Kitabı oku: «In the Wonderful Land of Hez: or, The Mystery of the Fountain of Youth», sayfa 7
CHAPTER XVIII.
WHAT HAPPENED TO DICK AND QUEEN OLIVE
When Dick Vincey felt the cold snout of an animal touching his face, a convulsive shudder ran over his body.
He thought that his earthly career was ended, for a certainty.
But, instead of being seized and torn to pieces by the horrible picuasus, as he supposed it to be, the animal uttered a low whine, and began licking his face.
Almost at the same instant the boy heard footsteps approaching.
Then it flashed across his mind that the animal who stood over him must be a dog.
He opened his eyes and strove in vain to pierce the inky darkness and see what it was.
The footsteps were coming nearer all the time, and fearful that the person who was approaching might turn in some other direction, Dick shouted out:
“Help!”
Queen Olive awoke with a wild cry of alarm on her lips, and tremblingly asked Dick what had happened.
Before he could reply, a light flashed up and illumined the cave, almost blinding the two prisoners for a moment.
But this soon passed off, and they saw a man, attired in a fantastic garb of limited extent, hurrying toward them.
A huge dog was standing over Dick, which the boy recognized at once as Jupiter, the dog he had seen go over the falls with his master.
But when the man halted in front of them and held his lighted torch near their faces, a cry of astonishment, intermingled with joy, left the boy prisoner’s lips.
It was no other than Reginald Lacy himself who stood before them.
Lacy seemed to be as much surprised as Dick, but drawing a knife from his belt, he quickly severed the bonds that held the couple prisoners.
“How came you here?” he asked, as Dick arose to his feet and patted Jupiter on the head.
“You shall hear the whole story,” was the reply; “but let us first get out of this place. I, for one, have had quite enough of it to last the rest of my life. Come, Olive, we are saved!”
Without any further ado, Lacy led the way out of the cave, going through a long, dark passage, the mouth of which opened into the vast cavern just above the falls.
Once here, Dick breathed a sigh of relief.
“Now, Mr. Lacy,” said he, “I will tell you how the queen of Hez and myself came to be in the predicament you found us.”
He then related, in as few words as possible, all that had transpired in the past few hours, winding up by asking Lacy how he and the dog escaped death when they went whirling over the falls.
“That is easily explained,” returned Reginald Lacy, with a smile. “There were no rocks at the foot of the falls, and, consequently, the danger of going over them is not great. There is another person who went safely over them since I did.”
“Who was it?” asked Dick. “Surely not Azurma?”
“But it was, just the same. She is now living, and is as hale and hearty as she ever was.”
“Where is she?” asked Queen Olive, in an interested manner.
“In the city of the Naztecs, a few miles from here.”
“What do you mean?” gasped Dick, in astonishment.
“Exactly what I say, my boy. There is a race of people, similar in character to those who live in the Land of Hez, not far from here. Their city is my home for the present, as well as that of Azurma. But come, we had better be moving from here; there is no telling when one of those big turtle spiders might show up. What do you say if you both accompany me to the city of the Naztecs? I’ll guarantee that you will be used well.”
“We will go!” said Queen Olive, suddenly. “It would not do for me to go back to Hez at this late hour. The people would scarcely believe the abduction, and it is hard to tell exactly what might take place.”
“Lead the way, Mr. Lacy,” spoke up Dick. “I am satisfied with anything. This is a country of wonder and mystery, and I desire to see all I can of it.”
Reginald Lacy had left the city with his dog to make an exploration of the surrounding country.
Unconsciously his steps led him to the spot where Dick and his fair companion lay bound hand and foot.
But it was Jupiter’s fault more than his own that he came that far away from the little city.
The dog wanted to pursue an upward course, and Lacy allowed him to have his way.
He had passed through many caverns and chambers, and were it not for the dog, he knew that he would never be able to find his way back again.
But Jupiter was a dog that could be depended upon, and no one knew this better than his master.
Lacy was very much pleased at finding Dick, and as they threaded their way through the mazes of the underground world, he told the boy about the presence of Philander Owens in the city they were bound for.
“I wish,” said he, “that you would see him, and endeavor to get him to let what has passed be forgotten. He is very bitter against me, though for what reason it is not likely that anybody, save the pair of us, will ever know.”
“I will do all I can,” returned Dick.
The beautiful queen spoke never a word during the descent into the valley below.
That she was becoming weary and footsore was plainly evident by the manner in which she clung to Dick’s arm.
She was as much puzzled as Dick when they entered the lighted chamber and started through it.
But when they came to what lay beyond she could scarcely believe her senses.
She had never laid eyes upon such buildings as the little city contained, and could hardly bring herself to believe that she was not dreaming.
With Dick it was different. He was not surprised at anything, but took every new thing he saw the same as though he had always been aware of its existence.
As Lacy and his dog entered the city with the two strangers, much excitement was manifested by the Naztecs.
They crowded around the newcomers, and began asking all sorts of questions in their peculiar language.
Queen Olive understood it perfectly, and she lost no time in giving them all the information they desired.
Attracted by the confusion outside, Azurma came forth from the room assigned to her in the purple-hued building.
As soon as she observed who the strangers were, a cry of joy left her lips, and she rushed to them.
“Where is Leo? Did he not come with you?” she asked of Dick.
“No, he did not,” was the reply. “So you escaped death, after all, Azurma?”
“Yes, but no thanks to her who condemned me to death!” said the girl, looking at her former queen.
“Was it my fault that you were condemned to death?” asked Queen Olive, in a calm voice.
“No,” replied the girl, after a moment’s thought. “Forgive me for speaking as I did. You did but your duty.”
Then, as is generally the case, the two women embraced each other, and were more friendly than they had ever been before.
The Naztecs seemed very proud of their visitors, and treated them with the utmost kindness.
They were also given rooms in the palace, and a royal reception was held in their honor.
But though Dick was treated after the manner of a prince, and had the girl he loved near him, he was yet far from being happy.
Had he been in his own country, with Leo and the rest of his associates about him, it would have been different.
CHAPTER XIX.
LEO WEDS, AFTER ALL
When the new queen had reigned for a year, she one day took it in her head to modify one of the principal laws of Hez.
It was to change the time of the maidens waiting for their husbands from two years to six months.
As this was more of a common-sense view of the matter, her people unanimously agreed to it, with the exception of Roderique de Amilo.
He was for keeping the ancient laws of the country the same.
But one against so many did not amount to much, so the law went into force.
Elated by the favor with which her new law was received, the queen, whose name, by the way, was Nalie, concluded to make another change, and a big one, at that.
Hitherto none of the males born in Hez had been allowed to marry under any consideration.
Consequently the race was fast dying out, as very few men from the outside world came to the strange country, and when they did, it was merely by accident.
When her majesty issued this edict, she announced that her reason for doing so was to keep the race in existence forever.
This, too, met with the approval of the Hezzians.
The day soon arrived which the queen had fixed when all those who desired to enter a state of matrimony could do so, and nearly all the unmarried ones took advantage of it.
The building in which dwelt the supposed founder of the Hez race, Roderique de Amilo, who was to perform the ceremony, was a circular one, and contained but two rooms. The rest of the space was taken up by a broad hall, which opened at either end of the house.
There were no seats of any kind in the hall, and, consequently, all had to stand up.
When Leo, whom the queen had chosen for her future husband, and Nalie arrived, De Amilo had just commenced to marry some of the Hezzians to the maidens they had chosen.
The ceremony was about the same as the Spanish one of to-day, only it was somewhat shorter.
The couples were married as fast as the acting priest could rattle off the words of the ceremony, and sent away happy.
At length it came Prof. Easy’s turn, and with his face wreathed in smiles, he stepped up to the scratch with his blushing, young bride leaning upon his arm.
As soon as the knot was tied, they marched off to the little house that had been assigned to them.
Next came Martin Haypole, and then Lucky.
When these had been disposed of, there was but one couple left, and that was Leo and the queen.
A few had remained to see their ruler married, but the majority had gone away to their usual avocations.
As Leo and his fair companion stepped to the front, there was a disturbance at one end of the hall, and a figure rushed in.
Leo turned hastily around, and a cry of astonishment left his lips.
It was Azurma, the girl whom he thought dead, who had rushed in.
She stood in front of Queen Nalie with uplifted hands, but not a word escaped her lips.
Everybody in the building recognized her, and a wild yell of terror went up.
Down upon their faces went all save Leo, who was thunderstruck, but not frightened in the least.
Azurma glided to him, and, placing her hand upon his shoulder, said:
“Come, my Leo; I will take you to your cousin Dick, who yet lives.”
Hardly knowing what he did, the boy followed her from the building.
No one barred their progress, and in a couple of minutes they had entered one of the numerous passages, and were lost to view.
Leo followed Azurma through the passage without saying a word.
He was very much mystified at the girl’s sudden appearance.
Over a year before she had been condemned to death, and he had seen her with his own eyes go shooting into the turbulent stream that flowed through the Devil’s Kingdom.
He remembered Azurma’s last words, as he followed her along, and he began to think that not only the Land of Hez was one of mystery, but the ones who lived in it mysterious, also.
The girl clung to his arm and did not offer to speak until they had reached a point fully a mile from the village governed by Queen Nalie.
Azurma related her miraculous escape, and told how she reached the land of the Naztecs, how Reginald Lacy and his dog had found Dick and Queen Olive in the cave, and wound up by saying that both she and Queen Olive had been created princesses in the Naztec nation, and that Dick had been the king’s adviser for the past seven months.
She also informed him that Philander Owens was a resident of the city, and that he and Reginald Lacy had buried the hatchet, and were now fast friends.
They had married sisters, she said, and lived in the same house.
All this was startling news to Leo, and he longed for the moment when he could meet Dick and embrace him.
Azurma, who knew the way perfectly, led him to the grounds near the foot of the falls, by way of the rocky descent near the Devil’s Kingdom.
In a little over an hour from the time the two left Hez they reached the mouth of the long, lighted chamber leading to the strange underground city.
Before they were halfway through this they met Reginald Lacy and Jupiter, the dog.
The meeting between Leo and Lacy was a very pleasant one, and the faithful dog, who recognized the young fellow at once, pranced playfully about his feet.
“Come,” said Lacy, leading the way – “come and see what you think of our city.”
They reached the end of the wide passage and descended into the cave below.
Leo was not a little astonished at what he saw, and when he reached the center of the little place he could not suppress a cry of admiration.
The meeting between the cousins was a joyous, not to say affecting, one.
Leo had supposed Dick to be dead, and Dick had worried considerably as to how Leo was getting on in Hez.
Leo’s surprise was complete when Olive – as we will hereafter call the ex-queen of Hez – came forth, carrying an infant son about a month old in her arms.
“This is my wife and son, Leo,” said Dick. “The youngster is named after you. What do you think of him?”
“What do I think of him? I congratulate you, old fellow! Why, it don’t seem possible that you are a man of family. And your wife! Well, she hasn’t lost any of her good looks. I tell you, wonders will never cease. I am the only single man left in our party of swamp explorers now.”
“Is that so?” asked Dick. “I thought that none of them could marry until two years had elapsed.”
“The new queen changed the law. The professor, Haypole and Lucky were married to-day; and if Azurma had not showed up just as she did, I, too, would have been a benedict.”
“Who was to have been the bride?” asked Olive.
“Your sister – Queen Nalie.”
“Ah! Was it an act of your own free will and accord?”
“No, hardly;” and Leo explained the whole circumstance from beginning to end.
“How is the new queen liked by the people of Hez?”
“Very well, I guess.”
“Do you know one thing?” – and Dick’s wife called Leo aside. “I have agreed to leave this underground world with my husband, if we can find a way to get out, and go, with him to the land of his own people. He is making arrangements to lead a number of the men of this place to Hez and capture it. That once done, he says, he can easily find some means of getting to the outside world.”
“That’s true, old fellow, chimed in Dick.
“I now have eighty good fighting men at my command, and I think we shall be able to down the Hezzians, even if they do outnumber us.”
“You can count on me to do my part, I assure you,” said Leo.
The Naztecs seemed to be pleased at another addition to their number.
Dick, Lacy and Owens had taught them many things they had been entirely ignorant of; and as they were an intelligent race, they were constantly on the lookout to learn something new.
Leo now appeared to be more contented than he had at any time since he came to the land of mystery.
He soon got used to the mode of living in the country of the Naztecs, and, like his predecessors, soon acquired their language.
There was only one thing that bothered him, save his desire to get to his native heath once more, and that was the undying love Azurma bore him.
He liked the girl well enough; but, unlike Dick, he did not allow himself to become “gone” on any of the beauties of the strange land.
But duty told him that he ought to marry the girl, for she was growing thinner every day, and all on account of him.
He concluded to wed her, and make the best of it, and one day, about three weeks after his advent into the Naztec country, Leo and Azurma were made man and wife according to the established rules of the country.
There never was a happier bride in the whole world than Azurma; and from that time until the day of her death Leo never regretted marrying her.
CHAPTER XX.
MANUFACTURING A CANNON
Leo Malvern had not been long in the city of the Naztecs ere he began to assist Dick in training the men how to fight.
Like his cousin, he desired to make his way to the Land of Hez and force a way to the outside world.
Neither allowed the Naztecs to become aware of what their intentions were after they had once defeated the Hezzians in battle, but trusted to luck to leave them in possession of Hez and force their way out.
While working about the soil near the city, Dick had discovered the materials for making a first-class blasting powder, and by means of this they hoped to blow open the door in the obelisk and thus find their way to freedom.
The discovery of a combustible substance that could be set off by a spark set Philander Owens to thinking.
He knew full well that the men of Hez outnumbered the party Dick and Leo intended to lead against them, by three or four to one.
Consequently, something more powerful in the line of weapons than spears and axes must be introduced.
Owens was an inventive sort of genius, and it did not take him long to figure out how a destructive weapon could be made.
There was a bed of copper ore in the vicinity of the underground city of the Naztecs, and Owens went to work mining a quantity of this.
He did not inform anyone of his intentions until he was forced to for want of help in his undertaking.
One day he called Dick and Leo aside and said:
“Are you most ready to march upon the Hezzians and fight your way to the outside world?”
“Yes,” replied Dick; “we have got the eighty men pretty well drilled now.”
“If we had a nice, little cannon – say a ten-pounder – we could work our way through them nicely, couldn’t we?”
“I should say we could!” exclaimed Leo. “But why do you speak of such a thing when it is entirely out of the question?”
“I don’t think it is out of the question, my boy.”
“What do you mean?” asked Dick, with wide-open eyes.
“I mean just this – I am going to cast a gun.”
The cousins were too much astonished to speak, but when Owens went on and explained his plans, they fell in with him, heart and soul.
The first thing to do now was to procure something to melt the ore in.
Dick concluded to ask the king for what he wanted, and he accordingly did so, telling him that it would add to their advantage in routing the Hezzians when the attack was made.
“There is naught in the city that would serve for such a purpose, unless it be in the sacred cave.”
“Where is that?” asked Dick.
“On the hillside, at the south of the city.”
“Will you allow me to go there and see if I can find what I want?”
“Wait,” said the king; “let me tell you about the sacred cave. The mouth of it is sealed, and has been for many, many years. It was decreed by a former king that no person of the Naztec nation should ever break the seal and enter it. It contains all the articles required for smelting copper, silver, gold and other metals. At that time working in metals was one of the principal industries of the place, since it was then that the houses in the city were built.
“You will observe that they are all built of stone and metal. The metal, of course, had to be cast to be wrought into its proper shape. And so it went on, till the houses were all done, and the city of the Naztecs completed. Then it was that the king issued the edict that all the smelting appurtenances should be placed in the cave and its entrance sealed.”
“That’s quite an interesting story, I assure you,” remarked Dick. “Then, if what you say is true, the very things we need are in the cave.”
“Yes, but we dare not open it.”
“None of the Naztec nation dare do it, you mean.”
“Exactly.”
“But I am not of the Naztec nation. I may open it, I suppose?”
The king thought a moment, and then said:
“As you please. I will neither tell you to do it nor not to do it. I trust that you will in due time get your weapon of warfare constructed, though.”
That settled it.
Dick at once repaired to Leo and Philander Owens, and told them what he had learned.
Reginald Lacy was sought, and together the four repaired to the sacred cave.
They had no difficulty in finding it, since the king had told Dick exactly where it was.
By dint of using a couple of heavy, metal bars, they managed to pry a stone from the entrance, which was sealed with a substance like cement.
When the stone was rolled sufficiently aside, a cry of joy escaped the lips of the four.
The cave was evidently just as it had been left when the workers in metal had completed their job so many years before.
It contained a pair of huge furnaces, crucibles, ladles for dipping out the molten metal, and everything needful.
But all these things were quaint and very ancient in appearance, reminding our friends of what they had read concerning the building of King Solomon’s Temple, in the Bible days.
Not one of the Naztecs bothered them while they busied themselves about the cave.
There was an abundance of fuel for the furnaces in the place, and before an hour had elapsed Dick and Leo had kindled the fires.
Meanwhile, Owens and Lacy had been busy in conveying the copper ore to the place.
Not until they had deposited all they thought they needed in the cave did they discover an abundant supply already there, of copper, silver and gold.
The silver was more plentiful than any of the rest of the ore and at the suggestion of Lacy, it was decided to cast their cannon of four-fifths of copper and one-fifth silver.
Quite an expensive gun, the reader might say. But of what use was the silver to our friends in that out-of-the-way place? Even if they succeeded in defeating the Hezzians and getting out of the underground place, it would be impossible to carry much away with them.
Anyhow, there was more than enough gold to load each of the four down, and they made up their minds to take all they could of this with them.
Now that they had succeeded in obtaining the metal and the means of melting it, the next thing was to manufacture a mold.
But Philander Owens considered this the easiest part of it, and in less than half a day he had made one sufficient to answer the purpose.
He formed it by digging a hole in a bed of soft sand of the depth required for the proposed cannon, and then by running a round piece of wood of the size of the bore they wanted down into this within a few inches of the bottom, the mold was complete.
Of course the touchhole would have to be drilled, and the wood burned out afterward.
When everything was in readiness, Dick and Leo held the stick firmly in its place, and Lacy and Owens poured in the molten mixture.
There was a furious sizzling for a minute or so, and then, when the steam caused by the intense heat coming in contact with damp sand had cleared away, they saw that, to all appearances, their cast had been successful.
An examination told them that it was a success, and a complete one, at that. They did not even have to burn the stick out, for the wood, though being of the hardest kind, had shrunk a trifle, which allowed them to pull it out easily enough.
“Hurrah!” exclaimed Leo, waving his cap in the air. “Now, to bore out the touchhole and our cannon is completed!”
As soon as it had cooled, they dug it out and rolled it over upon the ground.
While Lacy and Owens were engaged in boring out the touchhole, the cousins melted up a number of bars of gold into a shape convenient to take with them.
It took the two men some time to make the required hole, and, at length, when they had completed it, they had been at least twelve hours in constructing their cannon.
“Now,” observed Dick, “we must try it before we go home.”
The rest promptly agreed with him, and he proceeded to load the huge weapon with a good charge of the powder that had been manufactured by them.
This was plentifully wadded and pounded in thoroughly, and then they prepared to set it off.
To avoid any possible accident, a slow-match was rigged and lighted, and then they repaired to a safe distance to await the result.
There was a fizzing noise, made by the slow-match, and a few seconds later a terrific explosion rang out, which shook the very ground upon which they stood.
At the very instant it died out a rumbling sound was heard, and the unknown light that illumined the strange country went out as if by magic, leaving them in total darkness!
