Produced by Al Haines
Cover art]
[Frontispiece: "This is a terrible piece of work." Page 185.]
THE LOST GOLD OF
THE MONTEZUMAS
A STORY OF THE ALAMO
BY
WILLIAM O. STODDARD
AUTHOR OF "CHUMLEY'S POST," "CROWDED OUT O' CROFIELD," "THE TALKINGLEAVES," ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
_CHARLES H. STEPHENS_
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1898
COPYRIGHT, 1897,
BY
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Gods of the Montezumas
CHAPTER II.
The Alamo Fort
CHAPTER III.
The Dream of the New Empire
CHAPTER IV.
The Race for the Chaparral
CHAPTER V.
Among the Bushes
CHAPTER VI.
The Old Cash-Box
CHAPTER VII.
The Escape of the Rangers
CHAPTER VIII.
The Camp at the Spring
CHAPTER IX.
The Skirmish in the Night
CHAPTER X.
A Baffled Pursuit
CHAPTER XI.
The Charge of the Lancers
CHAPTER XII.
The Horse-Thieves and the Stampede
CHAPTER XIII.
The Last of Tetzcatl
CHAPTER XIV.
The Perilous Path
CHAPTER XV.
The Return of the Gold Hunters
CHAPTER XVI.
The Army of Santa Anna
CHAPTER XVII.
The First Shot
CHAPTER XVIII.
Crockett's Alarm Gun
CHAPTER XIX.
The Reinforcement
CHAPTER XX.
Nearing the End
ILLUSTRATIONS
"This is a terrible piece of work" . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece._
"Good! Tetzcatl go to the Alamo"
"Heap dollar," remarked Red Wolf
"Ugh!" screeched the Comanche at the end of a terrific minute, and he sank into the grass
In rode the very airy captain of lancers
A dark, stern, terrible shape half rose from a couch
CHAPTER I.
THE GODS OF THE MONTEZUMAS.
It was a gloomy place. It would have been dark but for a heap ofblazing wood upon a rock at one side. That is, it looked like a rockat first sight, but upon a closer inspection it proved to be a cube ofwell-fitted, although roughly finished, masonry. It was about six feetsquare, and there were three stone steps leading up in front.
Behind this altar-like structure a vast wall of the natural rock, adark limestone, had been sculptured into the shape of a colossal andexceedingly ugly human face,--as if the head of a stone giant were halfsunken in that side of what was evidently an immense cave.
There were men in the cave, but no women were to be seen. Several ofthe men were standing near the altar, and one of them was putting fuelupon the fire. The only garment worn by any of them was a raggedblanket, the Mexican _serape_. In the middle of the blanket was ahole, and when the wearer's head was thrust through this he was in fulldress.
There was no present need for carrying weapons, but arms of allsorts--lances, swords, bows and sheaves of arrows--were strewn incareless heaps along the base of the wall. Besides these, andremarkable for their shapes and sizes, there were a number of curiouslycarved and ornamented clubs. All the men visible were old andemaciated. They were wrinkled, grimy, dark, with long, black-grayhair, and coal-black, beady eyes. Withal, there was about them alistless, unoccupied, purposeless air, as if they were only half alive.
They seemed to see well enough in that lurid half light, and theywandered hither and thither, now and then exchanging a few words insome harsh and guttural dialect that seemed to have no dividing pausesbetween its interminable words.
Nevertheless, this was not the only tongue with which they werefamiliar, for one of the men at the altar turned to those who were nearhim and spoke to them in Spanish.
"The gods have spoken loudly," he said. "They have been long withoutservice. They are hungry. Tetzcatl will go. He will find if theAmericans are strong enough to strike the Spaniards in Texas. He willbring them to serve the gods in the valley of the old kings. He willstir up the Comanches and the Lipans. The Apaches in the west arealready busy. The gods will be quiet if he can arouse for them theenemies of Spain."
For a moment the dark figures stood as still as so many statues, andthen a sepulchral voice arose among them.
"The men of the North will not come," it said. "The Texans cannotdefend their own towns from the locusts of Santa Anna. The Comanchesand the Lipans are scalping each other. The Apaches have been beatenby Bravo's lancers. All white men need to be hired or they will notfight. We have nothing wherewith to hire them."
A hoarse and mocking laugh burst from the lips of Tetzcatl. "Hirethem? Pay them?" he said. "No! But hunters can bait wolves. If thetrap is rightly set, the wolves will never reach the bait. They willbut fall into the pit they are lured to. Come! Let us look at thefire that was kindled for Guatamoczin. The Spaniards perished in themountains when they came to hunt for the hidden treasures of theMontezumas."
Slowly, as if their withered limbs almost refused to carry them, theweird, dingy, ghastly figures followed him deeper into the cave, andeach took with him a blazing pine-knot for a torch. Not one of themappeared to be aroused, as yet, to any especial interest, nor did theytalk as they went. Tetzcatl, however, led the way with a vigor ofmovement that was in startling contrast to the listlessness of his darkcompanions.
There was no door to unlock, there were no bars to remove, at the endof their silent march. The distance travelled may have been a hundredpaces. On either side, as they went, were stalagmites of glitteringwhite, answering to the pointed stalactites which depended from thevaulted cave-roof above. It was a scene the like of which can be foundin many another limestone formation the world over. There was nothingexceptional about it, only that the specimens presented were numerousand finely formed.
The torches flared in the strong currents of air which ventilated thecavern, and their smoky light was reflected brilliantly from all theirregular, alabaster surfaces.
The sculptured head of the great idol over the altar; the carefullymaintained fire; the presence of the aged keepers, whether they were tobe called priests of the shrine or only worshippers, were thedistinguishing features of the place.
On went Tetzcatl until he reached a spot where the side wallsapproached each other, with a space of about thirty feet between them.Here he paused and waited until the others, with several who had notbefore made their appearance, arrived and stood beside him.
"There!" he said, loudly, pointing with outstretched hand."Guatamoczin turned to ashes upon the coals of the Spanish furnace,because he refused to reveal this to their greed. Know you not thateven now, if the Spaniards did but suspect, there would shortly be anarmy among the mountain passes? Aye! If the Americans believed thatthis were here, their thousands would be pouring southward. All Europewould come. Here is the god that they worship, but the secret of itspresence has been guarded from them by the old gods of Mexico."
"What good?" asked a cracked voice near him. "It cannot be used to buyTexans. It must remain where it is until the gods come up."
"Aye! So!" shrieked Tetzcatl. "We will keep their secret chamberuntil they come. But the w
olf does but need to smell the bait,--not toeat it. He will come, if he has only the scent. If the Texans werestirred to hunt for the gold they will never find, they would butgather offerings for the long hunger of those who dwell below."
"Hark!" responded the other speaker. "If they ask for it, it must goto them. Much has been paid them already. Hark!"
Before them, in regularly arranged rows, were a number of stacks ofwhat seemed to be bars of metal, showing here and there dull gleams ofyellow. The ingots were not large, but their aggregate weight andvalue would be enormous, if they were gold.
Opposite, across the passage, were other and larger stacks of ingots,but these presented no yellow surfaces. Black rather than white wasthe prevailing tint of what Tetzcatl had declared to be silver bullion.
Not all of the gold had been smelted and cast, for there were smallheaps of nuggets, such as come from rich placer washings.
Tetzcatl had stepped forward, lifting his torch and peering into thegloom. Only a step or two beyond him, the floor of the cave was cutoff, sharply, by one of the breaks or "faults" common to all rockformations, the token of some old-time upheaval or depression. Therugged level began again a few yards farther on, but there was nobridge across the yawning chasm which separated the correspondingedges. Three or four heavy planks which lay near indicated a possiblemeans of crossing, if need should be, but no hand was laid upon themnow.
The dismal-looking companions were all leaning forward in listeningattitudes, intent upon a roaring, booming sound that came up from thechasm.
"They are calling," said Tetzcatl. "But we have none to give them.Well did I say that I must go."
"It is too loud!" exclaimed the watcher, who had followed him mostclosely. "They have called my name!"
Tetzcatl turned quickly, but he addressed yet another of the old men bya long, many-syllabled, vibrating invocation, and added to it, inSpanish,--
"Wilt thou go down to the gods, or shall he take thy place?"
"He is gone!" was the quick but entirely unexcited rejoinder.
Tetzcatl whirled again toward the gulf, but the rock-floor at his leftwas vacant. The withered old devotee had not hesitated for a moment,but had plunged down headlong.
During a number of slow seconds no word was uttered, and all the whilethe booming roar from below diminished in volume until it nearly diedaway.
"The gods are satisfied," said Tetzcatl.
So seemed to think and say his associates, and they turned away to walkslowly toward the altar, as if nothing noteworthy or unusual hadoccurred.
It is not always easy to give satisfactory explanations of the soundswhich are to be heard, more or less intermittently, among the chasmsand recesses of great caves. The flow of subterranean waters, the rushof air-currents, the effects of echoes, and many other agencies havebeen taken into account. As for Tetzcatl and his friends, they had butformed and expressed an idea which was anciently universal. This voicefrom the deep was but one of the oracles which have been so reverencedby the primitive heathenisms of many nations.
As for the treasure, from whatever placers it had been gathered, itspresence in such a place required no explanation. The Aztec kings hadbut exhibited commonplace prudence in choosing for it so secure ahiding.
The cave was not at all more mysterious than might be the undergroundvault of a great city bank or a United States Sub-Treasury. It was assafe even from burglary, if the vault-entrance was well guarded.
More than a score of the grisly, blanketed shapes were now gathered atthe altar. Its fire was blazing high, and shed its red, waveringradiance upon their faces, while Tetzcatl stood upon the lower of thesteps and addressed them. He spoke altogether in their own tongue, andthey listened without reply or comment.
When at last he ceased speaking, they all sat down upon the rock-floor,and not one of them turned his head while their exceptionally vigorousand active leader strode swiftly away in the direction opposite to thechasm and the treasure.
It was an ascent, gradual at first and then more rapid, until his walkbecame a climb and there were broken ridges to surmount at intervals.Before long he reached a ragged wall of rock, where the great hall ofthe cave abruptly ended. Farther progress would have been shut off butfor a narrow cleft at the left, into which he turned. This still ledupward until it became little better than a burrow. He was compelledto stoop first, and then to go, for several yards, on all-fours. Thenthere was an increasing sunlight, and he stood erect amid a tangledcopse of vines and bushes.
Above him arose a craggy mountain-side. Below him, a thousand feet,was a wooded valley through which a narrow river ran. Along themountain-side, not far below where he stood, there wound a plainlymarked pathway. With a quickness that was cat-like, he descended tothis path, and, as he reached it, he looked back toward the nowperfectly concealed burrow he had emerged from.
"He has gone down to the gods!" he exclaimed, aloud. "He must haveSpaniards to follow him. Tetzcatl will bring upon them the scalpers ofthe plains and the riflemen of the North. He will lure the Texans withthe gold they will never find. Ha! They will gather none of thetreasures of the Montezumas, unless the gods come up to tell them ofthe sands in the secret watercourses beyond the mountains and towardthe sunset. Huitzilopochtli covered the gold gullies when theSpaniards came."
He had a foundation of fact for his declaration. Up to that hour nosearch had succeeded in accounting for the quantities of yellow metalcaptured by Cortez, or for the larger deposits declared to have beenhidden from him by the obstinate chiefs whom he had slain for refusingto tell.