Old Gold Part 55

The captain glanced at Sir Humphrey, who nodded, and the men took to their oars, while Lynton steered the heavy boat right up to the remains of a stone-enc.u.mbered wharf or pier that had been laboriously cut out of the solid rock. Here the boats were held, and, well armed, half their occupants sprang out to climb over the slippery stones, which had evidently only lately bean covered by the flood-water, whose mark could be plainly seen, reaching up some ten feet, or half-way to where there ran for hundreds of yards a more or less regular broad terrace cut down out of the rock, and from which the honeycombed perpendicular cliff rose, showing now that it was cut into steps, each step being a rough terrace just below a row of window-like openings.

It was all plain enough now: the Indians' camp had been made right and left of the rugged steps leading up from the water. There the fires were still glowing, and about them and in rows where they could be dried by the sun lay hundreds upon hundreds of good-sized fish: the harvest the Indians had been taking from the river; while the state of some which were piled together beneath a projecting piece of rock suggested that the fishers must have been staying there for days.

"They are sure to come back for this fish," said Brace.

"Very likely," said Sir Humphrey. "Well, if they do, let them have it, and we'll give them some present in return for what we have taken. Look here, captain: we must camp here for a few days to explore this place."

"Very good, sir. We can pick out one or two of these caves, or rooms, or whatever they are, to live in. Your Dan would like one of 'em for a kitchen, Mr Briscoe."

"Yes; he's smelling about them now. I dessay he has chosen one already," said the American. "Yes, I call this fine; we may come across some curiosities next. What do you say to beginning a regular explore, Brace?"

"I say: the sooner the better," cried Brace.

Sir Humphrey nodded.

"We'll divide into two parties, captain," he said. "Let half prepare for making a stay; and I should like the others to bring ropes and a boat-hook or two to help our climb, for I daresay we shall need it before we get to the top of this cliff."

"Very good, sir, and I don't think you'll find a soul to hurt you. I'd keep my eyes well opened though, for you may find wild beasts, and you're sure to find snakes. Let's see," he continued, consulting a pocket compa.s.s. "Yes: we're facing nearly due south. It will be a warm spot, and I should say that the old inhabitants are now represented by snakes, and poisonous ones too."

Preparations were soon made, the captain electing to stay below and make all ready for the party's return.

Brace led off along the rugged terrace, which was terribly enc.u.mbered by stones fallen from above; but the young adventurer's first idea was to continue along to where the palace-like front reared itself up about the middle of the cliff.

Briscoe stepped alongside of him, and Brace noticed how busily his companion's eyes wandered about, taking in everything on their way. Not that there was much to see at first, save that the captain was right about the inhabitants, for everywhere among the stones which lay heating in the morning sun they came upon coiled-up serpents, many of which were undoubtedly venomous; but there were other reptiles as well, for lizards darted about by the hundred, when disturbed, to make for their holes in crevices and cracks of the stonework, their scales glistening as if made of burnished metal, bronze, deadened silver, mingled with velvety black and soft silvery grey.

At the end of a couple of hundred yards Brace stopped.

"This won't do," he said. "We are on the lowest terrace, and the palace is a floor higher. It ought to be somewhere over where we are."

"That's where I reckon it is," said Briscoe, going to the low ruined wall between them and the river, and straining outward to look up.

"See anything?" said Brace.

"No; I can't reach out far enough; the next terrace overhangs. But it must be here."

"Let's get right on towards the end," said Sir Humphrey, "and I daresay we shall find some kind of steps leading to the next floor."

It was some time before anything but a dark hole was found, and that seemed to be only a receptacle for loose stones, so it was pa.s.sed; but after pushing on for another two hundred yards, with nothing to take their attention but the retreating reptiles and the beautiful flashing river which washed the foot of the clift, Briscoe grew uneasy.

"Look here," he said; "we're losing time. Let's go back, for I'm sure the way up is through that hole."

"Impossible!" said Brace. "There must be a bold flight of steps."

"No, there mustn't, mister," said Briscoe sharply. "This was an old strong place when the people who lived here were alive, and you may depend upon it that the way up was kept small for safety, so that it could easily be defended by a man or two with spears, or shut up with a heavy stone. I say we've pa.s.sed the way up."

"Let's go back then," said Sir Humphrey, smiling good-humouredly; and they all made their way back to the bottom of the hole, which had evidently been carefully cut.

Briscoe went to it at once; he gave his double gun to the nearest man to hold, and then, seizing one of the stones with which the horizontal oven-like hole had been filled, he shook it loose and dragged it out to stand in the att.i.tude of lowering the heavy block to the ground.

"No," said Brace; "let me."

Brace uttered a warning cry.

"I see my nabs," said Briscoe coolly, as a snake with menacing hiss came creeping rapidly out, raising its head as it glided down; and then its tail part writhed and turned about, for its power of doing mischief was at an end, the American having dropped the heavy stone upon its threatening crest and crushed it upon the stones below.

"That's one," said Briscoe coolly. "I shouldn't wonder if his wife's at home, and a small family as well. Here, you just fish out that next stone with the boat-hook."

The man addressed stepped forward, thrust the implement into the opening, and drew out another stone, when, as the American had suggested, a second serpent came gliding out, to meet its death quickly and be tossed by one of the men over the parapet-like wall into the river.

More stones were dragged out with the boat-hook, but only a lizard appeared afterwards; and as two more blocks were pulled forth light from above came down, showing that the opening was L-shaped, going about six feet in to where a chimney-like shaft rose at right angles, down which the light struck, evidently from the next terrace.

"I thought so," said Briscoe. "Here: I'll go in first."

He crept into the hole at once, and found on looking up the shaft that Briscoe was quite correct, for there were foot-holes chiselled out at intervals in the chimney-like place, so that he could easily step up from one to the other, and the next minute his head was on a level with the floor above and his eyes gazing full in those of a venomous-looking serpent, which raised its head from the middle of its coil ready to strike.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

BRISCOE'S BIT OF ORE.

Brace obeyed the natural impulse to duck down out of the reptile's reach, and his next idea was to lower himself the ten feet or so to the bottom; but he shrank from doing this, for it seemed ignominious to retreat, so he raised his head sharply again till his eyes were about level with the terrace platform, and there, a dozen feet away, was the tail part of the snake, disappearing in a fissure of the stone.

The next minute he was standing in front of one of the openings they had seen from the river, and his companions were climbing to his side.

Here, upon examination, they found room after room with doorway and window all cut out of the soft limestone, and Sir Humphrey and Briscoe were not long in giving it as their opinion that these single rooms, all separate and with their doorways opening upon the terrace, were really the modest little houses of the old dwellers in this hivelike arrangement. There they were, side by side, all opening upon the long terrace, and, after examining many, they found relics of the old inhabitants in the shape of clay-baked rough pots or their broken sherds; and in several, roughly-formed querns or mill-stones, made, not of the rock in which the houses were cut, but of a hard grit that would act better upon the grain they were used to grind.

These remains, though, were very scarce, and scarcely anything else was found, though search was made in the expectation of finding skeletons; but not so much as a skull was discovered in either of the stone rooms they reached: nothing to show how the ancient inhabitants came to an end. Apparently it was by no sudden catastrophe, and probably only by dying slowly away.

"It might have been a couple of thousand years ago for aught we can tell," said Sir Humphrey.

"Yes," said Brace; "but we have done nothing yet. There are hundreds more of these cells, floor above floor, right to the top."

"Well, let's try another floor or terrace, if we can," said Sir Humphrey. "Has anyone discovered a way up?"

"Yes, sir there's a hole yonder," said one of the men, "and it isn't stopped up."

"Well, let's try it," said Sir Humphrey.

"Hadn't we better get to the end here, and see what that better part is like?" said Briscoe. "It seems to me that we shall find behind those carved stones the best part of the place."

"Very well," said Sir Humphrey: "let's try that first; but we have a month's work before us to explore all this. Now then."

Briscoe eagerly took the lead and went on along the terrace, with the little metallic-looking lizards darting away in the sunshine amidst the fallen stones; and cell after cell was pa.s.sed till the end of their journey was reached in the shape of a blank ma.s.s of rock, beyond which they felt certain that the temple or palace remains must be. But there was no means of pa.s.sing farther, and nothing remained but to ascend to the next terrace.

This was done, with similar experiences, and another step was gained, from which, after looking down to where the boats were moored, they again climbed higher, entering very few of the cells, but directing their efforts towards reaching the central portion.

But failure attended every effort, and, hot and wearied out by what was growing a monotonous task, Brace and the American readily acquiesced in Sir Humphrey's proposal that they should now descend and join their companions in the midday meal, and afterwards take the smaller boat, row to the front of the temple, and try for away up from the river.