"Those fellows 'll just think hell's broke loose in here, for sure; and
I guess after they've onct fairly got outside they'll rather be skinned
alive than come back again. But what did you say to 'em? Hearin' you
talkin' like th' Padre, that way, gave me a regular jolt. Don't you
think, though, maybe it was a little bit risky t' give ourselves away?"
But when I had repeated in English the words which I had spoken, Young
very seriously shook hands with me. "Shake!" he said. "I've done you
injustice, Professor. Sometimes I've thought that you was too much
asleep for your own good--but if anybody ever did anything more wide
awake than that, I'd like t' know _what_ he did and who he was. Why,
when those fellows tell about all that's been goin' on in here--about
their busted idol, an' their dead Priest Captain, an' our skippin,' an'
this row our shootin' has made, an' then about th' Padre's ghost talkin'
to 'em that way--it's bound t' give 'em such a jolt that th' whole
outfit 'll slew smack round an' be Christians right off!"
Some such notion as this had been in my own mind as I executed the plan
that on the spur of the moment I had formed. When, later, I thought
about it more calmly, I could not but regret, for Fray Antonio's sake,
my hasty action; for he would have been the very last man to approve of
such stringent methods of advancing the Christian faith. If any result
came from my demonstration, it certainly came through terror; and the
essence of Fray Antonio's doctrine, as it was also of his own nature,
was gentleness and love.
XXXVII.
THROUGH DARKNESS TO LIGHT.
"I guess we're solid now, as far as bein' bothered by those sacred
devils goes," Young said, as we stepped down from the ledge of rock on
which we had been standing; "but this ain't no time t' take no chances,
an' th' sooner we see what show we've got for gettin' anywhere through
that cave, th' better it'll be. An' we've got t' look after Rayburn.
He's closter t' handin' in his checks t'-day than he's been at all. Just
think o' him keepin' still through all that row, an lettin' himself be
yanked around like a bag o' meal without takin' any notice of it! But
there's just a squeal of a chance for him if we do get clear away.
Knowin' that he's safe 'll do him more good, even, than fresh air an'
sunshine--an' oh Lord! how good fresh air an' sunshine 'll be, if ever
we do strike 'em again!"
When we descended the stair-way again to the little hollow in the rock
where Rayburn was lying, we found that he still remained in his dull
stupor and took no notice of our coming. Close beside were Pablo and El
Sabio, huddled together for mutual support in this very trying passage
of their lives. El Sabio, indeed, was a most melancholy and dejected
creature, for his short commons and his long confinement had taken the
spirit out of him pretty thoroughly; but for our purposes just then,
when his tractability was very necessary to us, it was a piece of
good-fortune that he had fallen into so low a way. As for Pablo, the boy
was in so dazed a condition that I feared greatly he would wholly lose
his wits.
There was only a faint suggestion of light in that deeply hidden place,
and Young struck a match that he might see to begin his explorations.
"Well, I'll be shot," he exclaimed, as the wax-taper shed its clear
light around us, "if here ain't a conductor's lantern hangin' up all
ready for us, an' a can o' kerosene oil!" As he lighted the lantern, and
the letters F. C. C. showed clearly on the glass, he added, in a tone of
still greater amazement: "Ferro-Carril Central! Why, it b'longs t' one
o' th' boys on th' Central!--but how th' dickens did it ever get _here_?
An' here's a lot of old clothes--th' sort o' rags th' low-down Greasers
wear. An' I'm blest," he went on, as he picked up a scrap of paper from
the floor, "if this ain't a Mexican Central ticket from Leon to Silao!
It's dated last June, an' it's only punched once, so 't couldn't 'a'
been used all the way. I say, Professor, am I asleep or awake?"
As I examined the several articles which we had come upon so strangely
in this incongruous plate, a flood of light was let in upon my mind, and
with this came also the glad certainty that the way before us to freedom
was open and assured. My belief that the Priest Captain had been in
communication with the outside world no longer admitted of a doubt, for
here was absolute proof of it: the clothes which he wore when making his
expeditions into the nineteenth century; the lantern that he had stolen
in order the more easily to find his way through the cave; the railway
ticket that he had but lately used. In an instant I had connected all
this with what the guardian of the archives had told me concerning the
Priest Captain's habit of retiring for long periods of time to one of
the chambers in which we had been imprisoned, and the whole matter was
as plain to me as day; and I knew now, that in order to guard against
discovery, he, or one of his predecessors, to whom this secret way must
also have been known, had caused to be set in place the fastening by
which the grating could be secured upon its inner side; which fastening,
within that very hour, had been the means of saving our lives.
"Well," said Young, dryly, when I had briefly explained these several
matters, "I guess he won't pull th' wool over nobody's eyes any more!
An' now you an' me 'll do some prospectin'. We must go back upstairs,
before we pull out for good, an' bag what there is there that's worth
carryin' off; but th' first thing t' do is t' get Rayburn where he'll be
comfortable an' safe. Until that's attended to we've got t' be careful
an' go slow; so we'll rouse up this fool of a Pablo, an' get it into his
head that if he hears anybody comin' he's t' knock th' plug from under
Mullins an' let him down, an' then chock him fast with a rock
underneath. It's not likely that anybody _will_ come, an' even if they
do, I don't think that they'll know th' trick about Mullins' tippin',
for that's a point that I'll bet a whole kag o' beer th' Priest Captain
didn't give away t' nobody. I tell you, Professor, there wasn't any
flies on that old man, now was there? He was a wicked old devil, an'
I'm glad I did for him; but he was just an everlastin' keen one, an' a
rustler from th' word go!"
In the dazed condition in which he then was, we scarcely should have
ventured to place Pablo in a position of such grave responsibility had
there been any likelihood of his being called upon to perform the duty
with which we charged him; but we were well satisfied that to the Priest
Captain alone had been known the secret of the sliding door, and that,
consequently, the need for closing the passage leading upward into the
treasure-chamber would not arise. Without any fear for Rayburn's safety;
therefore, we left him lying in the little room at the foot of the
stair-way, and thence went forth through a cleft in the rock--that
seemed to be a natural crevice, where the mountain was split apart--and
so came into a natural cave of such great size that the light of the
lantern was not sufficient to enable us to see its roof nor its farther
wall. Save that the well-defined path that we followed was continuously
steep, we did not find walking difficult, for the fragments of rock with
which the floor of the cave everywhere was strewn had been lifted aside
carefully, so as to make a smooth and easy way. And only in one
place--where for a short distance the path skirted the edge of a black
gulf, in the depths of which we could hear the rush of water--was any
part of it dangerous.
For near an hour we went onward, all the while steadily ascending; and
then, as we turned a corner, we saw a long way before us a faintly
luminous haze. It was so very faint that only by holding the lantern
behind us, and then closing our eyes for a moment, could we assure
ourselves that what we saw really was light at all; but when we turned
another corner, presently, the light, though still faint, was
unmistakable; whereat Young gave a whoop of joy, and we quickened our
steps in our eager longing to behold the sunshine that we knew could not
be far away. Suddenly the path dipped downward, and then another turn
brought us into light so strong that the lantern no longer was needed to
show us where to tread; and by a common impulse we gave a great glad
shout together and went onward at a run; and so, running and shouting
like the crazy creatures that truly for the time being we were, we made
one turn more, and then beheld before us, reaching away broadly and
openly in a fashion to give one a sense of most glorious freedom, a
vastly wide plain, over which everywhere the blessed sunshine blazed
full and strong. As we stood together in the mouth of the cave for a
moment in silence--for no words seemed strong enough to express the
bursting gladness that was in our hearts--two short blasts of a whistle,
wafted upward on the light breeze that was blowing towards us from the
plain, sounded very faintly but clearly in our ears. Young started as he
heard this sound, and as he turned towards me he held out his hand and
said, in a voice that was husky and tremulous, "Professor, that's a
locomotive whistle, an' th' d----n fool is--is whistlin' 'down brakes'!"
And in these curiously chosen, yet not unmeaning words, did we celebrate
our deliverance.
When we returned to Rayburn--and as we now knew the way, and as almost
the whole of it was downhill, our return was accomplished rapidly--some
of the joyous strength that we had gained seemed to be imparted to him.
He opened his eyes as we stooped over him, and there seemed to be more
life in them than there had been through all that day.
"Rouse up, old man!" Young cried cheerily. "We've struck th' trail out
o' this cussed hole at last, an' we're goin' t' hike you right along to
where you'll get some of God's sunshine again, an' some air that's fit
for a white man t' breathe;" which words brought still more light into
Rayburn's eyes, and a little color came into his pale cheeks as we told
him of the open way that we had found to light and life.
"Where's the Padre?" he asked, as we together raised the stretcher,
while Pablo, holding the lantern and leading El Sabio, went on ahead of
us. Fortunately Rayburn could not see Young's face as he answered: "Th'
Padre's--well, th' Padre's just gone on up th' line. You've got t' hold
your jaw, Rayburn. You ain't fit t' talk; an' while we're packin' you
along we can't talk either. Come on, Professor; and you, Pablo," he
added, in his jerky Spanish. "Be careful with that lamp or I'll break
the head of you!"
Although a good third of his flesh had wasted away, Rayburn would have
been a heavy load for us to carry over level ground, even had we been
hale and strong. Worn as we then were by our prison-life, we found
carrying him up that long steep path in the heart of the mountain a
weary work that only the hope and joy that strengthened us enabled us
to accomplish. As it was, we went so slowly, and made so many halts for
rest, that the sun had sunk almost to the level of the distant
mountains, wherewith that great plain was bordered to the westward, when
at last our toilsome journey was at an end. But we thought nothing of
the heaviness of our labor as we saw the glad look that came into his
face when he gazed out over that broad expanse of sunlit landscape, and
snuffed eagerly the sweet fresh air, and so felt his soul grow light
within him as he realized that he once more was safe and free.
In the mouth of the cave--within its shelter, yet where he could see out
freely, and so have constantly in his mind the comforting thought of his
deliverance--we made a bed for him of soft pine-branches, which some
near-by trees gave us; and we took care that this couch should be so
thick and so evenly laid that he would lie easily upon it; for we knew
that many days, perhaps even weeks, must pass before we could venture to
put so heavy a strain upon his strength as would come when we carried
him down that rough mountain-side, and so began our journey towards home.
Fortunately, a little spring came out from the rock, clear and cool,
just inside the cave; and game was so abundant on that mountain-side
that Young came back presently from a foraging expedition with half a
dozen codornices, that he had come so close to as to shoot with his
revolver, and a jack-rabbit that he actually had caught with his hands
as it jumped up almost beneath his feet; which excellent fare made a
most satisfying supper for all of us; and eating it so added to
Rayburn's strength--as we could tell by the fuller tones of his voice,
and by his being able to move a little on his bed without our helping
him--as to rouse in us a warm hope that the death that seemed so near to
him might yet be thrust away. Our chief concern, lest the shock that
would come to him of knowing it should fairly kill him, was to hide from
him for the present the knowledge that Fray Antonio was dead; and to
compass this end we plumply told him the flat-footed lie that the monk
had gone on in search of some town whence he might bring back horses and
supplies; and so, for a time, we laid at rest his doubts.
In his own original way, also, Young tried to put heart into him. "You
see, old man," he said, "you've just _got_ t' pull through. Think how
d----d ashamed o' yourself you'd feel after you was dead when you had t'
tell all th' folks in heaven that you was killed by nothin' better'n a
mis'rable chump of an Injun! That was what bothered poor old Steve
Hollis when he was handin' in _his_ checks--'t least it was th' same
general sort of idea. I guess you never knew Steve, did you, Rayburn? He
was an old railroader--had been a-workin' on th' Old Colony one way and
another for more'n twenty years. When I knowed him he used t' run th'
steamboat express from Boston t' Fall River--their boss train on that
blasted old road. Steve owned a house clost t' th' line just a little
way out o' Braintree; an' when 't was his day off he'd mostly slide down
from Fall River on No. 2, an' walk out home from Braintree along th'
track. Nobody ever know'd just how 't happened--Steve was th' soberest
man I ever knowed; never drunk a drop o' nothin'--but one day, as he was
walkin' out home, No. 15, that was th' slow freight from Boston t'
Newport, ketched him an' got in its work on him--an' that was th' end o'
Steve. It didn't kill him right smack off, an' I went down t' see him;
for I did think th' world of old Steve. He was a-layin' in his bed, an'
I could see that he was a-most gone when I got there; but he chippered
up a little for a minute as I shook hands with him and ast him how he
was. He said he was poorly; an' then he kep' quiet for a while. Then he
kind o' ketched his breath an' seemed t' want t' say somethin'. So I
bent over him, an' he said, in a kind of a whisperin' groan: 'Jus' think
of it, Seth, what did it was th' slow freight! That's what cuts me;
that's what cuts me the worst kind. I wouldn't a-minded if 't had been
th' express--them things will happen, an' they've got t' come. But here
I've been a-railroadin' for more'n twenty year, an' t' think o' _me_
bein' busted by that d----n slow freight!' An' then he turned over, an'
give a sort of a grunt, an' died."
I am not sure that I myself should have selected this particular story
to tell to Rayburn just then; but the moral that it contained
unquestionably was a sound one, and, in a way, was calculated to impress
upon him strongly the conviction that his duty was to get well.
XXXVIII.
KING CHALTZANTZIN'S TREASURE.
Whether or not Young's story had this good effect upon Rayburn, I am not
prepared to say; but it is certain that he slept well that night--his
first good night's sleep for many weeks--and that when morning came he
was so much stronger and brighter as to fill us with a still more
earnest hope that he was well started on the way to recovery.
Young quickly brought in some birds for our breakfast, and when the meal
was finished he took me aside and said: "Now, Professor, lets me an' you
go back t' that hole an' bring away all there is there that's worth
carryin'. It's not much, I guess, but it's better'n nothin'. It just
makes me sick t' think of all that gold, that ud 'a' made our
everlastin' fortunes if we'd only been able t' pack it along with us.
There was millions an' millions there, I s'pose--an' it 'll never do us
any more good than if we'd never seen it at all!" and as Young spoke he
heaved a very melancholy sigh. "But we may as well grab all we can get,"
he went on, more cheerfully. "There was a lot o' gold boxes an' jugs in
th' room where Mullins is; an' maybe there's somethin' that's worth
havin' in all them little pots. Let's go back an' see, anyway. Rayburn's
lookin' almost all right this mornin'; and Pablo's got his wits back
now, an' can give him anything he wants."
For my own part I did not desire, because of their money value, any of
the articles which I had seen in the treasure-chamber; but I did very
earnestly long to possess myself of that most curious arbalest, and I
desired also to examine carefully--because of the discoveries of great
archæological value which I hoped to make--the contents of the gold
boxes and vases and earthen jars. Therefore, Rayburn having expressed
his entire willingness that we should leave him, I assented readily to
Young's proposition; whereupon Young lighted the lantern and we set off.
As we entered again the treasure-chamber there was within me a strong
feeling of awe. During our hurried passage through it, the imminent
danger in which we were, and then the excitement of the scene in the
oratory, and then the joyfulness of our finding a way of escape, had
prevented me from realizing how wonderful was the deposit that this room
contained; a deposit that certainly had lain there for not less than a
thousand years, and that unquestionably was the most perfect surviving
trace of the most intelligent and most interesting people that in
prehistoric times dwelt upon this continent. Which strange reflections,
now that my mind was free to entertain them and to dwell upon them,
aroused within me a feeling of such reverent wonder that I hesitated for
some moments before I could bring myself to disturb what thus through so
long a sweep of ages had remained sacredly inviolate.
But reverence, as he himself would have said, was not Young's strongest
hold; in truth, I am persuaded that there was not an atom of it in his
entire composition; and as I stood hesitating beside the statue of
Chac-Mool he briskly called to me: "Come right along, Professor; there
ain't nobody t' stop us now. We've got th' drop, you might say, on th'
whole outfit, an' we can do just as we blame please. This looks like a
badly kept drug store, don't it?" he went on, "with all these pots an'
boxes an' little jars stuck round on th' shelves. Well, here goes t' see
what's in 'em: not much o' nothin', I guess; but then it _might_ be
di'monds, an' that just would be gay!"
As Young spoke he thrust his hand into one of the earthen jars, and
thereby set flying such a cloud of dust that for some seconds his
violent sneezing prevented him from examining the small object that he
had brought forth from the jar and held in his hand; and when he did
examine this object an expression of intense disgust appeared upon his
face, and he exclaimed, indignantly, "Why, it's nothin' but a fool
arrow-head!"
I could not but laugh at Young as I took the arrow-head from him. For my
purposes, this beautifully carved piece of obsidian was far more
precious than a diamond would have been; and I tried--quite
unsuccessfully, however--to arouse his interest in this proof of the
high degree of skill to which the prehistoric races of America had
attained in the manipulation of an exceedingly hard yet delicate variety
of stone; and I added that not less interesting was the proof thus
afforded us of the great value which these same races attached to
implements of war.
"Oh, come off with your prehistoric races, Professor!" he growled. "A
whole car-load o' rubbish like this wouldn't be worth a nickel t'
anybody but a scientific crank like you. If this is th' sort o' stuff
that that old king o' yours thought was worth hidin', I guess he must
'a' been off his head. But that pot may 'a' got in by mistake. Before I
get too much down on him I'll give him another show." With which words,
but cautiously, that the dust might not be disturbed, he thrust his hand
into another jar, and was mightily resentful upon finding that what he
brought forth from it was only the head of a lance. However, the
determination to give King Chaltzantzin a chance to prove his sanity,
together with the hope that something of real value might be found, led
him to continue his investigations, and he presently had examined all
the jars ranged on two sides of the room; and his grumbling curses
increased constantly in vigor as jar after jar yielded only arrow-heads,
and lance-heads, and chisel-shaped pieces of obsidian, that I perceived
must have been intended for the making of the cutting edges of the
maccahuitl, or Aztec sword; but, for my part, all of these things filled
me with the liveliest pleasure as I took them from Young and attentively
examined them; for the delicate and perfect workmanship that they
exhibited showed them to have been made by a people that had reached the
highest development of the Stone Age.
"This business is gettin' worse, instead o' better," Young said,
gloomily, as he began his search on the third side of the room by
opening one of the small gold boxes. "The stuff in here is nothin' but a
mean sort o' wrappin'-paper with pictures on it--like that old map o'
yours that got us started on this tomfoolin' treasure-hunt. I s'pose
_you'll_ just have a fit over it!" And as I uttered an eager cry of
delight, and bent over this casket that contained such inestimable
riches, he gave a sniff of contempt, and added: "There, I thought so.
You think more o' that rotten old stuff than you would o' gold dollars.
Well, there's no accountin' for tastes, and it takes all sorts o' people
t' make th' world." But I paid no attention to him as I rapidly glanced
over these priceless manuscripts; and then had my cup of happiness
filled absolutely to overflowing by the glad discovery that in every one
of the gold boxes, of which there were nine in all, treasures of a like
sort were stored. In the supplemental volume (in elephant folio) to my
_Pre-Columbian Conditions on the Continent of North America_ these
wonderful manuscripts are reproduced in fac-simile; and when that great
work is published the surpassing value of my discovery will be at once
recognized. It is sufficient to say here that these several codices
together constituted a complete hieratic chronicle of the Aztec tribes;
and that (herein lying the extraordinary value of the collection) the
uncertain picture-writing was accompanied by a translation into the
ideographic characters of later times, the meaning of which I was
enabled, thanks to the instruction that my friend the guardian of the
archives had given me, fully to understand. In short, my discovery
precisely paralleled that of Boussard; for even as the Rosetta Stone
gave the key to Egyptian hieroglyphics, so did this transliteration into
intelligible characters make all Aztec picture-writing plain. As the
full significance of my discovery burst upon me, my joy and the
excitement of my splendid triumph so moved me that my hands trembled as
I held these precious manuscripts, and I no longer could see clearly the
painted characters because of the tears of happiness which filled my
eyes.