by Rex Stout
Chapter XII.
AT THE DOOR.
Desiree shrank back against the wall, covering her face with her hands.Harry stood above the prostrate figure of the king, panting and furious.
As for me, I gave no thought to what had been done--the imminent perilof the situation possessed my mind and stung my brain to action.
I ran to the figure on the floor and bent over him. There was nomovement--his eyes were closed. Calling to Harry to watch the corridorwithout, I quickly tore my woolen jacket into strips--my fingers seemedto be made of steel--and bound the wrists and ankles of the Incafirmly, trussing him up behind.
Then with another strip I gagged him, thinking it best to err on theside of prudence. In another moment I had dragged him to the corner ofthe room behind the granite couch and covered him with its hide-cover.
Then I turned to Harry:
"Is the coast clear?"
"Yes," he answered from the doorway.
"Then here--quick, man! Get the clubs and the grub. Desiree--come!There's not a second to lose."
"But, Paul--" she began; then, seeing the utter folly of any othercourse than instant flight, she sprang to Harry's side to assist himwith the bundles of provisions.
There was more than we could carry. Harry and I each took a bundleunder our left arm, carrying the clubs in the other hand. Desireeattempted to take two bundles, but they were too heavy for her, and shewas forced to drop one.
With a last hasty glance at the motionless heap in the corner westarted, Harry leading and myself in the rear, with Desiree between us.
But it was not to be so easy. We were nearly to the door when therecame a grating, rumbling sound from above, and a huge block of granitedropped squarely across the doorway with a crash that made the groundtremble beneath our feet.
Stupefied, we realized in a flash that the cunning of the Incas hadproved too much for us. Harry and I ran forward, but only to invitedespair; the doorway was completely covered by the massive rock, animpenetrable curtain of stone weighing many tons, and on neither sidewas there an opening more than an inch wide. We were imprisoned beyondall hope of escape.
We stood stunned; Desiree even made no sound, but gazed at the blockeddoorway in a sort of stupid wonder. It was one of those sudden andoverwhelming catastrophes that deprive us for a moment of all power toreason or even to realize.
Then Harry said quietly:
"Well, the game's up."
And Desiree turned to me with the calm observation:
"They must have been watching us. We were fools not to have known it."
"Impossible!" Harry asserted; but I agreed with Desiree; and though Icould see no opening or crevice of any sort in the walls or ceiling, Iwas convinced that even then the eyes of the Incas were upon us.
Our situation was indeed desperate. With our every movement spiedupon, surrounded by four solid walls of stone, and beyond them tenthousand savage brutes waiting to tear us to pieces--what wildest fancycould indulge in hope?
Then, glancing up, my eye was arrested by the heap under the cover inthe corner. There, in the person of the Inca king, lay our onlyadvantage. But how could we use it?
Desiree's voice came in the calm tones of despair:
"We are lost."
Harry crossed to her and took her in his arms.
"I thank Heaven," he said, "that you are with us." Then he turned tome: "I believe it is for the best, Paul. There never was a chance forus; we may as well say it now. And it is better to die here, together,than--the other way."
I smiled at his philosophy, knowing its source. It came not from hisown head, but from Desiree's arms. But it was truth.
We sat silent. The thing was beyond discussion; too elemental to needspeech for its explanation or understanding. I believe it was notdespair that kept back our words, but merely the dumb realization thatwhere all hope is gone words are useless--worse, a mockery.
Finally I crossed the room and removed the cover from the body of theChild of the Sun. He had recovered consciousness; his little wickedeyes gleamed up at me with an expression that would have beenterrifying in the intensity of its malignant hatred if he had not beenutterly helpless. I turned to Harry:
"What are we going to do with him?"
"By Jove, I had forgotten!" exclaimed the lad. "Paul, perhaps if wecould communicate with them--" He stopped, glancing at the closeddoorway; then added: "But it's impossible."
"I believe it is possible," I contradicted. "If the Incas were able tolower that stone at any moment you may be sure they are prepared toraise it. How, Heaven only knows; but the fact is certain. Do youthink they would have condemned their precious king to starvation?"
"Then the king can save us!"
"And how?"
"Our lives for his. We'll give him nothing to eat, and if, as you say,they have some way of watching us, they'll be forced to negotiate. Youcan talk with the quipos, and tell them that unless they give us ourfreedom and let us go in safety they'll have a dead king. From the waythey seem to worship him they'd come through in a minute."
"Oh, they'd promise, all right," I agreed; "but how could we hold themto it?"
"Well, a promise is a promise. And it's our only chance."
"No, Harry; to trust them would be folly. The minute we steppedthrough that doorway they would be on us--the whole beggarly, smellylot of them."
"Then there is no chance--none whatever?" put in Desiree.
"None. We may as well admit the worst. And the worst is best for usnow. Really, we are in luck; we die in our own way and at our owntime. But there is one difficulty."
Then, in answer to their glances of inquiry, I added significantly: "Wehave no weapons. We cannot allow ourselves to starve--the end mustcome before that, for as soon as they saw us weakening we would be attheir mercy."
There was comprehension and horror in Desiree's eyes, but she looked atme with a brave attempt to smile as she took from her hair somethingwhich gleamed and shone in the light from the flaming urns. It was atiny steel blade with a handle of pearl studded with diamonds.
I had seen it before many times--a present, Desiree had told me, fromthe young man I had seen in the royal coach on that day in Madrid whenI had first heard the name of Le Mire.
"Will that do?" she asked calmly, holding it out to me with a firm hand.
Brave Le Mire! I took the dagger and placed it in my pocket, and,looking at Harry, exchanged with him a nod of understanding. No wordswere necessary.
"But I must confess I am a coward," said Desiree. "When the time comesI--I could not bear to see--to wait--"
I looked at her and said simply: "You shall be first," and she gave mea smile of thanks that spoke of a heart that would not fail when thefinal moment arrived. And in my admiration of her high courage Iforgot the horror of the task that must be mine.
It was a relief to have admitted the worst and discussed it calmly;there is no torment like suspense, and ours was at an end. A load waslifted from our hearts, and a quiet sympathy created between us,sincere as death itself. And it was in our power to choose forourselves the final moment--we were yet masters of our fates.
All action seems useless when hope is dead, but certain things neededto be done, and Harry and I bestirred ourselves. We extinguished theflame in all the urns but one to save the oil, not caring to depart indarkness.
Our supply of water, we found, was quite sufficient to last for severaldays, if used sparingly; for we intended to support life so long as wehad the fuel. Then responsibility ceases; man has a right to hastenthat which fortune has made inevitable.
The hours passed by.
We talked very little; at times Desiree and Harry conversed in subduedtones which I did not overhear; I was engaged with my own thoughts.And they were not unpleasant; if, looking death in the face, a man canpreserve his philosophy unchanged, he has made the only success in lifethat is worth while.
We ate and drank, but gave neither water nor food to o
ur fellowprisoner. Not because I really expected to force negotiations with theIncas--but the thing was possible and was worth a trial. I knew themwell enough to appraise correctly the value of any safe-conduct theymight give us.
I was a little surprised to find in Desiree no levity, the vulgar propfor courage based on ignorance. There was a tenderness in her manner,especially toward Harry, that spoke of something deeper and awoke in myown breast a deeper respect for her. The world had not known DesireeLe Mire--it had merely been fascinated and amused by her.
Many hours had passed in this tomblike apathy. Two or three times Ihad advised Desiree to lie down to rest and, if possible, to sleep.She had refused, but I became insistent, and Harry added his voice tomy own. Then, to please us, she consented; we arranged the cover onthe granite couch and made her as comfortable as possible.
In five minutes she was fast asleep. Harry stood a few feet away fromthe couch, looking down at her. I spoke to him, in a low tone:
"And you must rest too, Hal. One of us must remain on watch; I'll takeit first and call you when I feel drowsy. It may be a needlessprecaution, but I don't care to wake up and find myself in thecondition of our friend yonder."
He wanted to take the first watch himself, but I insisted, and hearranged our ponchos on the ground, and soon he too was sleeping easilyand profoundly. I looked from him to Desiree with a smile, andreflection that Socrates himself could not have met misfortune withmore sublime composure.
It was possible that the stone curtain across the doorway could beraised noiselessly, and that made it necessary to keep my eyes fastenedon it almost continuously. This became irksome; besides, twice I awoketo the fact that my thoughts had carried me so far away from mysurroundings that the stone could have been raised to the roof and Iwould not have noticed it.
So, using my jacket for a cushion, I seated myself on the ground in thethreshold, leaning my back against the stone, and gave myself up tomeditation.
I had sat thus for three hours or more, and was thinking of callingHarry to relieve me, when I felt a movement at my back. I turnedquickly and saw that the stone was moving upward.
Slowly it rose, by little frequent jerks, not more than an eighth of aninch at a time. In fifteen minutes it was only about four inches fromthe ground. There was no sound save a faint grating noise from above.
I stood several feet away, holding one of the golden clubs in my hand,thinking it unnecessary to rouse Harry until the space was wide enoughto cause apprehension. Or rather, because I had no fear of anassault--I was convinced that our ruse had succeeded, and that theywere about to communicate with us by means of the quipos.
The stone was raised a little over a foot, then became stationary. Iwaited, expecting to see a bundle of quipos thrust through the opening,but they did not appear.
Instead, five golden vessels were pushed across the ground until theywere inside, clear of the stone; I could see the black, hairy hands andarms, which were immediately withdrawn.
Then the granite curtain fell with a crash that caused me to start withits suddenness and awakened both Harry and Desiree.
Two of the vessels contained water, two oil, and the other dried fish.Harry, who had sprung to his feet excitedly, grumbled in disgust.
"At least, they might have sent us some soup. But what's their idea?"
"It means that Desiree was right," I observed. "They have some way ofwatching us. And, seeing that we refused to provide their belovedmonarch with provender, they have sent him an allowance from thepantry."
Harry grinned.
"Will he get it?"
"Hardly," said I with emphasis. "We'll make 'em treat with us if it'sonly to observe their diplomacy. There'll be a message from themwithin twenty-four hours. You'll see."
"Anyway, we know now that they can raise that stone whenever they feellike it. But in the name of Archimedes, how?"
He advanced to the doorway and examined the block of granite curiously,but there was no clue to its weight or thickness from the inside. Iexplained that there were several ways by which the thing could beraised, but that the most probable one was by means of a rollingpulley, which required merely some rounded stones and a flat surfaceabove, with ropes of hide for stays.
It had been several hours since we had last eaten, and we decided to atonce convey to the spies without our intentions concerning ourprisoner. So we regaled ourselves with dried fish and water, takingcare not to approach the king, who had rolled over on his side and layfacing us, looking for all the world, in the dim light, like a blackdog crouched on the floor.
Harry relieved me at my post against the door, and I lay down to sleep.Desiree had seated herself beside him, and the low tones of theirvoices came to me as I lay on the couch (which Desiree had insisted Ishould occupy) in an indistinct, musical murmur. This for perhaps tenminutes; then I slept.
That became our routine. During the many weary hours that followedthere was never a moment when one of us was not seated with his backagainst the stone across the doorway; we dared not trust our eyes.Usually Harry and Desiree watched together, and, when I relieved them,slept side by side on the couch.
Sometimes, when we were all awake, Desiree was left on guard alone; butHarry and I were never both asleep at the same time.
An estimate of the time we spent thus would be the wildest guess, fortime was heavy and passed on leaden feet. But I should say we had beenimprisoned for something like four days, possibly five, when themonotony came to an abrupt end.
I had come off watch, and Harry and Desiree had taken my place. BeforeI lay down I had taken some water to the prisoner, for we had some timebefore admitted the necessity of giving him drink. But of food he hadhad none.
Harry told me afterward that I had slept for two or three hours, but itseemed to me rather as many minutes, when I was awakened by the soundof his voice calling my name. Glancing at the doorway, I sprang to myfeet.
The stone was slowly rising from the floor; already there was a spaceof a foot or more. Desiree and Harry stood facing it in silence.
"You have seen nothing?" I asked, joining them.
"Nothing," said Harry. "Here, take one of these clubs. Something'sup."
"Of course--the stone," I observed facetiously, yawning. "Probablynothing more important than a bundle of quipos. Lord, I'm sleepy!"
Still the stone moved upward, very slowly. It reached a height of twofeet, yet did not halt.
"This is no quipos" said Harry, "or if it is, they must be going tosend us in a whole library. Six inches would have been enough forthat."
I nodded, keeping my eyes on the ever-widening space at our feet.
"This means business, Hal. Stand ready with your club. Desiree, go tothe further corner, behind that seat."
She refused; I insisted; she stamped her foot in anger.
"Do you think I'm a child, to run and hide?" she demanded obstinately.
I wasted no time in argument.
"You will go", I said sternly, "or I shall carry you and tie you. Thisis not play. We must have room and know that you are safe."
To my surprise, she made no reply, but quietly obeyed. Then, struck bya sudden thought, I crossed to where she stood behind a stone seat inthe corner.
"Here," I said in a low tone, taking the little jeweled dagger from mypocket and holding it out to her, "in case--"
"I understand," she said simply, and her hand closed over the hilt.
By that time the stone was half-way to the top of the doorway, leavinga space over three feet high, and was still rising. I stood on oneside and Harry on the other, not caring to expose ourselves immediatelyin front.
Suddenly he left his post and ran to one of the stone seats and beganprying at the blocks of granite. I saw at once his intention and ourmistake; we should have long before barricaded the door on the inside.But it was too late now; I knew from experience the difficulty ofloosening those firmly wedged blocks, and I called out:
"No good, Hal
. We were fools not to have thought of it before, butthere is no time for it now. Come back; I couldn't stop 'em alone."
Nevertheless, he continued his exertions, and succeeded in getting oneof the blocks partially free; but by that time the doorway was almostcompletely uncovered, and he saw the folly of attempting further.
He resumed his post on the right of the door--I was on the left.
The stone appeared to be going faster. It reached the top--passedit--and quickly swung in toward the wall and disappeared, probably torest on a ledge above.
We stood waiting, tense and alert. The open doorway gaped on theblack, empty corridor, into which the light from our single urn shonedimly. We could see or hear nothing, no indication that any one was inthe passage, but we dared not look out in that darkness. The suspensewas trying enough; Harry ripped out an impatient oath and made amovement as though to step in the entrance, but I waved him back.
Then came the avalanche, with a suddenness and fury that nighoverwhelmed us.
Crouching, rushing forms filled the doorway from both directions andleaped savagely at us. After so many weary days of dull inaction andhelpless, hopeless apathy, a mad joy fired my brain and thrilled myheart as I raised my club on high and struck a blow for freedom andlife.
That blow crushed the skull of one whose fingers were at my throat, andhe dropped like a log at my feet; but his place was already filled.Again I swung the club; another swayed, toppling against the doorwayand leaning there with the blood streaming from his broken head, quitedead, but held erect by the pressure of his fellows from behind.
If the doorway had been but a foot wider we would have been overwhelmedalmost instantly. As it was, but three or four could get to us atonce, and they found the gold which their ancestors had carried fromthe temples of Huanuco waiting for them. My arm seemed to have thestrength of a hundred arms; it swung the heavy club as though it hadbeen a feather, and with deadly accuracy.
Harry fought like a demon. I think I did all that a man could do, buthe did more, and withal more coolly. I brought down my club on heads,shoulders, chests, and rarely failed to get my man.
But the impact of Harry's blows was like the popping of a Maxim. I sawhim reach over and grasp the throat of one who had his teeth set in myshoulder, and, holding him straight before him with his arm extended,break his neck with one blow. Again, his club descended on one blackskull with a glancing blow and shot off to the head of another with theforce of a sledge-hammer.
At the time I did not know that I saw these things; it was all onewrithing, struggling, bloody horror; but afterward the eyes of memoryshowed them to me.
Still they came. My arm rose and fell seemingly without order from thebrain; I was not conscious that it moved. It seemed to me that eversince the beginning of time I had stood in that butcher's doorway andbrought down that bar of gold on thick, black skulls and distorted,grinning faces. But they would not disappear. One fell; another tookhis place; and another, and another, and another.
The bodies of those who fell were dragged away from underneath. I didnot see it, but it must have been so, or soon we would have raised ourown barricade for defense--a barricade of flesh. And there was none.
I began to weaken, and Harry saw it, for he gasped out: "Steady--Paul.Take it--easy. They can't--last--forever."
His blows were redoubled in fury as he moved closer to me, taking morethan his share of the attack, so that I almost had time to breathe.
But we could not have held out much longer. My brain was whirlingmadly and a weight of a thousand tons seemed dragging me remorselessly,inevitably to the ground. I kept my feet through the force of somecrazy instinct, for will and reason were gone.
And then, for an instant, Harry's eyes met mine, and I read in themwhat neither of us could say, nor would. With the fury of despair westruck out together in one last effort.
Whether the Incas saw in that effort a renewed strength that spoke ofimmortality, or whether it happened just at that moment that thepressure from behind was removed, no longer forcing them to theirdeath, I do not know. It may have been that, like some better men,they had merely had enough.
From whatever cause, the attack ceased almost with the suddenness withwhich it had begun; they fell back from the doorway; Harry lungedforward with raised club, and the forms melted away into the darknessof the corridor.
Harry turned and looked at me as I stood swaying from side to side inthe doorway. Neither of us could speak. Together we staggered backacross the room, but I had not gone more than half way when my legsbent under me and I sank to the floor. Dimly I saw Harry's face aboveme, as though through a veil--then another face that came close to myown--and a voice:
"Paul! My love! They have killed him!"
Soft white arms were about my neck, and a velvet cheek was pressedagainst my own.
"Desiree!" I gasped. "Don't! Harry! No, they have not killed me--"
Then Harry's voice:
"That's all right, old fellow. I know--I have known she loves you.This is no time to talk of that. Listen, Paul--what you were going todo for Desiree--if you can--they will be back at any moment--"
That thought kindled my brain; I raised myself onto my elbow.
"I haven't the strength," I said, hardly knowing how I spoke. "Youmust do it, Harry; you must. And quick, lad! The dagger!Desiree--the dagger!"
What followed came to me as in a dream; my eyes were dim with theexhaustion that had overcome my body. Desiree's face disappeared frombefore my face--then a silence--then the sound of her voice as thoughfrom a distance:
"Harry--come! I can't find it! I dropped it when I ran across--itmust be here--on the floor--"
And then another sound came that I knew only too well--the sound ofrushing, pattering feet.
I think I tried to rise to my own feet. I heard Harry's voice cryingin a frenzy: "Quick--here they come! Desiree, where is it?"
There was a ringing cry of despair from Desiree, a swinging oath fromHarry, and the next instant I found myself pinned to the floor by theweight of a score of bodies.
