Bert Wilson at Panama

by Madeline Leslie

  CHAPTER XI

  THE DESERTED CITY

  "Well," resumed Mr. Hartley, "we made camp, as that appeared to be thedesire of the majority, and turned in, as soon as we had eaten supper.We were all dead tired after the long journey, and I guess none of uswere troubled in our sleep by thoughts of the strange spirit of evil thatruled the city, according to the natives. It's a lucky thing, sometimes,that you can't see into the future. If we could have done so that night,our sleep might have been less sound.

  "We were awakened by the guides, who had already prepared a goodbreakfast for us, and you may be sure we all ate heartily, both becauseit tasted good and because we wanted to start out on our exploration ingood trim.

  "The meal despatched, we entered the ruins by what had apparently at onetime been a great gate, but which now was nothing but a twisted heap ofstone. Evidently the city had been encircled by a wall, but this hadcrumbled away and was overgrown by the tropical vegetation.

  "Of course, we had to leave the guides behind us, as they positivelyrefused to pass the boundaries. This didn't cause us much worry,however, for we knew from experience that, when it came to trouble, theywere of little use.

  "The ruins lay before us apparently devoid of any human inhabitants. Atfirst we didn't know which way to go, but finally decided to makestraight for what looked to have been the center of the town. As well aswe could make out, all the streets seemed to converge toward that point,which had no doubt been the public square.

  "We followed this plan, but as we went along were often tempted to alterit. More than once we passed some building that seemed in better repairthan the others, and of course we wanted to explore it. But we thoughtit would be no use examining lesser ruins, when greater ones were athand. For, as we got nearer the center of the town, we could see thatthe square was occupied by a building much more pretentious than any wehad seen so far. From a distance it had looked merely like a jumbledmass of ruins, but when we at last stood before it we could see that suchwas far from being the case.

  "To be sure, the building was in a ruinous condition, but, probably owingto its having originally been built in a more solid fashion even than itsneighbors, it was in comparatively good preservation. Even the roofappeared intact in places, and we marveled as we gazed at it. Greatcolumns rose tier after tier, interspersed with solid walls of granite,until they supported a roof at least eighty or a hundred feet from theground. The facade was ornamented profusely with carvings of men andanimals, some of them very well done, indeed.

  "We realized that this building and its fellows must have been theproduction of some highly developed form of civilization, and many werethe speculations as to who the ancient people could have been.

  "But we soon got tired of looking at the outside, and were all seizedwith a desire to explore the wonderful place. Its main entrance waslittle obstructed, and there was nothing to prevent our going in. It wasas black as pitch inside, although the sun was shining brightly, and wecast about for same means of lighting the interior. We secured someresinous fagots from a great tree that had sprung up near by, and foundthat they burned brightly and would serve our purpose perfectly.

  "Each one of us armed himself with one of these, then, and took anotheralong in reserve. In this fashion we invaded the ancient temple, forsuch we believed it to be, not without, it must be confessed, a ratherchilly feeling in the neighborhood of the spine. At least, I felt thatway, and I have no doubt the others did, too. However, we all carriedrevolvers, and felt confident that if the mysterious 'demon' attacked us,we would be able to give him a sharp argument.

  "Nevertheless we kept closely together, and were inclined to believefirmly in the old adage that 'in numbers there is strength.' We had nodifficulty in climbing over the fallen blocks encumbering the entrance,and soon found ourselves fairly on the inside. The place had a damp,earthy smell, and the air was very close and oppressive. It was black aspitch, too, and the light from our improvised torches did little todispel the gloom.

  "However, it would never do to back out now, so we advanced cautiously,stumbling every once in a while over some fallen piece of masonry. Ourfootsteps rang and echoed under the great vault that we could hardly see,so lofty it was. It seemed almost sacrilege to disturb the silence ofthis building, that had probably not echoed to human footsteps forcenturies.

  "We kept on, nevertheless, until we were halted suddenly by anexclamation from one of the men in front.

  "Look, look!" he exclaimed, pointing with a trembling finger. Wefollowed its direction, and I distinctly felt my hair rise on my head.

  For there, high up near the roof, two green eyes glared down at us with abaleful sparkle! They glinted and glowed, and a gasp went up from ourlittle party.

  "'By all that's holy, what is it?' whispered Tom Bradhurst, my specialfriend.

  "No one answered, but we all got a tight grip on our revolver butts. Wegazed, fascinated, at those two lambent points of light, fully expectingto come to hand grips with the 'demon' then and there. As nothinghappened, however, we plucked up courage enough to advance cautiously,and were soon near enough to make out the cause of our fright. The eyeswere two great emeralds set in the head of a colossal idol carved out ofa great block of solid granite! The image must have been at least thirtyfeet high, and the emeralds were each as large as a robin's egg.

  "'Great Scott!" ejaculated Bob Winters, another of our party, "that thinghas scared me out of ten years of life, and I'm going to have my revenge.I'm going to climb up there and get those emeralds, if it takes a leg.Why, there'll be a fortune in them for all of us."

  "We tried to dissuade him, for our nerves had been shaken, and we didn'twant to monkey with the confounded things. Bob was always a dare-devilchap, though, and set on having his own way. So he went at it, climbingnimbly up the front of the image, until he was in a position to touch thegreat emeralds. Then he drew his hunting knife and commenced prying awayat the stones to dislodge them.

  "Suddenly he gave the most unearthly shriek it has ever been my lot tohear, threw his hands up over his head, and started sliding down thesteep front of the statue. While the shriek yet rang in our ears, agreat section of what had appeared to be solid rock flooring at the baseof the idol opened inward, and our comrade's body hurtled through theaperture and disappeared from our sight. His hunting knife rattled onthe stones at our feet, and then all was silence.

  "If we had been standing a yard nearer the base of the image the wholeparty would have been dropped through the hole."

  At this point Mr. Hartley paused in his narrative, and passed his handover his eyes. The boys saw that great beads of perspiration covered hisforehead, but they had been so absorbed in the story that they had notnoticed this before. They waited breathlessly for him to resume, whichhe did after a few seconds.

  "Well," he continued, "for a few seconds we were stricken motionless bythe suddenness and horror of the thing. Then we gathered ourselvestogether, and rushed to the edge of the gaping opening. We shouted andcalled, and at last were answered by a faint moan. Then we looked intoeach other's eyes, and knew that there was only one thing to do. We mustgo down into that black hole and do what we could to rescue our friend.

  "But how were we to accomplish this? We had no ropes, and the feeblelight of our torches when we thrust them into the black opening failed toreveal any bottom. For this reason we dared not risk a drop, with almostthe certainty of not being able to get back again."

  "It looked as though we were 'up against it,' but finally we made amakeshift rope by tearing up part of our clothing into strips and tyingthem together. This made a fairly serviceable rope, and, after tyingknots in it at intervals to facilitate our descent, we lowered it intothe opening. When we had let it out almost to the end it stoppedswinging, so we knew it had touched bottom. I volunteered to go downfirst, and did so."

  "It was ticklish business, and more than once I almost lost my hold.Finally, however, my feet touched a hard floor, and I let go
."

  "All right!" I shouted to those above. "Come on down."

  "Coming, old man," replied 'Brad,' and the sound of his cheery voice wasa great comfort to me. I knew he would soon be with me, and so gave myattention to finding and helping Bob. I had not gone more than a fewsteps when I discovered him stretched out on the cold rock floor, eitherunconscious or dead. I soon found the former to be the case, to my greatrelief, and forced a few drops of whiskey from my flask between histeeth.

  "By the time Bradhurst had reached my side I could see some signs ofreturning consciousness in Bob's face, and before long he struggled to asitting posture."

  "Wh--what happened, anyway?" he asked.

  "That's what we'd like to know," said Brad. "What made you fall thatway. What struck you?"

  "Something darted out of that cursed thing's mouth and pierced my hand,"replied Bob, as he began to regain his memory. "Look at that!" and heheld his left hand out for us to see.

  "It had been neatly punctured by some sharp instrument, which left asmall wound not more than an eighth of an inch across. The hand waspuffed and swollen, though, and the thought flashed across my mind thatthis scratch was probably not as trivial as it looked. I had littledoubt that the instrument, whatever it was, had been poisoned, and as Istole a swift glance at Brad I could see that the same thought was in hismind.

  "Bob never seemed to think of this possibility, though, and you may besure we were careful not to give him an inkling of our anxiety. Thatwould do no good, and our fears might be unfounded.

  "While we were examining the hand, our companions had descended, and ofcourse Bob had to repeat the cause of the accident to them.

  "But how do you feel now, old man?" queried Brad, when he had finished.

  "Oh, nothing extra," replied Bob. "I seem to feel rather dizzy, but Isuppose that's the result of the fall. I'm lucky not to have broken myneck."

  "Well, anyway, it's up to us to get out of this hoodooed place as soon aspossible," I told them. "Come along. I'll go up first, then you fellowscome, and we'll haul Bob out."

  "Accordingly I started up our improvised rope hand over hand. I had notascended more than five or six feet, however, when with a slight r-r-ipthe rope parted above my head, and I fell back to the stones below.Fortunately I landed on my feet, and so escaped with nothing worse than asevere shaking up.

  "But I had small reason to be thankful, nevertheless, for the desperatenature of our position was soon borne in upon me. How to get out--thatwas the question, and, when I put it up to my companions, they had noanswer.

  "The place in which we were now imprisoned seemed to be a sort of tunnel.It was not more than fifteen feet wide, but we had no means of tellinghow long it might be. To get out the way we had come was evidently outof the question, as the roof of the tunnel was at least twenty-five feetabove our heads.

  "Well, boys," said Bradhurst, at last, "the only thing we can do is tofollow the course of this hole one way or the other, and try to find anoutlet. And the sooner we start the better, as our torches aren't goingto last much longer."

  "Here was another horror added to our situation, which had seemed badenough before. Without light, our chances of escape from the horribleplace would be slight indeed, so we acted on our comrade's advice withoutdelay.

  "There was apparently little choice of direction. Our torches burnedsteadily, and so we knew there was no breeze coming from either directionthat might point to an outlet. Our sense of locality was rather twistedby this time, but after a consultation we set out through the tunnel inwhat we believed to be the direction of our camp. Before we had gonefar, Bob complained of wanting to sleep, and it was all we could do tokeep him moving. I walked on one side of him, holding his arm, whileWryburn, another of the party, supported him on the other side. Bradwalked in front, carefully scanning the walls of the tunnel for signs ofan opening.

  "After we had gone a considerable distance in this manner, we heard afaint roaring sound, that grew constantly louder as we pushed forward.

  "It sounds like water," said Wryburn. "We must be coming to asubterranean river."

  "We had little doubt that this theory was correct, and pressed forwardwith renewed hope. At any rate, we had the assurance that the tunnelwould not end in a blank wall, as we had feared, and so force us toretrace our footsteps.

  "We were held back badly by Bob, though, who, by now, had become almosthelpless. We were forced practically to carry him, and he seemed to havelost consciousness.

  "All things have an end, however, and at last we stood on the bank of theunderground river. It was two or three hundred feet wide, and racedalong with a very powerful current. By this time you may be sure we werevery thirsty, as well as hungry, and the cold water satisfied one cravingif not the other. After we had drunk our fill we set to work dressingBob's wounded hand as well as we could, which is not saying much. Heseemed to be in a sort of coma, from which we were unable to arouse him."

  "After we had made him as comfortable as possible we discussed plans ofescape. I was of the opinion that our best course would be to follow theriver in the hope of its emerging into the open at some point. Thereseemed to be no objection to this from my companions, so after a shortrest we started out. First, we improvised a rude stretcher for Bob, andtook turns carrying it."

  "At the spot where we had first come upon it, the river was edged with alittle strip of coarse gravel, but, as we progressed, this becamenarrower and narrower, and the river seemed to be running with evengreater velocity than before. At last the strip of beach disappearedaltogether, and we had no choice but to enter the water. We splashedalong wearily, and hope burned lower and lower in our breasts. To add toour troubles, our stock of torches was almost exhausted, and we wereforced to burn only one at a time, to make them last longer.

  "The walls between which the stream now ran got closer and closertogether, with the result that the water became deeper and rushed alongwith greater force. The sound of its roaring in the confined place wasdeafening, and communication with each other was out of the question.

  "We had traveled perhaps three miles in this manner, when we suddenlynoticed that the water seemed to be rising! Within a few minutes afterwe had observed this, it crept up to above our knees, and its roaringgrew perceptibly louder. We looked desperately about us for some placeof refuge, but there was none. The stream now ran in a cavern not morethan eighty feet wide and ten feet high, and its smooth, water-worn wallsstretched on into the darkness ahead without a break.

  "We looked at each other in dismay, as the water crept up, deeper anddeeper. Pieces of wood and branches of trees were now floating on it,and Bradhurst said, 'Boys, there must be a heavy rain outside, and thisstream is feeling its effects. If we don't get to some place where itwidens out very soon, we might as well write each other's epitaphs.We've got to hurry like--listen! What was that?'"

  "From the blackness in back of us came a sudden loud, menacing roar,growing in volume every second."

  "Come on, boys, quick!" yelled Bradhurst, setting us the example byforging ahead faster than before. "There's a big wave coming that'llfill this place up to the roof, and the Lord help us if it overtakes ushere."

  "We stumbled along as fast as we could, but could make but slow progress,burdened as we were by the helpless form of our comrade. The water wasalmost to our waists, and the awful wave back of us approached withhorrible rapidity. We were about ready to give up, when Bradhurst, whowas a little in the lead, came ploughing back to us.

  "Come along for your lives, boys," he shouted above the noise of thewater. "This infernal hole widens out a little further on, andif--here, you fellows are tired out. Hustle along, and I'll carry Bob."

  "We tried to stop him, but he paid no attention to us, and, stoopingover, lifted the unconscious form of our companion on his broad back.Thus relieved, we put all our ebbing strength in one last mad dash,pulling Brad and his burden along with us. At last we reached a placewhere the cavern widen
ed, and struggled up on a strip of sandy beach.But we were not out of the water's power yet, by any means. We knew thatour only salvation lay in finding some refuge above the highest level thestream would be likely to reach, and so began a frantic hunt along thewalls of the cavern.

  "By the greatest good fortune, my eye caught sight of a rocky projection,quite a way up the side of the cave, and I yelled to my companions. Theyhurried over, and we climbed desperately up the rocky wall. I was thefirst to reach the platform, and I helped the others over its edge.Bradhurst waited until we were all up, and then hoisted Bob up over hishead. I leaned over as far as I could, and was just able to get a gripon the unconscious man. Assisted by the others, I pulled him up, andthen in a twinkling we had Brad up, too.

  "And not a second too soon, either. Even as we hauled our friend overthe edge, a great foaming wall of water leaped out of the tunnel fromwhich we had emerged not three minutes before, and boiled out over thefloor of the cave in which we were. It washed against the walls, and wethought for a few seconds that it would even reach our place of refuge.It did lap up to within a foot of us, but then spread out more andsubsided a little.

  "We would have been as helpless as so many chips of wood if it had caughtus while in the narrow tunnel, and we shuddered as we thought of ournarrow escape.

  "The ledge on which we found ourselves was amply supplied with driftwood,probably left there at the time of some former flood that had been evenfiercer than this one. We made a fire, and waited for the water tosubside with as much patience as we could muster. We knew that Bob wouldprobably die unless we could get him to a doctor soon, and this made thewaiting all the harder. At times he would rave in delirium, and atothers lie so quiet that more than once we thought him dead.

  "But the water did go down after what seemed to us an age, but was in allprobability not more than a few hours. We resumed our journey down itschannel, and by great good fortune came at last to the place where itemerged into the open air. The sun was shining brightly, and words areinadequate to describe our joy at seeing it once more. We took deepbreaths of the warm tropical air, so grateful after the damp, confinedatmosphere in which we had been so long, and thanked a kind Providencefor our escape.

  "We made our way back to our camp, and arrived just in the nick of time.Our guides had given us up as lost, and were much astonished at seeingus. After their first astonishment had worn off, they seemed to regardus with the greatest respect, which we were at a loss to account for atthe time. We later found out that it was because we had been able tocheat the inexorable 'devil,' supposed to rule the old city, of hisprey.

  "We returned to camp by forced marches, and turned Bob over to the campphysician. He recovered at last, all but his hand, which never regainedits power. The natives said it was the 'demon's curse,' and possiblythey were right.

  "At the time nothing could have hired us to go back to the old ruins, butlately I've had a sneaking desire to go back and finish exploring thatold temple. Perhaps I shall, some day, and likely as not the devil willget me, this time. Who knows?"

  Mr. Hartley ended his strange narrative with a smile, half serious, halfcomical, and his listeners drew a long breath.

  They voted it one of the most exciting tales they had ever heard, andbesieged the engineer with questions as to the location of the ruinedcity. But Mr. Hartley only shook his head.

  "No, no," he said, and, although he smiled, his tone was serious. "Itwould be just like you madcaps to undertake a journey there, and I don'twant to be the cause of your death. If you don't mind, I'd rather nottell you."

  Although disappointed, the boys did not press the matter, and after alittle further discussion of the engineer's story, took their departure.

  "Just the same," declared Bert, on their way home, "I'd like nothingbetter than for us three to tackle that 'devil.' I have an idea we couldstand him on his head."

  "I'd like to try it, anyway," declared Tom, and Dick declared himself asfeeling the same way.

  They talked about little else that evening, and if, after they wereasleep, they were troubled by nightmares, the cause was not hard todetermine.