CHAPTER XVIII
FINDING THE TUNNEL
In silence, broken only by the noise of the motor, did the gold-seekersapproach the temple. As they neared it they could see its vastproportions, and they noted that it was made of some white stone,something like marble. Then, too, as they drew closer, they couldsee the desolate ruin into which it had fallen.
"Looks as if a dynamite explosion had knocked it all apart,"observed Ned.
"It certainly does," agreed Mr. Damon.
"Maybe Cortez, or some of those early explorers, blew it up withgunpowder after fighting the Aztecs, or whatever the natives werecalled in those days," suggested Tom.
"Bless my bookcase! You don't mean to say you think this temple goesback to those early days," spoke Mr. Damon.
"Yes, and probably farther," declared Tom. "It must be very ancient,and the whole country about here is desolate. Why, the way the woodshave grown up everywhere but on this plain shows that it must bethree or four hundred years ago. There must have been a city aroundthe temple, probably Poltec, and yet there isn't a trace of it thatwe have seen as we came along. Oh, yes, this is very ancient."
"It will be jolly fun to explore it," decided Ned. "I wish it wasn'tso near night."
"We can't do much now," decided Tom. "It will be too dark, and Idon't altogether fancy going in those old ruins except by daylight."
"Do you think any of those old Aztec priests, with their knifes ofglass, will sacrifice you on a stone altar?" asked Ned, with alaugh.
"No, but there might be wild beasts in there," went on the younginventor, "and I'm sure there are any number of bats. There must belots of nooks and corners in there where a whole army could hide.It's an immense place."
The ruined temple certainly was large in extent, and in its glorymust have been a wonderful place. The balloon came nearer, and thenTom let it sink to rest on the sand not far from the ancient ruin.Out he leaped, followed by his friends, and for a moment they stoodin silent contemplation of the vast temple. Then as the last rays ofthe setting sun turned the white stones to gold, Tom exclaimed:
"A good omen! I'm sure the city of gold must be near here, and inthe morning we'll begin our search for the secret tunnel that leadsto it."
"That's the stuff!" cried Ned enthusiastically.
An instant later it seemed to get dark very suddenly, as it does inthe tropics, and almost with the first shadows of night there came astrange sound from the ruined temple.
It was a low moaning, rumbling sound, like a mighty wind, afar off,and it sent a cold shiver down the spines of all in the littleparty.
"Good land a' massy! What am dat?" moaned Eradicate, as he dartedback toward the balloon.
"Bless my looking glass!" cried Mr. Damon.
A second later the noise suddenly increased, and something black,accompanied by a noise of rapidly beating wings rushed from one ofthe immense doorways.
"Bats!" cried Tom. "Thousands of bats! I'm glad we didn't go inafter dark!" And bats they were, that had made the noise as theyrushed out on their nightly flight.
"Ugh!" shuddered Mr. Damon. "I detest the creatures! Let's get undercover."
"Yes," agreed Tom, "we'll have supper, turn in, and be up early tolook for the tunnel. We're here at last. I'll dream of gold to-night."
Eradicate soon had a meal in preparation, though he stopped everynow and then to peer out at the bats, that still came in unbrokenflight from the old temple. Truly there must have been manythousands of them.
Whether Tom dreamed of gold that night he did not say, but he wasthe first one up in the morning, and Ned saw him hurrying over thesands toward the temple.
"Hold on, Tom!" his chum called as he hastened to dress. "Where yougoing?"
"To have a hunt for that tunnel before breakfast. I don't want tolose any time. No telling when Delazes and his crowd may be afterus. And the Fogers, too, may strike our trail. Come on, we'll getbusy."
"Where do you think the tunnel will be?" asked Ned, when he hadcaught up to Tom.
"Well, according to all that Mr. Illingway could tell us, it wassomewhere near this temple. We'll make a circle of it, and if wedon't come across it then we'll make another, and so on, increasingthe size of the circles each time, until we find what we're lookingfor."
"Let's have a look inside the temple first," suggested Ned. "It musthave been a magnificent place when it was new, and with theprocessions of people and priests in their golden robes."
"You ought to have been an Aztec," suggested Tom, as he headed forone of the big doorways.
They found the interior of the temple almost as badly in ruins aswas the outside. In many places the roof had fallen in, the sidewalls contained many gaping holes, and the stone floor was brokenaway in many places, showing yawning, black caverns below. They sawhundreds of bats clinging to projections, but the ugly creatureswere silent in sleep now.
"Bur-r-r-r-r!" murmured Ned. "I shouldn't like any of 'em to fall onme."
"No, it's not a very nice place to go in," agreed Tom.
They saw that the temple consisted of two parts, or two circularbuildings, one within the other. Around the outer part were manyrooms, which had evidently formed the living apartments of thepriests. There were galleries, chambers, halls and assembly rooms.Then the whole of the interior of the temple, under a great domethat had mostly fallen in, consisted of a vast room, which wasprobably where the worship went on. For, even without going fartherthan to the edge of it, the youths could see stone altars, and manystrangely-carved figures and statues. Some had fallen over and layin ruins on the floor. The whole scene was one of desolation.
"Come on," invited Tom, "it's healthier and more pleasant outside.Let's look for that tunnel."
But the lads soon realized that it was not going to be as easy tolocate this as they had hoped. They were looking for some sort ofslanting opening, going down into the earth--the entrance to theunderground city--but though they both made a complete circuit ofthe temple, each at a varying distance from the outer walls, notunnel entrance showed.
"Breakfust! Breakfust!" called Eradicate, when Tom was about tostart on a second round.
"Let's eat," suggested Ned, "and then we four can circle aroundtogether." Tom agreed that this would be a good plan. A little laterthen, with Tom nearest the temple walls, the four began their marcharound them.
Four times that morning they made the circuit, and the same numberin the afternoon, until they were nearly half a mile away from theruin, but no tunnel showed.
"Well, we'll have to keep at it to-morrow," suggested Tom. "It's toosoon to give up."
But the morrow brought no better success, nor did the following twodays. In fact for a week they kept up the search for the tunnel, butdid not come upon it, and they had now pretty well covered the bigplain. They found a few ruins of the ancient city of Poltec.
"Well, what about it?" asked Ned one night as they sat in theballoon, talking it over. "What next, Tom?"
"We've got to keep at it, that's all. I think we'll go up in theballoon, circle around over the plain at just a little elevation,and maybe we can spot it that way."
"All right, I'm with you."
But they did not try that plan. For in the middle of the night Nedsuddenly awakened. Something had come to him in his sleep.
"Tom! Tom!" he cried. "I have it! What chumps we were!"
"What's the matter, old man?" asked Tom anxiously. "Are you sick--talkingin your sleep?"
"Sleep nothing! I've just thought of it. That tunnel entrance isINSIDE the temple. That's the most natural place in the world forit. I'll bet it's right in the middle of the big inner chamber,where the priests could control it. Why didn't we look therebefore?"
"That's right; why didn't we?" agreed Tom. "I believe you're right,Ned! We'll look the first thing in the morning."
They did not wait for breakfast before trying the experiment, andMr. Damon and Eradicate went with Tom and Ned. It was no easy workto make their way over the ruins to the inner auditorium.
Wreckageand ruin was all around, and they had to avoid the yawning holes onevery side. But when they got to the main, or sacrificial chamber,as Ned insisted on calling it, they found the floor there solid. Inthe centre was a great altar, but to their chagrin there was not asign of a tunnel opening.
"Fooled again!" said Tom bitterly.
"Maybe some of those holes outside is the entrance," suggested Mr.Damon.
"I don't believe so," objected Tom. "They seemed to go only to thecellar, if a temple has such a thing."
Bitterly disappointed, Tom strolled over and stood in front of thebig stone altar. It seemed that he must give up the search. Idly helooked at the sacrificial stone. Projecting from it was a sort of abundle.
Tom took hold of it, and to his surprise he found that it could bemoved. Hardly knowing what he was doing, he pulled it toward him.
The next instant he uttered a cry of horror, for the immense stonealtar, with a dull rumbling, rolled back as though on wheels, andthere, over where it had stood was a hole of yawning blackness, witha flight of stone steps leading down into it. And Tom stood so nearthe edge that he almost toppled in.
"Look! Look!" he cried when he could get his gasping breath, andstep back out of danger.
"The tunnel entrance!" cried Ned. "That's what it is! You've foundit, Tom! The entrance to the city of gold at last!"