COVETED GOLD
Still breathing hard, from the effects of the duel, I reached the heap
of stone, outside the cavern and hunted up my bundle of wood. I sat down
on a rock to get my torches lighted. This was not an easy matter, for
although my brand was a species of wood which retained fire remarkably
long, I was obliged to gather many small dry twigs and bits of dead
creeper, to which I added hair from the skins, before I could make a
blaze. Once having accomplished this feat, however, I found that the
torch-faggots burned with all the fierceness of pitch.
Acknowledging that the skeleton-man had succeeded in finding a wood
which surpassed for torches anything that I had yet discovered, I threw
my bag and clubs inside the cave and climbed in after, with all the
light I needed.
So far, the getting of treasure had not proved to be the “pic-nic” I had
previously been led to suppose was about to be enjoyed. Holding my torch
above my head and carrying both the clubs beneath my other arm, I now
went along in this wonder-house, waxing momentarily more and more
excited by the prospect of seeing what was there.
The passage was narrow and low, it was likewise crooked, and the floor
was rough and uneven. On the walls there was not the slightest
indication of anything precious. I have never seen stone more dull. This
made me doubt if I had come to the cauldron of gold, after all. The
trend of the tunnel was downward. Presently I came to a “jump off” four
feet high. The bottom of this secondary gallery sloped rapidly downward.
Then I emerged from the tunnel-like hall, into a larger chamber. The
first thing I saw was water, in a crevice. I jumped then like a scared
cat, for a drop of the liquid fell plump on my nose from the ceiling,
where steam had condensed.
A second after this I got a brilliant gleam of reflected light, from an
object on the floor, a rod away. It was gold. To right and left flashed
similar reflections. I hastened onward, and then halted, dizzy with
amazement, for below me, in a great basin was ebon water that moved, and
about it were nodules and drippings of gold, and stuffed into crevices
was gold on gold. I leaped a ditch, above which the mist was rising, hot
and damp. Beyond this, down in the very cauldron itself, which was
inaccessible and awe-inspiring, I beheld those stalagmites of solid
metal, those building nuggets and the seething abyss of water and
natural acid which before I had seen from above.
The ascending steam curtained off the mouth of the cave above which I
knew to be over this eerie place, but I was far too eager for what was
about me, to spend my time in looking upward. It was not a place of
dazzling beauty; on the contrary it was dull, dripping and misty, but
here, there, in unexpected places I caught that inimitable glitter.
Having seen one piece of the forming gold-hunks, it seemed as if I were
qualified to see a score. The heat of the place was tremendous, the air
humid and hard to breathe.
So deep was the boiling water that I could see nothing of what was
below, yet I knew from seeing the shallows, golden on the bottom, that
the basin was doubtless plated throughout with the beautiful metal. I
was wild with enthusiasm; I wanted to knock off tons of nuggets; I began
to wonder if I could take it all. Quickly clambering over jagged piles,
I stepped on a boulder that stood above an apron of rock all seamed with
cracks in which the gold had been stuffed till the places were full.
While I was standing there, the rumble of the mighty giant commenced to
resound in the cavern. Alarmed at the thought that the water might surge
up and engulf me where I stood, I started to flee to a safer retreat. My
heel got caught in a crevice. The harder I tugged, the tighter it became
wedged. Stooping I got my fingers in behind it and slid it forward and
out. The second it cleared, my thumb struck an object full of something
that felt like nails. Glancing once at the place, I was astonished to
see the heel of a boot, not unlike my own.
I leaped away to safety and the marvellous geyser burst upward. The
roaring noises thundered upon the air of the place with deafening
reverberations; the steam rolled away in tremendous volumes. Spray and
drops of the boiling liquid that splashed, fell all about, some on my
hand, burning me badly. The basin was all a-surge with its seething
brew; the waters gushed hungrily up, swirling about, filling the cracks
and tossing in extreme agitation.
Down came the massive column of the fountain, as if the source had been
cut off in an instant. A tidal wave of the boiling stuff swelled up to
the brink of the cauldron, inundating the golden nodules, stalagmites
and the radiating fissures.
I knew, then, as much as a man could ever know, who had not been
present, how that other man had lost his life, and how it came that his
skeleton was gilded. That heel told the story. He had probably caught
his foot just as I had done, but he had not been able to get away. He
had doubtless fallen headlong into the basin of boiling liquid, where
his life must have been forfeited instantly. Then time after time the
water had risen about him, until all the flesh had been boiled away from
the bones, and then the process of plating with gold had commenced on
the skeleton. Poor wretch. It had then been left, I thought, for one of
the braver spirits among the Links to rescue all that remained and carry
it forth from the dread cavern. I felt somewhat chilly to think how near
I had been to the same dreadful fate.
The demonstration having ceased, the water subsided, the rocks and
nuggets dripped, and the steam arose, hotter than before. My zeal for
exploring the place had oozed away. It seemed to me that discretion
counselled me to complete my work and depart.
“I’ll only stop for a few hundred pounds,” I told myself with a feeling
of virtuous moderation. “A man should never be a pig.”
The first thing to do was to strip off my bear-skin, in which I was now
perspiring like a porpoise. Then I selected a fine, large nodule of
gold, from the vicinity of which I could easily escape when the geyser
began to spout, and this I began to batter with one of the clubs. I had
conceived an idea that I would bend these formations over and break them
off with comparative ease. I was in for a large disappointment.
Not only were the gold masses bended over at the expense of great energy
and perseverance, but they refused to break after quite a number of such
bendings. That first one having been once so bent, refused to be knocked
back in the opposite direction. Also the geyser took its turn very soon
and in the end I humbly abandoned nodule number one and tackled one
which was smaller.
It was at least an hour before my labours were awarded with any real
success whatsoever. But at last I had a chunk of metal of something like
five pounds weight. Mopping my head, puffing and losing my temper, I
“picked on” the smaller pieces now with great sagacity. I pounded and
pried, grunted and wrenched, waited for the geyser to have its say and
then went at it again, till I lost all reckoning of time. After several
failures, however, I got the knack of this mining business better, and
what with smashing rocks away to facilitate the work and contenting
myself with modest chunks, I got loose and heaped up something over a
hundred weight of treasure, according to my estimate by guessing.
“That’s enough for any man of sense,” I finally assured myself. “I’d be
ashamed to take any more.”
Lighting a new torch, from the one I had planted in a chink, I went out
toward the entrance and secured my bag. To my amazement I discovered
that the day had broken. I had worked for hours that sped like minutes.
Somewhat concerned about any Links, who might be stirring, I hastened
back, threw my hoard into the skin pouch and staggered with it to the
jump-off, where I boosted it up hurriedly. On emerging from the mouth of
the cave, I was obliged to rest, so weary had I become from my
long-sustained labours. However, I dared not pause, at so late an hour,
and therefore I shouldered my load again and started away, leaving
bear-skin, torches and clubs behind. My only idea now was to reach the
boat in haste.
In spite of my stubbornness, I could walk not more than fifty yards at a
time with my burden, before putting it down to give myself “a blow.” It
was such a dead weight, and I had used up my whole reserve of force.
Breathing my great relief, to find myself out at last, within one more
carry of the boat, I set the sack down in a thicket and leaned against a
tree to rest my muscles. As I turned about to resume the load, a
startling yell suddenly penetrated the forest.
Jump about as quickly as I could, I was not in time to avoid a furious
onslaught. A hideous female Link, as black as rubber and apparently as
old as the jungle, launched herself upon me and bit me on the shoulder
so severely that I cried out in pain and struck her with my knife before
I could stop to remember that a male should spare a female creature. The
steel went deep in her side. She wrenched with her jaws where she was
biting as she fell away, and injured a cord in my neck, which made me
all but collapse with sudden nausea and weakness.
Before I could shake her off, after pulling out the knife, the forest
echoed with the yells of countless demons rushing toward me from the
direction of the cave. Undone, incapable of showing fight with my
dagger, against so large and fierce a mob, I tore myself free from the
clutch of the female and ran as hard as possible toward the river.
That terrible female, stabbed only through the fleshy muscles under her
arm, made a dive for my feet and hauled me down. I slashed off two of
her fingers with a vicious lunge, and darted away again at the top of my
speed.
By this time many of the demons were hot on my trail, crying out in
fearful monosyllables, tearing through the brush, and attempting to head
me off. The foremost fellow threw his club and the handle of it struck
me on the leg. I snatched it up, well knowing the creature would catch
me before I could go another twenty strides, and leaping behind a tree I
waited half a moment. He rushed to the spot, headlong and reckless. Down
came his own weapon, and he fell like a dead bull. But the motion of
striking nearly killed me, so fearful was the wrench where the female
had bitten the sinew.
Once more I ran dizzily away, at the head of that screaming horde of
Links. Club after club was hurled to fetch me down, but all went wide. I
was beating them all—I knew it—I should reach the boat, for none were
aware of its presence. It was hardly more than a rod away.
Stumbling and pitching, ready to fall down in my agony, I dived through
a hedge of vines and was thrown headlong within reach of the prow I knew
so well. Up and shoving at the boat in a twinkling, I heard the vines
being ripped apart behind me. Having held on to the club till I fell
here, I turned and pounced upon it and swung it back in time to crash it
fairly in the pit of the black devil’s stomach, as he hurtled upon me.
Dropping it instantly, I shoved off the boat with all the strength I
had, and leaped in, as three or four more of the fiends came dashing
madly down to the river’s edge. This time when they threw their clubs I
was struck fairly on the fleshy portion of the back and knocked on my
face across the seat. Hurt by the blow, but strong in my instinct for
self-preservation, I got out the oars in jig-time and drove the good old
craft up the stream and away from the murderous brutes on the bank, like
a madman. Rowing almost straight for the further side, I distanced all
the clubs speedily. When they realised the utter futility of pursuit,
the enraged creatures merely yelled their maledictions as I went.