wind proves it. If we only can get some more o' these blasted plates
loose we'll light out o' this and euchre the Priest Captain an' his
whole d--n outfit yet! Ketch hold here, Professor, an' put your muscle
into it for all you're worth. Grab right here; now!" And Young and I
together pulled at the same plate with all our might and main. But for
all the impression that we made upon it we might as well have tried to
pull down the mountain; the plate did not stir. Young gave a hearty
curse (and I confess that hearing him swearing in that natural way again
was a real comfort to me), and then we took another pull; and all this
while, so much does the thought of saving his life put cheer into a man,
my heart was bounding within me and the hot coursing of my blood seemed
like to burst my veins. Young's fervor was not less than mine, and we
wrenched and tugged together, and never stopped to mark our cut and
bleeding hands.
"We've _got_ t' do it!" Young exclaimed, as we paused at last, without
having loosened the plate in the least degree. "There's some way o'
workin' this thing, I know. It must be some sort of a door, an' if we
only can get th' hang of it we'll be all right. Have you got your wind
again, Professor? Let's try 'f we can't sort o' prize this plate out;
it's a little loose. Just get your fingers under it an' we'll sort o'
pull it up an' out at th' same time. So! Now sling your muscle into it.
Heft!"
We were stooping a little, and so had a strong purchase, and with all
our united strength we heaved away together. There was a rattling of
metal, a yielding of the plate so easy that our tremendous effort was
out of all proportion to it; my fingers seemed suddenly to be nipped in
a red-hot vice; Young uttered a yell of pain, and then we both were
sprawling on our backs on the floor, while in front of us was a broad
opening in the wall where a wide section of the panelling had risen
upward (the plates sliding up under each other), and so had made an open
way.
"H--ll! how that did hurt!" Young mumbled, with his nipped fingers in
his mouth; and I must say that the vigor of his language was not
uncalled for, as I well understood by the pain that I myself was
suffering. I never remember pinching my fingers so badly as I did then
in the whole course of my life.
However, we did not suffer our hurts, which were not really serious, to
delay us in exploring this hidden place that so suddenly and with such
unnecessary violence had opened to us. Pushing upward the ingeniously
contrived door from the bottom, we easily raised it until an opening was
discovered the full height of a man; and through this we went into a
narrow passage in the rock that in a moment turned and so brought us
into a room that was nearly as large as the oratory that we had just
left, and that, as we presently found, actually communicated with the
oratory by means of two narrow slits high up in the wall; which
apertures here were plainly visible, but on the other side were so
cleverly disguised by an ingenious arrangement of the overlapping plates
as to be entirely concealed. Like the oratory, too, this room had an
opening in its roof through which air entered, and so much light that we
could see about us plainly. And the very first glance that I cast around
me in this strange place assured me that, by sheer accident, we had
found our way at last to the secret chamber wherein King Chaltzantzin's
treasure had lain hidden for a thousand years.
Rude shelves had been cut in the rock on all four sides of the room, and
on these were ranged earthen pots of curious shapes, ornamented with
strange devices that my newly acquired knowledge enabled me to
recognize--to express the matter in the terms of our system of
heraldry--as the arms of a king quartered with the arms of certain
princely houses or tribes. On these shelves, also, were many quaintly
wrought vessels and some small square boxes, all of which were of
gold--together with a score or so of small idols moulded in clay or
roughly carved in stone, in which last the workmanship was so far
inferior to that of the earthen-ware pots and golden vessels as to show
at a glance that they were the product of a much earlier and ruder age;
but belonging to the same age as the gold-work, or to a period even
later, was a very beautiful Calendar Stone most delicately carved in
obsidian, that was identical, save in the matter of size, with the great
Calendar Stone that now is preserved in Mexico in the National Museum.
This was placed at one end of the room upon a carved pedestal; and at
the opposite end of the room, the end farthest removed from the
entrance, was a great stone image of the god Chac Mool. Lying upon the
Calendar Stone was what at first I took to be a cross-bow made of gold;
but more careful examination convinced me, especially in view of the
place where I had found it, that this certainly was an arbalest--called
also a Jacob's staff and a cross-staff--such as in no very ancient
times, until the invention of the quadrant, was used by Europeans in
taking the meridional altitude of the sun and stars.
At the moment that I made this last most curious and exceedingly
interesting discovery, Young, who had been investigating on his own
account, gave a yell of delight, and bounded towards me flourishing his
own brace of revolvers in his hands. "They're all here!" he cried. "All
our guns are here, an' th 'ca'tridges too! Now we _have_ got the bulge
on these devils for sure!"
As he spoke I also was thrilled with joy at the thought of the vengeance
which this recovery of our arms might enable us to take upon Fray
Antonio's murderers; but my joy was only momentary, for I could not but
reflect that, after all, these Aztlanecas had but acted in accordance
with their lights--excepting only the Priest Captain, for whom the most
cruel death would be all too merciful--and that our slaying them would
not be vengeance, but mere brutal revenge. Having which thoughts in
mind, I answered, "At least we can shoot ourselves with them, and so be
safe from death by sacrifice."
"Not much we won't shoot ourselves," Young replied, with great energy;
"an' nobody's goin' t' come monkeyin' 'round us with sacrifices, either.
Why, man alive, we ain't goin' t' stay here--not by a jugful! We're
goin' t' light right out o' this an' be smack off for home."
"How?" I asked, blankly, and with real alarm; for the hot hope that had
filled me at the thought of our having found a way of escape had
vanished as I perceived that from this chamber there was no outlet save
the hole in the roof; which hole also accounted for the current of air
whereby my hope had been inspired. Therefore, when Young spoke in this
extravagant fashion, the dread came over me that he was going mad.
"How?" he answered, "why, through that Jack Mullins, of course. He _is_
th' tippin' kind. I was just tryin' him, while you was pokin' 'round in
that old rubbish, when I happened t' ketch sight of our guns; an' seein'
them, you bet, made me bounce. Here goes for another shot at him! Stick
somethin' under him t' keep him up when I heave."
I was so dazed by the stunning wonder and by the joy that Young's words
carried with them, that I obeyed his order mechanically. With a grave
seriousness he seated himself upon the head of the idol; and as the
figure and the stone base upon which it rested settled down at the end
upon which he sat, and its other end correspondingly swung upward,
showing beneath it a dark opening, I wedged up the mass with a heavy
plate of gold that served as the lid of one of the boxes ranged upon the
shelves.
"It won't do for us both together t' go down there," Young said, as he
rose from his seat and we peered into the dark cavity. "Mullins might
take 't into his fool head t' shut himself up while we was down there,
an' that ud mean cold weather for Rayburn an' Pablo. I'll just jump down
them steps an' prospect a little, while you look after him t' see that
he keeps steady;" and with these words down he went into the hole.
In five minutes or so he joined me again. "It don't look like th' nicest
place I ever got into," he said, "but I guess we'll have t' take th'
chances on it. There's a little room down there, an' out o' that a kind
of a back entry leads into an everlastin' big cave. But there seems t'
be a sort of a path runnin' along in the cave--it's all as dark as th'
devil--an' as paths mostly have two ends to 'em, I guess if we keep on
long enough we'll get somewhere. We can't stay here, that's sure, so
we've just got t' risk it, an' th' sooner we get Rayburn down there th'
better. When he's solidly safe, then we can do some prospectin'--by
good-luck we've got lots o' matches--an' see where that path goes to.
Just sling on your guns, Professor, an' let's mosey back an' get th'
percession started. It's hard lines on Rayburn t' tumble him into a hole
like that when he's feelin' so bad; but I guess it's better t' take th'
chances o' killin' him that way ourselves than it is t' let these devils
do it for sure. Come on!"
While he was speaking, Young had buckled his revolvers about his waist
and had slung his rifle over his shoulder, and I also in like manner had
armed myself--whereby was restored to me a most comforting feeling of
strength. As for Young, the recovery of his weapons seemed to make him
grow two inches taller, and he swaggered in his walk.
XXXVI.
THE VENGEANCE OF THE GODS.
Almost in the moment that we thus found ourselves in condition to show
fight again, the need for fighting seemed like to be forced upon us; for
as we turned to leave the treasure-chamber we were startled by hearing a
creaking sound that we knew came from the sliding upward of the grating
in its metal grooves wherewith the entrance to our prison was made fast.
We paused for a moment, and then Young motioned to me to follow him,
stepping lightly; and as we came out into the oratory we heard a fresh
creaking, by which we knew that the grating had been closed.
"I guess it's only th' fellow puttin' in th' grub," Young whispered.
"But go easy, Professor, an' have your guns all handy, so's you can
shoot. If anybody _has_ come in it won't do t' let 'em get out again.
Only mind you don't shoot unless you really have to. If there's only two
or three of 'em we'd better try t' club 'em with our Winchesters, so's
not t' bring all hands down on us with a rush before we can get Rayburn
away."
As he spoke, we were assured that some one had entered when the grating
was raised and had remained on our side of the grating when it was
closed again, for we heard footsteps in the room where we ordinarily
lay; and then the footsteps drew nearer, as though the unseen person
were examining the other rooms in search of us, and we knew that in
another moment or two this person would enter the chamber wherein we
were. Rayburn was lying so quietly that it seemed as though he had
fallen into a swoon again; and Pablo, as we could tell by hearing his
sobs, had betaken himself to the room in which El Sabio was tethered in
search of solacing companionship. Young motioned me to stand on one side
of the entrance to the oratory, and himself stood on the other; and thus
we waited, while the footsteps rapidly drew nearer, in readiness most
effectually to cut off the retreat of whoever might enter the room.
The man who did enter, passing between us, was the Priest Captain. As he
saw the wreck of the idol, and the opening in the wall behind where the
idol had stood, he uttered an exclamation of alarm and rage; and in the
same moment some instinctive dread of the danger that menaced him caused
him to turn suddenly around. So, for an instant, he confronted us--and
never shall I forget the look of malignant hatred that was in his face
as in that instant he regarded us, nor his quick despairing gesture at
sight of Young standing there with his rifle raised. Even as he opened
his mouth to cry out, before any sound came from his lips, the heavy
barrel of Young's rifle swept downward, and with a groan he fell.
Had the blow struck fairly it could not but have split the man's skull
open; but he swerved aside a little as the rifle came down, and the
weight of the stroke, glancing from his head, fell upon his shoulder. In
an instant, dropping the rifle, Young was kneeling on his breast with a
hand buried in the flabby flesh of his old throat, holding tight-gripped
his windpipe. Excepting only Rayburn, Young was the strongest man I ever
knew (though, to be sure, at that time he was weakened by his then
recent wound and by the privations of his imprisonment), yet it was all
that he could do to hold that old man down and to maintain his choking
grasp. With a most desperate energy and a fierce strength that seemed
out of all nature in a creature so lean and old and shrivelled, the
Priest Captain writhed and struggled in his efforts to throw Young off,
and sought also to grasp Young's throat with his long bony hands--while
foam gathered on his thin lips, and his withered brown face grew black
with congested blood, and his black eyes protruded until the half of the
eyeballs, bloody with bursting reins, showed around the black, dilated
pupils. And then him struggles slowly grew less and less violent, his
knotted muscles gradually relaxed, his mouth fell open so that his
tongue lolled out hideously, his legs and arms twitched a little
spasmodically--and then he lay quite still.
[Illustration: YOUNG'S STRUGGLE WITH THE PRIEST CAPTAIN]
For a minute or two longer Young maintained his grasp. Then rising to
his feet, breathing heavily, he wiped the sweat from his face as he
exclaimed, at the same moment giving the dead body a vicious kick: "You
black devil, take that! Now I've squared accounts with you for killin'
th' Padre--and it's the best day's work I've ever done!"
Though the struggle between the two had been a very desperate one, there
had been no noise about it. Through the whole fight Rayburn had remained
buried in his death-like stupor; and Pablo, though so near to us, had
heard no sound of it at all.
"Now, then, Professor," Young said, when he had got his wind back,
"we've got t' bounce. Th' first thing t' do is t' fasten that gratin' on
our side, so's nobody can get in here t' bother us while we're doin' our
skippin'. I guess we can sort o' wedge it fast so's t' stand 'em off for
an hour or two, anyway, an' that's time enough to give us a fair start."
"We can do something better than that, I think," I said, as we went
together towards the grating. "Unless I am much mistaken, only the
Priest Captain knew about this sliding door and the treasure-chamber
beyond it. If we can restore to their places those three plates, and can
close the door behind us, I am persuaded that so far as pursuit of us is
concerned we shall be absolutely safe."
"Gosh!" Young exclaimed. "D' you know, Professor, I wouldn't 'a' given
you credit for havin' that much common-sense. It's a big idea, that is,
an' we'll try it on. But, all th' same, we've got t' make things as
sure as we can, an' this little job must be attended to first."
As we approached the grating we saw two of the temple guard standing
outside of it, apparently waiting for the Priest Captain's return; and
these men looked at us with such evident suspicion that I feared for the
success of our plans. "Just talk to 'em," Young said, hurriedly. "Talk
to 'em about th' last election, or chicken-coops, or anything you
please, while I take a look 'round an' sec how we're goin' t' get this
job done."
Young dropped behind me, and then aside and so out of sight, as I
advanced to the grating and spoke to the men, whose faces somewhat
cleared as I told them that the Priest Captain desired that they should
wait there a little longer. And then I managed to hold their interest
for some minutes while I spoke about the devil that was in El Sabio, and
about other devils of a like sort whom I had known in my time. While I
thus spoke I heard a little tinkling sound, as of metal striking against
stone--but if the soldiers also heard it they paid no attention to
it--and then Young whispered, "We're solid now; come on!" Whereupon I
quickly ended my imaginative discourse upon demoniac donkeys, and with
no appearance of haste we walked away.
"It was just as easy as rollin' off a log," Young said, jubilantly.
"There was a big gold peg stickin' there all ready t' slide into a slot,
so's t' hold th' gratin' down, an' all I had t' do was t' slide it. I
guess, with a plug like that holdin' that gratin' fast, they'll need
jacks t' open it. Th' only other way t' start it 'll be rammin' it with
a bit o' timber; but bustin' it in that way 'll take a lot o' time, an'
half an hour's plenty for all we've got t' do. If you're straight in
thinkin' nobody knows about that slidin' door we're solid."
I felt very sure in my own mind that I was right in believing that only
the Priest Captain had known of this secret opening; for, after him, the
most likely person to have knowledge of it was the keeper of the
archives, and that he was altogether ignorant of it I was well assured.
Therefore I most cheerfully helped Young, so far as my unskilful hands
could be useful, in the work of restoring the gold plates to the places
whence the lightning had wrenched them loose; and when this work was
done, so cleverly did Young manage it, there was no possibility of
distinguishing the door from any other portion of the wall; nor was
there then a sign of any sort remaining to show that by the passage of a
thunder-bolt the idol had been destroyed.
As we were finishing this piece of work we heard the soldiers at the
grating calling to the Priest Captain--at first in low tones, and then
more loudly; and then we heard them give a yell together, which
convinced us that they had tried to raise the grating and had found that
it was fastened down.
The ten minutes that followed was the most exciting time that I ever
passed through. Notwithstanding the secure fashion in which the grating
was fastened, we could not but dread that those outside had knowledge of
some means whereby it could be loosened; and in any event there was no
doubt but that they could force a way in upon us by beating it down.
Therefore we knew that there was no safety for us until we were fairly
out of the oratory, and had closed behind us the sliding door--and with
such difficult material to deal with as Rayburn, who still lay in a
heavy stupor, and Pablo, whom sorrow had wellnigh crazed, we found it
hard to make such haste as the sharp exigency of our situation required.
Pablo, indeed, was so lost in wonder at finding the broken idol, and the
dead body of the Priest Captain, and a door open in the solid wall, that
what little remained of his wits disappeared entirely; so that we had
almost to carry him--while El Sabio most intelligently followed
him--into the treasure-chamber, and there we left the two together while
we returned for Rayburn. And as we lifted the stretcher our hearts
bounded, for at that instant there was a tremendous crash at the
grating; whereby we knew that those without had brought to bear against
it some sort of a battering-ram that they might beat it in.
"It's a close call," Young said between his teeth; and added, as we
rested the stretcher inside the passage while we closed behind us the
sliding door: "If you're off your base, Professor, an' they do know th'
trick o' this thing, it may be all day with us yet--but it's a comfort
t' know that even if they do finish us we'll everlastin'ly salt 'em
first with our guns."
We heard another great crash behind us, but faintly now that the sliding
door was closed, as we went onward into the treasure-chamber; and here
we heard the like sound again, more clearly, through the slits cut in
the wall. As gently as our haste, and the awkwardness of that narrow
way would permit, we lifted Rayburn from the stretcher, and so carried
him down the short flight of stairs beneath the upraised statue to the
little chamber that there was hollowed in the rock. Here we laid him
upon the stretcher again; and then, without any ceremony whatever, we
bundled Pablo and El Sabio down the hole. It was a smaller aperture,
even, than that through which we had come forth from the Cave of the
Dead, and how El Sabio was able to condense himself sufficiently to get
through it will remain a puzzle to me to my dying day.
All this while we could hear plainly, through the slits in the wall, the
crashing blows which every minute or so were delivered against the
grating, together with a shrill roar of shouts and yells; and we knew
that before this vigorous assault the grating must give way within a
very brief period, and so let in the whole yelping pack. If I were right
in my belief that the Priest Captain alone knew of the secret outlet to
the oratory, we still would be safe enough, and could make some
preliminary examination of the cave before we closed the way behind us
irrevocably by letting the statue fall back into its place; but if I
were mistaken, then there was nothing for us but to take the chance of
life and death by going on blindly into that black cavern, after wedging
fast the under side of the statue in such a way that it no longer could
be swung open from above.
It was most necessary, therefore, that we should see what course our
enemies would take when they came into the oratory and found it empty
of us, and the idol broken, and the Priest Captain lying dead there;
and, that we might compass this end, Young and I returned into the
treasure-chamber and mounted upon a ledge that seemed to have been
provided for a standing-place--whence we had a clear view into the
oratory through the slits in the wall. And at the very moment that we
thus stationed ourselves there reverberated through those rock-hewn
chambers a deafening crash and a jingling clang of metal and a rattle of
falling stone; and with this came a yell of triumph and a rush of
footsteps--and then, in an instant, the oratory was full of soldiers and
priests, all yelling together like so many fiends.
But upon this violent hubbub there fell a hush of awe and wonder as
those who had thus tumultuously entered the oratory saw the Priest
Captain lying dead amid the fragments of the shattered idol, and
perceived that the prisoners who had been shut within these seemingly
solid walls had vanished utterly away; and then a sobbing murmur, that
presently swelled into moans and cries of terror, arose from the throng;
and in a moment more, seized by a common impulse, the whole company
bowed downward, in suppliant dread of the gods by whom such direful
wonders had been wrought.
Young gave a long sigh of relief, and with a most mouth-filling oath
whispered in my ear, "They haven't tumbled to it, an' we're all right!"
As we gazed at these terror-stricken creatures, a thought occurred to me
on which I promptly acted. "Get both of your revolvers pointed through
that hole," I whispered to Young. "Point high, so that the balls will
not hit anybody; and when I begin to shoot do you shoot also, and as
quickly as you can. Mind, you are not to hit anybody," I added; for I
saw by the look on Young's face that he longed to fire into the crowd
point-blank. For answer he gave me a rather sulky nod of assent; but I
saw by the way that he held his pistols that my order was obeyed. "Now,"
I said, "Fire!"--and as rapidly as self-acting revolvers would do it, we
poured twenty-four shots through the slits in the wall. No doubt several
people were hurt by balls bounding back from the rock, but I am
confident that nobody was killed.
When we ceased firing it was impossible to see anything in the oratory,
because of the dense cloud of sulphurous smoke wherewith it was filled;
but such shrieks and yells of soul-racking terror as came from beneath
that black canopy I hope I may never hear again. I waited a little,
until this wild outburst had somewhat quieted, and then--placing my
mouth close to one of the openings and speaking in a voice that I tried
to make like that of Fray Antonio--I said, in deep and solemn tones,
"Behold the vengeance of the strangers' God!"
What effect my words produced I cannot tell. Our firing must have
loosened a fragment of rock between the gold plating that lined the
oratory and the outer surface of the wall, and even as I spoke this
fragment fell. With its fall the opening was irrevocably closed.