The Gilded Man: A Romance of the Andes

  XXII

  A PEOPLE'S DESTINY

  Miranda and, in a lesser degree, those who were with him in thepalace garden, were indignant at their enforced separation from Unaand Sajipona. The doctor, priding himself especially on Raoul'sdiscomfiture, considered the queen guilty of the basest ingratitude,and even suspected that she might be, at that moment, plotting theirdestruction. Leighton and Herran scoffed at this, but it appealed toMrs. Quayle, and that lady, clinging nervously to Andrew, followedMiranda's explosive talk with appreciative horror. This proving aprofitless diversion, however, Leighton proposed the adoption of aplan for immediate action. An attack on the palace, or a retreatthat would bring them to the entrance of the cave, were alternatelyconsidered. But as both plans seemed to leave Una out of their reach,they were discarded as impossible, and it looked as if they would haveto settle down to an indefinite stay in the garden. In the midst of thediscussion the doors of the palace were thrown open and Narva and Unahurried out to meet them. Still fearing ambuscades and other undefinabletreacheries, Miranda was by no means ready to throw aside his caution attheir approach. But the aged sibyl's lofty disdain was disconcerting,nor was there any resisting the whole-hearted joy with which Unagreeted them.

  To their eager inquiries she gave the briefest replies. For one thing,she assured them that they had Sajipona's promise that their escape fromthe cave would be easy and not too long delayed. Of the queen's friendlydisposition towards them, she said, there was not the slightest doubt.They could count on the carrying out of her promise if, on their side,the conditions she proposed were observed. These conditions were: never,once they were out of it, to enter the cave again; to reveal as littleas possible to the outside world of their experiences during theirpresent adventure; and to keep an absolute silence regarding Sajipona'srelationship to this mysterious race of people.

  Beyond this Una would say little. The conditions were joyfully accepted.Nothing, certainly, could ever induce them to enter the cave again.But then--there was David. Yes, Una admitted, David was in the palace.She had seen him. He was free, so far as she knew, to come or go ashe chose. But he had not said he would return with them. It might be,indeed, that he would choose to live permanently with the cavemen--anamazing possibility that started an avalanche of questions to which onlythe vaguest answers were given. Doubtless they would see David beforethey left, Una assured them, and learn for themselves all they wished toknow. As for Raoul, she could tell nothing. He was, apparently, in favorwith the queen, and engaged in some undertaking for her.

  Una betrayed none of her suspicions regarding David in her discussionof these matters. She had not seen him since that first meeting inthe little portico adjoining his quarters in the palace, hence she wasignorant of the result of Raoul's experiment. Sajipona had come to herimmediately after its conclusion and, judging by the quiet cheerfulnessof her manner, she fancied everything had gone to her satisfaction. Thiswas confirmed by the announcement of the festival that was shortly totake place. This festival, Una had been told, was to be the occasionfor great rejoicing among the cave people. It was a sort of nationalday, a celebration that had not been held in many a long generation. Itwas intended to recall, she heard, the ancient feast of El Dorado, theGilded Man, about which, of course, as it existed among the Chibchasbefore the period of the Spanish invasion, Una was familiar through thetraditions as told by David and Leighton. What form this revival of theold ceremonies would take had not been explained. But it piqued hercuriosity and, in spite of resentment and wounded pride, she cherished asecret hope that it would bring about a final understanding of David'sposition in regard to Sajipona and herself. She felt sure David wouldbe at the festival, and she had an intuitive feeling as well that hispresence would dispel the mystery that sundered them. She did not lookfor, nor did she consciously want a reconciliation. Bitterly she deniedherself the possibility of one. But she wished to know definitely, andto its full extent, David's faithlessness to her. After she had learnedthis, they could not start on their homeward journey too quickly.

  Still absorbed in these reflections, Una and her companions, underNarva's lead, entered the great court of the palace. Una, of course,had grown familiar with the strange features to be found in this hallof marvels; but the others, entering it for the first time, were amazedat what they saw there. In Leighton this feeling of wonder reached itshighest pitch. The shattering of one scientific belief after anotherthat he had experienced ever since entering the cave left him, it istrue, somewhat callous to new impressions. But this apathy, if it can becalled that, melted away as he stood beneath the great white dome thatsoared in flashing lines above them. Looking up at the huge ball of firesuspended just beyond the apex of this dome, for a moment he remainedspeechless. Then, turning to his companions, he voiced the ecstasy thatcomes with some unexpected, epoch-making discovery.

  "Do you know what that is?" he demanded.

  No one did. Miranda shrugged his shoulders and turned his attentionostentatiously elsewhere, as if floating balls of crackling whiteflames, used to illuminate caves, were matters of ordinary experiencewith him. Andrew's mouth was opened quite as wide as his eyes as hestood staring upward at the curious illumination. It would be a splendidsaving of candle power, he thought, more than enough for the wholevillage, if they could only manage to take it back with them to Rysdale.But, even if it were small enough, it wouldn't be possible to carry inone of their trunks, since it would be sure to set things on fire. Thisobjection was made by Mrs. Quayle, and seemed reasonable enough.

  "That is the most remarkable thing on earth," went on Leighton,heedless, in his excitement, of the frivolous comments of hiscompanions. "I have often thought that sooner or later something likethis would be discovered. It is impossible to estimate its value. Why,all the billions of dollars that there are in the world to-day could notpay for it at the present market prices."

  The calm assurance with which this estimate was given shatteredMiranda's pose of studied indifference.

  "What is it?" he asked sharply.

  "Radium!"

  The silence that followed was eloquent of the mingled incredulity anddelight with which so staggering an announcement was received. Leighton,fascinated with his subject, proceeded to explain things, much as if hewere at home again in his laboratory, working out a particularly novelexperiment, and expounding his various theories of physics. Of course,he had nothing but theory to go on, since he had never seen, heard of,or believed possible such a huge mass of radium as this that hung abovethem. And because it was so unbelievably huge, the others refused atfirst to take it for what he said it was. But he insisted that it couldbe nothing else. Radium it was--and with this as his basis of fact, hequickly built up an imposing theory that he used to explain more thanone matter that before had puzzled them.

  This immense globe of radium, he believed, in the first place, wasthe parent-body of all the infinitesimal particles of this remarkablesubstance that had recently been found in different parts of the world.The mysterious properties of radium, he said, were only dimly understoodas yet by physicists who had experimented with it. Apparently it was amineral; but as it revealed a constant and amazing activity, throwingout a force that so far had baffled analysis, there were those whoheld that it was a living, or, better yet, a life-giving substance.The existence of this immense body of radium here, in the center ofthe cave, explained, to the satisfaction of Leighton, much of thestrange phenomena they had seen. Here, obviously, was the source ofthe soft, diffused light that had puzzled them ever since they passedthrough the Condor Gate; and it was to this center of energy thatthey must attribute the increase in buoyancy and physical well-beingexperienced the further they penetrated into this subterranean world.The peculiar growths, also, half vegetable, half mineral, that had giventhe appearance of groves and gardens to certain portions of the cavethrough which they traveled, were undoubtedly due to this marvelousforce, occupying the same relative position towards subterranean lifethat the sun did to the outside world of nature.
Moreover, Leightonfirmly believed that the supremacy of radium as the life-giver in thiscave, involved the existence, as they would discover, of other phenomenahaving still more subtle, even psychic, qualities. Narva gruntedsignificantly at this observation, and Una confirmed the truth of it byrelating how the floor of the court where they were standing had, only ashort time before, reflected a series of pictures of events taking placein the outside cave, by means of which they had been able to followLeighton's approach to the palace and watched the collision of his partywith that of Raoul. It was through this peculiar photographic power ofradium, indeed, that Sajipona could discover whatever was taking placein the remotest regions of her domain. This information did not surpriseLeighton in the least. On the contrary, he appeared to take it as amatter of course, one of many marvels that might be expected in a landrun, so to speak, by radium.

  Absorbed in the discussion of these matters, no one noticed the entranceof Sajipona. The queen, coming from the apartment where she had leftDavid and Raoul, was not in a hurry to make her presence known, andlingered long enough behind the others to enjoy the curiosity and wonderwith which they were regarding the globe of light above them. She nowadvanced smilingly, addressing herself particularly to Leighton, whomshe complimented for his shrewd guess as to the nature of the forcepervading and governing the cave. Indian though she was, inheritor of arealm that, in all its customs and beliefs, was primitive, distant fromthe civilizations found elsewhere in the world to-day, she had heard andstudied enough of Europe and America to be familiar with some of themomentous discoveries of modern science. Hence, she had been quick tograsp the fact that this subterranean sun, worshiped by her ancestorsages ago as the Life Giver--the God that, according to Indian legend,resided under Lake Guatavita--was nothing more nor less than an immensebody of radium, the most precious substance known to man, the scarcityof which had led scientists to ransack the uttermost parts of the earthin the hope of adding to their store of it. Here it had always been, theone priceless possession of her people, enabling them to live apart,independent of the world that threatened at one time to exterminatethem. How this radium had come there originally she could not tell. Itwas the result, doubtless, of hidden forces about which philosopher andscientist are as yet ignorant. Or, it might itself be the architect ofthe subterranean world whose extent and manifold marvels had amazed theexplorers. By means of this radium force, as Una had told them, she wasable to see what was happening in any part of the cave, even throughoutthat dark region lying beyond the Condor Gate--an incredible statement,as it appeared to Leighton. For they had been in this outer cave anddiscovered in it neither the light nor the warmth they had enjoyed onthis side the Condor Gate. Hence, argued the savant, this outer caveappeared to lie entirely beyond the zone of radium influence. Sajiponasmiled at Leighton's objection and asked him if nothing had occurred inthe outer cave, while he was there, that he had been unable to explain.They had been through so many marvels in so short a time that theexplorers looked at each other doubtfully. Mrs. Quayle answered forthem.

  "Yes, the terrible stone that pulled off my jewelry, and then draggedgold up from the lake outside--how was that done?" she asked, stillsmarting, apparently, from the indignities she had suffered.

  "Oh, that was merely a powerful magnet that attracts gold instead ofiron," explained Sajipona, as if such trifling matters were scarcelyworthy to be ranked with the other marvels of the cave. "This magnetplayed a great part, centuries ago, in gathering together all the wealthof my ancestors from the Sacred Lake where it had been cast during theFeast of the Gilded Man. To-day it is never used because all the goldhas been taken out of the lake. But--was there nothing else mysterious?"

  "Caramba!" ejaculated Miranda, "I know! When we come in from theoutside, all is open; we can come in and we can come out. And then, thislittle old woman is frighten, and I take her out. That is, I think Itake her out. But the wall is shut, and we cannot see where it is. Weare in prison. Who did that? There is no one there."

  Sajipona laughed.

  "Yes, that is it! No one was there--except Radium, the influence fromthe great globe hanging above us. Here, you see, it does many morethings than it does in your outside world. It is really the eye ofthe cave--and sometimes the arm. Although its light does not, as youknow, extend into the outer cave, it reflects here, within this circle,whatever is lighted up beyond there. When you came in with your torchesI was able to follow you by this means--very obscurely, of course,because torches throw only a small circle of light. I could hardly makeyou out, but I felt sure who you were. I was expecting you. And then,because I needed you here and feared you might grow tired of so long ajourney, I shut the entrance to the cave so you could not escape. Thatis where radium works like an arm. It can carry an electric force, anirresistible current, without using wire. For our own safety we havethis force connected with the entrance to the cave. When that entranceis open and we want to close it, this force is released and moves agreat rock that glides into place across the passageway, where it seemsto be a part of the wall on either side."

  This dissertation from Sajipona on the uses to which radium had beenput in her kingdom was amazing enough to Leighton's trained, carefulmind. In his own studies of radium activity he had failed to findany indication of the possibility even for the development of thesensational features that were now given to him as accomplished,familiar fact. For one thing, science was restricted in its experimentsby the small quantity of radium within its reach. Here the amount,estimating the size of the fiery globe above him, was measured by thehundreds of tons--a fact, of course, that must greatly increase thefield over which radium might be made to operate. Nevertheless, exceptfor this vague theory that an unknown power could be developed from agreat mass of this marvelous substance, suspended in a great chamber,or series of chambers, not subject to the ordinary outside influencesof heat and light and air, it was difficult to find a reasonableexplanation for the things that Sajipona told him and that he himselfhad seen. Most astounding it was, also, to a modern scientist, broughtup in the methods and limited by the views of his age, to discoverhere a development in physics, beyond the dreams of the most daringinvestigator, that actually belonged to a primitive race, and was firstpracticed by them in a period and country without scientific culture.The whole affair, indeed, furnished an instance where science seemed tooverstep the borderland of the miraculous. It was as marvelous, afterall, as the familiar achievements of wireless or the cinema would havebeen if suddenly presented to the world of half a century ago.

  Enjoying the savant's bewilderment, Sajipona described more of thecave's wonders. Her forefathers, she said, had discovered a way toimitate the changes from day to night by a simple process of veilingand unveiling the ball of radium. This was found necessary in orderto create the right variations between growth and a state of rest invegetation. When circumstances made it desirable to use the cave as apermanent habitation, it was found that this variation from light todarkness was indispensable to human welfare. Without it there couldbe little of the happiness that comes from the storing up and thesubsequent expenditure of human energy. Discovering this, certain wiseIndians among the cavemen of the past made further experiments inthe regulation of light and heat. Among other things, these pioneersin a new science found that the color rays emanating from radium haddifferent properties--some being more life-giving than others--andthat by controlling these rays it was possible to create and developvarious kinds of subterranean plants. They firmly believed, also, thatby working along these lines it would be possible to arrive at newanimal forms. Some remarkable experiments were made in this direction,but the results were too indefinite for practical purposes. The wholeproblem was therefore abandoned years ago, its unpopularity having beenincreased by the religious prejudice excited against it. This intrusionof what he regarded as blind superstition upon the profitable labors ofscience incensed Leighton, who muttered imprecations on the idolatriesof barbarians. But in this he was checked by Sajipona, who declared thatthe reli
gious beliefs of her people were in no sense more idolatrousthan many of the beliefs current in the outside world. They had theirfantastic legends, it is true--like the story of the god who, throughthe ascendancy of an evil rival, had been imprisoned for ages at thebottom of the Sacred Lake, whence he had been released by the prayersand sacrifices of his followers. Such legends the more enlightenedregarded purely as fables, within which were conveyed certain truthsthat were of lasting value to mankind. The ignorant probably failed torecognize these truths underneath their coverings of legend. But it wasnot merely the ignorant, it was those who possessed a higher religioussense who were revolted by the effort to create animal life throughartificial means. This feeling of antagonism arose simply because in thelast of the experiments attempted by the Indian wise men, certain formswere developed, giving feeble signs of life, and indicating unmistakablythat if they were ever endowed with a complete, independent existence,they would become a race of malevolent beings, a menace to all existinginstitutions and peoples. Hence, these wise men were counseled by themore practical and simple-minded of their contemporaries to abandon therole of creator, leaving the production of life to the rude and bunglingmethods to which Nature was accustomed. They were loath to yield inthis, but public opinion became too strong for them; the religiouselement conquered--and these savants of old turned their attention to anew problem that had already been suggested by their partial experimentsin the creation of life, and that promised something really worth while.This new problem involved the regulation of man's moral and intellectualnatures, not through the teaching of ideas, but by the employment ofphysical and chemical forces.

  It had been discovered long before that the Radium Sun controlled thesubterranean life coming within its influence. But as this sun wasitself capable of regulation, many novel--and safe--departures in humandevelopment were made possible by an intelligent practice of the newsolar science. Here again, as in the experiments with plants, it wasthe variation of colors, of light and darkness, that furnished thekey to what the Indian savants were after. Thus, it was learned thatcertain radium colors had an affinity for certain moral attributes.These moral attributes could, for this reason, be greatly increased byplacing the man or woman to be operated on in a properly regulated colorbath. Unfortunately, these wise men had not continued their experimentswith this Theory of Colors after reaching the first few crude results.They lost interest in the subject when its intensely practical naturebecame apparent. Hence, a complete classification of all the colors andcombinations of colors, with their moral and intellectual affinities,was still lacking. But enough was discovered to be of real, positivebenefit in the education of the cavemen and in keeping order amongthem. People who were harassed by domestic troubles, for instance,were put through a course of color treatment; wives who were temptedto leave their husbands, or husbands who got tired of their wives (as,it seems, they sometimes did in the Land of the Condor) were plungedinto color-baths, varied according to the exact nature of the complaintfrom which they were suffering, and kept in these baths until they werebrought back to a reasonable frame of mind. And then, in matters thataffected the well-being of the whole community--matters that in theoutside world would give rise to various political panaceas--it was asimple application of the Color Theory that would straighten thingsout. It was found, for instance, that yellow rays from the RadiumSun stimulated generosity. Thus, in the case of a man whose intenseacquisitiveness threatened to monopolize the wealth of the community, asteady application of yellow rays was sure to be beneficial, if not tohim, at least to those about him.

  A case of this kind, indeed, had been recently operated on in this way.The patient had accumulated such vast wealth that he had grown to be apublic inconvenience. As his business dealings, however, did not comewithin reach of the criminal law, and as his wealth was thus due tohis natural bent for finance, the courts could not touch him. He was,therefore, placed--not by way of punishment, but as a mark of publicesteem--in a bath of yellow light. The effect was extraordinary andbore out all the claims of the originators of the Color Theory. He hadnot been in this yellow bath more than a few hours before he began topart with his wealth. On the second day he became more reckless in hisbenefactions, and this frenzy for giving away what he had before sojealously guarded from his neighbors, increased at so rapid a rate thatby the end of a week his entire fortune had passed, through his ownvoluntary act, into the hands of the government and various benevolentinstitutions. When he had nothing more to give, it was decided that hehad had enough of the yellow treatment. He was then released from thehonors the State had showered upon him, and passed the rest of his liferejoicing in his penniless condition.

  Then, there was the case of a man who had grown tired of his wife, andwho had outraged the sense of the community by leaving her. He wascaptured and placed in a bath of green light. In a very short timehe got over his roving propensities and became so persistent in hisattentions to his wife that, in order to give her some peace, he was putinto another bath having a slightly neutralizing effect on the first, orgreen, bath. Thus, the marital troubles of this couple were completelyand finally straightened out and they lived amicably together withoutthe tiresome intervention of mutual friends, or of the law courts.

  The interesting possibilities of this Color Theory in penology andin the regulation of domestic affairs, did not escape Leighton. Hehad himself believed that in the latest discoveries in physics theremight be found a connecting link between the science of matter and thescience of mind. His natural skepticism, however, did not allow him toaccept too readily all of Sajipona's amazing statements. He doubtedher real knowledge of these abstruse subjects. She spoke of thesematters, indeed, crudely, not with the familiarity as to detail of atrained scientist. What she said had all the simplicity, and much ofthe fantastic absurdity, of a fairy tale. But beneath its extravagancethere was enough substance to her story, and the theory upon whichit was based, to make it worthy a scientist's consideration. For onething, it changed completely the notion Leighton had already formedof this subterranean world. The story, for instance, of the chastenedmillionaire took into account a complex social system that was utterlyunthinkable in a region so confined territorially, so limited, byreason of its peculiar situation, as regards human activity, as thisso-called Land of the Condor. The inhabitants of the cave, from whathe had seen of them--in the straggling village they had passed throughwith Narva, and among the followers of Raoul--gave no indication of aculture superior to that shown by people just emerging from savagery.These cavemen, certainly, had not reached that stage of enlightenmentfrom which is developed the millionaire capitalist of whose interestingventures in monopoly Sajipona had told them. In the ill-fated Anitoo,however, and his men, and in the people surrounding Sajipona, there wasevidence of social and mental superiority. The two men who served asthe queen's ambassadors in the garden, and who were distinguished fromthe rest by their red robes, belonged either to a priesthood, or tosome order that placed them intellectually above the common rank. Theywere undoubtedly learned far beyond the Indian average. One of them,indeed, was with Sajipona in the court, and prompted her more than onceduring her explanation of the Radium Sun and its uses. He spoke in alow voice, and in a language unintelligible to the Americans. From hisbearing and fluency of speech, Leighton concluded that he was one of thecommonwealth's so-called "wise men," an investigator, possibly, in thosephysical and psychological phenomena that held out such tantalizingpromise of new conquests in the domain of human knowledge.

  Sajipona was quick to perceive the difficulties arising in Leighton'smind in regard to her narrative, but she referred to another occasiona description of the science, religious beliefs, social institutionsand customs of the subterranean people. In attempting such a task, shedeclared that the priest at her side, whom she addressed with befittingreverence as Omono, Teacher of Mankind, would be far more capable thanshe. For it was Omono, with his companion, Saenzias, who received andcarried out the laws and traditions of their race--always subje
ct, ofcourse, to her own authority--and it was by them that these laws werefurther perfected before being passed on to the two priests who wouldsucceed them in administering the affairs of the kingdom.

  "You are puzzled, naturally," she said, "to hear of the existence ofwealth and poverty, charitable institutions and governments, scienceand religion, in a kingdom whose boundaries are within the walls of acave. But you have seen only a small part of this Land of the Condor.On every side it extends many miles further underground. And in theSouth from here, not a great distance, there is a vast region--unknownto the rest of the world--filled with mountains, fertile valleys,rivers, and bodies of water strewn like jewels over plains that yieldan abundance sufficient for all mankind. This land is at the mouth ofour subterranean world. It lies in the heart of that region marked'unexplored' by your mapmakers. We have no fear that it will ever passfrom our hands, that it will ever be more than a blank patch on yourmaps, for on every side it is defended by unscalable cliffs of snow andice. It can be reached only through this ancient cave. Perhaps, in theages to come, when the people of the outside world and of this race thathas lived here in an unbroken line as far back as the memory of man cango, have been perfected, these barriers will be thrown down. Such hasbeen the prophecy of some of our wise men; and to-day Omono and Saenziastell us that this final period of perfection is rapidly approaching. Itmay be that before you go out again into your own world, you will seemore of the wonders of this Land of the Condor, and of the unknown Landof the Sun that lies at its door. There are cities out there, builtwith an art that is only rudely possible in our underground home. Here,you are amazed at the cunning of some of our work. You wonder that arace of moles could conjure wealth and beauty out of a cavern that isnever opened to the airs of heaven. But in our Land of the Sun there aremarvels far greater than these. In both regions you will see the workof the same people; but here where you stand is the center of our race,or--as you would call it--our seat of government. It is here, because ofthe Radium Sun above us, that we find our strength. But it is outside,in the Land of the Sun, that the millions who call me their queen, areworking out the destinies of future generations. Before these lastyears your people and our people have kept apart. You were ignorant ofour existence, and we held aloof from you, remembering the cruelty andinjustice of which you were guilty centuries ago. But the time has come,so Omono and Saenzias declare, when our two worlds must venture thefirst step in the knowledge of each other. Through me this experimentwill take place. You are instruments in it. To-day decides the successor failure of our plan. The wealth of our kingdom we have guarded allthese centuries, not for ourselves only. To increase it we must shareit with the outside world. But if the outside world is not ready, if itstill exists merely to plunder the wealth others have gathered, we willwait, if need be, for another flight of centuries."

  Sajipona's announcement aroused an immense curiosity among theexplorers. What did she mean? they asked each other. How was thisworking out of their mutual destinies to be accomplished at thisparticular time and through them? From Narva they had heard vaguelyof a festival that was to be celebrated--and now they learned that thehour for it was at hand. Sajipona told them this, and as the informationfollowed immediately upon what she had let them know of her aspirationsregarding the future of her people, they concluded that in somemysterious way, the festival and the fate of this subterranean kingdomwere bound together. They waited to hear more but, apparently, Sajiponahad finished all she had to say to them. Turning to Una, she led herapart from the others. The two talked earnestly together, the oneprotesting, the other entreating. Finally, Sajipona appeared to succeedin her request, whatever it was, and taking Una's hand walked with herto a distant part of the hall. Here a door was thrown open. Una enteredthe apartment beyond, the door closing behind her. It was all so quicklydone, the others barely realized that Una had left them before they wererejoined by Sajipona, who spoke to them as if nothing had happened.

  "Let us go," she said. "The festival is ready. There is no time tolose."