which we found, our ascent of the great pyramid and our examination of
the temple bore no fruit. Young, who still seemed to think that tilting
up and disclosing secret passages was an attribute of all statues of the
god Chac-Mool, was here again convinced that his generalization from a
single case was not a sound one. In a serious way--that in itself would
have been laughable but for the gloom of our surroundings--he climbed
upon the altar and sat first on the head of the god, and then on his
feet, and even tried the effect of seating himself upon the stone disk
that the god upheld above his navel. But through all of these
experiments the stone figure remained solidly immovable.
"I guess there was only one o' that tippin' kind," Young said, at last,
"an' he sort o' flocked by himself. Let's get out of here, anyway. If
this ever was the Aztec bank that we're lookin' for, there must have
been a prehistoric run on it that cleaned it out. They must have done
that sort o' thing in old times, eh, Professor? But it don't make much
difference to us now what they did or what they didn't; an' we'd better
fill up with water an' get out--that is, if there is any way of gettin'
out except along the way we came. There's no good in goin' back that
way. It would be better t' settle down here an' starve comfortably
without wearin' out shoe-leather doin' it. But I don't mean t' do that
until I've had a look all around th' top of this god-forsaken mountain,
an' made sure that there's only one way down."
My own thoughts had been dwelling on the possibility that Young's words
expressed; for at this definite point to which we had come, the path
that we had come by very reasonably might end--so leaving us in this
lonely region among the clouds to die slowly for lack of food. And there
was a certain fitness in our having made our way so far among the dead
only ourselves to die that added sombre fancies to our environment of
sombre realities. Yet there was a heartiness in Young's resolutely
expressed determination to search for a way out of our difficulties
before at all yielding to them that insensibly cheered me. His words had
a plucky ring to them; and bravery is as catching as is fear.
Our empty water-kegs were at the bottom of the pyramid, and when we
reached the fountain on our downward way we waited there while Pablo
went on with El Sabio and fetched them up to us. There was at least
solid comfort in knowing, as we went on downward with the kegs all
filled, that, whatever other death might come to us, at least we could
not die of thirst. At the bottom of the pyramid we left Fray Antonio and
Pablo, with El Sabio and the packs, and the three of us set out to
explore the three sides of the mountain-top that were unknown to us in
search of a downward path. A heavy mass of clouds had drifted over the
mountain again, so thick that at a rod away all was white mist around
us; and the light was growing faint, for the day had come nearly to an
end. Indeed, had we been upon the lower levels of the earth night would
have been already upon us.
Making my way along the edge of the precipice, where the plateau broke
sheer off, was ticklish work; and half humorous, half melancholy
thoughts went through my mind touching the absurdity of an ex-professor
of Topical Linguistics in the University of Michigan being thus employed
in path-hunting upon a lonely mountain-top in Mexico. Truly, adversity
brings us strange bedfellows; but far stranger are the straits into
which a man comes who takes up with the study of archæology at
first-hand. But my path-hunting was without result, for nowhere along
the edge of the plateau was there a break fit for the descent of any
creature save such as had wings. At the end of near an hour the clouds
once more lifted; and then I saw Rayburn coming towards me, but with a
serious look upon his face that told that he also had been unsuccessful
in his search.
"It has rather a bad look, Professor," he said, briefly, when I had told
him that along all the face of the mountain that I had examined the rock
went down sheer. He filled his pipe and lighted it, and we walked back
to the base of the pyramid in silence, while he smoked. Young had not
returned; but presently we heard a shout that had so hopeful a sound in
it as to start us both to our feet and forth to meet him.
"Have you found a way down?" Rayburn called, as he came nearer to us.
"You bet I have," he called back; "and, what's more, I've seen somethin'
to eat."
"_Seen_ something!" Rayburn answered, as he joined us. "Why the dickens
didn't you _get_ it?"
"Well, because it was better'n a mile away from me. It looked like a
mountain sheep, as well as I could make out; but there it was for sure;
an' thinkin' how good that critter will taste roasted has given me a
regular twistin' pain all through my empty inside! But th' point is that
down on that side o' th' mountain there's game; I saw birds, too, but I
couldn't make out what they were; an', somehow, it looks different down
there. It don't look like these d--n dead places we've been prowlin'
through for more'n a coon's age. It looks as if God remembered it, an'
it was _alive_! Why, th' very smell that came up had somethin' good
about it; an' there was a different taste to th' air. I tell you,
Rayburn, I didn't know what a lonely an' mis'rable an' lost chump sort
of a way I was in until I looked over there into that place where th'
whole business ain't run by dead folks. An' what's more, Professor,
that's the trail for us; for, right where it starts down, there's th'
King's symbol an' th' arrow, all reg'lar, blazed on th' rock."
"Is the trail good enough to make a start on now?" Rayburn asked; "we
won't have more than half an hour more light, but I'd give a lot to get
off this mountain before dark, and every foot down that we go we'll be
that much warmer. We'd stand a pretty fair chance of freezing up here
to-night without any fire."
"Th' trail's all right for a good half-mile, anyway," Young answered;
"an' I guess it's good all th' way. It's pretty much th' same as th' one
we come up by, an' that's good enough, where it don't jump cañons, t' go
along in th' dark; but we must rustle if we mean t' do much by
daylight."
We were back at the pyramid by this time, and we found Fray Antonio very
willing to be off with us that we might try to get well down the
mountain before night set in; for at that great elevation the quick
beating of his heart added very sensibly to the throbbing pain of his
wound. Therefore we lost no time in getting our packs upon our backs,
and upon the back of El Sabio, and briskly started downward; and the
keen cold that came into the air, as the sun sunk away behind the
mountain peaks at last, warned us that it was safer to take the risks of
a descent almost in darkness than to stay for the night upon that bleak
mountain-top without a fire.
In twenty minutes we perceived a comforting change in the temperature;
and at the end of an hour--during the last half of which we walked
slowly and cautiously through the fast-thickening darkness--there was
enough warmth in the air about us to make camping for the night
endurable. But we still were at a great elevation, and the thin air was
bitingly keen, and all the more so because of the scant meal that we
had to comfort us and to put strength into us before we wrapped
ourselves in our blankets for sleep.
"What's a mis'rable two pounds of corned-beef among five of us," Young
exclaimed, in a tone of angry contempt, "when every man in th' lot is
hungry enough t' eat th' whole of it, an' th' tin box it comes in, an'
then go huntin' for a square meal? An' t' think o' that sheep I saw! I
say, Rayburn, did you ever eat a roast fore-shoulder of mutton, with
onions an' potatoes baked under it, an' a thick gra--"
"If you don't hold your jaw about things like that," Rayburn struck in,
"I'll murder you!"--and there was such fierceness in his voice, and he
truly was such a savage fellow when his anger was up, that Young was
half frightened by his outburst, and so was silent. I must say that I
wish that he had altogether held his tongue; for, somehow, the smell of
mutton and onions and potatoes, all cooking together, was so strong in
my nostrils, and this smell so set to yearning my very hollow inside,
that it was a long while before I could sleep at all; and when I did
sleep, it was to be pursued by dreams of painful hungriness which were
but too surely founded in painful fact. Certainly, it was very
indiscreet in Young, to say the least of it, to make a remark of that
nature at that untoward time.
However, that was the last day that we suffered for want of food. I was
awakened in the very early morning by the sound of a rifle-shot, and
sprang to my feet, brandishing my revolver, with a confused belief in
my sleepy mind that we were attacked by Indians again; and, truly, my
first feeling was one of pleasure at the thought of meeting, even in
deadly combat, with men who were alive.
"It's all right, Professor," Rayburn said. "We're not fighting anybody.
But I've killed a mountain sheep, and if we only can get him we'll have
a solid breakfast, even if we have to eat him raw. He was over on that
point of rock, and he's tumbled down clear into the valley, and the
sooner we get down there and hunt for him the better."
In the bright light of the early morning we could see below us a glad
little valley, in which trees and grass grew, and in the centre of which
was a tiny lake. But what gave us most joy was seeing birds flying over
the face of the water, and half a dozen mountain sheep scampering away
at the sound of Rayburn's shot. Truly, the sight of these live creatures
was the most cheery that ever came to my eyes; and as I beheld them, and
realized that at last we had emerged from the dreary, death-stricken
region in which as it seemed to me we had spent years, a great wave of
happiness rolled in upon and filled my heart. As it was with me, so was
it with the others: who gave sighs of gladness as thus they found
themselves no longer wanderers among the chill shades of ancient death,
but once more moving in the warm living world.
The path, cut out along the mountain-side, went downward by a sharper
grade than that by which we had ascended; and we descended it joyfully
at a swinging trot, with a new life in us that made us break out into
lively talk and laughter that set the echoes to ringing. And presently,
in a very jerky fashion because of his rapid motion, Pablo piped away on
his mouth-organ with "Yankee Doodle"--and this was the first time that
he had had the heart to play upon his beloved "instrumentito" since our
passage of the lake beneath which lay the city of the dead.
In an hour we came fairly down into that bright and lovely valley, where
was the sweet sound of birds calling to each other, and the glad sight
of these live creatures flying through the air. As for the sheep that
Rayburn had killed, he was knocked pretty well into a jelly by his
half-mile or so of tumble down the mountain-side. But we were not
disposed to be over-fastidious, and we quickly had his ribs roasting
over a brisk fire: that yet was not so brisk as was our hunger, for we
began to eat before the meat was much more than warmed through. When our
ravening appetite was appeased a little, Young got out the coffee-pot
and set to making coffee. And then, with meat well cooked and coffee in
abundance, we made such a meal as can be made only by half-starved men
who suddenly have come forth from the dark shadows of threatening death
into the glad sunshine of safety. Of what further perils might be in
store for us we neither cared nor thought. Our one strong feeling was
the purely animal joy bred of deliverance from gloom and danger, and the
packing of our bellies with hearty food.
When, at last, our huge meal was ended, we settled back upon our
blankets, and fell to smoking. Presently Rayburn gave a prodigious yawn
and laid aside his pipe. "I think I'll take a nap," he said. I saw that
Young already was nodding and that Pablo had sunk down into slumber;
while El Sabio, who had come even closer to starving than we had come,
most thankfully rummaged among the rich grass. My eyes were heavy, and I
stretched myself out on my blankets, with the warm sunshine comforting
my stiffened body, and presently sunk softly into delicious sleep.
I partly woke a few minutes later, as Fray Antonio rose, thinking that
we all were lost in slumber, and walked a little apart from us. He alone
had made a meal in reasonable moderation, and I saw now that he had gone
aside to pray. For a moment the thought stirred in me that I would join
him in what I knew was his thanksgiving for our deliverance; but sleep
had too strong a hold upon me, and my body slowly fell back upon the
blankets and my eyes slowly closed, carrying into my slumber the sight
on which they last had rested: the monk kneeling upon the grass beside a
great gray rock, with clasped hands and face turned upward, pouring his
soul out in grateful prayer.
It was well on in the afternoon when we all woke again; and Young's
first remark was that it must be about supper-time. Rayburn fell in with
this notion promptly, and so did I myself--rather to my astonishment,
for it seemed unreasonable that after such a stuffing I should desire to
eat so soon again. But we did make a supper almost as hearty as our
breakfast had been, and in a little while wrapped ourselves in our
blankets, with our feet towards the heaped-up fire, and went off once
more to sleep, and slept through until sunrise of the following day. In
truth, the mental strain, bred of our gloomy surroundings and of the
dread of starvation that had possessed us, had taxed our physical
strength more severely than our mountain climbing and our lack of
nourishment. The great amount of strong food that we ate, and our long
slumber, showed nature's demand upon us that our waste of tissue should
be made good.
When we woke again on the second morning, we all were fresh and strong
and eager to press onward. There was little left of the sheep to carry
with us; but Rayburn shot half a dozen birds, some species of duck, as
we skirted the lake in our passage across the valley, so there was no
fear that we should lack for food. At its western end the valley
narrowed into a cañon. There was no choice of paths, for this was the
sole outlet, and we were assured that we were on the right path by
finding the King's symbol and the pointing arrow carved upon the rook.
The cañon descended very rapidly, and by noon we were so far below the
level of the Mexican plateau that the air had a tropical warmth in it;
and so warm was the night--for all the afternoon we continued to
descend--that we had no need for blankets when we settled ourselves for
sleep.
Rayburn was of the opinion that we were close upon the Tierra Caliente,
the hot lands of the coast; and when we resumed our march in the morning
he went on in advance of the rest of us, that he might maintain a
cautious outlook. If he were right in his conjecture as to our
whereabouts, we might at any moment come upon hostile Indians. It was
towards noon that he came softly back to us and bade us lay down our
packs and advance silently with him, carrying only our arms. "There's
something queer ahead; and I thought that I heard voices," he explained.
"But there must be no shooting unless we are shot at. Some of these
Indians are friendly, and we don't want to start a row with them if they
are willing not to row with us."
The cañon was very narrow at this point, and high above us its walls
drew so closely together that the shadows about us were deep. As we
rounded a bend in it, the rock closed above our heads in a great arch,
so that we were in a sort of natural tunnel; at the far end of which was
a bright spot showing that a wide and sunny open space was beyond. But
over this opening were bars which cut sharply against the light, as
though a gigantic spider had spun there a massive web; and as we drew
nearer to this curious barrier we saw beyond it a broad and glorious
valley, rich with all manner of luxuriant tropical growth and flooded
everywhere with the warm light of the sun.
We approached the strange barrier cautiously, and our wonder at it was
increased as we found that it was made of the bright metal of which we
had found so many specimens; and still more we wondered as we found that
the bars were fastened on the side from which we approached, so that we
could remove them easily, while from the side of the valley they
presented an impassable barrier. In strong excitement we drew out the
metal pins which dropped into slots cut in the rock and so held the bars
fast, and in a few minutes we had cleared the way for our advance. Just
as we were making ready to pass through the opening we heard the sound
of voices; and as we quickly drew back into the shadows two men sprang
up suddenly before us, and cried in wonder as they saw that the lower
bars across the opening were gone. Yet the expression upon their faces
was not that of anger; rather did they seem to be stirred by a strong
feeling of joy with which was also awe. Both men were accoutred in the
fashion which the pictured records show was usual with the Aztec
warriors, and one of them--as was indicated by his head-dress and by the
metal corselet that he wore--was a chief; and they challenged us
sharply, yet with gladness in their tones, in the Aztec tongue.
So sudden and so ringing was this challenge, and so startling was the
uprising of the men before us, that as we sprang back into the shadow we
instinctively stood ready with our arms. But Fray Antonio, not having
any intent to join in the fight, was cooler than the rest of us, and
instantly perceived that fighting was not necessary. Therefore he it was
who first spoke to these strangers; and his first word to them was,
"Friends!"
Then the watchmen, for such they seemed to be, spoke eagerly together
for a moment, and pressed to the opening to look upon us; yet seeing us
but dimly because of the dark shadows which surrounded us. Pablo was
closest to them, and I marvelled to see how like them he was in look and
in air. Him they first caught sight of, and as they saw him they both
turned from the opening, and, as though calling to some one at a
distance, gave both together a great glad shout. Instantly, at some
little distance, the cry was repeated; and so again farther on and yet
farther, with ever more voices joining in it; so that it swelled and
strengthened into a great roar of rejoicing that seemed to sweep over
the whole of the valley before us, and to fill it everywhere with
tumultuous sounds of joy.
As though the duty that they were charged with had been thus
accomplished, the men turned again to us, and he of the higher rank,
speaking the Aztec language, yet with turns and changes in that tongue
which were strange to me, eagerly called to us:
"Come forth to us! Come forth to us!" he cried. "Now is the prophecy of
old fulfilled and the watch rewarded that our people have maintained
from generation to generation through twenty cycles here at the grated
way! Come forth to us, our brothers--who bring the promised message from
our lord and king!"
I turned to Fray Antonio as these words were spoken, and I saw in his
face that which made me confident in my own glad conviction that here at
last was the secret place for which so long, and through such perils, we
had sought. Here indeed had we found the hidden people of whom the dying
Cacique had spoken and of whom the monk's letter had told; the strong
contingent of the ancient Aztec tribe that ages since the wise King
Chaltzantzin had saved apart, that when their strength was needed they
might come forth to ward their weaker brethren against conquest by a
foreign foe. And the great happiness begotten of this glad discovery
filled all my body with a throbbing joy.
Yet as we went out through the opening that we had made between the
bars, and the watchers saw us fairly in the sunlight, they sprang back
as though in alarm. Rayburn met this demonstration promptly by making
the peace-sign--raising aloft the right arm--that is common to all North
American Indians; and after a moment of hesitation the chief answered to
this in kind. So there was peace between us as we advanced; but it
seemed to me that their regard of us now had in it more of wonder and
less of awe.
[Illustration: MAKING THE PEACE-SIGN]
XVII.
OF OUR COMING INTO THE VALLEY OF AZTLAN.
So unexpectedly had we come upon these strangers, and so marvellous was
the finding thus of the hidden tribe for which we had sought so long,
that I could not but dread, as we advanced towards the Aztec warriors,
lest I should wake suddenly and find that it all was a dream. And they,
also, as it seemed to me, looked upon us doubtingly, and with somewhat
of dread in their regard, as though uncertain whether we were beings
from another world, or men of flesh and blood like themselves.
Not until we were close upon them did further words--after that first
challenge and answer--pass between us; and then the elder of the two,
still making the peace-sign with his raised right hand, and speaking
with a trembling in his voice, as though deep emotion moved him, called
to us: "Have our brothers need of our strength? Bring ye the token that
summons us to their aid?"
I should have been glad just then for opportunity to consult with my
companions as to what answer I should make to these questions, for I
perceived that our position was a very critical one, and that even our
lives might depend upon the wisdom of my reply. For a moment I waited in
the hope that Fray Antonio would make answer; but as he remained silent,
there was nothing for it but that I should take the hazard upon myself.
Therefore, bringing forth the ancient piece of gold from the snake-skin
bag--for so I had carried it constantly, even as the Cacique had done
before me, and others before him, for more than three hundred years--I
held it towards the man who had spoken, and said, firmly: "Here is the
token of summons left behind him by Chaltzantzin; but we come not to
call you forth to battle, but to bring tidings that the fate which that
wise king and prophet foresaw for his people, long since was fulfilled.
In the time appointed, the stranger foemen overcame and enslaved your
brethren, bringing to pass that which Chaltzantzin foretold; and the
message that then was sent to call you forth to their aid reached you
not, because even the wisdom of Chaltzantzin was powerless against the
will of the gods. Yet the gods desired not to destroy your brethren, but
to punish them; and their punishment now is at an end. Once more are
they free, and once more is their ruler a wise and valiant man of their
own race. Therefore, the news which we bring you is not sorrowful, but
glad."
While I was thus speaking, the ringing cries which at the first alarm
had sounded over all the valley grew louder and stronger; but as yet we
saw only the two men who at the first had confronted us--for we were in
a deep recess in the mountain, whence the ground dropped away in front,
so that the immediate foreground was hid from us, and we saw only some
distant meadows, and then a broad lake, and over this more meadows and a
sweep of heavy timber, and back of all great mountains rising against
the clear blue sky.
But as my speech ended, and before those to whom it was addressed at all
had digested the wonder of it, and so hesitated in their reply, a
half-dozen men and a woman or two came in sight in the narrow way before
us, panting after their rapid ascent of the acclivity; and the calls of
others pressing up the slope behind them sounded loudly, and in a very
little while a crowd of a hundred or more pressed about us, all gazing
at us and questioning us with a most eager surprise. For the most part
these seemed to be laborers from the near-by fields; for many of them
carried agricultural implements, and their bare legs and arms were
splashed with mud and were grimy of the soil. As for the look of them,
save that the flowing garments of cotton cloth which the women wore were
embroidered in a fanciful fashion, I could not have distinguished these
people from the tallest and strongest of the Indians dwelling in the hot
lands of the coast about Vera Cruz. The men, who wore only a cloth
twisted about their loins, were as magnificent fellows as I ever saw.
Every one of them was tall and straight, with broad shoulders and
narrow hips, and the muscles of their arms and legs stood out like
cords. From Pablo, who was an unusually tall and well-formed lad, they
differed only in the color of their skins--which were decidedly darker
than his, as was to be expected in the case of men dwelling in this
tropical region at the level of the sea.