by Van Powell
CHAPTER III GOLD, AND A LIFE AT STAKE
Cliff was quite as anxious as the others to see what the envelope fromPeru contained; he slit it and drew out two folded papers.
While the others watched eagerly he glanced hastily at one paper andcrammed it into his pocket as he opened the second.
"It is!" he cried, "It is from my father!"
They crowded closer and urged him to read it aloud. The letter, afterthe address, fortunately placed there so that the destination was knowneven when its outer cover was spoiled in the river, was amazing.
"Dear Son and dear Lucy:
"If you ever receive this it will be fond love and farewell.
"I am in a city in the most inaccessible valley of the Andes. When the Spaniards conquered Peru some Incas and their subjects fled here and set up a city. I have tried for over four years to get away but there is no place where the cliffs can be climbed.
"When first I went to Quito I saved a native who was very ill. In gratitude he told me of this hidden city and even guided me to a mountain where a glimpse of it was possible; but he would not help me to enter the valley. When I said I must explore and study it he deserted me. Later I lowered myself with a rope and found a city of the old Inca sort, filled with gold."
"In the old Inca empire, before the Spanish looted it," Mr. Whitleybroke in, "gold was so plentiful that it was used for dishes, utensils,ornaments, even for decorating their temples to the sun, which theyworshipped as a god--but go on, Cliff."
Cliff finished the letter without further interruption.
"It is a perfect treasure land. But, though there is a way in, there is no way out. The natives are kind but they took away my rope; they do not want me to escape and bring the outside world to their hidden place.
"Being anxious to explain my absence I have trained and tamed a young eagle and I am fastening this to its leg in the remote chance that it may be found when I release him.
"If so, dear son Cliff--and sister Lucy--goodbye. I am very ill and fear I may not get better.
"Your loving "Father and Brother."
"My!" exclaimed Nicky, "but people get well, Cliff," as he saw thedepression in his chum's face.
"The Spaniard told a different story," Tom said, thoughtfully, "I thinkhe wanted to get this for the Indian, to prevent you from learning whereyour father is. The Incas may be afraid you will try to go there."
"I would," Cliff said eagerly, "If----" ruefully "----I had any moneyand knew where it was."
"What was the other paper?" Mr. Whitley inquired.
Cliff had forgotten it; he drew it from his pocket and read it aloud. Itwas in the same handwriting that the envelope bore, and was in a styletotally different from his father's letter.
Cliff, reading its clipped sentences slowly, began to tremble withexcitement. When he finished and looked around he saw in the faces abouthim eagerness, hope, wistfulness.
The letter read:
"Clifford Gray; Sir:
"You don't know me. I don't know you. But I think we will know each other.
"I caught a tame eaglet and found your pa's letter. There was a map, too. It was to show how he got to where he went into the valley.
"I kept the map. Tell you why. I went to the place and saw the valley. I am a prospector and know these cordillerras.
"Reason I kept the map is I want to be with you if you go to find your pa. If you don't it's not any use to you anyhow. If you do I can help.
"What I want is some of that Inca gold. Not a lot. Enough to settle down, buy a ranch, live easy. I will be in Cuzco at the Tambo Atahualpa--that means Atahualpa hotel, for a while, till I hear from you. Let me know. With you and a couple more I could find your father and we could get him out.
"Signed respectfully, "Quipu Bill Sanders."
"Oh--if we could!" Cliff said. It was clear that his comrades feltexactly as he did.
Mr. Whitley was very thoughtful. While the trio discussed possibilitiesand re-read the two letters time after time, he sat without sayinganything. Finally he looked up.
"See here," he told them, "you have made me a member of your secretorder and asked for advice." They nodded eagerly.
"I think," he went on, "that if your relatives would let you go with me,it would be an instructive and an interesting trip."
The chums agreed with that quite heartily. But how?--where was money tocome from?
"I have been given some money recently. I inherited it," Mr. Whitleyinformed them, "I will be glad to advance the amount for expenses. If wefind Cliff's father and rescue him I shall feel that the money is wellspent."
"And there is the treasure!" Nicky exclaimed.
"Yes," John Whitley agreed. There began an eager discussion of what theywould do with their shares; but the young history instructor becamerather serious.
"I am not so sure that we will try to get the treasure," he told them.Their faces fell, but they did not argue.
"You see," he went on, "we aren't going to be thieves. That treasure isthe Incas' own; it isn't like buried gold. Of course, the people havetaken a white man prisoner, and perhaps if we find it wise to takeenough away from them to reimburse us for the expenses, it would not bedishonest."
"I agree with you," Cliff declared, "anyway, if we do find myfather----" a hope which his chums eagerly echoed, "----he will be ableto get all the royalties from his other books, which the publishers haveheld back, not knowing what to do, and only giving me enough to payexpenses. He will share with us all. My father is that kind of man!"
They were quite satisfied. The adventure would be sufficient as Tom putit.
Eager were their plans. Lists of things to take were made; plentifuldiscussions ensued, even amounting almost to arguments, for Nicky wanteda full arsenal of weapons, and enough ammunition to load down a mule.But he gave it up, for Cliff, from a study of his father's notes forpart of his book, assured them that the Incas were not very warlike orcruel. They were not like the Mexican Aztecs, who, in days past, hadbeen cruel and harsh. The Incas, he said, were rather gentle, making waronly in self defense, or to add territory when it was essential to theirgrowth of empire.
Cliff, from his studies, conceived a great plan. Mr. Whitley agreed thatit would be worth trying. What it was, and how it would work out, onlytime could tell; but it was so well thought of that some specialarticles were included in their supplies in order that they could useCliff's method of entry into the country.
"Of course that means if you boys go beyond Cuzco with us," John Whitleysaid, when he had secured parents' consent to the adventure and hadgiven promises to avoid danger. The chums felt very certain that theywould go well beyond Cuzco, old Inca city, once capital of their vastempire.
In time goodbyes were said, final promises made, handkerchiefs wavedfrom a departing train. The day spent in New York was a delight to thechums, and so was the embarkation on the great white fruit liner whichwould take them southward.
They laughed when, soon after the boat sailed, great clusters of bananaswere placed within easy reach of passengers; that was a custom on theliners and it made the tropics seem very real and quite close already.The days of their voyage to the Panama Canal were spent in studying somebooks of Inca lore, and in working out better systems of signals for theMystery Boys' order.
The passage through the Canal, the visit to one of its huge mechanicallyworked locks, the sights of the strange mingling of East and West inPanama City, added zest to the trip.
Then, tracing the route taken by the original Spanish caravels, theyturned, as Nick said, "down the map," along the South American coast,and landed at Lima, in Peru, where Mr. Whitley wanted to locate an oldacquaintance of his college days and get more information and a properset of ancient Inca costumes, if possible, for use
in Cliff's plan.
They found the city a thriving one and spent pleasant days there. Thejourney to Cuzco seemed almost endless, so eager were they. But, likeall things that depend on time, the trip was eventually completed andthe chums, hardly able to speak for their suppressed excitement, saw thefirst glimpses of what Cliff termed "The Gateway to Adventure"--Cuzco!