THE HIDDEN CITY
“There it is,” Nicky repeated, “There’s—”
“Incaville?” suggested Tom, smiling.
“No—wait! I know! Quichaka!”
“Quichaka it is,” said Bill. “But don’t make any noise. If anybody is
down below we don’t want them to know about us until all our plans are
completed.”
They grew quiet, then, looking down for several hundred feet into the
valley. To the right and to the left, similar cliffs and steep drops
made the valley inaccessible. It had been well chosen as a retreat by
the old tribe when the Spaniards came into their country; and it was not
alone a safe retreat; it was a fertile valley also. Corn could be seen
in great, green fields, and other spots were tilled and showed the
bright colors of growing plants.
“The city is too far away to tell much about it, even with the field
glasses,” said Mr. Whitley. “But it is guarded by mountains even more
rugged than those we have just passed through. We shall soon be in its
streets, if all goes well.”
They began to prepare at once for their descent into the valley.
It was their purpose to go in disguise. They had the clothing for their
disguises and had carefully brought some herbs from which Bill had made
a dye. They located a fairly deep depression in a rock, discovered a
stream and carried their buckets full of water from it to the stone, a
wilderness bathtub, as Cliff called it.
Nicky and Tom, just to be perverse, as an outlet for their enthusiasm,
now that the real adventure was so near, declared: “It’s a small
depression in the rocks, selected by Bill!” Joking so, they created a
small pool, large enough for their purposes.
Into the water Bill emptied a preparation he had guarded carefully from
moisture and damage; it was a dye known to him, that turned the water a
dull, murky mud color at first; but when it cleared, it made a limpid,
brown-red pool.
“Off with every shred of clothes, and in we go!” he said. “Every spot on
your bodies, even your hair, must be Indian.”
The plan Cliff had suggested in Amadale, and which had been accepted by
Mr. Whitley, and, later, by Bill, depended upon a complete disguise so
that they could don the native garb, even the robes and ornaments of
Inca nobles, later and not be suspected.
Into the turgid pool they plunged. Nicky, who rather hated cold water,
was the only one who did not dive in, so to speak. He dipped a toe and
they all roared as he drew it out. “Red-toe!” Cliff shouted.
“Nicky-Nicky Red-toe!”
“Well, you needn’t talk! Who ever saw an Inca with a white man’s head.”
They bantered and chaffed him as he gradually dipped in and then Tom
caught Nicky off his guard and dragged him in, all-over! He tried to
duck Tom in return, and they made a game of it until Mr. Whitley warned
them against the danger of their shouts being heard.
When, after carefully inspecting one another and being certain that not
even a part in their hair would show a break in the rich, deep,
copper-brownish red of the vegetable dye which penetrated their pores
but had no ill effects, they stood around in the sunshine, drying.
The surprise to them all was the effect which the dye had on Cliff. His
light, tow-colored hair had come out a rich, glistening and beautiful
reddish golden color!
“Glory to gramma!” Nicky laughed. “Wouldn’t that be lovely if you were a
girl? Those curls! Those ringlets! Those golden red curlies!”
“At that,” said Bill soberly, turning Cliff around as he inspected.
“This is going to turn out well for us.”
“Turn out well? How?” inquired Mr. Whitley.
“We won’t go as simple natives wandering in by mistake, as we had
planned,” Bill said. “Do you happen to remember anything about the Inca
religion?”
“Why, yes,” they all chorused, beginning to dress in the simple, but
bright wool robes Bill had selected before they left Cuzco and which
looked very well with their deeply toned skin.
“They worshipped the Sun,” Tom said. “They built temples to the Sun.”
“More than that,” Bill added. “To them the Sun was the visible symbol of
the god they worshipped, Raymi. But they also believed that the moon was
the wife of the Sun, and that such stars as they could see were like a
retinue or court of pages to wait on the royal Sun and his moon-wife.”
“Yes,” Cliff broke in, “I know, or I think I know, what you are about to
say. They called Venus—wait, now, let me get it!——”
Nicky was bouncing up and down on a rock. Finally he could contain
himself no longer.
“Chasqui!” he said excitedly.
“No,” said Tom with contempt, “‘Chasqui’ means a runner—like the chap
who carried that quipu.”
Nicky looked crestfallen, but Cliff smiled.
“You were close,” he admitted, “and you reminded me of what I wanted to
say.
“Venus was the favorite star of the Incas and they called her
‘Chaska’—that was like saying ‘Page of the Sun’ but I guess that is a
pretty free translation.” He turned to Bill.
“Not too free,” Bill grinned. “But it really meant just exactly what you
are at this moment—‘the youth with the flowing and shining locks!’”
“Why, yes,” said Mr. Whitley, “I remember that. And it will fit in
splendidly. Cliff, from now on, if all goes well, you shall be
‘Chaska—Page of the Sun!’”
And, as they made final plans, on their rock, the rush-roofed quarters
of Huascar Inca Capac, ruler of hidden Quichaka, were invaded by two
unshod men—none wore sandals in the presence of their ruler!—who bowed
to the floor.
“We make report,” said the taller man. “Oh, Inca—” and a stream of
titles and words of praise followed.
“Let it be spoken from the tongues of truth,” said the Inca.
They bowed again and the story of the exodus into the strange outer
world was told. He who had been silent related his experiences on a
journey to that strange continent where all men were pale and where many
monsters with hot breath and coughing voices dragged great rolling
houses along on hard roads of shining metal; where houses were, oh!
piled one upon another until one could not count them to the top; where
men had even trained huge birds whose wings did not move but whose
voices were as the roar of an avalanche, so that these birds did rise
from earth to carry the men through the air. Thus, and with many other
strange stories he explained to the wondering ruler the sights he had
seen but that he did not understand. How could he, buried in his
mountain retreat, explain a railway train, or the high skyscrapers of
America, or its aeroplanes?
“And the letter of the captive?” demanded the Inca.
Its story also was told up to the arrival of the party among the snows
of the white pass.
“There we flung rocks upon them, and we believe that all ran back except
one who lay still until new snow covered him.”
The Inca commended their splendid work.
“But this I do not understand,” said he who had been to America, and he
displayed the quipu of Bill Sanders. “I sent a message to my brother in
the hills and on the way it changed from a message of warning, that men
came, to this.”
“Read it, quipucamayu,” the Inca commanded of the other.
“It tells, oh Inca, of the coming of one from the stars, yes, even of
Chasca, Page of the Sun, himself, as our fathers prophecied so many ages
ago.”
“Strange,” mused the ruler. “And last night a star flew from the East to
the West and fell into darkness.” The natives of many lands are as
superstitious about the marvels of nature as were the Incas. “Is it a
good omen, think you?”
“Royal Inca, son of the Sun,” answered his priest, “when the royal
Atahualpa was on the eve of capture by the men of white faces, it is
told by our haravecs—poets, minstrels—that a star fell!”
“Even so,” growled the Inca, “if Chasca comes to spell my doom, I care
not whether he come from the Sun or from Cupay—the god of evil—I will
sink an arrow into his flesh!”
“Not so!” the priest of the Sun was shaking with suppressed dismay. “Oh,
Inca, royal though you be, say not thus.”
“How be, if I am of the Sun a son—shall I then fear one of his vassals—a
page?”
The other noble, a high councillor, spoke softly.
“Fear not, Inca, neither anger the messenger. When gods begin to fling
arrows other gods may be stronger—or weaker.”
That evening, just before the moon rose from behind the cliff on which
they camped, Tom and Nicky crouched over a tiny electric battery.
“There’s Bill’s signal,” whispered Tom. Nicky closed a switch.
“Come, Incas, come and watch your first fireworks display!” chuckled
Nicky. “I hope it works!” he added.
In the far city, as the ruddy glow grew on the hilltop, men watching the
stars sent word to the Inca of the strange sight. The populace was flat
on its collective faces, half terrified, half awed at the red fire
shining brightly far to the East; as it died down they saw the silver
moon peep at them.
And late that night came runners to gasp out their news: in that
terror-fire they had seen outlined a figure of black, its arms stretched
wide, and on its head a glory of shining hair!
Through the city the news fled from the nobles to their subjects!
“Chasca! Page of the Sun! He has come!”
And at least one Chasca was sound asleep that that very moment.