"Look here, Jack," said Frank, as the three chums kept step together
along the corridor, while Ferdinand walked ahead with Mr. Hampton and
his father, Don Ernesto. "Look here, what do you think our chances of
escape are going to be?"
"I don't know."
Jack shook his head. As for big Bob, he growled a comment.
"Why worry? I'm having a good time. I want to learn all about this city.
And the treasure, too, that we came for, it----"
"Oh, we'll have to give up that idea now," said Jack. "We can't rob
these people. If the Enchanted City had been abandoned and in ruins, and
we had discovered it, that would have been a different matter."
Frank took no part in this discussion. It wasn't treasure of which he
was thinking.
"Just the same, Bob," he interrupted, "we ought to be thinking of how we
can escape, for I have an idea that these people intend to keep us
imprisoned for life or, as Don Ernesto says, persuade us to join the
nation."
"Why not?" said Bob. "I'd like to be a captain in this man's army. These
Incas look like fine material for soldiers, and with our military school
knowledge we ought to be able to drill them in modern tactics."
"And with our knowledge of radio and other modern inventions and
discoveries," supplemented Jack, "we would be invaluable. We could rise
to high positions in the state."
"What," exclaimed Frank, "and stay here all our lives?"
"Well, why not?"
"Oh, he wants to go home to Della," said big Bob, mentioning the name of
his sister, with whom Frank was in love.
Frank flushed, but did not reply.
"I'm not keen on staying here forever, either," said Jack quickly; for
his thoughts more and more during their South American stay had turned
to Senorita Rafaela in her Sonora mountains, and Bob's reference to
Frank and Della had brought her again to mind. "Just the same, this
would be a paradise of a place in which to live if it were brought in
touch with the outside world."
"So you think you'd get to be a big gun here and then open the Enchanted
City to civilization?" asked Frank.
"It might be done," said Jack.
"Well, after seeing that religious ceremony, I doubt it. The Incas would
not want to give up their supreme power, and they know they would have
to do that if their country were opened up. Chile or Argentine would
absorb the country."
"Oh, not necessarily," answered Jack. "This country might remain
independent, an inland empire."
"An absolute empire couldn't survive long in a land of republics," said
Frank, "especially when this country is small."
"Small, yes," agreed Bob. "But it is powerful. The Incas in the
beginning were few in number, but good fighters with fine military
organizations. From their mountain heights in the North they overflowed
and conquered their tremendous empire. Perhaps their descendants aim to
step out some day from these mountain heights in the South, and do the
same."
"What folly, Bob," said Frank. "They would be up against modern nations
with modern implements of war."
"Well, can't they learn to make modern war?" asked Bob. "They've got
some able instructors in military tactics here to teach them."
Jack and Frank, recalling that in anything pertaining to military
science Bob had beaten both at Harrington Hall, smiled at each other.
Some men apparently are born warriors. And Bob was of the number.
Further conversation along this line was halted by their coming up with
the others. They had been moving up and down corridors and short flights
of steps while talking, and had taken little note of the length of the
passage to Prince Huaca's apartments. Mr. Hampton, however, commented on
that fact as they approached. The boys seemed surprised.
"What are we waiting for?" asked Bob.
"To be announced."
For the first time the boys noticed they stood before a great closed
door on either side of which Inca soldiers, six feet tall, impassive of
countenance, mounted guard. Their guide had disappeared within. Then the
door was opened and they were ushered into an anteroom, of which they
had no time to take particular note, except to see that a number of
young nobles stood about in groups, talking, for they were taken at once
through this room and into an inner chamber.
Here sat Prince Huaca at a table, writing. It was a small table of
polished wood, the top mounted on the back of a crouching lion,
beautifully carved. The room itself, while large, was considerably
smaller than their apartment, and was severely furnished. A number of
couches stood about. To these Prince Huaca motioned, with the request
that they be seated, and meantime continued his writing. Presently,
having finished the task, he sanded the paper to dry the ink, then
rolled it into a scroll, about which he tied a cord of gold and purple
threads. The missive then was handed to the man who had guided them,
with an order delivered in the Inca tongue, and the man departed,
leaving them alone with the prince.
"Be not dismayed," he said, turning to his guests. "I would know what
brought you to the Forbidden Land. Few are the men who have come
thither, for our fastnesses are impregnable and the outer valley where
you were captured can be stumbled upon only by accident. And of those
whom I have captured in the past or my fathers before me, none within
two hundred years came seeking us, but found their way thither only by
accident. You, however, I am certain, came seeking us. Is it not so?"
Directly appealed to, Don Ernesto agreed.
"Your Highness, it is."
"Call me Prince Huaca," said the other, simply. "Yes, it is as I
thought. And it was this which led you?"
He held a manuscript aloft. It was the de Pereira manuscript, in archaic
Spanish, Spanish as old as that spoken by Prince Huaca.
"It was that which brought us."
"Senor," said Prince Huaca, "I cannot believe that you came expecting to
find a nation in existence."
"We thought but to find abandoned ruins."
Prince Huaca was silent, thoughtful.
"Pray, Prince Huaca," said Mr. Hampton, speaking for the first time,
"may we not state our surprise to find that a powerful people exists
here unknown to the world at large and unsuspected? Moreover, surpassing
in my mind the mystery of how you have kept your secret through the
centuries----"
"Eternal vigilance," interrupted Prince Huaca.
"Well," continued Mr. Hampton, "surpassing that mystery, I say, is that
of how you have maintained a healthy and, doubtless, growing population
within this restricted territory."
"State supervision and control of families, lands, everything, but----"
Prince Huaca arose abruptly, and moved up and down before them, his face
dark, his sandals making no sound. He paused before them.
"We need more land," said he. "Some of us are for marching out with our
armies to conquer. But some, like myself----Ah, you have come at a
critical time in our life." He paused, his eyes searching their faces
keenly. "I do not know why I talk to you like this," he said. "But
something within bids me have faith, bids me trust you.
"Ah, I would know of the world beyond our mountain fastnesses. Without
knowledge a man is like a worm crawling in the soil. But when he knows,
it is like the Sun shedding his beneficent light into the gorges of our
mountains and dispelling the gloom. You come from this outside world.
You are not commoners, like the one or two we have captured in the
Forbidden Land in other days. No, you are nobles, men of knowledge and
power. This I can see from certain objects among your possessions."
He waved his hand to a corner of the room, which hitherto had not been
noticed. The boys and the older men looked whither he pointed. There
stood all their luggage.
"In your possessions are many strange objects," Prince Huaca continued.
"Books in the royal tongue, for so," he added, proudly, "we call the
Spanish which only those of Inca lineage intermarried with de Arguello
and his Conquistadores speak. These books puzzle me, for, though they
are in Spanish, yet it is changed from the Spanish which I speak. In
truth, as you note, we have some little difficulty in understanding each
the other. It is only this," and he held up the de Pereira manuscript,
"which is in the tongue I learned."
"And there are other objects. Strange threads that gleam and cannot be
broken."
"Our copper wire for the radio outfit," said Jack, involuntarily.
He spoke in English. Prince Huaca stared puzzled.
"I do not understand."
"He speaks in another tongue, Prince Huaca," said Mr. Hampton.
"Still another than Spanish?"
"Yes. In the world without are a hundred different tongues."
Prince Huaca was dumbfounded. He stared at Mr. Hampton, as if in
disbelief.
He turned to Don Ernesto.
"And is this so?"
"Yes, it is the truth."
Prince Huaca abruptly returned to his seat, and placed his head in his
hands. He sat, bowed in thought. None interrupted. Presently, he again
looked up.
"And are all these peoples powerful?"
"Their numbers are as of the sands of the sea," said Don Ernesto,
thinking to quote an impressive figure. But Prince Huaca merely appeared
puzzled, and the Don hastily remembered he could know nothing of the
ocean, and amended himself: "They are in number like the leaves of the
forest. They have built mighty cities. There is one beyond your
mountains to the east called Buenos Ayres where dwell more than two
million souls. They----"
"But can they read and write, can they do this?" cried Prince Huaca,
eagerly. "Our ancestors, the ancient Incas of Cusco, kept accounts only
by means of quippus, knotted strings. But we of Inca lineage here have
that knowledge of reading and writing handed down to us by the three
priests of de Arguello. This is knowledge, and power."
"Today, the simplest of the commoners can read and write in that world
beyond your mountains," said Mr. Hampton. "Even Pedro and Carlos, my
friend's servants, have this knowledge."
Once more Prince Huaca was silent, digesting this. Then he said:
"But has not too much learning made them weak, so that they are like
women and cannot fight?"
"On the contrary, Prince, they fight with weapons that slay at great
distances, with ships that fly in the air like birds and drop death upon
those below. And yet," added Mr. Hampton, "they seek these peoples, to
live in peace with each other. No longer is it considered great to make
war. Those who set out to conquer find all other peoples banded together
against them."
Prince Huaca once more fell into a manner of abstraction, from which the
others made no effort to arouse him. Presently, he lifted his head, and
there was an expression of resolution on his features.
"Senor," said he, "that is all for the present. These matters that you
have told me, however, I shall lay at once before the Council. Do you,
therefore, hold yourselves in readiness to appear and be questioned?
Meantime, I shall order your possessions restored to you, on one
condition."
He paused, expectantly.
"What is that?" asked Mr. Hampton.
"That these strange devices be explained to me, and that they be not
used to cause evil to us."
He lifted aside a heavy cloth of gold from an end of this table,
revealing beneath portions of the radio outfit brought by Mr. Hampton.
The others looked at each other. One thought was in every mind. How
explain the phenomenon of radio to an idolator to whom it could mean
nothing other than witchcraft and wizardry? Then Mr. Hampton had an
idea.
"In these South American forests," said he, "particularly in that jungle
land beyond the mountains whence came your ancestors, Prince Huaca, the
Indian tribesmen have a method of communicating to each other without
the use of runners. They place along the bank of a river a hollow log,
upon which they tap certain tappings with a hammer. Miles away, with his
ear to another hollow log upon the river bank, a man hears that
message."
"Of this I have heard something," said Prince Huaca.
"The sound," said Mr. Hampton, "travels along the water. But this device
before you is for the purpose of sending sound through the air, as if a
man had a voice which could be heard from here to ancient Cusco,
thousands of miles distant. This is only one of the many wonders known
to the world outside your mountains today."
He stopped, unwilling to venture upon a detailed explanation that could
not be understood, fearful that, perhaps, he already had said too much,
that Prince Huaca would consider him either a great liar or a great
wizard, and would act accordingly.
The prince, however, did not change expression.
"Could you call men from beyond the mountains to Cuso Hurrin?"
"To what place?"
"That is the name of our city."
Mr. Hampton struggled with himself. If he admitted the power that the
radio outfit put at his command, doubtless Prince Huaca would take it
from him, and their chances of bringing rescuers, if that proved
necessary, would vanish. Nevertheless, he was a truthful man.
"Yes," said he, simply. "It could be done."
Prince Huaca was silent.
"And who among you understands this best?"
Once more Mr. Hampton hesitated. Perhaps the prince planned to slay
whichever member of the party he considered was the operative.
"I mean you no harm," said Prince Huaca, rightly interpreting his
hesitancy. "I would but learn more of this marvel."
"These boys," said Mr. Hampton, indicating Jack, Frank and Bob. "They
are familiar with this marvel and even have added to it by little
improvements."
"Then," said the prince, "I shall ask them to come to my quarters here
and teach me. Perhaps we shall employ your marvel. I would learn about
it. It may be useful. I shall keep it here. Meantime, do you go to your
apartment while I go to the Council. And hold yourselves in readiness
for my summons."