Old Gold Part 57

Sir Humphrey pointed this out to the others as they climbed higher and higher; but he was directly afterwards somewhat nonplussed by a question put by the captain--one which was unanswerable. It was simply this:

"How do you suppose the besieged people would get on for water?"

The party were nearing the top at last, having, as far as they could make out, only six more terraces to mount, when, as they paused, breathless and covered with perspiration and dust, for a few minutes'

rest, they heard a peculiar sound, which came from the direction of the end of the terrace nearest to the great central part.

"Why, it must be water falling somewhere right in the cliff," cried Brace; and, forgetting his breathlessness, he hurried along over the crumbling stones and dust in the direction from which the sound seemed to come.

"It comes from out of here," said Lynton, who was first to arrive at the end of the terrace, and he stopped at one of the familiar open doorways and listened.

There was no mistaking the sound now; it was the hollow echoing noise of water falling into some reservoir in the interior of the cliff; and, upon pa.s.sing in, they found that, instead of this being one of the ordinary cells, it was the entrance to a wide pa.s.sage, apparently leading right into the bowels of the mountain.

"Mind how you go," cried Lynton, as Brace stepped boldly in.

"Hullo! what have you found?" cried Briscoe, who came next to Lynton.

"Water? Why, they must have dug out a great cistern or reservoir in here, and let in a spring from somewhere above."

"I say, do mind how you go," cried Lynton excitedly. "It's getting dark there, and you may slip down into some awful well-like hole."

"All right," said Brace confidently. "I'm feeling my way every step with the b.u.t.t of my gun, and I can see yet."

"Precious awful-looking place," said Briscoe. "Here, we must have lights. Stop him, Lynton: he shan't go a step forward. I don't mean for us all to be drowned like rats in a tank."

"You two wouldn't need to be," said Brace coolly, "for you would stop at once if you should hear me go down."

"Oh, of course," said Briscoe, with a sneer: "we shouldn't try to save your life. 'Tisn't likely, is it, Lynton?"

"Not a bit," was the gruff reply; "but I say, Mr Brace, hold hard now.

I'll go back and send a man down below to bring up some pieces of pine-wood to burn."

"I have stopped," said Brace, whose voice sounded to the rest of the party hollow and echoing, dying away in the distance like a peculiar whisper. "There's a great pillar here, and the pa.s.sage branches off to right and left."

"Well, let's have lights."

"I don't think we shall want them if we take the pa.s.sage to the left, for I can see light s.h.i.+ning in through a hole. Yes, and there's another hole farther on. It's a pa.s.sage going down at a slope. Why, it's all steps."

"Steps?" cried Briscoe, as he heard the tap, tap of the steel plate covering the b.u.t.t of Brace's gun as he felt his way.

"And so it is away here to the right: steps going down into black darkness. I know! down to the great tank, into which the water falls from ever so high up."

"Then you stop, young fellow," cried Briscoe hoa.r.s.ely, "or you'll be falling too from ever so high up, and I daresay that's a big stone cistern half a mile deep, and full of water-snakes and polligoblins."

"Listen," said Brace; "I'm going to feed them. Be quiet, everybody," he added, for the pa.s.sage behind was now being filled up, the captain and Sir Humphrey in front.

"What are you going to do now, sir?" asked Lynton.

"Here's a great ma.s.s of stone that seems to have fallen down from the roof close to my feet. Hold my gun."

He pa.s.sed his piece to the mate, who could faintly make out the speaker's shape by the feeble light which came from beyond him to the left.

"Heavy," panted Brace, "Hah!"

He raised the stone right above his head and heaved it from him, the expiration of his breath being plainly heard by the listeners in the painful silence which followed for a couple of seconds. Then there were sparks emitted from somewhere below, where the stone struck with a crash and bounded off into s.p.a.ce.

The crash was echoed, and seemed to reverberate round and round some great vault, and then came directly after a dull, solemn, weird-sounding _plosh_! evidently not many feet below where they were standing.

After this, there were peculiar whisperings and sounds, as if numbers of disturbed occupants of the water were beating and lapping at the walls of the place: then silence once more.

"Be careful, Brace!" cried Sir Humphrey.

"It's all right," said Brace coolly. "There: I've left that place. All of you bear off to the left and follow me down these steps. Hurrah! I believe we've found the way to the great temple at last."

"It's all right, sir," cried Briscoe, who had pa.s.sed Lynton. "I can see plainly now. There's a narrow flight of steps leading down close to the face of the cliff, and it's lit every few yards by big square holes, only they're most of them grown over and choked by creepers."

"Hi! Look out there, everyone," shouted Brace. "Lie down."

For all at once there arose a peculiar rus.h.i.+ng sound, and as everyone crouched as low as he could, he was conscious of the whistling of wings in rapid flight and the ammoniacal odour of a great stream of birds pa.s.sing over them to reach the outlet from the pa.s.sage into the open air.

"It's all right, lads," shouted Briscoe. "It's only a flock of oil-birds that we have disturbed. Yes, I thought so: some of them have helped to block up these window places with their nests. I can feel several here."

The birds were some minutes before they had all pa.s.sed through the opening, and then the tramp downwards was resumed, with the result that before long the light grew stronger from below, and at last quite bright, for a peculiar rustling was heard, which resolved itself into the acts of Brace, who had reached a level spot and was now busy with his large sheath-knife hacking away at a dense ma.s.s of creeper not unlike ivy.

A few minutes later, and he was out upon an overgrown terrace gazing over a much-corroded carved parapet at the sparkling river below; and he uttered a loud cheer and stood waving his hat to the men far down to his left, two of whom were seated in the larger boat.

The top terrace of the great temple-like place had been reached, and after a few words of congratulation upon their success the examination of the strange edifice began.

They were a good deal checked at first by the growth of ages and stones which had crumbled down; but they were not long making out that the construction of the place was upon the same plan as that put in practice over the openings to right and left; though the cells were much smaller, and suggested that they had been intended for occupation by one or at most two people. There were no traces of domestic implements to be found, and nothing but the dust of the crumbling stones and the nests of birds with which the openings of the cells were choked met the searchers' eyes.

The investigation of this portion of the cliff city was, of course, made in the reverse way, terrace after terrace being explored by the adventurers descending; but the L-shaped shafts were far larger and more commodious, and, instead of holes being made for the feet, carefully-made steps had been cut out of the solid stone.

Feeling a.s.sured that if any interesting traces of the old dwellers were to be found they would in all probability be here, Sir Humphrey and his brother headed the search, and one by one every cell was entered and each terrace explored, till, as they looked over the front, they made out that only three more terraces remained, one of which was that below which the great wall of rock went sheer down to the river at the spot where they had cast the line to find bottom.

The party paused now for a few minutes' rest and conversation before descending to these last three terraces.

"It is a wonderful place," said Brace thoughtfully, "and the old people who cut out these cells and did all that carving must have been clever enough for anything. Look at the shaping of this curious-looking monster."

"I admire the way they protected themselves and prepared for a siege as much as anything," said Briscoe. "The manner in which they contrived the water supply is to my mind grand. We must have torches one of these days, and examine that tank, and get up to the top and find out how the spring is led in."

"But it seems strange that there are no more remains left about. They did not possess anything apparently but a few earthen pots and the stone mills," said Brace.

"People didn't furnish much in early times," said Briscoe, laughing. "A man provided himself with a knife, a bow and arrow, or a spear, and a place to lay his head in, and no doubt thought he was rich. He didn't want a van when he was going to move to a fresh residence."

"But these people must have been highly civilised to ornament this temple, or palace, or whatever it was, so grandly."

"Well, let's make our way to the bottom," said Briscoe; "we may find something more interesting yet. Ready, Sir Humphrey?"

"Yes: forward," was the reply.