In the tiger's lair

Ted and Stanley lost no time in going out among the people. The event of a king mingling freely with his subjects, and on foot at that, was without precedent. They encouraged, soothed, and even threatened where necessary. But their presence in the midst of danger in itself had a calming effect on the majority of Indians, and the Americans rose mightily in the estimation of the multitude.

“Quizquiz deserted us in time of peril,” they said with an awe akin to adoration; “the new king shares our danger and will vanquish it, just as he drove away the demon of darkness and brought back the sunlight. Long live the new king, the greatest of them all.”

Apparently the animals that had invaded the valley had become emboldened by their first onslaught, for toward morning the thunderous roars again rent the silence hovering over the valley. This time they were repeated more frequently and drew nearer with great rapidity.

“It is exactly as I thought,” Stanley said. “They are coming from the direction of the gap torn by the dynamite.”

“But if they are coming from Uti, why did not they attack us while we were there?” Ted asked.

“I don’t think any of the brutes survived beyond the wall. They must be extinct there, for we saw only their bones in the cave, and Timichi, the exile, who had lived there for years, had never been molested by them. The landslide caused by the jar of the explosion opened a passage from that other hidden valley where they still exist, and it did not take them long to find the outlet into a new feeding-ground.”

“We had better make a round of the outposts. If the soldiers become panic-stricken and desert the fires the tigers will break through the lines and carry away more people.”

“By all means, let’s go. This is doubtless the last attempt of the creatures to invade this place, for daylight will soon be here, and they will return to their hiding-places.”

They hurried from fire to fire, and ordered the guards to pile on more fuel, and the two viewed with satisfaction the mounting glow as the flames leaped higher and higher.

The unbroken prospect of the circle of crackling fire did not appeal to the attackers, for they did not venture near to it, but after a succession of deafening howls and cries retreated in the direction from which they had come.

Daylight brought relief to the frightened inhabitants of the valley, and Soncco urged that they break camp immediately and return to the capital, for in the stone houses of the city there would be at least a measure of safety. Also, preparations must be made without delay for the coronation ceremonies, when Stanley would be crowned with the crimson borla, and Ted receive his appointment as High Priest of the Temple of the Sun.

Soncco argued long and earnestly, but to all his pleas they replied that while, no doubt, they would be safe in their stone palaces, the hundreds of others living in the country would remain exposed to the ravages of the great brutes, which, growing constantly bolder, would destroy them in increasing numbers. The welfare of the king depended upon the welfare of the people, they believed; to desert the latter at a time like this would be to invite their own ruin.

No! They were determined to attack the tigers in their own fastness, in their very lairs, if necessary; to exterminate them if possible, and if not, to at least check their inroads. After that had been accomplished there would be time enough to consider other matters. But the safety of the populace came first.

After a hurried breakfast the two Americans hastened to the stranded airplane. The wings and body had been battered considerably by the wind, but as no rain had fallen since their arrival, the guns were free from rust and in good working order. They immediately set about to strip the weapons, carefully wiped all the working parts with oily cloths, and reloaded the magazines. Then they made tripods of stout poles on which to mount the guns.

In the meantime the people had been sent away to places of security. Only fifty picked soldiers, with their officers, were retained. These were ordered to look after their bows, arrows, and swords in order to be sure that everything was in fighting trim. Shortly before noon all preparations had been completed, and the expedition, with Stanley and Ted in the lead, started for the break in the mountainside.

If there had been any doubt as to the locality from which the tigers had come, the great footprints of the animals would have dispelled them soon. Where the ground was soft or under cultivation the massive paws had sunk to a depth of nearly twelve inches, and the holes measured fully as much in diameter. Some were larger than others, indicating that several of the beasts, of various ages, had been quick to take advantage of an opportunity to secure a meal easily.

“We will mount one of the guns here,” Stanley said when they had approached to within fifty yards of the opening. “You stay here with half the men; I will place the remainder on either side of the gap while I take a look at what is on the other side. If there is none of the animals in sight I will motion to you to come on. If there should be one near by and it charges, I will run to the rocks on one side so as to give you a clear sweep of the gap. Keep the gun trained on the opening, and if anything comes through hold the trigger back until you are sure the bullets are hitting in the right spot. You can’t miss at such close range.”

“You stay here and let me go first,” Ted pleaded. But Stanley insisted on being the one to face the danger.

The gun was quickly set up, a magazine full of cartridges snapped into place, and the muzzle trained on the narrow passage through which the tigers must come if they should be aroused and attempted a charge. Then Stanley cautiously started forward with his men, weapons in hand, the party moving in two files, one on each side, and keeping out of sight as much as possible behind the mass of rocks that had fallen from above.

They halted when they reached the foot of the escarpment, and Stanley mounted his gun on one side of the breech. Then he crept forward alone, at such a slow pace that he seemed scarcely to move. His face was covered with cold perspiration, and he thought the pounding of his heart must be audible across the entire expanse of the valley, but his courage remained unshaken. Crouching low, he took a hurried peep around the edge of the rock barrier. Ted watched his every move, firmly gripping the handle of the gun with one hand, the forefinger of the other resting lightly on the trigger.

Stanley must have seen nothing of a formidable nature, for he took a second and longer look, then, emboldened, crept into the opening. A few minutes later he emerged, crawling backward, and motioning to the men to remain where they were, hastened to Ted’s side.

“It’s the most wonderful thing I ever saw in my life.” He could hardly speak from excitement. “There is another world beyond that wall of stone, and it belongs to the past—thousands of years ago, I mean. You won’t believe it; you can’t until you see for yourself.”

“What is it?” Ted asked, also breathless with excitement. “You wait here now and let me sneak up and see.”

“I will crawl back and put up the gun in the passage. Then you come with yours. I can’t believe my eyes, and I want you to see it and then tell me if I am right, or am I losing my mind.”

To Ted, waiting in the distance, it seemed ages while Stanley carried out his plan, although in reality it was only a few minutes. The eagerly awaited wave of the hand came at last, so, picking up his gun, he hastened to the side of his companion.

Together they quietly made their way through the rent in the mountainside; the walls, jagged and torn, rose to a great height on each side of them, and the bottom was strewn with a mass of shattered rock. When they reached the far end of the passage they stopped and stared in awe and amazement at the panorama spread before their eyes.

They were standing on the brink of a crater miles across in each direction. The floor of the great depression was only slightly lower than the spot on which they stood. Plots of green grass, fields of huge, black boulders, interspersed with islands of tall trees, met their gaze whichever way they turned. Whisps and jets of steam and smoke rose from crevices in the rockfields, showing that the volcano was not yet extinct, but obviously it had been many, many centuries since there had been an eruption of any importance. In the centre lay a lake of large size—it covered at least a square mile. And enclosing the arena on all sides rose the stupendous walls of stone and lava, blackened with smoke and sulphurous fumes, and of such abruptness that they appeared perfectly vertical.

“Good heavens!” Ted gasped. “It looks like the Inferno and Paradise combined.”

“It is so terrific and so unbelievable that I am stunned. Prehistoric is the word for it—a leaf torn from the pages of the world’s history of thousands of years ago; perhaps even a million. Look, look!”

Stanley was pointing to a number of black objects of rounded form that dotted one of the velvety, green areas.

“Wonder how those stones came to be of such uniform size, and why they are standing in such evenly distributed groups. Some one must have placed them there. Why, one of them is moving!”

“They are not stones. They are tortoises. See that one? It is the size of a wash-tub, and it’s eating grass.”

“And look over there, on the margin of the water—to the right,” Ted whispered.

A herd of deer was timidly approaching its favorite drinking-place, out in the open where the nervous animals had a clear view of their surroundings for many yards.

“But the tigers! I don’t see a sign of them anywhere except these tracks leading away from here.”

“They must be laying up in their lairs among the rocks, or in caves, maybe. Perhaps they come out only at night.”

“That makes our work all the harder,” Ted returned. “We cannot follow them in there without rifles. And if they remain hidden all day long, how are we going to get at them?”

“I thought of something just this minute. See that ledge right above us? That must be fifty feet from the ground. Why not hide up there to-night and shoot the beasts as they pass? There will be a full moon, so we shall have no trouble in seeing.”

“Great! The very thing! We can stick a fluff of white wool on the sights to make them plainer,” Ted exclaimed enthusiastically. “We have a number of hours to get ready in, but not one too many, so let’s get busy right away.”

While two of the soldiers crouched in the opening as sentinels, ready to give the alarm at the first sign of danger, the others, under the direction of Ted and Stanley, rigged up a ladder by winding thongs around a spliced pole, up which the two could climb to the rock shelf. This required a good deal of time, but when the work was finally completed the Americans ascended to the lofty perch, after which they hoisted up the guns. There were other ledges above them, but the lower one, they thought, was high enough for security.

The guards then removed the pole-ladder. Ted and Stanley found themselves alone on a narrow ledge, and confident that from this strategic position they could easily stop the murderous marauders when nightfall should induce them to leave their hiding-places in quest of victims.

The soldiers, with their officers, departed immediately, with instructions to barricade themselves in the nearest houses. At first the officers were reluctant to leave, but they dared not disobey the command to go now and to return early on the following morning. They left their woollen cloaks to be used as blankets by the watchers, and also a sufficient quantity of food.

Ted and Stanley, from their point of vantage, scrutinized the saucer-like expanse before them. Probably they were the first men to behold the strange world within the crater. So long as daylight lasted, life in that weird place was peaceful enough. Animals were abundant, almost everywhere. Species they had not observed before appeared here and there. Besides the tortoises and deer, there were herds of wild pigs, armadillos of such great size that they must have weighed a ton, ant-eaters resembling the large, banded kind, not uncommon in the Amazon country, and monkeys with short tails. The creatures seemed to live in perfect harmony; they frolicked in play or busied themselves searching for food. To look at them engaged in their peaceful occupations, one would never suspect that such terrible monsters as the tigers lurked in their very midst. It was a curious conglomeration that defied description, but of the kind that the men of ages ago saw and struggled with daily.

With the first signs of coming night the animals grew restive. The deer moved toward the high, barren sides of the crater; the armadillos sought their burrows; the tortoises waddled into crevices in the rocks, and the other creatures hurried to the forested areas. Within the space of half an hour the crater appeared deserted. It was ominous. Experience had taught the denizens of this strange region to seek their shelters before the onrush of darkness.

“I’ve loaded the magazines so there will be bursts of ten shots,” Ted announced. “That ought to be enough, and if it is not, we can let loose another string of ten additional ones.”

“If that does not stop them, nothing will.”

“This place does not seem so high as I thought, somehow or other.”

“The coming darkness and the shadows are deceptive. Powerful as they are, the tigers could not possibly jump up here.”

“No, of course not. But this is a creepy place, just the same. I hope they do not keep us waiting very long. I almost think I might get nervous,” Ted laughed, but the laugh sounded hollow and was without mirth. It seemed as if the experience would be more exciting and less enjoyable than they had anticipated.

Just then a black apparition swept past their faces, not a yard away, on silent wings, and settled on the ledge near by. When it hooted dismally they knew it was an owl.

“Wow!” Stanley exclaimed. “I’ll say it’s creepy here. And we are in for a whole night of it. They took the ladder away so we can’t get down if we want to. Come on, tigers; this suspense is worse than fighting you.”

And, almost before he knew it, his wish was gratified.