The Adventures of Captain Horn

  CHAPTER XXXIV

  BURKE AND HIS CHISEL

  That night George Burke went off his watch at twelve o'clock, and a fewminutes after he had been relieved, he did something he had never donebefore--he deserted his ship. With his shoes and a little bundle ofclothes on his head, he very quietly slipped down a line he had fastenedastern. It was a very dark night, and he reached the water unseen, and asquietly as if he had been an otter going fishing. First swimming, andthen wading, he reached the shore. As soon as he was on land, he dressed,and then went for a lantern, a hammer, and a cold-chisel, which he hadleft at a convenient spot.

  Without lighting the lantern, he proceeded as rapidly as possible to thecaves. His path was almost invisible, but having travelled that way sooften, he knew it as well as he knew his alphabet. Not until he wasinside the entrance to the caves did he light his lantern. Then heproceeded, without loss of time, to the stone mound. He knew that theladder had been left there, and, with a little trouble, he found it,where Shirley had put it, behind some rocks on the floor of the cave. Bythe aid of this he quickly descended into the mound, and then, movingthe foot of the ladder out of the way, he vigorously began to brush awaythe dust from the stone pavement. When this was done, he held up thelantern and carefully examined the central portion of the floor, and verysoon he discovered what he had come to look for. A space about three feetsquare was marked off on the pavement of the mound by a very perceptiblecrevice. The other stones of the pavement were placed rather irregularly,but some of them had been cut to allow this single square stone to be setin the centre.

  "That's a trap-door," said Burke. "There can't be any doubt about that."And immediately he set to work to get it open.

  There was no ring, nor anything by which he could lift it; but if hecould get his heavy chisel under it, he was sure he could raise it untilhe could get hold of it with his hands. So he began to drive his chiselvigorously down into the cracks at various places. This was not difficultto do, and, trying one side after another, he got the chisel down so farthat he could use it as a lever. But with all his strength he could notraise the stone.

  At last, while working at one corner, he broke out a large piece of thepavement, eight or nine inches long, and found that it had covered ametal bar about an inch in diameter. With his lantern he carefullyexamined this rod, and found that it was not iron, but appeared to bemade of some sort of bronze.

  "Now, what is this?" said Burke to himself. "It's either a hinge or abolt. It doesn't look like a hinge, for it wouldn't be any use for it torun so far into the rest of the pavement, and if it is a bolt, I don'tsee how they got at it to move it. I'll see where it goes to." And hebegan to cut away more of the pavement toward the wall of the dome. Thepieces of stone came up without much trouble, and as far as he cut hefound the metal rod.

  "By George!" said he, "I believe it goes outside of the mound! Theyworked it from outside!"

  Putting the ladder in place, he ran up with his lantern and tools, anddescended to the outside floor. Then he examined the floor of the cavewhere the rod must run if it came outside the mound. He found a line offlat stones, each about a foot square, extending from the mound towardthe western side of the cave.

  "Oh, ho!" he cried, and on his knees he went to work, soon forcing up oneof these stones, and under it was the metal rod, lying in a grooveconsiderably larger than itself. Burke now followed the line of stones tothe western side of the cave, where the roof was so low he could scarcelystand up under it. To make sure, he took up another stone, and stillfound the rod.

  "I see what this means," said he. "That bolt is worked from cleanoutside, and I've got to find the handle of it. If I can't do that, I'llgo back and cut through that bolt, if my chisel will do it."

  He now went back to a point on the line of stones about midway betweenthe side of the cave and the mound, and then, walking forward as nearlyas possible in a straight line, which would be at right angles with themetal rod, he proceeded until he had reached the entrance to thepassageway which led to the outer caves, carefully counting his steps ashe went. Then he turned squarely about, entered the passage, and walkedalong it until he came to the door of the room which had once beenoccupied by Captain Horn.

  "I'll try it inside first," said Burke to himself, "and then I'llgo outside."

  He walked through the rooms, turning to the right about ten feet when hecame to the middle apartment,--for the door here was not opposite to theothers,--but coming back again to his line of march as soon as he was onthe other side. He proceeded until he reached the large cave, open at thetop, which was the last of these compartments. This was an extensivecavern, the back part being, however, so much impeded by rocks that hadfallen from the roof that it was difficult for him to make any progress,and the numbering of his steps depended very much upon calculation. Butwhen he reached the farthest wall, Burke believed that he had gone aboutas great a distance as he had stepped off in the cave of the lake.

  "But how in the mischief," thought he, "am I to find anything here?" Heheld up his lantern and looked about. "I can't move these rocks to seewhat is under them."

  As he gazed around, he noticed that the southeast corner seemed to bemore regular than the rest of the wall of the cave. In fact, it wasalmost a right-angled corner, and seemed to have been roughly cut intothat shape. Instantly Burke was in the corner. He found the eastern wallquite smooth for a space about a foot wide and extending about two yardsfrom the floor. In this he perceived lines of crevice marking out arectangular space some six inches wide and four feet in height.

  "Ha, ha!" cried Burke. "The handle is on the other side of that slab,I'll bet my head!" And putting down the lantern, he went to work.

  With his hammer and chisel he had forced the top of the slab in less thantwo minutes, and soon he pulled it outward and let it drop on the floor.Inside the narrow, perpendicular cavity which was now before him, he sawan upright metal bar.

  "The handle of the bolt!" cried Burke. "Now I can unfasten thetrap-door." And taking hold of the top of the bar, he pulled back withall his force. At first he could not move it, but suddenly the resistanceceased, and he pulled the bar forward until it stood at an angle offorty-five degrees from the wall. Further than this Burke could not moveit, although he tugged and bore down on it with all his weight.

  "All right," said he, at last. "I guess that's as far as she'll come.Anyway, I'm off to see if I've drawn that bolt. If I have, I'll have thattrap-door open, if I have to break my back lifting it."

  With his best speed Burke ran through the caves to the mound, and,mounting by means of the stone projections, he was about to descend bythe ladder, when, to his utter amazement, he saw no ladder. He had leftit projecting at least two feet through the opening in the top of themound, and now he could see nothing of it.

  What could this mean? Going up a little higher, he held up his lanternand looked within, but saw no signs of the ladder.

  "By George!" he cried, "has anybody followed me and pulled outthat ladder?"

  Lowering the lantern farther into the mound, he peered in. Below, andimmediately under him, was a black hole, about three feet square.Burke was so startled that he almost dropped the lantern. But he was aman of tough nerve, and maintained his clutch upon it. But he drewback. It required some seconds to catch his breath. Presently helooked down again.

  "I see," said he. "That trap-door was made to fall down, and not to liftup, and when I pulled the bolt, down it went, and the ladder, being ontop of it, slipped into that hole. Heavens!" he said, as a cold sweatburst out over him at the thought, "suppose I had made up my mind to cutthat bolt! Where would I have gone to?"

  It was not easy to frighten Burke, but now he trembled, and his back waschilled. But he soon recovered sufficiently to do something, and goingdown to the floor of the cave, he picked up a piece of loose stone, andreturning to the top of the mound, he looked carefully over the edge ofthe opening, and let the stone drop into the black hole beneath. With allthe powers of his brain he listened, and
it seemed to him like half aminute before he heard a faint sound, far, far below. At this moment hewas worse frightened than he had ever been in his life. He clambered downto the foot of the mound, and sat down on the floor.

  "What in the name of all the devils does it mean?" said he; and he sethimself to work to think about it, and found this a great deal harderlabor than cutting stone.

  "There was only one thing," he said to himself, at last, "that they couldhave had that for. The captain says that those ancient fellows put theirgold there keep it from the Spaniards, and they must have rigged up thisdevilish contrivance to work if they found the Spaniards had got on thetrack of their treasure. Even if the Spaniards had let off the water andgone to work to get the gold out, one of the Incas' men in the corner ofthat other cave, which most likely was all shut up and not discoverable,would have got hold of that bar, given it a good pull, and let down allthe gold, and what Spaniards might happen to be inside, to the verybottom of that black hole. By George! it would have been a pretty trick!The bottom of that mound is just like a funnel, and every stick of goldwould have gone down. But, what is more likely, they would have let itout before the Spaniards had a chance to open the top, and then, if theancients had happened to lick the Spaniards, they could have got all thatgold up again. It might have taken ten or twenty years, but then, theancients had all the time they wanted."

  After these reflections, Burke sat for a few moments, staring at thelantern. "But, by George!" said he again, speaking aloud, though in lowtones, "it makes my blood run cold to think of the captain working dayafter day, as hard as he could, right over that horrible trap-door.Suppose he had moved the bolt in some way! Suppose somebody outside hadfound that slab in the wall and had fooled with the bar! Then, there isanother thing. Suppose, while they were living here, he or the boy hadfound that bar before he found the dome, and had pulled out the concernto see what it was! Bless me! in that case we should all be as poor asrats! Bat I must not stop here, or the next watch will be called before Iget back. But one thing I'll do before I go. I'll put back that lid.Somebody might find the dome in the dark, and tumble into it. Why, if awandering rat should make a slip, and go down into that black hole, itwould be enough to make a fellow's blood run cold if he knew of it."

  Without much trouble Burke replaced the lid, and then, without furtherdelay, he left the caves. As he hurried along the beach, he debatedwithin himself whether or not he should tell Captain Horn what he haddiscovered.

  "It will be mighty hard on his nerves," said he, "if he comes to know howhe squatted and worked for days and weeks over that diabolical trap thatopens downward. He's a strong man, but he's got enough on his nerves asit is. No, I won't tell him. He is going to do the handsome thing by us,and it would be mean for me to do the unhandsome thing by him. By George!I don't believe he could sleep for two or three nights if he knew what Iknow! No, sir! You just keep your mouth shut until we are safe and soundin some civilized spot, with the whole business settled, and Shirley andme discharged. Then I will tell the captain about it, so that nobody needever trouble his mind about coming back to look for gold rings and royalmummies. If I don't get back before my watch is called, I'll brazen itout somehow. We've got to twist discipline a little when we are all hardat work at a job like this."

  He left his shoes on the sand of the cove, and swam to the ship withouttaking time to undress. He slipped over the taffrail, and had scarcelytime to get below and change his clothes before his watch was called.