"We've got to chance it all the same. Come on."
Chris led the way, with his piece slung, revolver and knife in belt, and
the pine staff in his hand, when Griggs took a step forward, with his
eyes twinkling.
"I say," he cried, "it's hardly fair for us if you get chivvying those
rattlers and sending them flying over the edge and down here."
"Oh, you must take your chance about that," said Chris merrily.
"Be careful, my boy," said the doctor.
"What, about the rattlers, father?"
"Of course; but I meant where you place your feet. Many of the stones
are rotten and loose."
"We'll mind," said Chris, and he began to climb, raising himself a step
or two, and then striking sharply in amongst some growing plants, before
thrusting his staff up in front of him and drawing himself up again.
This he kept on repeating, and without much difficulty climbed some
thirty feet, before an awkward place came like a check, caused by a big
stone having fallen, leaving a good-sized cavity.
"Look out now, Ned," he said softly. "Here's a hole that may hold one."
"All right," was the reply, and as Chris planted his feet firmly, one in
a hole and the other on a projecting stone, Wilton uttered a warning
word or two, which the boys were too busy to heed.
"It's a bigger place than I thought," said Chris, taking fast hold of a
stone with his left hand and advancing his tufted staff with his right,
as he stood well upright, bringing his head above the edge of the hole.
"It was built-up once, for the stones were square, and it goes in quite
deep. Now, then, look out for a big one."
He leaned a little on one side, thrust in the stick, and gave it a sharp
rattle round in different directions, when to his horror there was a
rush which nearly made him loosen his hold before he realised what had
happened. But fortunately he held on, and in an instant the alarm and
danger had passed away. For the occupants he had disturbed proved to be
some half-dozen huge bats, which fluttered out, squealing, and made for
the opposite side of the depression.
"Phew! How they smell! Cockroachy," cried Chris. "I say, father,
there are not likely to be snakes here now."
"No," said the doctor. "If there were I should not think that you would
have found the bats. But be careful."
Chris said nothing, but climbed right into the hole.
"Here, come on, Ned," he cried; "this isn't a hole made by some stone
falling over; it's quite a little chamber, with--What's that?" he
added--"A chimney?"
A minute's investigation proved that it was no chimney that had taken
his attention, but a sloping shaft with plenty of room for a man to pass
upward, and the way made easy by projecting stones.
"You are not going in there?" said Ned anxiously, as he stood close
behind.
"But I am. Come and look. You can see daylight. Why, Ned, it's the
way up to the first terrace. Come on."
Chris stepped in, and with his curiosity aroused, Ned followed, just as
Bourne's voice came from below, with the question--
"What are you boys doing? Mind how you climb above that hole. You had
better get a little to the right."
"No, we hadn't," said Chris, who was half up the shaft. "Don't speak
yet, Ned. Come on; it's quite easy."
Ned followed, and came in for plenty of dry dust and chips as Chris
climbed on, to find himself directly after in a cell-like chamber,
evidently cut out of the solid rock.
"Ahoy! Where are you, boys?" cried the doctor, in an anxious tone of
voice.
"You look out of the window-opening," said Chris; "I'm going to look
down out of this," and passing as he spoke through a low opening, he
stood in the middle of another cell-like place.
They were saluted with a shout.
"No snakes, then?" said Griggs.
"I don't think so. None here," cried Chris. "Are you all coming up?"
There was no need to answer, for Griggs was already leading the way, and
as soon as they were all up an investigation of the place began, during
which it was found that they had evidently hit upon one of the openings,
or probably enough the principal one into the rock city, where upon the
level where they stood some dozens of roughly carved-out, cell-like
habitations communicated one with another.
There was a great deal of dust and other accumulation, for in damp spots
where there was a chance for plants to exist they seemed to have grown,
died, and turned to earth. Here and there, too, as the party made their
way from cell to cell there were proofs that various animals had taken
possession of the rough shelters and brought the prey they had captured,
stores of well-gnawed bones lying scattered about; but saving the traces
left of construction, cutting out of the rock and building in, they
found nothing to show what kind of people they were who had lived there,
nothing to prove how far back it was in the world's history that the
rock city had been occupied by a teeming population.
"How long is it since people lived here, father?" was asked by Chris,
after they had been wandering about from cell to cell but not finding
any way of getting higher without a dangerous climb from the terrace
outward.
"Ah, you are asking what has been puzzling me," replied the doctor, "and
I seem to be faced by a blank wall built-up between now and the past.
If we could find anything in the shape of weapons or household
implements, one might make a guess; but every trace we have found is of
the last inhabitants."
"Well, that ought to do," said Chris.
"But I mean the pumas or jaguars that seem to have here and there turned
the cells into caves, and left their gnawed bones about. They may have
lived here fifty years ago, a hundred years, or five. But there is one
thing evident, and it is this--that the people who lived here chose the
place as being one that they could make into a stronghold, one which
they could fortify so as to defend themselves from their enemies."
"What enemies, sir?" asked Ned sharply.
"Ah, that I can't tell you. The people here must have been to a great
extent civilised, or they would not have been builders; and most likely
their enemies were wild Indian-like tribes who roamed the plains, as
they do to this day. I want to find something left by these builders,
and then perhaps we might learn something."
They had now come to the last of the long range of cells that they had
been making their way through, and further progress was checked by solid
rock which had evidently been neither chipped away nor added to.
They cautiously stepped through the front opening, to stand upon the
rough, crumbled-away terrace, from which they could look down into the
great depression where the ponies and mules were contentedly grazing,
and for about the tenth time looked upward for some means of reaching
the terrace above, one which appeared more time-worn and dangerous than
that upon which they stood; but without ladders it would have been
risking life to make any attempt to reach it.
"Strikes me, sir," said Griggs, "that we've left the way up far behind."
"Why?" said Wilton sharply.
"Because we've seen no way here, and we found one there."
"But _I_ could see nothing likely to lead higher," said Chris.
"We didn't look about much," cried Ned. "We were eager to come along
here."
"Yes, I suppose that was so," said Chris thoughtfully. "Well, there's
the row of cells above us, and there must be a way."
"Unless it has been swept off by some landslip," suggested Bourne.
"Well, we'll turn back now," said the doctor, "for even if we had a
shovel I don't think we should find anything that would help us."
They went back from cell to cell, and twice over found the terrace
outside sufficiently level and secure to allow of their passing along
it, but they soon had to take to the interior again with its low
doorway-like connections.
At last they all stood together at the top of the roughly-stepped
sloping shaft by which they had ascended, to find that the roof here was
entirely broken away by the falling of a portion of the cliff; but they
found also what they sought, for there, about a score of feet above
their heads, was the evident continuation of the shaft-like hole by
which they had come up.
"Look," cried Griggs triumphantly; "no wonder we could not find it."
"But how are we to use it?" said Bourne.
"Oh, we can manage that, sir; eh, boys?"
"You might," said the doctor, gazing up, "but I'm sure I couldn't."
"Oh yes, you could, sir, when one of us has been up and driven a peg
here and a peg there into some of those cracks. The stones are quite in
layers; and after that we'll drive a very strong one in, and tie a
lariat to it to hang down like a balustrade to steady whoever goes up."
"But where are the pegs?"
"Down below, sir, growing in amongst those trees. I vote we go down,
have some dinner, and come up again after I have chopped as many pegs as
I think we shall want. I should bring the axe up here too, so as to
drive them in. Why, Chris, lad, we could make a regular ladder up
there."
Griggs' proposal was adopted, and that same afternoon found them in the
same place, with the American ready for action, and the boys carrying
rope and pegs.
And now what had seemed difficult before had grown easy, the American,
who had cut plenty of tough short pieces of pine and formed them
chisel-ended, driving one in between the natural faults in the stone
with the head of the axe, and then climbing upon it to drive in another,
which formed a standing-place in turn, the slope upward of the cliff
making the task easy--so easy, in fact, that less than half-an-hour
sufficed to bring him to the spot where the shaft was in fair
preservation, with its projecting pieces of stone left by the original
carvers of the way.
Here the American fixed the strong peg pitched up to him by Chris, who
had followed him up step by step, and after tying to it one end of the
lariat thrown up by Ned, the two workers made their way up to the intact
shaft, and reached the first cell of the next row, some fifty feet above
the other, gaining at the same time a better view of the terrace in
front, and seeing that it was comparatively very little broken-down,
merely worn by the weather.
"Here, let's go on a little way," cried Chris eagerly.
"No," replied Griggs; "fair play's a jewel. Let's go back; your father
will like to be one of the first to begin exploring."
"So he will; but look, here they come."
For Ned was close up, being the next to test the stability of the new
ladder, and was closely followed by the doctor and their other friends.
"Capital!" cried the doctor. "A much finer view from up here. Why,
with such a stronghold and no better way for the enemy to approach, the
old people ought to have been able to set all the tribes of the plain at
defiance."
"Perhaps they did, sir," said Griggs; "but it seems to me that they must
have had a regular channel of water coming down from above there to
supply all these rooms, or cells, as you call them."
"Most likely," said the doctor.
"How would it be then if the enemy managed to break down the channel
from somewhere up yonder where we found the hole under the fallen
stones? Could the people who attacked them have done that?"
"Why, Griggs, you are making history. That was the old people's
aqueduct, and it is quite possible that when they were besieged the
enemy caused the destruction over which we climbed."
"Yes," said Griggs thoughtfully; "that would ruin the folk. No doubt
some of these places were used as stores, and those might last for
years; but if their supply of water were cut off there wouldn't be much
chance for them then."
"Well, let's see farther," said the doctor. "I can't help thinking that
they must have been a strong and fairly civilised race."
Chris led the way in, to find the cell he entered cut out and built-up
just the same as those which they had seen; but the floor was encumbered
deeply with the dust of ages, and on stirring some of it with his foot
the boy drew back hurriedly and looked strangely at his father.
"What have you found?" said the doctor.
"The jaguars must have killed a man here, father," replied the boy, who
looked on in disgust as his father stepped in and picked up a skull
which might have lain there, sheltered by the roofing of stone, for
ages. It looked brown and as if very little pressure would suffice to
crumble it up into dust; but the teeth left in the upper jaw were
perfect and fairly white.
"Ah!" said the doctor thoughtfully. "Here's a bit of genuine history at
last."
"Killed by a jaguar, father?" cried Chris excitedly.
"No, my boy," was the reply; "this is not the marking of a jaguar's
teeth, but the cause of death, plainly enough."
"What, that hole?" cried Chris excitedly.
"Yes. Look, the forehead has been crushed in by the blow from a stone
axe, or possibly by a stone hurled from above."
"Perhaps only held in the hand, sir," said Griggs thoughtfully.
"Why, that's a heap of old bones," cried Ned, with a look of horror;
"the dust's full of them."
"Yes," said the doctor, moving the relics carefully with the butt of his
rifle for fragments that were fully defined as to shape to fall together
as mere dust and hide portions below. "There's another skull,"
continued the examiner, "crushed in more than the first. A
finely-preserved specimen, for, in spite of that hole, it shows the
shape of the relic--a low forehead, retreating very rapidly, the brows
very bony and heavy, and the cheek-bones widely prominent."
"That's not the same shaped skull as the first," said Bourne quickly.
"Certainly not," replied the doctor. "I should say it belonged to a
fiercer, more savage race of man, who might have been an ancestor of the
present Indians of the plains."
"Then that was one of the enemy, father," said Chris decidedly, "and he
got it in the attack."
"Possibly," said the doctor, looking strangely at his son. "He seems to
have got _it_, Chris, but that doesn't sound to me a very scientific way
of describing the antique remains."
Chris turned very red, and pressed some of the dust aside with his foot,
laying bare the side of another of the ghastly relics.
"And that's like the first," cried the doctor, bending forward to pick
it up, a skull looking whiter than either of the others. "Certainly
this is of a different race, Bourne, and the owner died in the same way,
the brow crushed.--Look at that."
The rest were already looking, and saw what caused the doctor's abrupt
exclamation, for as he took up the skull the back portion fell away and
the front dropped apart into so much crumbling dust.
"We're looking down at the remains of a desperate fight, sir, I should
say," said Griggs thoughtfully. "It's just as if there had been a stand
made here."
"Come on into the next place," said the doctor eagerly; "but keep close
to the wall, following my steps. Ah! it's impossible to avoid crushing
the remains," he continued, as he sidled along, leaving his footprints
in the soft dust which lay thick.
"I say, Chris, isn't this very horrid?" whispered Ned, as the boys
followed last towards the low doorway opposite to that by which they had
entered.
"Yes, I suppose so," said Chris thoughtfully; "but it makes one think of
ever so far back when all this dust must have been alive--all fierce
men, fighting, some to kill, others to save their lives. I don't know;
it doesn't seem so very horrid, though I don't like treading on all
their dust--and--and--"
"Bones," suggested Ned.
"No; because they're not bones now, only the shape of bones. See how
that all crumbled-away when my father picked it up. Dust and ashes, we
ought to call it. Do you want to go back?"
"N-no, I think not. I say, what a fight it must have been!"
"Yes," said Chris, with a deep breath that sounded like a sigh. "One
seems to fancy one can see the men who had the white skulls being driven
back from this cell into that one, and I shouldn't wonder if we find
that--"
"Yes," came the doctor's voice from the next place, "it's wonderfully
interesting. The civilised men must have been making a desperate stand
here, and I fully expect that we shall find that they were driven back
from cell to cell. Yes," he said, with his voice growing fainter.
"What do you say, Griggs?"
"It's worse in here, sir, and--yes, worse still in the next place."
"Driven back from cell to cell," cried the doctor, "and it's my
impression that we shall find the remains of women and children in the
farthest one. We shall hit upon the scene of a terrible massacre--the
destruction of the race who built-up this place."
The boys had joined the speakers now, just in time to hear Wilton
speak--
"But I say, Lee, aren't you letting your imagination carry you a little
too far?"
"I think not," replied the doctor quietly. "Look here; you cannot call
this imagination. Small as the space is in these rock chambers, there
are the remains of scores of men who fought desperately for their lives.
To me it seems like a vivid reproduction of the past."
"How far back?" said Bourne.
"Ah, that is beyond me. How long would it take these bones to decay to
this extent as they lay here just as their owners fell? It is a
question that no man can answer--one dependent upon the action of the
air in a climate like this, with the remains sheltered from sun and
rain, to gradually pass away into dust. You can see plainly enough that
these are not the remains found in some burial place, added to year
after year, age after age. This slaughter must have been the work of
only a few hours, and the people lie piled-up as they fell. Let's go
on."
Cell after cell was entered, with the remains lying thick as the
warriors had fallen, the searchers continuing the examination to the
very end, and then gladly stepping out on to the terrace, to stand there
in the broad daylight, the air seeming to feel fresh and clear after
what they had gone through.
"A strange bit of history," said the doctor thoughtfully. "We know now
and think how this bit of civilisation came to an end; but we have
discovered no weapons of war to help us to give a date to the siege."
"But we haven't half done our search yet, sir," said Griggs. "There's
another terrace above this, you see," and he pointed up to where there
had been another row of the cells formed in the rock-face, these latter
standing back a little and evidently being the last, for above them the
cliff projected like a gigantic cave, as far as they could see, from end
to end.
"Who votes that we give up now and leave the examination till another
day?" said Bourne, who had seemed more and more enthusiastic as the
search went on.
There was no reply.
"Who votes that we try and get up to the next stage?"