Under the Andes

by Rex Stout

  Chapter XV.

  THE RESCUE.

  I was quick to act, but the Incas were quicker still. I turned to runfor our spears, and was halted by a cry of warning from Harry, who hadwheeled like a flash at my quick movement. I turned barely in time tosee the Incas draw back their powerful arms, then lunge forward, thespears shooting from their hands.

  I leaped aside; something struck my leg; I stooped swiftly and graspedthe spear-thong before there was time for the Inca to recover and jerkit out of my reach. The other end was fastened about his waist; I hadhim, and giving an instant for a glance at Harry, saw that he hadadopted the same tactics as myself.

  Seeing that escape was impossible, they dashed straight at us.

  It wasn't much of a fight. One came at me with his head lowered like acharging bull; I sidestepped easily and floored him with a single blow.He scrambled to his feet, but by that time I had recovered the spearand had it ready for him.

  I waited until he was quite close, then let him have it full in thechest. The fool literally ran himself through, hurling himself on thesharp point in a brutal frenzy. He lay on his back, quite still, withthe spear-head buried in his chest and the shaft sticking straight upin the air.

  I turned to Harry, and in spite of myself smiled at what I saw. Hestood with his right arm upraised, holding his spear ready. His leftfoot was placed well and gracefully forward, and his body bent to oneside like the classic javelin-thrower. And ten feet in front of himthe other Inca had fallen flat on his face on the ground with armsextended in mute supplication for quarter.

  "What shall I do?" asked Harry. "Let him have it?"

  "Can you?"

  "The fact is, no. Look at the poor beggar--scared silly. But we can'tlet him go."

  It was really a question. Mercy and murder were alike impossible. Wefinally compromised by binding his wrists and ankles and trussing himup behind, using a portion of one of the spear-thongs for the purpose,and gagging him. Then we carried him behind a large boulder somedistance from the ledge and tucked him away in a dark corner.

  "And when we get back--if we ever do--we can turn him loose," saidHarry.

  "In that case I wouldn't give much for his chances of a happyexistence," I observed.

  We wasted no time after that, for we wanted no more interruptions.Some fifteen precious minutes we lost trying to withdraw the spear Ihad buried in the body of the Inca, but the thing had become wedgedbetween two ribs and refused to come out. Finally we gave it up andthrew the corpse in the lake.

  We then removed the oars and spears and raft--which had floated so nearto the ledge that we had no difficulty in recovering it--to ourhiding-place, and last we tackled our fish.

  It was a task for half a dozen men, but we dared not remain on theledge to skin him and cut him up. After an hour of exertion and toilthat left us completely exhausted, we managed to get him behind a largeboulder to the left of the ledge, but it was impossible to carry him tothe place we had selected, which could be reached only by passingthrough a narrow crevice.

  The only knives we had were the points of the spears, but they servedafter a fashion, and in another hour we had him skinned and pretty wellseparated. He was meaty and sweet. We discovered that with the firstopportunity, for we were hungry as wolves. Nor did we waste much timebewailing our lack of a fire, for we had lived so long on dried stuffthat the opposite extreme was rather pleasant than otherwise.

  We tore him into strips as neatly as possible, stowing them awaybeneath a ledge, a spot kept cool by the water but a foot below.

  "That'll be good for a month," said Harry. "And there's more wherethat came from. And now--"

  I understood, and I answered simply: "I'm ready."

  We had but few preparations to make. The solidest parts of the fishwhich we had laid aside we now strapped together with one of the extraspear-thongs and slung them on our backs. We secreted the oars andraft and the extra spear as snugly as possible.

  Then, having filled ourselves with raw fish and a last hearty drinkfrom the lake, we each took a spear and started on a search wilder thanany ever undertaken by Amadis of Gaul or Don Quixote himself. Even theBachelor of Salamanca, in his saddest plight, did not present sooutrageous an appearance to the eye as we. We wore more clothing thanthe Incas, which is the most that can be said for us.

  We were unable to even guess at the direction we should take; but thatwas settled for us when we found that there were but two exits from thecavern. One led through the boulders and crevices to a passage full oftwists and turns and strewn with rocks, almost impassable; the otherwas that through which the Incas had entered. We chose the latter.

  Fifty feet from the cavern we found ourselves in darkness. I stoppedshort.

  "Harry, this is impossible. We cannot mark our way."

  "But what can we do?"

  "Carry one of those urns."

  "Likely! They'd spot us before we even got started."

  "Well--let them."

  "No. You're in for the finish. I know that. I want to find Desiree.And we'll find her. After that, if nothing else is left, I'll be withyou."

  "But I don't want a thousand of those brutes falling on us in the dark.If they would end it I wouldn't care."

  "Keep your spear ready."

  I had given him my promise, so I pushed on at his side. I had nostomach for it. In a fight I can avoid disgracing myself, because itis necessary; but why seek it when there is nothing to be gained? ThusI reflected, but I pushed on at Harry's side.

  As he had said, I was in for the finish. What I feared was to be takenagain by the Incas unseen in the darkness. But that fear was soonremoved when I found that we could see easily some thirty or forty feetahead--enough for a warning in case of attack.

  Our flannel shirts and woolen undergarments hung from us in rags andtatters. Our feet were bare and bruised and swollen. Our faces werecovered with a thick, matted growth of hair. Placed side by side withthe Incas it is a question which of us would have been judged the mostterrifying spectacles by an impartial observer.

  I don't think either of us realized the extreme foolhardiness of thatexpedition. The passage was open and unobstructed, and since itappeared to be the only way to their fishing-ground, was certain to bewell traveled. The alarm once given, there was no possible chance forus.

  We sought the royal apartments. Those we knew to be on a level someforty or fifty feet below the surface of the great cavern, at the footof the flight of steps which led to the tunnel to the base of thecolumn. I had counted ninety-six of those steps, and allowing anaverage height of six inches, they represented a distance offorty-eight feet.

  How far the whirlpool and the stream which it fed had carried usdownward we did not know, but we estimated it at one hundred feet.That calculation left us still fifty feet below the level of the royalapartments.

  But we soon found that in this we were mistaken. We had advanced forperhaps a quarter of an hour without incident when the passage came toan abrupt end. To the right was an irregular, twisting lane thatdisappeared around a corner almost before it started; to the left awide and straight passage, sloping gently upward. We took the latter.

  We had followed this for about a hundred yards when we saw a lightahead. Caution was useless; the passage was straight and unbroken andonly luck could save us from discovery. We pushed on, and soon stooddirectly within the light which came from an apartment adjoining thepassage. It was not that which we sought, however, and we gave itbarely a glance before we turned to the right down a cross passage,finding ourselves again in darkness.

  Soon another light appeared. We approached. It came from a doorwayleading into an apartment some twenty feet square. It was empty, andwe entered.

  There were two flaming urns fastened to the wall above a granite couch.Stone seats were placed here and there about the room. The walls werestudded with spots of gold to a height of four or five feet.

  We stopped short, gazing about us.

/>   "It looks like--" Harry whispered, and then exclaimed: "It is! See,here is where we took the blocks from this seat!"

  So it was. We were in the room where we had imprisoned the Inca kingand where we ourselves had been imprisoned with Desiree.

  "She said her room was to the right of this," whispered Harryexcitedly. "What luck! If only--"

  He left the sentence unfinished, but I understood his fear. And withme there was even no doubt; I had little hope of finding Desiree, andwas sorry, for Harry's sake, that we had been so far successful.

  Again we sought the passage. A little farther on it was crossed byanother, running at right angles in both directions. But to the rightthere was nothing but darkness, and we turned to the left, where, somedistance ahead, we could see a light evidently proceeding from adoorway similar to the one we had just left.

  We went rapidly, but our feet made scarcely any sound on the granitefloor. Still we were incautious, and it was purely by luck that Iglanced ahead and discovered that which made me jerk Harry violentlyback and flatten myself against the wall.

  "What is it?" he whispered.

  In silence I pointed with my finger to where two Incas stood in thepassage ahead of us, just without the patch of light from the doorway,which they were facing. They made no movement; we were as yetundiscovered. They were about a hundred feet away from where we stood.

  "Then she's here!" whispered Harry. "They are on guard."

  I nodded; I had had the same thought.

  There was no time to lose; at any moment that they should chance toglance in our direction they were certain to see us. I whisperedhastily and briefly to Harry. He nodded.

  The next instant we were advancing slowly and noiselessly, hugging thewall. We carried our spears ready, though we did not mean to use them,for a miss would have meant an alarm.

  "If she is alone!" I was saying within myself, almost a prayer, whensuddenly one of the Incas turned, facing us squarely, and gave a startof surprise. We leaped forward.

  Half a dozen bounds and we were upon them, before they had had time torealize their danger or move to escape it. With a ferocity taught usby the Incas themselves we gripped their throats and bore them to thefloor.

  No time then for the decencies; we had work to do, and we crushed andpounded their lives out against the stone floor. There had not been asound. They quivered and lay still; and then, looking up at someslight sound in the doorway, we saw Desiree.

  She stood in the doorway, regarding us with an expression of terrorthat I did not at first understand; then suddenly I realized that,having seen us disappear beneath the surface of the take after our divefrom the column, she had thought us dead.

  "Bon Dieu!" she exclaimed in a hollow voice of horror. "This, too! Doyou come, messieurs?"

  "For you," I answered. "We are flesh and bone, Desiree, though in illrepair. We have come for you."

  "Paul! Harry, is it really you?"

  Belief crept into her eyes, but nothing more, and she stood gazing atus curiously. Harry had sprung to her side; she did not move as heembraced her.

  "Are you alone?"

  "Yes."

  "Good. Here, Harry--quick! Help me. Stand aside, Desiree."

  We carried the bodies of the two Incas within the room and depositedthem in a corner. Then I ran and brought the spears, which we haddropped when we attacked the Incas. Desiree stood just within thedoorway, seemingly half dazed.

  "Come," I said; "there is no time to be lost. Come!"

  "Where?" She did not move.

  "With us. Isn't that enough? Do you want to stay here?"

  She shuddered violently.

  "You don't know--what has happened. I want to die. Where are yougoing to take me?"

  "Desiree," Harry burst out, "for Heaven's sake, come! Must we carryyou?"

  He grasped her arm.

  Then she moved and appeared to acquiesce. I started ahead; Harrybrought up the rear, with an arm round Desiree's shoulders. Shestarted once more to speak, but I wheeled sharply with a command forsilence, and she obeyed.

  We reached the turn in the corridor and passed to the right, moving asswiftly and noiselessly as possible. Ahead of us was the light fromthe doorway of the room in which we had formerly been imprisoned.

  We had nearly reached it when I saw, some distance down the corridor,moving forms. The light was very dim, but there appeared to be a greatmany of them.

  I turned, with a swift gesture to Harry and Desiree to follow, anddashed forward to the light and through the doorway into the room.Discovery was inevitable, I thought, in any event, but it was better tomeet them at the door to the room than in the open passage. And we hadour spears.

  But by a rare stroke of luck we had not been seen. As we stood withinthe room on either side of the doorway, out of the line of view fromthe corridor, we heard the patter of many footsteps approaching.

  They neared the doorway, and I glanced at Harry, pointing to his spearsignificantly. He gave me a nod of understanding. Let them come; wewould not again fall into their hands alive.

  The footsteps sounded just without the doorway; I stood tense andalert, with spear ready, expecting a rush momentarily. Then theypassed, passed altogether, and receded down the corridor in thedirection whence we had come. I wanted to glance out at their number,but dared not. We stood still till all was again perfectly silent.

  Then Desiree spoke in a whisper:

  "It is useless; we are lost. That was the king. He is going to myroom. In ten seconds he will be there and find me gone."

  There was only one thing to do, and I wasted no time in discussing it.A swift command to Harry, and we dashed from the doorway and down thecorridor to the left, each holding an arm of Desiree. But she neededlittle of our assistance; the presence of the Inca king seemed to haveinspired her with a boundless terror, and she flew, rather than ran,between us.

  We reached the bend in the passage, and just beyond it the light--thefirst one we had seen on our way in. I had our route marked on mymemory with complete distinctness. Soon we found ourselves in thewide, sloping passage that carried us to the level below, and inanother five seconds had reached its end and the beginning of the laststretch.

  At the turn Harry stumbled and fell flat, dragging Desiree to herknees. I lifted her, and he sprang to his feet unhurt.

  She was panting heavily. Harry had dropped his spear in the fall, andwe wasted a precious minute searching for it in the darkness, finallyfinding it where it had slid, some twenty feet ahead. Again we dashedforward.

  A light appeared ahead in the distance, dim but unmistakable--the lightof the urns in the cavern for which we were headed. Suddenly Desireefaltered and would have fallen but for our supporting arms.

  "Courage!" I breathed. "We are near the end."

  She stopped short and sank to the ground.

  "It is useless," she gasped. "I hurt my ankle when I fell. I can gono farther. Leave me!"

  Harry and I with one impulse stooped over to pick her up, and as we didso she fainted away in our arms. We were then but a few hundred feetfrom our goal; the light from the urns could be plainly seen gleamingon the broad ledge by the lake.

  Suddenly the sound of many footsteps came from behind. I turnedquickly, but the passage was too dark. I could see nothing. The soundcame closer and closer; there seemed to be many of them, advancingswiftly. I straightened and raised my spear.

  Harry grasped my arm.

  "Not yet!" he cried. "One more try; we can make it."

  He thrust his spear into my hand, and in another instant had thrownDesiree's unconscious body over his shoulder and was staggering forwardtoward the cavern. I followed, while the sound of the footsteps behindgrew louder and louder.

  We neared the end of the passage; we reached it; we were on the ledge.Even with Desiree for a burden, Harry moved so swiftly that I found itdifficult to keep up with him. The strength of a god was in him, whichwas but just, since he had his goddess
in his arms.

  On the ledge, near the edge of the water, stood two Incas. They turnedat our approach and rushed at us. Unlucky for them, for Harry'sexample had fired my brain and put the strength of a giant in me.

  To this day I don't know what followed--whether I used my spear or myfists or my head. I know only that I leaped at them in irresistiblefury and left them stretched on the ground before they had reachedHarry or halted him.

  We crossed the ledge and made for the boulders to the left. Thecrevice which led to our hiding-place was too narrow for Harry and hisburden. I sprang forward and grasped Desiree's shoulders; he held herankles, and we got her through to the ledge beyond.

  Then I leaped back through the crevice, and barely in time. As Ilooked out a black, rushing horde emerged from the passage and dashedacross the ledge toward us. I stood at the entrance to the narrowcrevice, spear in hand.

  They appeared to have no sense of the fact that my position wasimpregnable, but dashed blindly at me. The crevice in which I stoodand which was the only way through to the ledge where Harry had takenDesiree, was not more than two feet wide. With unarmed savages forfoes, one man could have held it against a million.

  But they came and I met them. I stood within the crevice, some threeor four feet from its end, and when one appeared in the opening I lethim have the spear. Another rushed in and fell on top of the first.

  As I say, they appeared to be deprived of the power to reason. In fiveminutes the mouth of the crevice was completely choked with bodies,some, who were merely wounded, struggling and squirming to extricatethemselves from the bloody tangle.

  I heard Harry's voice at my back:

  "How about it? Want some help?"

  "Not unless they find some gunpowder," I answered. "The idiots eatdeath as though it were candy. We're safe; they can never breakthrough here."

  "Are they still coming?"

  "They can't; they've blocked the way with their smelly black carcasses.How is Desiree?"

  "Better; she's awake. I've been bathing her ankle with cold water.She has a bad sprain; how the deuce she ever managed to hobble on iteven two steps is beyond me."

  "A sprain? Are you sure?"

  "I think so; it's badly swollen. Maybe only a twist; a few hours willtell."

  I heard him return to the ledge back of me; I dared not turn my head.

  Thinking I heard a sound above, I looked up; but there was nothing tofear in that direction. The boulders which formed the sides of thecrevice extended straight up to the roof of the cavern. We appeared,in fact, to be fortified against any attack.

  With one exception--hunger. But there would be plenty of time to thinkof that; for the present we had our fish, which was sufficient for thethree of us for a month, if we could keep it fresh that long. And thewater was at our very feet.

  The bodies wedged in the mouth of the crevice began to disappear,allowing the light from the urns to filter through; they were removingtheir dead. I could see the black forms swaying and pulling not fivefeet away. But I stood motionless, saving my spear and my strength forany who might try to force an entrance.

  Soon the crevice was clear, and from where I stood I commanded a viewof something like three-quarters of the ledge. It was one mass ofblack forms, packed tightly together, gazing at our retreat.

  They looked particularly silly and helpless to me then, renderedpowerless as they were by a little bit of rock. Brute force was allthey had; and nature, being the biggest brute of all, laughed at them.

  But I soon found that they were not devoid of resource. For perhapsfifteen minutes the scene remained unchanged; not one ventured toapproach the crevice. Then there was a sudden movement and shifting inthe mass; it split suddenly in the middle; they pressed off to eitherside, leaving an open lane between them leading directly toward me.

  Down this lane suddenly dashed a dozen or more of the savages, withspears aloft in their brawny arms. I was taken by surprise and barelyhad time to cut and run for the ledge within.

  As it was I did not entirely escape; the spears came whistling throughthe crevice, and one of them lodged in my leg just below the thigh.

  I jerked it out with an oath and turned to meet the attack. I was nowclear of the crevice, standing on the ledge inside, near Harry andDesiree. I called to them to go to one side, out of the range of thespears that might come through. Harry took Desiree in his arms andcarried her to safety.

  As I expected, the Incas came rushing through the crevice--that narrowlane where a man could barely push through without squeezing. Thefirst got my spear full in the face--a blow rather than a thrust, for Ihad once or twice had difficulty in retrieving it when I had buried itdeep.

  As he fell I struck at the one behind. He grasped the spear with hishand, but I jerked it free and brought it down on his head, crushinghim to the ground. It was mere butchery; they hadn't a chance in theworld to get at me. Another fell, and the rest retreated. The crevicewas again clear, save for the bodies of the three who had fallen.

  I turned to where Harry and Desiree were seated on the further edge ofthe ledge. Her body rested against his; her head lay on his shoulder.

  As I looked at them, smiling, her eyes suddenly opened wide and shesprang to her feet and started toward me.

  "Paul! You are hurt! Harry, a bandage--quick; your shirt--anything!"

  I looked down at the gash on my leg, which was bleeding somewhat freely.

  "It's nothing," I declared; "a mere tear in the skin. But your ankle!I thought it was sprained?"

  She had reached my side and bent over to examine my wound; but I raisedher in my arms and held her before me.

  "That," I said, "is nothing. Believe me, it isn't even painful. Ishall bandage it myself; Harry will take my place here. But your foot?"

  "That, too, is nothing," she answered with a half-smile. "I merelytwisted it; it is nearly well already. See!"

  She placed her weight on the injured foot, but could not suppress afaint grimace of pain.

  Calling to Harry to watch the crevice, I took Desiree in my arms andcarried her back to her seat.

  "Now sit still," I commanded. "Soon we'll have dinner; in the meantime allow me to say that you are the bravest woman in the world, andthe best sport. And some day we'll drink to that--from a bottle."

  But facts have no respect for sentiment and fine speeches. The lastwords were taken from my very mouth by a ringing cry from Harry:

  "Paul! By gad, they're coming at us from the water!"