Part 55 (1/2)

The captain glanced at Sir Humphrey, who nodded, and the men took to their oars, while Lynton steered the heavy boat right up to the remains of a stone-enc.u.mbered wharf or pier that had been laboriously cut out of the solid rock. Here the boats were held, and, well armed, half their occupants sprang out to climb over the slippery stones, which had evidently only lately bean covered by the flood-water, whose mark could be plainly seen, reaching up some ten feet, or half-way to where there ran for hundreds of yards a more or less regular broad terrace cut down out of the rock, and from which the honeycombed perpendicular cliff rose, showing now that it was cut into steps, each step being a rough terrace just below a row of window-like openings.

It was all plain enough now: the Indians' camp had been made right and left of the rugged steps leading up from the water. There the fires were still glowing, and about them and in rows where they could be dried by the sun lay hundreds upon hundreds of good-sized fish: the harvest the Indians had been taking from the river; while the state of some which were piled together beneath a projecting piece of rock suggested that the fishers must have been staying there for days.

”They are sure to come back for this fish,” said Brace.

”Very likely,” said Sir Humphrey. ”Well, if they do, let them have it, and we'll give them some present in return for what we have taken. Look here, captain: we must camp here for a few days to explore this place.”

”Very good, sir. We can pick out one or two of these caves, or rooms, or whatever they are, to live in. Your Dan would like one of 'em for a kitchen, Mr Briscoe.”

”Yes; he's smelling about them now. I dessay he has chosen one already,” said the American. ”Yes, I call this fine; we may come across some curiosities next. What do you say to beginning a regular explore, Brace?”

”I say: the sooner the better,” cried Brace.

Sir Humphrey nodded.

”We'll divide into two parties, captain,” he said. ”Let half prepare for making a stay; and I should like the others to bring ropes and a boat-hook or two to help our climb, for I daresay we shall need it before we get to the top of this cliff.”

”Very good, sir, and I don't think you'll find a soul to hurt you. I'd keep my eyes well opened though, for you may find wild beasts, and you're sure to find snakes. Let's see,” he continued, consulting a pocket compa.s.s. ”Yes: we're facing nearly due south. It will be a warm spot, and I should say that the old inhabitants are now represented by snakes, and poisonous ones too.”

Preparations were soon made, the captain electing to stay below and make all ready for the party's return.

Brace led off along the rugged terrace, which was terribly enc.u.mbered by stones fallen from above; but the young adventurer's first idea was to continue along to where the palace-like front reared itself up about the middle of the cliff.

Briscoe stepped alongside of him, and Brace noticed how busily his companion's eyes wandered about, taking in everything on their way. Not that there was much to see at first, save that the captain was right about the inhabitants, for everywhere among the stones which lay heating in the morning sun they came upon coiled-up serpents, many of which were undoubtedly venomous; but there were other reptiles as well, for lizards darted about by the hundred, when disturbed, to make for their holes in crevices and cracks of the stonework, their scales glistening as if made of burnished metal, bronze, deadened silver, mingled with velvety black and soft silvery grey.

At the end of a couple of hundred yards Brace stopped.

”This won't do,” he said. ”We are on the lowest terrace, and the palace is a floor higher. It ought to be somewhere over where we are.”

”That's where I reckon it is,” said Briscoe, going to the low ruined wall between them and the river, and straining outward to look up.

”See anything?” said Brace.

”No; I can't reach out far enough; the next terrace overhangs. But it must be here.”

”Let's get right on towards the end,” said Sir Humphrey, ”and I daresay we shall find some kind of steps leading to the next floor.”

It was some time before anything but a dark hole was found, and that seemed to be only a receptacle for loose stones, so it was pa.s.sed; but after pus.h.i.+ng on for another two hundred yards, with nothing to take their attention but the retreating reptiles and the beautiful flas.h.i.+ng river which washed the foot of the clift, Briscoe grew uneasy.

”Look here,” he said; ”we're losing time. Let's go back, for I'm sure the way up is through that hole.”

”Impossible!” said Brace. ”There must be a bold flight of steps.”

”No, there mustn't, mister,” said Briscoe sharply. ”This was an old strong place when the people who lived here were alive, and you may depend upon it that the way up was kept small for safety, so that it could easily be defended by a man or two with spears, or shut up with a heavy stone. I say we've pa.s.sed the way up.”

”Let's go back then,” said Sir Humphrey, smiling good-humouredly; and they all made their way back to the bottom of the hole, which had evidently been carefully cut.

Briscoe went to it at once; he gave his double gun to the nearest man to hold, and then, seizing one of the stones with which the horizontal oven-like hole had been filled, he shook it loose and dragged it out to stand in the att.i.tude of lowering the heavy block to the ground.