IN AN ANCIENT TEMPLE.
The auto seemed to be bumping along downhill, for at the first evidence
of danger Jerry had shut off the power and applied the brake. But the
descent was too steep to have the bands hold.
Down and down the adventurers went, through some underground passage, it
was evident.
"Are we all here?" called Jerry, his voice sounding strange and muffled
in the chamber to which they had come.
"I'm here and all right, but I don't exactly know what has happened,"
replied the professor.
"The same with me," put in Ned, and Bob echoed his words.
Just then the automobile came to a stop, having reached a level and run
along it for a short distance.
"Well, we seem to have arrived," went on Jerry. "I wonder how much good
it is going to do us?"
"Supposing we light the search-lamp and see what sort of a place we are
in," suggested Professor Snodgrass. "It's so dark in here we might just
as well be inside one of the pyramids of Egypt."
The acetylene gas lamp on the front of the auto was lighted, and in its
brilliant rays the travelers saw that they were in a large underground
passage. It was about twenty feet high, twice as broad and seemed to be
hewn out of solid rock.
"This is what makes it so dark," observed the professor. "I knew it
must be something like this, for it was still daylight when we tumbled
into the hole and we haven't been five minutes down here. Run the auto
forward, Jerry."
The car puffed slowly along surely as strange a place as ever an
automobile was in. The boys looked eagerly ahead. They saw nothing but
the rocky sides and roof of the passage.
"This doesn't look much like an underground city," objected Ned. "I
think it's an abandoned railway tunnel."
At that instant Jerry shut off the power and applied the brakes with a
jerk.
"What's the matter?" asked the professor.
"There's some sort of a wall or obstruction ahead," was the answer, and
Jerry pointed to where, in the glare of the lamp, could be seen a wall
that closed up the passageway completely.
"I guess this is the end," remarked Ned, ruefully.
The naturalist got out of the car and ran forward. He seemed to be
examining the obstruction carefully. He struck it two or three blows.
"Hurrah!" he cried. "Come on, boys, this is only a big wooden door! We
can open it!"
In an instant the three lads had joined him. They found that the passage
was closed by a big portal of planks, bolted together and swinging on
immense hinges. There was also a huge lock or fastening.
"Can we open the door?" inquired Bob. "It looks as if it was meant to
stay shut."
"We'll soon see," answered Jerry.
He ran back to the automobile and got a kit of tools. Then, while Ned
held up one of the small oil lamps that was taken off the dashboard of
the car, Jerry tackled the lock. It was a massive affair, but time had
so rusted it that very little trouble was found in taking it apart so
that the door was free.
"Everybody push, now!" called Jerry. "Those hinges are pretty rusty."
They shoved with all their strength, but the door, though it gave
slightly, showing that no more locks held it, would not open. It had
probably not been used for centuries.
"Looks as if we'd have to stay here," said the professor.
"Not a bit of it," spoke Jerry. "Wait a minute."
He ran back to the auto, and soon the others heard him cranking it up.
"Look out! Stand to one side!" he called.
The auto came forward slowly. Jerry steered the front part of it
carefully against the massive door. Once he was close to the portal he
turned on full power.
There was a cracking and splintering of wood, and a squeaking as the
rusty hinges gave. Then, with the auto pushing against it, the massive
door swung to one side. The machine had accomplished what the strength
of the boys and the professor could not.
Slowly but surely the portal opened. Wider and wider it swung, until
there burst on the astonished gaze of the travelers a flood of light.
The sun was shining overhead, though fast declining in the west, but
in the bright glare of the slanting beams there was revealed the
underground city.
There it stood in all its ancient splendor, most of it, however, but
mere ruins of what had been fine buildings. There were rows and rows of
houses, stone palaces and what had been beautiful temples. Nearly all of
the structures showed traces of elaborate carvings.
But ruin was on every side. The roofs of houses, temples and palaces had
fallen in. Walls were crumbling and the streets were filled with debris.
As the boys looked, some foxes scampered among the ruins, and shortly
afterward a jaguar slunk along, crawling into a hole in a temple wall.
"Grand! Beautiful! Solemn!" exclaimed the professor, in raptures over
the discovery. "It is more than I dared to hope for. Think of it, boys!
We have at last discovered the buried city of ancient Mexico. How the
people back in civilization will open their eyes when they hear this
news! My name and yours as well will be covered with glory. Oh, it is
marvelous!"
"I guess it will be some time before the people back in Cresville hear
of this," observed Jerry. "There doesn't seem to be any way of sending a
letter from here. I don't see any telegraph station, and there's not a
messenger boy in sight."
"That's funny," said Ned. "You'd think a buried city, a dead one, so to
speak, would be just the place where a district messenger would like to
come to rest."
"It's a lonesome place here," remarked Bob. "I hope we'll find some one
to talk to."
"That's just the beauty of the place," said the professor. "What good
would an ancient, ruined, buried city be if people were living in it? I
hope there isn't a soul here but ourselves."
"I guess you'll get your desire, all right," remarked Jerry.
The first surprise and wonder over, the travelers advanced a little way
into the city and looked about them. They saw that the place, which was
several miles square, was down in a hollow, formed of high hills. For
this reason the location of the city had remained so long a secret. They
had come upon it through one of the underground passages leading into
the town, and these, as they afterward learned, were the only means of
entering the place. There were four of these passages or tunnels, one
entering from each side of the city, north, south, east and west.
But time and change had closed up the outer ends of the tunnels after
the city had become deserted, and it remained for Professor Snodgrass
and his party to tumble in on one.
It was as if a city had been built inside an immense bowl and on the
bottom of it. The sides of the bowl would represent the hills and
mountains that girt the ancient town. Then, if four holes were made in
the sides of the vessel, close to the bottom, they would be like the
four entrances to the old city.
"Supposing we take a ride through the town before dark," suggested
Jerry. "We may meet some one."
He started the machine, but after going a short distance it was found
that it was impracticable to use the machine to any advantage. The
streets were filled with debris and big stones from the ruined houses
and fallen hills, and it needed constant twisting and turning to make
the journey.
"Let's get out and walk," proposed Ned.
"Then there's a good place to leave the machine," said Bob, pointing to
a ruined temple on the left. "We can run it right inside, through the
big doors. It's a regular garage."
The suggestion was voted a good one, and Jerry steered the auto into
the temple. The place had been magnificent in its day. Even now the
walls were covered with beautiful paintings, or the remains of them, and
the whole interior and exterior of the place was a mass of fine stone
carving.
The roof had fallen away in several places, but there were spots where
enough remained to give shelter. The machine was run into a covered
corner and then the travelers went outside.
The professor uttered cries of delight at every step, as he discovered
some new specimen or relic. They seemed to exist on every side.
"Look out where you're stepping!" called the naturalist, suddenly, as
Jerry was about to set his foot down.
"What's the matter--a snake?" asked the boy, jumping back.
"No. But you nearly stepped on and ruined a petrified bug worth
thousands of dollars!"
"Great Scott! I'll be careful after this," promised Jerry, as the
professor picked up the specimen of a beetle and put it in his box.