AN APE-LIKE BAND
Johnny spent the remainder of that night in the most curious place he had
yet seen in Haiti--at the mouth of a cave. How far back the cave extended
into the mountain he had no notion. He did know that the night air at
this high altitude was crisp and cool, that his thick bed of mats was
comfortable and the home-woven blankets ample for warmth. This, however,
did not at once induce sleep. The day had been too full of adventure and
fresh revelation for that.
When he realized that their every act at the Citadel had been watched
through the "magic telescope" it gave him a peculiar feeling.
"And yet," he told himself, "we have done nothing but look about. We have
not removed a stone from its place in the ancient walls.
"Well enough that we didn't," he mused. "That little man told me that the
'Rope of Gold' has never been at the Citadel. Wonder how he knows."
The natural answer to this question came to him as something of a shock.
"If a man knows for sure that a thing is not in a certain place and never
has been there, he needs must know where it has been and where it is
now," he told himself. "And if only he would tell me," he added. "But
that, of course, is not to be expected."
There were other problems to be studied out. He had been brought to this
spot for a purpose. What could that purpose be? Were these bronze men
afraid that he and Curlie would chance upon some of the ancient treasure?
Did they propose to break up their search by holding him prisoner? If so,
where did this strange white man come in? To this question he could form
no answer, so still puzzling over it he fell asleep.
* * * * * * * *
As you know, when Curlie Carson, with his heavily laden donkeys, took the
trail in search of Johnny Thompson, he left his laboratory stripped of
all contents. It was well that he did, for only two hours after he left,
a band of blacks, some fifty in number, came scrambling up the trail that
leads to the Citadel. They were led by a black man with a face of such
fierce ugliness as one seldom sees on land or sea.
Arrived at the Citadel, they scattered as if in search of someone. When
two of them came upon Curlie's abandoned laboratory they let out a cry
and at once the entire band swarmed around them.
Finding the place deserted, they wrecked it, tearing up tables and
shelves, even wrenching the door from its hinges.
When one member, keener eyed than the others, discovered Curlie's trail
leading away into the hills, the whole band, like a pack of hounds in
full cry, went yelling and roaring away after the boy and his donkeys.
What a strange and terrible horde they were. Leaning far forward as they
ran they seemed more like a pack of gigantic baboons than men. But woe
unto any human being who might fall into their clutches.
As for Curlie Carson, he plodded doggedly on before his burros, picking
out the trail leading the way, steadily and surely, toward Johnny's cave.
* * * * * * * *
On the day that Curlie left the chateau to go in search of Johnny, Doris
and Dot started on an expedition all their own. With imagination fired by
dreams of the ancient black queen's treasure, still dreaming of seeing
again that monkey with the diamond ring on his wrist, they proposed to
visit the ruins of the black emperor's palace.
"We'll take Mona," Dot said. "Now that the revolution has been brought to
an end there is no danger."
Doris thought of the ugly black foe that Dot and Curlie had seen at the
top of the cliff after the explosion, and experienced a moment of
uneasiness. But so eager was she to begin the search that she was able at
once to cast fears aside.
"It will be a race," she said with a little wild skipping, "a race
between the boys and ourselves to see who first discovers treasure."
"Yes," laughed Dot, "a race that is likely to end with a draw. Everybody
loses." Despite this dire prophecy, they departed in high spirits and ere
twilight came found themselves camping within the shadows of the
impressive stone steps that had once led to a palace of such magnificence
and grandeur as no other black ruler has known.
"To think," Doris told herself as two hours later she lay beneath the
blankets awaiting sleep, "that up those steps in days long gone by one
passed gorgeously attired dukes and earls with their women all aglitter
with jewels. And now here we are, just two girls and one old black woman,
all alone with all the ruined magnificence. Here we are and
to-morrow--Oh, you glorious to-morrow!"
To-morrow they would explore the mysterious pile of brick and stone that
had once been a king's palace.
"Treasure," she whispered. "That magic word treasure. There was treasure
aplenty here in those all but forgotten days. Who knows but it lies
hidden away here still? Who knows--"
Her thoughts broke short off. There had come a faint scratching sound
from the palm fronds above her.
"Blackbird. Some old blackbird," she told herself. She was not quite
satisfied with this. A tropical blackbird, she remembered, was always
talking to himself and fluttering in and out among the branches. The
thing troubled her. It was night and the jungle was new to her. She
thought of snakes. Snakes, she remembered, glided about in trees. She had
seen a picture of a huge one hanging over a limb.
"But everyone says there are no dangerous creatures in the Haitian
jungle, not even snakes," she reassured herself. She settled back in her
place. The rustling for the time had ceased. "Just some bird," she told
herself once more.
Her right hand went to her left wrist. There something gave forth a
jingling sound. Doris was not given to wearing jewelry. Notwithstanding
this, before starting on this trip she had surprised her companions by
putting on her three bracelets and even borrowing two others from Dot.
Dot hadn't asked why she wanted to wear them, but she had wondered about
it. They were on her wrist still.
"Seems sort of foolish," she told herself. "I'm glad I brought them
though, for you really never can tell. They say that monkeys travel far.
And if we found him it really might work. And if--Why! What was that?"
Something had hit her hand.
"It was thrown or dropped," she told herself, now quite genuinely
alarmed. "Who could have done that?"
"Perhaps," she thought as her heart gave a leap, "there are natives about
these ruins." She thought of the black face the others had seen at the
top of the cliff by Deception Bay. With an unsteady hand she drew a
flashlight from her pocket. Having snapped it on, she set its circle of
light searching for the thing that had struck her hand. A half minute of
this, then she gave forth a low chuckle.
"Only some creature shucking a cocoanut up there," she told herself.
The next instant her face was quite serious. "If it were the monkey; if
it only could be the jeweled monkey." Her heart raced.
Directing the ray of light upward she was just in time to catch sight of
a pair of small eyes peering down at her. The next instant they were
gone.
"It _was_ a monkey!" she told herself with a quick intake of breath. "It
was! It was!"
"But then," she told herself more soberly, "there may be many tame
monkeys in the hills who have turned wild. I have heard of three."
For a long time she kept the light playing upon the fronds of the palm,
but all to no purpose. She saw nothing more of the creature who had
showered her with cocoanut shucks. At last, as her rebellious eyelids
grew heavy, she crept up to a place beside her pal and fell asleep. But
even in her sleep she dreamed of palatial halls, soft carpets, gleaming
chandeliers and of diamonds worn by black ladies dressed for state.