It was now two months since Reuel’s strange disappearance from the
camp of the explorers. Day after day they had searched every inch of
the ground within and about the pyramids, with no success. Charlie
Vance was inconsolable, and declared his intention of making his home
at Meroe until Reuel was found. He scouted the idea of his death by
falling a prey to wild beasts, and hung about the vicinity of the
Great Pyramid with stubborn persistence. He was no longer the spoiled
darling of wealth and fashion, but a serious-minded man of a taciturn
disposition.
He spent money like water in his endeavor to find the secret passage,
believing that it existed, and that in it Reuel was lost.
One morning he and Jim Titus laid bare a beautifully worked marble
wall, built of fine masonry, with even blocks, each a meter and a half
long, and below the exquisitely worked moulding two further layers
of well-worked calcareous stone. The whole formed a foundation for a
structure which had fallen into ruins about two and a half meters high.
But this wall continued for thirteen meters only, and then returned at
right angles at each end. On the inner side this marble structure was
backed by large blocks of calcareous stone, and in the inner angles,
they had with much labor to break up and remove two layers of blocks
superimposed at right angles, one upon another. The entire party was
much puzzled to learn what this structure could have been.
Sculptures and paintings lined the walls. As usual, there was a queen,
attired in a long robe. The queen had in one hand the lash of Osiris
and in the other a lotus flower.
At the extremity of each portico was the representation of a monolithic
temple, above which were the traces of a funeral boat filled with
figures.
After two days’ work, the skilled diggers assured the explorers
that they could do nothing with the debris but to leave it, as it
was impossible to open the structure. But in the night, Charlie was
kept awake by the thought that this curious structure might hold the
expedition’s secret; and remembering that perseverance was never
beaten, set to work there the next morning, digging into the interior
and breaking up the huge blocks which impeded his progress. The next
day another impediment was reached, and it was decided to give it up.
Again Charlie was awake all night, puzzling over the difficulties
encountered, and again he made up his mind not to give it up. Charlie
was learning many needed lessons in bitterness of spirit out in
these African wilds. Sorrow had come to him here in the loss of his
sister, and the disappearance of his friend. As Reuel had done in the
night weeks before, so he did now, rising and dressing and securing
his weapons, but taking the precaution to awaken Jim, and ask him to
accompany him for a last visit to the Pyramid.
Jim Titus seemed strangely subdued and quiet since Reuel’s
disappearance. Charlie decided that their suspicions were wrong, and
that Jim was a good fellow, after all.
As they trudged along over the sandy paths in the light of the great
African moon, Charlie was glad of Jim’s lively conversation. Anecdotes
of Southern life flowed glibly from his tongue, illustrated by songs
descriptive of life there. It really seemed to Vance that a portion of
the United States had been transported to Africa.
They entered the great Pyramid, as Reuel had done before them, lit
their torches, and began slowly and carefully to go over the work of
excavation already done.
They passed down a side passage opening out of the outer passage, down
a number of steps and along an underground shaft made by the workmen.
Suddenly the passage ended. They halted, held up the lamps and saw such
a scene as they were not likely to see again. They stood on the edge of
an enormous pit, hedged in by a wall of rock. There was an opening in
the wall, made by a hinged block of stone. This solid door had opened
noiselessly, dark figures had stolen forth, and had surrounded the two
men. As they discovered their strange companions, weapons of burnished
steel flashed and seemed to fill the vault. Not a sound was heard but
the deep breathing of men in grim determination and on serious business
bent. Instantly the two travellers were bound and gagged.
Instantly, after the seizure, the eyes of the prisoners were
blindfolded; then they were half led, half dragged along by their
captors. As he felt the grip of steel which impelled a forward
movement, Charlie bitterly cursed his own folly in undertaking so mad
a venture. “Poor Reuel,” he lamented, “was this the explanation of his
disappearance?” Reuel had been the life of the party; next to Professor
Stone, he was looked up to as leader and guide, and with his loss, all
interest seemed to have dropped from the members of the expedition.
For half an hour they were hurried along what must have been deep
underground passages. Charlie could feel the path drop beneath his feet
on solid rock which seemed to curve over like the edges of a waterfall.
He stumbled, and would have fallen if strong arms had not upheld him.
He could feel the rock worn into deep gutters smoother than ice. For
the first time he heard the sound of his captors’ voices. One in
command gave an order in an unknown tongue. Charlie wished then that he
had spent more time in study and less in sport.
“Oh,” he groaned in spirit, “what a predicament for a free-born
American citizen, and one who has had on the gloves with many a famous
ring champion!” He wondered how Jim was faring, for since the first
frightened yell from his lips, all had been silence.
There came another brief command in the unknown tongue, and the
party halted. Then Charlie felt himself lifted into what he finally
determined was a litter. He settled himself comfortably, and the
bearers started. Charlie was of a philosophical nature; if he had been
born poor and forced to work for a living, he might have become a
learned philosopher. So he lay and reflected, and wondered where this
experience would end, until, lulled by the yielding motion and the
gentle swaying, he fell asleep.
He must have slept many hours, for when he awoke he felt a strong
sensation of hunger. They were still journeying at a leisurely pace.
Charlie could feel the sweet, fresh air in his face, could hear the
song of birds, and smell the scented air, heavy with the fragrance
of flowers and fruits. Mentally thanking God that he still lived, he
anxiously awaited the end of this strange journey. Presently he felt
that they entered a building, for the current of air ceased, and the
soft footsteps of the bearers gave forth a metallic sound. There came
another command in the unknown tongue, and the bearers stopped; he
was told to descend, in unmistakable English, by a familiar voice. He
obeyed the voice, and instantly he was relieved of his bandage; before
his sight became accustomed to the semi-darkness of the room, he heard
the retreating steps of a number of men. As his sight returned in full,
he saw before him Ai and Abdallah and Jim.
Abdallah regarded him with a gaze that was stolid and unrecognizing.
The room in which he stood was large and circular. Floors and walls
were of the whitest marble, and from the roof light and air were
supplied. There were two couches in the room, and a divan ran about one
of its sides. There was no door or entrance visible--nothing but the
unvarying white walls and flooring.
“Stranger,” said Ai, in his mellow voice, speaking English in fluent
tones, “Why hast thou dared to uncover the mysteries of centuries?
Art thou weary of life that thou hast dared to trifle with Nature’s
secrets? Scarce an alien foot has traversed this land since six
thousand years have passed. Art weary of living?” As he asked the last
question, Charlie felt a chill of apprehension. This man, with his
strange garb, his dark complexion, his deep eyes and mystic smile,
was to be feared and reverenced. Summoning up all his sang froid and
determination not to give in to his fears, he replied,--
“We came to find old things, that we may impart our knowledge to the
people of our land, who are eager to know the beginning of all things.
I come of a race bold and venturesome, who know not fear if we can get
a few more dollars and fresh information.”
“I have heard of your people,” replied Ai, with a mysterious sparkle
in his eyes. “They are the people who count it a disgrace to bear my
color; is it not so?”
“Great Scott!” thought Charlie, turning mental somersaults to find an
answer that would placate the dignitary before him. “Is it possible
that the ubiquitous race question has got ahead of the expedition! By
mighty, it’s time something was done to stop this business. Talk of
Banquo’s ghost! Banquo ain’t in it if this is the race question I’m up
against.” Aloud he said, “My venerable and esteemed friend, you could
get there all right with your complexion in my country. We would simply
label you ‘Arab, Turk, Malay or Filipino,’ and in that costume you’d
slide along all right; not the slightest trouble when you showed your
ticket at the door. Savee?” He finished with a profound bow.
Ai eyed him sadly for a moment, and then said,--
“O, flippant-tongued offspring of an ungenerous people, how is it
with my brother?” and he took Jim’s unresisting hand and led him up
to Charlie. “Crisp of hair,” and he passed his hand softly over Jim’s
curly pate. “Black of skin! How do you treat such as this one in your
country?”
Charlie felt embarrassed in spite of his assurance. “Well, of course,
it has been the custom to count Africans as our servants, and they have
fared as servants.”
“And yet, ye are all of one blood; descended from one common father.
Is there ever a flock or herd without its black member? What more
beautiful than the satin gloss of the raven’s wing, the soft glitter
of eyes of blackest tint or the rich black fur of your own native
animals? Fair-haired worshippers of Mammon, do you not know that you
have been weighed in the balance and found wanting? that your course is
done? that Ethiopia’s bondage is about over, her travail passed?”
Charlie smiled in inward mirth at what he called the “fossilized
piece of antiquity.” “Touched in the forehead; crank,” was his mental
comment. “I’d better put on the brakes, and not aggravate this lunatic.
He’s probably some kind of a king, and might make it hot for me.” Aloud
he said, “Pardon, Mr. King, but what has this to do with making me a
prisoner? Why have I been brought here?”
“You will know soon enough,” replied Ai, as he clapped his hands.
Abdallah moved to the side of the room, and instantly a marble block
slid from its position, through which Ai and he departed, leaving the
prisoners alone.
For a while the two men sat and looked at each other in helpless
silence. Then Jim broke the silence with lamentations.
“Oh, Lord! Mr. Vance, there’s a hoodoo on this business, and I’m the
hoodoo!”
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Vance. “Be a man, Jim, and help me find a way out
of this infernal business.”
But Jim sat on the divan, lamenting and refusing to be comforted.
Presently food was brought to them, and then after many and useless
conjectures, they lay down and tried to sleep.
The night passed very comfortably on the whole, although the profound
silence was suggestive of being buried alive. Another day and night
passed without incident. Food was supplied them at regular intervals.
Charlie’s thoughts were varied. He--fastidious and refined--who had
known no hardship and no sorrow,--why had he left his country to wander
among untutored savages? None were there to comfort him of all his
friends. These walls would open but to admit the savage executioner.
He ground his teeth. He thought of Cora Scott; doubtless she thought
him dead. Dead! No; nor would he die. He’d find a way out of this or
perish; he’d go home and marry Cora. Now this was a most surprising
conclusion, for Charlie had been heard to say many times that “he’d be
drawn and quartered before he’d tie up to a girl of the period,” which
Cora undoubtedly was. As if aroused from a dream, he jumped up and
going over to Jim, shook him. The Negro turned uneasily in his sleep
and groaned. Again he shook him.
“Get up, Jim. Come, I’m going to try to get out of this.”
“I’m afraid, Mr. Vance; it’s no use.”
“Come on, Jim; be a man.”
“I’m ready for anything, only show me the way,” replied Jim in
desperation. Their pistols had been taken from them, but their knives
remained. They stored what food remained about their persons and began
a thorough examination of the room.
“They certainly find an exit here somewhere, Jim, and we must find it
too.”
“Easier said than done, I fear, sir.”
An hour--two hours, passed in fruitless search; the marble walls showed
not a sign of exit or entrance. They rested then, sitting on the sides
of the divans and gazing at each other in utter helplessness. The full
moonlight showered the apartment with a soft radiance from the domed
roof. Suddenly, Jim sprang forward and inserted his knife in a crevice
in the floor. Instantly Charlie was beside him, working like mad on
the other side. The slab began to waver to and fro, as though shaken
by a strong force--the crack widened--they saw a round, flat metal
button--Jim seized it with one hand and pried with the knife in the
other--a strong breeze of subterranean air struck through the narrow
opening--and with a dull reverberation half the flooring slid back,
revealing what seemed to be a vast hole.
The men recoiled, and lay panting from their labors on the edges of the
subway. Charlie blessed his lucky stars that hidden in his clothes was
a bundle of tapers used by the explorers for just such emergencies. By
great good fortune, his captors had not discovered them.
“What’s to be done now, Jim?”
“Git down there and explore, but hanged if I want the job, Mr. Vance.”
“We’ll go together, Jim. Let’s see,” he mused, “What did Prof. Stone’s
parchment say? ‘Beware the tank to the right where dwells the sacred
crocodile, still living, although centuries have rolled by, and men
have been gathered to the shades who once tended on his wants. And
beware the fifth gallery to the right where abide the sacred serpents
with jewelled crowns, for of a truth are they terrible,’” quoted
Charlie, dreamily.
“You don’t suppose this is the place you were hunting for, do you?”
queried Jim, with eyes big with excitement.
“Jim, my boy, that’s a question no man can answer at this distance from
the object of our search. But if it is, as I suspect, the way to the
treasure will lead us to liberty, for the other end must be within the
pyramid. I’m for searching this passage. Come on if you are with me.”
He lighted his taper and swung it into the abyss, disclosing steps of
granite leading off in the darkness. As his head disappeared from view,
Jim, with a shudder, followed. The steps led to a passage or passages,
for the whole of the underground room was formed of vaulted passages,
sliding off in every direction. The stairs ended in another passage;
the men went down it; it was situated, as nearly as they could judge,
directly beneath the room where they had been confined. Silently the
two figures crept on, literally feeling their way. Shortly they came
to another passage running at right angles; slowly they crept along
the tunnel, for it was nothing more, narrowing until it suddenly ended
in a sort of cave, running at right angles; they crossed this, halting
at the further side to rest and think. Charlie looked anxiously about
him for signs, but saw nothing alarming in the smooth sandy floor, and
irregular contorted sides. The floor was strewn with bowlders like
the bed of a torrent. As they went on, the cavern widened into an
amphitheatre with huge supporting columns. To the right and left of
the cave there were immense bare spaces stretching away into immense
galleries. Here they paused to rest, eating sparingly of the food they
had brought. “Let us rest here,” said Charlie, “I am dead beat.”
“Is it not safer to go on? We cannot be very far from the room where we
were confined.”
“I’ll sit here a few moments, anyhow,” replied Charlie. Jim wandered
aimlessly about the great vault, turning over stones and peering into
crevices.
“What do you expect to find, Jim, the buried treasure?” laughed
Charlie, as he noted the earnestness of the other’s search.
Jim was bending over something--wrenching off a great iron cover.
Suddenly he cried out, “Mr. Vance, here it is!”
Charlie reached his side with a bound. There sat Jim, and in front of
him lay, imbedded in the sand of the cavern’s floor, a huge box, long
and wide and deep, whose rusted hinges could not withstand the stalwart
Negro’s frantic efforts.
With a shuddering sigh the lid was thrust back, falling to one side
with a great groan of almost mortal anguish as it gave up the trust
committed to its care ages before. They both gazed, and as they gazed
were well-nigh blinded. For this is what they saw:--
At first, a blaze of darting rays that sparkled and shot out myriad
scintillations of color--red, violet, orange, green, and deepest
crimson. Then by degrees, they saw that these hues came from a jumbled
heap of gems--some large, some small, but together in value beyond all
dreams of wealth.
Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts, opals, emeralds,
turquoises--lay roughly heaped together, some polished, some
uncut, some as necklaces and chains, others gleaming in rings and
bracelets--wealth beyond the dreams of princes.
Near to the first box lay another, and in it lay gold in bars and gold
in flakes, hidden by the priests of Osiris, that had adorned the crowns
of queens Candace and Semiramis--a spectacle glorious beyond compare.
“The Professor’s parchment told the truth,” cried Charlie, after a few
moments, when he had regained his breath. “But what shall we do with
it, now we have it?” asked Jim in disconsolate tones. “We can’t carry
it with us.”
“True for you, Jim,” replied Vance, sadly. “This wealth is a mockery
now we have it. Jim, we’re left, badly left. Here we’ve been romping
around for almost six months after this very treasure, and now we’ve
got it we can’t hold it. This whole expedition has been like monkeying
with a saw mill, Jim, my boy, and I for one, give in beaten. Left, I
should say so; badly left, when I counted Africa a played-out hole in
the ground. And, Jim, when we get home, if ever we do, the drinks are
on me. Now, old man, stow some of these glittering baubles in your
clothing, as I am going to do, and then we’ll renew our travels.”
He spoke in jest, but the tears were in his eyes, and as he clasped
Jim’s toil-hardened black hand, he told himself that Ai’s words were
true. Where was the color line now? Jim was a brother; the nearness of
their desolation in this uncanny land, left nothing but a feeling of
brotherhood. He felt then the truth of the words, “Of one blood have I
made all races of men.”
As they stooped to replace the cover, Jim’s foot knocked against an
iron ring set in the sandy flooring. “I believe it’s another box, Mr.
Vance,” he called out, and dropping his work, he pulled with all his
might.
“Careful, Jim,” called Charlie’s warning voice. Too late! The ring
disappeared at the second tug, revealing a black pit from which came
the odor of musk. From out the darkness came the sweeping sound of
a great body moving in wavelets over a vast space. Fascinated into
perfect stillness, Vance became aware of pale emerald eyes watching
him, and the sound of deep breathing other than their own. There was
a wild rattle and rush in the darkness, as Jim, moving forward, flung
down his taper and turned to flee.
“The serpents! The serpents! Fly for your life, Jim!” shouted Charlie,
as he dashed away from the opening. Too late! There came a terrible
cry, repeated again and again. Charlie Vance sunk upon the ground,
overcome with horror.