No more was said about the gold ore then, but the captain showed himself
deeply interested in the proceedings to further investigate the ruined
city. Briscoe, though, made one remark to Brace the next morning after
a restful night.
"If this isn't the Spaniards' El Dorado," he said, "it's quite good
enough to be, and I'm quite satisfied with our find."
There had been no sign of the Indians, whose dried fish were utilised a
good deal by Dan for the men's breakfast, and in good time a fresh start
was made, this time with the captain one of the party, the intention
being to try and mount to the highest terrace and see if there was any
entrance to the central portion of the rock city from there.
Taught by the previous day's experience, the party--led by Brace and
Lynton, who both displayed in their eagerness plenty of activity--
climbed pretty quickly from terrace to terrace, disturbing plenty of
birds, for the most part a kind of pigeon, which nested freely in the
cell-like openings. Reptiles, too, were abundant, but all ready enough
to make for their holes in the rifts of the rock, the lizards glancing
out of sight in a moment, the snakes slowly and resentfully, as if ready
to strike at the intruders at the slightest provocation, but no one
received hurt.
Upon every terrace the relics left by the old inhabitants were the same:
broken earthenware and the much-worn little hand-mills used for some
kind of grain, all showing that every terrace had been occupied by rows
of narrow dwellings, safe havens that could easily be defended from
attack by an enemy; for, if the lowest terrace had been mastered, the
people had but to block up the chimney-like approach to the next terrace
after fleeing thereto, and defy their foes, whose only chance of gaining
the mastery was by starving out those in possession.
Sir Humphrey pointed this out to the others as they climbed higher and
higher; but he was directly afterwards somewhat nonplussed by a question
put by the captain--one which was unanswerable. It was simply this:
"How do you suppose the besieged people would get on for water?"
The party were nearing the top at last, having, as far as they could
make out, only six more terraces to mount, when, as they paused,
breathless and covered with perspiration and dust, for a few minutes'
rest, they heard a peculiar sound, which came from the direction of the
end of the terrace nearest to the great central part.
"Why, it must be water falling somewhere right in the cliff," cried
Brace; and, forgetting his breathlessness, he hurried along over the
crumbling stones and dust in the direction from which the sound seemed
to come.
"It comes from out of here," said Lynton, who was first to arrive at the
end of the terrace, and he stopped at one of the familiar open doorways
and listened.
There was no mistaking the sound now; it was the hollow echoing noise of
water falling into some reservoir in the interior of the cliff; and,
upon passing in, they found that, instead of this being one of the
ordinary cells, it was the entrance to a wide passage, apparently
leading right into the bowels of the mountain.
"Mind how you go," cried Lynton, as Brace stepped boldly in.
"Hullo! what have you found?" cried Briscoe, who came next to Lynton.
"Water? Why, they must have dug out a great cistern or reservoir in
here, and let in a spring from somewhere above."
"I say, do mind how you go," cried Lynton excitedly. "It's getting dark
there, and you may slip down into some awful well-like hole."
"All right," said Brace confidently. "I'm feeling my way every step
with the butt of my gun, and I can see yet."
"Precious awful-looking place," said Briscoe. "Here, we must have
lights. Stop him, Lynton: he shan't go a step forward. I don't mean
for us all to be drowned like rats in a tank."
"You two wouldn't need to be," said Brace coolly, "for you would stop at
once if you should hear me go down."
"Oh, of course," said Briscoe, with a sneer: "we shouldn't try to save
your life. 'Tisn't likely, is it, Lynton?"
"Not a bit," was the gruff reply; "but I say, Mr Brace, hold hard now.
I'll go back and send a man down below to bring up some pieces of
pine-wood to burn."
"I have stopped," said Brace, whose voice sounded to the rest of the
party hollow and echoing, dying away in the distance like a peculiar
whisper. "There's a great pillar here, and the passage branches off to
right and left."
"Well, let's have lights."
"I don't think we shall want them if we take the passage to the left,
for I can see light shining in through a hole. Yes, and there's another
hole farther on. It's a passage going down at a slope. Why, it's all
steps."
"Steps?" cried Briscoe, as he heard the tap, tap of the steel plate
covering the butt of Brace's gun as he felt his way.
"And so it is away here to the right: steps going down into black
darkness. I know! down to the great tank, into which the water falls
from ever so high up."
"Then you stop, young fellow," cried Briscoe hoarsely, "or you'll be
falling too from ever so high up, and I daresay that's a big stone
cistern half a mile deep, and full of water-snakes and polligoblins."
"Listen," said Brace; "I'm going to feed them. Be quiet, everybody," he
added, for the passage behind was now being filled up, the captain and
Sir Humphrey in front.
"What are you going to do now, sir?" asked Lynton.
"Here's a great mass of stone that seems to have fallen down from the
roof close to my feet. Hold my gun."
He passed his piece to the mate, who could faintly make out the
speaker's shape by the feeble light which came from beyond him to the
left.
"Heavy," panted Brace, "Hah!"
He raised the stone right above his head and heaved it from him, the
expiration of his breath being plainly heard by the listeners in the
painful silence which followed for a couple of seconds. Then there were
sparks emitted from somewhere below, where the stone struck with a crash
and bounded off into space.
The crash was echoed, and seemed to reverberate round and round some
great vault, and then came directly after a dull, solemn, weird-sounding
_plosh_! evidently not many feet below where they were standing.
After this, there were peculiar whisperings and sounds, as if numbers of
disturbed occupants of the water were beating and lapping at the walls
of the place: then silence once more.
"Be careful, Brace!" cried Sir Humphrey.
"It's all right," said Brace coolly. "There: I've left that place. All
of you bear off to the left and follow me down these steps. Hurrah! I
believe we've found the way to the great temple at last."
"It's all right, sir," cried Briscoe, who had passed Lynton. "I can see
plainly now. There's a narrow flight of steps leading down close to the
face of the cliff, and it's lit every few yards by big square holes,
only they're most of them grown over and choked by creepers."
"Hi! Look out there, everyone," shouted Brace. "Lie down."
For all at once there arose a peculiar rushing sound, and as everyone
crouched as low as he could, he was conscious of the whistling of wings
in rapid flight and the ammoniacal odour of a great stream of birds
passing over them to reach the outlet from the passage into the open
air.
"It's all right, lads," shouted Briscoe. "It's only a flock of
oil-birds that we have disturbed. Yes, I thought so: some of them have
helped to block up these window places with their nests. I can feel
several here."
The birds were some minutes before they had all passed through the
opening, and then the tramp downwards was resumed, with the result that
before long the light grew stronger from below, and at last quite
bright, for a peculiar rustling was heard, which resolved itself into
the acts of Brace, who had reached a level spot and was now busy with
his large sheath-knife hacking away at a dense mass of creeper not
unlike ivy.
A few minutes later, and he was out upon an overgrown terrace gazing
over a much-corroded carved parapet at the sparkling river below; and he
uttered a loud cheer and stood waving his hat to the men far down to his
left, two of whom were seated in the larger boat.
The top terrace of the great temple-like place had been reached, and
after a few words of congratulation upon their success the examination
of the strange edifice began.
They were a good deal checked at first by the growth of ages and stones
which had crumbled down; but they were not long making out that the
construction of the place was upon the same plan as that put in practice
over the openings to right and left; though the cells were much smaller,
and suggested that they had been intended for occupation by one or at
most two people. There were no traces of domestic implements to be
found, and nothing but the dust of the crumbling stones and the nests of
birds with which the openings of the cells were choked met the
searchers' eyes.
The investigation of this portion of the cliff city was, of course, made
in the reverse way, terrace after terrace being explored by the
adventurers descending; but the L-shaped shafts were far larger and more
commodious, and, instead of holes being made for the feet,
carefully-made steps had been cut out of the solid stone.
Feeling assured that if any interesting traces of the old dwellers were
to be found they would in all probability be here, Sir Humphrey and his
brother headed the search, and one by one every cell was entered and
each terrace explored, till, as they looked over the front, they made
out that only three more terraces remained, one of which was that below
which the great wall of rock went sheer down to the river at the spot
where they had cast the line to find bottom.
The party paused now for a few minutes' rest and conversation before
descending to these last three terraces.
"It is a wonderful place," said Brace thoughtfully, "and the old people
who cut out these cells and did all that carving must have been clever
enough for anything. Look at the shaping of this curious-looking
monster."
"I admire the way they protected themselves and prepared for a siege as
much as anything," said Briscoe. "The manner in which they contrived
the water supply is to my mind grand. We must have torches one of these
days, and examine that tank, and get up to the top and find out how the
spring is led in."
"But it seems strange that there are no more remains left about. They
did not possess anything apparently but a few earthen pots and the stone
mills," said Brace.
"People didn't furnish much in early times," said Briscoe, laughing. "A
man provided himself with a knife, a bow and arrow, or a spear, and a
place to lay his head in, and no doubt thought he was rich. He didn't
want a van when he was going to move to a fresh residence."
"But these people must have been highly civilised to ornament this
temple, or palace, or whatever it was, so grandly."
"Well, let's make our way to the bottom," said Briscoe; "we may find
something more interesting yet. Ready, Sir Humphrey?"
"Yes: forward," was the reply.
"He means downward," said Briscoe, laughing, and, the regular shaft
being found, they descended to the next terrace and began to explore.