The Aztec Treasure-House

by Thomas A. Janvier

  V.

  THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN.

  That the weight of a strange destiny was pressing upon us, neither FrayAntonio nor I for a moment doubted. It was something more than chance,we believed, that had brought us together, and that thereafter, by suchextraordinary means, had put into our hands, in places far asunder, yetat almost precisely the same moment, these two ancient papers; either ofwhich, alone, would have been meaningless; but the two of which,together, pointed clearly the way to a discovery so wonderful that thelike of it was not to be found in all the history of the world.

  At the moment that I comprehended how great an adventure was before me,and what honorable fame I was like to get out of it, I determined that Iwould keep the whole matter secret from my fellow-archaeologists until Icould tell them, not what I intended doing, but what I actually haddone--for I had no desire to divide with any one the honors that fairlywould be mine when I published to the world the result of myinvestigation of this hidden community that had survived,uncontaminated, from prehistoric times. Having this strong desire withinme, it was with great pleasure that I acceded to Fray Antonio's requestthat our project of discovery should not be published abroad. His motivefor secrecy, as I presently perceived, was bred of the one single strainof human weakness that ever I found in him. Even as I was determinedthat no other archaeologist should share with me the honor of discoveringthis primitive community, so was Fray Antonio determined that to himalone should belong the glory of carrying into that region of denseheathen darkness the radiant splendor of the Christian faith. If thiswere sin on his part, it certainly was a sin that he shared with manysaints long since in Paradise. Even the blessed Saint Francis himself,when, at the Council of Mats, he portioned out among his followers theheathen world that they might preach everywhere Christianity, reservedfor himself Syria and Egypt; in the hope that in one or the other ofthose countries he might crown his labors by suffering a gloriousmartyrdom. And perhaps in this matter Fray Antonio was not unmindful ofthe example set him by the great founder of the Order to which hebelonged.

  But while we were thus firmly decided to keep to ourselves the honorsthat so great an archaeological discovery and so great a Christianconquest must bring to us severally, we perceived that it would not bethe part of prudence to essay our adventure without any companions atall. Some portion of the country through which we were to pass we knewto be frequented by very dangerous tribes of Indians, against theassaults of which two lonely men--neither of whom had any knowledgewhatever of the art of war--could make but a poor stand. And even shouldwe escape the wild Indians, we knew that we might get into many evilstraits in which our lives might be ended, yet through which a largercompany might pass in safety. And for my own part, I must confess that Ihad a strong desire to have with me some of my own countrymen. For thegallantry of the Mexicans, which gallantry has been proved a thousandtimes, I have the highest respect; yet is it a natural feeling amongAnglo-Saxons that when it comes to facing dangers in which death loomslargely, and especially when it comes to a few men against a company ofsavages, and standing back to back and fighting to the very last,Anglo-Saxon hearts are found to be the stanchest, and Anglo-Saxon backsto be the stoutest which can be thus ranged together. But in our owncase I did not at all see whence such an Anglo-Saxon contingent was tobe obtained.

  We had been talking over this matter of a fighting force one afternoonin Fray Antonio's sacristy--where our many colloquies were held, for wemoved with a thoughtful deliberation in setting agoing ouradventure--and we had come almost to the determination of organizing alittle force of Otomi Indians, and calling upon two brave younggentlemen of Fray Antonio's acquaintance to join us as lieutenants.Although I was willing to adopt this plan, since no other was open tous, I was far from fancying it; both for the reason which I have alreadynamed, and also for the reason--and this Fray Antonio admitted was notwithout foundation in probability--that our young allies would be morethan likely, by their indiscreet disclosures, to make our purpose fullyknown. Therefore, it was in no very pleasant frame of mind, ourconference being ended, that I returned to my hotel.

  As I entered the hotel court-yard I heard the sound of Pablo'smouth-organ, and with this much laughter and some talk in English; andas I fairly caught sight of the merrymakers, I heard said, in mostexecrable Spanish, "Here's a _medio_ for another tune, my boy; and ifyou'll make the donkey dance again to it, I'll give you a _real_."

  That I might see what was going forward without interrupting it, Istepped behind one of the stone pillars that upheld the gallery; and forall that my mind was in no mood for laughter just then, I could not butfall to laughing at what I saw.

  Over on the far side of the court-yard, with Pablo and El Sabio, weretwo men whose type was so unmistakable that I should have known them forAmericans had I met them in the moon. One was a tall, wiry fellow, witha vast reach of arm, and a depth of chest and width of shoulders whichallowed what powerful engines those long arms of his were when he setthem in motion. His face was nearly covered by a heavy black beard, andhis projecting forehead and his resolute black eyes under it gave him alook of great energy and force. The other was short and thick-set, witha big round head stockily upheld on a thick neck, and with agood-humored face, which, being clean-shaven, was chiefly notable forthe breadth and the squareness of the jaws. He had merry blue eyes, andhis crown--he was holding his battered Derby hat in his hand--was asbare as a billiard ball. Below timber-line, as he himself expressed it,he had a brush of close-cut sandy-red hair. I had encountered both ofthese men when I first came to Morelia, and during two or three weeks Ihad seen a good deal of them, for we had met daily at our meals; and themore that I had seen of them the better was I disposed to like them. Thetall man was Rayburn, a civil engineer in charge of construction on theadvanced line of the new railway; the other was Young, the lost-freightagent of the railroad company--whose duty, for which his keen quicknesspeculiarly well fitted him, was that of looking up freight which hadgone astray in transit. Both of those men had lived long in rough anddangerous regions, and both--as I then instinctively believed, and as Icame later to know fully--were as true and as stanch and as brave asever men could be.

  What they were laughing at, there in the court-yard, was anextraordinary performance in which the performers were Pablo and ElSabio. With a grin all over the parts of his face not engaged in theoperation of his mouth-organ, Pablo was rendering on that instrument ahighly Mexicanized version of one of the airs from _Pinafore_ that hehad just acquired from hearing Young whistle it. To this music, with amost pained yet determined expression, the Wise One was lifting his feetand swaying his body and nodding his head in a sort of accompaniment,his movements being directed by the waving of Pablo's disengaged hand.The long ears of this unfortunate little donkey wagged in remonstranceagainst the unreasonable motions demanded of his unlucky legs, and everynow and then he would twitch viciously his fuzzy scrap of a tail; buthis master was inexorable, and it was not until Pablo's own desire tolaugh became so strong that he no longer could play the mouth-organ thatEl Sabio was given rest. As he ended his dancing I must say that therewas on El Sabio's face as fine an expression of contempt as the face ofa donkey ever wore.

  "Hello, Professor!" Young called out, as he caught sight of me, "haveyou given up antiquities an' gone into th' circus business? This outfitthat you've got here will make your fortune when you get it back intoth' States. If you don't want to run it yourself, I'll run it for youon th' shares; an' I guess Rayburn'll be glad t' go along as clown. He'dmake a good clown, Rayburn would. You see, we're both of us out of work,an' both lookin' for a job."

  "What do you mean by being out of work?" I asked, when I had shakenhands with them. "What's become of the railroad?"

  "Oh, th' railroad's got into one of its periodical bust-ups," Younganswered. "A row among the bondholders, an' construction stopped, an'working expenses reduced, an' pretty much all hands bounced, from th'president down. I guess Rayburn an' I can stand th' racket, though,
ifth' company can. I've been wantin' t' get out of this d----d Greasercountry for a good while, an' I guess now I've got my chance. I mustsay, though, I wish it had come a little less sudden, for I haven'tanything in particular in sight over in God's country, an' Rayburnhasn't either. So if you want to start your circus we're ready for youright away. Where did you get that boy-an'-donkey outfit from, anyway?They're just daisies, both of 'em an' no mistake!"

  "I don't know that you can count on me for a clown, Professor," Rayburnsaid, "but I might go along as door-keeper, or something of that sort.But I don't believe that Young and I will need to go into the circusbusiness. We are out of work, that's a fact; but the company has donethe square thing by us--paid us up in full to the end of next month andfitted us out with passes to St. Louis. We're all right. Young isheading straight for home, but I rather think that I'll take a turnaround the country and see what the civilized parts of it look like.Ever since I came down here, nearly, I've been at work in the wilds. Iwant to see some of the old temples and things too. You can put me up tothat, Professor. Where's a good ruin to begin on?"

  From the moment that I laid eyes on these two men, as I came into thecourt-yard, my mind was made up that I would do my best to induce themto join with Fray Antonio and me in our search for the hidden city; andI had listened very gladly to what they told me, for it showed me that Ishould not have to ask them to abandon profitable work in order to joinin our doubtful enterprise. So we talked lightly about the circus andother indifferent matters for a while; and then we had a lively suppertogether at La Soledad (which always seemed to me a very original namefor a restaurant), and then I brought them to my room to smoke theircigars.

  It was while they were in the comfortable frame of mind that is begottenof a good meal and subsequent good tobacco--over there in Morelia wesmoked the Tepic cigars, which are excellent--that I opened to them thegreat project that I had in hand. I told them frankly the whole story:of my strange adventure in the Indian village, of the paper and the goldtoken which the Cacique unwittingly had given me, of the letter thatFray Antonio had found, and of how our joint discoveries set us clearlyin the way of finding an Aztec community that certainly had existedunchanged, save for such changes as had been developed within itself,since a time long anterior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico. I dweltwith enthusiasm, and I think forcibly, upon the inestimable gain to thescience of archaeology that would result from the investigations that weintended to make; and I touched also upon the scientific value thatwould attach to a careful and accurate description of the effectproduced upon this primitive community by Fray Antonio's preaching; forthis would be, as I pointed out, the first occasion in the history ofthe world when a record would be made, from the stand-point of theunprejudiced ethnologist, of the reception accorded by a heathen peopleto the doctrine of Christianity. In a word, I presented the case mostglowingly--so glowingly, in fact, that my own heart was quite fired byit--and ended by urging them earnestly to join us in a work thatpromised so greatly to increase the sum of human knowledge touching themost interesting subjects that can be presented to the consideration ofthe human mind. And I am pained to state that I discovered, when Ifinished my appeal, that Young was sound asleep!

  Rayburn did not go to sleep, and he did take a certain amount ofinterest in what I said, but I was discouraged by his very obviousfailure to respond to my enthusiasm.

  "You see, Professor," he said, "the fact of the matter is that I can'tspare the time. I might take a month or two, but you seem to think thata year is the least time in which any substantial results can heaccomplished. I can't give a year, or anything like a year, to what, sofar as I am concerned, will be sheer idleness. I've got a mother andsister at home on Cape Cod who depend on me for a living, and I must getto work again. You see, there is glory enough in all this, and glorythat I should like to have a share in; but glory is a luxury that Ican't afford. I've got to go to work at something that has money in it."

  The sound of Rayburn's voice had the effect on Young of waking him up.He listened, in a sleepily approving way, to Rayburn's practicalcomment, and then, giving a prodigious yawn, added, on his own account:"Yes, that's about the size of it. We're neither of us here for ourhealth, Professor; what we're after is spot cash. If there was any moneyin your scheme I'd take a hand in it quick enough; but as thereisn't--Well, not this evening, Professor; some other evening."

  "No money in it!" I answered. "Why, haven't I told you that there isstored in this hidden city the greatest treasure that ever was broughtinto one place since the world began?"

  "No, I'll be d----d if you have!" Young replied, with great energy andpromptness. "Not a word, unless it was while I was asleep. What's hesaid about a treasure, Rayburn? I'm awake now, an' I'll keep awake ifthere's anything like that to be talked about."

  "You certainly haven't said anything about a treasure so far,Professor," Rayburn said. "I'd like to hear about it myself. If there isa treasure-hunting expedition mixed up with this scientific expeditionof yours, that puts a new face on the whole matter. I can't afford theluxury of scientific investigation pure and simple, but if there ismoney in it too, that is quite another thing. So tell us about yourprospect, Professor, and if the surface indications are good you cancount on me to go in."

  I confess that I was a trifle disappointed upon finding how eagerlythese young men sought information in regard to a matter that Iconsidered so unimportant that I had forgotten even to mention it. But Ireflected that, after all, the motive by which they were induced to joinin our adventure was immaterial, while our need for the strength thattheir joining in it would give us was so pressing that upon gaining themfor allies very likely depended our eventual success. Being moved bywhich considerations, I dilated upon the magnitude of the hiddentreasure with such vehemence that presently their eyes were flashing,and the blood had so mounted into their brains that their very foreheadswere ruddy and their breath came short. And I must confess that my ownpulses beat quicker and harder as I talked on. Of this treasure I hadnot before thought at all, being so thoroughly taken up with thescientific side of the discovery that I hoped to accomplish; but now Iwas moved profoundly by thoughts of what I could do for the advancementof science had I practically limitless wealth at my command. Andespecially was I thrilled by the thought of the magnificent form inwhich my own magnificent discoveries could be given to the world.Compared with my _Pre-Columbian Conditions on the Continent of NorthAmerica_, Lord Kingsborough's great work, both in form and in substance,would sink into hopeless insignificance. And in all that I said of thevastness of the hidden treasure I felt certain that I was keeping wellwithin the bounds of truth, for I had the positive assurance that in theAztec treasure-house in that hidden valley the ransom of a nation wasstored.

  "Will you go with us?" I asked, when I had brought my glowingdescription to an end.

  "Well, I should smile, Professor," was Young's characteristic answer.

  "You can count me in now, and no mistake!" said Rayburn, and added, "ByJove, Palgrave, I mean to take a part of my share and buy the whole ofCape Cod!"

  And so the make-up of our party was decided upon. Fray Antonio joined itfor the love of God; I joined it for the love of science; and Young andRayburn joined it for the love of gold. In regard to the boy Pablo, hecould not strictly be said to have joined it at all. He simply wentalong.