by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER XXI TRAPPED
The thing that had happened to Johnny Thompson was absurdly simple; atleast part of it was. Unconsciously, as he moved forward in the dimlylighted room, he had continued to fumble with the catch of hisflashlight. Suddenly, as he stood before the mysterious thing of yellowglow and a tiny light, his torch had flashed on in all its strength.
So much was very simple. The explanation of the green glow was simple,too, once he read the secret of it. But who had screamed, and why? Thatwas not so easy to answer.
The reason for the peculiar green glow was to be found in the compositionof the walls and ceiling of the room. They were of a peculiar green whichhad great reflective power.
"Jade!" Johnny exclaimed after his first surprise was over. "Solid greenjade. At least the walls are set with jade."
Who had screamed? This was the problem which concerned him most. To hisutter astonishment, as he flashed the light about he failed to at oncediscover the entrance through which he had come.
"Turned around a bit," he told himself as coolly as he could. "Take apoint and circle about until I am looking at that point again. In thatway I'll see all the walls."
In choosing his starting point his eye fell upon the thing of the yellowglow. He discovered at a glance that this was not suspended in air as hehad thought, nor was there a miniature light burning in it. It was astatue or an image of a god; a rather hideous god with a hooked nose, alarge stomach and hands on which were fingers like an eagle's tallons. Inone of these hands rested a stone of some sort that reflected light in apeculiarly brilliant manner.
"Gold, and perhaps a huge diamond," Johnny speculated in spite of hisanxiety.
Then he began to make the circle of the walls with his light. First thewall to the right of him was slowly and carefully surveyed, then the wallwhich had been to his back. No opening. His breath came short and quick.A third side was covered. In his agitation he set the light zig-zaggingup and down. Was he somehow trapped? Who had screamed?
Half the last wall was covered, two-thirds. The suspense seemedunbearable. Then, with a sudden sigh of relief, he started forward.
Before him was an opening. It did not seem quite the same, but it must bethe one. In his eagerness and anxiety he fairly ran.
Now he was half way across the room, and now at the wall. He was about tostep forward and out to freedom and friends when, to his astonishment,his foot splashed down into water. It was with the utmost difficulty thathe avoided plunging head foremost into a deep pool that lay just beforehim.
Once he had recovered from this shock he cast his light over the poolonly to discover that the back side of the pool, which was some ten feetacross, was solidly walled in, as was the room itself.
Obeying some unknown instinct, he dropped upon his knees and directed hispowerful light straight down into the pool. For a moment he gazedintently downward, then started back in horror.
The thing he had seen almost made him faint. At the bottom of that poolhe had caught the gleam of gold and the green light of jade ornaments,and in the midst of these a horrible, grinning human skull.
"This," he told himself after he had control of himself again, "is asacrificial pool. The gold and jade were a sacrifice. When? Who can tell?And the owner of that head? The door is closed. I am trapped. When willmy time come?"
At that very moment there came, faint and indistinct, but unmistakable,the notes of a call:
"Whoo-hoo-hoo, Whoo-hoo-hoo, Whoo-hoo-hoo."
As in a dream he recalled the day they had practiced that call, he andJean, back there in the jungle.
Alert, straining his ears for the next note, telling himself that when itcame he would locate the singer and thus begin the task of finding a wayout, he waited.
A moment passed; another and yet another. The silence became unbearable.He stamped his feet to break the awful spell. Then he became conscious ofanother sound--a slow tap-tap-tap-tap. Always a second apart, never anylouder, never coming more softly, this mysterious tap-tap-tap in timebecame more maddening than the silence. Still at strained attention hewaited for Jean's call which did not come.
"What can have happened?" he murmured at last. "Can other ears than minehave heard that call and silenced it, perhaps forever?"
He found himself filled with sudden anger, a raging hate of the Mayas.
"What manner of treatment is this," he asked himself, "after I savedtheir princess from a terrible death?"
This anger lasted but for a moment. He next found his mind filled withwonderings. In the deep dust of the outer corridor there had been not asingle footprint. How could the living Mayas have set such a trap as thiswithout leaving traces of their coming and going?
"They couldn't," he reasoned. "I have been trapped by that ancient god,or at least by those who, centuries ago, set him there."
Again he listened, and again he caught that endless tap-tap-tap.
"Water falling," he said. "But where?"
He began a careful search of the chambers. He examined every nook andcorner with elaborate care, but aside from the pool, found not so much asa spot of dampness.
"And yet," he told himself, "the sound is unmistakable. There is drippingwater somewhere. Must be within the walls."
Once more he set himself listening for Jean's call. A quarter of an hour,a half hour he waited and listened, but it did not come.
"What can have happened?" he muttered at last. Then he thought of theflashlight. The battery was good for just so long, then would comecomplete darkness. When would that be? He could not tell. Shuddering, hemuttered:
"Might better be now."
With that he threw off the catch. Sudden darkness followed, but the afterimage remained. Sitting on the damp floor, staring into the dark, heseemed still to catch the greenish glow of the walls, the yellow gleam ofthe god and the white flash of jewels.
Have you never attempted to fall asleep while from some distant spotthere came with maddening regularity the drip-drip-drip of water? If youhave, then perhaps you can share in a degree at least the feeling ofJohnny Thompson as he sat there alone, a prisoner of other centuries,listening to that baffling sound within the walls.
Yet, impossible as it may seem, he was able for whole moments to forgetthe entire situation. In those moments he saw again his camp on the RioHondo. He talked with Pant and laughed with him at his ridiculous donkey.He urged his Caribs on to more splendid efforts, saw the piles ofmagnificent timber, mahogany, the red lure, piling up, and counted thedays that must pass before they would send these logs plunging in theriver, fill their boom and go drifting silently away.
Yes, there were blessed moments of relief; but always the hauntingdarkness, the nerve-racking drip-drip came pressing its way once moreinto his consciousness.
* * * * * * * *
What was happening during all this time outside the door that had somysteriously closed? The scream which Johnny had heard was Jean's.Anxious for his safety, she had watched that hole in the wall from thetime he disappeared. The green flash of light which appeared at themoment when his torch flashed on had alarmed her; but this was nothing tothe thing she saw a moment later. Slowly, silently, as if impelled by apowerful invisible force, the stone, which for centuries had closed theopening, was slowly rising. The opening was half closed before she couldrecall her scattered senses. Then, without a thought for her own safety,she sprang for the entrance. It was Roderick who, with cooler judgment,had pulled her back. Then it was that she gave forth that piercingscream.
After the scream, white-faced and silent, she had stood watching untilwith an almost inaudible thud the massive rock dropped into place.
"Don't be alarmed," Roderick said reassuringly. "I'll push it open asJohnny did."
Seizing the heavy walking stick, he pushed it against the door just asJohnny had done. But, though he heaved away at it with all his might, hedid not move it so much as a fraction of an inch. Nor did th
e girl'sslight, but frantic strength, added to his, avail. The door was closed,closed and sealed for all eternity so far as they could tell.
After many futile efforts they sank weakly down upon a great flat rock,Roderick to sulk and to remind Jean, as is a brother's right, that thiswhole affair from the time they found Johnny in the hut was a piece offoolishness. Jean sat in sad silence. This silence did not last.
The picture of that morning in the jungle, the rocks, the wild turkey,came back to her and she suddenly remembered the call.
"We--we agreed on a call we'd use in case we were lost from one another,"she said to Roderick. "I--I guess that was meant for now. If he hears itand locates us by the sound he may find a way to open the door from theinside."
Standing to her full height and directing her voice against the unfeelingwalls, she sang their call:
"Whoo-hoo-hoo, Whoo-hoo-hoo, Whoo-hoo-hoo."
The echoes of that call had died away and she was parting her lips foranother when, of a sudden, her brother seized her arm.
"Hist! Listen!" he whispered.
Faint, indistinct, but unmistakable, there came the silent pit-pat offootsteps on the dust-padded corridor. Jean's call had brought someone.But who?