dictated by reason, for when he saw the priest in this wholly
unprotected position he deliberately took his stand at precisely the
point behind the little man where all of his kicking power could be most
effectively used. There was a momentary hush as El Sabio thus placed
himself, for every one perceived how very open was the priest to
assault; and at the same time it was apparent that while El Sabio's
kicks assuredly would be exceedingly painful, they were not likely to
inflict upon the priest, while he remained in that attitude, a deadly
wound. In an instant the two small heels flashed through the air, and
there was heard a dull, soft sound--such as might come from the striking
of an over-ripe melon with a heavy club--and with this burst forth a
most piercing shriek of pain. Yet the little priest, knowing that his
life depended upon it, most gallantly retained his hold. Again El Sabio
kicked, and again a piercing shriek sounded; and one hand loosened for a
moment and then clutched fast again. But when El Sabio kicked for the
third time human nature was too weak to resist further against brute
violence. With a yell that fairly cracked our ears the priest let go
his hold and fell downward and backward; and at that same instant El
Sabio delivered a final kick that struck fairly on the head of the
falling man and battered in his skull.
As for El Sabio, it seemed as though he himself were like to die in the
very moment of his victory; for with a sort of groan that, coming from a
brute beast, was most pitiful to listen to, the poor terrified creature,
utterly exhausted by his fright and his outlay of energy in furious
violence, sank down panting by the side of the man whom he had slain.
XXXIII.
IN THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE.
Even with El Sabio reduced to this condition of complete quiescence, the
Aztlanecas, soldiers as well as priests, still were terribly afraid of
him; being firmly convinced, as was not at all unnatural, that for the
time being there was embodied in him a devil of a most dangerous sort.
Therefore they were but too glad to yield to Pablo's burning eagerness
to get to the poor ass; and when he called for aid to carry the
exhausted creature out from the amphitheatre, and so away from among the
dead and wounded and from the dreadful smell of blood, Young and I
promptly were pushed forward and ordered to perform this piece of work
that even the bravest of them shrunk from undertaking.
However, there was no real peril in it, for El Sabio was so weak that he
could not even stand, and still less was he strong enough to kick
anybody. Lifting him in this dull, limp state, and carrying him up the
steep steps, was heavy work for us, wounded and weary as we were; but
with Pablo's help we managed it, and so got him up from the depths of
the amphitheatre to its windward side--where a fresh sweet breeze that
was blowing, and some water that a soldier brought when Pablo called for
it, in a little while put new life into him. Why the ass was not made to
pay the penalty of his sins, by being there and then killed, at first
was a good deal of a puzzle to me; but presently, from the talk that
went on about us while Pablo ministered to him, and while the wounded
lying around the altar were being cared for, and the dead borne away, I
gathered that no one dared to kill him for fear of being himself
possessed by the devil that needs must enter another body upon being
thus set free. And as this seemed to be a view of the case that was
worth encouraging, I very gravely told one of the priests that I myself
had seen a man all in an instant go raving mad upon slaying one of these
creatures and so letting the devil loose from him. As this story was
circulated among the crowd I was glad to perceive that the dread of El
Sabio obviously greatly increased.
As a result of the untoward outbreak that had occurred, no attempt was
made to complete the ceremonial of triumph. Indeed, the victory now lay
so decidedly with El Sabio that there was but little to triumph over.
Therefore we presently were herded together by a party of soldiers--who
took good care that Pablo should lead the ass, and that Young and I
should walk directly behind him as a protection against any further
uplifting of his heels--and so we all were marched once more into the
temple. This time we did not stop in front of the great idol, but went
on beyond it towards a portal in the rear of the building that opened on
an inner court; on the farther side of which court, as we knew from the
description of the place that Tizoc had given us, was the
Treasure-house, in which was stored not only the treasure placed there
in long past ages by King Chaltzantzin, but also the treasure belonging
to the State and to the temple that had been accumulated in later times.
At the entrance to the court-yard, where the way was closed by a metal
grating over which a heavy curtain hung, the soldiers formally
relinquished us into the charge of a company of priests; and then the
curtain was drawn aside and the grating was raised, and we passed out
into the bright sunlight--and saw close before us the place which for so
long a time had so largely filled our thoughts. It was a building of no
great size, being but a single story high, and was dwarfed by the vastly
stupendous cliffs which so far overtopped it that they seemed to extend
upward to the very sky; but it was most massively constructed, and the
actual available space within it was far greater than was indicated by
the relatively small dimensions of its exterior walls. When we entered
the building, through a narrow opening protected by a metal grating, the
chamber into which we came was of so considerable a size that a part of
it, we perceived, must extend actually into the cliff; and that the work
of quarrying out the living rock had been carried still farther was
shown by an opening at its rear end that evidently gave access to some
hollow depth beyond.
It was towards this inner recess that our guards led us. Here another
grating was raised that we might pass, and we went onward through a
narrow passage cut in the rock, along the sides of which were many
openings giving access to small cell-like rooms. Nor was this place, as
we had expected to find it, wholly dark; for narrow slits had been cut
through the rock out to the face of the cliff, through which came so
much light that we could see about us very well. And but for that
blessed light, faint though it was, I doubt not that we should have gone
mad there; and even with the light to cheer and to comfort us I felt a
black despair settling down upon me at the thought of being thus
imprisoned within the very bowels of the mountain, with no possibility
of other release than being taken thence to die.
At the extreme end of the passage the rock had been hollowed away
smoothly and carefully so as to form a chamber nearly thirty feet square
and at least twenty feet high, whereof all the walls were covered with
plates of gold which overlapped each other in the manner of fishes'
scales; and advantage had been taken of some wide crevice or deep
depression in the cliff above to open in the roof of this chamber a
small aperture, whence a pale light entered in long fine rays which
gleamed through the shadows, and gleamed again more faintly in
reflections from the golden walls. In this oratory--for such it
evidently was--stood a statue, smaller than that in the temple yet still
more magnificently arrayed, of the god Huitzilopochtli; before which
odious image we were thrown upon our faces by our guards. When this
ceremony was ended we were led forth once more into the passage, and so
into two of the little cells which had been meagrely prepared for us by
tossing into each of them a bundle of mats; and there our guards left us
to shift for ourselves--shutting the grating behind them with a sharp
ringing of metal on stone that echoed dismally through the rock-hewn
chambers wherein we were held fast.
For a while we stood in melancholy silence about the stretcher on which
poor Rayburn lay; and very pale and worn he looked after his great loss
of blood and heavy fatigue and the pain and excitement of the last few
hours. Pablo had taken up his quarters with El Sabio in a cell on the
opposite side of the passage--for within the limits of our prison we
were left to arrange ourselves as we pleased--and we could hear him
talking to the ass in a fashion that at any other time we should have
laughed at; for by turns he upbraided him for his rash acts, and
complimented him upon his bravery, and expressed dread of the punishment
that might be visited upon him, and told him of his very tender
love--all of which, so far as we could judge, El Sabio took in equally
good part.
"There ain't no good in standin' 'round here doin' nothin'," Young said,
at last. "This don't look like much of a place t' break out of, but we
may as well see how things are, anyway. Th' Padre'd better take a
squint at Rayburn's busted leg an' set th' bandages straight; an' while
he's attendin' t' that, me an' you, Professor, can do a little
prospectin'. This is th' Treasure-house, for sure, an' it'll be some
satisfaction t' see what it amounts to. I'll bet a hat there ain't
anything worth havin' in th' whole place, after all."
I was glad enough to have any occupation that would change even a little
the sad current of my thoughts, and I therefore very willingly acted on
Young's suggestion--after first making sure that Fray Antonio had no
need of help in his work of dressing Rayburn's wound--and together we
set about this curious exploration; that had in it a strong charm for
me, notwithstanding my heavy sorrow, because of the possibility that it
opened of finding curious traces of a new community so far advanced in
civilization as was that which the King Chaltzantzin had brought with
him into this valley a thousand years ago. Here, unquestionably, was the
oldest deposit of the belongings of any of the primitive dwellers upon
the American continent; and I trembled a little with excitement at the
thought of what archæological treasures I here might find--and then I
heaved suddenly a long sigh as I remembered how useless in my present
case would be even the most brilliant of discoveries.
As for Young's bet of a hat that there was no treasure here worth
having, he would have lost it, had it been accepted, at the very first
of the rooms which we examined; for the whole of this room, a cube of
about ten feet, was packed full of bars of hardened gold from the mine
at Huitzilan. And so was the next room, and the next, until we had found
five rooms thus filled. But all the remaining rooms were entirely empty,
and of the treasure set aside in long past ages by King Chaltzantzin
there was no sign. Yet here, truly, was stored wealth the like of which
the richest monarch in the world could not match for greatness; and as
Young beheld before him such enormous riches his face grew ruddy, an
eager light came into his eyes, the muscles of his throat worked
convulsively, and his breathing was labored and short--until I
demolished all his fine fancies at a blow by saying: "Much good this
treasure is to us, when there isn't a ghost of a chance that either of
us ever will get out of this valley alive!" As I uttered these bitter
words his look of animation left him, and for some moments he was
silent; and when at last he spoke, it was in a tone of calm though
melancholy conviction, and with a most dispassionate air.
"I shall be obliged t' you, Professor, really obliged t' you," he said,
"if you'll just kick me for a blasted fool. Ever since that night in
Morelia when you told me an' Rayburn about this treasure I've regularly
had it on my brain. Through all these months I've been thinkin' about it
when I was awake an' dreamin' about it when I was asleep. An' it's true
for a fact, Professor, that never until this blessed minute, when we've
really struck it, has th' notion come into my fool head that when we did
ketch up with it the folks it rightly b'longed to might want t' keep it
for theirselves! Yes, just kick me, please. Just kick me for a forlorn,
mis'rable, blasted fool!"
I was not disposed to laugh at Young's words; rather was I disposed to
weep over them. For they brought freshly and strongly to my mind the
fact that I was responsible for alluring him, by the hope of acquiring
great riches quickly, into this accursed valley, where in a little while
he would be most barbarously done to death. And I knew too that I was
responsible for the like fate that must overtake Rayburn, and that in
regard to Pablo my guilt was greatest of all. It was a comfort to me,
truly, that not one of these ever by look or word reproached me for thus
so wofully misleading them; and yet, in a certain way, their very
forbearance but added to my pain.
Therefore was I a little gladdened, when we returned again to the
others, to find that Fray Antonio was speaking to Rayburn, with a grave,
calm hopefulness, of those spiritual realities which are higher and
better than material realities, and without steadfast trust in which,
most of us, in the course of this sorrowful thing that we call life,
assuredly would go mad in sheer despair. And listening to this
comforting discourse, which was not checked by our return, did much to
strengthen me to bear my heavy load of vain regret. Presently Fray
Antonio shifted his ground--for he had the wisdom to speak but shortly
on these grave topics, yet using always pregnant words which sank down
into men's hearts and germinated there--and told us of what had befallen
him since he had stolen away from us that night in Huitzilan.
In truth, he had but little to tell, for his adventures had been of a
very simple kind. Upon his arrival in the canoe at the water-gate he
had been at once recognized and admitted, and had been carried directly
to the building in which, on our first coming into the city, we all had
been confined. And there he had been imprisoned until he was led up to
the temple to take part in the triumph that El Sabio's violence so
seriously had marred, and so once more was in our company. Of the Priest
Captain he had seen nothing at all; nor had any answer come back to him
from that dignitary to his urgent plea that, inasmuch as he had thus
surrendered himself, his companions--that is, ourselves--should be
suffered to leave the valley in peace; which silence on the part of the
Priest Captain was not surprising, however, in view of the brave
defiance in words sent by the Tlahuicos, who afterwards were such
cowards in deeds.
In fact, during the brief time of his imprisonment Fray Antonio had not
spoken to a soul save the man who brought him drink and food. Yet his
talk with this man, scant though it had been, had filled him with the
hope that, could he only hold free converse with the people at large,
even as he had done at Huitzilan, the purpose that he had in mind in
coming into the valley would be fulfilled. Although a priest of the
temple, his jailer had listened with a most earnest and hearty attention
to the expounding of Christian doctrine that was opened to him, and had
shown a very cheering willingness to recognize the shortcomings of his
own idolatrous belief as compared with the principles of this purer and
nobler faith. And he had told Fray Antonio that many of his companions
in the service of the temple, having heard somewhat of the new creed
from those who had tome up from Huitzilan, were eager to know more
concerning it; so that it would seem, Fray Antonio declared, as though
there were a harvest there ready to be reaped to Christianity by his
hand. The case was such, he thought, that could he but speak publicly to
the multitude, and especially could there but be vouchsafed from Heaven
some sign by which the verity of his words might be established, he yet
would win to the glorious Christian faith this whole community, that,
through no fault of its own, until that time had remained lost in
heathen sin.
Rayburn and I exchanged glances as Fray Antonio spoke of aid being given
him in his work by a sign from Heaven, for to our notions the time of
miracles was a long while past. But Fray Antonio, as we knew (for once
or twice we three had spoken together of this matter), did not at all
hold with us in believing that miracle-working had come to an end; and
indeed his faith was entirely logical; for, as he himself put it, those
who believed that miracles ever had been wrought for the advancement of
Christianity could not reasonably draw a line at any year since the
Christian Church was founded, and say that in that year miracles ceased
to be. In this matter, as in many others, the resemblance between Fray
Antonio and the founder of his Order, Saint Francis of Assisi, was very
strong.
Pablo's experience as a prisoner had been of a far more trying sort; for
the priests had sought earnestly, he said, by most stringent means, to
pervert him from Christianity to their own faith. When we had been so
rudely separated that day, after our interview with the Priest Captain,
he, and El Sabio with him, had been hurried up the stairs to the temple,
and thence to the Treasure-house; and there, though not in the part of
it in which we then were, he had been ever since confined. Strong
measures certainly had been taken to make a heathen of him. He had been
starved for a while, and he had been deprived of water, and he had been
cruelly scourged, and very harrowing presentments had been made to him
of the death that he must die should he much longer refuse to yield.
That the lad had remained firm in his faith, he told us, sobbing a
little at memory of his hardships, was because of the sorrow that he
knew his yielding would bring upon Fray Antonio and upon me; which
certainly was not the reason that Fray Antonio most would have approved,
but it did not in the least detract from the steady courage that he had
shown in holding out firmly under pressure that would have made many a
man succumb. In all the time that so many cruelties had been practised
upon him, only one man had shown him kindness--an old man, who seemed to
be in charge of the archives that the Treasure-house contained, who
twice had risked his own life by secretly giving him water and food. But
he never had been separated from El Sabio, Pablo said joyfully, in
conclusion, nor had his mouth-organ been taken away from him; and these
blessings had done much to lessen the misery that he was compelled to
bear.
When, in our turn, Rayburn and Young and I had told of the far more
stirring adventures that we had passed through, and of our high hopes
seemingly so well founded that had suffered so dismal a downfall, we all
of us wisely refrained from speculating at all upon the future; instead
of which profitless and painful topic we strove to speak cheerfully of
indifferent matters; and this we did not only that we might the better
keep our hearts up, but that we might not excite Rayburn, who already
was in a dangerously feverish condition by reason of his wound. But,
though we spoke not of it, we none of us doubted what our fate would be;
nor did we imagine that the death that surely awaited us would be long
delayed.
It was a source of wonder to us, therefore, that day after day went by
without bringing the end that we so confidently expected. From the man
who brought us our food we could learn nothing; but this was not from
ill-will on his part, but because he himself knew nothing of the Priest
Captain's plans. This man, though a priest, was not unkindly disposed
towards us, and he even listened to the words which Fray Antonio
addressed to him touching Christian doctrine; but while he
listened--being made of a sterner stuff than the priest who previously
had been Fray Antonio's jailer--he gave no sign of assent. The only
other person whom we had a chance to speak with, and this but rarely,
was the old man who had shown kindness to Pablo, the guardian of the
archives--who, by right of his official position, had free access to
that portion of the Treasure-house from which the second grating cut us
off. At the grating he and I had some very interesting conversations
together upon archæological matters; but Fray Antonio took but little
interest in him when he found how slight was the impression made upon
him by the most serious of doctrinal talk. In truth, this old
fellow--wherefore my own heart warmed to him--was wholly given to the
study of antiquities; and so full was his mind of this delightful
subject that there was no room left in it for thoughts about religions
of any sort. He was entirely catholic in this matter, for his unconcern
respecting Christianity was neither more marked nor less marked than was
his unconcern toward his own avowed faith.
Many curious things this old man told me touching the history of his
people; and he showed me, also, the manner in which their annals were
kept--an obvious evolution from the picture-writing of the Aztecs that
had advanced to a stage closely resembling the cross between ideaographs
and an alphabet that the Coreans use--all of which I have dealt with
exhaustively in my larger work. And he told me also, with a wonder that
did not seem uncalled for, that several times in each year the Priest
Captain retired to the very place in which we then were imprisoned, and
remained there sometimes for as much as a whole month cut off from his
people, without food or drink, while he communed with the gods.
But what seemed strange to me, and also bitterly disheartening, was that
this old man, notwithstanding the office that he held and his hungry
love for ancient things, could tell me nothing of the treasure that King
Chaltzantzin had stored away. He knew of this treasure, he said, only
as a vague tradition; and although, at one time or another, he had
explored every chamber in the Treasure-house, he never had found of this
ancient deposit the smallest trace; for which excellent reason he had
concluded that if ever there had been such a treasure it long since had
been dispersed. No doubt--considering how useless to me, beyond the mere
gratification of my own curiosity, would have been its discovery--my
regret at this abrupt ending of my hopes was most unreasonable; but I
confess that, so far as I myself was concerned, the very keenest pang of
sorrow that I suffered through all that sorrowful time was when I thus
learned that the archæological search that I had entered upon so
hopefully, and that I had so laboriously prosecuted, had been but a
fool's errand from first to last.
XXXIV.
A MARTYRDOM.
Heavily and wearily the days dragged on as we lay in that dismal prison
hewn from the mountain's heart; and as they slowly vanished there stole
upon us a new sorrow, that was deeper and more searching than the
doubting dread by which we were beset touching the cruel ending of our
lives.
Rayburn's wound--a very savage cut in the thigh, made by the jagged edge
of a maccahuitl--from the first had been a dangerous one; and the danger
had been aggravated by inflammation that had followed that long, hot
journey across the lake, and by the rough handling that his bearers had
given him, and by the excitement that had attended El Sabio's fiery
outburst beside the sacrificial stone. Even Fray Antonio's skill in
surgery, without which he assuredly would have quickly died, only barely
sufficed to keep him alive while the fever was upon him; and when at
last the fever left him, the little strength remaining to him grew less
with every passing day. It was pathetic to see this man, who until then
had been the very embodiment of rugged vigor, so worn with suffering
that without Fray Antonio's tender assistance he scarce could move; and
still more pathetic was it to hear him moaning in his pain, and uttering
heart-sick longings for sunlight and fresh air, for need of which, Fray
Antonio affirmed, he was dying there quite as much as because of his
wound. Indeed, the chill chamber in the rock where he was lying was no
fit place even for a well man at that time to dwell in; for the season
of rains had come, and all the nights were cold and damp, while through
the afternoons and in the night-time, during which portions of the day
the rain fell in torrents, the whole mountain was shaken by the
tremendous peals of thunder which roared and crashed about its crest.
It was after one of poor Rayburn's pitiable outbreaks of weak moaning
that Young led me away into the oratory, with the evident intention of
delivering himself of some matter that pressed heavily upon his mind.
"See here, Professor, I just _can't_ stand this any longer," he said,
when we were alone. "I'm goin' t' send word t' th' Priest Captain t'
ask him if finishin' me off in short order won't make him willin' t' let
Rayburn out o' this damp hole into some place where he can be
comfortable, an' where in th' mornin's he can get some sun an' air.
Rayburn won't mind bein' squarely killed after he's healthy again. He
ain't th' kind t' be afraid of anything when he's feelin' all right. But
it's just infernal cruelty t' kill him this way--it wouldn't be fair to
a dog. So I'm goin' t' try what I can do. It's nothin' much t' do, any
way--only runnin' a little ahead o' th' schedule, that's all."