_Eldorado_
"At any rate, we picked our way carefully, shielding our faces,
remaining as close to the cave wall as possible, peeping intently into
the greenly illuminated circular cavern. Glowing stalactites hung
from the cave ceilings in mystic forms. Precious stones and metals in
countless numbers cropped out of the lava-like formations. Rock which
Sands had accepted previously as cinnabar was red rock-lava bearing
iron pyrites and black quartz, containing a wealth of sapphire and
diamond-like stones that glittered invitingly under the glare of the
green rays cast off by the pool.
"'My God, Sands!' I shouted eagerly, forgetting momentarily my sorrows
and sympathies for Sands and his sweetheart of long ago. 'We've struck
it! This is the real El Dorado! It is like the myths handed down by the
Spaniards! Wealth! Riches! Power and--'
"'--and unhappiness, greed and all the rest!' Sands added, staring at
me curiously. 'It means the fulfillment of your dreams, pardner. You
know what it means to me? To me it means the loss of all that I've ever
held dear in this life. It means that I've spent my life in quest of
happiness--and lost it right here at this pool! Do you realize that,
pardner?'
"I most certainly did realize it and I calmed down to once again share
Sands' great sorrow. He had trailed Allie Lane and her father over the
forty-year old trail. Here we believed that it ended forever. No need
to search farther. Yet for some unaccountable reason, Sands insisted
that she was still alive or if not alive, some remains must exist in
that vicinity.
"As we continued our search and explorations near the mouth of the
cave, the weird, ominous moaning that vaguely portended the advent of
something untoward, became audible again. Sands and I stopped in our
tracks to listen. Coming from the far side of the pool, the moaning
increased gradually until it became a steady wail like the shriek of
high-speed machinery. We stood watching the spot which unlike the part
of the crater on our side, did not glow with the green luminosity. It
seemed to be an inky black pit. Not even a stalactite was visible!
"Suddenly as we stared at the spot, the blackness became shot with
myriads of colors until it glittered blindingly. The wail was now
a terrific shriek. The Manalava Plain seemed to groan under some
tremendous impulse emanating from below our feet. The earth swayed and
rumbled. From the pool, came a mysterious sputtering and a tiny swirl
in its center at first, suddenly became a whirling maelstrom. A thin,
silver-like column rose several feet into the air from its middle. Like
a miniature water-spout, typical of typhoon infested sections of the
South Seas, the rising column whirled faster and faster.
"Meanwhile, the once black, bottomless abyss which had suddenly become
charged with blinding colors, was changing now to a more solid hue.
Green was transplanting the reds and vermilions, and thin, wisp-like
rays of yellow that seemed to charge the atmosphere with a super
high-tension activity, were twitching nervously in the pit. Gradually
the colors merged into a solid mass of luminous green and out of it
spun a glistening sphere that appeared to be a ball of the same liquid
that was now whirling over the pool!
"The sphere, probably twenty feet in diameter, moved slowly at first,
toward the pool, its surface glowing as it revolved with a terrific
speed. The atmosphere became stagnant and penetrated deep into the
lungs, but Sands and I were too stupefied to move a muscle. I felt a
sudden panic seize me and then breaking the grip of stupefaction I
ran like a mad man along the edge of the whirling maelstrom. I was
struck with fright. You cannot conceive my terror as I stumbled along
the pool! I forgot about Sands--forgot about everything in my blind
unreasoning. I felt no fatigue as I ran, only stark, mad terror.
"In my wild terrified scramble for safety, I ran past the only exit or
entrance down into the crater and soon found myself face to face with
the spinning sphere! Bright, swift-moving lights passed around the
sphere as it emerged from the abyss. The yellow rays were gone now and
as I stared at it in my utter terror, the sphere began to glow like a
great emerald ball. The high-pitched scream was more terrific here and
it pounded in my ear-drums with a metal-edged sharpness that sent me
blind and unreasoning back around the other side of the pool! In my
terror I thumped into Sands, who was standing in the same spot where
he had been when I started my mad dash. The collision brought us both
to the crater floor, clutching for the slightest handhold to prevent
us from rolling into the ghastly pool. At the very edge of the pool we
came to a stop. Sands put out a hand to brace himself but the tips of
his fingers accidentally dipped into the liquid. He jerked back his
hand with a bellow. The first digits of his left hand had disappeared,
leaving instead, completely healed stumps! The shock of the collision
restored my sanity and I helped Sands to his feet.
"We cast quick glances at the sphere. It had moved from the opening of
the pit, now lighted brilliantly red, and was whirling at the top of
the column in the center of the pool! Gradually the high-pitched scream
became a steady hum. The sphere was spinning faster and faster under
the whirling pressure of the column. The ball was changing slowly into
cylindrical shape, with a sharp-pointed nose and concave butt which
gradually thinned out. I stared with unbelief. Surely my brain was
playing pranks. I shot a glance at Sands. The old fellow seemed like a
statue, immobile as a rock. Insanity was gripping him, I could see, and
I screamed.
"Suddenly, the hum of the sphere's rapid whirling motion ceased. Like a
bullet shaped projectile it shot into the air, charging it with sparks
of pale green lights that drifted back into the pool and settled. We
caught a glimpse of the projectile as it leaped from the column. That
was all. Immediately it was gone leaving behind only the floating green
lights that, even in the radiance of midday, shone brilliantly. The
fearful scream of its passing through the atmosphere gradually died
away as its distance increased. At my scream Sands had regained control
of himself. He placed a palsied hand on my shoulder and stared at me
incredulously.
"'Did you see it, pardner?' he asked, completely unnerved.
"'Yes!' I answered, 'I've seen it whatever the thing was!'
"Sands stared at me, mouth agape.
"'Pardner,' he said, 'you look like a ghost! Your face and hands are
turning green! Your skin is getting the same color as the stuff in the
pool!'
"'You don't look like a white man yourself, Sands,' I managed to jest
at him, trying to control my agitation.
"'Maybe,' he returned, somewhat calmed, 'but, by jingle, I'm beginning
to feel younger! Maybe this is that fountain of youth the old spics
raved about!'
"'You must have just come into your second childhood,' I smiled back at
him, weakly. He managed to grin and I saw something that startled me
almost as much as did the luminous sphere.
"Sands' face was actually clearing! Deep furrowed wrinkles that had
marked him as an old man, sun-hardened and leathery, were vanishing
from his face! Except for a month's growth of beard, he appeared to
have dropped, in those few minutes, many years of his age. His brown
eyes that were dim, and watery, were taking on a sparkle that signifies
the vigorous health of youth. His bowed shoulders straightened. In
spite of the rapid change he was going through, the greenish hue
remained to mar his features with a ghastly pallor caused, no doubt, by
the radio-active power of the radium. As for myself, I could feel no
change in my physical being. I wondered if the great radium deposit was
to blame. I knew that science held transmutation of elements possible
and has even accomplished it in a small way and that radium itself is
the product of disintegration of uranium and ionium.
"For some reason, Sands and I felt better after the hurtling projectile
had lifted from the whirling pool and passed into the infinite. After
a short conference we decided to investigate the strange phenomenon we
had witnessed, and at the same time continue our search for Allie Lane
and her father, or whatever traces of them might remain. Our brains
were clear as bells now, our wits sharp in spite of so many strange
happenings that occurred since early that morning. After it all, we
thought, we could not be surprised at anything that might arise in the
future, and we might as well explore further, the weird circular cave
and the black hole which we noticed still retained its red glow. Sands
remarked that if the red glow continued to illuminate the cave from
which had come the whirling sphere, there would be no need of the small
carbide lamp I had in my pack still strapped to my shoulders. The only
thing that seemed to worry us was the absence of water. Our canteens
were practically empty and naturally we wanted to refill them if we
could. We seemed to have no thirst and a strange comfort appeased the
dryness of our throats.
"We single-filed along the edge of the pool toward the luminous red
cave. In several minutes we had reached the entrance to our glowing
objective. At the entrance of the cave with its glow of red radiancy,
Sands and I paused before entering. What we saw there caused Sands to
leap backward. I stood stock still, awed at the sight, not knowing what
to do.
"On either side of the cave, hung intact were the skeletons of two
human beings! With skulls grinning like green ghosts, the skeletons
hung against the side butts of the cave's entrance! Weirdly radiant
with the pale green hue, the bones stood out in high relief against the
red glow of the strange illumination as though to warn us that to go
further meant doom.
"I turned at the sound of Sands' getting to his feet. He stood at my
side, mouth agape.
"'That, pardner,' he said, softly, 'means the end of our search! I have
hoped for the best for Allie and her dad, but what we see now tells the
story of their deaths!'
"Sands doffed his hat and hung his head in reverence. I did likewise
for I was thinking along the same lines. Sadly I lifted my head and
again speculated on the skeletons. I was trying to figure who might
have hung those grisly relics on the wall of the cavern. Whoever it
was, I thought, had scant respect for the dead! The two could at least
have been given decent burials. I clenched my fists and swore. Sands
lifted his head suddenly at the oaths which escaped my lips. His hand
grasped my sleeve.
"'What's wrong, pardner?' he asked, with a trace of anger in his voice.
"'I'm just wondering, Sands,' I replied, 'how they came to be hung up
there like that. They couldn't hang themselves in suicide and the bones
remain intact. Let's look closer!'
"We moved closer to the dangling relics. As I had implied, the bones
were linked together with wire and hung against the wall with metal
pegs!
"'The dogs!' Sands hissed in my ear, his voice steady and as strong as
a young man of twenty-five. I looked at him curiously and indeed, he
was a young man again, save for his whiskers. Strangely, I thought, had
we actually come upon the mythical Fountain of Youth that the early
Spaniards actually believed existed in one of the Seven Lost Cities of
Cibola? Were we about to find, here in Death Valley, one of those seven
cities? Hardly! My imagination must be running wild, I thought.
"'Maybe some prospector had found these deposits, Sands,' I whispered,
'and hung those skeletons there to keep others away. It's not
impossible.'
"'No,' Sands said, 'it's not impossible, but it isn't likely! Skeletons
wouldn't frighten a man away from a great wealth like lies here. Your
idea don't explain that crazy ball of metal, either. I think there's
more to this than shows on the surface.'
"'Perhaps you're right at that,' I acknowledged, 'but who in hell would
want to hang a couple of grinning skeletons out here like that? By the
way did you compare the bones?'
"'Yes, I did compare them and I'm convinced that they are the bones of
two men. Neither is a woman! They are not Allie and her father!'
"I felt better at that. Buoyed up by the discovery, Sands' never dying
hope that he would still find his lost sweetheart Allie Lane, expressed
itself in his features.
"'And I feel that Allie is alive,' he continued. 'I don't know why I
feel it. It might be what we call a coincidence or just a hunch, but I
think we'll find her near here!'
"'Poor girl,' I muttered.
"I expected to find the age-whitened bones of Allie Lane and her father
but events seemed to have bred within me a belief such as Sands'.