidden mysteries?
“And in the end perhaps marry the princess,” Johnny chuckled. “Grand
little old fairy story, this.”
Strangely enough, at this moment he felt the call of the red lure as
never before. As he closed his eyes he could see great trees come
crashing down, see little tractors dragging massive logs through the
bush, see those logs splash into the water to form a raft to at last go
drifting silently down the river. This was to have been his great
venture. He was to have tapped a primeval forest of priceless wood. That
wood was to have been brought to enrich the world. The richest lady of
the land might not disdain to have her boudoir furnished with rich
appointments made from this wood. A king or president might be proud to
lay his most important documents upon its shiny surface. There was to
have come from this success, riches, and a consciousness of fine
achievement.
“And I gave it up for what?” he asked himself soberly. “For adventure,
for the joy of discovery. And for a pal, a golden-haired girl. The girl;
I owe all to her. She gave me back life when it was all but gone. But I
was not the only one who chose. She chose as well. Together we chose
adventure, discovery. The lure of the unknown beckoned and we came. If we
escape will we win renown? Will they say we have added a chapter to the
world’s golden store of knowledge? Hardly. We are not great scholars. We
cannot bring back a detailed report; don’t know how. We can only say, ‘we
have been, we have seen,’ and that is all. And yet, what adventure, what
lure of discovery!”
With that he fell asleep.