The Red Lure

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER XX CENTURY OLD CAVERNS

  Johnny was still in the land of the lost Mayas. The city he and Jean haddiscovered was not the city of Jean's dreams, the golden metropolis oflong ago, yet there were signs of past glory all about them. Massiveruins that had once been a pyramid, elaborately carved shafts reachingtoward the sky, great squares and slabs of stone, all told of the glorythat had departed.

  "Think what it must have been!" said Jean as, on their third day amongthe Mayas, she sat high upon a carved rock and allowed her eyes to roamover the ruins of what must have been a majestic temple. "Just think whatit was! Such a labyrinth of corridors! Such chambers! Such secretrecesses. One might have been lost among them for hours!"

  There was a rocky wall running along one side of the city. This merelysuggested a prison. But for all that, it might as well have been a prisonwall. They were prisoners. They had learned this on the second day. Withthe vision of the red lure burning brightly in his eyes, Johnny hadproposed that they find the way over which they had come, and tryfollowing it back. They had experienced little difficulty in finding thetrail, but once they came to the spot where it entered the jungle, theyhad found it completely blocked by grim little brown men. These offeredno violence, but neither would they move aside and allow them to pass.They blocked the way and shook their heads.

  "Orders of the Chief," Roderick had said. "I expected that."

  So their first attempt at escape had failed.

  Prisoners though they were, they had been given the range of the city andthe surrounding open spaces where corn waved in the bright sun, wherebanana plants reared themselves to the sky and cocoanut palms waved longplumes in air.

  No guests could have been treated more royally. The best of food, wildturkey, deer, armadillo, the best of meats, the finest of corn cakes, themost delicious of fruits were served to them. At night they lay upon bedsthat rivaled the couches of kings. For all this, they were made to knowthat they were not to leave the land of the Mayas.

  "Not ever?" said Jean with a wrinkled brow.

  "Perhaps never," Johnny said solemnly.

  "Johnny, we were mad."

  "You are right. We were quite out of our heads when we came here. Butwhat's the fun of living if you can't have some adventure?"

  "Yes, there is joy in it!" exclaimed the girl, springing down from herperch on the carved rock. "And to-day, since we can't leave, we willdiscover something wonderful in the midst of these ruins."

  They did. Something came of it, too, I assure you.

  It was in the midst of an all but impenetrable growth of palms and vineswhich, spreading over a crumbling heap of ruins seemed to wish to hide asecret, that they made the discovery, and having made it, entered uponone of the strangest and weirdest adventures any of them had ever known.

  As they crawled on hands and knees, here forcing their way between thespreading leaves of a nut palm, there tearing away a wild fig vine, theycame at last upon an opening. Before this opening sagged an old, decayeddoor. There was scarcely room to crawl between the heaps of rocks thatblocked the way, but once one was inside he found that he had entered adamp, dark hallway that, extending far as his electric torch would reach,suggested mystery and romance.

  Johnny was the first to enter. Jean and Roderick followed. There was amoment of hushed silence as they stood there breathing silently as iflistening for voices that had long been stilled forever.

  "I'll wager the place hasn't been visited except by bats since the yearone," said Johnny.

  As if to prove that at least part of his prophecy was true, there came awhirring of wings and one of those great vampire bats, terror to allliving things in Central America, flew by so close that the current ofdamp air stirred by his flight lifted their hair.

  "The secret corridor," Johnny said. There was a solemn note of mystery inhis voice. "To what chambers of treasure does it lead? We may yet be therichest Mayas in all this little hidden kingdom."

  "Yes, and I'd take a broken sixpence for my share, could I but return tomy father's camp," said Roderick, disconsolately.

  However downcast her brother might be, Jean was still game. "Come on!"she exclaimed. "We will find the god of the rising sun, the god of thenoonday sun and all the other gods with the gold and jewels that enrichtheir chambers. We'll find the chamber of the ancient princess. Whatshall we not find. Come on. C'mon! C'mon!" Seizing her brother by thearm, she fairly dragged him down the corridor which, to those who camefrom the hot dryness of tropical day, seemed to possess the chilldampness of perpetual night.

  On tip-toe, lest perchance they might waken the spirits of othercenturies, they began their march down the wide corridor. Only thediffident snap-snap of great bats disturbed the silence of the place.Walking in deep, age-old dust, they made no sound. So, awed into silence,gripping one another by the arm, they marched on until, having coveredsome two hundred feet, they came to a sudden halt before what appeared tobe a solid stone wall. Certainly it was stone, and it looked as solid asthe Rock of Gibraltar.

  "Well!" Jean exclaimed.

  "The end," muttered Johnny.

  "Now," said Roderick in a relieved tone, "I hope we may go back to thesunlight. I don't like these beastly vampire bats. I've been told theycan kill an ox by sucking his blood. They've been known to drive theentire population of a village from their homes. What would you do if oneof the bally rascals made a grab at your throat?"

  "Take him by the ear and give a good sound scolding," said Johnny.

  "Hold on a bit," he said as Roderick started back, "let's have a look."

  He began flashing his torch from floor to ceiling, from corner to cornerof the dungeon-like place.

  "Not an opening," he sighed. "Not a suggestion of an--wait! How does ithappen that this stone at the end is fully a yard square, while all therest of the wall is made up of small rocks?"

  Taking a heavy cane which Roderick had insisted upon bringing into theplace, he struck the broad stone a resounding blow. At once the place wasalive with echoes and whirring wings.

  "Sounds hollow," he muttered.

  He pressed the end of the stick against the top of the stone and gave ita shove. To their surprise the stone, which to all appearances was adoor, dropped slowly and noiselessly downward until it formed a sort ofthreshold over which they who dared might walk.

  "Oh! Ah!" Jean murmured.

  As if expecting a million vampires to spring at him from the dark,Roderick started back.

  As soon as she could recover from her surprise Jean set one small foot onthe stone threshold.

  "No," said Johnny, placing a restraining hand upon her shoulder, "let mego in and look about a little. Not that I wish to be first, but itmight--might not be quite--quite safe. You are a girl. In a way, I'm yourprotector."

  "I--I understand," said the girl as she favored him with a smile that wasaltogether new to him.

  In spite of all his efforts at self-control, Johnny's knees trembled alittle as he stepped upon the rock. It was strange to be moving forwardalone into a subterranean chamber which, to all appearances, had not beenvisited for centuries. What would he discover there? Was this the secrethiding place of princes, a temple of worship or a dungeon prison? Whatwould he discover there; rare old furniture, moulding to decay; gold,jewels, or only skeletons?

  "Probably nothing," he told himself as he moved forward.

  After he had taken three steps he halted for a second. There wassomething strange about the rock upon which he stood. It appeared to havea greenish cast, but being eager to discover the contents of the chamber,he pressed on without investigating further.

  The electric torch which he carried had an adjustment which enabled oneto throw about him a dim light or a bright one. At the present time itshone but dimly. As he attempted to flash it to full brilliancy the catchstuck and the lamp continued to shine but dimly.

  Still impatient, he pressed forward down this more deeply mysteriouscorridor, which appeared s
omewhat broader and shorter, almost to its endbefore he discovered anything of interest. Then of a sudden he foundhimself all but upon some object which, sending forth a dull yellowlustre, appeared to hang in air. Most mysterious of all, from the centerof this there came a tiny but peculiarly brilliant light.

  "It can't be," he told himself, starting back. "A light burning throughall these centuries! That would be to discover the origin of lightitself. That--"

  He broke short off. His hand trembled so he could scarcely hold thetorch; his knees shook violently. The room had suddenly blazed forth withan intense green light. At the same time there came to his startled earsa piercing scream.