Buffalo Bill's death message or, In the face of doom
The center of the valley was occupied by a sparkling lake, and the
stream which they had heard, and which now they saw, flowed into this
lake and apparently flowed out again on the opposite side. As strange as
anything connected with the stream was that it seemed to issue from
under the highway; in fact, they could fancy that they were directly
over it at certain points in their journey thither.
“I think that stream explains one thing that has puzzled me,” said
Buffalo Bill.
“And what is that?” asked Bounderby.
“The elevator. I have wondered what ran it—where the power came from. It
must come from that stream, which seems to flow under the rock walls at
about the point where that elevator stands.”
“I see! Nevertheless, it was a remarkable piece of work for Indians. Yet
not half so remarkable as the rearing of that temple.” He stared off at
the shining dome of the building they called the temple. “Can it be
possible, Cody, that the people who constructed that are Indians?”
“I think there is no doubt of it.”
“I wonder,” said Lieutenant Butler, “if Miss Fernald can be alive and
down in that village?”
“I’m wondering if the beast that Professor Bounderby says is an
orang-utan can be down there?” remarked Tom Lawler.
Buffalo Bill’s hand fell on the arm of Lieutenant Butler, to call his
attention.
“Hark!”
All listened. Then the silence was broken by the shrill scream of
fifelike instruments, with heavier, reedy notes, and the thump of drums.
The sounds came from the upper end of the valley, to which, until this
moment, they had not given much attention. Lifting their heads and
craning their necks, they soon saw the front of a strange procession
come into view.
Just below the rim of the valley on which they rested, and between it
and the waters of the lake, was another highway, even more beaten than
the upper one, and it was on that highway the procession had appeared.
At the head of the procession were the fifers and drum-beaters and a
group of fantastic figures that danced and leaped, waving their arms
wildly, and now and then shouting singular cries.
“It is a religious procession of some sort,” said Bounderby.
Behind the musicians and dancers came other figures as fantastic, some
carrying fluttering banners. And now a great chanting chorus rose on the
air, which changed occasionally to a wailing song that had a peculiarly
heartrending intonation.
“One would think they are mourning for the dead,” said the scout, when
he heard it.
More and more Indians came into view, as the procession began to stretch
out along the highway.
It was observed now that the end of this highway appeared to be at or
near the glittering temple which had attracted so much attention. All
around the temple and within its doors people were gathered.
Bounderby had his pencil and notebook out and was scribbling furiously.
As usual, he spoke the words aloud as he set them down:
“Having penetrated to the hidden valley by the strange manner already
recorded, and viewed the shining temple and the snow-white huts, we
heard sounds of strange music, and beheld at the valley’s farther end a
singular procession. It appeared on the road that led by the beautiful,
tree-shaded lakelet which is in the center of the valley. Many of the
villagers were grouped within and close by the great temple. Toward it
the procession was moving, thus declaring to us that what we saw and
heard concerned the temple and had a religious significance. It is well
known that the ancient Aztecs were a highly religious people, and we
concluded that we had here found a remnant of that ancient race, hidden
in these distant hills, still untouched and uncontaminated by
civilization, and practicing all their ancient rites and customs.”
He held the book and the pencil between his fingers and stared at the
moving body of people, the head of which was now near the lake and
almost in front of their post of observation.
“Cody,” he said, “this is really the most remarkable thing I ever met in
all my varied experience! We are no doubt watching a religious
ceremonial of the ancient Aztecs, and if we could but penetrate to that
temple and see the people there after this procession has reached it, I
have no doubt we should behold things so strange that they would
astonish us and the world. I wish it were possible to get there.”
“It would be at the sacrifice of our lives, if we tried it,” was the
declaration of the experienced scout.
“No doubt it would, but one could almost be willing to die, to witness a
scene such as that.”
A sort of fervor inspired the words of the professor. When the scout
glanced at him he saw that Bounderby’s face was flushed to a deep red
and that his eyes held a strange and far-away gaze of anxious desire.
The professor was eccentric, loved the sound of his own voice, was quite
boastful, and possessed an unwarranted opinion of himself, yet he was
also learned in his way, and an honest delver after obscure and stray
bits of knowledge lying along the lines of his specialty.
Again the scout, looking at the procession, touched the arm of
Lieutenant Butler.
“Yes, I see!” said Butler, in answer.
A silken pavilion, partly inclosed, had come into view in the center of
that long line of marching men, a pavilion borne on men’s shoulders, and
so constructed that it was hoisted high over their heads and was in full
view of all the people. As the pavilion was thus carried past certain
groups that stood on the sides of the highway these latter lifted their
voices in mighty shouting.
“Some conquering hero comes!” said Lieutenant Butler.
“I should say it is the high priest borne thus aloft,” said Professor
Bounderby, whose interest and excitement were constantly growing. He
snatched up his pencil and notebook and began again to set down what he
saw.
“The chief priest, or the chief of the tribe, or the king,” said the
scout, venturing a guess. “Hear the people shout as he passes them!”
The watchers were so eager to see all that they nearly forgot the danger
they might be in, as they thrust up their heads and craned their necks,
trying to get good views of everything. They had crawled forth to the
very limit of the trees, so that they were close upon the edge of the
cliff there, and at times, as they thus poked forth their heads, they
might have been seen if any of the people below had chanced to look in
that direction. But the excited inhabitants of the valley were too much
interested in what they were themselves doing to give a thought,
apparently, to anything else.
That silken pavilion continued to attract attention and comment. As it
came nearer the watchers on the cliff were able to see that the one who
occupied it was in a reclining position. When it swung around at a bend
in the highway, giving a view of its open side, Buffalo Bill turned upon
it his binoculars, which he had already been using, though to small
purpose so far. An involuntary cry was drawn from his lips.
“What is it?” said Butler.
Without a word the binoculars were passed to the lieutenant. The scout’s
face had suddenly paled. When Lieutenant Butler took a look through
those powerful glasses he not only echoed the cry of the great scout,
but he let the glasses fall out of his hands, so startled was he by what
he beheld.
Young Lawler caught up the glasses and trained them on the pavilion.
“Great heavens!” he said. “It’s Miss Fernald!”
That was the sight beheld by Buffalo Bill and the lieutenant—Miss Emily
Fernald, the missing girl, in that pavilion, in a reclining position,
and with thick ropes upon her, showing that she was bound.
The knowledge that the girl whom they had been so long and laboriously
seeking was in the pavilion thrilled the whole party.
“You say it is Miss Fernald. As soon as the glass revealed her I judged
that.”
Professor Bounderby snatched the binoculars out of the hands of Tom
Lawler and turned them on the young woman.
“This is—terrible, Cody—terrible!” he whispered. “She is a prisoner,
without doubt—a helpless prisoner. Ah! now I understand the mystery of
that procession, of that music, of that shouting; the girl is to be
sacrificed in that temple, by those Indians!”
“We’ve _got_ to rescue her!” said Tom Lawler, almost shouting the words.
“We can’t permit that, you know!”
Lieutenant Butler seemed too dazed to speak for the moment. But finally
he found his voice.
“What can we do, Cody?” he asked helplessly. “I don’t doubt she is to be
sacrificed. But what can we do? I’m ready for anything, if a way of
rescuing her can be found.”
“We are but a small handful,” said Bounderby, “and down there are
hundreds of Indians, who are worked up to a great pitch of religious
enthusiasm. If we should go down there we would but meet the fate that
is to be the portion of the poor girl.”
“If we had a hundred men,” said Lieutenant Butler; “if we had but fifty,
we could charge into their midst, and perhaps accomplish something. But,
as it is!”
His face was pale as death, and his eyes, when he turned them helplessly
on the scout, were seen to be bloodshot. His agony was piteous to see.
He had known and admired Emily Fernald, and even some warmer feeling
stirred in his heart of hearts. So that it was like death to him to see
what he now witnessed.
“But what can we do?” he wailed.
“I don’t know just what we can do,” said Buffalo Bill, “but we’ve got to
do something.”
“That’s right!” cried Tom Lawler, his face flaming. “We’ve got to do
something.”
He clutched his revolver with a feverish grip, and the fire of
recklessness burned in his fine face.
Yet, truly, they seemed powerless to do anything.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
UNSELFISH HEROISM.
Buffalo Bill’s heroic determination to save the girl from the terrible
fate awaiting her took shape quickly in action. Indeed, if anything was
to be done, it appeared that it must be done at once, for after she was
in that temple there was no knowing how speedily the bloody purpose of
these people would be accomplished.
“I am going down there!” was the scout’s simple declaration, when he had
given a moment or two to inquiring of himself whether anything but the
most direct method promised hope.
“We’ll go with you!” said Tom Lawler.
Lieutenant Butler was as ready and willing to go as young Lawler. But
Professor Bounderby hesitated, and Fritz Henselman very promptly showed
the white feather.
“Vat iss?” cried Henselman. “Uff dose Inchuns iss going to ead dot girl,
vy shoult ve led dem ead us also unt likevise?”
“They are not going to eat her. Henselman!” corrected Bounderby.
“Nein? Vat iss?”
“We fear they are going to sacrifice her.”
“Dot iss nod eading, eh?”
“Certainly not, Henselman. They will slay her as an offering to their
gods, that is all.”
“Dot iss all? Dot iss enough, ain’d id? I voult yoost as soon pe cooked
unt eaden as to be saccerivised. Ve petter sday righd here.”
“I—I think I should prefer to stay, myself,” Bounderby confessed. “We
could remain here and watch this exit, to see that the Indians do not
block it; so that our friends, if they succeed in effecting the rescue
of the young lady, may have a way open to retreat.”
“Dis exid!” said Henselman. “Vat iss?”
“That hole back there is what I refer to, it is an exit.”
“Oh, dot! Yaw! Ve vill sday here und keep dot hole open. Uff an Inchun
goes indo id I vill shood heem.”
He clawed at his revolver and waved it so nervously that Buffalo
Bill asked him to put it down. The scout was making hurried
preparations—seeing that his revolvers were loaded and that his
cartridges were where he could get at them readily.