A TRADITION AND A WAISTCOAT
Captain Horn, his face red with exertion and excitement, stood gazing
down into the square aperture at his feet. On the other edge of the
opening knelt Ralph, holding the lantern so that it would throw its light
into the hole. In a moment, before the boy had time to form a question,
he was pushed gently to one side, and his sister Edna, who had clambered
up the side of the mound, knelt beside him. She peered down into the
depths beneath, and then she drew back and looked up at the captain. His
whole soul was in his downward gaze, and he did not even see her.
Then there came a voice from below. "What is it?" cried Mrs. Cliff. "What
are you all looking at! Do tell me."
With half-shut eyes, Edna let herself down the side of the mound, and
when her feet touched the ground, she made a few tottering steps toward
Mrs. Cliff, and placing her two hands on her companion's shoulders, she
whispered, "I thought it was. It is gold! It is the gold of the Incas."
And then she sank senseless at the feet of the older woman.
Mrs. Cliff did not know that Miss Markham had fainted. She simply stood
still and exclaimed, "Gold! What does it mean?"
"What is it all about?" exclaimed Ralph. "It looks like petrified honey.
This never could have been a beehive."
Without answering, Captain Horn knelt at the edge of the aperture, and
taking the lantern from the boy, he let it down as far as it would go,
which was only a foot or two.
"Ralph," he said hoarsely, as he drew himself back, "hold this lantern
and get down out of my way. I must cover this up, quick." And seizing the
stone slab by the handle, he lifted it as if it had been a pot-lid, and
let it down into its place. "Now," said he, "get down, and let us all go
away from this place. Those negroes may be back at any moment."
When Ralph found that his sister had fainted, and that Mrs. Cliff did not
know it, there was a little commotion at the foot of the mound. But some
water in a pool near by soon revived Edna, and in ten minutes the party
was on the plateau outside the caverns. The new moon was just beginning
to peep over the rocks behind them, and the two ladies had seated
themselves on the ground. Ralph was pouring out question after question,
to which nobody paid any attention, and Captain Horn, his hands thrust
into his pockets, walked backward and forward, his face flushed and his
breath coming heavily, and, with his eyes upon the ground, he seemed to
think himself entirely alone among those desolate crags.
"Can any of you tell me what it means?" cried Mrs. Cliff. "Edna, do you
understand it? Tell me quickly, some of you!"
"I believe I know what it means," said Edna, her voice trembling as she
spoke. "I thought I knew as soon as I heard of the mound covered up by
the lake, but I did not dare to say anything, because if my opinion
should be correct it would be so wonderful, so astounding, my mind could
hardly take hold of it."
"But what is it?" cried Mrs. Cliff and Ralph, almost in one breath.
"I scarcely know what to say," said Edna, "my mind is in such a whirl
about it, but I will tell you something of what I have read of the
ancient history of Peru, and then you will understand my fancies about
this stone mound. When the Spaniards, under Pizarro, came to this
country, their main object, as we all know, was booty. They especially
wished to get hold of the wonderful treasures of the Incas, the ancient
rulers of Peru. This was the reason of almost all the cruelties and
wickedness of the invaders. The Incas tried various ways of preserving
their treasures from the clutch of the Spaniards, and I have read of a
tradition that they drained a lake, probably near Cuzco, the ancient
capital, and made a strong cellar, or mound, at the bottom of it in which
to hide their gold. They then let the water in again, and the tradition
also says that this mound has never been discovered."
"Do you believe," cried the captain, "that the mound back there in the
cavern is the place where the Incas stored their gold?"
"I do not believe it is the place I read about," said Miss Markham, "for
that, as I said, must have been near Cuzco. But there is no reason why
there should not have been other places of concealment. This was far
away from the capital, but that would make the treasure so much the
safer. The Spaniards would never have thought of going to such a lonely,
deserted place as this, and the Incas would not have spared any time or
trouble necessary to securely hide their treasures."
"If you are right," cried the captain, "this is, indeed, astounding!
Treasure in a mound of stone--a mound covered by water, which could be
let off! The whole shut up in a cave which must have originally been as
dark as pitch! When we come to think of it," he continued excitedly, "it
is an amazing hiding-place, no matter what was put into the mound."
"And do you mean," almost screamed Mrs. Cliff, "that that stone thing
down there is filled with the wealth of the Incas!--the fabulous gold we
read about?"
"I do not know what else it can be," replied Edna. "What I saw when I
looked down into the hole was surely gold."
"Yes," said the captain, "it was gold--gold in small bars."
"Why didn't you get a piece, captain?" asked Ralph. "Then we could be
sure about it. If that thing is nearly filled, there must be tons of it."
"I did not think," said the captain. "I could not think. I was afraid
somebody would come."
"And now tell me this," cried Mrs. Cliff. "Whom does this gold belong to?
That is what I want to know. Whose is if?"
"Come, come!" said the captain, "let us stop talking about this thing,
and thinking about it. We shall all be maniacs if we don't quiet
ourselves a little, and, besides, it cannot be long before those black
fellows come back, and we do not want to be speaking about it then.
To-morrow we will examine the mound and see what it is we have
discovered. In the meantime, let us quiet our minds and get a good
night's sleep, if we can. This whole affair is astounding, but we must
not let it make us crazy before we understand it."
Miss Markham was a young woman very capable of controlling herself. It
was true she had been more affected in consequence of the opening of the
mound than any of the others, but that was because she understood, or
thought she understood, what the discovery meant, and to the others it
was something which at first they could not appreciate. Now she saw the
good common sense of the captain's remarks, and said no more that evening
on the subject of the stone mound.
But Mrs. Cliff and Ralph could not be quiet. They must talk, and as the
captain walked away that they might not speak to him, they talked to
each other.
It was nearly an hour after this that Captain Horn, standing on the outer
end of the plateau, saw some black dots moving on the moonlit beach. They
moved very slowly, and it was a long time--at least, it seemed so to the
captain--before Maka and his companions reached the plateau.
The negroes were heavily loaded with bags and packages, and they were
glad to deposit their burdens on the ground.
"Hi!" cried the captain, who spoke as if he had been drinking champagne,
"you brought a good cargo, Maka, and now don't let us hear any tales of
what you have seen until we have had supper--supper for everybody. You
know what you have got, Maka. Let us have the best things, and let every
one of you take a hand in making a fire and cooking. What we want is a
first-class feast."
"I got 'em," said Maka, who understood English a good deal better
than he could speak it,--"ham, cheese, lots things. All want
supper--good supper."
While the meal was being prepared, Captain Horn walked over to Mrs. Cliff
and Ralph. "Now, I beg of you," he said, "don't let these men know we
have found anything. This is a very important matter. Don't talk about
it, and if you can't keep down your excitement, let them think it is the
prospect of good victuals, and plenty of them, that has excited you."
After supper Maka and Cheditafa were called upon to tell their story, but
they said very little. They had gone to the place where the Rackbirds had
kept their stores, and had selected what Maka considered would be most
desirable, including some oil for the lantern, and had brought away as
much as they could carry. This was all.
When the rest of his party had gone inside, hoping to get their minds
quiet enough to sleep, and the captain was preparing to follow them, Maka
arose from the spot on the open plateau where the tired negroes had
stretched themselves for the night, and said:
"Got something tell you alone. Come out here."
When the two had gone to a spot a little distance from the cavern
entrance, where the light of the moon, now nearly set, enabled objects to
be seen with some distinctness, Maka took from inside his shirt a small
piece of clothing. "Look here," said he. "This belong to Davis."
The captain took the garment in his hand. It was a waistcoat made of
plaid cloth, yellow, green, and red, and most striking in pattern, and
Captain Horn instantly recognized it as the waistcoat of Davis, the
Englishman.
"He dead," said Maka, simply.
The captain nodded. He had no doubt of it.
"Where did you find it?" he asked.
"Sticking on rock," said the African. "Lots things down there. Some one
place, some another place. Didn't know other things, but know this.
Davis' waistcoat. No mistake that. Him wear it all time."
"You are a good fellow, Maka," said the captain, "not to speak of this
before the ladies. Now go and sleep. There is no need of a guard
to-night."
The captain went inside, procured his gun, and seated himself outside,
with his back against a rock. There he sat all night, without once
closing his eyes. He was not afraid that anything would come to molest
them, but it was just as well to have the gun. As for sleeping, that was
impossible. He had heard and seen too much that day.