CHAPTER XXIII
_The Spider Snaps_
Stooping, Stubbs ran his hand down the length of Wilson's arm and feltfor his pulse. He caught a weak but steady beat. Prying open hismouth, he poured a large mouthful of water down the dry throat. Wilsonquickly revived and begged for more.
"No, m' son, this'll do fer now. You'll need it worse later on. An'I'm darned glad to see yer again."
"How--how long have I been here, Stubbs?" panted Wilson.
"Nigh twenty-four hours."
"A day--a whole day wasted!"
"An' another cross agin yer fren' the Priest."
"Was it he?"
"Th' same."
He gave Wilson a little food and a wisp of the coca leaves to chew andbriefly told him what he had just been through. He concluded with awave of his hand about him.
"So here we are at last, an' a crew of savages waitin' fer us at thetop, which makes a fine and fittin' end fer any v'yage upon which Iembarks."
"Water--give me more water."
Stubbs rested the bottle to the man's lips a moment and then had tofight with him to get it away.
"Now," said Stubbs, "if ye've gut th' breath, tell me, has ye exploredat all?"
Wilson shook his head. He answered vaguely, his thoughts still uponthe one thing.
"A day wasted and the Priest on his way! He said within a day, didn'the, Stubbs? Lord! we've got to get out of here; we've got to get toher. He'll kill them both----"
Wilson struggled to his feet and plunged towards the exit to the cave.Stubbs was upon him in a second and bore him down.
"Gawd, man, h'ain't yer any sense left at all?"
A second later he repented his sharp speech, and added,
"There, lay still a moment, lad. I knows how yer feel, but we might'swell look aroun' an' find out how much bigger damned fools we are.Ye've gotter git yer strength before ye can move back over thatcourse."
"The treasure is there," whispered Wilson; "but, Stubbs, I want morewater--buckets of it."
"What's there?"
"Diamonds--diamonds, and not a drop of water."
Stubbs did not believe it. He took it to be the hallucination of a manweak with thirst. But one thing was settled in his mind: if the cavewere empty, he wouldn't waste any more time here. Danger wasincreasing with every minute. He pawed his way into the rear of thecave and had not gone ten feet before he stumbled over the same pileWilson had found. He seized a handful of the stones and made his wayback to the light.
The jewels sparkled in his rough palm like chips from the starsthemselves. They were of all sizes from a beechnut to a pecan. Evenroughly cut and polished as they were, they still flashed back theirrainbow hues with pointed brilliancy. He picked out a large yellowdiamond which even in this dim light glowed like molten gold in a fog;another which imprisoned the purple of the night sky; and anothertinged with the faint crimson of an afterglow. Jumbled together in hishand, they were a scintillating pile of tiny, living stars, their raysfencing in a dazzling play of light. Even to Stubbs, who knew nothingof the stones, they were so fascinating that he turned them over andover with his finger to watch their twinkling iridescence.
Just those he held there now were such as a lapidary would spend hislife willingly in the getting. If not another stone were found in thecave, these alone represented a fortune worthy of the expedition. Eachstone as it stood was worth probably from three to eight hundreddollars, and some of the larger would run into the thousands. It wasdifficult to realize their full value here where they counted for solittle,--no more than the rays of the stars themselves,--here where somany others lay in a heap like broken glass. Vaguely Stubbs graspedthe fact that he had in his possession the worth of many good shipsand freedom for the rest of his life. Yet he thrilled less with thisthought than he did with the sheer joy of discovery. A man willcherish a dime he picks up on the street more than he does afive-dollar bill in his pocket. It was this spirit of treasure-trovethat got into his blood, sending a tingle of new life through hisveins. He tried to rouse Wilson to it.
"Come here, man," he shouted. "Come here and see what we've got. God!there's millions in this cave!"
But Wilson lifted his head indifferently.
"I don't give a damn," he answered.
"You haven't seen 'em sparkle--you haven't gut it inter yer head!Ye're rich--richer than Danbury!"
He hurried back to where Wilson sat and thrust the jewels before hiseyes.
"D' ye see 'em?" he cried excitedly. "Bigger 'n yer thumb?"
For a second his old-time suspicion and doubt returned.
"But maybe," he added sorrowfully, "maybe they're jus' glass. Jus' myluck."
Nevertheless he believed sufficiently in them to return to the quest.He struck match after match, wandering farther and farther into thedarkness, hoping to find something with which he could make lightenough to see around him. He gave a little cry of joy as he came uponan old-time altar light--a platter of oil containing a crude wick. Helighted this. The flame sputtered feebly, died down, then revived toa big, steady flame. With his arms at his side, his mouth wide open,he gaped at what the light revealed.
The cave was not large; this lamp disclosed its boundaries. It alsodisclosed other things, chief of which was a leering idol some threefeet tall which squatted, cross-legged, with one hand extended. Thishand held a polished diamond larger than a walnut. The eyes were ofruby which, catching the light, burned with ghoul-like ferocity, whilethe mouth grinned,--grinned with a smile which strangely resembledthat of the Priest. The image was of gold. To the right and left,piled up as though they had been hastily thrown together, was a jumbleof vases, bowls, plates, shields, all of beaten gold. They made a heapsome four feet high, and from six to eight feet broad at the base.Strewn about the foot of this were many little leather bags tied atthe top with dried sinews.
Minute after minute Stubbs stared at this sight in silence. There wasmore gold here than he thought existed in the world,--so much that itlost its value. Here was enough almost to load down a ship. If hecould crowd a few hundred dollars into a bag small enough to stuffinto his pocket, this must run up into the millions. He had alwaysspoken of a man worth a million with a certain amount of awe anddoubt; and here lay ten, perhaps fifty, times that amount. At the endof forty years of sailing the seas he had saved a little over threethousand dollars against the days he should be old and feeble. Threethousand dollars! Two or three of those stones he had slipped into hispocket,--four or five of these plates of which there were hundreds!
_Minute after minute, Stubbs stared at this sight insilence._]
He moved forward and tried to lift one of the big vases of crudelybeaten gold. With his full weight against it, he could scarcely moveit. Farther on there was a bar of gold heavier than three men couldcarry. To the left of this there was a pile of golden shields studdedwith jewels, strange ornaments, and heavy plates. Back of this hecaught a glimpse of still other ingots of gold in the shadows.
And always the big image held extended towards him with a cynical leerthe big, polished diamond which seemed rather to give out light fromwithin itself than to reflect the altar flames. It blazed with abrilliancy that he had never seen equalled save by the stars onfaultless winter nights.
He was too dumbfounded at first to take it all in. He turned about ina circle, resting his eyes again upon one thing after another, andthen raised his hand and looked at that to make sure that he wasseeing correctly--was not the victim of some strange illusion. Yes,his eyes were all right; he saw his calloused, big-jointed hand--thehand which had labored so long for a millionth part of what he now sawhere. The gold and the jewels were within arms' reach of him--therewas no longer any doubt about that. His luck must have turned.
He moved back to where Wilson still lay sprawled out upon his backonly half conscious of his surroundings. He tried to speak calmly,but he blurted out,
"Gawd, man, there's tons of it!"
Wilson did not move or speak.
"Shiploads of it
. Man! Man! wake up an' see what's afore yer eyes!"
"What is it, Stubbs?"
"Gold! Gold! Gold! The stuff thet outside here yer haster fight tergit a pinch of,--the stuff I've sailed aroun' the worl' ter git ahandful of; the stuff ye've come so far on the bare chance ofseein'."
"It's here, then? The treasure is here?"
"More than ever ye dreamed of. Small wonder that Sorez was willin' tertake chances agin the Priest if he knew of this."
Wilson brushed his hand over his eyes. The name roused him. This meantgetting back to Sorez--getting back to him with proof of the treasureand so releasing the girl. He made his feet and stood a moment withhis hand upon Stubbs' shoulder.
"I'm glad, Stubbs," he answered. "Now--now let's get back to her."
"Aye, we'll get back, but first we've got ter figger out some way forgittin' of this stuff out."
As a matter of fact, they learned that they were really facingsomething of a problem. It was a marvel how ever these things were gotdown here, but it would be a still greater task to get them out again.Twenty fanatical worshipers of the Sun God gave their lives to bearingthese priceless offerings from the lake to this cave with theincentive of winning everlasting happiness. It was a different problemfor two tired and nerve-exhausted men to retrace their steps.
Even if it were possible to get the treasure to the surface, it wouldneed a small army of men and burros to carry it over the mountains tocivilization, and another small army to defend it while on thejourney. It would be almost equally impossible, probably, for themever again to reach this cave. If they were successful in getting outof this country alive now that the Priest was roused and the nativesincensed over the death of their fellows, it certainly would be suredeath ever to return. As for organizing a company either at Bogova orin America for the purpose of removing the treasure, Stubbs had theusual independent man's distrust of such means. It became clearer tohim every minute that the only share of this hoard of which they evercould be sure was what they might now take out with them. Thispractically eliminated the vast store of golden implements, for it wasimpossible to carry even the smallest of them on their shoulders overso rough and dangerous a trail as this. It began to look as thoughthey had reached this treasure at length merely to be tantalized byit. The very thought was like a nightmare.
His eyes fell upon the small leather bags. Stooping, he picked up oneof them, untied it and poured its contents upon the cave floor; aflashing stream of rubies rippled out and glowed at his feet in atiny, blood-red heap. And there were a dozen more of these bags insight!
"Lord, man!" he exclaimed below his breath, "it's 'nuff to make yerb'lieve ye're dreamin'."
The jewels gave him fresh courage. Here, at any rate, was a fortunewhich was within their present reach. They could carry these thingsback with them even though they were forced to leave the bulk of thetreasure in its heavier form. A single one of these little leatherbags was sufficient to repay them for their trouble if they didn't getanything else. But one thing was sure--their single chance of escapingwith even these was to start at once. The Priest would undoubtedlyhave the whole region up in arms before dark, and, if he didn't findthem before, would have a force at the mountain pass. It went againsthis grain to abandon such riches as these, but life and a few millionwas better than death with all the gold in the world piled about yourtomb.
To Wilson, who in the last few minutes had become more himself, thetreasure still meant just one thing--the opportunity of freeing Jo.With this evidence he could return to Sorez and persuade him of thefutility of his search in the lake itself and induce him to join hisparty and escape while there was time. If he didn't succeed in this,he would take the girl even if he had to do so by force.
"It's a case of grab and jump," said Stubbs. "You gather up the loosestones on the floor and I'll collect the bags. The sooner we gets tothe top, th' better."
Stubbs took the altar light and made a careful search of the bottom ofthe cave for jewels. These were the things which embodied in thesmallest weight the most value. It made him groan every time he passedan ingot of gold or some massive vase which he knew must run into thethousands, but at the end of ten minutes he felt better; the stonesalone were sufficient to satisfy even the most avaricious. About thebase of the grinning idol they found fourteen leather bags, eachfilled with gems. The loose diamonds which had been roughly throwninto a small pile would fill four bags more. Even Wilson became rousedat sight of these. He began to realize their value and the power suchwealth would give him. If the girl was still alive, he now had themeans of moving an army to her aid. If she was still alive--but theday was waning and the Priest, now thoroughly aroused, doubtlessmoving towards her intent upon wiping out every stranger, man orwoman, in the hills.
Stubbs was for going farther back into the cave and exploring some ofthe recesses into which they had not yet looked at all. But Wilson,with returning strength, became impatient again. The coca leaves whichhe had chewed constantly brought him new life.
"Lord! would you sell the girl for a few more bags of jewels, Stubbs?"he burst out.
The latter straightened instantly and came nearer. But before he hadtime to speak, Wilson apologized.
"No, I know better, comrade, but I can't wait any longer to get toher. I'm five years older than I was a day ago."
The while they were gathering the little bags full of jewels, the bigimage in the corner smiled his smile and offered them the big diamondin his hand; the while they buckled the bags about their waists--asprecious belts as ever men wore--the image smiled and offered; as theymoved towards the mouth of the cave it still insisted. Yet for somereason neither man had felt like taking the stone. Stubbs felt a bitsuperstitious about it, while Wilson felt enough reverence, even forheathen gods, to refrain. But still it smiled and offered. In theflickering flare of the altar light the stone burned with increasingbrilliancy. It was as though it absorbed the flames and, adding newfuel, flashed them forth again.
Wilson led the way out. Before they left the cave Stubbs turned. Hesaw the image once again, and once again the stone. The temptationwas too great, especially now that they were on the point ofleaving--perhaps forever. He started back and Wilson tried to checkhim.
"I wouldn't, Stubbs. Those eyes look too ugly. It is only the mouththat smiles and----"
"Ye haven't turned heathen yerself, have ye?" he called back.
He stepped forward and clutched it. But the jewel was fastened in someway although it seemed a bit loose. He pulled strongly upon it and thenext second leaped back, warned in time by a suspicious rumbling abovehis head. He looked down to see a slab of granite weighing half a tonon the spot where he had stood a moment before. It was an ingeniousbit of mechanism arranged to protect the treasure; the jewel had beenattached by a stout cord which, when pulled, loosed the weight above.Not only this, but it became evident in a few seconds that it loosedalso other forces--whether by design or chance, the two men neverdetermined. They had pressed back to the path outside the cave, whenthey heard a rumble like distant thunder, followed instantly by agrinding and crashing. Before their eyes a large section of the cliffcrashed down over the cave itself and into the chasm below. Theydidn't wait to see what followed, but made their way along the path asfast as they dared.
Neither man spoke again until a half hour later after a journey thatwas like a passage through Hell, they lay exhausted in the sunlightabove the chasm. The thunder of tumbling rock still pounded at theirears.
The Web of the Golden Spider Page 24
