The Golden Magnet Part 26

"Yes, Tom," I said; "I want to explore this bird-chamber part of the cave. And besides, we need run no risks this time--we need not go into the terrible parts."

"Very good, Mas'r Harry; only reck'lect about the pitcher as goes so often to the well getting broken at last."

"But you'll go with me, Tom?" I said.

"Go with you, Mas'r Harry? Course I will! I should just like to catch you going without me. Don't you get coming none of them games."

The result of this was that one morning, soon after sunrise, Tom and I were climbing over the rocks that barred the mouth of the cave. We had plenty of provision and plenty of candle. Each man, too, carried his own tinder-box and a small coil of knotted cotton rope, which served as a girdle, and so was not allowed to enc.u.mber our movements.

Light-hearted and eager, I led the way, and we pushed right in past the rift on the ledge which led to the bird-chamber, for we were anxious to see what had become of our raft.

It was just as I antic.i.p.ated: we found it self-anch.o.r.ed between two blocks of stone within fifty yards of the tunnel-arch; and landing it, we cut the leather thongs, let out the wind, and then hid the whole affair behind some rocks--in case, as Tom said, we might want it again.

A rest and a slight attack upon the provisions, and we were once more journeying towards the mouth, but only to pause in the chamber where lay the opening that had saved our lives.

A little agility took us to the mouth of the rift; and now, candle in hand, we could see the pa.s.sage through which we had travelled so laboriously, to find it the easiest of any crevice we had traversed, the floor being deeply covered with guano, as was the case with the bird-chamber when we entered it, at last, to find a vast hall of irregular shape, swarming with the guacharo, or b.u.t.ter-bird of South America--a great night-jar, pa.s.sing its days in these fastnesses of nature, but sallying out at dark to feed. The uproar they made was tremendous, and several times I thought that our lights would be extinguished, though we escaped that trouble and continued our search.

The floor was nearly level, and the roof, like the others in the cave, covered with stalact.i.tes; but the birds and their nests completely robbed the place of beauty or grandeur.

An hour spent here convinced me that we knew the two only pa.s.sages leading from the place, so we continued our investigations, travelling along the farther pa.s.sage till the sound of the great waterfall smote upon our ears, but still nothing rewarded our search though we went to the end.

A pa.s.sage of the most rugged nature, but a pa.s.sage only, with nothing in the shape of branch or outlet save into the amphitheatre, into which we had no desire to penetrate. Certainly the pa.s.sage widened out into a chamber with glistening roof here and there, but with rocky floors, and presenting nothing striking as likely to reward my search.

At the end of a couple of hours we were back in the bird-chamber (I continue to call the places by the names that first struck us as suitable), when we sat down for another rest and time of refres.h.i.+ng, for we had no peril to dread this time; and now, once more, I began to think over with damped spirits the possibility of finding what might have been here concealed. Treasures, the wealth of nations, might have lain hidden for ages, with the guano continually acc.u.mulating to bury them deeper and deeper; but were they buried there?

I would try and prove it, at all events; and rousing myself from my musing fit I took a sharp-pointed rod with which I had come provided, and began to probe the soil, Tom watching me earnestly the while.

But nothing rewarded my endeavours. I probed till I was tired, and then Tom took up the task, but always for the rod to go down as far as we liked in the soft, yielding earth.

At last I told him to give up, for the possibility of success seemed out of the question. Fatigue had robbed me of my sanguine thoughts, and wearily I led the way back to the mouth of the cave, and we again had a rest, Tom lighting his pipe, and I gladly seeking the solace of a doze.

Rest and refreshment had their usual effect, and I was soon up again and at work with the rod, thrusting it down into the sand all over the place, till in one spot it struck upon something hard, and my heart leaped; but a little tapping of the hard matter showed that it was nothing but a ma.s.s of rock some four feet below the sand.

I sat down again, hot and ill-tempered; when Tom tapped the ashes out of his pipe and stood before me.

"Now, what is it you're really after, Mas'r Harry?" he said. "Not gold, is it? Why don't you be open with a fellow?"

"What makes you ask, Tom?" I said suspiciously.

"Because they do say, Mas'r Harry, that the folks that used to live here got to bury their stuff, to keep it out of the Don's hands."

Always the same tradition! But I made no answer, for a fresh thought had struck me--one of those bright ideas that in all ages have been the making of men's fortunes; and, leaping up, I seized the rod and ran to where the stream, inky no longer, but clear and bright, ran sparkling in the subdued light over its sandy bed towards the open suns.h.i.+ne.

Wading in, I turned up my sleeves and began to thrust my iron probe down here into the soft sand, for I had argued now like this: that after carefully considering where would be the best place to hide their treasure, the priests of old might have been cunning enough to think that the simpler the concealment the less likely for it to be searched, and thus with the dim mysterious caverns beyond offering all kinds of profundities--spots that could certainly be suspected--they might have chosen the open mouth of the Cave, and buried that which they sought to save in the bed of the little stream.

The thought seemed to take away my breath for a few moments, it came so vividly; the next minute I was wading about, thrusting the rod down as far as I could in the wet sand; but always with the same result--the iron went down easily to my hand and was as easily withdrawn.

I probed right in as I waded amongst the gloomy parts and then went on to where it became dark, but still I was not discouraged, but came slowly back towards where the barrier of rocks blocked the entrance, down beneath which the little stream plunged to reappear some yards on the other side; and here in the most open part of all, but screened from the sight of any one in the valley--here, where the water formed a little pool beneath the creeper-matted rocks, I gave the rod a hard thrust down as far as it could be driven, bending so that my shoulder was beneath the water, when my heart leaped and then beat tumultuously, for the rod touched something. I tried again.

Yes, there was something beneath the sand!

Was it rock--stone?

I tried again; tapping with the iron.

No; it was not stone!

Was it metal?

I tried again, after examining the point of the rod, and this time drove it down fiercely.

Yes, it was metal; but the question to solve was this--

Was it gold?

CHAPTER THIRTY.

FOUND.

My excitement was intense; and all dripping as I was with the icy water, I leaped out on to the sand with the intention of climbing over the barrier out into the bright suns.h.i.+ny vale, to cut a long, thin bamboo with which to probe the sand in a more satisfactory manner.

Then I stopped short, as the recollection of Tom's words flashed across my brain. His surmises might be correct; and, cautious as we had been, watchers might have seen our goings and comings, while my stepping out into the vale now to cut a pole would show that I had some particular object in view.

Another minute, though, and with my mind teeming with thoughts of rich ingots, plates, and vessels of gold, I began to consider as to what ought to be my next step. Without testing further I felt that I had been successful--that a wonderful stroke of good fortune had rewarded my efforts; and then, how was I to dig it from its wet, sandy bed and get it safely to the hacienda?

"Tom," I cried excitedly, "I have not spoken sooner lest you should think me an empty dreamer; but I have found that which I sought."

"Sure, Mas'r Harry?"

"Well--a--well, yes, nearly, Tom," I stammered, somewhat taken aback by his coolness; "and now I want you to swear that you will take no unfair advantage of what you have seen or may see in the progress of this adventure."

"Want me to do _what_, Mas'r Harry?" said Tom st.u.r.dily.

"I want you to swear--"

"Then I ain't a-going to swear, nor nothing of the kind; so you need not think it. If I ain't worth trusting send me back; leastwise, you won't do that, because I sha'n't go. But, howsoever, I ain't a-going to go swearing and taking oaths, and, there! be quiet! Look there, Mas'r Harry. Make him swear if you like. No, not that way, more off to the left. Turn your eye just past them three big trees by the lump of rock.

That ain't a deer this time, but some one on the look-out. Two on 'em, that there are!"

I glanced in the pointed-out direction, to see plainly that a couple of Indian heads were strained towards us, as if their owners were narrowly watching for our appearance; though I knew from the gloom beneath the arch where Tom was seated that we must be invisible to any one standing out there in the glow of the bright afternoon suns.h.i.+ne.

What did it mean? Were these emissaries of Garcia watching my every act; or were they descendants of the Peruvian priests possessed of the secret of the buried treasures.

I shrank back farther into the cavern to crouch down, Tom imitating my acts, and together we watched the watchers, who remained so motionless that at times I felt disposed to ask myself whether I had not been mistaken, and whether these were not a portion of one of the rocks.

"It's no good, Mas'r Harry," said Tom; "we must make a rush for it.

They'll stop there for a week, or till we go. 'Tain't nothing new; there's always some one after you; and if you've found anything I can't see how you're going to get it away. Let's go now, before it gets evening, for they'll never move till we do."