The Peril Finders Part 76

"Then that was one of the enemy, father," said Chris decidedly, "and he got it in the attack."

"Possibly," said the doctor, looking strangely at his son. "He seems to have got _it_, Chris, but that doesn't sound to me a very scientific way of describing the antique remains."

Chris turned very red, and pressed some of the dust aside with his foot, laying bare the side of another of the ghastly relics.

"And that's like the first," cried the doctor, bending forward to pick it up, a skull looking whiter than either of the others. "Certainly this is of a different race, Bourne, and the owner died in the same way, the brow crushed.--Look at that."

The rest were already looking, and saw what caused the doctor's abrupt exclamation, for as he took up the skull the back portion fell away and the front dropped apart into so much crumbling dust.

"We're looking down at the remains of a desperate fight, sir, I should say," said Griggs thoughtfully. "It's just as if there had been a stand made here."

"Come on into the next place," said the doctor eagerly; "but keep close to the wall, following my steps. Ah! it's impossible to avoid crushing the remains," he continued, as he sidled along, leaving his footprints in the soft dust which lay thick.

"I say, Chris, isn't this very horrid?" whispered Ned, as the boys followed last towards the low doorway opposite to that by which they had entered.

"Yes, I suppose so," said Chris thoughtfully; "but it makes one think of ever so far back when all this dust must have been alive--all fierce men, fighting, some to kill, others to save their lives. I don't know; it doesn't seem so very horrid, though I don't like treading on all their dust--and--and--"

"Bones," suggested Ned.

"No; because they're not bones now, only the shape of bones. See how that all crumbled-away when my father picked it up. Dust and ashes, we ought to call it. Do you want to go back?"

"N-no, I think not. I say, what a fight it must have been!"

"Yes," said Chris, with a deep breath that sounded like a sigh. "One seems to fancy one can see the men who had the white skulls being driven back from this cell into that one, and I shouldn't wonder if we find that--"

"Yes," came the doctor's voice from the next place, "it's wonderfully interesting. The civilised men must have been making a desperate stand here, and I fully expect that we shall find that they were driven back from cell to cell. Yes," he said, with his voice growing fainter.

"What do you say, Griggs?"

"It's worse in here, sir, and--yes, worse still in the next place."

"Driven back from cell to cell," cried the doctor, "and it's my impression that we shall find the remains of women and children in the farthest one. We shall hit upon the scene of a terrible ma.s.sacre--the destruction of the race who built-up this place."

The boys had joined the speakers now, just in time to hear Wilton speak--

"But I say, Lee, aren't you letting your imagination carry you a little too far?"

"I think not," replied the doctor quietly. "Look here; you cannot call this imagination. Small as the s.p.a.ce is in these rock chambers, there are the remains of scores of men who fought desperately for their lives.

To me it seems like a vivid reproduction of the past."

"How far back?" said Bourne.

"Ah, that is beyond me. How long would it take these bones to decay to this extent as they lay here just as their owners fell? It is a question that no man can answer--one dependent upon the action of the air in a climate like this, with the remains sheltered from sun and rain, to gradually pa.s.s away into dust. You can see plainly enough that these are not the remains found in some burial place, added to year after year, age after age. This slaughter must have been the work of only a few hours, and the people lie piled-up as they fell. Let's go on."

Cell after cell was entered, with the remains lying thick as the warriors had fallen, the searchers continuing the examination to the very end, and then gladly stepping out on to the terrace, to stand there in the broad daylight, the air seeming to feel fresh and clear after what they had gone through.

"A strange bit of history," said the doctor thoughtfully. "We know now and think how this bit of civilisation came to an end; but we have discovered no weapons of war to help us to give a date to the siege."

"But we haven't half done our search yet, sir," said Griggs. "There's another terrace above this, you see," and he pointed up to where there had been another row of the cells formed in the rock-face, these latter standing back a little and evidently being the last, for above them the cliff projected like a gigantic cave, as far as they could see, from end to end.

"Who votes that we give up now and leave the examination till another day?" said Bourne, who had seemed more and more enthusiastic as the search went on.

There was no reply.

"Who votes that we try and get up to the next stage?"

Hands went up, and Ned shouted eagerly--

"Everybody."

"Let's get back, then," said the doctor; "but we'll keep out here on the terrace as far as we can. It is gruesome work trampling amongst the ashes of the fallen, interesting as it all is."

"I suppose we shall find another of those chimney-like flights of steps," said Wilton; "but I was too much taken up with what we were doing to notice."

"I hope so," replied the doctor, "but I saw nothing. I fancy, though, that this was the only way up into the town or city, and, judging by the appearance of the next terrace, it will be the last."

"Then we shall be able to get on to the top of the cliffs this way, sir," said Griggs.

"I really can't say yet," was the reply. "Let's find the next shaft first, and see how far it goes."

They kept along the terrace where they could, but here and there the falling away of stones rendered it necessary for them to re-enter a cell and keep for a little distance along by the inner pa.s.sage. But at last the first cell of the series was reached, and directly after they were standing at the top of the second stairway and looking about vainly for a third--the one that should give them a pa.s.sage to the third floor of dwelling-places.

"There must be a way," said Griggs, as he stood scratching his head, "but I'm a bit puzzled. The upper rocks hang over here, and there seems to be no sign of anything having broken away."

"Let's look in the first cell again," said Chris; "perhaps it begins in there."

They stepped in to where the ashes lay piled-up and forming a slope on one side reaching half-way up the back wall, this portion not having been disturbed.

"No way out of this place except into the next chamber," said Griggs.

"We shall have to look somewhere else. But didn't you say we had found no weapons yet, sir?" he continued, addressing the doctor.

"Yes; you have not seen any?"

"Looks like a couple of those stone axes yonder," said Griggs, pointing to the back of the sloping heap. "I'll get them."

He took a couple of steps, and his feet sank in some depth. Then quickly taking another and another to preserve his equilibrium, he uttered a cry of annoyance, for his weight had set the whole of the heap of dust in motion, bringing part into the cell where they stood, while the rest glided like sand upon a slope, evidently sinking through a similar opening to that which led into the next chamber, but here formed in the wall exactly opposite to the window looking out on to the terrace.

"Lend us a hand," cried Griggs, and he s.n.a.t.c.hed at one of those stretched out to his aid, following the rest in a hurried flight out of the place, for the whole of the ashes and bones were in motion and ran out through the back with a soft rushing sound.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

IT WAS ALL A DREAM.

"Ugh! the dust!" cried Bourne, as they stood together looking back through what seemed like a mist.

But this soon subsided, and they stepped inside again, to find that a portion of the heap of remains had glided through an opening at the back, evidently the way into another cell--one that was dimly lighted from somewhere above, and which proved as soon as it was examined to be the way they sought, and not merely a narrow shaft, but a wide opening going upward and downward, the steps being in the wall which formed the division between the two chambers.

There was only a narrow landing at the foot of the steps, and below this the opening seemed to go right down like a square well, into whose depths the remains that disappeared had glided and lay far below.