IN THE HIDDEN VALE--A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
With crawling, I managed to get myself away from the foot of the cliff a
piece, and I found I was in a space of open ground. And I then began to
think how I was to publish my predicament to my friends on the top of
the cliff, some hundred, or perhaps two hundred feet above. I felt in my
pocket for my flash-lamp, and it gave me much comfort, on pushing the
slide, to discover that it had not been put out of commission by the
fall.
At once I began to send flash after flash up there. Almost directly, I
saw answering flashes aloft. And then I spelled out, in code, a brief
story of my adventure; and I asked that they throw me some grub, and
then to stay away till the next night, when they were to return for news
of some route by which they might join me.
I waited perhaps three-quarters of an hour, when a flash of light showed
above. I answered with my light. And thus came Ray's signal. "Here it
comes," it said. And then in a little, something umbrella-like appeared,
gently oscillating between me and the stars; in the next moment quietly
collapsing on the ground, near by. I took it up; it was a parachute,
made of four handkerchiefs hastily sewed together. To the strings was
made fast a packet of provisions; biscuit, cheese, and a cloth bag
holding a mess of codfish cooked with vegetables. And there was a note
from Ray. I read:
"That was a smelly trick--to _ditch_ us like that. If you only
knew what a nasty time of it we've been having to keep Norris
from sliding down there after you! He said if you could do it
he could, and so on. Now don't go poking your nose in any
alligator's private affairs. And _wire_ us _soon_, and give us
_all_ the news of that _hades_, down there."
It always irked Grant Norris to know that anyone was before him in any
adventure, and I began to fear that in his impetuosity he might make a
try for a descent, in which event he hadn't one chance in ten to come
off with as little damage as I suffered. So I signalled, then, to make
no move toward seeking a way down till I gave the word, and I gave a
terse hint of the great danger in such an attempt.
It was a matter of course that my friends would keep someone on watch up
there; and it would be Ray and Robert, turn about; for they two, only,
knew the code sufficiently well to take my signals.
I now took up the packet of grub they'd thrown down to me, and began to
crawl farther from the cliff. I thus came into a wood, and it was with
great labor, and great stabs of pain in my foot, that I traversed some
hundreds of yards of the forest, at last to come upon the bank of the
rivulet. It could be no other than that stream that tumbled through the
cavern to gush out of the rock to make the little cascade.
Soon now I was bathing my swelling foot in the cool water, and I did not
take it out for above an hour, and then I bound the ankle with Ray's
parachute; and I sat me beside the creek, my back to a palm, feeling
less discomfort, and so was able to give clearer thought to our
situation. There was, of course, not the least doubt that this sink I
had fallen into, was that secret retreat of Duran, we'd been searching
for, and the source of all his wealth. It was the very place discovered
by Carlos' father, who in an evil hour had communicated his find to the
perfidious Duran. I was equally convinced that this hidden vale was
hedged in on the sides, and closed at the ends, by sheer cliffs; and
that that rope which had both entrapped me and then helped to save me in
my fall, was some part of Duran's means of ascent and descent. It should
now be my first aim to discover the other component parts and the
workings of that mechanism, to the end that I might put my friends in a
safe way to join me.
To accomplish this it was only necessary that I have an eye on the place
when Duran should find it in his way to go out of the place in daylight.
And that was a thing he was altogether likely to do, if he were to have
more business in the grotto.
My ankle was so much eased that I could have slept were it not for the
myriad mosquitoes that attacked me, the while dinning their horrid song
in my ear. As it was I got an occasional short snatch of rest with
dozing till a dozen or more wee living stilettos got home in my flesh,
and brought me awake and set me to thrashing about with my palm-fan
again. And once or twice I jumped awake with a queer notion in my
consciousness, and that was that one or more of those mosquitoes had
learned to crow like a cock, for I seemed to have heard such music while
my head nodded.
I was glad when the dawn broke and sent the greater part of my pests
back to their lairs once more. I made a meal out of the packet of grub,
getting my drink from the creek. And then I searched about in the wood,
till I found a stick having a crotch to fit under my arm; and so I made
me a wooden leg for my lame side. I hobbled over to the edge of the bit
of forest, where I could command that place where I had suffered my
fall.
I gazed to the cliff top and waved, hoping to attract any of my friends
who should be on watch. But no living sign showed there. And then,
finally, I set myself to watching for signs of the enemy.
It was a tedious wait, though one not so very long. Less than two hours
had passed when I saw a figure come out of the brush back up the vale a
piece. Though he was black of face, I saw it was Duran. I concealed
myself more carefully in the undergrowth and watched his approach.
When he came opposite me, less than fifty yards away, I saw he carried a
pack. It was doubtless no more nor less than another freight of the gold
in bamboo. He passed on down the vale, looking neither to right nor
left, never dreaming that any enemy eyes could win to a near view of any
part of his retreat. As he disappeared, presently, round a portion of
the wood, I had also a very good guess as to what was to be his
employment down there, and had I had full use of both my nether limbs, I
should have followed and witnessed his manoeuvres. As it was I must
content myself with picturing him in my mind's eye, at setting afloat in
the little stream one richly-laden bamboo section after the other, and I
could see them bobbing at the surface, as they moved in line to a hole
in the rocky wall, and at last find lodgment against the reed net within
the cavern.
My heart danced with anticipation, as I crouched there in the edge of
the wood, awaiting the next scene of Duran's performance. And this, too,
I knew as well as if I held a printed "synopsis" in my hand.
It was not without some tremor of apprehension, too, that I at last
beheld the figure of Duran appear again on the back trail, for I was not
at all sure that I had not left some traces of that violent entry of
mine into this sunken pasture. And sure enough, when he arrived at the
place, he came to a stand, and gazed on the torn vines and the rocky
debris that had accompanied me down that cliff-side. His hand went up to
his ear in that characteristic manner of his. And my breath came hard,
in the more than half dread that he should discover my trail leading
here to the wood.
It was the accident to my ankle that saved me, for having crawled away
on hands and knees, I had left no tell-tale prints of shoes in the sod.
He must have concluded that it was a bit of landslide had disturbed the
growth, for he turned from his inspection finally with an air of
unconcern.
Duran moved over to the left a piece, and then began to mount the
cliff-side on a gently sloping ledge, which came to an end among the
vines I had so violently disarranged. Here he got his hand on that
little rope by which I had made a portion of my descent. For some time
he carried on a species of struggle with the line. (Doubtless I had
disarranged that thing too.) But at last things seemed to have come
right; he began to pay out the line; and then I could see something
unfold and drop down the cliff-side, which turned out to be some form of
rope ladder. As I afterward learned, his halliard worked through a
pulley bent on a limb of those cedars aloft, and was strung in and out
among the rounds of the ladder, to be tied to the bottom round. When he
was abroad, rope ladder, halliard and all was stowed up there; when he
was home in this hidden vale, the ladder was pulled aloft, and the
halliard made fast in hiding among the vines. The reason for this latter
precaution I was yet to learn.
Directly, Duran was climbing above by his ladder, and then I saw his
form disappear amongst those cedars on the cliff-top. And now he was
gone to the cavern in the cliff to recover, and stow away, that new
lading of gold. I caught myself wondering now what might be the
employment of my friends, whether any of them might be in any part of
Duran's path. And I hoped that they would be very careful not to allow
him sight of them; for we were not yet ready to give him warning that we
were so close on his trail. It was not merely to discover the concealed
mine that we were putting ourselves to so much trouble, and danger as
well, but we had a mind to unearth so much as might be possible of the
golden product, which for so many years had been filched, piecemeal,
from that deposit that belonged, by miner's right of discovery, to the
Brill family. To give Duran notice of our presence would manifestly but
serve to place obstacles in our way.
Five minutes after Duran had passed out of view, I hobbled on my crutch
out a little into the open again, once more hoping to attract any one of
my crowd who might be stationed up there on the cliff. And sure enough,
I saw the head and hand of someone--it must be either Robert or Ray.
I forthwith began with my signalling. The facility shown in the
responses, convinced me that it was Ray I conversed with. I told him of
the rope ladder and the manner of its disposition, as near as I had been
able to judge. Then I hinted the importance of some of our party
following Duran, if he should go off with a burden of treasure this
coming night. I ended the exchange with a caution to get back in hiding
against the return of Duran, and discovery.
I crawled back into the cover of the wood again. When Duran finally came
and had got down to the ledge, and with his hands on the halliard was
hauling the ladder up to its nest in the firs, I saw the figure of Ray
up there, doubtless watching the working of the rope mechanism. Duran
went down that piece of sloping ledge, and marched off up the vale, the
way he had come when I first set eyes on him that morning.
It was well past noon when he made his appearance again, and passed on
down the vale with another burden on his back. He made a second trip
with a second load before climbing up the cliff on his ladder. And I had
another few words in code with Ray, while Duran was gone to the grotto.
For that day, it was the last journeying of Duran over that route, for
when at last he went up the vale again, no more was seen of him in
daylight. I hobbled along after, in time, keeping within the edge of the
wood which flanked the stream. I had got myself some two hundred yards
on the way, when the ground rose to accommodate a ridge of rock that
went all the way across the vale, from the sheer and beetling crags of
one side to those of the other. The stream broke, tumbling partly
through, and partly over this ridge; and the country above was a bit
more elevated than that part of this out of the world region with which
I had already made some little acquaintance. The growth consisted of
palms, live oaks, tree ferns, and other plants, tropical, for which I
had no name.
I found an elevated situation on the ridge that gave me a fair view of
this sunken region into which I had tumbled so unceremoniously the night
before. Less than two miles above, showed the wall of cliff that closed
the vale at its upper end. The forest growth hid from view any
habitation or any other works of man that might be between.
Though a path marked the way Duran had gone, I durst not tread that road
lest I unexpectedly meet up with him somewhere on its windings through
the growth. The sun had been some time past the zenith when I took some
more food, and then made a hurried trip to the stream for a drink; this,
before taking up a position within some screening brush, whence I could
command that path. I looked for Duran at the earliest, some time after
dark. But I had learned to be prepared to expect the unexpected, as Ray
would have put it. And it was well I did so.
I was almost dead for sleep, and it was a wonder I did not drop off
completely. But I contrived to doze in cat-naps, with one eye open, as
it were, till a short time before dusk, when I was startled erect by a
footfall on a rocky bit of the path; and there came Duran, bearing a
short gun slung on his back. And directly he had passed me, I picked up
my crutch and started after. I watched him climb by his ladder, and saw
him haul it up after him, and he brought up the halliard as well. So
that now I knew I was indeed a prisoner in that hidden dell, till
someone should let down that ladder again.
The way was now clear, I felt, for a free investigation of that region
at the end of the path. And I must hurry if I was to go far before night
should throw its black mantle over the scene; time enough to summon the
others later.
So back I went, boldly, over the ridge. I moved as rapidly as my
impromptu crutch and one good leg would carry me, till I passed round a
turn of the path, and all but collided with a queer figure of a man. He
plumped down on his knees and began to beg mercy.
"Oh, sor! Don't kill me, sor! I wasn't hafter spyin' on ye, sor! I was
only afraid ye'd forget to bring me the morphine, sor! I--"
The creature opened his eyes, which had gone closed, likely in
anticipation of the dreaded gunshot, that for some reason was now due to
put a short stop to his miserable existence. He had taken me for Duran,
it was plain, and the opening of his bleared eyes had shown him his
mistake. Undersized, thin-lipped, and apparently toothless, was this
slight specimen of a being; and his mouth, eyes, head, shoulders, and
limbs twitched and jerked in abominable fashion. Indeed he fairly danced
on the ground like those jigging toys that are set going by winding a
bit of clock-work. I afterwards learned that it was only at times of
great emotion that this extreme agitation of all the muscles on his
slight bones were set in motion; but there was scarce a minute of the
day that he was not at some form of grimace or contortion.
Taking courage of this being's evident fear, I demanded, "Who are you?"
"My nyme is Handy Awkins," he replied. By which I came to know he
meant--"Andy Hawkins."
"I don't know 'ow you came 'ere," he said, the contortions of his body
quieting considerably, "but I sye, ye won't tell the boss ye sawr me
down 'ere?"
"On condition _you_ won't tell 'the boss' you saw _me anywhere_, I won't
tell him I saw you down here," I bargained.
His writhings now were those of joy. And he tried to set into a smile
that slit of a mouth of his.
"Yer 'and on it!" he cried. "We're on the syme side o' the fence, ain't
we? An' we'll be great Bobs together, you an' I, if ever we get out o'
this 'ell of a 'ole--I don't care if you are a nigger. Eh Tommy?--I'll
tell ye, I'm the only white man in this 'ere part o' the world, that I
am, 'ceptin' the boss, and--" here he whispered the news--"'ee's only
painted black, to fool the likes o' you."