CHAPTER XVI.
THE FIGURE ON THE CLIFF.
The boys held a hasty consultation as soon as they had retreated a safedistance from the reeking fumes of the Toltec excavation. Till the foulair of the place, probably stagnant for many hundred years, had beengiven a chance to pour out, it would have been folly to have wasted timeon an attempt to descend into the black hole that the swinging back ofthe huge rock had revealed. There seemed to be little doubt, after themystery had been discussed again and again, that Harry’s lucky shot hadreleased some spring hidden in the quesal’s eye and caused the boulderto open. It seemed incredible;—but there was no other explanation, andit was decided to defer all discussion of the matter till a thoroughexamination could be made of the interior of the cavern they hadstumbled upon for the hidden mechanism.
In the meantime a hasty camp was pitched, although there was littlethought of sleep in the minds of any of the boys and after supper hadbeen despatched they sat up long, with eyes that refused to grow drowsy,talking over what they were likely to find on their exploration trip,which they had agreed to undertake as soon as it grew light enough tomake a start—always providing that the foul air of the place had clearedsufficiently to make such a thing feasible.
At Frank’s suggestion watches were finally set, the night being dividedinto three sections. Harry volunteered for the first, Frank for thesecond and Billy agreed to tackle the last. He was given the opportunityto select a short period of watching as both boys realized, although heindignantly disclaimed it, that he must be still feeling some effects ofexhaustion from his wound.
Harry kept up a fire, for although it was not chilly the boys knew thatonce in a while a jaguar, bolder than his fellows, had been known toattack rubber-cutters, and they were by no means inclined to have thesuccess of their expedition marred by anything approaching a tragedy.Having nothing better to do the lad amused himself by singing in a notparticularly melodious way. Harry knew more about aeroplanes than he didof music and the tone effects he produced were something weird.
He had just attained a particularly high note and was congratulatinghimself—as is the way of people who have accomplished something theydidn’t think they could do—when a sound that had startled both Frank andhimself before, suddenly brought his satisfaction to an abrupt period.
It was the mysterious bell again!
It was pealing with the same frenzied, timeless clamor that it hadmanifested on the two previous occasions they had heard it, but itsounded somehow much nearer than it had from the camp on the plateau.
“Ahoy there!” shouted Harry; determined if there was a human agency atwork to get some sort of reply, “ahoy!”
There was only the echo of his voice coming hollowly back from the faceof the cliff for an answer.
His shouts, however, awoke Frank and Billy.
“Whatever is the matter, Harry?” demanded Frank.
“It’s the bell again,” replied Harry in awestruck tones.
Before Frank could frame an answer or Billy could speak, the furiouspealing broke out anew.
“Why, it’s close at hand—somewhere!” exclaimed Frank, after he hadlistened attentively, his head on one side, for several seconds.
“Sounds as if it might come from the cliff itself;” said Billy; who wasfeeling rather nonplussed as the metallic clashing continued withoutinterruption, but in the same furious aimless way already familiar tothe boys.
“That’s right, Billy,” agreed Frank, “if I’ve got any ear for locationof sound it is coming from the cliff.”
“How can it come from there!” protested Harry, as the bell ceased assuddenly as it had begun, “I’m sure we looked carefully enough over thatwall of rock, and there’s nothing even resembling an opening in it—evensupposing,” he added “that anyone would be crazy enough to climb upthere—which they couldn’t do anyhow—and ring a bell.”
“Perhaps it’s some kind of a bird or animal,” suggested Billy, eager tofind some satisfying solution of the uncanny sound.
“Yes, a chimes-bird or a bell-rabbit,” scornfully snorted Harry, “no,we’ll have to do better than that.”
“There’s no doubt it’s a sure-enough bell,” decided Frank.
“And a good loud one, too,” replied Harry. “I never heard a clearer orbetter one even on a church.”
“But who in thunder can be ringing it?” resumed Frank.
“There we are, back at the beginning of the question again,” rejoinedHarry disgustedly.
“You can’t convince me that it hasn’t got something to do with thecave,” exclaimed Frank. “Possibly with the very door we uncoveredto-day.”
“I suppose the man who rings it marches in prompt at midnight everynight—when we had to dig up the ground with pick-axes before we couldget it loose enough to shovel—try again, Frank;” laughed Harry.
“Mightn’t it be monkeys?” was Billy’s contribution.
“Where would they get the bell?” demanded Frank.
“Hum; that’s so,” replied Billy, abashed at the dashing to earth of thetheory he had so hopefully advanced.
“If he’d start up again,” said Frank suddenly, “we could get a line onjust where the sound is coming from and then when it gets light examineevery foot in that direction.”
Both his listeners agreed that this would be a good idea. But if thebell-ringer had heard them and maliciously made up his mind not to granttheir wish he could not have remained more silent.
“Perhaps if you’ll sing again, Harry,” remarked Frank, unkindly, afterthe younger boy had related for the dozenth time how the bell-ringing ofthat particular night had started; “he will get mad and start pullingthe rope once more.”
Overlooking the deliberate insult, in his desire to find out if thebell-ringer would not oblige, Harry lustily started an old high-schoolsong. But though he sang till his throat cracked, and his listeners’ears ached, he disturbed nothing but an old white owl that flew fromsome hiding-place on the face of the cliff, and flapped solemnly roundthe boys’ camp,—its great yellow eyes gleaming wickedly.
“R-r-r-r-r,” shivered Billy, as the silent bird wheeled by them so closethey could almost have touched it, and suddenly let out an ear-splittingscreech that made all the boys jump in spite of themselves. “I hope thatit isn’t some spirit, or something, of the old Toltecs that has beenringing the bell to keep us away from their cave. I don’t mind anythingI can hit with a firearm but I haven’t much fancy for going into ahaunted cave.”
“The only ‘hants’ you’ll find in there will be bats and a few relativesof our white-feathered friend that just disturbed you—I hope you are notgoing to sport any plumage of his color,” laughed Frank.
“Come, Frank, that isn’t fair,” protested Billy, indignantly, “and I sawyou jump yourself when that old owl let out that holler.”
“I didn’t mean it seriously,” laughed Frank, good-naturedly, seeing thathe had really hurt Billy’s feelings, “but you don’t, for a momentsuppose that there is anything in whatever those steps may lead down tobut dust and darkness and bad air, do you?”
“I don’t, eh?” retorted Billy angrily, “well, what do you think I dugtill I nearly dropped dead for—my health?”
“I suppose you are figuring on running into a treasure trove as soon aswe get in there,” grinned Harry. “If they took as much care to hidetheir valuables as they did to lock the front door we’ll be a long time,and have a lot of hard work before us,—before we discover the Toltecs’ssecret.”
“Pshaw,” replied Billy magnanimously, “what do you suppose I care forthe hard work? Anyhow I wasn’t serious with you fellows. There might beall the treasure the Toltecs ever saw,—and Captain Kidd and Sir HenryMorgan thrown in, concealed in that cave, or whatever it is at thebottom of that passage, but I’ve no right to even a share of it—I’m fartoo deeply in the debt of you fellows for anything like that.”
“No, Frank; no, Harry; it isn’t the
money I care about at all—though Idon’t deny I can always use all I get my hands on. That’s not the point,however, this is your discovery, not mine, and I’m going to help you outon it all I can. I don’t want a penny, but if we really find any buriedtreasure the very idea of it will be all I want in the way of a bigsensation.”
“Nonsense, Billy,” rejoined Frank, touched at the reporter’searnestness. “We are in this thing as partners. We all share thedangers, we’ll each take an equal share of the reward, always supposingthere is any.”
“Of course we will, Billy,” put in warm-hearted Harry, “and when we getback to America you’ll be able to buy the _Planet_ and fire yourmanaging editor.”
“I don’t know of anything I’d like better,” replied Billy in allseriousness, while the boys shouted with laughter at his grave face,“although,” he added, “I do owe him a debt of gratitude for sending medown here.”
“I don’t see what you’ve done for the paper, Billy, however,” returnedFrank.
“The wires are all tied up, aren’t they?” replied the business-likeBilly, “what could I get through? As a matter-of-fact I’m getting moregood material, sticking round with you fellows, than I could collect ina year by myself.”
Further conversation was cut short at this point by a sudden cry fromHarry, who had been sitting with his knees clasped gazing up at the darksky, which was dissected as though by a knife-blade by the black wall ofthe cliff-summit where it cut across it.
“What is it, Harry?” demanded Frank.
“Well, there’s something very funny about that cliff, that’s all,—orelse I’ve got optical delusions,” rejoined the youth in an earnest tone.
“Yes,” said his hearers breathlessly, for Harry’s startled face wassufficient evidence that he had seen something surprising.
“You can believe me or not, as you like,” returned Harry, “but a fewseconds ago, as you and Billy were talking, I’ll swear I saw a man’sfigure outlined against the sky at the top of the cliff.”