The look I received from Lilla that evening was one which, while it
reproached me, made my heart leap. But all the same, I did not respond
to it: I dared not; and I sat there answering my uncle's questions and
telling him of our discovery of the ruined temple, but no more; while
Garcia, who was present, smiled a contemptuous smile that was most
galling.
For that smile seemed to mean so much, and to say, "Look at this crazy
vagabond, how he spends his time!"
I was too weak and ill, though, to resent it, and gladly sought my bed,
which I did not leave for a couple of days, being tended most
affectionately during that time by Mrs Landell.
We had made our entrance to the hacienda by night, as I had wished on
account of our appearance, and it was well we did so, for an inspection
of the clothes I had worn displayed such a scarecrow suit as would have
ensured the closing of any respectable door in my face.
But if, when I rose from my couch, my clothes were worn, so was not my
spirit, and during the long hours I had lain there my brain had been as
active as ever concerning the buried treasures.
The terrors of the cave were great, certainly, but then I reasoned that
three parts of them were due to ignorance. Had we been acquainted with
the geography of the place, as we were now, and taken common
precautions, we might have saved ourselves the hairbreadth escapes and
agony of mind that had so told upon us--we need not have risked our
lives by the great gulf, nor yet in the vault of the troubled waters.
With a short portable ladder and a knotted rope the ascent to the rift
over the torrent in the great amphitheatre would have been easy. And
altogether it seemed to me that another visit, well prepared for, would
not be either arduous or terrible.
The visit, of course, would be to search for the treasure; and calm
reflection seemed to teach me that it was very probable that we had now
hit upon the part that appeared likely to have been used for the
purpose--so I thought. I could not feel that the timid, superstitious
Indians would ever have penetrated so far as we did, but the soft earth
of the bird-chamber seemed, after all, a most likely place.
"What! going again, Mas'r Harry?" said Tom when I broached the subject.
"Yes, Tom," I said; "I want to explore this bird-chamber part of the
cave. And besides, we need run no risks this time--we need not go into
the terrible parts."
"Very good, Mas'r Harry; only reck'lect about the pitcher as goes so
often to the well getting broken at last."
"But you'll go with me, Tom?" I said.
"Go with you, Mas'r Harry? Course I will! I should just like to catch
you going without me. Don't you get coming none of them games."
The result of this was that one morning, soon after sunrise, Tom and I
were climbing over the rocks that barred the mouth of the cave. We had
plenty of provision and plenty of candle. Each man, too, carried his
own tinder-box and a small coil of knotted cotton rope, which served as
a girdle, and so was not allowed to encumber our movements.
Light-hearted and eager, I led the way, and we pushed right in past the
rift on the ledge which led to the bird-chamber, for we were anxious to
see what had become of our raft.
It was just as I anticipated: we found it self-anchored between two
blocks of stone within fifty yards of the tunnel-arch; and landing it,
we cut the leather thongs, let out the wind, and then hid the whole
affair behind some rocks--in case, as Tom said, we might want it again.
A rest and a slight attack upon the provisions, and we were once more
journeying towards the mouth, but only to pause in the chamber where lay
the opening that had saved our lives.
A little agility took us to the mouth of the rift; and now, candle in
hand, we could see the passage through which we had travelled so
laboriously, to find it the easiest of any crevice we had traversed, the
floor being deeply covered with guano, as was the case with the
bird-chamber when we entered it, at last, to find a vast hall of
irregular shape, swarming with the guacharo, or butter-bird of South
America--a great night-jar, passing its days in these fastnesses of
nature, but sallying out at dark to feed. The uproar they made was
tremendous, and several times I thought that our lights would be
extinguished, though we escaped that trouble and continued our search.
The floor was nearly level, and the roof, like the others in the cave,
covered with stalactites; but the birds and their nests completely
robbed the place of beauty or grandeur.
An hour spent here convinced me that we knew the two only passages
leading from the place, so we continued our investigations, travelling
along the farther passage till the sound of the great waterfall smote
upon our ears, but still nothing rewarded our search though we went to
the end.
A passage of the most rugged nature, but a passage only, with nothing in
the shape of branch or outlet save into the amphitheatre, into which we
had no desire to penetrate. Certainly the passage widened out into a
chamber with glistening roof here and there, but with rocky floors, and
presenting nothing striking as likely to reward my search.
At the end of a couple of hours we were back in the bird-chamber (I
continue to call the places by the names that first struck us as
suitable), when we sat down for another rest and time of refreshing, for
we had no peril to dread this time; and now, once more, I began to think
over with damped spirits the possibility of finding what might have been
here concealed. Treasures, the wealth of nations, might have lain
hidden for ages, with the guano continually accumulating to bury them
deeper and deeper; but were they buried there?
I would try and prove it, at all events; and rousing myself from my
musing fit I took a sharp-pointed rod with which I had come provided,
and began to probe the soil, Tom watching me earnestly the while.
But nothing rewarded my endeavours. I probed till I was tired, and then
Tom took up the task, but always for the rod to go down as far as we
liked in the soft, yielding earth.
At last I told him to give up, for the possibility of success seemed out
of the question. Fatigue had robbed me of my sanguine thoughts, and
wearily I led the way back to the mouth of the cave, and we again had a
rest, Tom lighting his pipe, and I gladly seeking the solace of a doze.
Rest and refreshment had their usual effect, and I was soon up again and
at work with the rod, thrusting it down into the sand all over the
place, till in one spot it struck upon something hard, and my heart
leaped; but a little tapping of the hard matter showed that it was
nothing but a mass of rock some four feet below the sand.
I sat down again, hot and ill-tempered; when Tom tapped the ashes out of
his pipe and stood before me.
"Now, what is it you're really after, Mas'r Harry?" he said. "Not gold,
is it? Why don't you be open with a fellow?"
"What makes you ask, Tom?" I said suspiciously.
"Because they do say, Mas'r Harry, that the folks that used to live here
got to bury their stuff, to keep it out of the Don's hands."
Always the same tradition! But I made no answer, for a fresh thought
had struck me--one of those bright ideas that in all ages have been the
making of men's fortunes; and, leaping up, I seized the rod and ran to
where the stream, inky no longer, but clear and bright, ran sparkling in
the subdued light over its sandy bed towards the open sunshine.
Wading in, I turned up my sleeves and began to thrust my iron probe down
here into the soft sand, for I had argued now like this: that after
carefully considering where would be the best place to hide their
treasure, the priests of old might have been cunning enough to think
that the simpler the concealment the less likely for it to be searched,
and thus with the dim mysterious caverns beyond offering all kinds of
profundities--spots that could certainly be suspected--they might have
chosen the open mouth of the Cave, and buried that which they sought to
save in the bed of the little stream.
The thought seemed to take away my breath for a few moments, it came so
vividly; the next minute I was wading about, thrusting the rod down as
far as I could in the wet sand; but always with the same result--the
iron went down easily to my hand and was as easily withdrawn.
I probed right in as I waded amongst the gloomy parts and then went on
to where it became dark, but still I was not discouraged, but came
slowly back towards where the barrier of rocks blocked the entrance,
down beneath which the little stream plunged to reappear some yards on
the other side; and here in the most open part of all, but screened from
the sight of any one in the valley--here, where the water formed a
little pool beneath the creeper-matted rocks, I gave the rod a hard
thrust down as far as it could be driven, bending so that my shoulder
was beneath the water, when my heart leaped and then beat tumultuously,
for the rod touched something. I tried again.
Yes, there was something beneath the sand!
Was it rock--stone?