by Frank Aubrey
CHAPTER XXI.
THE GREAT DEVIL-TREE.
In pursuance of their design of making signals from the summit ofRoraima, the two friends made further explorations of the northernside. And this led them into an adventure, one day, that had well-nighproved fatal to them both.
On mentioning their intention to Monella, he had at first objected;but, upon Leonard's reminding him of the anxiety and distressTemplemore's mother and _fiancee_ might be, too probably were, in, hehad given a reluctant consent.
"Your friends, Dr. Lorien and his son, talked of coming back again,"he remarked. "Do you think they are likely to make the journey withMatava, and to be coming to seek for you?"
"Certainly they are coming into this neighbourhood, after orchids,"Leonard replied; "and, now you speak of it--though I had not thoughtabout it lately--the news Matava will probably take back may causesuch anxiety that they may hurry to get here sooner than they wouldotherwise have been likely to, in order to make inquiry about us on thespot."
"Matava might lead them to the cavern, if they came to Daranato," saidMonella thoughtfully.
"Yes; of course that is possible."
"And a very little ingenuity or a small charge of powder would force anopening; and their way would then be easy to get up here?"
"Certainly."
Monella's face clouded.
"That must not be; you must clearly understand that you must tell me intime if there seems any such probability. I wish not to seem unfriendlytowards your friends--and personally I liked them--but to allow them tocome in here would be as the beginning of a flood, as the letting outof water. It cannot, must not be."
"Well, after all, it is only a supposition," observed Jack. "Timeenough to deal with it, if the occasion actually arise. They were goingon to Rio on some law business which was likely to occupy them sometime; they might be detained there indefinitely, they said."
"Quite so," Monella answered decisively. "Only, remember, I rely uponyou to inform me in time. And be very cautious and vigilant upon thatside of the country, for, as you know, it is in that direction thatCoryon and his people have their habitation."
In their walks they were often accompanied by one or both of Ulama'spumas, and on the day referred to the male one, 'Tuo,' as it wascalled, came after them when they had gone a little way, and trottedquietly beside them; and this, as it turned out, saved their lives.
They came upon a place they had not seen before. Two great iron gatesof highly finished workmanship, and picked out with gold, shut ina narrow opening in a high rock. They were such as might form theentrance to a public garden. A broad road wound round from the insideof the gates; but outside, where Templemore and Elwood were, the rocksrose up fifty or sixty feet, or even more, on either side; and thoughthey followed them a considerable distance on both sides of the gates,the rocks still towered up precipitously for as far as they could see.
"This can scarcely be the entrance to Coryon's 'domain,'" said Jack,"or there would be some people about on guard. It must be some kind ofpublic place."
"A cemetery, perhaps," suggested Leonard.
"I believe you've hit it. Well, there's a gate open, so I supposethere's no harm in our having a peep inside."
"Suppose some one were on the watch, and were to pop round and closeand lock the gates when we were inside and out of sight," said Leonardsuspiciously. "Monella warned us to be wary and to suspect traps."
"We have our revolvers; and, if the worse came to the worst, we couldclimb over these rocks."
In the result they went inside; then made their way to a wide terracethat ran round an extensive area of horseshoe shape, half natural, halfartificial, as they judged. This terrace extended several hundredsof yards in both directions from the point at which they stood; butit narrowed off considerably on one side of the horseshoe. Above andbehind it, cut out of the rock, were other terraces, like steps or rowsof seats, but broad below and narrowing as they got higher. These wentall round, almost to the top of the rocks. It was, in fact, a vastamphitheatre where many thousands of people could stand or sit. At thefarther end it was open; and in the centre was a large arena sunk somefifteen feet below the main terrace on which they stood.
This arena opened out into a deep defile beyond, from the rocky heightsof which there issued a rushing stream of water that flowed into alarge, dark-looking pool below.
But what at once riveted their attention, almost to the point offascination, was an extraordinary-looking tree that stood in the arena.This tree had no leaves, but branches only. In colour it was of asombre violet-blue, tinged in places with a ruddy hue. The trunk wasabout thirty feet in height, and eight or nine feet in diameter. Thebranches, which were many--a hundred or more probably--drooped overfrom where the trunk ended and trailed about the ground. But what wasmost astonishing, these branches were all in motion. Though there wasno wind, they waved to and fro, ran restlessly along the ground likelithe snakes, and intertwined one with another, at the same time makinga harsh, rustling sound.
Straight in front of where they stood was a long pier of masonry thatran out towards the tree, which was not in the centre of the arena butwas nearer to that part of the terrace where it grew narrow. In orderthe better to observe the object that had so roused their curiosity,the two young men walked across the terrace and some distance alongthe pier; and, when they had proceeded a little more than half itslength, one of the long trailing branches--some of them appeared to betwo hundred or three hundred feet in length--came up over the end ofthe pier, and, with a rustle, made its way swiftly towards them. Itwas within two or three feet of where they stood looking at it, whenthe puma, with a loud growl, sprang forward and bit at it. Immediatelythe branch curled itself round the animal's body and began draggingit along the pier towards the tree. Then two or three other branchesadvanced and went to the assistance of the first one, coiling round thepoor puma and dragging it farther along, despite its teeth and clawsand its desperate struggles. In succession, other branches crept upover the end of the stonework, and, just in time, Jack seized Leonardand dragged him back.
"For Heaven's sake come away, man!" he exclaimed in horror. "That treeis _alive_, and will drag us off, if once one of those branches touchus!"
They had stepped back only barely in time, for a moment after atrailing branch swept over the very spot on which they had halted. Whenassured that they were really out of reach, they stood fascinated, butfilled with horror, while they witnessed the unavailing fight made bythe poor animal that had saved their lives. More branches came to theaid of the others; they coiled round its mouth and closed it; roundits legs and bound them; and soon, helpless, a mere bundle in thecoiling, curling branches, as it were, it was drawn off the pier to theground below. Then it was rolled on and on till it had almost reachedthe tree-trunk, where were shorter but thicker and stronger brancheswaiting for it. These, in their turn, soon coiled round it; then,slowly, they bent upwards, carrying the poor animal in their relentlessgrasp, and lowered it into a hollow in the centre of the top of thetrunk, where it almost disappeared from sight. Then all the thickerbranches coiled round it and shut it completely out from view, forminga sort of huge knot round the top of the tree and remaining motionless;while the longer and more slender branches continued to play restlesslyabout, seeking for further prey. Then, without a word, the two turnedaway; nor did they speak till they found themselves safely outside thegreat gates. Then they looked, horror-struck, at each other.
Jack was the first to break the silence.
"Great heavens!" he exclaimed. "What an escape! What an awful monster!What a frightful death! And that poor animal--that saved us both! Whatshall we say to the princess? Talk of 'traps'! If this gate was leftopen as a 'trap'--and it looks to me so--we have reason indeed to bethankful!"
"What _is_ it?" Leonard asked at last.
"A 'devil-tree.' It is a carnivorous tree. I've seen a small onebefore; in a forest in Brazil that we were working through. One of thedogs got caught in it and was nearly
killed before we cut it free withour axes. And then it was badly hurt, and so was I; a branch caughthold of my hand and tore some of the flesh off it. And where we cutthis branch it _bled_! A dark crimson-blue liquid oozed out that stank!Oh, there, I can't tell you what the stench was like! I've smelt _some_bad smells in my time, but that beat anything I ever came across! Butthat was only a small bush. I had no idea they could grow into greatflesh-eating monsters like this! Why, that thing must have been there athousand--ah--two thousand years, I should say. Fully that."
"But," said Leonard, "why is it kept here? who feedsit--and--what--is--it--fed--on?"
He asked this last question slowly, and looked at the other in blank,horrified amazement.
"It can't live without food," he continued. "And it must want a lottoo. Whoever can take the trouble to get it food of the only kind--as Isuppose--that it would care for? And why is it there in the middle ofthat strange place? One would almost think it was kept there as a kindof show or curiosity; and yet--we have never heard about it all thetime we have been here! And it is there, with the gate open, no fenceto guard people, or notice to warn them. Well! It's a mystery to me!"
But if they had been astounded and horror-stricken at what they hadseen, they were still more mystified and upset by Ulama's behaviourwhen they told her of their adventure; for she fainted right off and,when she recovered, seemed so overcome with terror as to be unable tosay a word. No explanation would she give; save that now and then shemurmured, almost in a moan, to herself,
"Then it _is_ true! And I never knew! It is horrible--too horrible!"
When Leonard expressed his sorrow about the puma, she hardly seemed tonotice it.
"Ah yes!" she said once. "Poor Tuo! I shall miss him--and such a death,too! But oh, he saved you and your friend! And then, he was but ananimal--but the others!"
At her express desire they promised not to speak to any one else aboutit.
"I will tell you why--or you will know why--later," she added. "But youcan speak privately to Monella about it; to no one else just now!"
When they found an opportunity of speaking to him about it, he lookedvery grave.
"You have had a narrow escape," he said. "Heaven be thanked you didescape. I cannot explain more to you now, but may be able to do soshortly. Meantime, please do as the princess says, and keep this matterto yourselves."
All this time Leonard's relations with Ulama had remained unchanged;they had not been placed on any settled footing. Monella had asked himto take time to make up his mind, and had intimated that nothing wouldbe said or done meanwhile. Leonard had, however, been too impatient toput his fate to the test to be able to wait after the encouragementMonella had given to him. But, whether Ulama had spoken on the subjectwith her father, he knew not; for it so happened that he had not seenher alone since their love-scene in the boat.
And now she was evidently much discomposed about their adventure withthe 'devil-tree'; though she did not refer to it again.
Naturally too, the recollection of it was very much in the minds of thetwo young men. Leonard asked Templemore, one day, what the branches ofthe one he had seen were like.
"They were covered with small excrescences," he replied, "that aresuckers and piercers in one. They pierce the flesh and then suck theblood. The whole affair is a sort of gigantic vegetable 'octopus,'or devil-fish, only that it has a hundred or more 'arms' or branchesinstead of eight, as the octopus has. I have heard of devil-fishhaving been caught as large as eighty feet in length, on the coast ofNewfoundland. But I never knew that its vegetable prototype grew toanything like the size."
"Of course I have seen devil-fish," said Leonard thoughtfully; "butthey have a mouth--a great beak--to which their arms carry the food. Doyou think it is the same here? You saw that the branches carried thepoor puma up into a hollow in the top of the trunk. Do you suppose thething has a kind of mouth there?"
"Goodness only knows! It must be an awful sort of affair, if it is so.The whole thing is monstrous and uncanny. Don't let us talk about it!"
But, as a result of this experience, they sought in another directionfor a likely place from which to make their intended signals; andfinally they found one convenient for their purpose. Then they made twoor three trips to the canyon to bring up the requisite powder. Theyalso brought back from the secret cave a number of things Monellawanted. From the first, at his suggestion, they had told no one exceptthe king, Ulama, and Zonella, of the means by which they had gainedaccess to the mountain; and these had promised to keep the knowledge tothemselves.
"The place has evidently been so long unvisited," Monella had remarked,"that probably most of those who once knew of it have forgotten allabout it. No need to remind them just now. Many years ago, as I havebeen informed, a project was started for filling it up."
"Filling it up!"
"Yes, and if you go to the other end of the canyon--that by which weentered--you will find, even now, in the thick wood that everywheresurrounds the top of the canyon, vast numbers of great boulders thatwere quarried from the surrounding cliffs and hauled to the edge inreadiness to be thrown down. They lie, in fact, just over the cavern wecame in by. There they have remained for a very long time, it seems.Had that intention been carried out, all our work in cutting throughthe forest and finding the entrance to the cavern, as you can see,would have been thrown away."
"And what stopped it?"
"It is said that the people threatened a rebellion. The belief in theeventual return of Mellenda--of whom you have heard--is deep-seated;and, though the people here are anxious enough to keep to themselves,they would not assent to closing irrevocably the only means by whichtheir hero could gain admittance, should he ever come."
"Do they expect him to come with a host of followers--a conqueringarmy--or do they expect the great lake to come back, and that he willarrive with a grand fleet of ships?" Templemore asked, with somewhat ofa sarcastic smile.
Monella passed his hand across his brow in the half-dreamy mannerthat was his at times, as though striving to collect his thoughts, orto arrest and force into shape some half-formed conception that hadflitted across his mind and escaped his grasp. For a minute he staredvacantly away into the distance and was silent. Then, with a look asthough of pain at failing to catch the fleeting image, he turned away,saying simply,
"I cannot tell you."
During the days that followed, Templemore passed much of his time inthe museums; time that Elwood spent in a lover's dream of happinesswith Ulama. In the relics of the former history of this strangepeople, Templemore took a deep interest; and in the archives andancient manuscripts he found many evidences of the former existence ofscientific and engineering knowledge that astonished and perplexed him.On the true meaning and import of some of these he sought the help ofMonella, who would frequently accompany him in these visits, and, fromhis better knowledge of the language, was able to assist him to unraveltheir curious contents.
"These people must once have been great engineers and architects!" heexclaimed in surprised admiration on one of these occasions.
Monella smiled and made reply,
"There is nothing so surprising in that, if you comprehend the truesignificance of the gigantic earthworks still extant in many places onthis continent. Have you seen any of them?"
"No; but I have both heard and read of them."
"I have seen them; and I tell you your mind can form no idea of theirextent, of the scientific knowledge and the prodigious amount of timeand labour that must have been expended on them, unless you actuallysee them. They are of various forms, mostly geometrical figures upona vast scale--miles in extent. The wonderful thing is that a certainfigure is repeated exactly in different places hundreds of milesapart. Yet you shall take your cleverest engineers of the present day,give them the advantages--or supposed advantages--of all your moderndiscoveries and machinery, and scientific instruments, and, say,unlimited workpeople to do their building, and _then_ it would tax alltheir skill to construct a work _exactly_ s
imilar to one of those greatfigures. Yet now, upon some of them, trees are growing that must beover a thousand years old!"
"And what were they for--what was their object?" Templemore asked.
Then there came over the other's face again that curious look as of oneseeking for a lost recollection; but it seemed to evade him, and heanswered somewhat as before,
"I think I ought to be able to tell you," he replied, "but I cannot nowseem to remember."
It was while thus together one day that Templemore asked him for somefurther information concerning the 'Plant of Life.'
"You have told me," he said, "that your people, with whom you lived inthat secluded valley high up in the Andes, had with them the 'karina'and cultivated it. Therefore I suppose you yourself have been in thehabit of taking it?"
"Always. And in my travelling to and fro in the world I always had withme a good supply of the dried herb. I was accustomed to leave storesof it in certain towns, so that if I lost what I had with me by anyaccident, there was more within easy reach."
"I see. But what I am puzzled about is this: why, if the virtues ofthe plant are so great, do people ever die at all? And why do some livelonger than others?"
"As to the first question," Monella answered, "man was never intendedto live on this earth for ever. The human frame _must_ wear out sooneror later. As to the second query, some constitutions are naturallystronger than others, and these endure longer, just as is the case inthe world outside where the plant is not known. The effect of the plantis simply to keep the blood pure, if originally pure. If, however,there is an inherited taint, that taint will make itself felt sooneror later and undermine the vitality of the system. In this case theplant will only result in ensuring a somewhat longer life than wouldotherwise have been the case. Sooner or later the vitality will falloff and gradual decay set in, although (the blood being kept stillpure) ordinary diseases are kept at bay. Lastly, there is the questionof the will."
"The _will_?"
"Yes; that has a most powerful influence. If a man who has inheriteda constitution that is absolutely sound, from ancestors who havepossessed the same through many generations, and if he has, inaddition, a strong _will_, powerful beyond the average, he may livelonger--if he is so minded."
"I--do not understand you," said Templemore, somewhat puzzled.
Monella gazed at him with a smile that was full of sadness.
"You would," he answered, "if you were old yourself; if you hadoutlived all that made life worth having--your wife, and others youlove, your ambitions, your hopes. _Then_ does the soul grow weary,and restless as well; it is like unto a bird that is caged whose timefor migration has come. It will either fret or pine itself to death,or beat itself to death against the bars of its cage. Only two thingscan then keep the soul from taking its flight; the _will_ to live tocomplete some unfinished work, or a delight in a worldly, wicked life.A nature superlatively evil, like Coryon's, may enable its possessorto live on and on for an indefinite time; where better men take the'falloa' and die. Or a man, not himself enamoured of life upon thisearth, may exert his _will_ to carry out to its end some great work tobenefit his fellow-creatures, and he too may keep the 'falloa' at arm'slength for an unusually long period. In other words, the 'falloa' is aform of melancholia, of weariness with the world, of an inward sensethat life's work is completed. It is the result of that feeling that weare told took possession at last even of him who has been called theWise Man of the World--King Solomon--whose wisdom and riches and poweronly brought him to the same point I have indicated--that at which thesoul declares that all earthly things are but vanity."
On another occasion, Templemore was accompanied by Zonella and Colenna;and the latter took him into a gallery he had not before seen, the doorbeing usually kept locked.
In it, to his surprise, were ranged hundreds of stands of arms andmilitary uniforms, helmets, spears, shields, swords, daggers, and redtunics, all kept in splendid condition, as though for instant use. Allthe helmets had little silver wings at their sides, and the shieldswere engraved in the centre with a strange hieroglyphic, the same thathe had noticed chiselled upon the fronts of many of the principalbuildings.
"There," said Colenna, "are the arms and uniforms of Mellenda'ssoldiers. Over in Myrlanda, in the great temple of the White Priests,are hundreds more; all kept ready for use, as you see these here. Yousee the silver wings upon the helmets, similar to those on that ofMellenda's suit that stands in the other gallery. And that figure uponthe shields is the sacred sign that was engraved upon his signet-ring.It signifies his seal or sign-manual. Wherever you see that mark, itrefers to him; on a building it implies that he designed or built it.His royal colour was red, as the king's to-day is blue; and these redtunics are for his soldiers."
"When they come," said Jack, discreetly repressing the increduloussmile that almost forced itself upon his lips.
"When _he_ comes," said Colenna, lifting his hat reverently. "Yes, when_he_ returns to us."
"You don't believe in that, I know," interposed Zonella; "yet we alldo; and it is a good thing we do, I think, for I fear many in the landwould go mad under their dread of Coryon, if they did not believe in ahappier future for the country. But there," she added sadly, "it doesnot matter to _you_. You have no interest in what may go on here in thefuture. You intend to go back to your own country, and care little forthe sorrows or the fate of those you leave behind."
Colenna had walked away some little distance, to examine a shield thathe thought was not quite so bright as it should be.
"Not care!" Jack exclaimed, impulsively. "Why, how can you say that? Itis that thought that grieves me all the time I am here; that makes medoubt how I shall ever be able to make up my mind to leave. To leavebehind one's dearest----"
Zonella turned to him quickly, with a heightened colour and a brightlook. This was so unexpected that he stopped and hesitated.
"Well?" she said. "You said your dearest----"
"My dearest friend, Leonard--of course," he answered, looking at her insome surprise.
But Zonella's face paled, and she turned away.
"Let us go," she said with a shiver, as though a cold wind had blownupon her. "This old gallery is kept locked up so much it gets to smellmusty, and makes one feel quite faint."