Forbidden Cargoes Read online

  CHAPTER II AN UNDERGROUND SEA

  Pant sat in a kitchen so broad and long that it reminded him of a picturehe had seen in an illustrated copy of Ivanhoe. The table, on which restedhis steaming cup of home grown, home roasted coffee, was a massivehand-hewn affair. On the top, a single slab of mahogany six feet wide andfour inches thick, axe marks were yet to be seen.

  As his glance took in the room his heart swelled with admiration. Therewas no stove. A great fireplace was there in its stead. Pots and pans ofiron, and of copper and black tin, hung from the rafters.

  "Like Longfellow's ancient home," he told himself. "Only this is to-day.The last of the Dons!" he repeated in a tone of reverence.

  One thing puzzled him. Every article in the room, save two, belonged toyesterday--a purple coat hanging in a corner and a boy's cap besideit--were distinctly of to-day and American made.

  "They can't belong to the young girl," he told himself. "Nor to hergrandmother."

  The bent and aged woman who must be the young Spanish girl's grandmotherwas at that moment offering him his second cup of coffee.

  His thoughts were cut short by the answer to his problem. A tall,fair-haired American boy, apparently in his early teens, parted the heavyhomespun curtains at the back of the room and started towards the table.

  Seeing Pant, he halted in surprise.

  "Pardon me," said Pant, springing to his feet. "Perhaps I intrude. I hadsupposed that this house belonged to these good Spanish people.Apparently it is your home instead."

  "No." The strange boy's smile was frank, disarming. "You were right thefirst time. Like you, I am an intruder. But you are from America," headded quickly. "How perfectly grand! Won't you please stay for a secondcup, and to talk to me a little of our homeland?"

  Pant stayed. They ended by talking little of the homeland. In theirstrange surroundings they found a fascinating subject of conversation.

  "Yes," said the boy at last, who gave his name as Kirk Munson, "they aretruly the last of the Dons. Once a rich and noble family.

  "And do you know"--his lips moved close, he spoke almost in a whisper,"there is a tale, perhaps only a legend, a story of a beaten silver boxfilled with priceless pearls taken from the Pacific when that great oceanwas young. The silver box, so the story goes, was hidden away by thefirst Don of this family to keep it from the buccaneers, hidden and lostfrom sight of human eyes, perhaps forever.

  "There are all sorts of caves and things like that about here," he wenton. "It's all very mysterious and--and sort of bewitching."

  "Caves?" said Pant, awaking to his most urgent need. "Are they near? Doyou suppose they are quite dark?"

  "I am told," Kirk's voice was low again, "that there is a very great onenot four miles back in the bush, and dark. It is said you are no morethan inside it before you are fairly immersed in darkness."

  "The very place!" exclaimed Pant. "I must go there at once."

  "Must you?" Kirk's voice was full of surprise.

  This changed at once to entreaty. "Won't you please let me go along? Noone who lives here will take me. I have a servant, a huge Carib, a verygiant of a man who will be our bodyguard."

  "That's all right," said Pant, rising. "Be glad for the company. But whydo those who live here refuse to enter the cave?"

  "Haunted." The other boy's tone was impressive. "They say the cave ishaunted by the ghosts of more than a thousand Maya Indians who aresupposed to have fled there from their enemies and to have perishedcenturies ago."

  "One wouldn't care to come upon their bones in such a place."

  Kirk shuddered.

  "Nevertheless, shall we go?" said Pant.

  Kirk nodded.

  "All right. We had better go up in the cool of late afternoon. The jungleair will not be so oppressive. We can return by the light of the moon."

  Late that afternoon, after a day of rest, Pant found himself on the broadveranda of the house. Here he unbound his pack. From it he took threelight fibre trays, a package of powders, two flashlights, extra batteriesfor the lights, and his small black box. All these, together with aquantity of matches, he bound carefully in waterproof oiled cloth. He wasthen ready for the journey to the cave.

  As he sat for a time, waiting for his new found friend, his mind was rifewith speculations. How had this strange American boy come here so farfrom the seaboard? How did he come to be in Central America at all?

  The Spanish people were strange, too. He had heard of them, the last ofthe Dons. Fragments of their history had drifted to him from afar. Theywere the direct descendants of a proud Spanish family. Two centuriesbefore the family had grown immensely rich, so the story ran. How hadthey come by their wealth? Where had it gone? These were questions no oneseemed prepared to answer. Enough. They were rich no longer. For allthat, they appeared to live very comfortably off the land.

  "So there is a story, probably only a legend, telling of a box of beatensilver filled with pearls," he thought. "I must know more of that."

  He found himself far more interested in the story of that large band ofMaya Indians who had perished in the cave. "The thing must have happenedlong ago," he told himself.

  "They did not enter the cave empty handed. When people flee they takesome treasures with them. Should one come upon their bones he would besure to find priceless curios there, beaten gold, hand cut stones andcopper knives of long ago."

  Yes, he was interested in this a little, but most of all he was concernedwith his own business within some dark corner of the cave.

  "Wish he'd come," he thought impatiently, "wish--"

  At that moment the hugest black man he had ever seen, bearing in one handa rifle that was a veritable cannon and in the other a basket, roundedthe corner of the house. He was closely followed by the American boy.

  In a loose flannel blouse, corduroy knickers and high stout boots, Kirklooked quite fit and capable.

  "Ready for any adventure," was Pant's mental comment.

  "I hope I didn't tire you waiting," Kirk smiled at him. "The Spanishmother put up a bit of lunch for us--casaba bread, home made cheese,butter and wild honey. She insisted; so did Ramoncita. They are dears."

  "Real sports, I'd say," Pant assented heartily. He could scarcelyremember a time when the very mention of such strange and tasty food didnot whet his appetite.

  "Ramoncita?" he said after a moment. "Is that the girl with round cheeksand big dark eyes?"

  "Yes. Ramoncita Salazar. Musical name, isn't it? The real Spanish peopleof the highest class are wonderfully attune to all things artistic andbeautiful. But we must be off. This black man will go along to help carryour stuff."

  The trail they followed was steep and rocky. It was not much of a trail.In places the bushes hung over it so thick and low that they were obligedto all but creep on hands and knees; again it was so smooth and steepthat only by clinging to low growing shrubs could they go forward.

  For all that, there was something of a trail. Here and there weresuggestions of an ancient, permanently cut way. In three places Pantfound his feet firmly planted upon steps which had been cut from thesolid rock.

  "Stands to reason," he said as he perched himself upon the topmost stepsof the last flight, "that these were built by natives long ago. See hownature has chipped and worn the edges away."

  "Probably done by the Maya Indians centuries ago," said Kirk, droppingupon a soft bed of moss and fanning himself with a broad leaf pulled froma palm. "Everything of importance that is told of the Maya Indianshappened long ago. There are a few of them back in the hills now. They donot count any more. A nation that was once rich and in a way powerful,that had a civilization rivaling any to be found in the world fivecenturies ago, has dwindled to a handful of vagabonds of the jungle. Itis sad." He cupped his chin in his hands and, as if seeing the palacesand temples of that lost civilization, sat staring at the jungle. "It issaid," he went on at last, "that the cave we are about to visit was thelast hiding place of the smar
test and wisest of the Mayas."

  "Fleeing from the Spaniards?" asked Pant.

  "No. The Spaniards have many atrocities justly charged against them. Butthe great Maya civilization was destroyed by fierce, war-like tribes fromthe North before the prow of the white man's boat touched CentralAmerica's coral strands.

  "The last of the Mayas are said to have fled to this cave and, unlessthey knew a secret passage leading out of the cave, to have perishedthere."

  Again Pant thought of the ancient treasure they must have carried withthem.

  "Did the savage tribe follow them into the cave?"

  "They were afraid. That's the way the story goes. Afraid the Earth God ofthe Mayas would push the mountain down upon them if they should enter."

  "So," thought Pant, "whatever the Mayas took with them is in the cavestill. And they were possessed of great wealth. I have read of it. Goldand jade, topaz and perhaps diamonds, pearls from the western shores andstrange little gods carved from rare stones or formed from metal."

  All this he thought, but not one word did he say as they resumed theirupward march.

  The entrance to the cave, which they reached after much climbing, wasmost picturesque. Its mouth was entirely hidden by dark spreading palmleaves. A sparkling stream, appearing to emerge from nowhere, wentdashing headlong over a rocky ledge.

  Parting the large leaves as if they had been a curtain, the boys peeredwithin to find there a dark hole from which there came a constant draftof cool damp air.

  "Boo!" said Pant. "It's cold in there."

  The other boy did not hear him. He was staring in amazement at his blackservant. As if seized by a sudden fit of ague, the giant was shakingviolently from head to foot.

  "A chill," said Pant as he caught sight of him.

  "Afraid," his companion whispered back. "Afraid of the Earth God of theMayas. He has great courage and the strength of three. I have never knownhim to fear anything before."

  In a moment it became evident that the black man was ashamed of his fearand was making brave attempts to conquer it. In the end he won and,seating himself upon a rock, watched his young master and Pant removetheir shoes and stockings. The narrow entrance to the cave offered nofooting save the moss covered rocks at the bottom of the stream.

  As they signified their readiness to start, the black lifted the door ofa strange glassless lantern of beaten brass which, Pant was told, burnedfish oil and would provide a feeble light for hours on end. Afterlighting the lantern he plunged boldly into the stream and led the waythrough icy water straight into the darkness of night until, with a gruntof satisfaction, he emerged panting and dripping upon a dry ledge wherethe cave suddenly widened to a broad chamber.

  For a time, lighted only by the dull gleam of the Carib's lantern, theymoved along the brink of the narrow stream. The silence was oppressive.The stream flowed placidly over an all but level floor, making no sound.Only the gentle pat-pat of their bare feet disturbed the tomb-like hushthat hung over all.

  Then of a sudden, like thunder from a clear sky, pandemonium broke loose.The innocent cause of all the commotion was the Carib. He had, by chance,struck his lantern against a rock.

  The air was filled with strange noises, such a whirring and snapping asnot one of them had heard before.

  "Wha--what is it?" Kirk's hand trembled as he gripped Pant's arm.

  "Bats," said Pant. "Stand perfectly still. They will settle."

  For a single second he threw on his flashlight and allowed it to playacross the space before them. The other boy's eyes went big with wonder.Even Pant, who had seen much of Central American life, was astonished.Bats, a million of them it seemed, circled the air. And such bats! Notiny mouse-like creatures were these, but great gray monsters with broadspreading wings, gleaming eyes and teeth that shone white in theperpetual night about them.

  "Don't." Kirk's hand was on his arm. The light flashed out.

  "May as well go ahead," said Pant. "Doubt if they go far back into thecave."

  They had not gone a hundred yards before they came to a very narrowpassage. Once more they were obliged to take to the bed of the stream.This lasted only a moment. As they emerged there came over them a senseof vastness. Was it the quality of silence that was there? Was it thechanged sound of their footsteps? Or was it some sixth sense that toldthem? As Pant threw the gleam of his powerful flashlight before them, anexclamation escaped every lip.

  Nothing they had seen in any land could compare with the splendor of themasonry of the vast cathedral that lay before them.

  Masonry? This indeed they at first thought it, the work of some greatlost race. In time they came to realize that the splendid gleamingpillars were the work of time and a great Creator, the Master Builders ofall ages. The pillars were great stalagmites, formed by the dripping ofwater through a thousand thousand years.

  Strangest of all, as they listened they caught from afar a sound that waslike music.

  "Like some mighty organ played softly while a thousand children chant,"Kirk whispered.

  It was now time to cover their feet, yet even the Carib felt something ofthe awe that led the others on, still barefooted.

  The illusion of the chant could not last forever. As they advanced thesound increased in volume, became more distinct until it burst upon themas the rush and roar of a miniature cataract, where the stream emergedfrom a chamber still beyond.

  "Shall we go on?" Pant stood with his feet in the lower water of thecataract.

  "If--if we don't get lost," the younger boy hesitated.

  "Not a chance," said Pant. "We have only to follow the stream back."

  "To be sure. How stupid of me. Yes, let's go on." There was an eager notein Kirk's voice. Pant read it correctly. He was eager to go forward for,in some hidden chamber, perhaps just beyond, there might rest a vasttreasure from the forgotten past.

  The ascent of the water worn and slippery rocks was difficult. More thanonce the younger boy was in danger of being thrown into the torrent ofwater, but drawn on by Pant, lifted forward now and then by the giantblack, he made his way upward until with a sigh of relief he dropped upondry sand at the head of the waterfall. Once more Pant's light gleamed outbefore them. Fresh marvels awaited them. A vast, silent underground lake,reaching as far as the light would carry and yet beyond, seemed to beckonthem on.

  Switching off his light, that batteries might be saved for a possibleemergency, Pant followed the Carib and his dim light along the shore ofthis new marvel.

  They had gone two hundred yards or more when out of the darkness beforethem, on the shore of the lake, something loomed indistinct and gray.

  "What is it?" The younger boy came to a sudden halt.

  "We'll see." There came the snap of Pant's flashlight.

  The next instant, as if pushed by a sudden force, they all fell back.Before them, drawn up on the beach, with paddles crossed over the seat,was a light canoe.

  Staring with all their eyes, they stood there expecting any moment to seethe mysterious canoeist emerge from the dim distance beyond.

  Not knowing what to think, Pant stood at attention. As he did so, astrange chattering struck his ears. Wheeling about, he discovered thecause. The black giant's teeth were chattering. Once more he was shakingfrom head to foot. His face was almost white with fear.