The Radio Boys' Search for the Inca's Treasure Part 8

"And you promise we shall not be slain?" asked Frank.

He realized that such a promise would not be worth much, perhaps, yet that it would be suicidal to attempt to fight. As the stranger had said, though they might kill some of the enemy, yet inevitably they must themselves be slain. They were hemmed in, and without shelter, and the men ringing them 'round were determined-looking fellows of military bearing.

"I have said," answered the leader.

"Then we surrender," said Frank. "But I warn you that we are citizens of the United States and that our government will demand an accounting for us."

The leader regarded them with a slight trace of bewilderment. Then his face cleared, and he said:

"I do not understand your words. But suffice it you are in the Forbidden Land. Now lay down your sticks of fire."

The boys complied. As they bent over, their heads close together, Frank whispered in a low voice:

"We're up against it, Bob. He never heard of the United States."

At a sign from the leader, two men advanced to the sides of each of the boys, deprived them of their revolvers, and then, disdaining to tie their hands, led them to one side. There Bob and Frank stood, a soldier on each side of him, clad in tunic and soft leather boots, and looked on while the others of the company packed up the camp baggage, struck the tents, led up the mules from their pasturage nearby, and loaded them.

Camp was struck in an incredibly short time, and they started downstream and out of the valley.

The leader of the party had a proud, hawklike face, and as he strode ahead, Frank's eyes kept returning fascinatedly to that profile.

"Bob," he said, "I'll bet we've fallen into the hands of the Incas."

His speech was in English, but at the concluding word the soldiers guarding him looked sharply at Frank. The leader, too, spun around. He glanced sharply at the boys, then once more looked away. No word was said. But both boys noted the glances cast at them, and both were quick to understand.

Incas! Frank had guessed correctly.

"Did you see that?" asked Frank.

Bob nodded.

"Well, Bob, we're in for the experience of our lives. And as long as Jack and his father and the rest of the party are all right, I can't say that I object. We've stumbled on the Enchanted City, or I miss my guess.

At least, we've gotten near it, and have been taken prisoner by the inhabitants. But think of finding descendants of those old boys, after all these centuries, hidden away from the world, and not a soul knowing anything about it.

"Why, Bob, there has been nothing like it in history."

Bob nodded, but his voice was more sober as he replied:

"Yes, it's a pretty safe guess that we've found what we came searching for. But from all appearances, we may not be able to leave it. Didn't that chap call this the 'Forbidden Land?'"

"Yes."

"And didn't he say something about our being in a place of which no report was allowed to get out?"

"Yes."

"That's what I thought. But I couldn't understand him very well. My Spanish isn't the best in the world, anyhow."

"He speaks what I expect is very ancient Spanish," Frank replied. "You know the story--how those old Spaniards stayed and intermarried. Well, the language has been handed down. It's hard for me to understand, but I can make out what he means well enough."

Both boys had been careful not again to mention the word "Inca," which originally had stirred the interest of their captors. They walked along in silence, until Bob presently resumed.

"Well, what I started to say was that it looks to me as if the reason why no report of the Enchanted City has ever gotten out is that they have captured whoever came near them and either killed them or taken them into the tribe."

"Tribe?" Frank laughed. "These aren't wild Indians. They are members of the strangest race in the history of the world, or I miss my guess."

"What do you think we'll find?"

"I don't know, Bob. But you can count on its being something marvellous.

Look how these men obey their leader. He must be a prince of the royal blood. But look what we're coming to."

The travel along the stream carried them into an ever-narrowing valley which finally became a gorge, and now, as Frank let the exclamation escape him, this gorge broadened out suddenly on the other side and a beautiful valley lay below. In the middle shone a great lake. It was this which Jack had seen from his lofty eyrie in the treetop. Farther off shone other and smaller lakes. Frank counted them. Three.

"The valley told of by de Pereira," he exclaimed.

"Look, Frank."

Frank's gaze followed Bob's outflung hand. A little way ahead was a considerable body of men of the same sort as their captors. They were resting on a meadow beneath the shade of a gigantic tree. In their midst the boys could make out a number of forms--Jack, Mr. Hampton, the de Avilars, father and son, Carlos and Pedro.

Frank and Bob raised a glad shout of "Jack, Jack. h.e.l.lo, fellows."

At the same moment, they were seen. Answering cries came to them. They marched down into the meadow, and the two parties came together. A confused medley of handclasping followed. Evidently, their arrival had been expected, for preparations for moving on at once were in evidence.

The leader of the party who had captured Bob and Frank now approached Mr. Hampton and Senor Don de Avilar.

"We shall embark in boats," said he. "I have your interest in mind, and you will be permitted to converse one with another, even in the tongue of the young men which is strange to us."

"Don Ernesto," said Mr. Hampton to his friend, "you seem to understand this chap better than any of us. Will you ask him where we are being taken?"

Don Ernesto nodded, then turned to the other. After a few sentences, their voices dropped and they drew apart. When Don Ernesto rejoined the group, and the other turned to issue some orders to his men, his eyes shone.

"Senor Hampton," said he, in an awed tone, "it is as you surmised. These are Incas of the Enchanted City into whose hands we have fallen. This chap is a prince of the royal house. I am not certain, and I had but little time for conversation, yet from something he said, I gather that the reigning family has in it the blood of de Arguello, leader of that old band of Spaniards, as well as the royal Inca strain. Doubtless, too, the n.o.bles have Spanish blood, but that is merely surmise. As to where we are being taken, we are bound for what this chap, Prince Huaca, calls 'The Fair City,' We are to cross the lake in boats, and, when we arrive at the landing, we shall be blindfolded, he says, and led 'through the mountain.'"

"By George," said Mr. Hampton, "we're in for it. Well, we may as well put a brave face on the matter. It looks dark now, yet we have found what we came to look for; and remember, you boys, the battle is never lost until defeat is admitted."

This he said to hearten the boys. Yet the advice was unnecessary. They had listened to Don Ernesto with close attention, and as Mr. Hampton gazed from one to the other, he found their eyes alight.

"Why, I don't believe you boys are worried at all," he said, banteringly.

"Why worry, Dad?" said Jack. "As you said, 'the battle isn't lost until you are counted out.' I, for one, am tickled to death with the adventure. And I know Bob and Frank and Ferdinand are the same."

The others nodded.

"Well, here we go, down to the boats," said Frank. "So, as long as we may talk to each other, tell us how you fellows were captured, and we'll give our story."

CHAPTER XI--INTO THE MOUNTAIN