Buffalo Bill's death message or, In the face of doom
forget for the time the loss of that precious hand bag. He turned to
them.
“Have you found a way out?” he asked.
“We have found a narrow tunnel, Bounderby, and we’re hoping it will lead
us out. It runs straight through this clayey cliff, and it’s narrow; but
perhaps we can squeeze through.”
“We’ve _got_ to squeeze through!” said Lieutenant Butler.
“Follow me!” the scout ordered, and he tore from the mummy some of its
cloth, twisted it into a torch, which he lighted, and then, slipping
into the hole, he began to crawl along, lighting the way with that
gruesome torch, whose flame filled the narrow space with smoke, and soon
set all to coughing.
After him came Lieutenant Butler, and then Lawler, and, following
behind, the professor and the German.
The tunnel proved a “Fat Man’s Misery” for Henselman. He was soon in
trouble and squealing for aid.
“Hellup!” he bellowed. “Brofessor, ton’d leafe me here. I am shtuck!”
“But I can’t turn around to assist you, Henselman!” the professor
declared testily. “My body and legs are too long; I can’t turn in this
place. Henselman, you’ll have to help yourself!”
The yells of the German caused Buffalo Bill and those on ahead to stop.
“Don’t send out such howls as that, Henselman!” the scout protested.
“You’ll have us in trouble.”
“Id iss me dot iss alretty in trouple,” said Henselman. “I am shtuck in
dis hole. I am too fad in my stummick!”
“Henselman, squeeze along; you can make it!” the professor urged; and
seeing how difficult it was for him to get help, the fat German began to
“squeeze along,” and, with much grunting and sighing, contrived to
advance a little.
When the scout had gone on for twenty or thirty yards he saw a faint
light. He announced the discovery to Lieutenant Butler, who was next
behind him. Then he blew out the smoking and cough-producing torch,
being glad to get rid of it.
“We don’t know what we’ll find out there,” he explained, “and we
wouldn’t wish our light to be seen. Bounderby, tell that German to cease
his noise. We don’t know what we’re coming to now. But there is light
ahead.”
The knowledge that light had been seen, indicating that the end of the
tunnel was being reached, had an inspiring effect on Henselman. He got
along much better after that, and with much less puffing and panting.
“Ve vill neffer pe aple to gid back der vay we haf comed from,
brofessor,” he declared.
“Perhaps, Henselman, we shall not want to. The only reasons I can think
of that would make me want to go back are that hand bag and the hope of
being able to understand a bit more about the mysteries we have beheld.
That stone taken from the mouth of the mummy, Henselman, I have here in
my pocket. I hope to be able to read it some time. When I deliver my
lecture——”
But Henselman was howling again, declaring that he was stuck fast; and
what more the professor said was not heard by the others.
The light seen by Buffalo Bill increased. He saw that he was nearing the
end of the tunnel, and that the light was sunshine coming in there.
But, unfortunately for Henselman, the tunnel contracted still more as it
neared the end, and soon the rotund stomach of the German was having
further and continued trouble.
When the scout gained the end, he ventured to peer out, before venturing
out himself. What he saw was as surprising as anything that had gone
before.
A circular valley lay spread beneath him, a valley of great beauty,
embowered here and there in trees, and having in its center a large
village, which was dominated by a shining, domelike structure.
Where there are houses people may be expected. In this case they would
supposedly be Indians, and, therefore, enemies. Thus thinking, the scout
took a good look, to make sure that no Indians were near the mouth of
the tunnel. Then he spoke to Lieutenant Butler.
“We’re at the end,” he said. “There’s a valley here, with an Indian
village in it; at least I think it is an Indian village, though it has a
templelike structure that looks anything but Indian. Can you squeeze in
by me here and take a look at it? I fear to try to get out yet.”
Lieutenant Butler crowded in by the side of the scout, and their bodies
so filled the narrow space that the situation was almost uncomfortable.
But what Butler saw repaid him for the pain and effort.
“It is amazing!” he said. “I can hardly believe my eyes.”
“An Indian village?” said the scout.
“I can hardly think so; Indians are not given to fine architecture, and
if that central house isn’t fine architecture I miss my guess. See that
high dome in its middle, Cody! That must be a temple, and Indians are
not supposed to have temples.”
“Some kinds of Indians have temples, or once had, and those were the
Aztecs. You recall that stone in the mouth of the mummy? The writing, or
whatever was scratched on that stone, resembled Aztec characters, as I
recall them. Can this be an Aztec city?”
“But the old Aztecs are all dead, Cody.”
“Very true. So far as we know, they are all dead, and their descendants
are the miserable Indians and peon class of the Mexico we know to-day.
But there may be some remaining. Remember that we don’t know where we
are. We suppose we’re in Mexico, yet we don’t even know that. Following
our compasses, which had gone crazy, we were led we know not whither,
and we have no correct idea of our location. There are strange Indian
tribes in the interior of Mexico, in some of the inaccessible mountains,
for instance. Lieutenant Butler, we can’t be sure that this is not an
Aztec city.”
Professor Bounderby heard a portion of that, and he tried to squeeze to
the front, with the result that he and young Lawler were crowded into
space so small that soon Bounderby began to feel as pinched and squeezed
in as the German, who was still snorting his calls for help.
“We’ll have to risk it,” said the scout to Lieutenant Butler, after a
further look round. “So, here goes!”
He crawled with difficulty through the opening, which had pinched in
until the hole was no larger than his body, and seemed hardly so large.
When outside, the scout was gratified to see a screen of bushes. It was
some distance off, by the side of what looked to be a highway. Yet it
pleased him to discover that when he had slipped away from the mouth of
the tunnel this bushy screen interposed between him and the houses of
the village. He drew over to that side, and Lieutenant Butler, coming
after him, did the same.
Then Tom Lawler came crawling forth, his fine young face shining and
red, his eyes staring about with interest and eager curiosity.
“I wonder where are we now?” he asked.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Butler. “Perhaps Bounderby can tell us.”
Bounderby’s head appeared, then his narrow shoulders and long body and
legs came into view. Behind Bounderby the German was laboriously trying
to make progress, as his sighs, groans, and exclamations showed.
Bounderby sat up, straightened his tall hat in place, and flourished a
soiled handkerchief, which he drew out to wipe his heated and now grimy
face.
“This is—remarkable!” he declared, when he caught sight of the shining
building and the rows of white houses, the houses at that distance, many
of them, resembling cubes of snow, or salt.
“Re-mark-able!” repeated the professor.
The familiar notebook and familiar pencil came out, and he began to
scribble with furious haste:
“Having crawled for a long distance through a small tunnel, we found
ourselves in the outer air again, and before us we beheld a shining
edifice which glittered in the sun as if it were of gold; and beside it,
running by streets and in squares like the houses and business blocks of
a city, were many small houses. Most of the small houses were white,
though some, at this distance, had a general dull-mud color. We could
scarcely believe we had not entered some sort of fairyland.”
As the professor had the singular habit of reading aloud whatever he
jotted down, and while he was jotting it down, this was heard by Buffalo
Bill, and by Lawler and Lieutenant Butler.
“A very good description,” said the scout. “Can you tell us what you
think of it, professor? What sort of a city is that? Is it a large
Indian village? And what do you make of that large house in the center?
It seems to be nearly circular, and has a very high dome.”
“That is a temple,” declared the professor, with much certainty.
“But Indians, unless they are Aztecs, or of some like tribe, do not
build temples!”
“These may not be Indians, Cody. That is certainly, to judge from its
appearance, a temple, and its roof seems to be of beaten gold. The
houses are poor enough, most of them, but that temple is magnificent.
These people have put all their wealth into it, and have been content
with the little houses for themselves. That shows they are a religious
people.”
“What I’m thinking of,” said Tom Lawler, when the professor stopped, “is
that strange beast which we followed. Did that thing get into the
elevator and come down here through this tunnel?”
“I think it must have done so!” declared the professor.
“Then it pulled the peg which caused the elevator to descend, and when
it got into that little room back there it toppled the old mummy forward
and crawled down into this tunnel. Is that your idea, professor?”
Bounderby hesitated to declare that this was so; he began to see where
it would lead him.
“If it did all those things,” Lawler went on, when Bounderby did not
reply, “then it was a man, and not a beast!”
“But the orang-utan footprints!” the professor objected.
“We don’t know that it was an orang-utan, professor! None of us has seen
it.”
“That is very true,” said Bounderby, with great gravity, “but it is to
be remembered that it is not necessary to see a creature in order to
know of its existence. For instance, we may hear it howl and so judge by
the ear alone. We may discover its hiding place, and get our knowledge
from what we see there. In the present case, we judge by the footprints
which it left, and by its attack on Mr. Cody. Its tracks are those of an
animal.”
“They are not like the tracks of a man, you mean,” the scout corrected.
“They are not like the tracks of a man, and the luminous glare of its
eyes as it looked down at you indicated also that it is an animal.”
“I do not think I said the eyes were luminous, but only that they seemed
fierce and fiery. It’s hard to get a word to describe them, or their
effect on me. They might have been the eyes of a man.”
“There’s a sort of mist rising over in that direction,” said Lawler.
“It’s beyond what looks to be a road. I wonder what causes it?”
“We’ll see,” said the scout. “I think there is a waterfall, or swift
stream there.”
---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XXIII.
AN AMAZING DISCLOSURE.
They crawled away from the hole that had given them entrance into the
beautiful and mysterious valley, sheltering their movements from
possible observers by the screen of the trees.
When they approached the trees they found a broad highway, which seemed
to be much traveled. The trees were on each side of it, and made a
shade.
Beyond the highway rose the thin mist mentioned by the boy, and as they
came nearer to it they heard the sound of water. They found also that
the tree-fringed highway skirted the edge of a high bluff, this bluff
forming on that side the rim of the valley which held the village and
the shining temple.
As they drew near this bluff and looked down over its upper rim, they
beheld a fascinating sight.
The valley more than ever resembled a cup—a cup of emerald, with its rim
represented by low, clifflike walls that ran almost wholly around it.