Adoni and the officer who had acted the part of medical examiner--and
whose name, it transpired, was Camma--and at the end of the conference
they were conducted by the two officers into the presence of Earle and
Dick. It was Adoni who presented them, naming them respectively, Acor--
who subsequently proved to be the captain of King Juda's guard--Tedek
and Kedah, the two latter being lieutenants in Acor's corps. They were
all fine, upstanding men, of distinctly imperious and haughty bearing--
Acor perhaps exhibiting those characteristics most markedly, as was only
natural, considering the exalted position which he occupied at Court,
and the almost autocratic authority which he wielded; nevertheless, at
the sight of Earle's talisman, they suddenly subdued their haughty
demeanour to one of deep reverence, and bowed low before the American,
with their hands crossed upon their breasts, while they murmured a few
words, which sounded like something in the nature of an invocation.
Then they turned to Dick and, with a glance of admiration at his
stalwart frame, bowed again, though with somewhat less of deference than
they had manifested toward Earle. As for Earle, he did his best to act
up to the distinguished position into which Fate seemed to have
pitch-forked him, returning the bows of the officers with a slight
inclination of the head and a still slighter flexure of the body, while
he gazed upon them with a kind of bland abstraction; Dick imitating his
friend's deportment as closely as possible, though there was a gleam of
frankness and friendliness in his eyes which Earle had not permitted to
appear in his.
Notwithstanding a certain suggestion of reserve in the demeanour of the
new arrivals, they could not altogether conceal the astonishment they
evidently felt at the style and cut of the white men's clothes--by this
time very much the worse for wear and travel stains--which afforded so
marked a contrast to their own splendid habiliments. The three officers
were attired alike in helmets, corselets, greaves, and gauntlets of gold
plate worn over a shirt of fine chain mail, also made of gold, and were
armed with short swords, encased in golden scabbards suspended from
belts consisting of gold plaques linked together. But there were
certain differences in the uniform of the three; for whereas the plumes
which adorned the helmets of the two lieutenants were black, those of
their chief were red; and whereas their helmets were perfectly plain,
Acor's was richly decorated with embossed ornamentation. Also the arms
of the two lieutenants were bare from corselet to gauntlet, while Acor's
were clad in sleeves of thin red silk. The lieutenants' sashes were
black and yellow; that of the captain red; they wore buskins of white
leather, while his feet and legs were encased in golden armour to just
below the knee; and lastly, his sword hilt, belt and scabbard were much
more richly ornamented than theirs.
The introduction having been effected, Acor addressed himself at some
length and with much gesture to Earle. Precisely what he said was of
course unintelligible to the white men; but they gathered some hint of
meaning from his gestures, which they interpreted--rightly, as
afterwards transpired--as a sort of qualified welcome to Ulua, founded
entirely upon Earle's possession of the mysterious amulet. Acor
concluded his address by beckoning forward his two lieutenants and
directing the attention of the white men to the contents of the bundles,
which, when unrolled, proved to be two dresses made of an exceedingly
fine, silky sort of woollen material. The dresses consisted of a sort
of singlet without sleeves, a pair of short pants somewhat like those
worn by football players, and an outer garment, cut somewhat like a
shirt, but rather longer, the hem reaching to just below the knee. This
garment, made quite loose, was confined at the waist by a belt. The
costumes were completed by the addition of sandals and a kind of turban.
But the two costumes, although similar in cut, were different in
appearance; for while that which was offered for Earle's acceptance was
decorated with turquoise blue braid sewn round the edges of the outer
garment in a broad pattern very similar to the Greek "key" pattern, with
an edging of bead fringe of the same colour, the ornamentation of the
costume offered to Dick consisted of an elaborate pattern beautifully
worked in red braid, with a fringe of red beads. The turbans, too, were
somewhat different in shape, Earle's being considerably the higher of
the two, intertwined with a rope of large blue beads, while Dick's was
perfectly plain. Recognising that Acor was inviting them to accept
these garments and don them, the two white men bowed their assent and
took the garments, whereupon Acor and his lieutenants retired, leaving
Earle and Dick to themselves. Truth to tell, the presented garments
were most acceptable gifts, for not only were the clothes which the
explorers were wearing grimy and tattered, but, having been originally
designed for hard service, they were also unpleasantly heavy and hot, so
that their owners were only too glad to discard them in favour of others
much more suited to the climate, and the pair lost no time in effecting
the change.
They had scarcely done so when the sound of horses' hoofs approaching up
the road attracted their attention, and going to the window, they
perceived a dozen horsemen, with two led horses, galloping toward the
guard house. A few minutes later, these having arrived, Acor presented
himself, and by signs invited the two white men to follow him. This
they did, passing out of the guard house just as three servants led
forth the horses of Acor and his two lieutenants, which meanwhile had
been groomed and fed. Then, as the two white men stepped forth into the
open, each of the newly-arrived horsemen flung up his right hand in
salute and shouted a word that sounded remarkably like "Hail!" The two
led horses were then brought forward, and with a gesture of deference,
Acor invited his two guests--or were they prisoners?--to mount.
The horses were beautiful animals, full of mettle and fire,
notwithstanding the journey which they had just performed, and they were
most sumptuously caparisoned, the saddles, though differently shaped
from the European or American article, being made of soft leather,
thickly padded, with a handsome saddle cloth beneath, under which again
was a fine net made of thin silk cord, reaching from the animal's
withers to his tail, the edges of the net being fringed with small
tassels.
Earle was of course an accomplished horseman, riding indeed like a
cowboy, and therefore, out of a feeling of compassion for his companion,
he chose what appeared to be the most mettlesome of the two proffered
horses; but Dick, although a sailor, had also learned how to keep his
seat upon a horse's back, and the manner in which the pair lightly swung
themselves up into the saddle, and the easy grace with which they
retained their seats, despite the curvetting and prancing of their
steeds, evoked a low murmur of admiration from the beholders as the
latter formed up round the white men.
Then, just as Adoni and Camma were bidding their strange guests a
respectful farewell, Earle noticed that his Indian followers and all his
goods had disappeared.
"Say!" he exclaimed, seizing Acor by the arm and pointing to the spot
where the Indians had been camped a couple of hours earlier--"where are
my Indians? Surely, you haven't turned them out, have you?"
The tone of voice in which the question was put and the gesture which
accompanied it were evidently quite intelligible, for Acor instantly
replied in deferential tones, at the same time pointing down the road;
and, sure enough, after the cavalcade had proceeded about two miles,
Inaguy and his companions were overtaken, trudging cheerfully along
under the escort of a man who both Dick and Earle remembered having seen
about the guard house earlier in the day.
The two friends, with their escort, reached the foot of the cliff road,
after a ride of some six miles, shortly after the sun had disappeared
behind the mountains at the western end of the valley. They were now in
the valley itself, with mountains hemming them in on every hand; and as
they gazed upward in wonder at the high, vertical cliffs all round them,
they realised at last that they were inside an absolutely impregnable
fortress, hewn out of the mountain range by the hand of Nature herself,
and accessible only by air, or by the road which they had just
traversed. After a thoroughly comprehensive survey of their
surroundings, Earle explained to Dick that the only theory upon which he
could account for so extraordinary a formation was, that thousands, or
possibly even millions, of years ago the valley had been the crater of a
gigantic volcano which, after the volcano had become extinct, had
gradually filled with debris, leaving a depression in the middle, which
in process of time, had become a lake. And, indeed, if the theory of a
volcano upon so gigantic a scale could but be accepted, it looked very
much as though Earle's explanation might be correct; for the soil of the
valley--a belt of flat land some two miles wide, extending all round the
lake--was light and friable, but extraordinarily rich, as is apt to be
the case with volcanic soil, while the vertical cliffs which hemmed it
in all round bore a striking resemblance to the interior of certain
well-known craters.
Just clear of the foot of the cliff road the party came upon an
encampment, easily recognisable as that of the body of soldiers seen
advancing from the city earlier in the day; and here the night was
spent, the two white men being housed in a capacious tent, most
luxuriously furnished and adorned, in which, shortly after their
arrival, a meal of so elaborate a description, that it might almost be
termed a banquet, was served to them by a staff of reverentially
obsequious servants, and in which they subsequently slept the sleep of
the just, on great piles of soft rugs spread upon the short grass.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
THEIR FIRST DAY IN ULUA.
With the rising of the sun on the following morning, the camp became a
scene of bustling activity, the soldiers grooming, feeding, and watering
their horses, while a little army of servitors bestirred themselves in
the kindling of fires and the preparation of a meal, prior, as the two
white men surmised, to a start for the city.
Whatever might be the climatic conditions in the valley later on in the
day, the early morning air was fresh, cool, and fragrant, with the
mingled odours of rich pastures, luxuriant cornfields, orchards, and
gardens, brilliant with many-hued flowers.
As Earle and Dick emerged from their tent, fresh and buoyant after a
sound night's sleep, the troopers, very lightly clad, were mounting
their horses, bare-backed, with the evident intention of taking the
animals down to the lake; and the idea occurred to Dick and Earle
simultaneously, that there was nothing in the world they so ardently
desired at that moment as a dip in the lake, which, gently ruffled by
the lightest and most balmy of zephyrs, lay shimmering invitingly in the
sunshine some two miles away. With one accord, therefore, they advanced
toward where the horsemen, now mounted, awaited the word of command to
march. Most of the troopers had only their own individual horses to
look after, but there were some twenty or so who were each also in
charge of a led horse, and walking up to a couple of these, the two
white men took from the somewhat surprised but submissive soldiers a
horse apiece, and vaulting upon the animals' bare backs, lined up
alongside the officer in command, who received them with a respectful
salute. Half an hour later, Dick and Earle were sporting in the lake
like a couple of mermen, to the amazement and admiration of the Uluans,
not one of whom appeared to possess the most elementary knowledge of
swimming. The temperature of the water was just right to render a swim
both invigorating and enjoyable, and when at length the two friends
returned to camp, they were in excellent form to do justice to the
breakfast which they found awaiting them.
The journey from the foot of the cliff road where the camp had been
pitched, round the south-eastern extremity of the lake and so to the
city, was taken at an easy pace, to spare the cattle which drew the camp
carts, in which room had been found for Earle's impedimenta as well as
for a few of the Indians, while those not so accommodated made no
difficulty of running or walking beside the carts. The journey was
devoid of incident, but the ride was an exceedingly pleasant one, since
the road wound its way for the whole distance through fields and
orchards, the flourishing condition of which bore eloquent testimony to
the richness of the soil and the agricultural skill of the inhabitants.
Here and there farms were passed which were devoted to the raising of
horses, cattle, sheep, and goats, and the splendid condition of the
animals was a source of constant admiration to the two white men.
The city was reached about noon, but long before then the strangers had
begun to realise the splendour and magnificence of it. A peculiarity of
it was that it had no suburbs, the farm lands coming right up to the
gardens of the outermost houses of the city, which clustered as thickly
on its outskirts as in its heart. A further peculiarity was that there
were no rows of houses; each was completely detached and stood in its
own grounds, the only difference being that some of the buildings were
larger, more ornate, and had more extensive gardens than others. The
buildings, though by no means overloaded with ornament, were exceedingly
handsome in a quiet, chaste style, which Earle said reminded him very
forcibly of certain Pompeiian houses; much of the ornamentation
consisting of painted designs upon the white walls. All the houses
appeared to be flat-roofed, and many of them had gardens on the roofs,
the shrubs and trees showing over the low parapets. Others were covered
with gay awnings, beneath which some of the occupants could be seen
taking their ease in hammocks. The Uluans appeared to be passionately
fond of flowers, the gardens being full of them, while their condition
evidenced the care with which they were tended. Fountains, too,
abounded, some of those adorning the public squares being of very
curious and elaborate design. The streets were very wide, few being
less than a hundred feet in width, while some were considerably wider,
with narrow strips of garden running down the centre, full of the most
exquisite flowers interspersed with umbrageous trees. Trees also
overshadowed the rather narrow sidewalks.
Ulua, however, was by no means a city devoted exclusively to luxury.
There was evidently a considerable amount of business done there also,
for some of the streets were occupied entirely by shops, though who,
except the inhabitants, patronised them, was a question, since all the
indications pointed to the fact that there was no trade done with the
outside world. The commodities exposed for sale seemed to consist
mainly of fruit, vegetables, flowers, confectionery, what looked like
bread in various fanciful shapes, embroideries, jewellery, silks, soft
woollen materials, paintings, lamps and lanterns, harness, and other
goods too numerous to mention.
What surprised the visitors most of all, perhaps, in this wonderful city
was the extraordinarily lavish use made of gold; to them it appeared
that everything that could possibly be made of gold was of that metal;
and it was not until some time afterwards that they learned that gold
was the most common of the metals with the Uluans, who valued it only
because of its untarnishability and beauty of colour.
The wider thoroughfares, squares, and the spacious public gardens
through which the cavalcade passed contained a fair number of people,
although the visitors discovered, later on, that this was the hour when
most of the inhabitants who were not called abroad by business preferred
to remain in the seclusion of their own houses and gardens, this being
the hottest hour of the day. Naturally, Earle and Dick regarded with
some curiosity the people who paused to regard them as they passed, and
they came to the conclusion that, on the whole, the Uluans were a
distinctly attractive-looking people, the women especially reminding
Earle of the Italians, not only as regarded the regularity of their
features, but also in the grace of their form and carriage.
At length the cavalcade came to a halt in a spacious and beautiful
square, situated, as the visitors judged, in about the centre of the
city. One side of this square was entirely occupied by an enormous,
lofty, and handsome building, the central portion of which was
surmounted by an immense dome, covered with plates of gold, arranged in
tiers or bands of different shapes among which that of the lozenge was
the most conspicuous, while each corner of the building was crowned with
a smaller dome, similarly covered and ornamented. Each of the five
domes bore on its summit, as a sort of finial, the figure of a winged
serpent, half of its body being arranged in a coil, while the other
half, with outstretched wings, was upreared in a graceful curve. A
similar figure crowned a large and beautiful fountain which occupied the
centre of the square, and it was noticeable that every individual who
passed this figure halted and bowed profoundly to it, from which the two
white men inferred that the winged serpent was a sacred symbol,
evidently held in the highest veneration. This surmise ultimately
proved to be correct, the winged serpent being the figure of the Uluan
god Kuhlacan, who was believed to dwell at the bottom of the lake, in
its centre, and at whose annual festival sacrifices of jewels of immense
value were made by casting them with much ceremony into the lake, from
richly decorated boats. The building with the five golden domes was, of
course, the temple, sacred to Kuhlacan, in which the god was daily
worshipped. Earle, whose aesthetic sense was stirred by the beauty of
the fountain and the wonderful workmanship of the figure surmounting it,
directed Dick's particular attention to it and descanted at some length
upon the taste of the design; and Dick, while listening to his
companion, could not fail to observe that Acor, the officer in charge of
the escort, as well as the members of the escort, and indeed all who
were gathered in the square at the moment, regarded Earle intently, with
an expression of mingled wonder and satisfaction. Acor waited
respectfully while Earle was speaking and, when the latter had finished,
gave the order to dismount.
At a signal from one of the officers, two troopers advanced and took
charge of the horses which Earle and Dick had been riding, and then
Acor, bowing respectfully to the pair, invited them by word and gesture
to follow him into a building on the opposite side of the square from
the temple.
This building, which, like the temple, occupied an entire side of the
square, was much more elaborate, from an architectural point of view
than the sacred edifice, the design of which was chaste, majestic, and
rather severe, while its _vis-a-vis_--which proved to be the royal
palace--was ornate and decorative in effect. It consisted of an immense
block of buildings, arranged in the form of a hollow square enclosing a
magnificent garden, adorned with many beautiful fountains and statues,
access to which was gained through a wide and lofty archway closed by a
pair of immense and beautiful gates, modelled apparently in bronze, the
archway and gates being so treated as to form a distinctive feature in
the general design of the building.
As Acor and his two companions approached the archway the great gates
swung open, actuated by some unseen agency, and the trio passed through,
saluted, as they went, by the two impassive sentries who stood on guard.
Wheeling sharply round to the left as soon as they had passed through
the archway, Acor conducted his charges along a wide pathway paved with
slabs of variegated marble, until they reached a lofty doorway, entering
which, Earle and Dick found themselves in a spacious lofty hall, the
temperature of which was delightfully cool compared with the blazing
sunshine outside. They appeared to be expected, for upon their
entrance, a little group of men, whose rich attire seemed to proclaim
them palace officials, came forward and bowing low, were introduced by
Acor, who simply pointed to each man and pronounced his name. This
done, the captain of the guard gravely and respectfully saluted his
charges and retired, leaving them in the hands of the little group of
supposed officials.
One of these, an elderly man of very dignified mien and presence, whom
Acor had named Bahrim, and who afterward turned out to be the major-domo
of the palace, at once stepped forward and with a low bow, signed the
two white men to follow him. He led the way to one side of the hall,
where a noble staircase of elaborately sculptured marble swept upward to
a wide gallery running round three of the walls, and ascending this,
Earle and Dick were presently inducted into a suite of three lofty and
luxurious rooms, two of which were furnished as sleeping-chambers, while
the third, lighted by two lofty window openings, shaded by sun blinds,
looked out over the garden. The rooms were all most sumptuously
furnished, the furniture, of quaint but graceful design, being made, for
the most part, of rare and beautiful woods, richly carved. In each of
the sleeping-chambers there was a large marble bath, already filled with
water, and on each of the couches was set out a change of apparel.
With a wave of the hand, Bahrim indicated the rooms and their contents
generally, and said a few words, from the tone of which Earle judged him
to be asking whether they were satisfactory; for when Earle carelessly
nodded an affirmative, Bahrim smiled, as though with gratification, and
clapped his hands. This proved to be a summons to two attendants, who
instantly entered and made their obeisances to the white men. These
Bahrim introduced by the simple process of pointing to one and saying,
"Shan," and to the other, saying, "Raba."
"Thanks," said Earle; "that will do nicely." Then, as Bahrim
respectfully bowed himself out, the American turned to his friend and
remarked:
"Say, Dick, how is this for high? Some lodging, this. What? I wonder
how long it is to lunch time? That ride has proved a fine appetiser in
my case. But those baths look good. Guess I'll have a dip now. I
suppose these two guys are to be our servants. Which one will you
have?"
"Oh," answered Dick, "either of them will do for me. They both look
reasonably decent chaps. Take your choice."
"Right!" said Earle. "Then I guess I'll have Shan, because I think his
name is the easiest to remember. Come along, Shan, and help me to get
out of these togs. I'm going to have a bath. See?"
Shan apparently saw, which indeed was not difficult, since Earle pointed
toward the bath as he spoke. The man bowed and turned to help Earle rid
himself of his clothes, while Dick, beckoning to Raba, retired to the
other sleeping-chamber, and a few minutes later was also luxuriating in
the coolness of the bath.
Refreshed by their dip and a delicious luncheon, the two friends were
seated in the deep embrasure of one of the unglazed windows of their
sitting-room, Earle lazily smoking as he and Dick discussed the
advisability of sallying forth, a little later, to learn the geography
of the town, when they were interrupted by the appearance of Bahrim, the
major-domo, accompanied by two other men, whom he introduced
respectively as Zorah and Kedah.
The former was a tall, thin, ascetic-looking man of probably sixty or
sixty-five years of age. He had doubtless been, in his prime, an
exceedingly handsome man, for, even now, his features were well modelled
and clean cut, but his sallow skin was deeply wrinkled about the
forehead, eyes, and the wings of his nostrils--his mouth and chin were
hidden by a thick moustache and long, straggling grey, almost white
beard. A few thin wisps of long white hair escaped from the back part
of the turban which covered his head, and fell to the level of his
shoulders. But perhaps the most striking feature of him after his thin,
hawk-like nose, was his eyes, which were large, black and piercing. He
was attired in a dress which was a replica in every respect of that
which had been provided for Earle, and his carriage, as he entered the
apartment, was assured, haughty, almost arrogant, that of a man of high
and assured position who possessed a profound faith in himself.