CHAPTER XII
A TRADITION AND A WAISTCOAT
Captain Horn, his face red with exertion and excitement, stood gazingdown into the square aperture at his feet. On the other edge of theopening knelt Ralph, holding the lantern so that it would throw its lightinto the hole. In a moment, before the boy had time to form a question,he was pushed gently to one side, and his sister Edna, who had clamberedup the side of the mound, knelt beside him. She peered down into thedepths beneath, and then she drew back and looked up at the captain. Hiswhole soul was in his downward gaze, and he did not even see her.
Then there came a voice from below. "What is it?" cried Mrs. Cliff. "Whatare you all looking at! Do tell me."
With half-shut eyes, Edna let herself down the side of the mound, andwhen her feet touched the ground, she made a few tottering steps towardMrs. Cliff, and placing her two hands on her companion's shoulders, shewhispered, "I thought it was. It is gold! It is the gold of the Incas."And then she sank senseless at the feet of the older woman.
Mrs. Cliff did not know that Miss Markham had fainted. She simply stoodstill and exclaimed, "Gold! What does it mean?"
"What is it all about?" exclaimed Ralph. "It looks like petrified honey.This never could have been a beehive."
Without answering, Captain Horn knelt at the edge of the aperture, andtaking the lantern from the boy, he let it down as far as it would go,which was only a foot or two.
"Ralph," he said hoarsely, as he drew himself back, "hold this lanternand get down out of my way. I must cover this up, quick." And seizing thestone slab by the handle, he lifted it as if it had been a pot-lid, andlet it down into its place. "Now," said he, "get down, and let us all goaway from this place. Those negroes may be back at any moment."
When Ralph found that his sister had fainted, and that Mrs. Cliff did notknow it, there was a little commotion at the foot of the mound. But somewater in a pool near by soon revived Edna, and in ten minutes the partywas on the plateau outside the caverns. The new moon was just beginningto peep over the rocks behind them, and the two ladies had seatedthemselves on the ground. Ralph was pouring out question after question,to which nobody paid any attention, and Captain Horn, his hands thrustinto his pockets, walked backward and forward, his face flushed and hisbreath coming heavily, and, with his eyes upon the ground, he seemed tothink himself entirely alone among those desolate crags.
"Can any of you tell me what it means?" cried Mrs. Cliff. "Edna, do youunderstand it? Tell me quickly, some of you!"
"I believe I know what it means," said Edna, her voice trembling as shespoke. "I thought I knew as soon as I heard of the mound covered up bythe lake, but I did not dare to say anything, because if my opinionshould be correct it would be so wonderful, so astounding, my mind couldhardly take hold of it."
"But what is it?" cried Mrs. Cliff and Ralph, almost in one breath.
"I scarcely know what to say," said Edna, "my mind is in such a whirlabout it, but I will tell you something of what I have read of theancient history of Peru, and then you will understand my fancies aboutthis stone mound. When the Spaniards, under Pizarro, came to thiscountry, their main object, as we all know, was booty. They especiallywished to get hold of the wonderful treasures of the Incas, the ancientrulers of Peru. This was the reason of almost all the cruelties andwickedness of the invaders. The Incas tried various ways of preservingtheir treasures from the clutch of the Spaniards, and I have read of atradition that they drained a lake, probably near Cuzco, the ancientcapital, and made a strong cellar, or mound, at the bottom of it in whichto hide their gold. They then let the water in again, and the traditionalso says that this mound has never been discovered."
"Do you believe," cried the captain, "that the mound back there in thecavern is the place where the Incas stored their gold?"
"I do not believe it is the place I read about," said Miss Markham, "forthat, as I said, must have been near Cuzco. But there is no reason whythere should not have been other places of concealment. This was faraway from the capital, but that would make the treasure so much thesafer. The Spaniards would never have thought of going to such a lonely,deserted place as this, and the Incas would not have spared any time ortrouble necessary to securely hide their treasures."
"If you are right," cried the captain, "this is, indeed, astounding!Treasure in a mound of stone--a mound covered by water, which could belet off! The whole shut up in a cave which must have originally been asdark as pitch! When we come to think of it," he continued excitedly, "itis an amazing hiding-place, no matter what was put into the mound."
"And do you mean," almost screamed Mrs. Cliff, "that that stone thingdown there is filled with the wealth of the Incas!--the fabulous gold weread about?"
"I do not know what else it can be," replied Edna. "What I saw when Ilooked down into the hole was surely gold."
"Yes," said the captain, "it was gold--gold in small bars."
"Why didn't you get a piece, captain?" asked Ralph. "Then we could besure about it. If that thing is nearly filled, there must be tons of it."
"I did not think," said the captain. "I could not think. I was afraidsomebody would come."
"And now tell me this," cried Mrs. Cliff. "Whom does this gold belong to?That is what I want to know. Whose is if?"
"Come, come!" said the captain, "let us stop talking about this thing,and thinking about it. We shall all be maniacs if we don't quietourselves a little, and, besides, it cannot be long before those blackfellows come back, and we do not want to be speaking about it then.To-morrow we will examine the mound and see what it is we havediscovered. In the meantime, let us quiet our minds and get a goodnight's sleep, if we can. This whole affair is astounding, but we mustnot let it make us crazy before we understand it."
Miss Markham was a young woman very capable of controlling herself. Itwas true she had been more affected in consequence of the opening of themound than any of the others, but that was because she understood, orthought she understood, what the discovery meant, and to the others itwas something which at first they could not appreciate. Now she saw thegood common sense of the captain's remarks, and said no more that eveningon the subject of the stone mound.
But Mrs. Cliff and Ralph could not be quiet. They must talk, and as thecaptain walked away that they might not speak to him, they talked toeach other.
It was nearly an hour after this that Captain Horn, standing on the outerend of the plateau, saw some black dots moving on the moonlit beach. Theymoved very slowly, and it was a long time--at least, it seemed so to thecaptain--before Maka and his companions reached the plateau.
The negroes were heavily loaded with bags and packages, and they wereglad to deposit their burdens on the ground.
"Hi!" cried the captain, who spoke as if he had been drinking champagne,"you brought a good cargo, Maka, and now don't let us hear any tales ofwhat you have seen until we have had supper--supper for everybody. Youknow what you have got, Maka. Let us have the best things, and let everyone of you take a hand in making a fire and cooking. What we want is afirst-class feast."
"I got 'em," said Maka, who understood English a good deal betterthan he could speak it,--"ham, cheese, lots things. All wantsupper--good supper."
While the meal was being prepared, Captain Horn walked over to Mrs. Cliffand Ralph. "Now, I beg of you," he said, "don't let these men know wehave found anything. This is a very important matter. Don't talk aboutit, and if you can't keep down your excitement, let them think it is theprospect of good victuals, and plenty of them, that has excited you."
After supper Maka and Cheditafa were called upon to tell their story, butthey said very little. They had gone to the place where the Rackbirds hadkept their stores, and had selected what Maka considered would be mostdesirable, including some oil for the lantern, and had brought away asmuch as they could carry. This was all.
When the rest of his party had gone inside, hoping to get their mindsquiet enough to sleep, and the captain was preparing to follow them, Makaarose from t
he spot on the open plateau where the tired negroes hadstretched themselves for the night, and said:
"Got something tell you alone. Come out here."
When the two had gone to a spot a little distance from the cavernentrance, where the light of the moon, now nearly set, enabled objects tobe seen with some distinctness, Maka took from inside his shirt a smallpiece of clothing. "Look here," said he. "This belong to Davis."
The captain took the garment in his hand. It was a waistcoat made ofplaid cloth, yellow, green, and red, and most striking in pattern, andCaptain Horn instantly recognized it as the waistcoat of Davis, theEnglishman.
"He dead," said Maka, simply.
The captain nodded. He had no doubt of it.
"Where did you find it?" he asked.
"Sticking on rock," said the African. "Lots things down there. Some oneplace, some another place. Didn't know other things, but know this.Davis' waistcoat. No mistake that. Him wear it all time."
"You are a good fellow, Maka," said the captain, "not to speak of thisbefore the ladies. Now go and sleep. There is no need of a guardto-night."
The captain went inside, procured his gun, and seated himself outside,with his back against a rock. There he sat all night, without onceclosing his eyes. He was not afraid that anything would come to molestthem, but it was just as well to have the gun. As for sleeping, that wasimpossible. He had heard and seen too much that day.