Chapter Thirty Six.

Chapter Thirty Six.The Strange Find.Saving the canoe that they had seen, the events of the night were pretty well forgotten when a fresh start was made, for all were anxious to explore the great cañon and make a wider acquaintance with the beauties that opened out as they trusted themselves once more to the gliding waters which bore them gently on, so slowly now that the powers of the flood-tide were evidently failing gradually.“We shall have the current against us before long,” said the captain decisively.“I’ve been thinking so too,” said the first mate; “see how calm the water’s getting. It will be wrong then, for the wind is dead against us, what there is of it.”“You’d like to go right on up here, gentlemen, I suppose?”“Certainly,” said Sir Humphrey decisively, “till we are obliged to turn back. The scenery here is grand. Don’t you think so, Mr Briscoe?”“Beats grand,” was the reply; “but, my word, if gold wasn’t a dangerous word to name in these boats, I should like to land with a hammer and prospect a bit up among these rocks on either side. If they’re not full of rich ore I don’t know paying stuff when I see it.”“Let it rest,” said Brace, in a half-whisper. “Don’t let the men hear you talking about gold again. You remember what occurred before.”“Right. I won’t mention the word; but if the Indians who live in these parts haven’t found out and made use of the metal here, the same as the Mexicans and Peruvians did, they must be a queer sort of people. Shouldn’t wonder if we see some more of them to-day.”“Neither should I,” said Brace, grasping his piece. “Look: that must be the canoe we saw yesterday evening. What are they doing?”“Fishing,” said the captain quickly. “Now then, gentlemen, let’s be ready for emergencies, but make no sign, and maybe they’ll be friendly instead of showing fight.”All eyes were directed at a canoe in which three Indians were busy fishing, while a fourth sat in the stern keeping the craft straight by dipping his paddle and giving it a swoop from time to time. They were some three hundred yards ahead, just off a pile of massive rounded rocks which jutted out into the river, and evidently gliding with the current in the same direction as the two boats.One thing was very evident: they were so intent upon their work that they did not look back, and hence were in perfect ignorance of the approach of the adventurers, while at the end of a couple of minutes they glided on in their frail canoes beyond the rocky promontory, which completely hid them from the view of those in the boats.“Do you think we ought to follow them up, sir?” asked the captain.“Yes,” replied Sir Humphrey, “and keep our weapons out of sight as if we had come upon a peaceful errand.”“I’m afraid they won’t understand us, sir,” said the captain gruffly; “but we’ll try.”The current was running very gently now, so that the approach of the boats to the promontory took time; but at last it was rounded, revealing to the occupants of the boats a scene as startling as it was strange.There, a couple of hundred yards away, was the canoe they had followed, while at various distances farther on no less than six more small canoes were dotted about, their feather-crowned crews all busily employed fishing, while as the boats glided round the tree-covered rocks the nearest Indians struck up a soft minor-keyed chant which was taken up by the crews of the other canoes, the whole combining in a sweet low melody which floated over the smoothly-flowing river, fully explaining the sounds heard from the cavern-mouth overnight.In all probability it was a fisher’s song which the people imagined had some effect upon the fish they were trying to lure to their nets. Strangely wild and mournful, it rose and fell, and gained at times in force as it seemed to echo from the right side of the cañon, which here rose up like some gigantic wall hundreds of feet in height, barred with what appeared to be terraces, and honeycombed with open doors and windows, row above row, from the lowest, upon which in two places smouldered the remains of fires, right up to the sky-line, which, roughly regular, was carved into something resembling the crenellations of a gigantic castle, extending apparently hundreds upon hundreds of yards.Brace had hardly swept the face of the strangely-worked range of cliff when the softly mournful chorus ceased, and as if moved by one impulse, on catching sight of the approaching boats, the Indians burst forth into a shrill piercing yell which echoed and re-echoed discordantly from the face of the rocks. The next moment every man had seized his paddle, and they were making the river foam and sparkle with the vigour of their strokes.There was no mistaking the effect produced on the Indians by the appearance of the boats: it was the feeling of horror and dread, every man plunging his paddle deeply into the water and striving his utmost to force the canoes to their greatest speed, so that they might escape from the strange beings. In all probability they were seeing white men for the first time in their lives.“What does that mean?” said Brace: “going to fetch help?”“No,” said Lynton; “because this must be where they live.”“Yes; there are their fires on the banks,” added the captain.“But they are mere savages,” said Sir Humphrey, who ceased to watch the retreating Indians, to sweep the front of the towering cliffs with his glass. “This palace must have been the work of a more highly civilised race.”“And is it your opinion that they are at home, waiting to shoot?” asked Briscoe, stooping to pick up his gun.“At home? No,” cried Sir Humphrey: “those are the ruins of some extremely ancient rock city. Look, Brace. Use your glass. It is the work of centuries. I should say every place has been cut and carved out of the solid rock by some industrious race; but it is quite deserted now save by birds.”“Then we’ve made a find,” said Briscoe excitedly. “I say, I wonder whether this is the great Golden City, captain?”“No, sir,” said the captain gruffly; “don’t you see it’s all stone?”“Yes, but—look, Brace. Those places farther on look more regular—there where the trees are growing out of the cracks and the creepers are hanging down like curtains. I can’t make ’em out very well with the naked eye, but those windows seem to have carving sculpt about them, and underneath seems to be like a stone colonnade and terrace.”“And a great central doorway,” said Brace eagerly. “Yes, you are right: the walls are covered with curious figures and ornamentations. It must be either a great temple or the Inca’s palace.”“Inca?” said Briscoe. “Yes—why not? Yes; I suppose it would be an Inca, something of the same kind as the Peruvians. But, I say, look here: these must have been something of the same sort of race as the Peruvians.”“No doubt,” said Sir Humphrey.“And the Peruvians were out and outers for getting gold.”“Look here!” cried the captain, banging his hand down upon the edge of the boat: “if you say gold again, Mr Briscoe, you and me’s going to have a regular row.”“Then I won’t say it,” said the American good-humouredly. “I promised you that I would hold myself in; but recollect what I said to you last night about these cliffs. I felt sure that they contained—ahem!”“Shall we row close up to the bank where those fires are, sir?” said the captain, turning his back upon Briscoe.“If you think there is no risk of any Indians lying in ambush among those rock-chambers,” Sir Humphrey replied.“I think the place is quite deserted, sir,” replied the captain, “and that if there had been any Indians on shore they would have bolted when these chaps yelled.”“Yes; that’s right enough,” said Briscoe. “They’re canoe-folk, and there’s no sign of a single person anywhere along the landing-place. You may depend upon it this is a good fishing-station, and they come up here to camp, and we’ve frightened them away. It’s safe enough.”The captain glanced at Sir Humphrey, who nodded, and the men took to their oars, while Lynton steered the heavy boat right up to the remains of a stone-encumbered wharf or pier that had been laboriously cut out of the solid rock. Here the boats were held, and, well armed, half their occupants sprang out to climb over the slippery stones, which had evidently only lately bean covered by the flood-water, whose mark could be plainly seen, reaching up some ten feet, or half-way to where there ran for hundreds of yards a more or less regular broad terrace cut down out of the rock, and from which the honeycombed perpendicular cliff rose, showing now that it was cut into steps, each step being a rough terrace just below a row of window-like openings.It was all plain enough now: the Indians’ camp had been made right and left of the rugged steps leading up from the water. There the fires were still glowing, and about them and in rows where they could be dried by the sun lay hundreds upon hundreds of good-sized fish: the harvest the Indians had been taking from the river; while the state of some which were piled together beneath a projecting piece of rock suggested that the fishers must have been staying there for days.“They are sure to come back for this fish,” said Brace.“Very likely,” said Sir Humphrey. “Well, if they do, let them have it, and we’ll give them some present in return for what we have taken. Look here, captain: we must camp here for a few days to explore this place.”“Very good, sir. We can pick out one or two of these caves, or rooms, or whatever they are, to live in. Your Dan would like one of ’em for a kitchen, Mr Briscoe.”“Yes; he’s smelling about them now. I dessay he has chosen one already,” said the American. “Yes, I call this fine; we may come across some curiosities next. What do you say to beginning a regular explore, Brace?”“I say: the sooner the better,” cried Brace.Sir Humphrey nodded.“We’ll divide into two parties, captain,” he said. “Let half prepare for making a stay; and I should like the others to bring ropes and a boat-hook or two to help our climb, for I daresay we shall need it before we get to the top of this cliff.”“Very good, sir, and I don’t think you’ll find a soul to hurt you. I’d keep my eyes well opened though, for you may find wild beasts, and you’re sure to find snakes. Let’s see,” he continued, consulting a pocket compass. “Yes: we’re facing nearly due south. It will be a warm spot, and I should say that the old inhabitants are now represented by snakes, and poisonous ones too.”Preparations were soon made, the captain electing to stay below and make all ready for the party’s return.Brace led off along the rugged terrace, which was terribly encumbered by stones fallen from above; but the young adventurer’s first idea was to continue along to where the palace-like front reared itself up about the middle of the cliff.Briscoe stepped alongside of him, and Brace noticed how busily his companion’s eyes wandered about, taking in everything on their way. Not that there was much to see at first, save that the captain was right about the inhabitants, for everywhere among the stones which lay heating in the morning sun they came upon coiled-up serpents, many of which were undoubtedly venomous; but there were other reptiles as well, for lizards darted about by the hundred, when disturbed, to make for their holes in crevices and cracks of the stonework, their scales glistening as if made of burnished metal, bronze, deadened silver, mingled with velvety black and soft silvery grey.At the end of a couple of hundred yards Brace stopped.“This won’t do,” he said. “We are on the lowest terrace, and the palace is a floor higher. It ought to be somewhere over where we are.”“That’s where I reckon it is,” said Briscoe, going to the low ruined wall between them and the river, and straining outward to look up.“See anything?” said Brace.“No; I can’t reach out far enough; the next terrace overhangs. But it must be here.”“Let’s get right on towards the end,” said Sir Humphrey, “and I daresay we shall find some kind of steps leading to the next floor.”It was some time before anything but a dark hole was found, and that seemed to be only a receptacle for loose stones, so it was passed; but after pushing on for another two hundred yards, with nothing to take their attention but the retreating reptiles and the beautiful flashing river which washed the foot of the clift, Briscoe grew uneasy.“Look here,” he said; “we’re losing time. Let’s go back, for I’m sure the way up is through that hole.”“Impossible!” said Brace. “There must be a bold flight of steps.”“No, there mustn’t, mister,” said Briscoe sharply. “This was an old strong place when the people who lived here were alive, and you may depend upon it that the way up was kept small for safety, so that it could easily be defended by a man or two with spears, or shut up with a heavy stone. I say we’ve passed the way up.”“Let’s go back then,” said Sir Humphrey, smiling good-humouredly; and they all made their way back to the bottom of the hole, which had evidently been carefully cut.Briscoe went to it at once; he gave his double gun to the nearest man to hold, and then, seizing one of the stones with which the horizontal oven-like hole had been filled, he shook it loose and dragged it out to stand in the attitude of lowering the heavy block to the ground.“No,” said Brace; “let me.”Brace uttered a warning cry.“I see my nabs,” said Briscoe coolly, as a snake with menacing hiss came creeping rapidly out, raising its head as it glided down; and then its tail part writhed and turned about, for its power of doing mischief was at an end, the American having dropped the heavy stone upon its threatening crest and crushed it upon the stones below.“That’s one,” said Briscoe coolly. “I shouldn’t wonder if his wife’s at home, and a small family as well. Here, you just fish out that next stone with the boat-hook.”The man addressed stepped forward, thrust the implement into the opening, and drew out another stone, when, as the American had suggested, a second serpent came gliding out, to meet its death quickly and be tossed by one of the men over the parapet-like wall into the river.More stones were dragged out with the boat-hook, but only a lizard appeared afterwards; and as two more blocks were pulled forth light from above came down, showing that the opening was L-shaped, going about six feet in to where a chimney-like shaft rose at right angles, down which the light struck, evidently from the next terrace.“I thought so,” said Briscoe. “Here: I’ll go in first.”He crept into the hole at once, and found on looking up the shaft that Briscoe was quite correct, for there were foot-holes chiselled out at intervals in the chimney-like place, so that he could easily step up from one to the other, and the next minute his head was on a level with the floor above and his eyes gazing full in those of a venomous-looking serpent, which raised its head from the middle of its coil ready to strike.

Saving the canoe that they had seen, the events of the night were pretty well forgotten when a fresh start was made, for all were anxious to explore the great cañon and make a wider acquaintance with the beauties that opened out as they trusted themselves once more to the gliding waters which bore them gently on, so slowly now that the powers of the flood-tide were evidently failing gradually.

“We shall have the current against us before long,” said the captain decisively.

“I’ve been thinking so too,” said the first mate; “see how calm the water’s getting. It will be wrong then, for the wind is dead against us, what there is of it.”

“You’d like to go right on up here, gentlemen, I suppose?”

“Certainly,” said Sir Humphrey decisively, “till we are obliged to turn back. The scenery here is grand. Don’t you think so, Mr Briscoe?”

“Beats grand,” was the reply; “but, my word, if gold wasn’t a dangerous word to name in these boats, I should like to land with a hammer and prospect a bit up among these rocks on either side. If they’re not full of rich ore I don’t know paying stuff when I see it.”

“Let it rest,” said Brace, in a half-whisper. “Don’t let the men hear you talking about gold again. You remember what occurred before.”

“Right. I won’t mention the word; but if the Indians who live in these parts haven’t found out and made use of the metal here, the same as the Mexicans and Peruvians did, they must be a queer sort of people. Shouldn’t wonder if we see some more of them to-day.”

“Neither should I,” said Brace, grasping his piece. “Look: that must be the canoe we saw yesterday evening. What are they doing?”

“Fishing,” said the captain quickly. “Now then, gentlemen, let’s be ready for emergencies, but make no sign, and maybe they’ll be friendly instead of showing fight.”

All eyes were directed at a canoe in which three Indians were busy fishing, while a fourth sat in the stern keeping the craft straight by dipping his paddle and giving it a swoop from time to time. They were some three hundred yards ahead, just off a pile of massive rounded rocks which jutted out into the river, and evidently gliding with the current in the same direction as the two boats.

One thing was very evident: they were so intent upon their work that they did not look back, and hence were in perfect ignorance of the approach of the adventurers, while at the end of a couple of minutes they glided on in their frail canoes beyond the rocky promontory, which completely hid them from the view of those in the boats.

“Do you think we ought to follow them up, sir?” asked the captain.

“Yes,” replied Sir Humphrey, “and keep our weapons out of sight as if we had come upon a peaceful errand.”

“I’m afraid they won’t understand us, sir,” said the captain gruffly; “but we’ll try.”

The current was running very gently now, so that the approach of the boats to the promontory took time; but at last it was rounded, revealing to the occupants of the boats a scene as startling as it was strange.

There, a couple of hundred yards away, was the canoe they had followed, while at various distances farther on no less than six more small canoes were dotted about, their feather-crowned crews all busily employed fishing, while as the boats glided round the tree-covered rocks the nearest Indians struck up a soft minor-keyed chant which was taken up by the crews of the other canoes, the whole combining in a sweet low melody which floated over the smoothly-flowing river, fully explaining the sounds heard from the cavern-mouth overnight.

In all probability it was a fisher’s song which the people imagined had some effect upon the fish they were trying to lure to their nets. Strangely wild and mournful, it rose and fell, and gained at times in force as it seemed to echo from the right side of the cañon, which here rose up like some gigantic wall hundreds of feet in height, barred with what appeared to be terraces, and honeycombed with open doors and windows, row above row, from the lowest, upon which in two places smouldered the remains of fires, right up to the sky-line, which, roughly regular, was carved into something resembling the crenellations of a gigantic castle, extending apparently hundreds upon hundreds of yards.

Brace had hardly swept the face of the strangely-worked range of cliff when the softly mournful chorus ceased, and as if moved by one impulse, on catching sight of the approaching boats, the Indians burst forth into a shrill piercing yell which echoed and re-echoed discordantly from the face of the rocks. The next moment every man had seized his paddle, and they were making the river foam and sparkle with the vigour of their strokes.

There was no mistaking the effect produced on the Indians by the appearance of the boats: it was the feeling of horror and dread, every man plunging his paddle deeply into the water and striving his utmost to force the canoes to their greatest speed, so that they might escape from the strange beings. In all probability they were seeing white men for the first time in their lives.

“What does that mean?” said Brace: “going to fetch help?”

“No,” said Lynton; “because this must be where they live.”

“Yes; there are their fires on the banks,” added the captain.

“But they are mere savages,” said Sir Humphrey, who ceased to watch the retreating Indians, to sweep the front of the towering cliffs with his glass. “This palace must have been the work of a more highly civilised race.”

“And is it your opinion that they are at home, waiting to shoot?” asked Briscoe, stooping to pick up his gun.

“At home? No,” cried Sir Humphrey: “those are the ruins of some extremely ancient rock city. Look, Brace. Use your glass. It is the work of centuries. I should say every place has been cut and carved out of the solid rock by some industrious race; but it is quite deserted now save by birds.”

“Then we’ve made a find,” said Briscoe excitedly. “I say, I wonder whether this is the great Golden City, captain?”

“No, sir,” said the captain gruffly; “don’t you see it’s all stone?”

“Yes, but—look, Brace. Those places farther on look more regular—there where the trees are growing out of the cracks and the creepers are hanging down like curtains. I can’t make ’em out very well with the naked eye, but those windows seem to have carving sculpt about them, and underneath seems to be like a stone colonnade and terrace.”

“And a great central doorway,” said Brace eagerly. “Yes, you are right: the walls are covered with curious figures and ornamentations. It must be either a great temple or the Inca’s palace.”

“Inca?” said Briscoe. “Yes—why not? Yes; I suppose it would be an Inca, something of the same kind as the Peruvians. But, I say, look here: these must have been something of the same sort of race as the Peruvians.”

“No doubt,” said Sir Humphrey.

“And the Peruvians were out and outers for getting gold.”

“Look here!” cried the captain, banging his hand down upon the edge of the boat: “if you say gold again, Mr Briscoe, you and me’s going to have a regular row.”

“Then I won’t say it,” said the American good-humouredly. “I promised you that I would hold myself in; but recollect what I said to you last night about these cliffs. I felt sure that they contained—ahem!”

“Shall we row close up to the bank where those fires are, sir?” said the captain, turning his back upon Briscoe.

“If you think there is no risk of any Indians lying in ambush among those rock-chambers,” Sir Humphrey replied.

“I think the place is quite deserted, sir,” replied the captain, “and that if there had been any Indians on shore they would have bolted when these chaps yelled.”

“Yes; that’s right enough,” said Briscoe. “They’re canoe-folk, and there’s no sign of a single person anywhere along the landing-place. You may depend upon it this is a good fishing-station, and they come up here to camp, and we’ve frightened them away. It’s safe enough.”

The captain glanced at Sir Humphrey, who nodded, and the men took to their oars, while Lynton steered the heavy boat right up to the remains of a stone-encumbered wharf or pier that had been laboriously cut out of the solid rock. Here the boats were held, and, well armed, half their occupants sprang out to climb over the slippery stones, which had evidently only lately bean covered by the flood-water, whose mark could be plainly seen, reaching up some ten feet, or half-way to where there ran for hundreds of yards a more or less regular broad terrace cut down out of the rock, and from which the honeycombed perpendicular cliff rose, showing now that it was cut into steps, each step being a rough terrace just below a row of window-like openings.

It was all plain enough now: the Indians’ camp had been made right and left of the rugged steps leading up from the water. There the fires were still glowing, and about them and in rows where they could be dried by the sun lay hundreds upon hundreds of good-sized fish: the harvest the Indians had been taking from the river; while the state of some which were piled together beneath a projecting piece of rock suggested that the fishers must have been staying there for days.

“They are sure to come back for this fish,” said Brace.

“Very likely,” said Sir Humphrey. “Well, if they do, let them have it, and we’ll give them some present in return for what we have taken. Look here, captain: we must camp here for a few days to explore this place.”

“Very good, sir. We can pick out one or two of these caves, or rooms, or whatever they are, to live in. Your Dan would like one of ’em for a kitchen, Mr Briscoe.”

“Yes; he’s smelling about them now. I dessay he has chosen one already,” said the American. “Yes, I call this fine; we may come across some curiosities next. What do you say to beginning a regular explore, Brace?”

“I say: the sooner the better,” cried Brace.

Sir Humphrey nodded.

“We’ll divide into two parties, captain,” he said. “Let half prepare for making a stay; and I should like the others to bring ropes and a boat-hook or two to help our climb, for I daresay we shall need it before we get to the top of this cliff.”

“Very good, sir, and I don’t think you’ll find a soul to hurt you. I’d keep my eyes well opened though, for you may find wild beasts, and you’re sure to find snakes. Let’s see,” he continued, consulting a pocket compass. “Yes: we’re facing nearly due south. It will be a warm spot, and I should say that the old inhabitants are now represented by snakes, and poisonous ones too.”

Preparations were soon made, the captain electing to stay below and make all ready for the party’s return.

Brace led off along the rugged terrace, which was terribly encumbered by stones fallen from above; but the young adventurer’s first idea was to continue along to where the palace-like front reared itself up about the middle of the cliff.

Briscoe stepped alongside of him, and Brace noticed how busily his companion’s eyes wandered about, taking in everything on their way. Not that there was much to see at first, save that the captain was right about the inhabitants, for everywhere among the stones which lay heating in the morning sun they came upon coiled-up serpents, many of which were undoubtedly venomous; but there were other reptiles as well, for lizards darted about by the hundred, when disturbed, to make for their holes in crevices and cracks of the stonework, their scales glistening as if made of burnished metal, bronze, deadened silver, mingled with velvety black and soft silvery grey.

At the end of a couple of hundred yards Brace stopped.

“This won’t do,” he said. “We are on the lowest terrace, and the palace is a floor higher. It ought to be somewhere over where we are.”

“That’s where I reckon it is,” said Briscoe, going to the low ruined wall between them and the river, and straining outward to look up.

“See anything?” said Brace.

“No; I can’t reach out far enough; the next terrace overhangs. But it must be here.”

“Let’s get right on towards the end,” said Sir Humphrey, “and I daresay we shall find some kind of steps leading to the next floor.”

It was some time before anything but a dark hole was found, and that seemed to be only a receptacle for loose stones, so it was passed; but after pushing on for another two hundred yards, with nothing to take their attention but the retreating reptiles and the beautiful flashing river which washed the foot of the clift, Briscoe grew uneasy.

“Look here,” he said; “we’re losing time. Let’s go back, for I’m sure the way up is through that hole.”

“Impossible!” said Brace. “There must be a bold flight of steps.”

“No, there mustn’t, mister,” said Briscoe sharply. “This was an old strong place when the people who lived here were alive, and you may depend upon it that the way up was kept small for safety, so that it could easily be defended by a man or two with spears, or shut up with a heavy stone. I say we’ve passed the way up.”

“Let’s go back then,” said Sir Humphrey, smiling good-humouredly; and they all made their way back to the bottom of the hole, which had evidently been carefully cut.

Briscoe went to it at once; he gave his double gun to the nearest man to hold, and then, seizing one of the stones with which the horizontal oven-like hole had been filled, he shook it loose and dragged it out to stand in the attitude of lowering the heavy block to the ground.

“No,” said Brace; “let me.”

Brace uttered a warning cry.

“I see my nabs,” said Briscoe coolly, as a snake with menacing hiss came creeping rapidly out, raising its head as it glided down; and then its tail part writhed and turned about, for its power of doing mischief was at an end, the American having dropped the heavy stone upon its threatening crest and crushed it upon the stones below.

“That’s one,” said Briscoe coolly. “I shouldn’t wonder if his wife’s at home, and a small family as well. Here, you just fish out that next stone with the boat-hook.”

The man addressed stepped forward, thrust the implement into the opening, and drew out another stone, when, as the American had suggested, a second serpent came gliding out, to meet its death quickly and be tossed by one of the men over the parapet-like wall into the river.

More stones were dragged out with the boat-hook, but only a lizard appeared afterwards; and as two more blocks were pulled forth light from above came down, showing that the opening was L-shaped, going about six feet in to where a chimney-like shaft rose at right angles, down which the light struck, evidently from the next terrace.

“I thought so,” said Briscoe. “Here: I’ll go in first.”

He crept into the hole at once, and found on looking up the shaft that Briscoe was quite correct, for there were foot-holes chiselled out at intervals in the chimney-like place, so that he could easily step up from one to the other, and the next minute his head was on a level with the floor above and his eyes gazing full in those of a venomous-looking serpent, which raised its head from the middle of its coil ready to strike.

Chapter Thirty Seven.Briscoe’s Bit of Ore.Brace obeyed the natural impulse to duck down out of the reptile’s reach, and his next idea was to lower himself the ten feet or so to the bottom; but he shrank from doing this, for it seemed ignominious to retreat, so he raised his head sharply again till his eyes were about level with the terrace platform, and there, a dozen feet away, was the tail part of the snake, disappearing in a fissure of the stone.The next minute he was standing in front of one of the openings they had seen from the river, and his companions were climbing to his side.Here, upon examination, they found room after room with doorway and window all cut out of the soft limestone, and Sir Humphrey and Briscoe were not long in giving it as their opinion that these single rooms, all separate and with their doorways opening upon the terrace, were really the modest little houses of the old dwellers in this hivelike arrangement. There they were, side by side, all opening upon the long terrace, and, after examining many, they found relics of the old inhabitants in the shape of clay-baked rough pots or their broken sherds; and in several, roughly-formed querns or mill-stones, made, not of the rock in which the houses were cut, but of a hard grit that would act better upon the grain they were used to grind.These remains, though, were very scarce, and scarcely anything else was found, though search was made in the expectation of finding skeletons; but not so much as a skull was discovered in either of the stone rooms they reached: nothing to show how the ancient inhabitants came to an end. Apparently it was by no sudden catastrophe, and probably only by dying slowly away.“It might have been a couple of thousand years ago for aught we can tell,” said Sir Humphrey.“Yes,” said Brace; “but we have done nothing yet. There are hundreds more of these cells, floor above floor, right to the top.”“Well, let’s try another floor or terrace, if we can,” said Sir Humphrey. “Has anyone discovered a way up?”“Yes, sir there’s a hole yonder,” said one of the men, “and it isn’t stopped up.”“Well, let’s try it,” said Sir Humphrey.“Hadn’t we better get to the end here, and see what that better part is like?” said Briscoe. “It seems to me that we shall find behind those carved stones the best part of the place.”“Very well,” said Sir Humphrey: “let’s try that first; but we have a month’s work before us to explore all this. Now then.”Briscoe eagerly took the lead and went on along the terrace, with the little metallic-looking lizards darting away in the sunshine amidst the fallen stones; and cell after cell was passed till the end of their journey was reached in the shape of a blank mass of rock, beyond which they felt certain that the temple or palace remains must be. But there was no means of passing farther, and nothing remained but to ascend to the next terrace.This was done, with similar experiences, and another step was gained, from which, after looking down to where the boats were moored, they again climbed higher, entering very few of the cells, but directing their efforts towards reaching the central portion.But failure attended every effort, and, hot and wearied out by what was growing a monotonous task, Brace and the American readily acquiesced in Sir Humphrey’s proposal that they should now descend and join their companions in the midday meal, and afterwards take the smaller boat, row to the front of the temple, and try for away up from the river.The task of descending and going back took considerably longer than they anticipated, but at last they reached the lower terrace, where the rest were awaiting their return, and over the meal they related their experiences.These were precisely similar to those of a couple of the men who had explored a little on their own account in the other direction; but they had been compelled to keep to the terrace where the fires had been lit.“The place must have been built by the same kind of people who cut their rock houses in some of the cañons in Mexico,” said Briscoe; “only those are a degenerate set, and their cells or dwellings are very rough and primitive. These people must have been greatly in advance. There: I want to get to work again. There must be a way into that temple place from the front.”“Well, let’s try,” said the captain. “It’s a queer place if there is no way in.”The afternoon was getting on when the exploring party entered the smaller boat and had it rowed out into the stream a short distance from the centre of the rock city, just facing the spot where the terraces were grotesquely carved; and as they minutely examined the partly natural, partly sculptured place, they were more than ever impressed by the excellence of the workmanship.It must have been the work of many, many years, perhaps of generations, of the people who had lavished so much skilful toil on that centre, which was about a couple of hundred feet in width, and rose up terrace above terrace six or seven hundred feet before the plain uncarved rock was reached, in whose clefts tree, shrub, and creeper grew abundantly for a similar distance, while to right and left the cell-like windows right up to the top of the cañon finished off as before intimated, something like the crenellations on the top of a Norman castle.“It must have been magnificent at one time,” said Sir Humphrey. “I wish I were clever with my pencil, so as to be able to reproduce all this on paper. These ornamentations are grotesque and horrible, but wonderfully carved, and the variety of the figures is marvellous.”“Hadn’t we better row close in?” said Briscoe, who seemed impatient, and the men took to their oars till the strong rock wall was reached and the boat drawn along by one of the men with a boat-hook from end to end and back, without a sign of any way up being found.There they were in the deep water, which glided along at the foot of a blank, carefully smoothed-away wall of rock, perfectly perpendicular, and, save where it was dotted here and there with mossy growth, offering not the slightest foot- or hand-hold.“Why, it must be fully fifty feet high to that carved coping-like projection,” said Brace.“Yes, about that,” said Briscoe, with a sigh of disappointment. “Here, I’d give a hundred dollars for the loan of a ladder that we could plant down here in the water and would reach to the top.”“It would take a long one,” said Brace, laughing. “I wonder how deep it is.”“Ah, let’s try,” said Briscoe. “Here, hand one of those fishing-lines and a lead out of the locker, Lynton.”This was well within the second mate’s province, and the next minute he had the heaviest lead at the end of a line, dropped it over the side, and let it run down as fast as he could unwind.“I say: it’s deep,” he said, as the line ran over the boat’s gunwale; and he said so again and again, till the winder was empty and the lead not yet at the bottom.“How long is that line?” said Brace, in astonishment.“One hundred yards, gentlemen,” said Lynton loudly. “Shall I have it wound up again?”“Yes,” said Sir Humphrey. “We must try and find bottom some other time. The river must be of a terrific depth.”“That’s so,” said Briscoe. “You see, we’re in a tremendous canon, and the bottom is filled up by this river, which seems as if it would hold any amount of flood-water. I’ll be bound to say it’s full of fish, and that accounts for the Indians coming here with their nets and lines.”“What’s to be done now?” said Brace.“We must try the other end of the place, and see if we can’t get into the temple from there,” said Briscoe, who had taken out his knife to begin scraping the slime and moss from the face of the rocky wall till he had made a clean patch, which he examined with a pocket magnifier.“There’s time to do a bit more to-day,” said Lynton, who was eager to go on exploring, and in obedience to an order the men rowed gently on past the front of the temple, till about a quarter of a mile farther on a similar landing to that which they had first approached was reached, and the party eagerly ascended the rough steps to a flat wharf or terrace like the other where the smouldering fires were found, ascended by another L-shaped passage to the next terrace, to find more and more rooms or cells, and then hurried on back till they came face to face with the blank rock which formed the other end of the temple.“This must do for to-day,” said Sir Humphrey decisively. “Turn back now. To-morrow, if all’s well, we will ascend right to the top.”“And look along there for the way into this place,” said Brace; “for way in there must be. Lead on, Mr Lynton; we’ll follow.”The second mate started off with the men, and as soon as their backs were turned Briscoe stooped quickly and picked up one of the pieces of stone which had crumbled down from somewhere up the face of the cliff.“What have you got there?” said Brace: “a piece of ancient carving?”“Look,” said the American, in a low tone, and he handed the piece to Sir Humphrey, holding the side that had been downward as it lay on the stone-encumbered terrace, upward where the fracture looked comparatively new.“Gold!” exclaimed Sir Humphrey, as he saw that the stone was webbed with glistening thready veins.“Ah! I didn’t say the word,” said Briscoe, laughing, as he glanced forward at the backs of Lynton and the men. “But that’s what it is. I knew it. I’m not going to talk and make a fuss; but that bit you’ve got hold of would crush and give as much as a couple of pounds of gold a ton.”“You amaze me,” said Sir Humphrey.“It amazes P Franklyn Briscoe,” said their companion. “Shall I put this in my pocket, or throw it away?”“Keep it,” said Sir Humphrey, “and we’ll show it to the captain. I don’t see why we should not take back as much of the richest ore as the boats will carry. Let’s see what he’ll say.”“Yes; let’s do so,” said Briscoe; “but it seems queer, doesn’t it, that there should have been people living who could make a town like this, and then for hundreds or thousands of years poor simple Indians going on shooting and fishing while all this wealth was waiting in the rocks if they had known what it was worth?”“They could not have been so advanced a people as the Mexicans and Peruvians,” said Brace.“Seems not,” said Briscoe drily, as he thrust the piece of ore in his pocket and followed the men to where they could descend to the boats.That evening, as the party sat together in front of one of the lower cells, looking at the beauties of the reflections from the river on the far side of the cañon opposite, Brace waited till the attention of the men, who were at a little distance from them, was quite averted, and said softly:“Show the captain the piece of curious rock you picked up to-day, Briscoe.”“Eh?” said the captain: “bit of curious rock! I picked up a bit too.”He fumbled with his hand in his pocket and drew out something before taking that which the American held out.“Humph, yes,” he said: “mine’s just the same. Bit which has come down from the face of the cliff somewhere. I say, there’s no mistake about it, Squire Briscoe: this is rich in gold.”“Ah, would you!” cried the American sharply; “who said we weren’t to mention that?”“I said so,” replied the captain drily. “Don’t talk so loud. But this sets a man thinking, eh, Sir Humphrey and Mr Brace: and, you see, gold is gold, after all.”

Brace obeyed the natural impulse to duck down out of the reptile’s reach, and his next idea was to lower himself the ten feet or so to the bottom; but he shrank from doing this, for it seemed ignominious to retreat, so he raised his head sharply again till his eyes were about level with the terrace platform, and there, a dozen feet away, was the tail part of the snake, disappearing in a fissure of the stone.

The next minute he was standing in front of one of the openings they had seen from the river, and his companions were climbing to his side.

Here, upon examination, they found room after room with doorway and window all cut out of the soft limestone, and Sir Humphrey and Briscoe were not long in giving it as their opinion that these single rooms, all separate and with their doorways opening upon the terrace, were really the modest little houses of the old dwellers in this hivelike arrangement. There they were, side by side, all opening upon the long terrace, and, after examining many, they found relics of the old inhabitants in the shape of clay-baked rough pots or their broken sherds; and in several, roughly-formed querns or mill-stones, made, not of the rock in which the houses were cut, but of a hard grit that would act better upon the grain they were used to grind.

These remains, though, were very scarce, and scarcely anything else was found, though search was made in the expectation of finding skeletons; but not so much as a skull was discovered in either of the stone rooms they reached: nothing to show how the ancient inhabitants came to an end. Apparently it was by no sudden catastrophe, and probably only by dying slowly away.

“It might have been a couple of thousand years ago for aught we can tell,” said Sir Humphrey.

“Yes,” said Brace; “but we have done nothing yet. There are hundreds more of these cells, floor above floor, right to the top.”

“Well, let’s try another floor or terrace, if we can,” said Sir Humphrey. “Has anyone discovered a way up?”

“Yes, sir there’s a hole yonder,” said one of the men, “and it isn’t stopped up.”

“Well, let’s try it,” said Sir Humphrey.

“Hadn’t we better get to the end here, and see what that better part is like?” said Briscoe. “It seems to me that we shall find behind those carved stones the best part of the place.”

“Very well,” said Sir Humphrey: “let’s try that first; but we have a month’s work before us to explore all this. Now then.”

Briscoe eagerly took the lead and went on along the terrace, with the little metallic-looking lizards darting away in the sunshine amidst the fallen stones; and cell after cell was passed till the end of their journey was reached in the shape of a blank mass of rock, beyond which they felt certain that the temple or palace remains must be. But there was no means of passing farther, and nothing remained but to ascend to the next terrace.

This was done, with similar experiences, and another step was gained, from which, after looking down to where the boats were moored, they again climbed higher, entering very few of the cells, but directing their efforts towards reaching the central portion.

But failure attended every effort, and, hot and wearied out by what was growing a monotonous task, Brace and the American readily acquiesced in Sir Humphrey’s proposal that they should now descend and join their companions in the midday meal, and afterwards take the smaller boat, row to the front of the temple, and try for away up from the river.

The task of descending and going back took considerably longer than they anticipated, but at last they reached the lower terrace, where the rest were awaiting their return, and over the meal they related their experiences.

These were precisely similar to those of a couple of the men who had explored a little on their own account in the other direction; but they had been compelled to keep to the terrace where the fires had been lit.

“The place must have been built by the same kind of people who cut their rock houses in some of the cañons in Mexico,” said Briscoe; “only those are a degenerate set, and their cells or dwellings are very rough and primitive. These people must have been greatly in advance. There: I want to get to work again. There must be a way into that temple place from the front.”

“Well, let’s try,” said the captain. “It’s a queer place if there is no way in.”

The afternoon was getting on when the exploring party entered the smaller boat and had it rowed out into the stream a short distance from the centre of the rock city, just facing the spot where the terraces were grotesquely carved; and as they minutely examined the partly natural, partly sculptured place, they were more than ever impressed by the excellence of the workmanship.

It must have been the work of many, many years, perhaps of generations, of the people who had lavished so much skilful toil on that centre, which was about a couple of hundred feet in width, and rose up terrace above terrace six or seven hundred feet before the plain uncarved rock was reached, in whose clefts tree, shrub, and creeper grew abundantly for a similar distance, while to right and left the cell-like windows right up to the top of the cañon finished off as before intimated, something like the crenellations on the top of a Norman castle.

“It must have been magnificent at one time,” said Sir Humphrey. “I wish I were clever with my pencil, so as to be able to reproduce all this on paper. These ornamentations are grotesque and horrible, but wonderfully carved, and the variety of the figures is marvellous.”

“Hadn’t we better row close in?” said Briscoe, who seemed impatient, and the men took to their oars till the strong rock wall was reached and the boat drawn along by one of the men with a boat-hook from end to end and back, without a sign of any way up being found.

There they were in the deep water, which glided along at the foot of a blank, carefully smoothed-away wall of rock, perfectly perpendicular, and, save where it was dotted here and there with mossy growth, offering not the slightest foot- or hand-hold.

“Why, it must be fully fifty feet high to that carved coping-like projection,” said Brace.

“Yes, about that,” said Briscoe, with a sigh of disappointment. “Here, I’d give a hundred dollars for the loan of a ladder that we could plant down here in the water and would reach to the top.”

“It would take a long one,” said Brace, laughing. “I wonder how deep it is.”

“Ah, let’s try,” said Briscoe. “Here, hand one of those fishing-lines and a lead out of the locker, Lynton.”

This was well within the second mate’s province, and the next minute he had the heaviest lead at the end of a line, dropped it over the side, and let it run down as fast as he could unwind.

“I say: it’s deep,” he said, as the line ran over the boat’s gunwale; and he said so again and again, till the winder was empty and the lead not yet at the bottom.

“How long is that line?” said Brace, in astonishment.

“One hundred yards, gentlemen,” said Lynton loudly. “Shall I have it wound up again?”

“Yes,” said Sir Humphrey. “We must try and find bottom some other time. The river must be of a terrific depth.”

“That’s so,” said Briscoe. “You see, we’re in a tremendous canon, and the bottom is filled up by this river, which seems as if it would hold any amount of flood-water. I’ll be bound to say it’s full of fish, and that accounts for the Indians coming here with their nets and lines.”

“What’s to be done now?” said Brace.

“We must try the other end of the place, and see if we can’t get into the temple from there,” said Briscoe, who had taken out his knife to begin scraping the slime and moss from the face of the rocky wall till he had made a clean patch, which he examined with a pocket magnifier.

“There’s time to do a bit more to-day,” said Lynton, who was eager to go on exploring, and in obedience to an order the men rowed gently on past the front of the temple, till about a quarter of a mile farther on a similar landing to that which they had first approached was reached, and the party eagerly ascended the rough steps to a flat wharf or terrace like the other where the smouldering fires were found, ascended by another L-shaped passage to the next terrace, to find more and more rooms or cells, and then hurried on back till they came face to face with the blank rock which formed the other end of the temple.

“This must do for to-day,” said Sir Humphrey decisively. “Turn back now. To-morrow, if all’s well, we will ascend right to the top.”

“And look along there for the way into this place,” said Brace; “for way in there must be. Lead on, Mr Lynton; we’ll follow.”

The second mate started off with the men, and as soon as their backs were turned Briscoe stooped quickly and picked up one of the pieces of stone which had crumbled down from somewhere up the face of the cliff.

“What have you got there?” said Brace: “a piece of ancient carving?”

“Look,” said the American, in a low tone, and he handed the piece to Sir Humphrey, holding the side that had been downward as it lay on the stone-encumbered terrace, upward where the fracture looked comparatively new.

“Gold!” exclaimed Sir Humphrey, as he saw that the stone was webbed with glistening thready veins.

“Ah! I didn’t say the word,” said Briscoe, laughing, as he glanced forward at the backs of Lynton and the men. “But that’s what it is. I knew it. I’m not going to talk and make a fuss; but that bit you’ve got hold of would crush and give as much as a couple of pounds of gold a ton.”

“You amaze me,” said Sir Humphrey.

“It amazes P Franklyn Briscoe,” said their companion. “Shall I put this in my pocket, or throw it away?”

“Keep it,” said Sir Humphrey, “and we’ll show it to the captain. I don’t see why we should not take back as much of the richest ore as the boats will carry. Let’s see what he’ll say.”

“Yes; let’s do so,” said Briscoe; “but it seems queer, doesn’t it, that there should have been people living who could make a town like this, and then for hundreds or thousands of years poor simple Indians going on shooting and fishing while all this wealth was waiting in the rocks if they had known what it was worth?”

“They could not have been so advanced a people as the Mexicans and Peruvians,” said Brace.

“Seems not,” said Briscoe drily, as he thrust the piece of ore in his pocket and followed the men to where they could descend to the boats.

That evening, as the party sat together in front of one of the lower cells, looking at the beauties of the reflections from the river on the far side of the cañon opposite, Brace waited till the attention of the men, who were at a little distance from them, was quite averted, and said softly:

“Show the captain the piece of curious rock you picked up to-day, Briscoe.”

“Eh?” said the captain: “bit of curious rock! I picked up a bit too.”

He fumbled with his hand in his pocket and drew out something before taking that which the American held out.

“Humph, yes,” he said: “mine’s just the same. Bit which has come down from the face of the cliff somewhere. I say, there’s no mistake about it, Squire Briscoe: this is rich in gold.”

“Ah, would you!” cried the American sharply; “who said we weren’t to mention that?”

“I said so,” replied the captain drily. “Don’t talk so loud. But this sets a man thinking, eh, Sir Humphrey and Mr Brace: and, you see, gold is gold, after all.”

Chapter Thirty Eight.A Double Discovery.No more was said about the gold ore then, but the captain showed himself deeply interested in the proceedings to further investigate the ruined city. Briscoe, though, made one remark to Brace the next morning after a restful night.“If this isn’t the Spaniards’ El Dorado,” he said, “it’s quite good enough to be, and I’m quite satisfied with our find.”There had been no sign of the Indians, whose dried fish were utilised a good deal by Dan for the men’s breakfast, and in good time a fresh start was made, this time with the captain one of the party, the intention being to try and mount to the highest terrace and see if there was any entrance to the central portion of the rock city from there.Taught by the previous day’s experience, the party—led by Brace and Lynton, who both displayed in their eagerness plenty of activity—climbed pretty quickly from terrace to terrace, disturbing plenty of birds, for the most part a kind of pigeon, which nested freely in the cell-like openings. Reptiles, too, were abundant, but all ready enough to make for their holes in the rifts of the rock, the lizards glancing out of sight in a moment, the snakes slowly and resentfully, as if ready to strike at the intruders at the slightest provocation, but no one received hurt.Upon every terrace the relics left by the old inhabitants were the same: broken earthenware and the much-worn little hand-mills used for some kind of grain, all showing that every terrace had been occupied by rows of narrow dwellings, safe havens that could easily be defended from attack by an enemy; for, if the lowest terrace had been mastered, the people had but to block up the chimney-like approach to the next terrace after fleeing thereto, and defy their foes, whose only chance of gaining the mastery was by starving out those in possession.Sir Humphrey pointed this out to the others as they climbed higher and higher; but he was directly afterwards somewhat nonplussed by a question put by the captain—one which was unanswerable. It was simply this:“How do you suppose the besieged people would get on for water?”The party were nearing the top at last, having, as far as they could make out, only six more terraces to mount, when, as they paused, breathless and covered with perspiration and dust, for a few minutes’ rest, they heard a peculiar sound, which came from the direction of the end of the terrace nearest to the great central part.“Why, it must be water falling somewhere right in the cliff,” cried Brace; and, forgetting his breathlessness, he hurried along over the crumbling stones and dust in the direction from which the sound seemed to come.“It comes from out of here,” said Lynton, who was first to arrive at the end of the terrace, and he stopped at one of the familiar open doorways and listened.There was no mistaking the sound now; it was the hollow echoing noise of water falling into some reservoir in the interior of the cliff; and, upon passing in, they found that, instead of this being one of the ordinary cells, it was the entrance to a wide passage, apparently leading right into the bowels of the mountain.“Mind how you go,” cried Lynton, as Brace stepped boldly in.“Hullo! what have you found?” cried Briscoe, who came next to Lynton. “Water? Why, they must have dug out a great cistern or reservoir in here, and let in a spring from somewhere above.”“I say, do mind how you go,” cried Lynton excitedly. “It’s getting dark there, and you may slip down into some awful well-like hole.”“All right,” said Brace confidently. “I’m feeling my way every step with the butt of my gun, and I can see yet.”“Precious awful-looking place,” said Briscoe. “Here, we must have lights. Stop him, Lynton: he shan’t go a step forward. I don’t mean for us all to be drowned like rats in a tank.”“You two wouldn’t need to be,” said Brace coolly, “for you would stop at once if you should hear me go down.”“Oh, of course,” said Briscoe, with a sneer: “we shouldn’t try to save your life. ’Tisn’t likely, is it, Lynton?”“Not a bit,” was the gruff reply; “but I say, Mr Brace, hold hard now. I’ll go back and send a man down below to bring up some pieces of pine-wood to burn.”“I have stopped,” said Brace, whose voice sounded to the rest of the party hollow and echoing, dying away in the distance like a peculiar whisper. “There’s a great pillar here, and the passage branches off to right and left.”“Well, let’s have lights.”“I don’t think we shall want them if we take the passage to the left, for I can see light shining in through a hole. Yes, and there’s another hole farther on. It’s a passage going down at a slope. Why, it’s all steps.”“Steps?” cried Briscoe, as he heard the tap, tap of the steel plate covering the butt of Brace’s gun as he felt his way.“And so it is away here to the right: steps going down into black darkness. I know! down to the great tank, into which the water falls from ever so high up.”“Then you stop, young fellow,” cried Briscoe hoarsely, “or you’ll be falling too from ever so high up, and I daresay that’s a big stone cistern half a mile deep, and full of water-snakes and polligoblins.”“Listen,” said Brace; “I’m going to feed them. Be quiet, everybody,” he added, for the passage behind was now being filled up, the captain and Sir Humphrey in front.“What are you going to do now, sir?” asked Lynton.“Here’s a great mass of stone that seems to have fallen down from the roof close to my feet. Hold my gun.”He passed his piece to the mate, who could faintly make out the speaker’s shape by the feeble light which came from beyond him to the left.“Heavy,” panted Brace, “Hah!”He raised the stone right above his head and heaved it from him, the expiration of his breath being plainly heard by the listeners in the painful silence which followed for a couple of seconds. Then there were sparks emitted from somewhere below, where the stone struck with a crash and bounded off into space.The crash was echoed, and seemed to reverberate round and round some great vault, and then came directly after a dull, solemn, weird-soundingplosh! evidently not many feet below where they were standing.After this, there were peculiar whisperings and sounds, as if numbers of disturbed occupants of the water were beating and lapping at the walls of the place: then silence once more.“Be careful, Brace!” cried Sir Humphrey.“It’s all right,” said Brace coolly. “There: I’ve left that place. All of you bear off to the left and follow me down these steps. Hurrah! I believe we’ve found the way to the great temple at last.”“It’s all right, sir,” cried Briscoe, who had passed Lynton. “I can see plainly now. There’s a narrow flight of steps leading down close to the face of the cliff, and it’s lit every few yards by big square holes, only they’re most of them grown over and choked by creepers.”“Hi! Look out there, everyone,” shouted Brace. “Lie down.”For all at once there arose a peculiar rushing sound, and as everyone crouched as low as he could, he was conscious of the whistling of wings in rapid flight and the ammoniacal odour of a great stream of birds passing over them to reach the outlet from the passage into the open air.“It’s all right, lads,” shouted Briscoe. “It’s only a flock of oil-birds that we have disturbed. Yes, I thought so: some of them have helped to block up these window places with their nests. I can feel several here.”The birds were some minutes before they had all passed through the opening, and then the tramp downwards was resumed, with the result that before long the light grew stronger from below, and at last quite bright, for a peculiar rustling was heard, which resolved itself into the acts of Brace, who had reached a level spot and was now busy with his large sheath-knife hacking away at a dense mass of creeper not unlike ivy.A few minutes later, and he was out upon an overgrown terrace gazing over a much-corroded carved parapet at the sparkling river below; and he uttered a loud cheer and stood waving his hat to the men far down to his left, two of whom were seated in the larger boat.The top terrace of the great temple-like place had been reached, and after a few words of congratulation upon their success the examination of the strange edifice began.They were a good deal checked at first by the growth of ages and stones which had crumbled down; but they were not long making out that the construction of the place was upon the same plan as that put in practice over the openings to right and left; though the cells were much smaller, and suggested that they had been intended for occupation by one or at most two people. There were no traces of domestic implements to be found, and nothing but the dust of the crumbling stones and the nests of birds with which the openings of the cells were choked met the searchers’ eyes.The investigation of this portion of the cliff city was, of course, made in the reverse way, terrace after terrace being explored by the adventurers descending; but the L-shaped shafts were far larger and more commodious, and, instead of holes being made for the feet, carefully-made steps had been cut out of the solid stone.Feeling assured that if any interesting traces of the old dwellers were to be found they would in all probability be here, Sir Humphrey and his brother headed the search, and one by one every cell was entered and each terrace explored, till, as they looked over the front, they made out that only three more terraces remained, one of which was that below which the great wall of rock went sheer down to the river at the spot where they had cast the line to find bottom.The party paused now for a few minutes’ rest and conversation before descending to these last three terraces.“It is a wonderful place,” said Brace thoughtfully, “and the old people who cut out these cells and did all that carving must have been clever enough for anything. Look at the shaping of this curious-looking monster.”“I admire the way they protected themselves and prepared for a siege as much as anything,” said Briscoe. “The manner in which they contrived the water supply is to my mind grand. We must have torches one of these days, and examine that tank, and get up to the top and find out how the spring is led in.”“But it seems strange that there are no more remains left about. They did not possess anything apparently but a few earthen pots and the stone mills,” said Brace.“People didn’t furnish much in early times,” said Briscoe, laughing. “A man provided himself with a knife, a bow and arrow, or a spear, and a place to lay his head in, and no doubt thought he was rich. He didn’t want a van when he was going to move to a fresh residence.”“But these people must have been highly civilised to ornament this temple, or palace, or whatever it was, so grandly.”“Well, let’s make our way to the bottom,” said Briscoe; “we may find something more interesting yet. Ready, Sir Humphrey?”“Yes: forward,” was the reply.“He means downward,” said Briscoe, laughing, and, the regular shaft being found, they descended to the next terrace and began to explore.

No more was said about the gold ore then, but the captain showed himself deeply interested in the proceedings to further investigate the ruined city. Briscoe, though, made one remark to Brace the next morning after a restful night.

“If this isn’t the Spaniards’ El Dorado,” he said, “it’s quite good enough to be, and I’m quite satisfied with our find.”

There had been no sign of the Indians, whose dried fish were utilised a good deal by Dan for the men’s breakfast, and in good time a fresh start was made, this time with the captain one of the party, the intention being to try and mount to the highest terrace and see if there was any entrance to the central portion of the rock city from there.

Taught by the previous day’s experience, the party—led by Brace and Lynton, who both displayed in their eagerness plenty of activity—climbed pretty quickly from terrace to terrace, disturbing plenty of birds, for the most part a kind of pigeon, which nested freely in the cell-like openings. Reptiles, too, were abundant, but all ready enough to make for their holes in the rifts of the rock, the lizards glancing out of sight in a moment, the snakes slowly and resentfully, as if ready to strike at the intruders at the slightest provocation, but no one received hurt.

Upon every terrace the relics left by the old inhabitants were the same: broken earthenware and the much-worn little hand-mills used for some kind of grain, all showing that every terrace had been occupied by rows of narrow dwellings, safe havens that could easily be defended from attack by an enemy; for, if the lowest terrace had been mastered, the people had but to block up the chimney-like approach to the next terrace after fleeing thereto, and defy their foes, whose only chance of gaining the mastery was by starving out those in possession.

Sir Humphrey pointed this out to the others as they climbed higher and higher; but he was directly afterwards somewhat nonplussed by a question put by the captain—one which was unanswerable. It was simply this:

“How do you suppose the besieged people would get on for water?”

The party were nearing the top at last, having, as far as they could make out, only six more terraces to mount, when, as they paused, breathless and covered with perspiration and dust, for a few minutes’ rest, they heard a peculiar sound, which came from the direction of the end of the terrace nearest to the great central part.

“Why, it must be water falling somewhere right in the cliff,” cried Brace; and, forgetting his breathlessness, he hurried along over the crumbling stones and dust in the direction from which the sound seemed to come.

“It comes from out of here,” said Lynton, who was first to arrive at the end of the terrace, and he stopped at one of the familiar open doorways and listened.

There was no mistaking the sound now; it was the hollow echoing noise of water falling into some reservoir in the interior of the cliff; and, upon passing in, they found that, instead of this being one of the ordinary cells, it was the entrance to a wide passage, apparently leading right into the bowels of the mountain.

“Mind how you go,” cried Lynton, as Brace stepped boldly in.

“Hullo! what have you found?” cried Briscoe, who came next to Lynton. “Water? Why, they must have dug out a great cistern or reservoir in here, and let in a spring from somewhere above.”

“I say, do mind how you go,” cried Lynton excitedly. “It’s getting dark there, and you may slip down into some awful well-like hole.”

“All right,” said Brace confidently. “I’m feeling my way every step with the butt of my gun, and I can see yet.”

“Precious awful-looking place,” said Briscoe. “Here, we must have lights. Stop him, Lynton: he shan’t go a step forward. I don’t mean for us all to be drowned like rats in a tank.”

“You two wouldn’t need to be,” said Brace coolly, “for you would stop at once if you should hear me go down.”

“Oh, of course,” said Briscoe, with a sneer: “we shouldn’t try to save your life. ’Tisn’t likely, is it, Lynton?”

“Not a bit,” was the gruff reply; “but I say, Mr Brace, hold hard now. I’ll go back and send a man down below to bring up some pieces of pine-wood to burn.”

“I have stopped,” said Brace, whose voice sounded to the rest of the party hollow and echoing, dying away in the distance like a peculiar whisper. “There’s a great pillar here, and the passage branches off to right and left.”

“Well, let’s have lights.”

“I don’t think we shall want them if we take the passage to the left, for I can see light shining in through a hole. Yes, and there’s another hole farther on. It’s a passage going down at a slope. Why, it’s all steps.”

“Steps?” cried Briscoe, as he heard the tap, tap of the steel plate covering the butt of Brace’s gun as he felt his way.

“And so it is away here to the right: steps going down into black darkness. I know! down to the great tank, into which the water falls from ever so high up.”

“Then you stop, young fellow,” cried Briscoe hoarsely, “or you’ll be falling too from ever so high up, and I daresay that’s a big stone cistern half a mile deep, and full of water-snakes and polligoblins.”

“Listen,” said Brace; “I’m going to feed them. Be quiet, everybody,” he added, for the passage behind was now being filled up, the captain and Sir Humphrey in front.

“What are you going to do now, sir?” asked Lynton.

“Here’s a great mass of stone that seems to have fallen down from the roof close to my feet. Hold my gun.”

He passed his piece to the mate, who could faintly make out the speaker’s shape by the feeble light which came from beyond him to the left.

“Heavy,” panted Brace, “Hah!”

He raised the stone right above his head and heaved it from him, the expiration of his breath being plainly heard by the listeners in the painful silence which followed for a couple of seconds. Then there were sparks emitted from somewhere below, where the stone struck with a crash and bounded off into space.

The crash was echoed, and seemed to reverberate round and round some great vault, and then came directly after a dull, solemn, weird-soundingplosh! evidently not many feet below where they were standing.

After this, there were peculiar whisperings and sounds, as if numbers of disturbed occupants of the water were beating and lapping at the walls of the place: then silence once more.

“Be careful, Brace!” cried Sir Humphrey.

“It’s all right,” said Brace coolly. “There: I’ve left that place. All of you bear off to the left and follow me down these steps. Hurrah! I believe we’ve found the way to the great temple at last.”

“It’s all right, sir,” cried Briscoe, who had passed Lynton. “I can see plainly now. There’s a narrow flight of steps leading down close to the face of the cliff, and it’s lit every few yards by big square holes, only they’re most of them grown over and choked by creepers.”

“Hi! Look out there, everyone,” shouted Brace. “Lie down.”

For all at once there arose a peculiar rushing sound, and as everyone crouched as low as he could, he was conscious of the whistling of wings in rapid flight and the ammoniacal odour of a great stream of birds passing over them to reach the outlet from the passage into the open air.

“It’s all right, lads,” shouted Briscoe. “It’s only a flock of oil-birds that we have disturbed. Yes, I thought so: some of them have helped to block up these window places with their nests. I can feel several here.”

The birds were some minutes before they had all passed through the opening, and then the tramp downwards was resumed, with the result that before long the light grew stronger from below, and at last quite bright, for a peculiar rustling was heard, which resolved itself into the acts of Brace, who had reached a level spot and was now busy with his large sheath-knife hacking away at a dense mass of creeper not unlike ivy.

A few minutes later, and he was out upon an overgrown terrace gazing over a much-corroded carved parapet at the sparkling river below; and he uttered a loud cheer and stood waving his hat to the men far down to his left, two of whom were seated in the larger boat.

The top terrace of the great temple-like place had been reached, and after a few words of congratulation upon their success the examination of the strange edifice began.

They were a good deal checked at first by the growth of ages and stones which had crumbled down; but they were not long making out that the construction of the place was upon the same plan as that put in practice over the openings to right and left; though the cells were much smaller, and suggested that they had been intended for occupation by one or at most two people. There were no traces of domestic implements to be found, and nothing but the dust of the crumbling stones and the nests of birds with which the openings of the cells were choked met the searchers’ eyes.

The investigation of this portion of the cliff city was, of course, made in the reverse way, terrace after terrace being explored by the adventurers descending; but the L-shaped shafts were far larger and more commodious, and, instead of holes being made for the feet, carefully-made steps had been cut out of the solid stone.

Feeling assured that if any interesting traces of the old dwellers were to be found they would in all probability be here, Sir Humphrey and his brother headed the search, and one by one every cell was entered and each terrace explored, till, as they looked over the front, they made out that only three more terraces remained, one of which was that below which the great wall of rock went sheer down to the river at the spot where they had cast the line to find bottom.

The party paused now for a few minutes’ rest and conversation before descending to these last three terraces.

“It is a wonderful place,” said Brace thoughtfully, “and the old people who cut out these cells and did all that carving must have been clever enough for anything. Look at the shaping of this curious-looking monster.”

“I admire the way they protected themselves and prepared for a siege as much as anything,” said Briscoe. “The manner in which they contrived the water supply is to my mind grand. We must have torches one of these days, and examine that tank, and get up to the top and find out how the spring is led in.”

“But it seems strange that there are no more remains left about. They did not possess anything apparently but a few earthen pots and the stone mills,” said Brace.

“People didn’t furnish much in early times,” said Briscoe, laughing. “A man provided himself with a knife, a bow and arrow, or a spear, and a place to lay his head in, and no doubt thought he was rich. He didn’t want a van when he was going to move to a fresh residence.”

“But these people must have been highly civilised to ornament this temple, or palace, or whatever it was, so grandly.”

“Well, let’s make our way to the bottom,” said Briscoe; “we may find something more interesting yet. Ready, Sir Humphrey?”

“Yes: forward,” was the reply.

“He means downward,” said Briscoe, laughing, and, the regular shaft being found, they descended to the next terrace and began to explore.

Chapter Thirty Nine.The Temple of Idols.Working now upon a regular plan, the party began at one end of the terrace and examined each cell in turn.They had proceeded about a third of the way towards the other end, when, to the surprise of all, although the openings like windows continued in a regular row, the doorways ceased altogether, and when an attempt to peer in at window after window was made, nothing whatever could be seen, for within all was deep silent gloom.They soon found that about a third part in the centre of the two-hundred-feet-long terrace was like this: then the doorways began again and continued right away to the end.“Here, I want to see what’s inside that middle part,” said Briscoe. “I propose that I have a rope round my waist, and that I climb in, and you lower me down till I holloa out.”“And I propose,” said Sir Humphrey, “that we leave that till another day. Let’s go down to the next terrace.”“At your orders, sir,” said the American quietly. “I can wait.”The opening leading to the next terrace was sought for after the last cells had been examined, and when discovered it was found to contain nothing whatever but the crumbling dust of ages and the traces left by birds; while, upon descending to this last terrace but one, they saw that the construction was precisely the same as that of the terrace they had just left—the central part being pierced only with windows, doored cells being on either side.“I feel more and more that I want to see what’s inside there,” said Briscoe.“Well, we’ll have plenty of time to do so some other day, for we are not going to move away from this place just yet,” said Brace merrily. “Wait till tomorrow, and we’ll go in together. I fancy that we shall find it is a temple, and full of mummies.”“Like as not,” said Briscoe; “and if it is we shall find no end of interesting things wrapped up with them, I should say. I daresay these people did like the Egyptians used to do.”“Now,” said Sir Humphrey, as the last cell was examined, “one more terrace, and we shall have done all but this centre, and I propose to leave that till to-morrow.”“No,” cried Brace and Briscoe, in a breath.“I want to sleep to-night,” said the latter, “and I can’t with this mystery on my brain.”“Very well, then; we’ll eat a bit of lunch, and then examine that.”As soon as the party had disposed of their meal, they left the entrance to the shaft, walked along to the end of the terrace, and began to examine the first cell.Here a surprise awaited them, for the cell was double, had two windows and a door at either end, there being no dividing wall, only a curious construction in the middle, but so crumbled away that for some minutes it was examined in vain, the loose stones about turned over and over, and the dust raked here and there.“I know,” cried Brace at last: “it has been a kitchen.”“Right,” said Briscoe: “must have been something of that sort. Let’s get on.”The next place was entered, and proved to be also double, but with only one entrance, and that narrow.Brace was the first to enter, and after a glance round and upward to see if the roof had fallen in, he stood looking down at a heap of stones which were thickly covered with the dust that had crumbled down and accumulated.“There’s nothing to see here,” he cried; “and the windows are nearly choked up with growth.”“Yes, come back; these places are all the same,” said Briscoe, gripping him tightly by the arm; but, as he made way for Brace to pass him, and the rest went on, he stooped down quickly and picked up a piece from the heap of dust-covered stones and placed it in his pocket.“Why did you do that?” said Brace, in a low voice.“Don’t ask questions now,” whispered Briscoe. “I’ll tell you soon. Wait till we’re out of hearing of the men.”Several more of the large double cells were inspected, and they all seemed to have been used for other purposes than habitation, for various stone objects lay about, and in two cases their aspect suggested that they had been used for grain stores; but it was impossible to decide.Then Brace’s heart began to beat quickly with excitement, for he felt that they were on the brink of a great discovery. Several windows were passed which were heavily loaded with grotesque ornamentation; but there was no door visible. The centre of the terrace was marked by a perfect curtain of liana-like creepers and vines, which hung in festoons from on high and almost completely hid the elaborately-carved front.“There must be an entrance here,” said the captain. “Out with your jack-knives, my lads, and cut a way through.”It was no easy task, for the various creepers were interlaced and had grown together so that saws and strong bill-hooks would have been more suitable implements than knives; but the men worked away with a will, being as eager as their superiors to get a glance into the strange place which had kept them at bay so long.A good half-hour’s cutting and hacking was, however, necessary, two men working at a time while the others dragged away the greenery, which they tossed over the elaborately-carved colonnade into the river, where it was slowly borne away along the canon.At last the foremost man was nearly through, and, reaching up as high as he could to divide a pale green strand which had grown almost in darkness, and now hindered his way, he put all his strength out to sever it with one cut, not anticipating that wood which had grown under such conditions would be tender and soft, and, consequently, his knife went through it as easily as if it had been a thick stick of rhubarb, and he fell forward into the darkness upon a pile of dead wood and leafy rubbish.“Hurt yourself?” cried Brace, stepping forward, half in dread lest the man should have been plunged into some deep pit.“Not a bit, sir; only rolled down about a dozen steps, and— Oh, yah! yah!” he yelled, uttering a horror-stricken cry; and then, as guns were cocked in anticipation of seeing some savage beast of prey dash out, the man came blundering up, stumbling over the heap of rubbish, and finally dashed out on to the terrace, covered with dust and with his eyes starting in a scared and terrified manner, as he sank down shuddering, and uttered a groan.“What’s the matter? What is it, old matey?” cried one of the men; but Brace, his brother, and the American stood fast with levelled guns and fingers on the triggers.“What is it, my lad?” cried the captain: “a jaguar?”“Oh, no, sir; worse than that,” faltered the man, wiping the sweat from his face: “worser than that.”“What did you see then? Was it a great serpent? Speak up, lad.”“No, sir; I shouldn’t have been skeared o’ any serpent. It was a great big Injun who had a lot o’ greasy white snakes swinging about all round his head, and he’d got his club ready to hit me. Ever so big, he was.”“That chap’s telling a big lie,” said Briscoe coolly,“only he thinks he’s telling the truth. There couldn’t be any big Indian in there, and if there were he wouldn’t have a lot of greasy white snakes hanging about his head. I’m going in to see for myself. Coming with me, Brace?”“Yes,” was the reply, and, holding their pieces ready while their companions crowded round the narrow entrance, the pair stepped boldly but cautiously into the opening.They found themselves descending rugged stair after stair, encumbered with dead branches of creeper which cracked and snapped under their feet at every moment, till they were about five feet below the level of the terrace, with some dozens of greeny-white darkness-grown creeper strands swinging to and fro from above, and just in front of them they could dimly see, standing with uplifted menacing arm, what seemed to be a hideously grotesque half-human half-animal figure, apparently blocking the way.“How are you, old chap?” said Briscoe quietly, staring at the figure. “Long time since you’ve had any visitors, eh?”“Why, it is a temple,” cried Brace, in tones of suppressed excitement, “and I suppose this is the idol the old people used to worship.”“And very bad taste too. Come in, everybody,” cried Briscoe, and his voice sounded weirdly strange as it echoed all round.“No: stop at the entrance,” cried Brace. “Did you hear what I said, Free?”“Yes: that it was a temple with an idol,” his brother answered.“Yes; but we must have more light before we proceed any farther, in case of there being any terrible holes or pitfalls.”“Yes: be as well,” said Briscoe; “but I’m beginning to see fairly now. Why, Brace, lad,” he continued, as the captain set the men to work at once hacking away the growth of many generations from entrance door and window, “it’s as I expected: the temple runs up as high as three or four of the terraces, and look: you can see the light from the upper windows, showing the walls. It’s a hugely big place, but I wish it wasn’t so dark down here.”“I’m getting used to it too,” said Brace, in a voice full of excitement; “but I’m afraid to move, in case of losing my footing.”“That’s right; so am I. Look: can you see over yonder?”“Yes; quite plainly now. There’s what looks like an altar, and I can see several more figures standing about.”“So can I. I wish we had a good strong light. Hah! that’s right; they’re letting in the sunshine. Oh, we shall soon see.”“Look here,” said Brace: “the place is very lofty, and there are windows upward to take off the smoke. Let’s make a fire of the dead wood lying about here.”“That’s a good thought,” said Sir Humphrey; and five minutes afterwards a match was applied to the heap of perfectly dry wood underfoot. It caught fire at once and began blazing up, sending forth such a glow of light that the men set up a cheer, drawn from them by the excitement and wonder of the weird scene which confronted them.

Working now upon a regular plan, the party began at one end of the terrace and examined each cell in turn.

They had proceeded about a third of the way towards the other end, when, to the surprise of all, although the openings like windows continued in a regular row, the doorways ceased altogether, and when an attempt to peer in at window after window was made, nothing whatever could be seen, for within all was deep silent gloom.

They soon found that about a third part in the centre of the two-hundred-feet-long terrace was like this: then the doorways began again and continued right away to the end.

“Here, I want to see what’s inside that middle part,” said Briscoe. “I propose that I have a rope round my waist, and that I climb in, and you lower me down till I holloa out.”

“And I propose,” said Sir Humphrey, “that we leave that till another day. Let’s go down to the next terrace.”

“At your orders, sir,” said the American quietly. “I can wait.”

The opening leading to the next terrace was sought for after the last cells had been examined, and when discovered it was found to contain nothing whatever but the crumbling dust of ages and the traces left by birds; while, upon descending to this last terrace but one, they saw that the construction was precisely the same as that of the terrace they had just left—the central part being pierced only with windows, doored cells being on either side.

“I feel more and more that I want to see what’s inside there,” said Briscoe.

“Well, we’ll have plenty of time to do so some other day, for we are not going to move away from this place just yet,” said Brace merrily. “Wait till tomorrow, and we’ll go in together. I fancy that we shall find it is a temple, and full of mummies.”

“Like as not,” said Briscoe; “and if it is we shall find no end of interesting things wrapped up with them, I should say. I daresay these people did like the Egyptians used to do.”

“Now,” said Sir Humphrey, as the last cell was examined, “one more terrace, and we shall have done all but this centre, and I propose to leave that till to-morrow.”

“No,” cried Brace and Briscoe, in a breath.

“I want to sleep to-night,” said the latter, “and I can’t with this mystery on my brain.”

“Very well, then; we’ll eat a bit of lunch, and then examine that.”

As soon as the party had disposed of their meal, they left the entrance to the shaft, walked along to the end of the terrace, and began to examine the first cell.

Here a surprise awaited them, for the cell was double, had two windows and a door at either end, there being no dividing wall, only a curious construction in the middle, but so crumbled away that for some minutes it was examined in vain, the loose stones about turned over and over, and the dust raked here and there.

“I know,” cried Brace at last: “it has been a kitchen.”

“Right,” said Briscoe: “must have been something of that sort. Let’s get on.”

The next place was entered, and proved to be also double, but with only one entrance, and that narrow.

Brace was the first to enter, and after a glance round and upward to see if the roof had fallen in, he stood looking down at a heap of stones which were thickly covered with the dust that had crumbled down and accumulated.

“There’s nothing to see here,” he cried; “and the windows are nearly choked up with growth.”

“Yes, come back; these places are all the same,” said Briscoe, gripping him tightly by the arm; but, as he made way for Brace to pass him, and the rest went on, he stooped down quickly and picked up a piece from the heap of dust-covered stones and placed it in his pocket.

“Why did you do that?” said Brace, in a low voice.

“Don’t ask questions now,” whispered Briscoe. “I’ll tell you soon. Wait till we’re out of hearing of the men.”

Several more of the large double cells were inspected, and they all seemed to have been used for other purposes than habitation, for various stone objects lay about, and in two cases their aspect suggested that they had been used for grain stores; but it was impossible to decide.

Then Brace’s heart began to beat quickly with excitement, for he felt that they were on the brink of a great discovery. Several windows were passed which were heavily loaded with grotesque ornamentation; but there was no door visible. The centre of the terrace was marked by a perfect curtain of liana-like creepers and vines, which hung in festoons from on high and almost completely hid the elaborately-carved front.

“There must be an entrance here,” said the captain. “Out with your jack-knives, my lads, and cut a way through.”

It was no easy task, for the various creepers were interlaced and had grown together so that saws and strong bill-hooks would have been more suitable implements than knives; but the men worked away with a will, being as eager as their superiors to get a glance into the strange place which had kept them at bay so long.

A good half-hour’s cutting and hacking was, however, necessary, two men working at a time while the others dragged away the greenery, which they tossed over the elaborately-carved colonnade into the river, where it was slowly borne away along the canon.

At last the foremost man was nearly through, and, reaching up as high as he could to divide a pale green strand which had grown almost in darkness, and now hindered his way, he put all his strength out to sever it with one cut, not anticipating that wood which had grown under such conditions would be tender and soft, and, consequently, his knife went through it as easily as if it had been a thick stick of rhubarb, and he fell forward into the darkness upon a pile of dead wood and leafy rubbish.

“Hurt yourself?” cried Brace, stepping forward, half in dread lest the man should have been plunged into some deep pit.

“Not a bit, sir; only rolled down about a dozen steps, and— Oh, yah! yah!” he yelled, uttering a horror-stricken cry; and then, as guns were cocked in anticipation of seeing some savage beast of prey dash out, the man came blundering up, stumbling over the heap of rubbish, and finally dashed out on to the terrace, covered with dust and with his eyes starting in a scared and terrified manner, as he sank down shuddering, and uttered a groan.

“What’s the matter? What is it, old matey?” cried one of the men; but Brace, his brother, and the American stood fast with levelled guns and fingers on the triggers.

“What is it, my lad?” cried the captain: “a jaguar?”

“Oh, no, sir; worse than that,” faltered the man, wiping the sweat from his face: “worser than that.”

“What did you see then? Was it a great serpent? Speak up, lad.”

“No, sir; I shouldn’t have been skeared o’ any serpent. It was a great big Injun who had a lot o’ greasy white snakes swinging about all round his head, and he’d got his club ready to hit me. Ever so big, he was.”

“That chap’s telling a big lie,” said Briscoe coolly,“only he thinks he’s telling the truth. There couldn’t be any big Indian in there, and if there were he wouldn’t have a lot of greasy white snakes hanging about his head. I’m going in to see for myself. Coming with me, Brace?”

“Yes,” was the reply, and, holding their pieces ready while their companions crowded round the narrow entrance, the pair stepped boldly but cautiously into the opening.

They found themselves descending rugged stair after stair, encumbered with dead branches of creeper which cracked and snapped under their feet at every moment, till they were about five feet below the level of the terrace, with some dozens of greeny-white darkness-grown creeper strands swinging to and fro from above, and just in front of them they could dimly see, standing with uplifted menacing arm, what seemed to be a hideously grotesque half-human half-animal figure, apparently blocking the way.

“How are you, old chap?” said Briscoe quietly, staring at the figure. “Long time since you’ve had any visitors, eh?”

“Why, it is a temple,” cried Brace, in tones of suppressed excitement, “and I suppose this is the idol the old people used to worship.”

“And very bad taste too. Come in, everybody,” cried Briscoe, and his voice sounded weirdly strange as it echoed all round.

“No: stop at the entrance,” cried Brace. “Did you hear what I said, Free?”

“Yes: that it was a temple with an idol,” his brother answered.

“Yes; but we must have more light before we proceed any farther, in case of there being any terrible holes or pitfalls.”

“Yes: be as well,” said Briscoe; “but I’m beginning to see fairly now. Why, Brace, lad,” he continued, as the captain set the men to work at once hacking away the growth of many generations from entrance door and window, “it’s as I expected: the temple runs up as high as three or four of the terraces, and look: you can see the light from the upper windows, showing the walls. It’s a hugely big place, but I wish it wasn’t so dark down here.”

“I’m getting used to it too,” said Brace, in a voice full of excitement; “but I’m afraid to move, in case of losing my footing.”

“That’s right; so am I. Look: can you see over yonder?”

“Yes; quite plainly now. There’s what looks like an altar, and I can see several more figures standing about.”

“So can I. I wish we had a good strong light. Hah! that’s right; they’re letting in the sunshine. Oh, we shall soon see.”

“Look here,” said Brace: “the place is very lofty, and there are windows upward to take off the smoke. Let’s make a fire of the dead wood lying about here.”

“That’s a good thought,” said Sir Humphrey; and five minutes afterwards a match was applied to the heap of perfectly dry wood underfoot. It caught fire at once and began blazing up, sending forth such a glow of light that the men set up a cheer, drawn from them by the excitement and wonder of the weird scene which confronted them.

Back to IndexNext