The Aztec Treasure-House

by Thomas A. Janvier

  XXIV.

  THE AFFAIR AT THE WATER-GATE

  Rayburn gave a great roar of gladness as the clinking sound made himturn and he saw what was going forward; and Young and I joined him inlusty Anglo-Saxon cheering, while our allies, in the savage fashionnatural to them, vented their joy in shrill yells. In the midst of whichcheering and yelling we pushed forward so hotly that the enemy,disconcerted by this sudden shifting of fortune in our favor, and themen directly in front of us being most seriously incommoded by theircomrade lying sprawled out and kicking upon their heads and shoulders,seemed suddenly to lose heart so completely that we had no difficultyin cutting them down. Even had they not been too closely wedged in toturn upon Fray Antonio, our strong dashing upon them would havecompelled them to leave him unharmed in order to defend themselves; andso it was that, by the time we had cut a path to the portal, the monkhad released the whole tier of bars from their fastenings, and the waywas free.

  As we sprang down the steps--with Fray Antonio, once more in the guiseof a non-combatant, safe in the midst of our company--we heard a greatoutcry from below, and saw a considerable body of men marching uptowards us steadily from the water-side; but the alarm that sight ofthem gave us was only momentary, for their shouts, and the shouts of ourmen in answer, showed us that these were friends come to our support.However we had no great need of them, for those of the enemy whom weleft alive behind us seemed suddenly to have grown sick of fighting, andmade no attempt to follow after us down the stairs. Yet the coming ofthis supporting force, to be just in the matter, no doubt was the savingof us; for more than half of the men who had been with us when westarted on our march down through the city had been slain by the way,and nearly all in our company were more or less disabled by wounds.Tizoc and Young and Rayburn had come through it all without as much as ascratch, and because of their extraordinary strength these three werealmost as fresh as when the fighting began; but the rest of us weresorely weary, and our breathing was so heavy and so tremulous that eachbreath was like a long-drawn sob. Truly, then, we were glad to fall inin advance of the supporting column and so make our way, with a strongrear-guard for our protection, across the bit of level land that laybetween us and the lake.

  At the water-side boats were in readiness for us, and here we found alsothe members of the Council who had ordered, and who were the recognizedleaders of, the revolt. There was still more fighting ahead of us, forthe necessity of sending back the relief party had prevented the seizingof the water-gate; and this was a matter that had to be attended toquickly, for we could see bodies of men coming down several of thestreets in pursuit of us, and unless we escaped outside the wall beforethey overtook us there was a strong and dismal probability that ourwhole plan would fail. Therefore, we tumbled aboard the boats with allpossible rapidity, and while the pursuing parties still were far in ourrear we shoved off from the shore.

  Two minutes' quick rowing sufficed to carry our flotilla of boats acrossthe basin, and so brought us to the long pier that extended landwardfrom beside the water-gate, and from which an open stair-way ascended tothe top of the wall. On the pier there was no one at all to oppose ourlanding; and the force on the wall was not likely to be a large one, forthe outbreak had come so suddenly that there had been no time toincrease the small detail maintained in this position in times of peace.Only a few of our men, therefore--thirty or forty, perhaps--were orderedout of the boats to the attack, of which the leader was Tizoc, and withwhich Rayburn and Young went as volunteers. I also would have joined theparty; but Rayburn, knowing that I was slightly wounded, begged me tostay where I was; and Young, as he ran up the stairs, called back to me:"You just see that they keep steam up, Professor. We'll attend t' takin'off th' brakes."

  What went on above us, on top of the wall, we could not see; but thework done there was done quickly. There was a little shouting, a soundof arms clashing, and then four or five men--as though this were theeasiest way of getting rid of them--were thrown over the parapet, andfell near us in the water. To these short shrift was given. As they cameto the surface, our fellows instantly finished them with a spear-thrustor two. Then we heard the sound of a windlass creaking, and the clankingof chains; and as we looked through the opening in the wall we saw thegrating that closed its farther end rise slowly until the way before uswas free. Two of our boats already were in the passage, so that no timemight be lost; and as these passed out into the lake, the othersfollowed after them rapidly. One boat remained to bring off theattacking party, and we wondered a little because its coming was a goodwhile delayed. But we wondered still more when it joined us at last, andwe found that Tizoc and Young and Rayburn were not in it; indeed, atthat moment I saw the three of them standing together on top of thewall. In answer to the shout that I gave, Rayburn leaned over the walland motioned to me to keep silence; and so I knew that they had not beenleft behind through treachery, but were staying there because they hadsome plan against the enemy that they thus could execute. And forknowledge of what their plan was we did not have to wait long.

  As we lay on our oars, off the outer end of the water-gate, we could seethrough it into the basin that lay before the city, and in a very fewminutes the pursuing boats of the enemy came into view. As they nearedus, we saw standing in the bow of the leading boat the same officer whohad commanded the guard that had brought us as prisoners before thePriest Captain; the man of whom I have spoken, for what his real titlewas I do not know, as the barge-master.

  He was calling to his men savagely to row faster; for our boats were soscattered that he only could see the one in which we happened to be, andhe doubtless imagined that the others had gone forward, and that thisone waited to carry off some of our men who yet remained on the wall. Heevidently hoped to be able to cut us off from the rest of our party, andhis eagerness had so communicated itself to his oarsmen that his boatled the others by nearly a hundred yards. So far as this one boat wasconcerned, we felt no alarm, for the moment that it came out through thewall our whole force was ready to dash upon it; yet we wondered whyTizoc permitted even a single boat to come out to the attack, when, bydropping the grating, they all could be penned in so effectually as togive us the advantage of a long start.

  As the boat neared the water-gate the barge-master went back from hisplace in the bow to the middle part of it, and there crouched down; andsome soldiers who were standing crouched down also; and almost as thebow entered the low, narrow passage the oars were unshipped and takenaboard. So cleverly was the unshipping of the oars managed, and so goodwas the steering, that the boat shot into the passage under full speed,and so came nearly through it before losing head-way. And we who werenearest to it got our arms in readiness--for we were convinced that inanother minute the barge-master would lay us aboard. But this was notdestined to be, nor were the men in that boat destined ever to do anymore fighting in this world.

  All this while Rayburn had stood close by the parapet, bending over itand intently watching the outside of the water-gate; above which theheavy metal grating had been hauled up, in the metal grooves that it ranin, almost to the top of the wall. At the moment that the bow of theboat showed outside the opening he raised his hand, as though signallingto Young and Tizoc behind him; and in that same instant we heard theshrieking of the windlass and the quick clanking of the unwindingchains, and saw the metal grating rushing down the face of the wall.With all the force generated by the fall from so great height of soponderous a body, the grating came crashing into the boat justamidships, fairly dividing its heavy timbers and forcing the fragmentsof it, together with all the men that it carried, down into the water'sdepths. But the barge-master died by a quicker death than drowning. Hestill was crouched in the middle of the boat, and the sharp angle of thelower bar of the grating struck him just on the nape of his neck sokeenly that his head was cut off and seemed of itself to spring forwardand away from him; while the broad flat bar, coming down upon his bowedshoulders, crushed his body into a mere quivering mass of flesh.

  A great yell
of delight went up from our boats as this brilliant strokeso brilliantly was delivered; and an answering cry of triumph--that wasone-third a yell and two-thirds a cheer--came back from Tizoc and theothers on top of the wall. However, they had no time to waste inshouting over their success, for the remaining boats of the enemy hadcome by this time to the pier inside the wall, and it seemed highlyprobable that in a minute or two more our three men would be prisoners.But for all their danger they coolly finished the work that they had inhand. As they explained to me afterwards, Rayburn stood at the head ofthe stair to hold the enemy in check should they come before the workwas finished--and very strong as well as very brave men must the manhave been who would have ventured to attack him as he occupied thatposition of overpowering advantage--while the other two cast off fromthe windlass the chains by which the water-gate was operated, anddropped them over the wall into the lake; and as the gate itself wasjammed and wedged fast by the fragments of the boat, this throwing downof the chains made the raising of it a serious undertaking that wellmight require a day or more to accomplish.

  As the chains fell with a splash, and we comprehended the thoroughnessof the work that these three were doing, our people burst forth intoyells again; and a perfect roar went up from them when, the gate beingclosed and the apparatus for raising it being entirely disabled, Rayburnsprang from the outer edge of the parapet into the lake, and Tizoc andYoung instantly followed him. In truth, a more gallant feat of arms hadnot been essayed, nor carried to a more triumphant conclusion, since theRoman gate was held by Horatius; and in my admiration of it I shouteduntil the muscles of my throat were strained and aching. Our boatalready was near the wall--having pulled in that the soldiers aboard ofit might spear such of the enemy as came up to the surface alive--and wehad the three out of the water and safe among us in very short order;and then we pulled away towards the other boats with all possiblespeed--for the wall now was manned by the enemy, and they were beginningto make things unpleasantly hot for us with the heavy stones which theyheaved over the parapet, that our boat might be sunk by them, and by arapid discharge of darts. Luckily, none of the stones struck us, andbecause of the rapid way that we were making, only two of our men werestruck with the darts. So, on the whole, we came out of this encountervery well; for these two men killed in our boat were all that we lost,while of the enemy at least forty were drowned or speared. However, weowed our light escape mainly to the fact that the enemy, having armedhurriedly, and expecting only to fight with us at close quarters, hadwith them neither bows nor slings--but for which fortunate fact itscarcely is possible that a single man in our boat would have come offalive.

  THE LEAP FROM ABOVE THE WATER-GATE]

  Dripping wet though they were, I fairly hugged Rayburn and Young whenthey were safe aboard with us, as did also Fray Antonio, whose daringspirit was mightily aroused by witnessing their splendid bravery. And ingiving them hearty words of praise for what they had done--which yetfell far short of their deserts--I naturally likened them to the Romanhero. Indeed, I may say that the parallel that I there drew was an aptone, and in some of its turns was not devoid of grace.

  "I can't say, Professor," Young answered, when I had finished, "that Iever heard o' th' party you refer to, but if this Horace--what did yousay his last name was?--pinched his fingers in th' drawbridge chains asdamnably as I pinched mine in th' chains of that infernal grating, I'llbet a hat he was sorry that he hadn't run away!" And I truly believethat Young thought more about his pinched fingers than he did about theresolute bravery that he had shown in finishing his work upon the wallin the very face of the advancing enemy.

  Being once out of range of the darts, we pulled towards the other boatsleisurely; for now we were entirely safe against pursuit, and were freeto go upon the lake in whatsoever direction we pleased. That somepositive line of action had been determined upon was evident, for theflotilla already was in motion as we came up in the rear of it--the boatcontaining the members of the Council leading--and the order was passedback to us that we should follow with the rest. From the direction inwhich we were heading, Tizoc inferred that we were bound for the onlyother considerable town in the valley, that which had grown up aroundthe shafts leading to the great mine whence the Aztlanecas drew theirsupply of gold. There was a very grave look upon his face as he told usof our probable destination; and presently added that the population ofthis town--save the few freemen who were in charge of the workings, andthe large guard of soldiers that always was maintained there--was madeup wholly of Tlahuicos who had been selected from their fellows to beminers because of their exceptional hardiness and strength.

  It was among these men, he went on to tell us speaking in a low, guardedvoice, that the most dangerous of the revolts of the Tlahuicosinvariably had their origin; for the miners were fierce, half-savagecreatures, naturally turbulent and rebellious, and were stirredconstantly to resentful anger because of the life of crushing toil thatthey were condemned to lead. So dangerous were they that the onlyeffective means of keeping them in subjection was to hold the major partof them continually prisoners underground in the mine, with a guardstationed at the mouth of each shaft under orders to kill instantly anyman who attempted to come forth from the mine without authority. Inorder that their labor, a thing of positive value, might not be lostthrough their dying of being thus imprisoned in the bowels of the earth,they were divided into ten great companies, each one of which, inregular order, was employed in the surface work under the constantsupervision of a strong guard. Yet even these stern measures were notwholly effective in preventing mutiny. Many times great revolts hadbroken out here that had set all the valley in an uproar, and that hadbeen crushed only after pitched battles had been fought between therebels and the entire military force of the state. The town was averitable volcano, Tizoc declared; and because of the dread of it thatuniversally obtained, by reason of the frequent outbursts there oflawless violence, it had received the name of Huitzilan: the Town ofWar.

  And there could be no doubt, he added--while the tones of his voice andthe look upon his face showed how great he believed to be the riskinvolved in this line of policy--that in now directing our coursetowards the mining town the deliberate purpose of the Council was toincite these semi-savage, wholly desperate miners to join forces with usin our rising against the Priest Captain's power.