The Adventures of Captain Horn Part 9

"I did not think," said the captain. "I could not think. I was afraid somebody would come."

"And now tell me this," cried Mrs. Cliff. "Whom does this gold belong to?

That is what I want to know. Whose is if?"

"Come, come!" said the captain, "let us stop talking about this thing, and thinking about it. We shall all be maniacs if we don't quiet ourselves a little, and, besides, it cannot be long before those black fellows come back, and we do not want to be speaking about it then.

To-morrow we will examine the mound and see what it is we have discovered. In the meantime, let us quiet our minds and get a good night's sleep, if we can. This whole affair is astounding, but we must not let it make us crazy before we understand it."

Miss Markham was a young woman very capable of controlling herself. It was true she had been more affected in consequence of the opening of the mound than any of the others, but that was because she understood, or thought she understood, what the discovery meant, and to the others it was something which at first they could not appreciate. Now she saw the good common sense of the captain's remarks, and said no more that evening on the subject of the stone mound.

But Mrs. Cliff and Ralph could not be quiet. They must talk, and as the captain walked away that they might not speak to him, they talked to each other.

It was nearly an hour after this that Captain Horn, standing on the outer end of the plateau, saw some black dots moving on the moonlit beach. They moved very slowly, and it was a long time--at least, it seemed so to the captain--before Maka and his companions reached the plateau.

The negroes were heavily loaded with bags and packages, and they were glad to deposit their burdens on the ground.

"Hi!" cried the captain, who spoke as if he had been drinking champagne, "you brought a good cargo, Maka, and now don't let us hear any tales of what you have seen until we have had supper--supper for everybody. You know what you have got, Maka. Let us have the best things, and let every one of you take a hand in making a fire and cooking. What we want is a first-cla.s.s feast."

"I got 'em," said Maka, who understood English a good deal better than he could speak it,--"ham, cheese, lots things. All want supper--good supper."

While the meal was being prepared, Captain Horn walked over to Mrs. Cliff and Ralph. "Now, I beg of you," he said, "don't let these men know we have found anything. This is a very important matter. Don't talk about it, and if you can't keep down your excitement, let them think it is the prospect of good victuals, and plenty of them, that has excited you."

After supper Maka and Cheditafa were called upon to tell their story, but they said very little. They had gone to the place where the Rackbirds had kept their stores, and had selected what Maka considered would be most desirable, including some oil for the lantern, and had brought away as much as they could carry. This was all.

When the rest of his party had gone inside, hoping to get their minds quiet enough to sleep, and the captain was preparing to follow them, Maka arose from the spot on the open plateau where the tired negroes had stretched themselves for the night, and said:

"Got something tell you alone. Come out here."

When the two had gone to a spot a little distance from the cavern entrance, where the light of the moon, now nearly set, enabled objects to be seen with some distinctness, Maka took from inside his shirt a small piece of clothing. "Look here," said he. "This belong to Davis."

The captain took the garment in his hand. It was a waistcoat made of plaid cloth, yellow, green, and red, and most striking in pattern, and Captain Horn instantly recognized it as the waistcoat of Davis, the Englishman.

"He dead," said Maka, simply.

The captain nodded. He had no doubt of it.

"Where did you find it?" he asked.

"Sticking on rock," said the African. "Lots things down there. Some one place, some another place. Didn't know other things, but know this.

Davis' waistcoat. No mistake that. Him wear it all time."

"You are a good fellow, Maka," said the captain, "not to speak of this before the ladies. Now go and sleep. There is no need of a guard to-night."

The captain went inside, procured his gun, and seated himself outside, with his back against a rock. There he sat all night, without once closing his eyes. He was not afraid that anything would come to molest them, but it was just as well to have the gun. As for sleeping, that was impossible. He had heard and seen too much that day.

CHAPTER XIII

"MINE!"

Captain Horn and his party sat down together the next morning on the plateau to drink their hot coffee and eat their biscuit and bacon, and it was plain that the two ladies, as well as the captain, had had little sleep the night before. Ralph declared that he had been awake ever so long, endeavoring to calculate how many cubic feet of gold there would be in that mound if it were filled with the precious metal. "But as I did not know how much a cubic foot of gold is worth," said he, "and as we might find, after all, that there is only a layer of gold on top, and that all the rest is Incas' bones, I gave it up."

The captain was very grave--graver, Miss Markham thought, than the discovery of gold ought to make a man.

"We won't worry ourselves with calculations," said he. "As soon as I can get rid of those black fellows, we will go to see what is really in that tomb, or storehouse, or whatever it is. We will make a thorough investigation this time."

When the men had finished eating, the captain sent them all down to look for driftwood. The stock of wood on the plateau was almost exhausted, and he was glad to think of some reasonable work which would take them away from the cavern.

As soon as they had gone, the captain rose to get the lantern, and called Ralph to accompany him to the mound.

When they were left alone, Edna said to Mrs. Cliff, "Let us go over there to that shady rock, where we can look out for a ship with Mr. Rynders in it, and let us talk about our neighbors in America. Let us try to forget, for a time, all about what the captain is going to investigate. If we keep on thinking and talking of it, our minds will not be in a fit condition to hear what he will have to tell us. It may all come to nothing, you know, and no matter what it comes to, let us keep quiet, and give our nerves a little rest."

"That is excellent advice," said Mrs. Cliff. But when they were comfortably seated in the shade, she said: "I have been thinking, Edna, that the possession of vast treasures did not weaken the minds of those Incas, I supposed, until yesterday, that the caverns here were intended for some sort of temple for religious ceremonies, and that the great face on the rock out here was an idol. But now I do not believe that. All openings into the cave must once have been closed up, but it would not do to hide the place so that no one could ever find it again, so they carved that great head on the rocks. n.o.body, except those who had hid the treasure, would know what the face meant."

Edna gave a little smile and sighed. "I see it is of no use to try to get that mound out of our minds," she said.

"Out of our minds!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff. "If one of the Rothschilds were to hand you a check for the whole of his fortune, would you expect to get that out of your mind?"

"Such a check," said Edna, "would be a certain fortune. We have not heard yet what this is."

"I think we are the two meekest and humblest people in the whole world!"

exclaimed Mrs. Cliff, walking up and down the sand. "I don't believe any other two persons would be content to wait here until somebody should come and tell them whether they were millionaires or not. But, of course, somebody must stay outside to keep those colored people from swarming into the cave when they come back."

It was not long after this that Mrs. Cliff and Edna heard the sound of quickly advancing feet, and in a few moments they were joined by Ralph and the captain.

"Your faces shine like gold," cried Edna. "What have you found?"

"Found!" cried Ralph. "Why, Edna, we've got--"

"Be quiet, Ralph," exclaimed Edna. "I want to hear what the captain has to say. Captain, what is in the mound?"

"We went to the mound," said he, speaking very rapidly, "and when we got to the top and lifted off that stone lid--upon my soul, ladies, I believe there is gold enough in that thing to ballast a ship. It isn't filled quite up to the top, and, of course, I could not find out how deep the gold goes down; but I worked a hole in it as far down as my arm would reach, and found nothing but gold bars like this." Then, glancing around to see that none of the Africans were returning, he took from his pocket a yellow object about three inches in length and an inch in diameter, shaped like a rough prism, cast in a rudely constructed mortar or mould.

"I brought away just one of them," he said, "and then I shut down the lid, and we came away."

"And is this gold?" exclaimed Edna, eagerly seizing the bar. "Are you sure of it, captain?"

"I am as sure of it as I am that I have a head on my shoulders," said he, "although when I was diving down into that pile I was not quite sure of that. No one would ever put anything but gold in such a hiding-place. And then, anybody can see it is gold. Look here: I sc.r.a.ped that spot with my knife. I wanted to test it before I showed it to you. See how it shines!

I could easily cut into it. I believe it is virgin gold, not hardened with any alloy."

"And that mound full of it!" cried Mrs. Cliff.

"I can't say about that," said the captain. "But if the gold is no deeper than my arm went down into it, and all pure metal at that, why--bless my soul!--it would make anybody crazy to try to calculate how much it is worth."

"Now, then," exclaimed Mrs. Cliff, "whom does all this gold belong to? We have found it, but whose is it?"

"That is a point to be considered," said the captain. "What is your opinion?"