CHAPTER XXVIII
THE COLLAPSE OF THE CIBOLA
An opening in the paved court in the rear of the Temple, half filledwith drifted sand, led into a "khiva" or secret religious councilchamber beneath. Herein the young adventurers discovered theirwonderland and the reward for all their labors.
Hastily returning to the balloon, they procured candles andimprovised scoops out of the sides of the tin emergency ration caseobtained from the Arrow. Major Honeywell had warned the boys thatthe floors of all closed chambers of this sort were covered with theaccumulated dust of ages.
The first examination of the "khiva" resulted in disappointment.The immediate impression that the boys received was one of cave-likebarrenness. In the half-light only a gray monotony met the eye.Yet under this ghostlike pall, forms soon began to appear. In thecenter of the chamber stood what was apparently an altar. In spiteof its burden of dust an elevation could be seen about eight incheshigh and seven feet in diameter, on which was a boxlike structureabout three feet square and four feet high. On top of this was adust-covered figure. Beyond, in the deepest gloom, the mouths offour radiating tunnels leading still further into the ground couldbe seen. The roof was supported by irregular round columns,apparently of wood, arranged in two circles.
Before beginning an exploration of the chamber the boys decided toascertain the depth of the dust covering the floor, into which theyhad already sunk over their shoe tops. This was stifling work, forthe soft powder ran back as fast as it was dug away. A half hour atleast was consumed in reaching the bard surface beneath. Thecoating of dust was nearly three feet deep.
As Ned climbed out of the little excavation Alan held the candledown. To the astonishment of the boys a beautiful blue sheen mettheir gaze.
"Turquoise flooring!" shouted Ned.
It was true. The entire "khiva," so far as the boys subsequentlyuncovered its floor, was a crude mosaic of the most perfectturquoise, the pieces, varying in size, being laid in a lime-likecement.
A general survey of the room and its connecting tunnels showed thateach radiating arm led, with about twenty feet of passageway, into asmaller room. In each of these rooms were nine column placed in arectangle. The main chamber was circular in form, forty-eight feetin diameter, and the smaller apartments were twenty-four feetsquare.
Ned while at work examining the floor, suddenly ceased and rushed toone of the columns.
"You remember," he exclaimed, "the Spaniard said these columns wereof gold and silver."
But in this the ancient record was wrong. The inner six supportswere painted a faded yellow and the second row, twelve in number,was colored red, as the boys discovered later when they brushed andcleaned some of them. Around each of the inner columns, however,there were two metal bands about two inches wide and thirty inchesapart. The lower ones were six feet from the floor. They were ofheavy gold with loops or hooks extending from each side, as iffestoons or connecting bands had once extended from pillar topillar.
"Not a bad substitute!" exclaimed Ned.
The second line of twelve columns had similar rings of silver, asthe boys discovered in good time. The movable contents of the roomwere not easily examined, as each object on the floor was buriedunder a mound of heavy, suffocating dust. Bats had made the placean undisturbed refuge, and the repulsive flutter of these creatureswas disconcerting.
A preliminary examination of the four lateral passages and the roomsat their far end showed that these were probably store rooms,excepting the one on the east side. Here, on shelves, fixed oncolumns or posts similar to the colored supports in the principalchamber, were eight oblong forms. Even the dust and refuse couldnot disguise the nature of these--they were unmistakably mummies,the embalmed bodies of either chiefs or priests. At the head andfoot of each were various dust covered receptacles and utensils.
The afternoon was too short for the boys to accomplish the removalof anything.
"I feel like a grave robber," panted Alan, soberly, as the two boysclambered out into the fresh air, finding, to their surprise, thatit was already night.
"Well, I don't," said Ned. "These things are so old that they seemto belong to Time itself. I feel more like a gold miner who has atlast struck a rich vein--and it's our vein."
But, as so often happens, ill luck came close on good fortune. Thefirst glance of the young aeronauts at the camp and the Cibola wasenough to chill their new happiness. The big gas bag had settled solow that it half concealed the car, which was resting flat on theground. The buoyancy of the air ship was gone. Without more gasthe Cibola could not make another flight. It was a severe blow toNed and Alan; but they met the issue squarely.
"There is no use in worrying," said Ned, finally, when they realizedthe exact situation, "and we've got to make the best of it.Besides," he said, laughing, "we are not ready to go."
"That's right," replied Alan, thinking of the yet unexaminedcontents of the Treasure Temple, "and when we are ready I guesswe'll be no worse off than Bob and Elmer. I suppose we can managethe one hundred foot descent some way."
Ned pointed to the hundreds of yards of net cordage.
"Right," exclaimed Alan, "that'll be easy--a rope ladder."
It was almost dark and the boys were covered with the penetratinggrime of the long undisturbed "khiva." A meager wash up and supperand rest were in order. But Ned said:
"By morning the Cibola will be in collapse. It is a valuablemachine, and it ought not be left out here on this point unprotectedfrom the seasons. We shall probably never see it again, but whilewe can move it let's tow it over in front of the temple and put thebag and engine and instruments in the protected room."
It was not a difficult task. With no great effort the car was halfcarried and half dragged down the slope and then to the clearing inthe pine grove where the boys soon made a new camp. To completetheir work the big bag of the balloon was untied from the car anddrawn, half inflated, into the pathway leading to the temple door.Then, with no small regret, the boys opened the escape valve, and ina few minutes the collapsed Cibola was stretched like the cast offskin of a snake along the sandy pathway, ready to be rolled up andcompactly stored away.
Air Ship Boys : Or, the Quest of the Aztec Treasure Page 28
