CHAPTER VI AN EARTHQUAKE WITHIN A CAVE
After leaving Pant to complete his photographic work, Kirk and his giantservant had passed from the small chamber to one very much larger. He hadtaken one of Pant's flashlights. As he sent its gleam down the chamber hefound it impossible to see the distant wall. The ceiling was low, so lowthat he was obliged to stoop at times to clear it. The stalactites andstalagmites were found in such numbers that they formed a veritablelabyrinth.
"Mustn't go far," he told himself. "Might be difficult to find our wayback."
At that moment, as his flashlight painted a white avenue between two rowsof natural pillars, he caught a strange yellow gleam a short way beforehim on the floor.
A few steps and he was at the spot. His hand was on the thing, anornament of gold of elaborate design, when his foot struck something thatcrushed in like an ancient gourd.
One horrified glance, and he sprang back.
"A skull. A human skull!" he breathed.
One instant of horror, then he knew where they were, or at least thoughthe knew. They had found the final resting place of a race that hadvanished from the earth.
A moment's poking about in the dust convinced him that this was true.Human bones mingled with gold and silver ornaments, pots of bronze,strings of jade beads, and who knows what other priceless treasures fromthe past, formed a setting for a bit of drama at once shocking andintriguing.
Scarcely knowing what he was about, like some child in Fairyland, hebegan gathering up handfuls of the most attractive trinkets and thrustingthem into the deep pockets of his knickers.
It was while he was engaged in this strange occupation that he felt thesame curious sensation that had come to Pant.
"It--why, it's like--" His heart raced wildly. "It's as if the world hadtipped a little!"
Instantly he heard the loud chatter of the giant's teeth. In the midst ofthe chatter he caught the sound of an attempted chant, the Carib chantwhich they, in their darkness of mind, believe will drive away evilspirits.
The boy gathered no other trinkets. A moment passed, another and another.Every tick of his wrist watch sounded out in the dead silence of theplace like the tolling of a funeral bell.
Then, of a sudden, pandemonium broke loose. The earth rocked. Hugestalactites came crashing down, to roll about the floor like barrels onthe deck of a tossing ship. A grinning skull rolled at his feet. With hishead in a whirl, Kirk knew not whether to stand or to flee.
"The earth god of the Mayas!" a terrible voice sounded in his ear. It wasthe Carib's voice. The next moment a powerful arm encircled him and hewas whirled through the dark.
His senses reeled. Only dimly could he realize what was passing. Therewas an earthquake. He was sure of that. They were common enough inCentral America. They had been caught in a cave while an earthquake wasin progress. What could be more terrible? The big black man, everfaithful to his trust, was attempting to carry him out.
* * * * * * * *
Pant, who had mistaken the first strange tilting of that portion of theearth's surface on which he stood as no movement at all but a break ofthe imagination based on unstrung nerves, had moved with a rare showingof determination toward the curious object which lay on the rocky shelf.He had made it out as a small chest some two feet long and a foot deep.He had discovered that the top was thickly encrusted with dust, but thesides had the appearance of some beaten metal, stained and corroded byage. This much he had learned when the sudden shock of the earthquakecame.
If the first movement had seemed like the sudden lifting of a ship by aheavy sea, the second was like the shudder and crash of a great oceanliner as she is thrown upon the rocks in a mighty storm.
The first shock left him well nigh senseless. The second brought reasonback upon its throne. He thought at once of his young companion. He hadbrought him to this place and somehow he must see that he escaped fromthis awful thing that was going on.
Seizing his flashlight, he started forward. At once he thought of hiswater-proof package and of the precious negative it contained.
"I owe much to my grandfather. Can't lose that," he thought.
Groping his way back, he secured the package. Then, turning his faceresolutely toward the spot where the other boy and his black servant hadvanished, he pushed forward. He had gone a dozen paces, had barelyescaped being crushed by a ponderous pillar of white crystal, when asudden quake brought him to his knees.
Instantly he was up and fighting his way forward. And now his eyes fellupon the opening through which his companions had gone.
What was his horror when at that moment there came a crashing andgrinding sound, dust filled the air until he could scarcely see; yetthrough it all one fact stood out clear and undisputable. The openingthrough which the others had gone was closed.
Next moment some object hurtling at him from the right, striking himsquarely, sent him crashing to earth. There, bruised, half senseless, heall but gave himself over to despair.
Through the moment of hopelessness which overcame the boy shot one ray oflight. This light, shining brighter and brighter, brought him courage tobattle on. That light was the sudden realization that God, the one trueGod, the good, patient, just God, was still in his universe and that Hestill noted the sparrow's fall.
The instant this fact was established, the boy's mind grew calm. One calmthought led to another. What had struck him? Not a rock. That would havecrushed him. What, then? What but a human being.
"The giant black!" he thought.
At that moment he caught a wavering gleam of light. It was in thedirection of the cave's entrance.
"The black," he said again. "They escaped. Thank--thank God!"
Instantly he was away, following the light.
For a moment the rude shocks of the earthquake were over. Aside from thedebris that had been scattered about, his progress was unimpeded, yet hemade no gain on the feeble light that wavered on before him.
"Didn't suppose that boy could travel so fast," he told himself.
Instantly a thought set him shuddering. Had the black servant, overcomeby a terrible fear of a heathen god, forsaken his young charge? How washe to know? For a second he hesitated, then redoubled his pace.
"Overtake him and force him to go back," he told himself. "If--"
He hoped his fears were unfounded.
He came to the entrance of the great underground lake chamber, had passedit in safety and was skirting the shore of the lake, which was recoveringfrom a great agitation, when the earth shudder began again.
Battling against the dizziness that seemed about to overcome him,stumbling, all but falling, he had fought his way forward until at lastthe great bulk of the black man stood out before him. Then, as the veryuniverse appeared to reel, a great tidal wave from the lake came sweepingover him.
Strangely enough, at that moment there came into his mind a picture ofhis grandfather's face. He thought of the water-proof package and theprecious negative, and gripped them tight.
The tidal wave receded. It did not return. He found himself once more onsolid ground and close by, not twenty yards away, was the black and hisyoung master. This last onslaught had been too much for the giant native.His knees had given way beneath him and he had slumped to earth,murmuring incoherent things about the earth god of the Mayas.
As for Pant and Kirk, they knew no fear of Maya gods. They waited, and asthey stood there they felt the rude shocks no more. The surface of thelake was again as placid as a pond beneath a silvery moon.
They made their way forward in silence until, with a little thrill ofjoy, the younger boy gripped his companion's arm as he cried:
"See! The light! The light of the moon!" It was true. They had reachedthe entrance. A moment more and they were sitting in the shadows beneaththe palms.
"See!" said Kirk at last, drawing from his pocket an object that gleamedin the sunlight. "A message from out the past."
I
t was indeed an interesting collection he had gathered quite at random.A bracelet of gold set with jade, a small bronze god, grinning andterrible, a miniature silver goblet, and some other bits of jewelry ofsuch odd design that one was not able to so much as guess their purpose.
"Sometime," said Kirk, "we will go back for more."
"I doubt if you will ever enter that chamber again," said Pant. "Ibelieve the earthquake closed the entrance to that particular chamber.But we will go back.
"Oh yes, we will go back," he repeated a moment later. He was thinking ofthe strange chest that was all but within his grasp when the earthshudder came.
"But now," said Kirk, "we must go down. Morning will soon be here. Andthink what the earthquake must have done to the old Don's castle! Come!"he cried, shuddering with a terrible apprehension. "Our good friends maybe buried beneath the ruins of their home--they may be dead!"
Closely followed by Pant and the great Carib, he sprang away down theancient trail.