The Radio Boys' Search for the Inca's Treasure Part 29

"There is no escape from Cusco Hurrin except by the Tunnel Way," said the prince. "This earthquake of which you speak? What is it like?"

"It is a shaking of the earth which would close the Tunnel Way," said Don Ernesto. "And the eruption is an outpouring of hot mud and stones from the mountain, which would ruin the city and slay all in it."

"Then," said Prince Huaca, "we must abandon the fortress and flee to the outer valley. And those in the city must be warned."

"But what if the earthquake do not come?" asked Michac. "You will have lost the fortress and your power."

"The people must be saved," said Prince Huaca. "Come."

With a last look at the column of smoke, he started to go below. Frank, however, pulled Jack and Bob aside.

"Better radio the monastery while we have the chance," said he. "And tell them what's happened. Then we can dismount the set and take it along for emergencies."

Mr. Hampton, who overheard, nodded.

"But hurry," he said.

Hurry the boys did. Brother Gregorio at the monastery was easily reached. The conversation was brief. Then the set was dismantled, and the three boys hurried below with the parts. Throughout the fortress all was bustle and hurry. Men were hastening through the corridors on various missions. They made their way to the prince's apartment, where they were met by Michac, who told them their friends had gone on to their own room. There they found the others hastily collecting their belongings. Each a.s.sumed part of the load, while the balance, including tents, was given bearers sent to their help by the prince.

Then they made their way to the main guard room, from there to the outer courtyard behind its great walls, and thence to the Tunnel Way, opening in the side of the mountain.

"It would be a fine idea," grumbled Bob, "if after all our adventures we got in the middle of this tunnel and an earthquake came along and shook it down on us."

Nevertheless, nothing of the sort occurred, and they reached the outer valley in safety, piloted by Michac. He took them to his home.

Toward the end of the day they were joined there by Prince Huaca, with the main body of troops from the fortress. These encamped in the grounds about Michac's home.

"I sent a messenger to the Inca," the prince explained, "telling him of the danger threatening Cusco Hurrin and advising him to order the populace to flee through the Tunnel Way. I told him I was abandoning the fortress, and leaving the tunnel open. The messenger returned with word that the Inca, who had recovered from his attack of faintness, deemed me a rebel and refused to be entrapped. I despatched the messenger again with stronger representations, but again he returned with an even stronger and more contemptuous refusal. All day I have waited, with the gates of the fortress open, but no move has been made.

"My poor people," he groaned, "my poor city."

Abruptly he left them.

"But, Dad," said Jack, "think of it. A whole city in danger of destruction merely because a ruler is stubborn. Can't we do something?

Can't we persuade them to flee? And such a city, too. The Enchanted City of the Caesars! Here we go and find it, and are about to give it to the world, and now it may be wiped out. But the people. Oh, this is horrible."

Even as he spoke, the ground shook beneath his feet, for they had walked down to the public highroad, and from the distant mountain sounded a heavy rumbling and roaring. They were fully twenty miles removed, a range of foothills intervened and they were safe from a volcanic eruption, for the configuration of the land as such, Don Ernesto had pointed out, that the lava flow would be away from them and directly into the doomed city. The crash and the tremor were succeeded by a sultriness that was almost unbearable. Then the ever-thickening cloud overhanging the mountain seemed to their straining eyes to spread out into a gigantic mushroom that blotted out the whole sky in the east.

Flames began to shoot high above the mountain top, illuminating the under side of that sable pall.

There was another and stronger earth tremor, almost throwing them from their feet. The flames shot higher.

"Now," said Don Ernesto, in an awed voice, "The Enchanted City is no more. The lava is flowing over it now."

CHAPTER XXVIII--CONCLUSION

Back in the monastery, the party rested several days before making its way to the railroad and Santiago. But they were not idle. By means of the radio station, which the boys had built on their earlier visit, the whole story of their adventures was communicated to _La Prensa_, and thus for the first time the tale of the Enchanted City in its entirety, of its centuries of history unknown to the rest of the world, of its rediscovery and of its final wiping out by a volcanic eruption, was given to the world by radio.

The Chilian President was communicated with, and, at Don Ernesto's solicitation, he despatched a relief column to the refugees in the outer valley of Cusco Hurrin who, while escaping the full force of the destruction, had suffered considerable damage.

Prince Huaca had refused to accompany the party, but had stayed with Michac to look after the welfare of the remainder of his people. He bade the party farewell, with tears of mingled sadness for the fate that had befallen the city of his fathers and of grief at parting with those who had stood by him in his hour of need.

"It was the hand of G.o.d," he said, on bidding them adieu. "I fear that Cusco Hurrin, as it was organized, could never have become part of the wonderful modern world of which you have told me. There would have been war and bloodshed, and prolonged ruin.

"As to me and my people who are left, we shall become citizens of this country of which you speak, Don Ernesto, if your brother, the ruler, will receive us."

And thus it is that today, in that remote fastness of the Andes, the descendants of the Incas live in peace and prosperity, tilling their lands, while Prince Huaca, who has brought in teachers from the outside world, has made it possible for them to become taught the rudiments of modern knowledge. On departing, the boys promised to fly to the valley some day by airplane, and their visit is eagerly awaited.

At Santiago, in Ferdinand's home, the boys spent many pleasant days, for they were the lions of the day. And the gracious homes of the fair city were open to them, while everywhere they were plied with questions regarding the Enchanted City and their adventures therein. Best of all the stories was that of how the Inca's court had been dumbfounded by the white man's magic which could induce a man to pluck out his eye, his teeth or his hair, without fatal result. Many a laugh did they win with this yarn.

"If you boys don't stop talking about my toupee," complained Don Ernesto, one day, "I shall have no peace at all. Wherever I go, I am asked to scalp myself."

"Well, Don Ernesto," said Mr. Hampton, "I am going to remove their mischievous tongues to a distance, where they cannot do damage to your reputation."

Don Ernesto immediately was filled with compunctions lest he have hurt their feelings. But Mr. Hampton laughed these away.

"No, the truth of the matter is," he said, "that the boys have missed the major part of their college year. Christmas has come and gone. It would take considerable time for them to return to America. And I have been in communication with Mr. Temple, who feels as I do that, inasmuch as they have missed so much college work this year, we may as well let them stay out the remainder of the term. Accordingly, I am going to take them on a tour of South America. I want them to see the great cities of your eastern seaboard, as well as the remains of the Inca civilization in Peru and Bolivia.

"Bob and Frank, you see, will some day be partners in an import and export business, and I want them to learn about South America while they have the opportunity, for they will have many dealings with this continent in the future."

Turning to the boys, he added:

"We will tour South America, and then return home by way of Seattle, where I shall have to see some mining men about an Alaskan adventure.

Does that suit you?"

"Couldn't suit us better," said Bob, "except that I'm afraid old Frank here is anxious to see a member of my family. I woke up the other night and he was talking in his sleep. 'Della,' he said, 'Della, why----'"

But Frank had tripped him and sat on him, and the rest of the sentence was lost in the resultant tussle.

"You big rascal," panted Frank. "I suppose I haven't seen you writing to that girl Della rooms with at school. Oh, no. Thought you'd sneak it over, hey?"

Jack looked on, grinning. In reality, however, Bob's remark had set him to dreaming of a distant girl. He was thinking of a certain Senorita Rafaela in the Sonora mountains in Old Mexico. This Spanish-American atmosphere! Hang it, every time he was surrounded by it, his thoughts turned to her. Some day----In this mood, he left his struggling companions and walked to a window whence he stared unseeing.

So here we shall leave the three Radio Boys, content to know, however, that when they eventually reached Seattle in the Northern winter, they were drawn into a search for a lost expedition in the interior of Alaska, no less thrilling than the adventure through which they had just pa.s.sed. And this will be duly chronicled in _The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition_.

THE END