Even then Frank and Bob would have fought for their freedom, stupefied
though they were. In fact Bob, who had fallen to the ground in tumbling
from the hammock, had seized his gun which was standing against the
tree, but the commanding voice of the glittering stranger again bade him
forebear.
"Behold, we, too, have fire sticks that speak with tongues of flame and
carry the unseen death."
He swept his hand again around the clearing. And the two young fellows
saw in the hands of the score of men ringing them 'round, weapons
mounted in silver and gold and ancient in appearance, yet firearms,
nevertheless, it was not to be doubted.
"Lower your gun, Bob, but don't relinquish it," whispered Frank, in
English. Then in Spanish, and seeking to put into his voice all the
imperiousness which he could summon, he added:
"We are travelers on peaceful business. By what right do you steal upon
us like this? Surely," he added, in a tone of scorn, "you are not
thieves who would rob us of our few belongings."
"You come into a land whence no man may bear report abroad," said the
other, darkly. "Yet fear not. Your lives are not in danger, if you will
but yield peacefully. And"--he added, simply--"if you would fight, these
would die for me. Though some be killed, yet can you not hope to
escape."
The two looked at each other.
"Ask him where the others are," said Bob. "I can hardly understand his
lingo. Sounds like Spanish, all right, yet it's a new kind of Spanish to
me. You get along better than I do, so fire away."
"We had some friends," began Frank. But he was interrupted.
"They are alive and in our hands," said the stranger. "Speak. Will you
fight or submit?"
"And you promise we shall not be slain?" asked Frank.
He realized that such a promise would not be worth much, perhaps, yet
that it would be suicidal to attempt to fight. As the stranger had said,
though they might kill some of the enemy, yet inevitably they must
themselves be slain. They were hemmed in, and without shelter, and the
men ringing them 'round were determined-looking fellows of military
bearing.
"I have said," answered the leader.
"Then we surrender," said Frank. "But I warn you that we are citizens of
the United States and that our government will demand an accounting for
us."
The leader regarded them with a slight trace of bewilderment. Then his
face cleared, and he said:
"I do not understand your words. But suffice it you are in the Forbidden
Land. Now lay down your sticks of fire."
The boys complied. As they bent over, their heads close together, Frank
whispered in a low voice:
"We're up against it, Bob. He never heard of the United States."
At a sign from the leader, two men advanced to the sides of each of the
boys, deprived them of their revolvers, and then, disdaining to tie
their hands, led them to one side. There Bob and Frank stood, a soldier
on each side of him, clad in tunic and soft leather boots, and looked on
while the others of the company packed up the camp baggage, struck the
tents, led up the mules from their pasturage nearby, and loaded them.
Camp was struck in an incredibly short time, and they started downstream
and out of the valley.
The leader of the party had a proud, hawklike face, and as he strode
ahead, Frank's eyes kept returning fascinatedly to that profile.
"Bob," he said, "I'll bet we've fallen into the hands of the Incas."
His speech was in English, but at the concluding word the soldiers
guarding him looked sharply at Frank. The leader, too, spun around. He
glanced sharply at the boys, then once more looked away. No word was
said. But both boys noted the glances cast at them, and both were quick
to understand.
Incas! Frank had guessed correctly.
"Did you see that?" asked Frank.
Bob nodded.
"Well, Bob, we're in for the experience of our lives. And as long as
Jack and his father and the rest of the party are all right, I can't say
that I object. We've stumbled on the Enchanted City, or I miss my guess.
At least, we've gotten near it, and have been taken prisoner by the
inhabitants. But think of finding descendants of those old boys, after
all these centuries, hidden away from the world, and not a soul knowing
anything about it.
"Why, Bob, there has been nothing like it in history."
Bob nodded, but his voice was more sober as he replied:
"Yes, it's a pretty safe guess that we've found what we came searching
for. But from all appearances, we may not be able to leave it. Didn't
that chap call this the 'Forbidden Land?'"
"Yes."
"And didn't he say something about our being in a place of which no
report was allowed to get out?"
"Yes."
"That's what I thought. But I couldn't understand him very well. My
Spanish isn't the best in the world, anyhow."
"He speaks what I expect is very ancient Spanish," Frank replied. "You
know the story--how those old Spaniards stayed and intermarried. Well,
the language has been handed down. It's hard for me to understand, but I
can make out what he means well enough."
Both boys had been careful not again to mention the word "Inca," which
originally had stirred the interest of their captors. They walked along
in silence, until Bob presently resumed.
"Well, what I started to say was that it looks to me as if the reason
why no report of the Enchanted City has ever gotten out is that they
have captured whoever came near them and either killed them or taken
them into the tribe."
"Tribe?" Frank laughed. "These aren't wild Indians. They are members of
the strangest race in the history of the world, or I miss my guess."
"What do you think we'll find?"
"I don't know, Bob. But you can count on its being something marvellous.
Look how these men obey their leader. He must be a prince of the royal
blood. But look what we're coming to."
The travel along the stream carried them into an ever-narrowing valley
which finally became a gorge, and now, as Frank let the exclamation
escape him, this gorge broadened out suddenly on the other side and a
beautiful valley lay below. In the middle shone a great lake. It was
this which Jack had seen from his lofty eyrie in the treetop. Farther
off shone other and smaller lakes. Frank counted them. Three.
"The valley told of by de Pereira," he exclaimed.
"Look, Frank."
Frank's gaze followed Bob's outflung hand. A little way ahead was a
considerable body of men of the same sort as their captors. They were
resting on a meadow beneath the shade of a gigantic tree. In their midst
the boys could make out a number of forms--Jack, Mr. Hampton, the de
Avilars, father and son, Carlos and Pedro.
Frank and Bob raised a glad shout of "Jack, Jack. Hello, fellows."
At the same moment, they were seen. Answering cries came to them. They
marched down into the meadow, and the two parties came together. A
confused medley of handclasping followed. Evidently, their arrival had
been expected, for preparations for moving on at once were in evidence.
The leader of the party who had captured Bob and Frank now approached
Mr. Hampton and Senor Don de Avilar.
"We shall embark in boats," said he. "I have your interest in mind, and
you will be permitted to converse one with another, even in the tongue
of the young men which is strange to us."
"Don Ernesto," said Mr. Hampton to his friend, "you seem to understand
this chap better than any of us. Will you ask him where we are being
taken?"
Don Ernesto nodded, then turned to the other. After a few sentences,
their voices dropped and they drew apart. When Don Ernesto rejoined the
group, and the other turned to issue some orders to his men, his eyes
shone.
"Senor Hampton," said he, in an awed tone, "it is as you surmised. These
are Incas of the Enchanted City into whose hands we have fallen. This
chap is a prince of the royal house. I am not certain, and I had but
little time for conversation, yet from something he said, I gather that
the reigning family has in it the blood of de Arguello, leader of that
old band of Spaniards, as well as the royal Inca strain. Doubtless, too,
the nobles have Spanish blood, but that is merely surmise. As to where
we are being taken, we are bound for what this chap, Prince Huaca, calls
'The Fair City,' We are to cross the lake in boats, and, when we arrive
at the landing, we shall be blindfolded, he says, and led 'through the
mountain.'"
"By George," said Mr. Hampton, "we're in for it. Well, we may as well
put a brave face on the matter. It looks dark now, yet we have found
what we came to look for; and remember, you boys, the battle is never
lost until defeat is admitted."
This he said to hearten the boys. Yet the advice was unnecessary. They
had listened to Don Ernesto with close attention, and as Mr. Hampton
gazed from one to the other, he found their eyes alight.
"Why, I don't believe you boys are worried at all," he said,
banteringly.
"Why worry, Dad?" said Jack. "As you said, 'the battle isn't lost until
you are counted out.' I, for one, am tickled to death with the
adventure. And I know Bob and Frank and Ferdinand are the same."
The others nodded.
"Well, here we go, down to the boats," said Frank. "So, as long as we
may talk to each other, tell us how you fellows were captured, and we'll
give our story."