IN WHICH WE ENTER THE PLACE OF HORROR
Storm bound under the lee of the cliffs, we passed long and anxious
hours the next day, although our only misfortune was in the inclemency
of the weather which kept us close and prevented our further
exploration of the island and a search for the treasure. We were
completely sheltered and we had plenty of the refreshing milk of the
cocoanut to vary our other food. Nor did we neglect to improve the
rainy hours by much pleasant converse and by further work upon my
lady’s tunic and shoes. Also I made her a sort of hat out of palm
leaves which she could tie upon her head by further strips from that
invaluable and seemingly inexhaustible skirt of hers. And I made myself
a head covering of some of the cloth, letting it fall low over my neck,
as I had observed the Arabs at Aden do, it being there that the fierce
heat of the tropic sun centers its attack--at least I have heard so.
The second day after it began the tempest finally blew itself out,
although the great surging seas still broke tremendously over the
barrier reef and the spray shot a score of feet or more above the
crests of the highest waves. It was only the reflex of the storm,
however, for during the night the wind had subsided into a gentle
breeze. All was calm and peaceful; nature never looked so bright and
smiling, it seemed to me, as at the dawn of that eventful day.
When we scanned the sea early in the morning there was of course no
sign of the ship. I imagined that the hazy islands dimly seen in
the bright sunlight on the far-off horizon could tell a tale of sea
disaster if they would. Any way, I did not believe that we should ever
see _The Rose of Devon_ or her crew again. In both those beliefs I was
mistaken, as you shall find out, if having read thus far, you have
patience to continue until the end.
Our first inclination, and there was none now to intimidate us, was to
mount the stairs again, cross over the wall once more and look for that
cave. We had neither chart nor record left, we had but our memories to
trust to, but we were both agreed that the cave lay in the inner wall,
and that the parchment said it was the central one of three adjacent
openings which gave entrance to the treasure chamber.
Now I had noticed that the great coral wall, both on the outer and
inner sides, was honeycombed with openings, rifts, fissures, and caves
which, by the way, were more frequent and deeper on the inside face;
why, I knew not. We should have been hard put to it to decide where the
cave lay, and should have been compelled painfully and laboriously to
search the whole face of the cliff in its extent of fifteen miles or
so, but for the further direction of the parchment. I remembered that,
sailorlike, old Sir Philip had given us a bearing. How did his words
run? Something like this my memory told me:
Toe fynde ye mouthe of ye tresor cave take a bearing alonge ye southe
of ye three Goddes on ye Altar of Skulles on ye middel hille of ye
islande. Where ye line strykes ye bigge knicke in ye walle with ye
talle palmme, his tree, bee three hoales. Climbe ye stones. Enter ye
centre one. Yt is there.
Plainly, our first duty was to descend into the enclosed valley and
explore the hillock in the center. I made no doubt but that we should
find some sort of an altar and more of those curious and hideous stone
images there. If they still remained, the rest of our task would be
comparatively easy.
With this determination, therefore, we set out. As I did not know
how long our exploration would require, and as I rather thought we
should have to make a day of it, we started betimes after a very early
breakfast; indeed, as we invariably retired shortly after sunset, we
naturally rose at break of day. I took along food enough for the day,
knowing that we could get water from the brooks, and fruit which I
judged would be good for us from the trees.
We went directly to the stairs, mounted them, and stared about us in
amazement. The storm had been a frightful one. We had not been able to
estimate its power from where we had been sheltered on the lee side of
the island, but here the uprooted trees and the wide swaths cut in the
jungle on the top of the wall showed its terrific force. I had no need
for my axe. There were cocoanuts upon the ground and other fruit which
would all rot away before we could consume a hundredth part of it.
Within the shelter of the island cup, as we were presently aware, less
damage had been done, still even there the ravages of the tempest were
widely manifest.
Delaying but little on the top of the wall, we crossed it rapidly
and finally entered the valley. It was with a feeling of awe that we
stood for the first time fairly within the vast cup at the foot of the
inner stairs, completely shut out from the world by the great towering
rampart of rock which entirely enclosed us. I had never felt so far
removed from the world as then. Outside, of course, the limitless ocean
ran beyond the barrier reef, but one could follow it unto the dim,
far-off distance with his vision; within the cup the glance fell upon
the rocky wall on every hand. It was almost like being in a prison, for
all its tropic loveliness. It was strangely still, too. There was no
wind down where we were. We could no longer hear the ceaseless splash
of the breakers on the barrier. The calm must have been like that of
the world’s first morning, when God walked in the garden and saw that
it was fair. We were alone in it too. Ah, this Adam dared not look at
this Eve, lest he should find her all too fair.
Beneath the trees and quite invisible from above, a paved road or path,
barely wide enough for four to walk abreast, extended straight across
the island to the hillock in the middle, while smaller paths seemed to
follow the course of the walls on either side. The ground was gently
rolling, and the road, though overgrown in places and badly broken,
was in much better condition than the broader path on the top of the
wall. I suppose the fact that it was sheltered protected it. We passed
along it for a mile and a half without much difficulty; as usual,
hearing nothing, except the breeze in the palms and the birds in the
thicket. We went in silence mainly. We had so far progressed in good
comradeship that talking, unless we had something especial to say, was
not necessary. And the stillness about us did not move us to speech.
Finally we arrived at the foot of the hillock. As I observed from the
wall, it was grass-grown and palm tree clad. Indeed we should have been
hard put to it to have ascended it, so dense was the vegetation, had
it not been for the fact that the path was continued around the hill
constantly mounting. Where it ran the somewhat shallow earth had been
cut away on the hillside, and the rocky surface laid bare. Of course,
this path was frightfully overgrown, and rendered further impassable
by the trunks of trees which had fallen across it; some, from their
freshness, probably cast there by the storm of the night before. We
managed it, however, and as our identification of the place of the
treasure depended upon our reaching the crest of the mound, we were
compelled to climb it or give over the search. Leaving most of our
baggage behind, including my coat, for the day was now hot, we began
the ascent.
We went on with the utmost care. I cautioned my lady that she must on
no account move recklessly. A broken leg or a sprained ankle would
place us at a terrible disadvantage, and be a most serious hardship,
and she must avoid the possibility at all costs. I assure you I was
equally careful of myself, too. It was intensely hot under the thick
shade of the trees where the breeze had no chance to penetrate, and
I was sweating mightily when I finally drew my companion, her face
bedewed almost as much as my own, up the last steep ascent and stood
upon the crest.
We could see now why the top of the hill had seemed level when we first
looked at it from the wall. Indeed, the coral rock rose in a kind
of sharp, bold escarpment eight or ten feet above the adjacent tree
tops, making a sort of tableland or platform. This level, probably
artificial, had been paved with the reddish-gray rock of the stairs
and statues, and pathways and trees, perhaps artificially planted or
more probably the result of Nature’s sowing, grew here and there in
open places in the pavement. I may say in passing, that in all our
exploration of the island, which however was not very thorough or
complete owing to our limited stay upon it, we saw no quarry whence
this hard, pink rock could have been taken.
The only satisfactory solution was that it had been brought there
across the seas by the makers of the monuments and stairs, whoever
they might have been. They must have had large, seaworthy vessels
and adequate means of land transportation, to say nothing of a most
considerable engineering ability to accomplish these mighty works.
Well, the level top of the hillock was in shape a parallelogram, in
extent perhaps an acre and a half. It was the most curious place I have
ever seen. In the middle of it, with its four sides parallel to the
sides of the plateau, was a huge stone platform or altar, perhaps one
hundred feet long by seventy feet wide. Completely surrounding this
altar, some distance away from it so as to make an aisle perhaps ten
feet in width, rose a line of huge statues carved, like those at the
foot of the stairs, into the semblance of monstrous and repulsive human
faces. I judged that some of them were at least thirty feet from mid
breast to the top of their crowns. Not one of them was like another.
There was variation in each just as there is variation in human faces.
All were ugly and horrible, namelessly evil, but all were lifelike
and were, singularly enough, European. Yet that a European could have
carved these statues was beyond the wildest possibility. I have since
thought, and others have thought also, that perhaps the primitive men
who erected that altar to some unknown god might have been men of the
same racial stock as ourselves way back in the dim days of the world’s
first morning.
At any rate, these statues or images rose at the breast from a kind
of terrace a foot or so above the level of the platform, paved as
elsewhere. They formed a sort of cloister or colonnade around the
central platform which rose twenty or twenty-five feet above. A few of
them had fallen down, but the more part were standing as their carvers
or builders had left them. On the center of the raised platform or
altar, stood three more of the same monster busts, placed one after
another, the largest one being in the middle. They were in line,
all looking in the same direction which my pocket compass told me
was somewhat to the north of northwest by west. They were staring,
therefore, into the general direction of the setting sun.
At the front, or west, end, the great platform was approached by a
flight of steps. The stones of the pavement were so cunningly fitted
together that only here and there had a seed lodged and grass-grown,
except where the palm trees had sprung up, breaking the pavement. The
stones of the platform or altar and the approaching stairs were also
laid up without mortar and fitted in the same way. How savages with
probably nothing but stone knives could have so perfectly trued and
fitted the surfaces of such huge stones, to say nothing of moving them
at all, was, I confess, beyond me; but so it was. The altar was in good
repair, indeed so massive was it, and so well made, that nothing short
of an earthquake could disturb it.
Standing so high, the fierce winds that swept over the plateau and
platforms had probably assisted in keeping it clear of vegetation, of
anything in fact, for save for the few scattered palm trees, it was as
bare as the palm of my hand. And indeed, cleaner, for although my lady
had brought with her some soap, I, not knowing how long we should be
on the island and realizing her dainty habit and what a deprivation it
would be to her to be without it, refrained from using it and cleaned
myself as well as I could with water and sea sand, a poor substitute
for soap as you can well imagine.
Well, we stood upon the platform and surveyed the scene in silent
awe. Nothing in the parchment had led us to suspect all this, although
I recollected the mention of the stone faces looking toward the niche
under the big palm tree, the spot in the wall by which we were to
locate the treasure cave.
“Come,” said I at last, breaking the silence, “we will have a nearer
look at these gentry.”
“It seems like the temple of a vanished race,” breathed my lady softly,
staring about her in growing wonder.
“Aye, and of vanished gods,” said I, extending my hand.
There was something weird and eerie about the plateau and we felt
better for the warm touch of each other’s hand; at least I did. I
always felt happier when I touched her little hand, but in this
instance the feeling was somewhat different. In a certain sense it
seemed like profanation for us to be there, yet we went on steadily,
if slowly. We passed by the colonnade of statues, around the inner
platform, and deliberately mounted the stairs.
Something, I know not what, made me bid my mistress pause before we
reached the top, and I looked to my pistol, and loosened my sword in
its sheath as I did so, although why I did so, and what I anticipated,
I cannot say. At any rate, I mounted to the top alone. There before
me lay a platform which was sunk beneath me for a depth of two feet
and which was surrounded by a low wall on the top of which I stood.
The three images rose from a smaller platform on a level with the
top of this wall in the midst, and the whole place was filled with a
horrible and frightful mass of human bones. Skulls, legs, thighs and
smaller bones heaped in terrible confusion lay bleaching before me,
and the space between them was filled with a fine dust, doubtless the
dust of earlier bones which had moldered away through centuries. Those
that still preserved their shape were the top layer and were bleached
perfectly white. They lay in all directions as if they had been cast
aside carelessly and at random, yet there were indications that there
had been a path from where I stood to the platform of the three images,
which platform I perceived was just about wide enough to lay a human
body on it at the base of the first image.
I stared apprehensively, I must confess, at this frightful charnel
house of the centuries. The only evidence of humanity we had discovered
on that island were these bleached and moldering skeletons. I would
have prevented her, but my mistress suddenly came up and stood by my
side. Then I thought she would have fainted as the full horror of the
scene burst upon her.
“Men have been here,” she faltered, “horrible, cruel men.”
“Yes,” said I, “but centuries ago. Look, the bones are bleached white.
You have naught to fear.”
“Let us leave this frightful place,” she whispered.
“Presently,” I answered, “but you will remember the directions of the
chart. I must stand upon yonder altar and get my bearings. The treasure
cave should be in line with the statues and a niche or depression in
the wall on the further side.”
“Yes,” she replied, “I remember.”
“Well then,” I said, “will you go down to the platform out of sight of
this horrible place and wait for me there?”
“No,” she answered nervously, “Master Hampdon, wherever you go I must
go. I can never be left alone upon this island.”
I tried gently to dissuade her, but, as usual, she would have her way
so that at last I gave in perforce.
“Well then,” said I, “at least let me go before.”
I stepped down into the great receptacle meaning to clear the way with
my feet by kicking aside the layer of bones, and, on my extending my
arm behind me with both her hands caught in mine, she followed me down
into the enclosure. Of course we had to walk upon the broken remnants
of humanity, but I thrust aside as well as I could the larger pieces
and skulls, and she, I afterward learned, followed with her eyes
tightly closed, trusting entirely to my guidance. Indeed she clung to
my hand with all the nervous strength and power she possessed.
So we finally reached the platform. I lifted her up on it and followed
myself. We were not the first human beings who had been lifted to that
ghastly platform, I was sure, and as I stood there I could hear in my
imagination the protesting, shrieking, struggling captives about to be
immolated. I could close my eyes and see the blood dripping down the
sides of the altar, as the breast of the bound victim was pierced with
the stone knife and his beating heart torn out and lifted up in the
face of these devilish and horrible gods by the terrible priests of the
ghastly sacrifice. It required little effort to reconstruct the fearful
cannibalistic orgies on the platform below, in honor of whatever awful
deity they worshiped. I did not let myself dwell upon it, nor did I say
anything about it; and my mistress knew too little about such matters
in her sweetness and innocence and purity to have such thoughts as
mine--thank God!
I led her carefully around the altar platform therefore, until we could
stand at the rear end by the side of the line of statues and look
across the island. Sure enough, there was the niche or depression in
the wall which Sir Philip had mentioned, although the “bigge palmme
tree” was gone, or else lost amid hundreds of trees like it. Beneath
it, careful scrutiny showed a rough pyramid of stone leading up to what
seemed to be openings in the cliff wall.
So far every detail in the old buccaneer’s parchment was absolutely
correct. I was certain now that the treasure was there, and that we
could find it. And a certain exaltation filled me. At least, we had not
come upon a fool’s errand, though what good the treasure would do us in
our present case after we had found it, I did not stop to consider.
“See,” I pointed out to my little lady, “following the edge of the
three statues here with your eyes, the nick or break in the wall of the
cliff is right in line.”
“I see,” she said.
“And below it,” I continued, “for your bright eyes are perhaps keener
than mine which have looked into the salt seas and over the glare of
water blazing in the sun for so many years, what can you make out?”
“I see above the tree tops what looks like a pyramid-shaped heap of
stones, the stones of which Sir Philip spoke, perhaps.”
“Yes,” I replied excitedly, “and at the top, at the apex, what?”
“There is a darker opening in the wall between two others.”
“The treasure will be there,” said I confidently.
“Let us go to it,” she shuddered, looking about her. “I don’t wonder
that Sir Philip came back a madman if he lived for long in the presence
of this.”
“We have nothing more to do here,” I answered, as I led the way to the
edge of the low altar.
I leaped down and then turned to help her. She was very white and I
thought she was going to faint. I don’t blame her, the surroundings
were so terrible. I acted promptly, reaching up and taking her in my
arms and carrying her as if she had been a baby; and indeed she was no
great burden for me. Her head dropped to my shoulder. I did not know
whether she had fainted or not. Her eyes were closed. I ran swiftly
across the enclosure, descended the steps and without hesitation turned
to the edge of the cliff. I stopped there, cursing myself for not
having brought any water, but as I stopped she opened her eyes.
“You are safe,” said I gently, setting her on her feet again, “the
horrors are all behind us. See, there is before you naught but the
beautiful greenery of the island, and--”
An expression of gratitude came across her face.
“Let us go down,” she replied. “We must never come near here again.”
“Please God, no,” I repeated, as we retraced our steps down the cliff
and along the winding path, Mistress Lucy gaining strength and color as
we passed at last out of sight of the hideous platform.