Chapter Thirty Four.The Olden Folk.“Pull, pull, pull!” cried Chris wildly.“No, no!” came from below. “I’m all right. Only a big stone I loosened. Wait a moment, and then let me go on.”Chris uttered a hoarse gasp, and turned faint, while Ned felt the hide-rope attached to the barrel turn wet and slippery in his hands.“Go on! Gently!” cried Griggs, and the rope was once more allowed to glide steadily down; the rasping of boots on the blocks of stone below continued, and at the end of another minute ceased as Griggs shouted up—“There, I’m all right—standing on a big block with the water rushing along about a foot below me. Keep tight hold now. You, boys, ease down the barrel till I shout. Don’t let it go when the water grabs it. Lower away. Right! I have it; now ease a little more and a little more. Now keep tight; I’m going to force it under water.”It seemed to Chris that he could see everything quite plainly as their hands which held the hide-ropes were drawn lower and lower.“That’s right,” came up in Griggs’ hoarse, echoing voice, which sounded as if he were panting from the way in which he was exerting himself; and then with the barrel rope jerking violently, the boys felt a peculiar thrill and a sensation as if the weight was increasing for what seemed, though only a few minutes, a terribly long time.“All right!” at last. “She’s full. Now, then, haul up. I’m safe here, on good standing-ground. Two hold my rope. Up with the barrel.”Those at the surface needed no second order, but began to haul away, Chris’s hands now growing wet as a horrible thought made him more nervous; and that thought was, What would be the consequence if the rope broke or the barrel slipped from its fastenings?He shuddered again and again at the idea, as with Bourne now helping, the barrel was drawn higher and higher, and then all at once was checked by catching against some projection.“Lower it a little,” whispered Chris huskily, and the weight was allowed to descend a few inches, being in the gloom as it went down.“Up now,” cried Chris again, and the next moments were exciting in the extreme, as he anticipated another check when the projection was reached. But Chris’s gasp turned into a faint hurrah as the barrel hoops scraped over the projection, and it came up now hand over hand till it reached the surface and was drawn right away to stand amongst the loose stones.“Got it?” came from below.“Yes,” cried the doctor. “All right. Can you climb up?”There was no answer for some seconds, and then the American said, in a peculiarly husky voice—“Coming up. Haul steady.”Three pairs of hands were at the rope now, and their owners exchanged glances as they kept up a steady strain, feeling that Griggs was trying to climb, but jerking the line again and again as if his efforts resulted in a series of slips. After the last the adventurer’s efforts seemed to be so feeble that the haulers kept on steadily gathering in the rope hand over hand, till Griggs’ hands came within reach, when Chris and Ned each seized one to give the final tug which drew him over the edge of the hole and right away to a level spot, where he sank down, apparently quite exhausted, and with a peculiarly strained look about his eyes.“Feel overdone?” said the doctor.“A little, sir,” was the faint reply. “Can you give me a drop of the water?”This was quickly obtained, and the poor fellow swallowed it with difficulty, and then seemed to revive a little, while the doctor, who looked anxious, held one of his hands.“Better now,” panted Griggs. “That’s beautiful water, cold and sweet; but I should have to be very bad before I dared go down to get any more. I didn’t know I was such a cur.”“I felt that it was too much for a man to do, Griggs,” said the doctor quietly.“So did I, sir,” was the feeble reply; “but it had to be done, and I thought I could make a better finish out of the job. I say, nice example to set you two lads. It has made me feel as weak as a rat. Ugh! It was very horrid when that stone gave way. I thought I was gone.”“It was horrible!” said the doctor. “There, you succeeded; now don’t think any more about it.”“Can’t help it, sir. I feel as if I must. I say, I hope that the people who lived here didn’t all disappear down that hole and never come up again.”“It has quite unnerved you, Griggs,” said the doctor kindly.“I don’t know about that, sir, but it has made me feel that I daren’t go down that place again, even if it was to save my life. There, I’m sorry I made such an exhibition of myself. I did try to be plucky; but that place below there, with the water trying to sweep you off into the black darkness and the end, was too much for me. I believe I nearly lost my senses once. Well,” he cried, half-fiercely, after a short pause, during which he looked keenly at first one and then the other of the boys, “you’ve both got the laugh of me this time. Did you ever see such a coward before?”“Come along down below there, and see about a fire and a meal,” said the doctor quietly. “Let it go now, Griggs. You didn’t feel more nervous than I did. I was worse, I believe, for I felt guilty as well for letting you go down. There, I don’t think we shall want to get our water from that place again.”“Why not?” said Ned suddenly. “We could get some up with a bucket if there was a heavy stone in the bottom. It would only mean half-a-bucketful at a time, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t do that.”Every one glared at the speaker as if wroth with him for proposing so simple and self-evident a means of getting at the water at a time when they had only succeeded at the risk of losing a valuable life.But no one spoke, all preparing to descend the slope, at the bottom of which the barrel was slung and carried between Wilton and Bourne to the spot chosen for their camp. Here a good fire was soon made, dead wood being plentiful, and over the evening meal, hastily prepared, the incident of the afternoon was gravely discussed, Griggs joining in calmly enough now, for he seemed to have quite recovered his nerve.“You’ll have a good examination made of this place in the morning, sir?” he said.“I was thinking of moving off,” said the doctor quietly, “and getting to somewhere better suited for a temporary camp.”“You couldn’t get a better place than this, doctor,” said Griggs quietly. “I’ve been thinking over what young Ned here said about dipping out water, and he’s quite right. Don’t think of going until the place has been thoroughly searched. I’m quite right now.”“Very well,” said the doctor; “we’ll have another day, at all events; but I do not anticipate making much of a find here.”“I don’t know, sir,” said Griggs gravely. “We’re getting into the gold country now, and such a place as this wouldn’t have been made for nothing, nor be the living camp of a few poor wandering Indians. I shouldn’t be a bit surprised to find traces of mining with furnaces and crucibles for melting the gold somewhere through these openings. They were evidently a big race of people who lived up here.”“We shall find that out to-morrow,” said the doctor. “But what about keeping watch? Do you think there is any danger of Indians tracing us here?”“Not a bit, sir,” replied the American. “They don’t care much for these rocky parts; they like the plains, where their horses feel at home.”“But there must have been a big tribe here.”“No, sir; not of Indians such as rove the plains. These must have been a different kind of people—miners and builders. Your regular Red Indian thinks of nothing but his horse, his hunting, and a fight with his enemies so as to get plunder. The people who mined for gold were a different kind of folk altogether.”“Well, we shall see to-morrow,” said the doctor; “there are sure to be some traces of them in their old homes.”“I don’t care what they were or what they did,” said Chris that night, as they laid down to sleep in the dark bottom of the depression, gazing up at the great lustrous stars; “but I don’t want any more water got like that. Ugh! It almost had a nasty taste when it was made into tea. Didn’t you notice it?” he said, after a pause; but there was no reply. “I say, didn’t you notice that the water seemed to taste nasty?” said Chris, a little louder; but still there was no reply.“Oh, what a fellow you are!” cried the boy impatiently. “Such a one as you are for eating and noticing everything, I should have thought you’d have had something to say about it. Asleep again! Why, I couldn’t sleep after what we’ve gone through to-day, even if I tried.”That was Chris’s opinion, but he evidently could sleep without trying, for the next minute he was breathing heavily, and without a single troublous dream born of the perils of the day.
“Pull, pull, pull!” cried Chris wildly.
“No, no!” came from below. “I’m all right. Only a big stone I loosened. Wait a moment, and then let me go on.”
Chris uttered a hoarse gasp, and turned faint, while Ned felt the hide-rope attached to the barrel turn wet and slippery in his hands.
“Go on! Gently!” cried Griggs, and the rope was once more allowed to glide steadily down; the rasping of boots on the blocks of stone below continued, and at the end of another minute ceased as Griggs shouted up—
“There, I’m all right—standing on a big block with the water rushing along about a foot below me. Keep tight hold now. You, boys, ease down the barrel till I shout. Don’t let it go when the water grabs it. Lower away. Right! I have it; now ease a little more and a little more. Now keep tight; I’m going to force it under water.”
It seemed to Chris that he could see everything quite plainly as their hands which held the hide-ropes were drawn lower and lower.
“That’s right,” came up in Griggs’ hoarse, echoing voice, which sounded as if he were panting from the way in which he was exerting himself; and then with the barrel rope jerking violently, the boys felt a peculiar thrill and a sensation as if the weight was increasing for what seemed, though only a few minutes, a terribly long time.
“All right!” at last. “She’s full. Now, then, haul up. I’m safe here, on good standing-ground. Two hold my rope. Up with the barrel.”
Those at the surface needed no second order, but began to haul away, Chris’s hands now growing wet as a horrible thought made him more nervous; and that thought was, What would be the consequence if the rope broke or the barrel slipped from its fastenings?
He shuddered again and again at the idea, as with Bourne now helping, the barrel was drawn higher and higher, and then all at once was checked by catching against some projection.
“Lower it a little,” whispered Chris huskily, and the weight was allowed to descend a few inches, being in the gloom as it went down.
“Up now,” cried Chris again, and the next moments were exciting in the extreme, as he anticipated another check when the projection was reached. But Chris’s gasp turned into a faint hurrah as the barrel hoops scraped over the projection, and it came up now hand over hand till it reached the surface and was drawn right away to stand amongst the loose stones.
“Got it?” came from below.
“Yes,” cried the doctor. “All right. Can you climb up?”
There was no answer for some seconds, and then the American said, in a peculiarly husky voice—
“Coming up. Haul steady.”
Three pairs of hands were at the rope now, and their owners exchanged glances as they kept up a steady strain, feeling that Griggs was trying to climb, but jerking the line again and again as if his efforts resulted in a series of slips. After the last the adventurer’s efforts seemed to be so feeble that the haulers kept on steadily gathering in the rope hand over hand, till Griggs’ hands came within reach, when Chris and Ned each seized one to give the final tug which drew him over the edge of the hole and right away to a level spot, where he sank down, apparently quite exhausted, and with a peculiarly strained look about his eyes.
“Feel overdone?” said the doctor.
“A little, sir,” was the faint reply. “Can you give me a drop of the water?”
This was quickly obtained, and the poor fellow swallowed it with difficulty, and then seemed to revive a little, while the doctor, who looked anxious, held one of his hands.
“Better now,” panted Griggs. “That’s beautiful water, cold and sweet; but I should have to be very bad before I dared go down to get any more. I didn’t know I was such a cur.”
“I felt that it was too much for a man to do, Griggs,” said the doctor quietly.
“So did I, sir,” was the feeble reply; “but it had to be done, and I thought I could make a better finish out of the job. I say, nice example to set you two lads. It has made me feel as weak as a rat. Ugh! It was very horrid when that stone gave way. I thought I was gone.”
“It was horrible!” said the doctor. “There, you succeeded; now don’t think any more about it.”
“Can’t help it, sir. I feel as if I must. I say, I hope that the people who lived here didn’t all disappear down that hole and never come up again.”
“It has quite unnerved you, Griggs,” said the doctor kindly.
“I don’t know about that, sir, but it has made me feel that I daren’t go down that place again, even if it was to save my life. There, I’m sorry I made such an exhibition of myself. I did try to be plucky; but that place below there, with the water trying to sweep you off into the black darkness and the end, was too much for me. I believe I nearly lost my senses once. Well,” he cried, half-fiercely, after a short pause, during which he looked keenly at first one and then the other of the boys, “you’ve both got the laugh of me this time. Did you ever see such a coward before?”
“Come along down below there, and see about a fire and a meal,” said the doctor quietly. “Let it go now, Griggs. You didn’t feel more nervous than I did. I was worse, I believe, for I felt guilty as well for letting you go down. There, I don’t think we shall want to get our water from that place again.”
“Why not?” said Ned suddenly. “We could get some up with a bucket if there was a heavy stone in the bottom. It would only mean half-a-bucketful at a time, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t do that.”
Every one glared at the speaker as if wroth with him for proposing so simple and self-evident a means of getting at the water at a time when they had only succeeded at the risk of losing a valuable life.
But no one spoke, all preparing to descend the slope, at the bottom of which the barrel was slung and carried between Wilton and Bourne to the spot chosen for their camp. Here a good fire was soon made, dead wood being plentiful, and over the evening meal, hastily prepared, the incident of the afternoon was gravely discussed, Griggs joining in calmly enough now, for he seemed to have quite recovered his nerve.
“You’ll have a good examination made of this place in the morning, sir?” he said.
“I was thinking of moving off,” said the doctor quietly, “and getting to somewhere better suited for a temporary camp.”
“You couldn’t get a better place than this, doctor,” said Griggs quietly. “I’ve been thinking over what young Ned here said about dipping out water, and he’s quite right. Don’t think of going until the place has been thoroughly searched. I’m quite right now.”
“Very well,” said the doctor; “we’ll have another day, at all events; but I do not anticipate making much of a find here.”
“I don’t know, sir,” said Griggs gravely. “We’re getting into the gold country now, and such a place as this wouldn’t have been made for nothing, nor be the living camp of a few poor wandering Indians. I shouldn’t be a bit surprised to find traces of mining with furnaces and crucibles for melting the gold somewhere through these openings. They were evidently a big race of people who lived up here.”
“We shall find that out to-morrow,” said the doctor. “But what about keeping watch? Do you think there is any danger of Indians tracing us here?”
“Not a bit, sir,” replied the American. “They don’t care much for these rocky parts; they like the plains, where their horses feel at home.”
“But there must have been a big tribe here.”
“No, sir; not of Indians such as rove the plains. These must have been a different kind of people—miners and builders. Your regular Red Indian thinks of nothing but his horse, his hunting, and a fight with his enemies so as to get plunder. The people who mined for gold were a different kind of folk altogether.”
“Well, we shall see to-morrow,” said the doctor; “there are sure to be some traces of them in their old homes.”
“I don’t care what they were or what they did,” said Chris that night, as they laid down to sleep in the dark bottom of the depression, gazing up at the great lustrous stars; “but I don’t want any more water got like that. Ugh! It almost had a nasty taste when it was made into tea. Didn’t you notice it?” he said, after a pause; but there was no reply. “I say, didn’t you notice that the water seemed to taste nasty?” said Chris, a little louder; but still there was no reply.
“Oh, what a fellow you are!” cried the boy impatiently. “Such a one as you are for eating and noticing everything, I should have thought you’d have had something to say about it. Asleep again! Why, I couldn’t sleep after what we’ve gone through to-day, even if I tried.”
That was Chris’s opinion, but he evidently could sleep without trying, for the next minute he was breathing heavily, and without a single troublous dream born of the perils of the day.
Chapter Thirty Five.In the Stone Age.The experiment was tried next day. A bucket, loaded with stones heavy enough to sink it, was lowered down the black-looking pit, and was drawn up again nearly full of water. This was given to the nearest grazing animals, and the bucket sent down again, to catch against some projecting block and tilt out the ballast, after which it refused to sink, but made a jerk or two to escape, and then had to be drawn out.Fresh stones were put in the bottom, and again were tilted out, but the result of another trial from a little different spot resulted in the vessel’s coming up full.More trying resulted in the adventurers finding that they could depend upon obtaining about five bucketfuls out of a dozen trials, and with this they were content.An attempt to reach the first terrace was now made, and this did not prove to be so difficult as it appeared from below, Chris finding a spot where the rock-face was a good deal broken away and proposing to try and climb it.The doctor hesitated.“What about the snakes?” he said.Chris started, looked up, and then looked down, to see that Ned’s eyes were fixed upon him, and he turned red.“A snake couldn’t climb up there!” he said sharply.“No,” said his father, “I should doubt whether one could; but there is every probability that one or many might have come down from above.”“Bother!” exclaimed the boy, and he hesitated for a few moments before saying, “If one did fall, or come creeping down one of those great cracks, perhaps, it wouldn’t stop there. Snakes want something to eat, and there doesn’t seem to be anything to live on up there. Wouldn’t it come down lower, after all?”“Possibly,” said the doctor, laughing. “You want to venture?”“Yes, father.”“Very well, go. But take a good stick with you—say such a piece of sapling as Griggs carried, only much shorter, and use it well as you go.”Chris nodded, and without asking the American, hurried off to cut such a piece as he required, ending by trimming it well and leaving quite a small bush-like tuft of green at the end.“You mean to go, then?” said Ned quietly.“Yes. Will you come with me?”“No,” said Ned, wincing. “I hate snakes.”“Not half so much as I do.”“Yes, I will. I’ll come too.”“Like to go first?” asked Chris mischievously.“N–yes, give me the stick. I can climb up there as easily as you can. Well, why don’t you give me the stick?”“’Cause I want it myself, lad. No, thank you; I’m going to have the honour of sweeping down all the rattlers as I go up. You’d better stand back out of the way, in case I should send a big one down. You can shoot it then.”“Some one else will have to do that,” said Ned, in an off-hand way, to hide his nervousness. “I shall be close behind you.”“Then you mean to come?”“Of course.”“That’s right, old chap. I say, Ned, I don’t believe there’ll be any, after all.”“Think not?”Chris nodded. Then laughingly—“We’ve got to chance it all the same. Come on.”Chris led the way, with his piece slung, revolver and knife in belt, and the pine staff in his hand, when Griggs took a step forward, with his eyes twinkling.“I say,” he cried, “it’s hardly fair for us if you get chivvying those rattlers and sending them flying over the edge and down here.”“Oh, you must take your chance about that,” said Chris merrily.“Be careful, my boy,” said the doctor.“What, about the rattlers, father?”“Of course; but I meant where you place your feet. Many of the stones are rotten and loose.”“We’ll mind,” said Chris, and he began to climb, raising himself a step or two, and then striking sharply in amongst some growing plants, before thrusting his staff up in front of him and drawing himself up again.This he kept on repeating, and without much difficulty climbed some thirty feet, before an awkward place came like a check, caused by a big stone having fallen, leaving a good-sized cavity.“Look out now, Ned,” he said softly. “Here’s a hole that may hold one.”“All right,” was the reply, and as Chris planted his feet firmly, one in a hole and the other on a projecting stone, Wilton uttered a warning word or two, which the boys were too busy to heed.“It’s a bigger place than I thought,” said Chris, taking fast hold of a stone with his left hand and advancing his tufted staff with his right, as he stood well upright, bringing his head above the edge of the hole. “It was built-up once, for the stones were square, and it goes in quite deep. Now, then, look out for a big one.”He leaned a little on one side, thrust in the stick, and gave it a sharp rattle round in different directions, when to his horror there was a rush which nearly made him loosen his hold before he realised what had happened. But fortunately he held on, and in an instant the alarm and danger had passed away. For the occupants he had disturbed proved to be some half-dozen huge bats, which fluttered out, squealing, and made for the opposite side of the depression.“Phew! How they smell! Cockroachy,” cried Chris. “I say, father, there are not likely to be snakes here now.”“No,” said the doctor. “If there were I should not think that you would have found the bats. But be careful.”Chris said nothing, but climbed right into the hole.“Here, come on, Ned,” he cried; “this isn’t a hole made by some stone falling over; it’s quite a little chamber, with—What’s that?” he added—“A chimney?”A minute’s investigation proved that it was no chimney that had taken his attention, but a sloping shaft with plenty of room for a man to pass upward, and the way made easy by projecting stones.“You are not going in there?” said Ned anxiously, as he stood close behind.“But I am. Come and look. You can see daylight. Why, Ned, it’s the way up to the first terrace. Come on.”Chris stepped in, and with his curiosity aroused, Ned followed, just as Bourne’s voice came from below, with the question—“What are you boys doing? Mind how you climb above that hole. You had better get a little to the right.”“No, we hadn’t,” said Chris, who was half up the shaft. “Don’t speak yet, Ned. Come on; it’s quite easy.”Ned followed, and came in for plenty of dry dust and chips as Chris climbed on, to find himself directly after in a cell-like chamber, evidently cut out of the solid rock.“Ahoy! Where are you, boys?” cried the doctor, in an anxious tone of voice.“You look out of the window-opening,” said Chris; “I’m going to look down out of this,” and passing as he spoke through a low opening, he stood in the middle of another cell-like place.They were saluted with a shout.“No snakes, then?” said Griggs.“I don’t think so. None here,” cried Chris. “Are you all coming up?”There was no need to answer, for Griggs was already leading the way, and as soon as they were all up an investigation of the place began, during which it was found that they had evidently hit upon one of the openings, or probably enough the principal one into the rock city, where upon the level where they stood some dozens of roughly carved-out, cell-like habitations communicated one with another.There was a great deal of dust and other accumulation, for in damp spots where there was a chance for plants to exist they seemed to have grown, died, and turned to earth. Here and there, too, as the party made their way from cell to cell there were proofs that various animals had taken possession of the rough shelters and brought the prey they had captured, stores of well-gnawed bones lying scattered about; but saving the traces left of construction, cutting out of the rock and building in, they found nothing to show what kind of people they were who had lived there, nothing to prove how far back it was in the world’s history that the rock city had been occupied by a teeming population.“How long is it since people lived here, father?” was asked by Chris, after they had been wandering about from cell to cell but not finding any way of getting higher without a dangerous climb from the terrace outward.“Ah, you are asking what has been puzzling me,” replied the doctor, “and I seem to be faced by a blank wall built-up between now and the past. If we could find anything in the shape of weapons or household implements, one might make a guess; but every trace we have found is of the last inhabitants.”“Well, that ought to do,” said Chris.“But I mean the pumas or jaguars that seem to have here and there turned the cells into caves, and left their gnawed bones about. They may have lived here fifty years ago, a hundred years, or five. But there is one thing evident, and it is this—that the people who lived here chose the place as being one that they could make into a stronghold, one which they could fortify so as to defend themselves from their enemies.”“What enemies, sir?” asked Ned sharply.“Ah, that I can’t tell you. The people here must have been to a great extent civilised, or they would not have been builders; and most likely their enemies were wild Indian-like tribes who roamed the plains, as they do to this day. I want to find something left by these builders, and then perhaps we might learn something.”They had now come to the last of the long range of cells that they had been making their way through, and further progress was checked by solid rock which had evidently been neither chipped away nor added to.They cautiously stepped through the front opening, to stand upon the rough, crumbled-away terrace, from which they could look down into the great depression where the ponies and mules were contentedly grazing, and for about the tenth time looked upward for some means of reaching the terrace above, one which appeared more time-worn and dangerous than that upon which they stood; but without ladders it would have been risking life to make any attempt to reach it.“Strikes me, sir,” said Griggs, “that we’ve left the way up far behind.”“Why?” said Wilton sharply.“Because we’ve seen no way here, and we found one there.”“ButIcould see nothing likely to lead higher,” said Chris.“We didn’t look about much,” cried Ned. “We were eager to come along here.”“Yes, I suppose that was so,” said Chris thoughtfully. “Well, there’s the row of cells above us, and there must be a way.”“Unless it has been swept off by some landslip,” suggested Bourne.“Well, we’ll turn back now,” said the doctor, “for even if we had a shovel I don’t think we should find anything that would help us.”They went back from cell to cell, and twice over found the terrace outside sufficiently level and secure to allow of their passing along it, but they soon had to take to the interior again with its low doorway-like connections.At last they all stood together at the top of the roughly-stepped sloping shaft by which they had ascended, to find that the roof here was entirely broken away by the falling of a portion of the cliff; but they found also what they sought, for there, about a score of feet above their heads, was the evident continuation of the shaft-like hole by which they had come up.“Look,” cried Griggs triumphantly; “no wonder we could not find it.”“But how are we to use it?” said Bourne.“Oh, we can manage that, sir; eh, boys?”“You might,” said the doctor, gazing up, “but I’m sure I couldn’t.”“Oh yes, you could, sir, when one of us has been up and driven a peg here and a peg there into some of those cracks. The stones are quite in layers; and after that we’ll drive a very strong one in, and tie a lariat to it to hang down like a balustrade to steady whoever goes up.”“But where are the pegs?”“Down below, sir, growing in amongst those trees. I vote we go down, have some dinner, and come up again after I have chopped as many pegs as I think we shall want. I should bring the axe up here too, so as to drive them in. Why, Chris, lad, we could make a regular ladder up there.”Griggs’ proposal was adopted, and that same afternoon found them in the same place, with the American ready for action, and the boys carrying rope and pegs.And now what had seemed difficult before had grown easy, the American, who had cut plenty of tough short pieces of pine and formed them chisel-ended, driving one in between the natural faults in the stone with the head of the axe, and then climbing upon it to drive in another, which formed a standing-place in turn, the slope upward of the cliff making the task easy—so easy, in fact, that less than half-an-hour sufficed to bring him to the spot where the shaft was in fair preservation, with its projecting pieces of stone left by the original carvers of the way.Here the American fixed the strong peg pitched up to him by Chris, who had followed him up step by step, and after tying to it one end of the lariat thrown up by Ned, the two workers made their way up to the intact shaft, and reached the first cell of the next row, some fifty feet above the other, gaining at the same time a better view of the terrace in front, and seeing that it was comparatively very little broken-down, merely worn by the weather.“Here, let’s go on a little way,” cried Chris eagerly.“No,” replied Griggs; “fair play’s a jewel. Let’s go back; your father will like to be one of the first to begin exploring.”“So he will; but look, here they come.”For Ned was close up, being the next to test the stability of the new ladder, and was closely followed by the doctor and their other friends.“Capital!” cried the doctor. “A much finer view from up here. Why, with such a stronghold and no better way for the enemy to approach, the old people ought to have been able to set all the tribes of the plain at defiance.”“Perhaps they did, sir,” said Griggs; “but it seems to me that they must have had a regular channel of water coming down from above there to supply all these rooms, or cells, as you call them.”“Most likely,” said the doctor.“How would it be then if the enemy managed to break down the channel from somewhere up yonder where we found the hole under the fallen stones? Could the people who attacked them have done that?”“Why, Griggs, you are making history. That was the old people’s aqueduct, and it is quite possible that when they were besieged the enemy caused the destruction over which we climbed.”“Yes,” said Griggs thoughtfully; “that would ruin the folk. No doubt some of these places were used as stores, and those might last for years; but if their supply of water were cut off there wouldn’t be much chance for them then.”“Well, let’s see farther,” said the doctor. “I can’t help thinking that they must have been a strong and fairly civilised race.”Chris led the way in, to find the cell he entered cut out and built-up just the same as those which they had seen; but the floor was encumbered deeply with the dust of ages, and on stirring some of it with his foot the boy drew back hurriedly and looked strangely at his father.“What have you found?” said the doctor.“The jaguars must have killed a man here, father,” replied the boy, who looked on in disgust as his father stepped in and picked up a skull which might have lain there, sheltered by the roofing of stone, for ages. It looked brown and as if very little pressure would suffice to crumble it up into dust; but the teeth left in the upper jaw were perfect and fairly white.“Ah!” said the doctor thoughtfully. “Here’s a bit of genuine history at last.”“Killed by a jaguar, father?” cried Chris excitedly.“No, my boy,” was the reply; “this is not the marking of a jaguar’s teeth, but the cause of death, plainly enough.”“What, that hole?” cried Chris excitedly.“Yes. Look, the forehead has been crushed in by the blow from a stone axe, or possibly by a stone hurled from above.”“Perhaps only held in the hand, sir,” said Griggs thoughtfully.“Why, that’s a heap of old bones,” cried Ned, with a look of horror; “the dust’s full of them.”“Yes,” said the doctor, moving the relics carefully with the butt of his rifle for fragments that were fully defined as to shape to fall together as mere dust and hide portions below. “There’s another skull,” continued the examiner, “crushed in more than the first. A finely-preserved specimen, for, in spite of that hole, it shows the shape of the relic—a low forehead, retreating very rapidly, the brows very bony and heavy, and the cheek-bones widely prominent.”“That’s not the same shaped skull as the first,” said Bourne quickly.“Certainly not,” replied the doctor. “I should say it belonged to a fiercer, more savage race of man, who might have been an ancestor of the present Indians of the plains.”“Then that was one of the enemy, father,” said Chris decidedly, “and he got it in the attack.”“Possibly,” said the doctor, looking strangely at his son. “He seems to have gotit, Chris, but that doesn’t sound to me a very scientific way of describing the antique remains.”Chris turned very red, and pressed some of the dust aside with his foot, laying bare the side of another of the ghastly relics.“And that’s like the first,” cried the doctor, bending forward to pick it up, a skull looking whiter than either of the others. “Certainly this is of a different race, Bourne, and the owner died in the same way, the brow crushed.—Look at that.”The rest were already looking, and saw what caused the doctor’s abrupt exclamation, for as he took up the skull the back portion fell away and the front dropped apart into so much crumbling dust.“We’re looking down at the remains of a desperate fight, sir, I should say,” said Griggs thoughtfully. “It’s just as if there had been a stand made here.”“Come on into the next place,” said the doctor eagerly; “but keep close to the wall, following my steps. Ah! it’s impossible to avoid crushing the remains,” he continued, as he sidled along, leaving his footprints in the soft dust which lay thick.“I say, Chris, isn’t this very horrid?” whispered Ned, as the boys followed last towards the low doorway opposite to that by which they had entered.“Yes, I suppose so,” said Chris thoughtfully; “but it makes one think of ever so far back when all this dust must have been alive—all fierce men, fighting, some to kill, others to save their lives. I don’t know; it doesn’t seem so very horrid, though I don’t like treading on all their dust—and—and—”“Bones,” suggested Ned.“No; because they’re not bones now, only the shape of bones. See how that all crumbled-away when my father picked it up. Dust and ashes, we ought to call it. Do you want to go back?”“N–no, I think not. I say, what a fight it must have been!”“Yes,” said Chris, with a deep breath that sounded like a sigh. “One seems to fancy one can see the men who had the white skulls being driven back from this cell into that one, and I shouldn’t wonder if we find that—”“Yes,” came the doctor’s voice from the next place, “it’s wonderfully interesting. The civilised men must have been making a desperate stand here, and I fully expect that we shall find that they were driven back from cell to cell. Yes,” he said, with his voice growing fainter. “What do you say, Griggs?”“It’s worse in here, sir, and—yes, worse still in the next place.”“Driven back from cell to cell,” cried the doctor, “and it’s my impression that we shall find the remains of women and children in the farthest one. We shall hit upon the scene of a terrible massacre—the destruction of the race who built-up this place.”The boys had joined the speakers now, just in time to hear Wilton speak—“But I say, Lee, aren’t you letting your imagination carry you a little too far?”“I think not,” replied the doctor quietly. “Look here; you cannot call this imagination. Small as the space is in these rock chambers, there are the remains of scores of men who fought desperately for their lives. To me it seems like a vivid reproduction of the past.”“How far back?” said Bourne.“Ah, that is beyond me. How long would it take these bones to decay to this extent as they lay here just as their owners fell? It is a question that no man can answer—one dependent upon the action of the air in a climate like this, with the remains sheltered from sun and rain, to gradually pass away into dust. You can see plainly enough that these are not the remains found in some burial place, added to year after year, age after age. This slaughter must have been the work of only a few hours, and the people lie piled-up as they fell. Let’s go on.”Cell after cell was entered, with the remains lying thick as the warriors had fallen, the searchers continuing the examination to the very end, and then gladly stepping out on to the terrace, to stand there in the broad daylight, the air seeming to feel fresh and clear after what they had gone through.“A strange bit of history,” said the doctor thoughtfully. “We know now and think how this bit of civilisation came to an end; but we have discovered no weapons of war to help us to give a date to the siege.”“But we haven’t half done our search yet, sir,” said Griggs. “There’s another terrace above this, you see,” and he pointed up to where there had been another row of the cells formed in the rock-face, these latter standing back a little and evidently being the last, for above them the cliff projected like a gigantic cave, as far as they could see, from end to end.“Who votes that we give up now and leave the examination till another day?” said Bourne, who had seemed more and more enthusiastic as the search went on.There was no reply.“Who votes that we try and get up to the next stage?”Hands went up, and Ned shouted eagerly—“Everybody.”“Let’s get back, then,” said the doctor; “but we’ll keep out here on the terrace as far as we can. It is gruesome work trampling amongst the ashes of the fallen, interesting as it all is.”“I suppose we shall find another of those chimney-like flights of steps,” said Wilton; “but I was too much taken up with what we were doing to notice.”“I hope so,” replied the doctor, “but I saw nothing. I fancy, though, that this was the only way up into the town or city, and, judging by the appearance of the next terrace, it will be the last.”“Then we shall be able to get on to the top of the cliffs this way, sir,” said Griggs.“I really can’t say yet,” was the reply. “Let’s find the next shaft first, and see how far it goes.”They kept along the terrace where they could, but here and there the falling away of stones rendered it necessary for them to re-enter a cell and keep for a little distance along by the inner passage. But at last the first cell of the series was reached, and directly after they were standing at the top of the second stairway and looking about vainly for a third—the one that should give them a passage to the third floor of dwelling-places.“There must be a way,” said Griggs, as he stood scratching his head, “but I’m a bit puzzled. The upper rocks hang over here, and there seems to be no sign of anything having broken away.”“Let’s look in the first cell again,” said Chris; “perhaps it begins in there.”They stepped in to where the ashes lay piled-up and forming a slope on one side reaching half-way up the back wall, this portion not having been disturbed.“No way out of this place except into the next chamber,” said Griggs. “We shall have to look somewhere else. But didn’t you say we had found no weapons yet, sir?” he continued, addressing the doctor.“Yes; you have not seen any?”“Looks like a couple of those stone axes yonder,” said Griggs, pointing to the back of the sloping heap. “I’ll get them.”He took a couple of steps, and his feet sank in some depth. Then quickly taking another and another to preserve his equilibrium, he uttered a cry of annoyance, for his weight had set the whole of the heap of dust in motion, bringing part into the cell where they stood, while the rest glided like sand upon a slope, evidently sinking through a similar opening to that which led into the next chamber, but here formed in the wall exactly opposite to the window looking out on to the terrace.“Lend us a hand,” cried Griggs, and he snatched at one of those stretched out to his aid, following the rest in a hurried flight out of the place, for the whole of the ashes and bones were in motion and ran out through the back with a soft rushing sound.
The experiment was tried next day. A bucket, loaded with stones heavy enough to sink it, was lowered down the black-looking pit, and was drawn up again nearly full of water. This was given to the nearest grazing animals, and the bucket sent down again, to catch against some projecting block and tilt out the ballast, after which it refused to sink, but made a jerk or two to escape, and then had to be drawn out.
Fresh stones were put in the bottom, and again were tilted out, but the result of another trial from a little different spot resulted in the vessel’s coming up full.
More trying resulted in the adventurers finding that they could depend upon obtaining about five bucketfuls out of a dozen trials, and with this they were content.
An attempt to reach the first terrace was now made, and this did not prove to be so difficult as it appeared from below, Chris finding a spot where the rock-face was a good deal broken away and proposing to try and climb it.
The doctor hesitated.
“What about the snakes?” he said.
Chris started, looked up, and then looked down, to see that Ned’s eyes were fixed upon him, and he turned red.
“A snake couldn’t climb up there!” he said sharply.
“No,” said his father, “I should doubt whether one could; but there is every probability that one or many might have come down from above.”
“Bother!” exclaimed the boy, and he hesitated for a few moments before saying, “If one did fall, or come creeping down one of those great cracks, perhaps, it wouldn’t stop there. Snakes want something to eat, and there doesn’t seem to be anything to live on up there. Wouldn’t it come down lower, after all?”
“Possibly,” said the doctor, laughing. “You want to venture?”
“Yes, father.”
“Very well, go. But take a good stick with you—say such a piece of sapling as Griggs carried, only much shorter, and use it well as you go.”
Chris nodded, and without asking the American, hurried off to cut such a piece as he required, ending by trimming it well and leaving quite a small bush-like tuft of green at the end.
“You mean to go, then?” said Ned quietly.
“Yes. Will you come with me?”
“No,” said Ned, wincing. “I hate snakes.”
“Not half so much as I do.”
“Yes, I will. I’ll come too.”
“Like to go first?” asked Chris mischievously.
“N–yes, give me the stick. I can climb up there as easily as you can. Well, why don’t you give me the stick?”
“’Cause I want it myself, lad. No, thank you; I’m going to have the honour of sweeping down all the rattlers as I go up. You’d better stand back out of the way, in case I should send a big one down. You can shoot it then.”
“Some one else will have to do that,” said Ned, in an off-hand way, to hide his nervousness. “I shall be close behind you.”
“Then you mean to come?”
“Of course.”
“That’s right, old chap. I say, Ned, I don’t believe there’ll be any, after all.”
“Think not?”
Chris nodded. Then laughingly—
“We’ve got to chance it all the same. Come on.”
Chris led the way, with his piece slung, revolver and knife in belt, and the pine staff in his hand, when Griggs took a step forward, with his eyes twinkling.
“I say,” he cried, “it’s hardly fair for us if you get chivvying those rattlers and sending them flying over the edge and down here.”
“Oh, you must take your chance about that,” said Chris merrily.
“Be careful, my boy,” said the doctor.
“What, about the rattlers, father?”
“Of course; but I meant where you place your feet. Many of the stones are rotten and loose.”
“We’ll mind,” said Chris, and he began to climb, raising himself a step or two, and then striking sharply in amongst some growing plants, before thrusting his staff up in front of him and drawing himself up again.
This he kept on repeating, and without much difficulty climbed some thirty feet, before an awkward place came like a check, caused by a big stone having fallen, leaving a good-sized cavity.
“Look out now, Ned,” he said softly. “Here’s a hole that may hold one.”
“All right,” was the reply, and as Chris planted his feet firmly, one in a hole and the other on a projecting stone, Wilton uttered a warning word or two, which the boys were too busy to heed.
“It’s a bigger place than I thought,” said Chris, taking fast hold of a stone with his left hand and advancing his tufted staff with his right, as he stood well upright, bringing his head above the edge of the hole. “It was built-up once, for the stones were square, and it goes in quite deep. Now, then, look out for a big one.”
He leaned a little on one side, thrust in the stick, and gave it a sharp rattle round in different directions, when to his horror there was a rush which nearly made him loosen his hold before he realised what had happened. But fortunately he held on, and in an instant the alarm and danger had passed away. For the occupants he had disturbed proved to be some half-dozen huge bats, which fluttered out, squealing, and made for the opposite side of the depression.
“Phew! How they smell! Cockroachy,” cried Chris. “I say, father, there are not likely to be snakes here now.”
“No,” said the doctor. “If there were I should not think that you would have found the bats. But be careful.”
Chris said nothing, but climbed right into the hole.
“Here, come on, Ned,” he cried; “this isn’t a hole made by some stone falling over; it’s quite a little chamber, with—What’s that?” he added—“A chimney?”
A minute’s investigation proved that it was no chimney that had taken his attention, but a sloping shaft with plenty of room for a man to pass upward, and the way made easy by projecting stones.
“You are not going in there?” said Ned anxiously, as he stood close behind.
“But I am. Come and look. You can see daylight. Why, Ned, it’s the way up to the first terrace. Come on.”
Chris stepped in, and with his curiosity aroused, Ned followed, just as Bourne’s voice came from below, with the question—
“What are you boys doing? Mind how you climb above that hole. You had better get a little to the right.”
“No, we hadn’t,” said Chris, who was half up the shaft. “Don’t speak yet, Ned. Come on; it’s quite easy.”
Ned followed, and came in for plenty of dry dust and chips as Chris climbed on, to find himself directly after in a cell-like chamber, evidently cut out of the solid rock.
“Ahoy! Where are you, boys?” cried the doctor, in an anxious tone of voice.
“You look out of the window-opening,” said Chris; “I’m going to look down out of this,” and passing as he spoke through a low opening, he stood in the middle of another cell-like place.
They were saluted with a shout.
“No snakes, then?” said Griggs.
“I don’t think so. None here,” cried Chris. “Are you all coming up?”
There was no need to answer, for Griggs was already leading the way, and as soon as they were all up an investigation of the place began, during which it was found that they had evidently hit upon one of the openings, or probably enough the principal one into the rock city, where upon the level where they stood some dozens of roughly carved-out, cell-like habitations communicated one with another.
There was a great deal of dust and other accumulation, for in damp spots where there was a chance for plants to exist they seemed to have grown, died, and turned to earth. Here and there, too, as the party made their way from cell to cell there were proofs that various animals had taken possession of the rough shelters and brought the prey they had captured, stores of well-gnawed bones lying scattered about; but saving the traces left of construction, cutting out of the rock and building in, they found nothing to show what kind of people they were who had lived there, nothing to prove how far back it was in the world’s history that the rock city had been occupied by a teeming population.
“How long is it since people lived here, father?” was asked by Chris, after they had been wandering about from cell to cell but not finding any way of getting higher without a dangerous climb from the terrace outward.
“Ah, you are asking what has been puzzling me,” replied the doctor, “and I seem to be faced by a blank wall built-up between now and the past. If we could find anything in the shape of weapons or household implements, one might make a guess; but every trace we have found is of the last inhabitants.”
“Well, that ought to do,” said Chris.
“But I mean the pumas or jaguars that seem to have here and there turned the cells into caves, and left their gnawed bones about. They may have lived here fifty years ago, a hundred years, or five. But there is one thing evident, and it is this—that the people who lived here chose the place as being one that they could make into a stronghold, one which they could fortify so as to defend themselves from their enemies.”
“What enemies, sir?” asked Ned sharply.
“Ah, that I can’t tell you. The people here must have been to a great extent civilised, or they would not have been builders; and most likely their enemies were wild Indian-like tribes who roamed the plains, as they do to this day. I want to find something left by these builders, and then perhaps we might learn something.”
They had now come to the last of the long range of cells that they had been making their way through, and further progress was checked by solid rock which had evidently been neither chipped away nor added to.
They cautiously stepped through the front opening, to stand upon the rough, crumbled-away terrace, from which they could look down into the great depression where the ponies and mules were contentedly grazing, and for about the tenth time looked upward for some means of reaching the terrace above, one which appeared more time-worn and dangerous than that upon which they stood; but without ladders it would have been risking life to make any attempt to reach it.
“Strikes me, sir,” said Griggs, “that we’ve left the way up far behind.”
“Why?” said Wilton sharply.
“Because we’ve seen no way here, and we found one there.”
“ButIcould see nothing likely to lead higher,” said Chris.
“We didn’t look about much,” cried Ned. “We were eager to come along here.”
“Yes, I suppose that was so,” said Chris thoughtfully. “Well, there’s the row of cells above us, and there must be a way.”
“Unless it has been swept off by some landslip,” suggested Bourne.
“Well, we’ll turn back now,” said the doctor, “for even if we had a shovel I don’t think we should find anything that would help us.”
They went back from cell to cell, and twice over found the terrace outside sufficiently level and secure to allow of their passing along it, but they soon had to take to the interior again with its low doorway-like connections.
At last they all stood together at the top of the roughly-stepped sloping shaft by which they had ascended, to find that the roof here was entirely broken away by the falling of a portion of the cliff; but they found also what they sought, for there, about a score of feet above their heads, was the evident continuation of the shaft-like hole by which they had come up.
“Look,” cried Griggs triumphantly; “no wonder we could not find it.”
“But how are we to use it?” said Bourne.
“Oh, we can manage that, sir; eh, boys?”
“You might,” said the doctor, gazing up, “but I’m sure I couldn’t.”
“Oh yes, you could, sir, when one of us has been up and driven a peg here and a peg there into some of those cracks. The stones are quite in layers; and after that we’ll drive a very strong one in, and tie a lariat to it to hang down like a balustrade to steady whoever goes up.”
“But where are the pegs?”
“Down below, sir, growing in amongst those trees. I vote we go down, have some dinner, and come up again after I have chopped as many pegs as I think we shall want. I should bring the axe up here too, so as to drive them in. Why, Chris, lad, we could make a regular ladder up there.”
Griggs’ proposal was adopted, and that same afternoon found them in the same place, with the American ready for action, and the boys carrying rope and pegs.
And now what had seemed difficult before had grown easy, the American, who had cut plenty of tough short pieces of pine and formed them chisel-ended, driving one in between the natural faults in the stone with the head of the axe, and then climbing upon it to drive in another, which formed a standing-place in turn, the slope upward of the cliff making the task easy—so easy, in fact, that less than half-an-hour sufficed to bring him to the spot where the shaft was in fair preservation, with its projecting pieces of stone left by the original carvers of the way.
Here the American fixed the strong peg pitched up to him by Chris, who had followed him up step by step, and after tying to it one end of the lariat thrown up by Ned, the two workers made their way up to the intact shaft, and reached the first cell of the next row, some fifty feet above the other, gaining at the same time a better view of the terrace in front, and seeing that it was comparatively very little broken-down, merely worn by the weather.
“Here, let’s go on a little way,” cried Chris eagerly.
“No,” replied Griggs; “fair play’s a jewel. Let’s go back; your father will like to be one of the first to begin exploring.”
“So he will; but look, here they come.”
For Ned was close up, being the next to test the stability of the new ladder, and was closely followed by the doctor and their other friends.
“Capital!” cried the doctor. “A much finer view from up here. Why, with such a stronghold and no better way for the enemy to approach, the old people ought to have been able to set all the tribes of the plain at defiance.”
“Perhaps they did, sir,” said Griggs; “but it seems to me that they must have had a regular channel of water coming down from above there to supply all these rooms, or cells, as you call them.”
“Most likely,” said the doctor.
“How would it be then if the enemy managed to break down the channel from somewhere up yonder where we found the hole under the fallen stones? Could the people who attacked them have done that?”
“Why, Griggs, you are making history. That was the old people’s aqueduct, and it is quite possible that when they were besieged the enemy caused the destruction over which we climbed.”
“Yes,” said Griggs thoughtfully; “that would ruin the folk. No doubt some of these places were used as stores, and those might last for years; but if their supply of water were cut off there wouldn’t be much chance for them then.”
“Well, let’s see farther,” said the doctor. “I can’t help thinking that they must have been a strong and fairly civilised race.”
Chris led the way in, to find the cell he entered cut out and built-up just the same as those which they had seen; but the floor was encumbered deeply with the dust of ages, and on stirring some of it with his foot the boy drew back hurriedly and looked strangely at his father.
“What have you found?” said the doctor.
“The jaguars must have killed a man here, father,” replied the boy, who looked on in disgust as his father stepped in and picked up a skull which might have lain there, sheltered by the roofing of stone, for ages. It looked brown and as if very little pressure would suffice to crumble it up into dust; but the teeth left in the upper jaw were perfect and fairly white.
“Ah!” said the doctor thoughtfully. “Here’s a bit of genuine history at last.”
“Killed by a jaguar, father?” cried Chris excitedly.
“No, my boy,” was the reply; “this is not the marking of a jaguar’s teeth, but the cause of death, plainly enough.”
“What, that hole?” cried Chris excitedly.
“Yes. Look, the forehead has been crushed in by the blow from a stone axe, or possibly by a stone hurled from above.”
“Perhaps only held in the hand, sir,” said Griggs thoughtfully.
“Why, that’s a heap of old bones,” cried Ned, with a look of horror; “the dust’s full of them.”
“Yes,” said the doctor, moving the relics carefully with the butt of his rifle for fragments that were fully defined as to shape to fall together as mere dust and hide portions below. “There’s another skull,” continued the examiner, “crushed in more than the first. A finely-preserved specimen, for, in spite of that hole, it shows the shape of the relic—a low forehead, retreating very rapidly, the brows very bony and heavy, and the cheek-bones widely prominent.”
“That’s not the same shaped skull as the first,” said Bourne quickly.
“Certainly not,” replied the doctor. “I should say it belonged to a fiercer, more savage race of man, who might have been an ancestor of the present Indians of the plains.”
“Then that was one of the enemy, father,” said Chris decidedly, “and he got it in the attack.”
“Possibly,” said the doctor, looking strangely at his son. “He seems to have gotit, Chris, but that doesn’t sound to me a very scientific way of describing the antique remains.”
Chris turned very red, and pressed some of the dust aside with his foot, laying bare the side of another of the ghastly relics.
“And that’s like the first,” cried the doctor, bending forward to pick it up, a skull looking whiter than either of the others. “Certainly this is of a different race, Bourne, and the owner died in the same way, the brow crushed.—Look at that.”
The rest were already looking, and saw what caused the doctor’s abrupt exclamation, for as he took up the skull the back portion fell away and the front dropped apart into so much crumbling dust.
“We’re looking down at the remains of a desperate fight, sir, I should say,” said Griggs thoughtfully. “It’s just as if there had been a stand made here.”
“Come on into the next place,” said the doctor eagerly; “but keep close to the wall, following my steps. Ah! it’s impossible to avoid crushing the remains,” he continued, as he sidled along, leaving his footprints in the soft dust which lay thick.
“I say, Chris, isn’t this very horrid?” whispered Ned, as the boys followed last towards the low doorway opposite to that by which they had entered.
“Yes, I suppose so,” said Chris thoughtfully; “but it makes one think of ever so far back when all this dust must have been alive—all fierce men, fighting, some to kill, others to save their lives. I don’t know; it doesn’t seem so very horrid, though I don’t like treading on all their dust—and—and—”
“Bones,” suggested Ned.
“No; because they’re not bones now, only the shape of bones. See how that all crumbled-away when my father picked it up. Dust and ashes, we ought to call it. Do you want to go back?”
“N–no, I think not. I say, what a fight it must have been!”
“Yes,” said Chris, with a deep breath that sounded like a sigh. “One seems to fancy one can see the men who had the white skulls being driven back from this cell into that one, and I shouldn’t wonder if we find that—”
“Yes,” came the doctor’s voice from the next place, “it’s wonderfully interesting. The civilised men must have been making a desperate stand here, and I fully expect that we shall find that they were driven back from cell to cell. Yes,” he said, with his voice growing fainter. “What do you say, Griggs?”
“It’s worse in here, sir, and—yes, worse still in the next place.”
“Driven back from cell to cell,” cried the doctor, “and it’s my impression that we shall find the remains of women and children in the farthest one. We shall hit upon the scene of a terrible massacre—the destruction of the race who built-up this place.”
The boys had joined the speakers now, just in time to hear Wilton speak—
“But I say, Lee, aren’t you letting your imagination carry you a little too far?”
“I think not,” replied the doctor quietly. “Look here; you cannot call this imagination. Small as the space is in these rock chambers, there are the remains of scores of men who fought desperately for their lives. To me it seems like a vivid reproduction of the past.”
“How far back?” said Bourne.
“Ah, that is beyond me. How long would it take these bones to decay to this extent as they lay here just as their owners fell? It is a question that no man can answer—one dependent upon the action of the air in a climate like this, with the remains sheltered from sun and rain, to gradually pass away into dust. You can see plainly enough that these are not the remains found in some burial place, added to year after year, age after age. This slaughter must have been the work of only a few hours, and the people lie piled-up as they fell. Let’s go on.”
Cell after cell was entered, with the remains lying thick as the warriors had fallen, the searchers continuing the examination to the very end, and then gladly stepping out on to the terrace, to stand there in the broad daylight, the air seeming to feel fresh and clear after what they had gone through.
“A strange bit of history,” said the doctor thoughtfully. “We know now and think how this bit of civilisation came to an end; but we have discovered no weapons of war to help us to give a date to the siege.”
“But we haven’t half done our search yet, sir,” said Griggs. “There’s another terrace above this, you see,” and he pointed up to where there had been another row of the cells formed in the rock-face, these latter standing back a little and evidently being the last, for above them the cliff projected like a gigantic cave, as far as they could see, from end to end.
“Who votes that we give up now and leave the examination till another day?” said Bourne, who had seemed more and more enthusiastic as the search went on.
There was no reply.
“Who votes that we try and get up to the next stage?”
Hands went up, and Ned shouted eagerly—
“Everybody.”
“Let’s get back, then,” said the doctor; “but we’ll keep out here on the terrace as far as we can. It is gruesome work trampling amongst the ashes of the fallen, interesting as it all is.”
“I suppose we shall find another of those chimney-like flights of steps,” said Wilton; “but I was too much taken up with what we were doing to notice.”
“I hope so,” replied the doctor, “but I saw nothing. I fancy, though, that this was the only way up into the town or city, and, judging by the appearance of the next terrace, it will be the last.”
“Then we shall be able to get on to the top of the cliffs this way, sir,” said Griggs.
“I really can’t say yet,” was the reply. “Let’s find the next shaft first, and see how far it goes.”
They kept along the terrace where they could, but here and there the falling away of stones rendered it necessary for them to re-enter a cell and keep for a little distance along by the inner passage. But at last the first cell of the series was reached, and directly after they were standing at the top of the second stairway and looking about vainly for a third—the one that should give them a passage to the third floor of dwelling-places.
“There must be a way,” said Griggs, as he stood scratching his head, “but I’m a bit puzzled. The upper rocks hang over here, and there seems to be no sign of anything having broken away.”
“Let’s look in the first cell again,” said Chris; “perhaps it begins in there.”
They stepped in to where the ashes lay piled-up and forming a slope on one side reaching half-way up the back wall, this portion not having been disturbed.
“No way out of this place except into the next chamber,” said Griggs. “We shall have to look somewhere else. But didn’t you say we had found no weapons yet, sir?” he continued, addressing the doctor.
“Yes; you have not seen any?”
“Looks like a couple of those stone axes yonder,” said Griggs, pointing to the back of the sloping heap. “I’ll get them.”
He took a couple of steps, and his feet sank in some depth. Then quickly taking another and another to preserve his equilibrium, he uttered a cry of annoyance, for his weight had set the whole of the heap of dust in motion, bringing part into the cell where they stood, while the rest glided like sand upon a slope, evidently sinking through a similar opening to that which led into the next chamber, but here formed in the wall exactly opposite to the window looking out on to the terrace.
“Lend us a hand,” cried Griggs, and he snatched at one of those stretched out to his aid, following the rest in a hurried flight out of the place, for the whole of the ashes and bones were in motion and ran out through the back with a soft rushing sound.
Chapter Thirty Six.It was all a Dream.“Ugh! the dust!” cried Bourne, as they stood together looking back through what seemed like a mist.But this soon subsided, and they stepped inside again, to find that a portion of the heap of remains had glided through an opening at the back, evidently the way into another cell—one that was dimly lighted from somewhere above, and which proved as soon as it was examined to be the way they sought, and not merely a narrow shaft, but a wide opening going upward and downward, the steps being in the wall which formed the division between the two chambers.There was only a narrow landing at the foot of the steps, and below this the opening seemed to go right down like a square well, into whose depths the remains that disappeared had glided and lay far below.“A huge cistern,” said Wilton eagerly.“No,” said the doctor; “the old people could not have stored their water just below the way up to the next range of dwellings. More likely a great corn-store or granary.”“Yes,” said Bourne, “that seems likely;” but Griggs grunted and said nothing.“What do you think, then?” said the doctor.“I don’t fancy those old folks would do much farming and corn-growing, sir,” replied Griggs. “You see, it’s a rocky sort of place all about here, with very little soil except in patches, and a short supply of water. Flocks and herds must have been more in their way.”“Then what would have been the use of a place like this?”Griggs was silent for a few moments, and then he laconically uttered the word—“Trap!”“A trap!” cried Chris wonderingly. “What could they catch up here?”“Enemies,” replied the American, as he stood looking down and then up.“What are you thinking?” said the doctor quickly.“Only this, sir. Perhaps I’m wrong, but you see this is a stronghold, and I can’t help thinking that this is the only way into it. There was the first row of dwelling-places, got at only by a ladder, up which the enemy had to fight their way, and they seem to have killed all that were defending that part before fighting their way up to the second row. There they did the same, and here must have been the way up to the top part, which they tried to make stronger still. You see, it’s rather a ticklish bit up the side there, and plenty of room all round for those who defended the place to use spears and stones to beat down those who came against them. Just look, it wouldn’t only be driving them back, but knocking them off into a hole or trap where they’d be quite done for.”“But if that were the case this hole would be piled-up with the remains of the enemy,” said Chris eagerly.“That’s so, my lad, and we can easily prove it. I’m going down to see.”“What, down into that horrible pit?” cried Ned. “I should have thought you had had enough of going down for the water.”“I did, squire; but there’s no water here. All’s dry, and I fancy there’s a bottom to it. There didn’t seem to be any where the water went down. First of all, though, doctor, if it was a corn-store or granary there’d be steps like those that go up, going down.”“Certainly,” said the doctor.“And from where we stand, so that the people could fetch up sacks full or baskets.”“Of course.”“Let’s see, then,” said the American, and opening his box he took out a match, lit it, and going down upon one knee held the burning splint below him.“No steps here,” he cried, jerking the nearly burned-out match out into the gloom.“Try another,” said Chris sharply.This was done, and a fresh examination made, but as far as could be seen the great square pit cut out of the rock went down smooth and square without a sign of foothold.“I wonder how deep it is,” said Chris, in a whisper tinged with awe.“We’ll soon find that out,” said the American. “Is there a loose stone anywhere about?”“Yes, plenty on the terrace outside,” said Ned, and he stepped back, passed out of the window-opening, and returned with a piece of shale as big as his hand.“Pitch it right out in the middle, squire,” cried Griggs, and the fragment quitted the boy’s hand, to fall with a sharp sound upon stone, as near as they could guess some thirty feet below.“You’re wrong, Griggs,” said the doctor.“Am I, sir? Well, not the first time by many.”“If this place had been as you think, the bottom would be covered with ashes like those we saw glide down, and that stone would have fallen with a dull thud.”“Very likely, sir. That’s only how it seemed to me. Shall I go down now and see?”“No; let’s climb up to the next range and see what that tells us; we may find some explanation there. Mind how you go, Chris; these steps are risky.”“Yes, I’ll take care, father,” panted the boy, who was already climbing. “I don’t want to tumble down there.”The height climbed was greater than that of the two lower ascents, but proved to be fairly easy to one whose nerves were steady, and as he reached the top Chris called down—“It’s so gloomy because the cliff overhangs it so. My word! There’s been some fighting here!”The rest followed him quickly, and as they gathered, all noticed that there was a fairly wide ledge on all four sides of the place, forming a pathway fairly level, and chipped out of the solid cliff; while, making quite a breastwork at the edge, but irregular in the extreme, stones of all shapes and sizes were piled-up, quite regularly along the side farthest from the rough steps, and of all heights in other parts, the stones nearest to the steps being only few.Griggs came last, and he noted this appearance, and uttered a deep grunt as he pointed out the rough breastwork, but said nothing.“Stones used for building and squaring the openings on to the terrace, I suppose,” said Bourne, and the boys looked at them curiously.“What about mortar?” said Ned.“Think they were for building, sir?” said the American.“Yes; don’t you?”“No, sir,” was the reply. “It seems to fit with my idea.”“What do you think, then?” said the doctor.“I think the same as I did before, sir. Those are powder and shot.”“What!” cried the boys, in a breath.“Ammunition to cast down at an attacking force?” said the doctor eagerly.“Looks like it, sir. You see, they’ve used most from close to where the enemy was coming up the steps. Perhaps I’m wrong, though. Let’s see what’s been going on here. But first of all, is there another floor higher up the cliff?”A careful search only seemed to prove that they were now on a level with the highest terrace and range of chambers, while close by the top of the steps there was ample endorsement of Chris’s exclamation about the fighting that had gone on.There was a fairly wide space between the top of the great square shaft and the openings into the first cell and that leading to the terrace front, and here the remains lay literally heaped, looking as if a most desperate encounter had taken place. Further examination proved that the first cell had also been desperately defended, for the combatants had lain in heaps. It was the same with the second, and as the adventurers went on without stopping to investigate, they found a dire repetition of the battle, and proofs that chamber after chamber had been a little battle-field in which many fell, right on to the extreme end of the range, all of which was in far better condition as to its stone-work than the terraces below.The heaps of gruesome dust ended with the last chamber only, very little being seen to take attention; but on the terrace, and here in the last four or five chambers, the doctor stooped several times to rake away the soft, easily-swept ashes, to point out proofs of his former opinions, many of the relics he uncovered and touched being quite small.“A horrible massacre,” he said softly. “Children, youths, and these are doubtless the skulls of women.”“Oughtn’t we to preserve specimens of each to take back? They would be of intense interest to students of the past,” said Bourne gravely.“How?” replied the doctor. “Touch any of them.—There, you see. They crumble into dust almost at a breath. What we carry away from here must be in our memories. As far as mine is concerned, it is already charged with the knowledge that we have, here the remains of two races of people, the one fierce and barbarous, the other the civilised builders and carvers of this strange city of the past. Here it is, all written down, how, in spite of all their efforts for their protection, dwelling, as they must have been, in the midst of fierce and bloodthirsty tribes, they were attacked, conquered, and massacred to the very last. For I expect when we examine the terraces on the other side of this place, we shall find a repetition of all we have found here. There, enough of horrors for one day.”“But you’ll come and examine all this again, father?” said Chris excitedly.“Yes, I should like to come too,” cried Ned.“What, haven’t you both had enough of these horrors?” said the doctor, raising his eyebrows.“N–no, father,” said Chris slowly, and as if thinking the while. “It is very horrible, of course, and one almost shivers to think of how the brave people must have fought; but there’s a something about it that seems to draw one on to try and know more, and it is almost like reading of a dreadful battle and a brave defence; only it seems to be so much more true.”“Yes, and it’s so ancient, father,” said Ned, meeting Bourne’s eyes. “I want to know more, and to try and find some of the swords and spears and battle-axes.”“I know what I should like to find,” said Chris, speaking as eagerly as his companion.“What?” said the doctor, for Chris stopped suddenly, and seemed lost in thought.“I suppose it couldn’t be done,” the boy added dreamily, “but I seem as if I was on the side of all those people who were beaten, and I should like to see how many of the enemy they killed before the last of them were massacred.”“You’d like to count their enemies’ skulls, eh, Chris?” said the doctor, smiling. “Yes, I feel something of the same kind; but nature has forbidden that, my boy. You see we are amidst heaps of dust.”“But we may find some of their weapons that they used,” said Bourne. “We must search for them.”“I should like to put a word in here, gentlemen,” said Griggs suddenly, “for I’ve got a touch—a bad one—of our young friends’ complaint. We’ve a good two hours’ broad sunshine yet, I should say.”“Oh, quite that,” said the doctor.“Well, there’s all that lot of ammunition yonder at the top of the trap.”“Yes,” said the doctor; “I begin to think you’re right about that, Griggs.”“And seeing what a stand the poor people made here, fighting from room to room—or house to house, I suppose I ought to call it—I can’t help thinking that there was something pretty desperate went on before they let the enemy get up those steps.”“No doubt,” said the doctor, “and that accounts for so many of the stones of that breastwork being missing.”“That’s right, sir. Well, I want to go down into that hole with a big light, and see what’s at the bottom there. I’m reckoning that we could find out what kind of weapons the enemy had to fight against the stones.”“Yes,” cried Ned; “their swords and—”“Well, I don’t know about swords, squire,” said the American dryly, “but they must have had something to fight with. I vote that we go and see.”This was agreed to without hesitation on the doctor’s part, and the party made their way back to the top of the steps.There was a pause here while all walked along the four sides, where hundreds of stones averaging the size of a man’s head lay just as they had been placed ages before; and then the descent was made to the opening at the side where the heap of dust had disappeared, and a short consultation took place.“You’ll have to give up for to-day, Griggs,” said the doctor; “it’s as black as ink down there at the bottom.”“That’s what I’ve been thinking, sir,” said Griggs. “One must have a lanthorn for this job, and by the time I’ve been to fetch it, got back here with another rope or two, and lit up ready for work, another hour will have slipped away; so if Chris and Ned here will promise not to tell me that I’m too much scared to go, I think I’ll give it up for to-night.”“You may take it for granted that no one will even dream of such a thing,” said the doctor quietly; “and I think it will be much wiser to give up. We’ve done quite enough for one day. Every one for camp, a good wash, and a hearty meal.”An hour later they were seated round their camp-fire, talking over the adventures of the day, and that night almost the same dream disturbed the slumbers of both boys, whose minds overleaped the long roll of ages which had elapsed, and conjured up for them the rock city occupied by a busy population. Then came the alarm of danger, the surprise made by the active enemy, and then the fierce defence of the first standing, the fight on the lower terrace, and the desperate defence of cell after cell. Then the fight for the next, and afterwards the escalading of the staircase in the great square hole, down into which Chris seemed to see scores of fierce-looking Indian warriors beaten by the stones cast from above.Worst of all in the dream was the final slaughter along the last platform, a sight so horribly real that Chris woke up suddenly, bathed in perspiration, and suffering an agony of excitement before he could force himself to believe it was all a dream.
“Ugh! the dust!” cried Bourne, as they stood together looking back through what seemed like a mist.
But this soon subsided, and they stepped inside again, to find that a portion of the heap of remains had glided through an opening at the back, evidently the way into another cell—one that was dimly lighted from somewhere above, and which proved as soon as it was examined to be the way they sought, and not merely a narrow shaft, but a wide opening going upward and downward, the steps being in the wall which formed the division between the two chambers.
There was only a narrow landing at the foot of the steps, and below this the opening seemed to go right down like a square well, into whose depths the remains that disappeared had glided and lay far below.
“A huge cistern,” said Wilton eagerly.
“No,” said the doctor; “the old people could not have stored their water just below the way up to the next range of dwellings. More likely a great corn-store or granary.”
“Yes,” said Bourne, “that seems likely;” but Griggs grunted and said nothing.
“What do you think, then?” said the doctor.
“I don’t fancy those old folks would do much farming and corn-growing, sir,” replied Griggs. “You see, it’s a rocky sort of place all about here, with very little soil except in patches, and a short supply of water. Flocks and herds must have been more in their way.”
“Then what would have been the use of a place like this?”
Griggs was silent for a few moments, and then he laconically uttered the word—
“Trap!”
“A trap!” cried Chris wonderingly. “What could they catch up here?”
“Enemies,” replied the American, as he stood looking down and then up.
“What are you thinking?” said the doctor quickly.
“Only this, sir. Perhaps I’m wrong, but you see this is a stronghold, and I can’t help thinking that this is the only way into it. There was the first row of dwelling-places, got at only by a ladder, up which the enemy had to fight their way, and they seem to have killed all that were defending that part before fighting their way up to the second row. There they did the same, and here must have been the way up to the top part, which they tried to make stronger still. You see, it’s rather a ticklish bit up the side there, and plenty of room all round for those who defended the place to use spears and stones to beat down those who came against them. Just look, it wouldn’t only be driving them back, but knocking them off into a hole or trap where they’d be quite done for.”
“But if that were the case this hole would be piled-up with the remains of the enemy,” said Chris eagerly.
“That’s so, my lad, and we can easily prove it. I’m going down to see.”
“What, down into that horrible pit?” cried Ned. “I should have thought you had had enough of going down for the water.”
“I did, squire; but there’s no water here. All’s dry, and I fancy there’s a bottom to it. There didn’t seem to be any where the water went down. First of all, though, doctor, if it was a corn-store or granary there’d be steps like those that go up, going down.”
“Certainly,” said the doctor.
“And from where we stand, so that the people could fetch up sacks full or baskets.”
“Of course.”
“Let’s see, then,” said the American, and opening his box he took out a match, lit it, and going down upon one knee held the burning splint below him.
“No steps here,” he cried, jerking the nearly burned-out match out into the gloom.
“Try another,” said Chris sharply.
This was done, and a fresh examination made, but as far as could be seen the great square pit cut out of the rock went down smooth and square without a sign of foothold.
“I wonder how deep it is,” said Chris, in a whisper tinged with awe.
“We’ll soon find that out,” said the American. “Is there a loose stone anywhere about?”
“Yes, plenty on the terrace outside,” said Ned, and he stepped back, passed out of the window-opening, and returned with a piece of shale as big as his hand.
“Pitch it right out in the middle, squire,” cried Griggs, and the fragment quitted the boy’s hand, to fall with a sharp sound upon stone, as near as they could guess some thirty feet below.
“You’re wrong, Griggs,” said the doctor.
“Am I, sir? Well, not the first time by many.”
“If this place had been as you think, the bottom would be covered with ashes like those we saw glide down, and that stone would have fallen with a dull thud.”
“Very likely, sir. That’s only how it seemed to me. Shall I go down now and see?”
“No; let’s climb up to the next range and see what that tells us; we may find some explanation there. Mind how you go, Chris; these steps are risky.”
“Yes, I’ll take care, father,” panted the boy, who was already climbing. “I don’t want to tumble down there.”
The height climbed was greater than that of the two lower ascents, but proved to be fairly easy to one whose nerves were steady, and as he reached the top Chris called down—
“It’s so gloomy because the cliff overhangs it so. My word! There’s been some fighting here!”
The rest followed him quickly, and as they gathered, all noticed that there was a fairly wide ledge on all four sides of the place, forming a pathway fairly level, and chipped out of the solid cliff; while, making quite a breastwork at the edge, but irregular in the extreme, stones of all shapes and sizes were piled-up, quite regularly along the side farthest from the rough steps, and of all heights in other parts, the stones nearest to the steps being only few.
Griggs came last, and he noted this appearance, and uttered a deep grunt as he pointed out the rough breastwork, but said nothing.
“Stones used for building and squaring the openings on to the terrace, I suppose,” said Bourne, and the boys looked at them curiously.
“What about mortar?” said Ned.
“Think they were for building, sir?” said the American.
“Yes; don’t you?”
“No, sir,” was the reply. “It seems to fit with my idea.”
“What do you think, then?” said the doctor.
“I think the same as I did before, sir. Those are powder and shot.”
“What!” cried the boys, in a breath.
“Ammunition to cast down at an attacking force?” said the doctor eagerly.
“Looks like it, sir. You see, they’ve used most from close to where the enemy was coming up the steps. Perhaps I’m wrong, though. Let’s see what’s been going on here. But first of all, is there another floor higher up the cliff?”
A careful search only seemed to prove that they were now on a level with the highest terrace and range of chambers, while close by the top of the steps there was ample endorsement of Chris’s exclamation about the fighting that had gone on.
There was a fairly wide space between the top of the great square shaft and the openings into the first cell and that leading to the terrace front, and here the remains lay literally heaped, looking as if a most desperate encounter had taken place. Further examination proved that the first cell had also been desperately defended, for the combatants had lain in heaps. It was the same with the second, and as the adventurers went on without stopping to investigate, they found a dire repetition of the battle, and proofs that chamber after chamber had been a little battle-field in which many fell, right on to the extreme end of the range, all of which was in far better condition as to its stone-work than the terraces below.
The heaps of gruesome dust ended with the last chamber only, very little being seen to take attention; but on the terrace, and here in the last four or five chambers, the doctor stooped several times to rake away the soft, easily-swept ashes, to point out proofs of his former opinions, many of the relics he uncovered and touched being quite small.
“A horrible massacre,” he said softly. “Children, youths, and these are doubtless the skulls of women.”
“Oughtn’t we to preserve specimens of each to take back? They would be of intense interest to students of the past,” said Bourne gravely.
“How?” replied the doctor. “Touch any of them.—There, you see. They crumble into dust almost at a breath. What we carry away from here must be in our memories. As far as mine is concerned, it is already charged with the knowledge that we have, here the remains of two races of people, the one fierce and barbarous, the other the civilised builders and carvers of this strange city of the past. Here it is, all written down, how, in spite of all their efforts for their protection, dwelling, as they must have been, in the midst of fierce and bloodthirsty tribes, they were attacked, conquered, and massacred to the very last. For I expect when we examine the terraces on the other side of this place, we shall find a repetition of all we have found here. There, enough of horrors for one day.”
“But you’ll come and examine all this again, father?” said Chris excitedly.
“Yes, I should like to come too,” cried Ned.
“What, haven’t you both had enough of these horrors?” said the doctor, raising his eyebrows.
“N–no, father,” said Chris slowly, and as if thinking the while. “It is very horrible, of course, and one almost shivers to think of how the brave people must have fought; but there’s a something about it that seems to draw one on to try and know more, and it is almost like reading of a dreadful battle and a brave defence; only it seems to be so much more true.”
“Yes, and it’s so ancient, father,” said Ned, meeting Bourne’s eyes. “I want to know more, and to try and find some of the swords and spears and battle-axes.”
“I know what I should like to find,” said Chris, speaking as eagerly as his companion.
“What?” said the doctor, for Chris stopped suddenly, and seemed lost in thought.
“I suppose it couldn’t be done,” the boy added dreamily, “but I seem as if I was on the side of all those people who were beaten, and I should like to see how many of the enemy they killed before the last of them were massacred.”
“You’d like to count their enemies’ skulls, eh, Chris?” said the doctor, smiling. “Yes, I feel something of the same kind; but nature has forbidden that, my boy. You see we are amidst heaps of dust.”
“But we may find some of their weapons that they used,” said Bourne. “We must search for them.”
“I should like to put a word in here, gentlemen,” said Griggs suddenly, “for I’ve got a touch—a bad one—of our young friends’ complaint. We’ve a good two hours’ broad sunshine yet, I should say.”
“Oh, quite that,” said the doctor.
“Well, there’s all that lot of ammunition yonder at the top of the trap.”
“Yes,” said the doctor; “I begin to think you’re right about that, Griggs.”
“And seeing what a stand the poor people made here, fighting from room to room—or house to house, I suppose I ought to call it—I can’t help thinking that there was something pretty desperate went on before they let the enemy get up those steps.”
“No doubt,” said the doctor, “and that accounts for so many of the stones of that breastwork being missing.”
“That’s right, sir. Well, I want to go down into that hole with a big light, and see what’s at the bottom there. I’m reckoning that we could find out what kind of weapons the enemy had to fight against the stones.”
“Yes,” cried Ned; “their swords and—”
“Well, I don’t know about swords, squire,” said the American dryly, “but they must have had something to fight with. I vote that we go and see.”
This was agreed to without hesitation on the doctor’s part, and the party made their way back to the top of the steps.
There was a pause here while all walked along the four sides, where hundreds of stones averaging the size of a man’s head lay just as they had been placed ages before; and then the descent was made to the opening at the side where the heap of dust had disappeared, and a short consultation took place.
“You’ll have to give up for to-day, Griggs,” said the doctor; “it’s as black as ink down there at the bottom.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking, sir,” said Griggs. “One must have a lanthorn for this job, and by the time I’ve been to fetch it, got back here with another rope or two, and lit up ready for work, another hour will have slipped away; so if Chris and Ned here will promise not to tell me that I’m too much scared to go, I think I’ll give it up for to-night.”
“You may take it for granted that no one will even dream of such a thing,” said the doctor quietly; “and I think it will be much wiser to give up. We’ve done quite enough for one day. Every one for camp, a good wash, and a hearty meal.”
An hour later they were seated round their camp-fire, talking over the adventures of the day, and that night almost the same dream disturbed the slumbers of both boys, whose minds overleaped the long roll of ages which had elapsed, and conjured up for them the rock city occupied by a busy population. Then came the alarm of danger, the surprise made by the active enemy, and then the fierce defence of the first standing, the fight on the lower terrace, and the desperate defence of cell after cell. Then the fight for the next, and afterwards the escalading of the staircase in the great square hole, down into which Chris seemed to see scores of fierce-looking Indian warriors beaten by the stones cast from above.
Worst of all in the dream was the final slaughter along the last platform, a sight so horribly real that Chris woke up suddenly, bathed in perspiration, and suffering an agony of excitement before he could force himself to believe it was all a dream.
Chapter Thirty Seven.In the Old Stronghold.The morning broke fresh and cool, and after a good meal a start was made for the top stairway, Griggs being armed with two lanthorns, while Chris carried ropes, and an iron bar fell to Ned’s lot, the intention being to drive the chisel-shaped end between two stones or into some crack, so that the rope might be safely held for the adventurer’s descent.That which had seemed long and wearisome the day before looked easy now, and they were not long in reaching the slope leading to the first ascent, where the party paused to look back along the depression to where the animals were browsing contentedly enough, and the remains of the camp-fire sent up a tiny column of thin blue smoke. The ranges of open cells were on their right, terrace above terrace, all looking so grey and peaceful, with tree, shrub, and tuft of green flourishing in the various cracks, that it was difficult to connect the place with the horrors their search had unveiled.“It looks from here,” said Bourne, “like the home of so many human bees who had built their peaceful city against the sides of the cliffs. Do you think we shall find that similar horrors were perpetrated over yonder?”“If the opposite cells were occupied at the same time I’m afraid there is no doubt about it. We’ll find out the ascent to those terraces, if we can, to-morrow or next day. I wish we could come upon one of the chambers just as it was occupied by its owner.”“I dessay we could find a lot of things here on this side,” said Griggs quietly to the boys, who generally kept with him for companion, “but it would be an unked job with shovel and sieve to clear out one of those cells.”“A what job?” said Chris.“Unked, my lad. That’s what a Somersetshire chap I once knew used to call anything dismal and melancholy. This is going to be an unked job this morning, I can tell you, for if it wasn’t for the feeling of curiosity to know all about these people I should be ready to pitch it over.”“Well, do,” said Chris, “and leave it to Ned and me.”“’Tisn’t a fit job for boys,” said Griggs.“It isn’t a fit job for anybody,” said Ned, “but we’d do it because it’s learned and wonderful. Oh, I think it’s very fine.”“P’r’aps it is,” said Griggs coolly, “but you’re not going to take the job out of my hands, and so I tell you. Just hark at him, Chris; he has got the idea in his head that he’s going to discover swords with golden sheaths, and belts thick with precious stones; helmets with plumes of feathers, and rich and costly armour.”“Not such a noodle,” said Ned, whose cheeks had turned very red, for though not so extravagant as the American painted, he was fain to own to himself that he had some such ideas in connection with the dusky warriors who had stormed the place.“I got thinking a deal of it though last night after I lay down,” said Griggs, who did not care to carry his taunts any further after seeing the colour of Ned’s face, “and I was precious glad that I didn’t go down with only a few matches for light. I got dreaming about it afterwards.”“What, about the old fighting men? The dead?”“No. About what might be there all alive.”“What!” cried Chris. “Not about snakes?”“But I did, my lad; and I kept on waking up and then going to sleep and dreaming the same thing again. I never saw such big ones alive as I saw creeping along the bottom of that great square hole, getting into the corners and squirming up one till they nearly stood upon their tails, and then fell over sidewise with a crack that sent the dust flying.”“Horrid!” said Chris.“Yes. They’re not nice things to dream about—snakes—because of the waking up.”“Yes, I know,” cried Chris eagerly. “You fancy that you really have them about you, and feel as if you can’t believe it was only a dream.”“You never felt like that?” cried Griggs.“Yes, I have, more than once.”“Well, that’s strange, because it’s just how I felt over and over again last night, and it quite set me against the job.”“But now it is morning and we’re all awake and rested you don’t think it’s likely that there are any rattlers down in that hole?”“I do think it’s very likely, my lad,” said the American gravely. “Give one a rocky place out in the desert where the hot sun shines, and there’s no one to interfere with them, and you’re pretty sure to find some of those gentlemen. I wonder we haven’t seen more.”“I don’t like the idea of your going down, Griggs,” said Chris.“Forward there,” cried the doctor from below, as he finished a long look at the edge of the cliff, sweeping it with his glass and wondering whether they could reach the tableland in which the depression stood like a chasm split in a blue, rocky desert, “Yes,” he said sharply, changing the course of his thoughts, “we must explore the other side of this great chasm, but let’s finish one side first.”He was content to let Chris take the lead, and his friends smilingly gave way, humouring him, as they called it to themselves, Bourne good-temperedly taking it all as a matter of course, and feeling in nowise jealous on behalf of his own son. Wilton had on one occasion said something about favouritism, but Bourne had only laughed.“Oh, let the boys alone,” he said, “and let them settle the supremacy between them. That will be all right. Chris is as honest and frank as the day. You must have seen that.”“Seen what?”“Why, that the boy’s generous at heart. He bullies Ned horribly sometimes, and then afterwards he seems to repent and behaves like a lamb, while Ned turns dog.”So it was that in this matter of the exploration Chris led with his companion, and Griggs followed next, as if he were their henchman, while the three friends came last.The ascents were made with spirit till all stood in the chamber at the back of which the opening led into the side of the square pit, and here, while the doctor thoughtfully turned over and examined some of the remains still left, Griggs lit the lanthorn he had brought, and Ned tied one end of a hide-rope to it, ready for the lowering down, while Chris had stepped through the hole and stood on the broad ledge at the foot of the rough projections in the stone wall that acted as steps.“It must have been awful,” he said aloud suddenly, as he stood peering up through the twilight at the remains of the piled-up stones at the top.“What must have been awful?” asked Wilton, stepping out to his side.“Why, that fight when the Indians climbed up these steps, with the other people raining down big stones on their heads.”“Think it was so?” said Wilton quietly.“I feel sure of it. My word! Never mind about them being horribly savage—how brave they must have been! Why, I felt regularly shaky at having to get up yonder with no enemy to face.”“Yes, it’s an ugly place,” said Wilton; “but what about enemies down below? Can you see anything?”“No,” said Chris, gazing down. “It’s as black as black. I say, though, if there are any enemies down there they’re poisonous.”“What do you think possibly can be down there—one of the fierce cats of the country?”“No,” said Chris, smiling queerly. “Rattlers.”“Ugh!”“If there are any we shall see them when the lanthorn’s swung down. Why, it will be a good bit of sport for you to have a shot at them.”“The horrible beasts!” said Wilton.“We’re ready when you are,” said Griggs from the chamber. “The light’s burning quite brightly.”“Bring it here, then.—I say, Mr Wilton, there isn’t room for all of us on this bit of a landing. Will you go up to the top and be ready to fire?”“No,” said Wilton shortly. “I’ll leave it to you and Ned.”He stepped back to join his friends in the chamber, and then, seeing how they were occupied, he stepped out on to the remains of the terrace, to stand there examining the openings in the cliff-face opposite.“That’s right, Griggs, swing it down gently,” said Chris. “You, Ned, unsling your gun, and the first rattler you see give him a charge of small shot.”Ned fixed himself against the wall with his left arm round one of the projections, cocked his piece, and stood ready with the muzzle pointed downward, gazing the while into the darkness far below, now beginning to be illumined by the swinging lanthorn, as Griggs paid out the rope and sent it lower and lower.“You can see the heap of stuff—ashes, lying in a slope now,” cried Chris, who was watching intently. “Look, there’s one of those—you know what—looking almost white and shining.—Isn’t that something moving, Griggs?”“Can’t see anything yet but that pile of stuff that went down. I say, it’s not so very deep, after all.”“Thirty feet at least,” said Chris decisively.—“There, I’m sure of that. I saw something move right over in that—”“Corner,” he was going to say, but the word was smothered by the sharp echoing report of Ned’s piece, whose flash seemed brighter than the light of the lanthorn, which glowed like a dull star now disappearing in a passing cloud of smoke.“A rattler?” cried Chris.“I’m not sure, but I saw something gliding along, and I fired.”“Good boy! Quite right! Sharp’s the word. But I say, what a smother you’ve made. Get in another cartridge.”Click! went Ned’s piece as he closed the breech.“If that was a rattler,” said Griggs coolly, “seems as if it was just as well that I didn’t go down last night.”“And this morning too,” said Chris. “Why, there may be quite a nest of the brutes down there.”“P’r’aps so. But if there is it must have made some of them sneeze when all that dust went down with a rush yesterday.”Just then Wilton leaned in at the window-opening of the cell where the doctor and Bourne were examining a carefully-smoothed, elliptical, cell-like stone with a hole through the thickest part as if for holding a wooden handle.“What have you found?” he said.“A stone battle-axe, without doubt.”“Ah, it does look like it. You must save that. You have your glasses with you?”“Yes,” said the doctor. “Want them?”“Please. I want to look round.”The doctor slipped the strap of the case over his head and passed it to his friend.“Give a look at the mules and ponies,” he said. “If there’s anything wrong they’ll seem uneasy.”“Snake in the grass, eh?”“Yes.”“All right.—I say, you within there, what have you shot?”“Don’t know yet,” replied Chris. “Ned thought he saw a thumping great rattler.”“Did he?”“It’s too thick with smoke to see yet, but it’s clearing fast.”Wilton, who displayed more and more his disgust with the task his friends had set themselves, took the glass and began sweeping the sides of the depression, noting the cracks and gullies running up the cliff-face opposite in amongst the cell-like openings, all wonderfully clear and bright in the morning air, while Bourne and the doctor, encouraged by the discovery of the relic of the stone age, went on turning over the ashes in the next cell.Meantime the party at the side of the square pit waited impatiently for the smoke to rise and float out beneath the overhanging portion of the cliff above the top range of cells, Griggs giving the lanthorn a wave now and then, sending it flying, pendulum-like, as far as he could reach without bringing it in contact with the smoothly-cut wall.“Not much chance for anybody or anything to get out of here again if he was at the bottom, lads. It’s a regular trap,” he said.“Yes, but take care, or you’ll be breaking the lanthorn,” said Chris warningly.“Nay, I won’t do that, my lad,” replied Griggs quietly. “But I say, squire, did you aim at its head or its tail?”“I aimed at the part I saw moving,” said Ned. “Can you see it yet?”“Nay. Can you?”“No.”“I’m afraid you shot at nothing,” said Griggs, with a laugh, “and you haven’t killed it.”“I’m sure I saw something moving,” cried Ned indignantly.“Where is it, then? It’s clear enough to see now.”“Gone down into a hole, perhaps.”“Or crawled down its own throat perhaps.”“I know,” said Chris merrily; “Ned never misses anything. The poor brute has swallowed its own tail, formed itself into a ring, and bowled out like a hoop.”“Of course,” cried Ned, raising his piece to his shoulder, as the light now penetrated well into one of the opposite corners, and without a word of warning he fired again.“What did you do that for?” cried Chris excitedly.“To put that reptile out of its misery,” said Ned.“To fill the place with smoke again,” cried Chris indignantly. “It’s all fancy.”“Precious noisy fancy,” said Griggs dryly. “My word, he must be a thumper! Talk about smoke, he is kicking up a dust.”Chris was silent as he stood listening to the struggles of what was evidently a large serpent, while it writhed violently below them, beating about and lashing the pile of remains that had crumbled down from the cell, and sending up quite a cloud to mingle with that of vapour which rose, smelling pungently of hydrogen, towards the overhanging blocks of stone roofing in the square pit.“I guess I’m quite satisfied now that I didn’t go down,” said Griggs coolly; “but there don’t seem to be more’n one, or we should hear them travelling about.”“This one makes noise enough for a dozen,” said Chris.—“I say, Ned, I beg pardon. You don’t want me to go on my knees, do you?”“No,” replied the boy calmly, as he made the breech of his double gun snap to very loudly; “only I wouldn’t be quite so cocksure that you know everything, next time.”“Thy servant humbles himself to the dust,” said Chris, in Eastern style.“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” said Griggs dryly; “certainly not till that gentleman below has done kicking it up. Say, how big should you say this one is?”“Oh, I don’t know. It sounds as if it might be twenty feet long.”“Yes; but if it is as long as that it wouldn’t be a rattler.”“No; only a thumper,” cried Ned, laughing. “Hark, it’s quieting down now. Shall I give it another dose as soon as it is still?”“No; save all the ammunition you can, my lad. It has had enough to finish it off. How strange it is that anything long should take such a time to die.”They stood there patiently listening to the movements below, the lashing about gradually ceasing, to give place to a gliding, rustling sound as if the injured creature was travelling rapidly about endeavouring to escape. The dust began to settle as the smoke floated away, but twice over arose again as after a spell of silence there was the sound of a fall.“He was trying to get up in the corner yonder,” said Griggs.“How horrible if it comes up one of these angles,” said Ned, drawing his breath sharply.“No fear,” cried Griggs. “Snakes can only raise themselves up for a certain distance, and then they fall over. I’ve watched them often.”“I say, he’s getting quieter now,” said Chris.This was plain to all, for the rustling died out, began again more faintly, died out again, there was the sound of a pat or two as if given spasmodically by the reptile’s tail, and then all was quite still, while the dust had cleared away so that the watchers could see by the lanthorn’s light the inert body of a very large rattlesnake.“Why, it’s not half so big as I expected,” cried Chris.“The biggest I ever saw,” said Griggs quietly.“But it made such a tremendous noise,” cried Chris. “I expected to see one double that size. I say, hadn’t Ned better give him another charge?”“No; one of you go up to the top and drop a good-sized stone down upon him. We shall see whether there’s life enough in him to be dangerous.”“Hold my rifle, Chris, and I’ll go,” cried Ned eagerly, and the next minute he was scaling the side, and on reaching the top he walked to where he was nearly over the reptile, where he picked up a couple of stones of the size of a man’s fist and pitched one down, with the result that the snake began to writhe violently again, but only for a very brief time, before once more lying perfectly inert.“No more mischief in that fellow,” said Griggs. “I may as well go down now.”“What about the others?” said Chris.“What others?”“There are sure to be some more.”“Nay; rattlers are not above showing fight. If there had been any more we should have seen or heard them. I shall chance it now.”“I don’t like your going down yet,” said Chris anxiously. “I’ll have a shot at him now.”“Nay, nay; we may want our cartridges for something more useful than a rattler that has had as much as it wants to kill it.”“I’ll drop another stone on him,” said Ned. “One of those big ones.”“Ah, do,” said Griggs. “Take good aim, and drop it right on his head. Can you see?”“Oh, yes, I can see quite plainly.”Ned raised one of the heaviest stones near him, and after a gentle swing let it go, to fall with a sharp crack upon other stones, making the snake twine again and writhe round the block, to hold on tightly.“Why, he has pinned it down,” cried Chris. “Good aim.”As he spoke the snake untwined itself and straightened out, to lie perfectly still.“That’s done for him,” cried Griggs, “and if there had been any more that would have sent them squirming out of their holes. Here, you come down, squire. I’m going to knot two lariats together and pass them over one of these steps. I want you to help hold on.”Ned descended, the rope was given a couple of turns round the lowest projection, and held by the two boys; the lanthorn was lowered down to stand on the heap of dust below, and the end of the rope by which it was lowered also held by Chris, while upon drawing his keen hunting-knife and taking it in his teeth, Griggs just said, “Hold tight,” took hold of the lowered rope, and slid lightly down, to stand below the watchers on the heap.“Mind the snake, Griggs,” cried Chris.“Tell him he’d better mind,” was the reply, as the American raised the lanthorn and, knife in hand, approached the reptile cautiously, and then the lookers-on saw him stoop lower and lower till he was near enough for his purpose, when there was a quick movement, a flash of light reflected from the knife-blade, and Griggs rose again.“You’ve pinned him down with that last stone, squire. Head’s off, and he’ll do no more mischief. Now then, I’m going to look for your weapons o’ war.”The boys could see the bottom of the square place clear enough now, as the lanthorn began to move about; but there was little to see. Upon this side lay the heap of ashes specked with a few fragments of bone which glistened feebly in the light, but beyond the heap which ran tongue-like from the side out to the centre, there was nothing to be seen but stones—heavy stones such as remained like the broken-down portions of the breastwork about the edges of the excavations at the top.“Can’t see no treasures,” said Griggs gruffly; and directly after, “There aren’t a single shield—no spears—no swords—no breast-plates—no rifles.”“Dear me!” said Chris sarcastically. “I wonder at that. How many revolvers can you see?”“Nary one,” said Griggs coolly. “No gauntlets, no backpieces.”Then there was a pause, before the searcher straightened himself up and said decisively—“No, nothing.”“How disappointing,” cried Ned. “But what about all those stones?”“To be sure. You don’t call them nothing?” cried Chris.“No; there’s plenty of them, my lads, and plenty of something else underneath them, I’ll be bound, if any one thought it worth while to clear out this cellar.”“But what do you think now, Griggs?” cried Chris eagerly.“Same as I did before, my lad. I shouldn’t like to guess, but you may feel sure that many a savage came to his end here and lies covered in by these stones. The people who defended this place from up yonder must have showered the stones down when they were attacked. There, it’s of no use for me to stop down here. Are you two going to haul me up, or am I to climb?”“We’ll try and haul you up,” said Chris. “Stop a moment while I take the rifles and stand them up against the wall inside.”“Hold hard a moment,” said Griggs. “You’d better go and fetch the doctor. He might like to come down and see before I send up the lanthorn.”“I’ll call him,” said Chris, and he turned to pass through the opening, but was met by his father, who was crossing the stone chamber adjoining.“Here, quick,” cried the doctor; “come out of this place! Where’s Griggs?”“Here am I, neighbour. Nothing to be found, only what fell in from where you stand. But there’s hundreds upon hundreds of stones, and those who were beaten down must have been buried by what hit them.”“Yes, I suppose so,” said the doctor anxiously; “but we’ve something else to think of now.”“Don’t say the mules have stampeded, sir?” cried Griggs anxiously.“No; they’re grazing peacefully enough at present, but there’s something worse.”“Then give a pull with the lads at that rope, sir, and let me get out of this. One minute; the lanthorn first.”The doctor raised the lanthorn, and his first act was to blow it out before joining at the rope and hauling the searcher to the platform.“What is it, sir?” cried Griggs anxiously.“Come and see,” was the reply.The doctor made his way through the hole and crossed the chamber into which it opened, before entering the next, closely followed by the boys and Griggs, who caught up their rifles as they passed them, dragging the ropes as they went.As they entered the second chamber it was to see the doctor join Bourne at the window-opening, while beyond them stood Wilton sheltering himself behind a patch of bushy growth hanging from above, as he stood watching something intently through the doctor’s double glass.“See any more, Wilton?” said the doctor anxiously.“Scores,” was the reply, given without the speaker turning his head. “You can see for yourself; they’re collecting together on the very edge of the cliff away there, and at first they stood gazing down into the depression.”“Do you think they saw you?” said the doctor hoarsely.“Oh no, I feel sure that they did not at first, and I have kept in shelter since; but they have caught sight of something else.”“What?” cried Griggs.“Ah! You there?” said Wilton sharply. “You had better come and have a look through this glass; you may be able to tell what race they are.”“Perhaps,” said Griggs shortly; “but what is it they can see?”“The ponies and mules.”“Are you sure?”“Yes; there was one of the men, a chief apparently, pointing down at them. I could see it plainly through the glass.”“Indians, Ned,” whispered Chris. “They must have been following us all this time, and we’re in for it now.”
The morning broke fresh and cool, and after a good meal a start was made for the top stairway, Griggs being armed with two lanthorns, while Chris carried ropes, and an iron bar fell to Ned’s lot, the intention being to drive the chisel-shaped end between two stones or into some crack, so that the rope might be safely held for the adventurer’s descent.
That which had seemed long and wearisome the day before looked easy now, and they were not long in reaching the slope leading to the first ascent, where the party paused to look back along the depression to where the animals were browsing contentedly enough, and the remains of the camp-fire sent up a tiny column of thin blue smoke. The ranges of open cells were on their right, terrace above terrace, all looking so grey and peaceful, with tree, shrub, and tuft of green flourishing in the various cracks, that it was difficult to connect the place with the horrors their search had unveiled.
“It looks from here,” said Bourne, “like the home of so many human bees who had built their peaceful city against the sides of the cliffs. Do you think we shall find that similar horrors were perpetrated over yonder?”
“If the opposite cells were occupied at the same time I’m afraid there is no doubt about it. We’ll find out the ascent to those terraces, if we can, to-morrow or next day. I wish we could come upon one of the chambers just as it was occupied by its owner.”
“I dessay we could find a lot of things here on this side,” said Griggs quietly to the boys, who generally kept with him for companion, “but it would be an unked job with shovel and sieve to clear out one of those cells.”
“A what job?” said Chris.
“Unked, my lad. That’s what a Somersetshire chap I once knew used to call anything dismal and melancholy. This is going to be an unked job this morning, I can tell you, for if it wasn’t for the feeling of curiosity to know all about these people I should be ready to pitch it over.”
“Well, do,” said Chris, “and leave it to Ned and me.”
“’Tisn’t a fit job for boys,” said Griggs.
“It isn’t a fit job for anybody,” said Ned, “but we’d do it because it’s learned and wonderful. Oh, I think it’s very fine.”
“P’r’aps it is,” said Griggs coolly, “but you’re not going to take the job out of my hands, and so I tell you. Just hark at him, Chris; he has got the idea in his head that he’s going to discover swords with golden sheaths, and belts thick with precious stones; helmets with plumes of feathers, and rich and costly armour.”
“Not such a noodle,” said Ned, whose cheeks had turned very red, for though not so extravagant as the American painted, he was fain to own to himself that he had some such ideas in connection with the dusky warriors who had stormed the place.
“I got thinking a deal of it though last night after I lay down,” said Griggs, who did not care to carry his taunts any further after seeing the colour of Ned’s face, “and I was precious glad that I didn’t go down with only a few matches for light. I got dreaming about it afterwards.”
“What, about the old fighting men? The dead?”
“No. About what might be there all alive.”
“What!” cried Chris. “Not about snakes?”
“But I did, my lad; and I kept on waking up and then going to sleep and dreaming the same thing again. I never saw such big ones alive as I saw creeping along the bottom of that great square hole, getting into the corners and squirming up one till they nearly stood upon their tails, and then fell over sidewise with a crack that sent the dust flying.”
“Horrid!” said Chris.
“Yes. They’re not nice things to dream about—snakes—because of the waking up.”
“Yes, I know,” cried Chris eagerly. “You fancy that you really have them about you, and feel as if you can’t believe it was only a dream.”
“You never felt like that?” cried Griggs.
“Yes, I have, more than once.”
“Well, that’s strange, because it’s just how I felt over and over again last night, and it quite set me against the job.”
“But now it is morning and we’re all awake and rested you don’t think it’s likely that there are any rattlers down in that hole?”
“I do think it’s very likely, my lad,” said the American gravely. “Give one a rocky place out in the desert where the hot sun shines, and there’s no one to interfere with them, and you’re pretty sure to find some of those gentlemen. I wonder we haven’t seen more.”
“I don’t like the idea of your going down, Griggs,” said Chris.
“Forward there,” cried the doctor from below, as he finished a long look at the edge of the cliff, sweeping it with his glass and wondering whether they could reach the tableland in which the depression stood like a chasm split in a blue, rocky desert, “Yes,” he said sharply, changing the course of his thoughts, “we must explore the other side of this great chasm, but let’s finish one side first.”
He was content to let Chris take the lead, and his friends smilingly gave way, humouring him, as they called it to themselves, Bourne good-temperedly taking it all as a matter of course, and feeling in nowise jealous on behalf of his own son. Wilton had on one occasion said something about favouritism, but Bourne had only laughed.
“Oh, let the boys alone,” he said, “and let them settle the supremacy between them. That will be all right. Chris is as honest and frank as the day. You must have seen that.”
“Seen what?”
“Why, that the boy’s generous at heart. He bullies Ned horribly sometimes, and then afterwards he seems to repent and behaves like a lamb, while Ned turns dog.”
So it was that in this matter of the exploration Chris led with his companion, and Griggs followed next, as if he were their henchman, while the three friends came last.
The ascents were made with spirit till all stood in the chamber at the back of which the opening led into the side of the square pit, and here, while the doctor thoughtfully turned over and examined some of the remains still left, Griggs lit the lanthorn he had brought, and Ned tied one end of a hide-rope to it, ready for the lowering down, while Chris had stepped through the hole and stood on the broad ledge at the foot of the rough projections in the stone wall that acted as steps.
“It must have been awful,” he said aloud suddenly, as he stood peering up through the twilight at the remains of the piled-up stones at the top.
“What must have been awful?” asked Wilton, stepping out to his side.
“Why, that fight when the Indians climbed up these steps, with the other people raining down big stones on their heads.”
“Think it was so?” said Wilton quietly.
“I feel sure of it. My word! Never mind about them being horribly savage—how brave they must have been! Why, I felt regularly shaky at having to get up yonder with no enemy to face.”
“Yes, it’s an ugly place,” said Wilton; “but what about enemies down below? Can you see anything?”
“No,” said Chris, gazing down. “It’s as black as black. I say, though, if there are any enemies down there they’re poisonous.”
“What do you think possibly can be down there—one of the fierce cats of the country?”
“No,” said Chris, smiling queerly. “Rattlers.”
“Ugh!”
“If there are any we shall see them when the lanthorn’s swung down. Why, it will be a good bit of sport for you to have a shot at them.”
“The horrible beasts!” said Wilton.
“We’re ready when you are,” said Griggs from the chamber. “The light’s burning quite brightly.”
“Bring it here, then.—I say, Mr Wilton, there isn’t room for all of us on this bit of a landing. Will you go up to the top and be ready to fire?”
“No,” said Wilton shortly. “I’ll leave it to you and Ned.”
He stepped back to join his friends in the chamber, and then, seeing how they were occupied, he stepped out on to the remains of the terrace, to stand there examining the openings in the cliff-face opposite.
“That’s right, Griggs, swing it down gently,” said Chris. “You, Ned, unsling your gun, and the first rattler you see give him a charge of small shot.”
Ned fixed himself against the wall with his left arm round one of the projections, cocked his piece, and stood ready with the muzzle pointed downward, gazing the while into the darkness far below, now beginning to be illumined by the swinging lanthorn, as Griggs paid out the rope and sent it lower and lower.
“You can see the heap of stuff—ashes, lying in a slope now,” cried Chris, who was watching intently. “Look, there’s one of those—you know what—looking almost white and shining.—Isn’t that something moving, Griggs?”
“Can’t see anything yet but that pile of stuff that went down. I say, it’s not so very deep, after all.”
“Thirty feet at least,” said Chris decisively.—“There, I’m sure of that. I saw something move right over in that—”
“Corner,” he was going to say, but the word was smothered by the sharp echoing report of Ned’s piece, whose flash seemed brighter than the light of the lanthorn, which glowed like a dull star now disappearing in a passing cloud of smoke.
“A rattler?” cried Chris.
“I’m not sure, but I saw something gliding along, and I fired.”
“Good boy! Quite right! Sharp’s the word. But I say, what a smother you’ve made. Get in another cartridge.”
Click! went Ned’s piece as he closed the breech.
“If that was a rattler,” said Griggs coolly, “seems as if it was just as well that I didn’t go down last night.”
“And this morning too,” said Chris. “Why, there may be quite a nest of the brutes down there.”
“P’r’aps so. But if there is it must have made some of them sneeze when all that dust went down with a rush yesterday.”
Just then Wilton leaned in at the window-opening of the cell where the doctor and Bourne were examining a carefully-smoothed, elliptical, cell-like stone with a hole through the thickest part as if for holding a wooden handle.
“What have you found?” he said.
“A stone battle-axe, without doubt.”
“Ah, it does look like it. You must save that. You have your glasses with you?”
“Yes,” said the doctor. “Want them?”
“Please. I want to look round.”
The doctor slipped the strap of the case over his head and passed it to his friend.
“Give a look at the mules and ponies,” he said. “If there’s anything wrong they’ll seem uneasy.”
“Snake in the grass, eh?”
“Yes.”
“All right.—I say, you within there, what have you shot?”
“Don’t know yet,” replied Chris. “Ned thought he saw a thumping great rattler.”
“Did he?”
“It’s too thick with smoke to see yet, but it’s clearing fast.”
Wilton, who displayed more and more his disgust with the task his friends had set themselves, took the glass and began sweeping the sides of the depression, noting the cracks and gullies running up the cliff-face opposite in amongst the cell-like openings, all wonderfully clear and bright in the morning air, while Bourne and the doctor, encouraged by the discovery of the relic of the stone age, went on turning over the ashes in the next cell.
Meantime the party at the side of the square pit waited impatiently for the smoke to rise and float out beneath the overhanging portion of the cliff above the top range of cells, Griggs giving the lanthorn a wave now and then, sending it flying, pendulum-like, as far as he could reach without bringing it in contact with the smoothly-cut wall.
“Not much chance for anybody or anything to get out of here again if he was at the bottom, lads. It’s a regular trap,” he said.
“Yes, but take care, or you’ll be breaking the lanthorn,” said Chris warningly.
“Nay, I won’t do that, my lad,” replied Griggs quietly. “But I say, squire, did you aim at its head or its tail?”
“I aimed at the part I saw moving,” said Ned. “Can you see it yet?”
“Nay. Can you?”
“No.”
“I’m afraid you shot at nothing,” said Griggs, with a laugh, “and you haven’t killed it.”
“I’m sure I saw something moving,” cried Ned indignantly.
“Where is it, then? It’s clear enough to see now.”
“Gone down into a hole, perhaps.”
“Or crawled down its own throat perhaps.”
“I know,” said Chris merrily; “Ned never misses anything. The poor brute has swallowed its own tail, formed itself into a ring, and bowled out like a hoop.”
“Of course,” cried Ned, raising his piece to his shoulder, as the light now penetrated well into one of the opposite corners, and without a word of warning he fired again.
“What did you do that for?” cried Chris excitedly.
“To put that reptile out of its misery,” said Ned.
“To fill the place with smoke again,” cried Chris indignantly. “It’s all fancy.”
“Precious noisy fancy,” said Griggs dryly. “My word, he must be a thumper! Talk about smoke, he is kicking up a dust.”
Chris was silent as he stood listening to the struggles of what was evidently a large serpent, while it writhed violently below them, beating about and lashing the pile of remains that had crumbled down from the cell, and sending up quite a cloud to mingle with that of vapour which rose, smelling pungently of hydrogen, towards the overhanging blocks of stone roofing in the square pit.
“I guess I’m quite satisfied now that I didn’t go down,” said Griggs coolly; “but there don’t seem to be more’n one, or we should hear them travelling about.”
“This one makes noise enough for a dozen,” said Chris.—“I say, Ned, I beg pardon. You don’t want me to go on my knees, do you?”
“No,” replied the boy calmly, as he made the breech of his double gun snap to very loudly; “only I wouldn’t be quite so cocksure that you know everything, next time.”
“Thy servant humbles himself to the dust,” said Chris, in Eastern style.
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” said Griggs dryly; “certainly not till that gentleman below has done kicking it up. Say, how big should you say this one is?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It sounds as if it might be twenty feet long.”
“Yes; but if it is as long as that it wouldn’t be a rattler.”
“No; only a thumper,” cried Ned, laughing. “Hark, it’s quieting down now. Shall I give it another dose as soon as it is still?”
“No; save all the ammunition you can, my lad. It has had enough to finish it off. How strange it is that anything long should take such a time to die.”
They stood there patiently listening to the movements below, the lashing about gradually ceasing, to give place to a gliding, rustling sound as if the injured creature was travelling rapidly about endeavouring to escape. The dust began to settle as the smoke floated away, but twice over arose again as after a spell of silence there was the sound of a fall.
“He was trying to get up in the corner yonder,” said Griggs.
“How horrible if it comes up one of these angles,” said Ned, drawing his breath sharply.
“No fear,” cried Griggs. “Snakes can only raise themselves up for a certain distance, and then they fall over. I’ve watched them often.”
“I say, he’s getting quieter now,” said Chris.
This was plain to all, for the rustling died out, began again more faintly, died out again, there was the sound of a pat or two as if given spasmodically by the reptile’s tail, and then all was quite still, while the dust had cleared away so that the watchers could see by the lanthorn’s light the inert body of a very large rattlesnake.
“Why, it’s not half so big as I expected,” cried Chris.
“The biggest I ever saw,” said Griggs quietly.
“But it made such a tremendous noise,” cried Chris. “I expected to see one double that size. I say, hadn’t Ned better give him another charge?”
“No; one of you go up to the top and drop a good-sized stone down upon him. We shall see whether there’s life enough in him to be dangerous.”
“Hold my rifle, Chris, and I’ll go,” cried Ned eagerly, and the next minute he was scaling the side, and on reaching the top he walked to where he was nearly over the reptile, where he picked up a couple of stones of the size of a man’s fist and pitched one down, with the result that the snake began to writhe violently again, but only for a very brief time, before once more lying perfectly inert.
“No more mischief in that fellow,” said Griggs. “I may as well go down now.”
“What about the others?” said Chris.
“What others?”
“There are sure to be some more.”
“Nay; rattlers are not above showing fight. If there had been any more we should have seen or heard them. I shall chance it now.”
“I don’t like your going down yet,” said Chris anxiously. “I’ll have a shot at him now.”
“Nay, nay; we may want our cartridges for something more useful than a rattler that has had as much as it wants to kill it.”
“I’ll drop another stone on him,” said Ned. “One of those big ones.”
“Ah, do,” said Griggs. “Take good aim, and drop it right on his head. Can you see?”
“Oh, yes, I can see quite plainly.”
Ned raised one of the heaviest stones near him, and after a gentle swing let it go, to fall with a sharp crack upon other stones, making the snake twine again and writhe round the block, to hold on tightly.
“Why, he has pinned it down,” cried Chris. “Good aim.”
As he spoke the snake untwined itself and straightened out, to lie perfectly still.
“That’s done for him,” cried Griggs, “and if there had been any more that would have sent them squirming out of their holes. Here, you come down, squire. I’m going to knot two lariats together and pass them over one of these steps. I want you to help hold on.”
Ned descended, the rope was given a couple of turns round the lowest projection, and held by the two boys; the lanthorn was lowered down to stand on the heap of dust below, and the end of the rope by which it was lowered also held by Chris, while upon drawing his keen hunting-knife and taking it in his teeth, Griggs just said, “Hold tight,” took hold of the lowered rope, and slid lightly down, to stand below the watchers on the heap.
“Mind the snake, Griggs,” cried Chris.
“Tell him he’d better mind,” was the reply, as the American raised the lanthorn and, knife in hand, approached the reptile cautiously, and then the lookers-on saw him stoop lower and lower till he was near enough for his purpose, when there was a quick movement, a flash of light reflected from the knife-blade, and Griggs rose again.
“You’ve pinned him down with that last stone, squire. Head’s off, and he’ll do no more mischief. Now then, I’m going to look for your weapons o’ war.”
The boys could see the bottom of the square place clear enough now, as the lanthorn began to move about; but there was little to see. Upon this side lay the heap of ashes specked with a few fragments of bone which glistened feebly in the light, but beyond the heap which ran tongue-like from the side out to the centre, there was nothing to be seen but stones—heavy stones such as remained like the broken-down portions of the breastwork about the edges of the excavations at the top.
“Can’t see no treasures,” said Griggs gruffly; and directly after, “There aren’t a single shield—no spears—no swords—no breast-plates—no rifles.”
“Dear me!” said Chris sarcastically. “I wonder at that. How many revolvers can you see?”
“Nary one,” said Griggs coolly. “No gauntlets, no backpieces.”
Then there was a pause, before the searcher straightened himself up and said decisively—
“No, nothing.”
“How disappointing,” cried Ned. “But what about all those stones?”
“To be sure. You don’t call them nothing?” cried Chris.
“No; there’s plenty of them, my lads, and plenty of something else underneath them, I’ll be bound, if any one thought it worth while to clear out this cellar.”
“But what do you think now, Griggs?” cried Chris eagerly.
“Same as I did before, my lad. I shouldn’t like to guess, but you may feel sure that many a savage came to his end here and lies covered in by these stones. The people who defended this place from up yonder must have showered the stones down when they were attacked. There, it’s of no use for me to stop down here. Are you two going to haul me up, or am I to climb?”
“We’ll try and haul you up,” said Chris. “Stop a moment while I take the rifles and stand them up against the wall inside.”
“Hold hard a moment,” said Griggs. “You’d better go and fetch the doctor. He might like to come down and see before I send up the lanthorn.”
“I’ll call him,” said Chris, and he turned to pass through the opening, but was met by his father, who was crossing the stone chamber adjoining.
“Here, quick,” cried the doctor; “come out of this place! Where’s Griggs?”
“Here am I, neighbour. Nothing to be found, only what fell in from where you stand. But there’s hundreds upon hundreds of stones, and those who were beaten down must have been buried by what hit them.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” said the doctor anxiously; “but we’ve something else to think of now.”
“Don’t say the mules have stampeded, sir?” cried Griggs anxiously.
“No; they’re grazing peacefully enough at present, but there’s something worse.”
“Then give a pull with the lads at that rope, sir, and let me get out of this. One minute; the lanthorn first.”
The doctor raised the lanthorn, and his first act was to blow it out before joining at the rope and hauling the searcher to the platform.
“What is it, sir?” cried Griggs anxiously.
“Come and see,” was the reply.
The doctor made his way through the hole and crossed the chamber into which it opened, before entering the next, closely followed by the boys and Griggs, who caught up their rifles as they passed them, dragging the ropes as they went.
As they entered the second chamber it was to see the doctor join Bourne at the window-opening, while beyond them stood Wilton sheltering himself behind a patch of bushy growth hanging from above, as he stood watching something intently through the doctor’s double glass.
“See any more, Wilton?” said the doctor anxiously.
“Scores,” was the reply, given without the speaker turning his head. “You can see for yourself; they’re collecting together on the very edge of the cliff away there, and at first they stood gazing down into the depression.”
“Do you think they saw you?” said the doctor hoarsely.
“Oh no, I feel sure that they did not at first, and I have kept in shelter since; but they have caught sight of something else.”
“What?” cried Griggs.
“Ah! You there?” said Wilton sharply. “You had better come and have a look through this glass; you may be able to tell what race they are.”
“Perhaps,” said Griggs shortly; “but what is it they can see?”
“The ponies and mules.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes; there was one of the men, a chief apparently, pointing down at them. I could see it plainly through the glass.”
“Indians, Ned,” whispered Chris. “They must have been following us all this time, and we’re in for it now.”