XX.
THE PRIEST CAPTAIN'S SUMMONS.
There was so much meaning in my look as I turned towards Tizoc that Ihad no need to speak; he knew that I had comprehended the situation, andso answered my look in words.
"Do you wonder that I rejoice over your coming, and over the news whichyou bring? The will of the gods no longer is that we shall do the workfor which our lord Chaltzantzin destined us; therefore are we free toset aside the custom that he decreed by which our weak ones arecondemned to death, and with it the custom, yet more cruel, of our owndevising, by which they are saved from death only that they may be madeslaves. To my boy neither slavery nor death shall come. Through you thegods have spoken, and he is saved. And now also is fulfilled theprophecy that of ancient times was spoken, that with the coming into theValley of Aztlan of a four-footed beast, bearing upon its back a man,the power of the Priest Captain should end."
Much more, doubtless, Tizoc would have said to us, for an exaltedemotion stirred him; but at that moment there was the sound of hurryingfeet in the outer enclosure, and then Tizoc's secretary came through thenarrow entrance into the court-yard, followed closely by a detachment ofthe guards. The secretary spoke hurriedly to his master, apart from us,and from his excited manner in speaking, and from the anxious look uponhis master's face as he listened, we inferred that some very stirringmatter was involved in the communication that he brought.
For a few moments Tizoc stood in silence, his head bowed, as thoughengaged in earnest thought. Then he turned to us and spoke. "The PriestCaptain has sent his order that you shall be brought before him," hesaid, "and that you must go hence without delay." And then he added,taking me aside and speaking in a low voice: "There is great commotionalready in the city, for the soldiers have noised abroad the news whichyou bring. The Council of the Twenty Lords has been called together, andI am told that a messenger from the Council is on his way hither. Thatmy order to take you to the city in such haste, and directly to thePriest Captain, is so stringent, I cannot but think is caused by hisdesire to get you hence before the messenger from the Council shallarrive. His purpose towards you surely is an evil one; but fear not--youbring a message of freedom and deliverance that has only to be publishedto raise around you a host of friends. And now we must go."
In a few moments we had quitted Tizoc's house, passed out through thefortified gate-way in the heavy wall by which the little plateau on themountain side was defended; and so, by a broad road that descendedsharply, went downward towards the border of the lake. Our order ofmarch was the same as that adopted in bringing us from the Barred Pass:before us and behind us were detachments of the guards, and Tizoc walkedwith us. In accordance with his desire, that he expressed to me in acautious whisper, Pablo rode upon El Sabio's back. There was no need forhim to explain his motive in making this suggestion. It was his purpose,evidently, to exhibit the fulfilment of the prophecy as conspicuously aspossible, and so to prepare the ground for the sowing of the seeds ofrevolt.
I had an opportunity now to tell Rayburn and Young of what Tizoc hadbeen speaking at the moment when the summons from the Priest Captaincame; and also of the strong personal reason that he had for protectingus, even to the extent of forwarding the outbreak of revolution, in hisdesire to save from death or slavery the son whom he so well loved.
"I'm not at all surprised to hear that what we've told 'em is going tostart a revolution," Rayburn said. "That's just the way I sized thematter up, you know, as soon as I got down to the first facts. If they'dhad a decent sort of a fellow at the head of things, they might haveworked along so as to take a fresh start without fighting over it. Butthis Priest Captain chap isn't that kind. He goes in for Boss managementand machine politics, I should judge from what the Colonel says, asstraight as if he was a New York alderman or the chairman of a Statecampaign committee in Ohio. No doubt he's got a pretty big crowd back ofhim; but that kind of a crowd don't amount to much in a fight, whenthere's any sort of a show for the other side to win. It sort of getsout of the way, and stands around with water on both shoulders, andthen, when one side begins to get pretty well on top--it don't matterwhich--it says that that's the side it's been fighting with all along,and begins to kick the fellows that are down. Where our chance comes inis in having the respectable element, the solid men who pay taxes andhave an interest in decent government, to tie to. They may not pay taxeshere, but that's the kind I mean. And that kind, when it takes tofighting, fights hard. Then there must be a lot of fathers with crippledchildren, like the Colonel here, who are down on the Priest Captain theworst kind, and will be only too glad of a chance to go for him; andthey can be counted on to stand in with us, and to fight harder thananybody. I'll admit, Professor, that we're in a pretty tight place; butit might be a good deal tighter, and I do honestly believe that we'llget out of it."
"And so do I," said Young, "'specially now that I know that that burroof Pablo's is part of a prophecy. I always did think that there wasstyle about El Sabio, any way, an' now I know what it comes from. When Iwas a boy, th' one thing that used t' keep me quiet in church washearin' our minister read that story about Balaam and _his_ burro; but Inever thought then that I'd actually ketch up with a live ass that wasin the prophesyin' line of business for itself--or had prophecies madeabout it, which is pretty much the same thing. T' be sure, this prophecydon't come down t' dots quite as much as I'd like it to; but I s'posethat that's th' way with 'em always--eh, Professor? Th' prophets sort o'leave things at loose ends on purpose; so's they can run 'wild' on aclear track, without any bother about schedule time or connections."
"Well, our burro lays over Balaam's," Rayburn struck in. "In that caseit took the combined arguments of an ass and an angel to convince Balaamthat he was off about his location, and was running his lines all wrong;but, unless we count in Pablo, El Sabio is playing a lone hand; and I'msure that the Colonel's not fooling us about this prophecy business,either. It's rubbish, of course; but that don't matter, so long as thepeople here swallow it for the genuine thing. Just look at that oldfellow there. He's tumbled to it, and he's regularly knocked out."
We were close to the shore of the lake by this time, and as Rayburnspoke we were passing a small house, in front of which was gathered agroup of Indians. In the midst of the group was a very old man, whowith out-stretched arm was pointing towards Pablo and El Sabio, and whoat the same time was talking to his companions in grave and earnesttones. There was a look of awe upon his age-worn face, and as we fairlycame abreast of him he dropped upon his knees and raised his arms abovehis head, as though in supplication to some higher power. The action,truly, was a most impressive one; and even more strongly than we wereaffected by it did it affect those who were clustered around him. In amoment all in the group had fallen upon their knees and had raised theirarms upward; and then a low moaning, that presently grew louder and morethrilling, broke forth among them as they gave vent to the feeling ofawful dread that was in their hearts.
"That's business, that is," Young said, in tones of great satisfaction."Those fellows do believe in th' prophecy, for a fact; and if th' folksonce get it fairly into their heads that th' time has come for theirrascally Priest Captain t' have an upset, that's a good long start forour side towards upsettin' him. It was just everlastin'ly level-headedin th' Colonel t' make Pablo ride El Sabio, and so regularly cram th'thing down these critters' throats. I don't know how much of th'prophecy he believes himself, but he's workin' it for all it's worth,any way. There don't seem t' be any flies worth speakin' of on th'Colonel--eh, Professor? And I guess that anybody who wants t' get upearlier 'n th' mornin' than he does 'll have to make a start overnight."
By this time the road that we followed had come down to the lake-level,and presently we reached the end of it, which was a well-built pier thatextended out from the shelving shore into deep water. Here a boat was inwaiting for us--a barge of near forty feet in length, with twenty men torow it, and carrying also a mast, stepped well forward, so rigged as tospread a sail that was a c
ompromise between a lug and a lateen. Therewas some little talk between the officer in charge of the barge andTizoc, and then the latter motioned us to go on board. The barge-mastergave the order to the guard to follow us, as though the command of theparty now had devolved upon him; and it seemed to us, from the closegroup that the guard made around us in the boat, and from the anxiouslooks which the barge-master cast upon us, that very strict orders musthave been given concerning keeping us closely in ward. Under thesecircumstances, it caused us some little wonder that we were permitted toretain our arms, until the thought occurred to me that these people,having no knowledge of such things, did not at all realize that ourrifles and revolvers were arms at all. To test which theory I drew oneof my pistols--not violently, but as though this were something that Iwas doing for my own convenience--and so held it in my hands that themuzzle was pointed directly at the heart of the soldier who sat besideme; yet beyond the interest that its odd shape, and the strange metalthat it was made of aroused in him, it was evident that the man regardedmy action entirely without concern. I drew the attention of Rayburn andYoung to what I was doing, and to how evident it was that fire-armswere unknown to this people; and in their ignorance we found much causefor satisfaction.
CHECKING YOUNG'S OUTBREAK]
"If they don't know enough to corral our guns," Young said, "we've got apretty good-sized piece of dead-wood on 'em. Th' way things are goin',we may have a rumpus a'most any time, I s'pose; and if it does come to arumpus, they'll be a badly struck lot when we open on 'em. RobinsonCrusoe cleaned out a whole outfit of Indians with just an old flint-lockmusket; and I should say that we'd simply paralyze this crowd when weall get goin' at once with our revolvers an' Winchesters. Isn't thatyour idea of it, Rayburn?"
But Rayburn did not answer, for while Young was speaking he had takenout his field-glass and was examining the city, to within three or fourmiles of which we now were come. "Well, that _is_ a walled city, and nomistake!" he said, as he lowered the glass from his eyes. "Take a look,Professor. These people may be easy to fool when it comes to prophecies,but when it comes to engineering and architecture they're sound all theway through. Just look at the straightness of that wall running up thehill, and how exact the alignment is of the two parts above and belowthat ledge of rocks. They had to get that alignment, you know, by takingfore-sights and back-sights from the top of the ledge; and I must saythat for people who haven't got far enough along in civilization to weartrousers, it's an uncommonly pretty piece of work."
As I looked through the glass I was less impressed by this technicaldetail, involving the overcoming of engineering difficulties which I didnot very thoroughly understand, than I was by the majestic effectproduced by the city as a whole, in conjunction with the site on whichit was reared. At this point the lake came close up to the vastly highcliffs by which the valley everywhere was girt in, and here jutted outfrom the cliff a great promontory of rock, whereof the highest part wasfully two hundred feet above the lake-level. For the accommodation ofthe houses which everywhere were built upon it, the sloping face of thispromontory had been cut into broad terraces, of which the facings weremassive walls of stone; and the whole was enclosed by a wall of greatheight and enormous thickness that swept out in an immense semicirclefrom the face of the cliff, and thus shut in the terraced promontory andalso a considerable area of level land at the base of it between thelowest terrace and the margin of the lake.
On the highest terrace, crowning and dominating the whole, was amajestic building that seemed to be half temple and half fort--a squarestructure, resting solidly against the face of the cliff, and thenceprojecting a long way outward to where its facade was flanked by twolow, heavy, square towers. Architecturally, this building, unlike anyother of which I had knowledge in Mexico, saving only the temple that wehad found upon the lonely mountain-top, was pervaded by a distinctlyEgyptian sentiment. Its walls sloped inward from their bases, and notrivial nor fretful lines weakened the effect of their massive dignity;for the whole of the decoration upon them was a broad panelling that wasgained by a combination of heavy pilasters and a heavy cornice; and withthe exception of a central entrance, the front was unbroken by openingsof any kind. Possessing these characteristics, the building had about itan air of solemnity that bordered closely upon gloom; and the obvioussolidity of its construction was such that it seemed destined to last onthrough all coming ages in defiance of the assaults of time. There wasno need for me to question Tizoc; for I knew that what I beheld beforeme, crowning with sombre grandeur this strange city, girded with suchprodigious walls, was the Treasure-house that Chaltzantzin, the AztecKing, had builded in the dim dawning of a most ancient past.
Young took his turn in looking through the glass, and as he handed it toFray Antonio he said: "If at any time in th' course o' th' past fewweeks, Professor, you've got th' notion from any o' my talk that Ithought that dead friend o' yours, th' old monk, was a liar, I want t'take it all back; and I want t' take back all that I've said about thatother dead friend o' yours, th' Cacique, havin' set up a job on us. It'sclear enough now that both o' your friends played an entirely squaregame. They said that there was a walled city, an' there it is; they saidthat there was a big Treasure-house, an' there _that_ is. They wereperfect gentlemen, Professor, and I want t' set myself right on th'record by sayin' so. If one of 'em hadn't been dead for more than threemonths, and if th' other one hadn't been dead for more than threehundred years, and if they both were here, I'd knuckle under and ask 'emt' take my hat."
The Aztec Treasure-House Page 22