The Peril Finders

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

  IN THE OLD STRONGHOLD.

  The morning broke fresh and cool, and after a good meal a start was madefor the top stairway, Griggs being armed with two lanthorns, while Chriscarried ropes, and an iron bar fell to Ned's lot, the intention being todrive the chisel-shaped end between two stones or into some crack, sothat the rope might be safely held for the adventurer's descent.

  That which had seemed long and wearisome the day before looked easy now,and they were not long in reaching the slope leading to the firstascent, where the party paused to look back along the depression towhere the animals were browsing contentedly enough, and the remains ofthe camp-fire sent up a tiny column of thin blue smoke. The ranges ofopen cells were on their right, terrace above terrace, all looking sogrey and peaceful, with tree, shrub, and tuft of green flourishing inthe various cracks, that it was difficult to connect the place with thehorrors their search had unveiled.

  "It looks from here," said Bourne, "like the home of so many human beeswho had built their peaceful city against the sides of the cliffs. Doyou think we shall find that similar horrors were perpetrated overyonder?"

  "If the opposite cells were occupied at the same time I'm afraid thereis no doubt about it. We'll find out the ascent to those terraces, ifwe can, to-morrow or next day. I wish we could come upon one of thechambers just as it was occupied by its owner."

  "I dessay we could find a lot of things here on this side," said Griggsquietly to the boys, who generally kept with him for companion, "but itwould be an unked job with shovel and sieve to clear out one of thosecells."

  "A what job?" said Chris.

  "Unked, my lad. That's what a Somersetshire chap I once knew used tocall anything dismal and melancholy. This is going to be an unked jobthis morning, I can tell you, for if it wasn't for the feeling ofcuriosity to know all about these people I should be ready to pitch itover."

  "Well, do," said Chris, "and leave it to Ned and me."

  "'Tisn't a fit job for boys," said Griggs.

  "It isn't a fit job for anybody," said Ned, "but we'd do it because it'slearned and wonderful. Oh, I think it's very fine."

  "P'r'aps it is," said Griggs coolly, "but you're not going to take thejob out of my hands, and so I tell you. Just hark at him, Chris; he hasgot the idea in his head that he's going to discover swords with goldensheaths, and belts thick with precious stones; helmets with plumes offeathers, and rich and costly armour."

  "Not such a noodle," said Ned, whose cheeks had turned very red, forthough not so extravagant as the American painted, he was fain to own tohimself that he had some such ideas in connection with the duskywarriors who had stormed the place.

  "I got thinking a deal of it though last night after I lay down," saidGriggs, who did not care to carry his taunts any further after seeingthe colour of Ned's face, "and I was precious glad that I didn't go downwith only a few matches for light. I got dreaming about it afterwards."

  "What, about the old fighting men? The dead?"

  "No. About what might be there all alive."

  "What!" cried Chris. "Not about snakes?"

  "But I did, my lad; and I kept on waking up and then going to sleep anddreaming the same thing again. I never saw such big ones alive as I sawcreeping along the bottom of that great square hole, getting into thecorners and squirming up one till they nearly stood upon their tails,and then fell over sidewise with a crack that sent the dust flying."

  "Horrid!" said Chris.

  "Yes. They're not nice things to dream about--snakes--because of thewaking up."

  "Yes, I know," cried Chris eagerly. "You fancy that you really havethem about you, and feel as if you can't believe it was only a dream."

  "You never felt like that?" cried Griggs.

  "Yes, I have, more than once."

  "Well, that's strange, because it's just how I felt over and over againlast night, and it quite set me against the job."

  "But now it is morning and we're all awake and rested you don't thinkit's likely that there are any rattlers down in that hole?"

  "I do think it's very likely, my lad," said the American gravely. "Giveone a rocky place out in the desert where the hot sun shines, andthere's no one to interfere with them, and you're pretty sure to findsome of those gentlemen. I wonder we haven't seen more."

  "I don't like the idea of your going down, Griggs," said Chris.

  "Forward there," cried the doctor from below, as he finished a long lookat the edge of the cliff, sweeping it with his glass and wonderingwhether they could reach the tableland in which the depression stoodlike a chasm split in a blue, rocky desert, "Yes," he said sharply,changing the course of his thoughts, "we must explore the other side ofthis great chasm, but let's finish one side first."

  He was content to let Chris take the lead, and his friends smilinglygave way, humouring him, as they called it to themselves, Bournegood-temperedly taking it all as a matter of course, and feeling innowise jealous on behalf of his own son. Wilton had on one occasionsaid something about favouritism, but Bourne had only laughed.

  "Oh, let the boys alone," he said, "and let them settle the supremacybetween them. That will be all right. Chris is as honest and frank asthe day. You must have seen that."

  "Seen what?"

  "Why, that the boy's generous at heart. He bullies Ned horriblysometimes, and then afterwards he seems to repent and behaves like alamb, while Ned turns dog."

  So it was that in this matter of the exploration Chris led with hiscompanion, and Griggs followed next, as if he were their henchman, whilethe three friends came last.

  The ascents were made with spirit till all stood in the chamber at theback of which the opening led into the side of the square pit, and here,while the doctor thoughtfully turned over and examined some of theremains still left, Griggs lit the lanthorn he had brought, and Ned tiedone end of a hide-rope to it, ready for the lowering down, while Chrishad stepped through the hole and stood on the broad ledge at the foot ofthe rough projections in the stone wall that acted as steps.

  "It must have been awful," he said aloud suddenly, as he stood peeringup through the twilight at the remains of the piled-up stones at thetop.

  "What must have been awful?" asked Wilton, stepping out to his side.

  "Why, that fight when the Indians climbed up these steps, with the otherpeople raining down big stones on their heads."

  "Think it was so?" said Wilton quietly.

  "I feel sure of it. My word! Never mind about them being horriblysavage--how brave they must have been! Why, I felt regularly shaky athaving to get up yonder with no enemy to face."

  "Yes, it's an ugly place," said Wilton; "but what about enemies downbelow? Can you see anything?"

  "No," said Chris, gazing down. "It's as black as black. I say, though,if there are any enemies down there they're poisonous."

  "What do you think possibly can be down there--one of the fierce cats ofthe country?"

  "No," said Chris, smiling queerly. "Rattlers."

  "Ugh!"

  "If there are any we shall see them when the lanthorn's swung down.Why, it will be a good bit of sport for you to have a shot at them."

  "The horrible beasts!" said Wilton.

  "We're ready when you are," said Griggs from the chamber. "The light'sburning quite brightly."

  "Bring it here, then.--I say, Mr Wilton, there isn't room for all of uson this bit of a landing. Will you go up to the top and be ready tofire?"

  "No," said Wilton shortly. "I'll leave it to you and Ned."

  He stepped back to join his friends in the chamber, and then, seeing howthey were occupied, he stepped out on to the remains of the terrace, tostand there examining the openings in the cliff-face opposite.

  "That's right, Griggs, swing it down gently," said Chris. "You, Ned,unsling your gun, and the first rattler you see give him a charge ofsmall shot."

  Ned fixed himself against the wall with his left arm round one of theprojections, cocke
d his piece, and stood ready with the muzzle pointeddownward, gazing the while into the darkness far below, now beginning tobe illumined by the swinging lanthorn, as Griggs paid out the rope andsent it lower and lower.

  "You can see the heap of stuff--ashes, lying in a slope now," criedChris, who was watching intently. "Look, there's one of those--you knowwhat--looking almost white and shining.--Isn't that something moving,Griggs?"

  "Can't see anything yet but that pile of stuff that went down. I say,it's not so very deep, after all."

  "Thirty feet at least," said Chris decisively.--"There, I'm sure ofthat. I saw something move right over in that--"

  "Corner," he was going to say, but the word was smothered by the sharpechoing report of Ned's piece, whose flash seemed brighter than thelight of the lanthorn, which glowed like a dull star now disappearing ina passing cloud of smoke.

  "A rattler?" cried Chris.

  "I'm not sure, but I saw something gliding along, and I fired."

  "Good boy! Quite right! Sharp's the word. But I say, what a smotheryou've made. Get in another cartridge."

  _Click_! went Ned's piece as he closed the breech.

  "If that was a rattler," said Griggs coolly, "seems as if it was just aswell that I didn't go down last night."

  "And this morning too," said Chris. "Why, there may be quite a nest ofthe brutes down there."

  "P'r'aps so. But if there is it must have made some of them sneeze whenall that dust went down with a rush yesterday."

  Just then Wilton leaned in at the window-opening of the cell where thedoctor and Bourne were examining a carefully-smoothed, elliptical,cell-like stone with a hole through the thickest part as if for holdinga wooden handle.

  "What have you found?" he said.

  "A stone battle-axe, without doubt."

  "Ah, it does look like it. You must save that. You have your glasseswith you?"

  "Yes," said the doctor. "Want them?"

  "Please. I want to look round."

  The doctor slipped the strap of the case over his head and passed it tohis friend.

  "Give a look at the mules and ponies," he said. "If there's anythingwrong they'll seem uneasy."

  "Snake in the grass, eh?"

  "Yes."

  "All right.--I say, you within there, what have you shot?"

  "Don't know yet," replied Chris. "Ned thought he saw a thumping greatrattler."

  "Did he?"

  "It's too thick with smoke to see yet, but it's clearing fast."

  Wilton, who displayed more and more his disgust with the task hisfriends had set themselves, took the glass and began sweeping the sidesof the depression, noting the cracks and gullies running up thecliff-face opposite in amongst the cell-like openings, all wonderfullyclear and bright in the morning air, while Bourne and the doctor,encouraged by the discovery of the relic of the stone age, went onturning over the ashes in the next cell.

  Meantime the party at the side of the square pit waited impatiently forthe smoke to rise and float out beneath the overhanging portion of thecliff above the top range of cells, Griggs giving the lanthorn a wavenow and then, sending it flying, pendulum-like, as far as he could reachwithout bringing it in contact with the smoothly-cut wall.

  "Not much chance for anybody or anything to get out of here again if hewas at the bottom, lads. It's a regular trap," he said.

  "Yes, but take care, or you'll be breaking the lanthorn," said Chriswarningly.

  "Nay, I won't do that, my lad," replied Griggs quietly. "But I say,squire, did you aim at its head or its tail?"

  "I aimed at the part I saw moving," said Ned. "Can you see it yet?"

  "Nay. Can you?"

  "No."

  "I'm afraid you shot at nothing," said Griggs, with a laugh, "and youhaven't killed it."

  "I'm sure I saw something moving," cried Ned indignantly.

  "Where is it, then? It's clear enough to see now."

  "Gone down into a hole, perhaps."

  "Or crawled down its own throat perhaps."

  "I know," said Chris merrily; "Ned never misses anything. The poorbrute has swallowed its own tail, formed itself into a ring, and bowledout like a hoop."

  "Of course," cried Ned, raising his piece to his shoulder, as the lightnow penetrated well into one of the opposite corners, and without a wordof warning he fired again.

  "What did you do that for?" cried Chris excitedly.

  "To put that reptile out of its misery," said Ned.

  "To fill the place with smoke again," cried Chris indignantly. "It'sall fancy."

  "Precious noisy fancy," said Griggs dryly. "My word, he must be athumper! Talk about smoke, he is kicking up a dust."

  Chris was silent as he stood listening to the struggles of what wasevidently a large serpent, while it writhed violently below them,beating about and lashing the pile of remains that had crumbled downfrom the cell, and sending up quite a cloud to mingle with that ofvapour which rose, smelling pungently of hydrogen, towards theoverhanging blocks of stone roofing in the square pit.

  "I guess I'm quite satisfied now that I didn't go down," said Griggscoolly; "but there don't seem to be more'n one, or we should hear themtravelling about."

  "This one makes noise enough for a dozen," said Chris.--"I say, Ned, Ibeg pardon. You don't want me to go on my knees, do you?"

  "No," replied the boy calmly, as he made the breech of his double gunsnap to very loudly; "only I wouldn't be quite so cocksure that you knoweverything, next time."

  "Thy servant humbles himself to the dust," said Chris, in Eastern style.

  "I wouldn't do that, if I were you," said Griggs dryly; "certainly nottill that gentleman below has done kicking it up. Say, how big shouldyou say this one is?"

  "Oh, I don't know. It sounds as if it might be twenty feet long."

  "Yes; but if it is as long as that it wouldn't be a rattler."

  "No; only a thumper," cried Ned, laughing. "Hark, it's quieting downnow. Shall I give it another dose as soon as it is still?"

  "No; save all the ammunition you can, my lad. It has had enough tofinish it off. How strange it is that anything long should take such atime to die."

  They stood there patiently listening to the movements below, the lashingabout gradually ceasing, to give place to a gliding, rustling sound asif the injured creature was travelling rapidly about endeavouring toescape. The dust began to settle as the smoke floated away, but twiceover arose again as after a spell of silence there was the sound of afall.

  "He was trying to get up in the corner yonder," said Griggs.

  "How horrible if it comes up one of these angles," said Ned, drawing hisbreath sharply.

  "No fear," cried Griggs. "Snakes can only raise themselves up for acertain distance, and then they fall over. I've watched them often."

  "I say, he's getting quieter now," said Chris.

  This was plain to all, for the rustling died out, began again morefaintly, died out again, there was the sound of a pat or two as if givenspasmodically by the reptile's tail, and then all was quite still, whilethe dust had cleared away so that the watchers could see by thelanthorn's light the inert body of a very large rattlesnake.

  "Why, it's not half so big as I expected," cried Chris.

  "The biggest I ever saw," said Griggs quietly.

  "But it made such a tremendous noise," cried Chris. "I expected to seeone double that size. I say, hadn't Ned better give him anothercharge?"

  "No; one of you go up to the top and drop a good-sized stone down uponhim. We shall see whether there's life enough in him to be dangerous."

  "Hold my rifle, Chris, and I'll go," cried Ned eagerly, and the nextminute he was scaling the side, and on reaching the top he walked towhere he was nearly over the reptile, where he picked up a couple ofstones of the size of a man's fist and pitched one down, with the resultthat the snake began to writhe violently again, but only for a verybrief time, before once more lying perfectly inert.

  "No more mischief
in that fellow," said Griggs. "I may as well go downnow."

  "What about the others?" said Chris.

  "What others?"

  "There are sure to be some more."

  "Nay; rattlers are not above showing fight. If there had been any morewe should have seen or heard them. I shall chance it now."

  "I don't like your going down yet," said Chris anxiously. "I'll have ashot at him now."

  "Nay, nay; we may want our cartridges for something more useful than arattler that has had as much as it wants to kill it."

  "I'll drop another stone on him," said Ned. "One of those big ones."

  "Ah, do," said Griggs. "Take good aim, and drop it right on his head.Can you see?"

  "Oh, yes, I can see quite plainly."

  Ned raised one of the heaviest stones near him, and after a gentle swinglet it go, to fall with a sharp crack upon other stones, making thesnake twine again and writhe round the block, to hold on tightly.

  "Why, he has pinned it down," cried Chris. "Good aim."

  As he spoke the snake untwined itself and straightened out, to lieperfectly still.

  "That's done for him," cried Griggs, "and if there had been any morethat would have sent them squirming out of their holes. Here, you comedown, squire. I'm going to knot two lariats together and pass them overone of these steps. I want you to help hold on."

  Ned descended, the rope was given a couple of turns round the lowestprojection, and held by the two boys; the lanthorn was lowered down tostand on the heap of dust below, and the end of the rope by which it waslowered also held by Chris, while upon drawing his keen hunting-knifeand taking it in his teeth, Griggs just said, "Hold tight," took hold ofthe lowered rope, and slid lightly down, to stand below the watchers onthe heap.

  "Mind the snake, Griggs," cried Chris.

  "Tell him he'd better mind," was the reply, as the American raised thelanthorn and, knife in hand, approached the reptile cautiously, and thenthe lookers-on saw him stoop lower and lower till he was near enough forhis purpose, when there was a quick movement, a flash of light reflectedfrom the knife-blade, and Griggs rose again.

  "You've pinned him down with that last stone, squire. Head's off, andhe'll do no more mischief. Now then, I'm going to look for your weaponso' war."

  The boys could see the bottom of the square place clear enough now, asthe lanthorn began to move about; but there was little to see. Uponthis side lay the heap of ashes specked with a few fragments of bonewhich glistened feebly in the light, but beyond the heap which rantongue-like from the side out to the centre, there was nothing to beseen but stones--heavy stones such as remained like the broken-downportions of the breastwork about the edges of the excavations at thetop.

  "Can't see no treasures," said Griggs gruffly; and directly after,"There aren't a single shield--no spears--no swords--no breast-plates--no rifles."

  "Dear me!" said Chris sarcastically. "I wonder at that. How manyrevolvers can you see?"

  "Nary one," said Griggs coolly. "No gauntlets, no backpieces."

  Then there was a pause, before the searcher straightened himself up andsaid decisively--

  "No, nothing."

  "How disappointing," cried Ned. "But what about all those stones?"

  "To be sure. You don't call them nothing?" cried Chris.

  "No; there's plenty of them, my lads, and plenty of something elseunderneath them, I'll be bound, if any one thought it worth while toclear out this cellar."

  "But what do you think now, Griggs?" cried Chris eagerly.

  "Same as I did before, my lad. I shouldn't like to guess, but you mayfeel sure that many a savage came to his end here and lies covered in bythese stones. The people who defended this place from up yonder musthave showered the stones down when they were attacked. There, it's ofno use for me to stop down here. Are you two going to haul me up, or amI to climb?"

  "We'll try and haul you up," said Chris. "Stop a moment while I takethe rifles and stand them up against the wall inside."

  "Hold hard a moment," said Griggs. "You'd better go and fetch thedoctor. He might like to come down and see before I send up thelanthorn."

  "I'll call him," said Chris, and he turned to pass through the opening,but was met by his father, who was crossing the stone chamber adjoining.

  "Here, quick," cried the doctor; "come out of this place! Where'sGriggs?"

  "Here am I, neighbour. Nothing to be found, only what fell in fromwhere you stand. But there's hundreds upon hundreds of stones, andthose who were beaten down must have been buried by what hit them."

  "Yes, I suppose so," said the doctor anxiously; "but we've somethingelse to think of now."

  "Don't say the mules have stampeded, sir?" cried Griggs anxiously.

  "No; they're grazing peacefully enough at present, but there's somethingworse."

  "Then give a pull with the lads at that rope, sir, and let me get out ofthis. One minute; the lanthorn first."

  The doctor raised the lanthorn, and his first act was to blow it outbefore joining at the rope and hauling the searcher to the platform.

  "What is it, sir?" cried Griggs anxiously.

  "Come and see," was the reply.

  The doctor made his way through the hole and crossed the chamber intowhich it opened, before entering the next, closely followed by the boysand Griggs, who caught up their rifles as they passed them, dragging theropes as they went.

  As they entered the second chamber it was to see the doctor join Bourneat the window-opening, while beyond them stood Wilton sheltering himselfbehind a patch of bushy growth hanging from above, as he stood watchingsomething intently through the doctor's double glass.

  "See any more, Wilton?" said the doctor anxiously.

  "Scores," was the reply, given without the speaker turning his head."You can see for yourself; they're collecting together on the very edgeof the cliff away there, and at first they stood gazing down into thedepression."

  "Do you think they saw you?" said the doctor hoarsely.

  "Oh no, I feel sure that they did not at first, and I have kept inshelter since; but they have caught sight of something else."

  "What?" cried Griggs.

  "Ah! You there?" said Wilton sharply. "You had better come and have alook through this glass; you may be able to tell what race they are."

  "Perhaps," said Griggs shortly; "but what is it they can see?"

  "The ponies and mules."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes; there was one of the men, a chief apparently, pointing down atthem. I could see it plainly through the glass."

  "Indians, Ned," whispered Chris. "They must have been following us allthis time, and we're in for it now."