Earle, for, to start with, neither of them had slept at all during the
previous night, their minds having been in a state of extreme tension
with regard to the events of the coming hours; and when at length the
suspense was over and they knew that they had escaped a terrible fate by
the bare skin of their teeth, the reaction, combined with the necessity
to preserve during several hours a perfectly calm and unruffled
demeanour in the presence of those about them, had told upon both rather
severely, and especially upon Earle, upon whose cleverness and readiness
of resource the safety of the entire party depended. Therefore it was
with a sense of profound relief that the two friends at length found
themselves alone together and free to throw off the strain to which they
had been obliged to subject themselves all day.
It was well past midnight when the king's banquet having come to an end,
the two white men were conducted with much deference and ceremony to an
apartment in the king's house, in which, to their great delight, they
found the whole of their belongings, including their two camp beds,
which some thoughtful individual--who afterwards proved to have been
Peter--had fixed up and prepared for their occupation. They lost no
time in discarding their clothing and flinging themselves upon their
pallets, for both were feeling utterly exhausted; but before
surrendering themselves to sleep they exchanged a few remarks relative
to the events of the past day.
"Yes," agreed Earle, in response to an observation of Dick's, "we have
had an exceedingly narrow escape, Dick, and don't you forget it, a more
narrow escape, indeed, than you probably realise. For example, do you
know the name of this tribe of Indians?"
"Certainly," answered Dick. "I heard the king call the idol, this
morning, `Anamac, god of the Mangeromas,' so I suppose these johnnies
are the Mangeromas."
"Correct, my son; they are," returned Earle. "Remember ever hearing
anything about the Mangeromas?"
"Of course," returned Dick. "They are the tribe with the bad name that
those Catu Indians told us about, and whom we have been looking for ever
since, because they are supposed to know something of the whereabouts of
the city of Manoa. Isn't that it?"
"That is it, Dick," assented Earle. "And you knew it? Well, you were
so cool, so apparently unconcerned, during the whole time that our fate
was hanging in the balance, that I thought you had missed the point of
the king's remark."
"Not much," retorted Dick. "But why shouldn't I keep cool? What would
have been the use of getting excited and anxious? That would only have
given our show away and spoiled everything. But, although I may not
have shown it, I don't mind admitting now, old chap, that I _was_ most
confoundedly anxious. For I knew that if your ventriloquial trick had
been discovered, it would have been all up with us."
"You bet it would," agreed Earle. "And that was just where our narrow
escape came in; for I was so nervous that, when the critical moment
came, it was only by an almost superhuman effort that I was able to
control my voice. However, here we are, still alive and well, thank
God! And--Dick--after all, I'm glad that you are with me. A chap with
a nerve like yours is worth a whole regiment of soldiers. Good-night!"
The two white men slept the sleep of exhaustion that night, to awake
refreshed and re-invigorated on the following morning, with scarcely a
trace remaining of the stress and strain through which they had passed
on the preceding day. Inaguy and Peter presented themselves at daylight
with the accustomed morning cup of chocolate; and the former, who was by
this time well acquainted with his master's habits, mentioned that he
had learned by inquiry, that there was a stream just outside the town in
which the white lords might safely venture to bathe. Whereupon the pair
sallied forth and enjoyed the now rare luxury of a swim, receiving, as
they went and returned, the respectful salutations of the populace.
Upon their return they found an excellent breakfast awaiting them,
prepared by the indefatigable Peter from viands supplied by the king's
especial order.
Earle announced his intention of accepting the king's proffered
hospitality and remaining several days in Yacoahite, not only to afford
his men time to recover from the hardships and sufferings which they had
experienced while filling the _role_ of prisoners doomed to the
sacrifice, but also to enable him to prosecute the inquiries which he
wished to make regarding the whereabouts of the city of Manoa. And he
was not less anxious to stay than the king was to entertain him and get
the benefit of his advice and guidance upon several burning questions
which had of late been causing him uneasiness. For now that the great
god Anamac had made it clear that the white strangers enjoyed his
especial favour and protection, and were therefore not to be molested,
but, on the contrary, were to be treated with the utmost honour and
distinction, the astute Jiravai immediately arrived at the conclusion
that they must certainly be something more than mere ordinary men--as
witness the marvels which Earle had performed during the progress of the
feast--and that consequently their advice and assistance must be of more
than ordinary value, and well worth securing. Therefore the king took
Earle and Dick unreservedly into his confidence and, with the help of
Inaguy as interpreter, fully laid before the pair a number of
exceedingly delicate and difficult problems which were just then
confronting him. And Earle, being a born diplomatist, entered into the
thing with keen zest, taking the problems one by one and asking question
after question until, as he put it, he had fairly "got the hang of the
thing," when, by a judicious admixture of his own diplomatic instinct
with Dick's shrewd common sense, it became not very difficult to find
solutions of the several problems, which not only effected a general
clearing of the air, but also ultimately added considerable lustre to
Jiravai's name as that of a wise and powerful monarch.
The settlement of these matters of high and intricate policy took time;
so that it was not until some ten days after the festival of Anamac that
Earle was able to introduce to the king's notice the subject of Manoa,
to ask what his majesty knew about it and its precise situation, and to
request his assistance to enable the expedition to find the place.
But no sooner was Earle's project mentioned than Jiravai began to throw
cold water upon it. First of all, he denied all knowledge whatsoever of
any city named Manoa; and when Earle met this denial with the admission
that there might possibly be some mistake in the matter of the name,
explaining that it was not this that was of importance, but the fact
that there was a city distinguished by certain curious and remarkable
characteristics that he was anxious to find and visit, the king, while
reluctantly admitting that he had certainly heard of such a city, most
earnestly besought Earle at once and for ever to abandon his intention
of visiting the place, since rumour had it that the inhabitants so
strongly objected to the intrusion of strangers among them that, of the
few who had been known to force a way in, not one had ever been known to
come out again. Jiravai asserted that he knew nothing whatever about
the city, beyond the above-named peculiarity, and the fact that its
actual name was Ulua--bluntly adding that he desired to know no more--
and he greatly doubted whether there was any Mangeroma now living who
possessed more information on the subject than himself; yet, if the
white lords very particularly desired it, he would cause immediate
inquiries to be made. To which statement Earle replied that the white
lords desired the information in question more than anything else,
except to find themselves within the walls of Ulua itself; and that the
king could not more conclusively demonstrate his friendship than by
causing the most exhaustive inquiries to be made forthwith. And there
the matter rested for nearly a fortnight, during which Earle and Dick
wandered about the district together, shooting, but finding very little
game; for they soon discovered that the Mangeroma country was pretty
thickly inhabited, and that, between hunting and the clearing of the
land for cultivation, the game had been nearly all driven away or
exterminated.
At length, however, in response to the inquiries which the king caused
to be made, an old man was found who asserted that, many years ago, when
he was but a lad, he had been lost while engaged in a hunting
expedition, and in his wanderings had actually seen, from the summit of
a high hill, a great city of palaces, which he believed could be none
other than the legendary city of Ulua, but that he had made no attempt
to approach it, being afraid that, if he did so, he would fall into the
hands of the inhabitants, and never more see his kith and kin. Asked
whether he believed it possible, after all those years, to find his way
back to the spot from which he had beheld the city, he replied in the
affirmative, provided that he could be carried thither and back again,
but not otherwise, the way being altogether too long and rough for his
old limbs to traverse unaided. Arrangements were accordingly made for
the construction of a litter for the accommodation of the old man, and
on a certain morning the expedition set out from Yacoahite, the party
now consisting of thirty men all told, including the old man, Busa, who
was to serve as guide, his eight bearers, and ten additional bearers to
assist in the transport of the white men's baggage.
As Busa had warned them, the way proved both long and difficult, leading
as it did up and down wild ravines, along the dry and stony beds of
mountain torrents, through rough and narrow passes, and by the edge of
dizzy precipices where a single false step would have meant a fall of
hundreds of feet through space; but after ten days of arduous travel the
journey was accomplished without accident, and without any very
startling adventure, the party arriving, late in a certain afternoon at
a "divide," from which they looked down upon a vast basin containing a
lake some thirty miles long by twenty broad, on the northern shore of
which stood a city which Busa had not misrepresented when he spoke of it
as a city of palaces. For a city it certainly was, covering an area of
ground about four miles long by three broad, and many of its buildings
seemed palatial, if one might judge by their lofty white walls and
glittering roofs, shining like gold in the rays of the declining sun.
Of course, it was not possible to judge very accurately the character of
the buildings, or to see much detail, for the city was some twenty miles
distant from the spot to which Busa had conducted the party, while the
rarefaction of the atmosphere rendered even the field-glasses of little
use. But that the city was actually there before their eyes was
indisputable, and it was a city consisting not of a mere agglomeration
of mud huts with thatched roofs, but of stately buildings of solid
masonry, possessing such architectural adornments as towers, pinnacles,
and domes, evidencing on the part of the inhabitants a condition of high
civilisation and refinement.
From his knapsack Earle produced a folded map of the northern portion of
South America which he opened and spread out on a rock. It was the most
modern and up-to-date map that he had been able to procure, and it was
drawn to a scale large enough to show not only every town of any
importance but also innumerable villages, some of them so small that, as
the party had themselves proved, they contained less than a hundred
inhabitants. Yet on the part of the map upon which Earle now placed his
finger, and for hundreds of miles in every direction therefrom, there
was no indication of town or village, and only a mere suggestion of the
mountain range through which they had lately been travelling, while even
the courses of rivers were merely indicated by dotted lines; in short,
the party were now, and had been for several weeks, in a region which
had not been explored. But by means of astronomical observations made
and worked out by Dick, the track of the party had each day been plotted
upon the map, and such details as the forests they had passed through,
the rivers they had crossed, the Indian villages they had met with, the
great swamp, and the mountain ranges, had all been carefully plotted.
"Now," remarked Earle, pointing to a pencil mark on the map, "that is
where we were at noon to-day, and we are somewhere about here now.
There is no indication of a town or village of any sort anywhere near,
yet just about there"--laying his finger on another point of the
map--"stands yonder city on the shore of a lake, in a great basin
surrounded on all sides by mountains, of the existence of which this map
affords no indication. What do I deduce from that? you will ask. I
will tell you, Dick. I deduce from it that yonder city is the one
which, though our friend Jiravai says it is named Ulua, has been spoken
of ever since the Spanish conquest, and diligently sought, as the city
of Manoa; and to us has fallen the honour and glory of having actually
found it! Just think of the wonder of it, Dick. For over three and a
half centuries the legend of the existence of that city has persisted,
yet there is no absolutely authentic account of it having ever been
reached, although hundreds, possibly thousands--if one could but know
the whole truth--have most diligently and painfully sought it. And at
last its discovery falls to the lot of two very undistinguished people,
an Englishman and an American, as is quite in accordance with the
fitness of things. Now let us make use of our remaining daylight to get
down to a lower level, for, with the setting of the sun, it will be
bitterly cold up here, and I have no fancy for spending the night in a
temperature that will probably fall below freezing point."
So saying, Earle folded up his map and, replacing it in his knapsack,
gave the word for the party to proceed, Dick and himself taking the
lead. Picking their way among towering rocks and along narrow ledges,
they travelled a distance of some three miles and effected a descent of
about two thousand feet before night overtook them, finally pitching
their camp on a little rocky plateau under the lee of an enormous
vertical cliff, which effectually sheltered them from the icy wind which
sprang up and roared overhead with the force of a gale almost
immediately after sunset.
Notwithstanding the shelter afforded by the cliff, however, the cold was
intense, and the party, acclimatised by this time to the hot, humid
atmosphere of the plains, suffered severely, the more so that they were
camped among bare rocks without a vestige of vegetation of any kind, and
were therefore without the materials for a fire; the return of daylight
therefore found them more than ready to resume the march, in the hope
that before long they would reach a region where fuel of some sort would
allow them to kindle a fire and prepare a much-needed hot breakfast.
They reached such a spot after about an hour's march, camping in the
shelter of a small clump of stunted pines; and here, after breakfast,
Busa approached the two white men with the request that, having
performed his task of guiding the party to a spot from which the "city
of palaces," could be seen, he and his bearers might now be permitted to
set out upon the return journey, he and they being anxious to recross
the divide during the hours of daylight, and so escape the bitter cold
from which they had suffered so severely during the preceding night.
The request seemed a reasonable one, for the old man's services were no
longer needed; Earle therefore liberally rewarded the old fellow and his
eight bearers, and dismissed them with a message of greeting and thanks
to the king.
The two parties broke camp simultaneously, Busa and his bearers taking
the back trail up the path which they had all descended an hour earlier,
while the others, under Earle's leadership, proceeded down the mountain
side at their best speed, being impatient to reach the fertile,
cultivated country bordering the lake below.
But the task was not by any means so easy as it had first appeared, for
they had scarcely gone a mile when they unexpectedly found themselves at
the verge of a long line of precipitous cliffs overlooking the great
basin in which lay the lake and the city. It was by no means a pleasant
situation in which they found themselves, for they were standing upon a
steep slope, clad with short, dry grass, almost as slippery as ice to
walk upon, and this steep slope ended abruptly in a precipice which
Earle, going down upon his stomach and peering cautiously over the edge,
declared could be not less than six or seven thousand feet high. So
terrible was the shock it gave him to find himself overhanging and
gazing down into that dizzy void, that it induced a violent attack of
vertigo, causing him to scream out that he was falling, and to beg those
who were holding him to pull him back. They, of course, did so at once;
but several minutes elapsed before the adventurous gazer sufficiently
recovered his nerve to stand, and when he did so he was bathed in a cold
perspiration, while his teeth chattered to such an extent that it was
some time before he could distinctly articulate.
"Never had such a fearful shock in my life," he afterwards explained to
Dick. "Of course, I knew that the valley was an enormous depth below
us, but when I undertook to peer over the edge of the cliff I did not
for a moment anticipate that I was going to find myself hanging over a
sheer void, thousands of feet deep. I expected to find below me a
precipitous cliff seamed and scarred with innumerable irregularities and
projections, by means of which an ordinarily active man might easily
make his way down; but, man alive, this precipice is sheer, from top to
bottom like the wall of a house, without a single projection, so far as
I could see, big enough for a fly to settle upon. It was awful to find
myself lying there, with my heels higher than my head, gazing down into
that dizzy hollow, at the bottom of which tall trees looked no higher
than pins, and to feel that if I dared to move a muscle I should
inevitably go sliding over, head first!"
"Ay," assented Dick. "I think I know the kind of feeling. I
experienced something very like it myself the first time I climbed to
the height of the royal yard. The hull of the ship below me looked so
small, and so utterly inadequate to sustain the substantial spars about
me, that, quite unconsciously, I found myself moving with the utmost
precaution, lest my additional weight should capsize the ship."
"Yes," assented Earle. "I guess that was something like what I felt,
except that, in my case, I was convinced I should never be able to get
back to safety. Nevertheless, here I am, safe and sound. And now the
question arises: How are we going to get down into that valley? So far
as I can see the cliffs are everywhere vertical, like this one; yet
there must be a way down somewhere; else how did the inhabitants of the
city get there?"
"Oh yes, of course there is a way down, somewhere," agreed Dick. "We'd
better camp, hadn't we, and pursue our usual tactics, you going one way,
and I the other, exploring?"
"Yes," assented Earle. "But we won't camp just here, thank you. I
should be afraid that some of us would go sliding over that cliff edge
before we knew it. We will go along yonder, to the eastward, a bit.
The ground looks less steep in that direction, and probably we shall
find a suitable camping place before long."
They did, about a mile and a half to the eastward; and the camp having
been pitched, Earle accompanied by Inaguy, set off in one direction,
while Dick, accompanied by another Indian, named Moquit, went in the
other, in search of a practicable route down to the plain and the shore
of the lake, the two white men taking their rifles, as usual, and each
carrying a pair of powerful binoculars slung over his shoulder.
The way taken by Dick led him back along the edge of the cliff by the
route which they had traversed shortly before; and having reached the
spot where Earle had taken his thrilling peep down into the abyss, the
young man continued on, eventually entering a fir wood, through which he
passed, bagging two brace of a species of pheasant as he went. Emerging
from the wood, which was about a mile long, he found himself approaching
a spot where the cliff seemed to dip somewhat, and halting for a moment
to reconnoitre the prospect through his field-glasses, he became aware
of the fact that work in the valley had begun for the day; for he
observed smoke issuing from the chimneys of a number of detached
buildings which he took to be farmhouses; while, studying the scene more
intently, he was presently able to pick out the forms of numerous people
apparently engaged in tilling the wide fields and at work in the
orchards--as he took them to be--dotted here and there in the valley far
below. Farther away, he perceived a number of small dots on the bosom
of the lake, carefully watching which he at length became convinced that
they were canoes, or some similar kind of craft, crossing the lake, some
heading towards the city and others from it.
Some two hours later, Dick called a halt in a small pine wood, and
ordered Moquit to kindle a fire and prepare a brace of the shot birds
for their mid-day meal; and while this was being done the young
Englishman sauntered off a little way in search of another spot from
which he might advantageously effect a further reconnaissance of the
valley. He found such a spot at no great distance and, unslinging his
glasses, proceeded to search the valley and the face of the neighbouring
cliffs from his new view point. But, look where he would, it everywhere
seemed the same: vertical unscalable precipices of appalling height, and
nowhere anything suggesting the existence of a road by means of which
the valley might be reached.
Yet stay! As he was in the very act of removing the binoculars from his
eyes his keen sight detected what appeared to be an infinitesimally
small moving dot against the bare drab face of the cliff, some two miles
away. Focussing his glasses afresh upon the spot, Dick watched it
steadily for two or three minutes until he became certain that it was
moving. Yes, moving downward along the cliff face toward the valley.
Precisely what it was, he could not determine with any certainty, but he
judged it to be a vehicle of some sort, a slow moving vehicle; and if
so, it was of necessity travelling over a road, and that road, although
it was indistinguishable from where Dick stood, was one of very easy
gradient, judging from the movements of the object upon it. Satisfied
now that he had made an important discovery, the lad carefully noted his
surroundings, noted with equal care a number of objects which would
enable him to fix the position of the road, and closing his glasses,
walked briskly back to his temporary camp, where he found Moquit
anxiously awaiting his return, with the birds cooked to a turn and just
ready for eating.
Hurriedly dispatching his meal, Dick, with Moquit at his heels, resumed
his task of exploration, proceeding first to the spot from which he had
just observed the moving object, and there treating the face of the
cliff to a further close scrutiny. But the object, whatever it may have
been, was no longer to be seen; and, satisfied of this, Dick pressed on.
Two miles farther on, still following the edge of the cliff as closely
as was prudent, he halted, arrested by the sight of what, at the
distance of about half a mile, had the appearance of a structure of some
sort, clinging to the very verge of the cliff; and inspecting it through
his binoculars, he saw that he was right in his surmise. It was a
building, something in the nature of a wall, with what looked like a
closed gateway in its centre. And on the parapet immediately above the
gateway, there was a figure, apparently that of a sentinel, stalking
slowly to and fro!