"Pooh, Tom!" I said. "Who's dreaming now?"
"Not me, Mas'r Harry. I was never so wide awake in my life. I tell
you, sir, I've seen you poking and stirring up amongst the sticks and
stones in all sorts of places, just as if you was looking for some old
woman's buried crock of crooked sixpences; and as soon as you've been
gone these Indian chaps have come and looked, and stroked all the leaves
and moss straight again. You're after something, Mas'r Harry, and
they're after something; but I can't quite see through any of you yet.
Wants a good, stout, double-wicked six held the other side, and then I
could read you both like a book."
"Nonsense, Tom--nonsense!" I cried; though I felt troubled, and a vague
sense of uneasiness seemed to come over me.
"P'r'aps it is nonsense, Mas'r Harry--perhaps it ain't. But this here
ain't Old England; so don't you get thinking as there's a policeman
round every corner to come and help you, because there ain't, no more
than there's a public-house round the corner to get half a pint when a
fellow's tongue's dried up to his roof. So now let's understand one
another, Mas'r Harry. You've got to keep close up to the house."
"Nonsense!" I exclaimed. "What good would that do? Look here, Tom, my
good fellow: I know you are faithful and true-hearted, but you have been
following me about till you have found a mare's nest and seen an enemy
in every Indian. You must learn to keep your place, Tom, and not to
interfere."
Tom did not answer--he only looked sulky. Then, spitting in his hands,
he rubbed them together, crawled out of the bush, stood up, let his gun
fall into the hollow of his arm, and then thrusting his hands into his
pockets, stood looking at me, as if prepared for the worst.
"Going any farther, Mas'r Harry?" he said as I rose.
"Yes," I said, "I'm going up this gorge."
Then with Tom closely following, I climbed on till we were in a vast
rift, whose sides were one mass of beautiful verdure spangled with
bright blossoms. High overhead, towering up and up, were the mountains,
whose snow-capped summits glistened and flashed in the sun, while the
ridges and ravines were either glittering and gorgeous or shadowy and of
a deep, rich purple, fading into the blackness of night.
I stopped gazing around at the platform above platform of rock rising
above me, and thought of what a magnificent site one of the flat
table-lands would make for a town, little thinking that once a rich city
had flourished there. Even Tom seemed attracted by the beauty of the
scene, for he stood gazing about till, seeing my intent, he came close
behind me again, and together, with the traveller's love of treading the
fresh and untried soil, we pressed on, climbing over loose fragments of
rock, peering into the stream that bubbled musically down the bottom of
the gorge, wending our way through the high growth of long tangled
grass, till the gorge seemed to plunge into darkness, a huge eminence
blocking the way, in whose face appeared a low, broad archway, forming
the entrance to a tunnel, leading who could tell where?
Any attempt to follow another track was vain, as I soon perceived; for,
as I saw, the gorge seemed to be continued beneath the archway, while
right and left the rock was precipitous beyond the possibility of
climbing even to the shelves, where ancient trees had securely rooted
themselves in the sparse soil, to hang over and lend their gloom to the
sombre scene.
But in spite of its mystery there was a something attractive in the vast
cavern, from which it now became evident the little river sprang; for it
ran trickling out beneath the rocks we clambered over, till we stood
gazing in towards the shadowy depth, listening to strange echoes of a
murmuring rising and falling sound that dominated all the faint whispers
that escaped, as it were, from time to time to the light of day.
"What do you think of this, Tom?" I said, after vainly trying to see
the cavern's extent.
"Think, Mas'r Harry? Why, it looks to me like the front door to
Bogyland. But do let's get back, sir; for I was never so hungry before
in my life. I say stop, Mas'r Harry--what are you a-going to do?"
"Do! Why, go in and explore the place, to be sure, Tom," I cried,
beginning to climb the rocky barrier that barred the way into the
cavern.
"No, I say, pray don't, Mas'r Harry!" cried Tom dolefully. "I ain't
afraid in the light, when you can see what you are doing, but I can't
stand the dark, nohow. Don't go, Mas'r Harry. Think of what your poor
mother would say."
"Hold your tongue, will you, you great calf!" I exclaimed angrily.
For an intense desire seemed to come over me to explore this dim,
shadowy region. For what might we not find there treasured? It might
be the ante-chamber to some rich, forgotten mine--one of the natural
storehouses from which the old Peruvians had been used to extract their
vast treasures. There were riches inexhaustible in the bowels of the
earth, I knew, and if this were one of the gates by which they could be
reached, held back from causes induced by cowardice I would not be--I
had too great a prize to win.
But before I had crossed this natural barrier to the entrance, reason
told me that I must have light, and provision, and strength for the
undertaking; and at that time I had neither. There was nothing for it
then but to listen to the voice of reason, as personified by Tom; and
with a sigh I climbed back just as he was going to join me.
I saw plainly enough that it must be nightfall before we could reach
home; and, getting free of the rocks, I was musing, and wondering
whether, after all, I had hit upon a discovery, when Tom whispered to
me, with averted head, to look to the right under the trees.
I did so, and became aware of a shadowy figure slinking off amongst the
bushes, but I took little heed of it then, trudging on as fast as the
nature of the ground would allow; and at last, thoroughly worn out in
body, but with my imagination heated, I reached the hacienda.
That evening, when I was alone with my uncle, I mentioned my discovery,
and asked him if ever the cavern had been explored.
"Never that I am aware of, Harry," he said quietly; "and I don't think
it would profit much the explorer. I have heard of the cave; it is a
sort of sanctified place amongst the Indians, who people it with ghosts
and goblins, such as they know how to invent. Let me see, what do they
call the place in their barbarous tongue? Ah! I remember now--
Tehutlan. I had forgotten its very existence. One of the old Peruvian
gods used to live there in olden times, I believe, as a sort of dragon
to watch over the hidden treasures of the earth. You had better search
there and bring some of them out, or catch the dragon himself; he would
make your fortune as an exhibitor in New York."
"And you think, Uncle, it has never been explored?" I said, without
replying to his last remark.
"My dear boy, for goodness' sake give up dreaming and take to reality,"
he said pettishly. "Explored? Yes. I remember how they say the
Spaniards explored it, and butchered a lot of the poor Peruvians there
like so many sheep, but they found nothing. Don't think about
treasure-seeking, Hal--it's a mistake; fortunes have to be made by toil
and scheming, not by haphazard proceedings; but all the same I must
say," he added musingly, "they do tell of the golden ornaments and
vessels of the sun-worship hidden by the poor conquered people ages ago
to preserve them from their greedy conquerors. Their places are known
even now, they say, having been handed down from father to son."
"But did you ever search?" I said eagerly.
"Who? I? Pooh! Nonsense, Hal! My idea always was that gold was to be
grown, not searched for; but after all, I might just as well have gone
upon a harum-scarum gold-hunt as have sunk my few poor hundreds here."
The conversation was directly changed, for Garcia came in to take his
evening cigar with the family, looking the while dark and scowling; but
it had little effect upon me, for my thoughts were running upon the dim,
mysterious cavern, with its echoes and shadows; and the more I thought,
the more it seemed possible that a natural or an artificial discovery
might there be made. By artificial, I meant the finding of a buried
treasure. With the old profusion of gold in the land there must have
been some rich mines. Why might not this be one of them?
"Anyhow, I have nothing to lose," I said to myself; and at last I
retired to rest, excited with the thoughts of Lilla and the riches I
might find--the consequence being that I lay awake half the night,
forming all sorts of impossible schemes; but above all determining that,
come what might, I would explore the great cavern of Tehutlan--_if_. If
what? If I could find it again.