“Look here, Jack,” said Frank, as the three chums kept step together along the corridor, while Ferdinand walked ahead with Mr. Hampton and his father, Don Ernesto. “Look here, what do you think our chances of escape are going to be?”
“I don’t know.”
Jack shook his head. As for big Bob, he growled a comment.
“Why worry? I’m having a good time. I want to learn all about this city. And the treasure, too, that we came for, it——”
“Oh, we’ll have to give up that idea now,” said Jack. “We can’t rob these people. If the Enchanted City had been abandoned and in ruins, and we had discovered it, that would have been a different matter.”
Frank took no part in this discussion. It wasn’t treasure of which he was thinking.
“Just the same, Bob,” he interrupted, “we ought to be thinking of how we can escape, for I have an idea that these people intend to keep us imprisoned for life or, as Don Ernesto says, persuade us to join the nation.”
“Why not?” said Bob. “I’d like to be a captain in this man’s army. These Incas look like fine material for soldiers, and with our military school knowledge we ought to be able to drill them in modern tactics.”
“And with our knowledge of radio and other modern inventions and discoveries,” supplemented Jack, “we would be invaluable. We could rise to high positions in the state.”
“What,” exclaimed Frank, “and stay here all our lives?”
“Well, why not?”
“Oh, he wants to go home to Della,” said big Bob, mentioning the name of his sister, with whom Frank was in love.
Frank flushed, but did not reply.
“I’m not keen on staying here forever, either,” said Jack quickly; for his thoughts more and more during their South American stay had turned to Senorita Rafaela in her Sonora mountains, and Bob’s reference to Frank and Della had brought her again to mind. “Just the same, this would be a paradise of a place in which to live if it were brought in touch with the outside world.”
“So you think you’d get to be a big gun here and then open the Enchanted City to civilization?” asked Frank.
“It might be done,” said Jack.
“Well, after seeing that religious ceremony, I doubt it. The Incas would not want to give up their supreme power, and they know they would have to do that if their country were opened up. Chile or Argentine would absorb the country.”
“Oh, not necessarily,” answered Jack. “This country might remain independent, an inland empire.”
“An absolute empire couldn’t survive long in a land of republics,” said Frank, “especially when this country is small.”
“Small, yes,” agreed Bob. “But it is powerful. The Incas in the beginning were few in number, but good fighters with fine military organizations. From their mountain heights in the North they overflowed and conquered their tremendous empire. Perhaps their descendants aim to step out some day from these mountain heights in the South, and do the same.”
“What folly, Bob,” said Frank. “They would be up against modern nations with modern implements of war.”
“Well, can’t they learn to make modern war?” asked Bob. “They’ve got some able instructors in military tactics here to teach them.”
Jack and Frank, recalling that in anything pertaining to military science Bob had beaten both at Harrington Hall, smiled at each other. Some men apparently are born warriors. And Bob was of the number.
Further conversation along this line was halted by their coming up with the others. They had been moving up and down corridors and short flights of steps while talking, and had taken little note of the length of the passage to Prince Huaca’s apartments. Mr. Hampton, however, commented on that fact as they approached. The boys seemed surprised.
“What are we waiting for?” asked Bob.
“To be announced.”
For the first time the boys noticed they stood before a great closed door on either side of which Inca soldiers, six feet tall, impassive of countenance, mounted guard. Their guide had disappeared within. Then the door was opened and they were ushered into an anteroom, of which they had no time to take particular note, except to see that a number of young nobles stood about in groups, talking, for they were taken at once through this room and into an inner chamber.
Here sat Prince Huaca at a table, writing. It was a small table of polished wood, the top mounted on the back of a crouching lion, beautifully carved. The room itself, while large, was considerably smaller than their apartment, and was severely furnished. A number of couches stood about. To these Prince Huaca motioned, with the request that they be seated, and meantime continued his writing. Presently, having finished the task, he sanded the paper to dry the ink, then rolled it into a scroll, about which he tied a cord of gold and purple threads. The missive then was handed to the man who had guided them, with an order delivered in the Inca tongue, and the man departed, leaving them alone with the prince.
“Be not dismayed,” he said, turning to his guests. “I would know what brought you to the Forbidden Land. Few are the men who have come thither, for our fastnesses are impregnable and the outer valley where you were captured can be stumbled upon only by accident. And of those whom I have captured in the past or my fathers before me, none within two hundred years came seeking us, but found their way thither only by accident. You, however, I am certain, came seeking us. Is it not so?”
Directly appealed to, Don Ernesto agreed.
“Your Highness, it is.”
“Call me Prince Huaca,” said the other, simply. “Yes, it is as I thought. And it was this which led you?”
He held a manuscript aloft. It was the de Pereira manuscript, in archaic Spanish, Spanish as old as that spoken by Prince Huaca.
“It was that which brought us.”
“Senor,” said Prince Huaca, “I cannot believe that you came expecting to find a nation in existence.”
“We thought but to find abandoned ruins.”
Prince Huaca was silent, thoughtful.
“Pray, Prince Huaca,” said Mr. Hampton, speaking for the first time, “may we not state our surprise to find that a powerful people exists here unknown to the world at large and unsuspected? Moreover, surpassing in my mind the mystery of how you have kept your secret through the centuries——”
“Eternal vigilance,” interrupted Prince Huaca.
“Well,” continued Mr. Hampton, “surpassing that mystery, I say, is that of how you have maintained a healthy and, doubtless, growing population within this restricted territory.”
“State supervision and control of families, lands, everything, but——”
Prince Huaca arose abruptly, and moved up and down before them, his face dark, his sandals making no sound. He paused before them.
“We need more land,” said he. “Some of us are for marching out with our armies to conquer. But some, like myself——Ah, you have come at a critical time in our life.” He paused, his eyes searching their faces keenly. “I do not know why I talk to you like this,” he said. “But something within bids me have faith, bids me trust you.
“Ah, I would know of the world beyond our mountain fastnesses. Without knowledge a man is like a worm crawling in the soil. But when he knows, it is like the Sun shedding his beneficent light into the gorges of our mountains and dispelling the gloom. You come from this outside world. You are not commoners, like the one or two we have captured in the Forbidden Land in other days. No, you are nobles, men of knowledge and power. This I can see from certain objects among your possessions.”
He waved his hand to a corner of the room, which hitherto had not been noticed. The boys and the older men looked whither he pointed. There stood all their luggage.
“In your possessions are many strange objects,” Prince Huaca continued. “Books in the royal tongue, for so,” he added, proudly, “we call the Spanish which only those of Inca lineage intermarried with de Arguello and his Conquistadores speak. These books puzzle me, for, though they are in Spanish, yet it is changed from the Spanish which I speak. In truth, as you note, we have some little difficulty in understanding each the other. It is only this,” and he held up the de Pereira manuscript, “which is in the tongue I learned.”
“And there are other objects. Strange threads that gleam and cannot be broken.”
“Our copper wire for the radio outfit,” said Jack, involuntarily.
He spoke in English. Prince Huaca stared puzzled.
“I do not understand.”
“He speaks in another tongue, Prince Huaca,” said Mr. Hampton.
“Still another than Spanish?”
“Yes. In the world without are a hundred different tongues.”
Prince Huaca was dumbfounded. He stared at Mr. Hampton, as if in disbelief.
He turned to Don Ernesto.
“And is this so?”
“Yes, it is the truth.”
Prince Huaca abruptly returned to his seat, and placed his head in his hands. He sat, bowed in thought. None interrupted. Presently, he again looked up.
“And are all these peoples powerful?”
“Their numbers are as of the sands of the sea,” said Don Ernesto, thinking to quote an impressive figure. But Prince Huaca merely appeared puzzled, and the Don hastily remembered he could know nothing of the ocean, and amended himself: “They are in number like the leaves of the forest. They have built mighty cities. There is one beyond your mountains to the east called Buenos Ayres where dwell more than two million souls. They——”
“But can they read and write, can they do this?” cried Prince Huaca, eagerly. “Our ancestors, the ancient Incas of Cusco, kept accounts only by means of quippus, knotted strings. But we of Inca lineage here have that knowledge of reading and writing handed down to us by the three priests of de Arguello. This is knowledge, and power.”
“Today, the simplest of the commoners can read and write in that world beyond your mountains,” said Mr. Hampton. “Even Pedro and Carlos, my friend’s servants, have this knowledge.”
Once more Prince Huaca was silent, digesting this. Then he said:
“But has not too much learning made them weak, so that they are like women and cannot fight?”
“On the contrary, Prince, they fight with weapons that slay at great distances, with ships that fly in the air like birds and drop death upon those below. And yet,” added Mr. Hampton, “they seek these peoples, to live in peace with each other. No longer is it considered great to make war. Those who set out to conquer find all other peoples banded together against them.”
Prince Huaca once more fell into a manner of abstraction, from which the others made no effort to arouse him. Presently, he lifted his head, and there was an expression of resolution on his features.
“Senor,” said he, “that is all for the present. These matters that you have told me, however, I shall lay at once before the Council. Do you, therefore, hold yourselves in readiness to appear and be questioned? Meantime, I shall order your possessions restored to you, on one condition.”
He paused, expectantly.
“What is that?” asked Mr. Hampton.
“That these strange devices be explained to me, and that they be not used to cause evil to us.”
He lifted aside a heavy cloth of gold from an end of this table, revealing beneath portions of the radio outfit brought by Mr. Hampton. The others looked at each other. One thought was in every mind. How explain the phenomenon of radio to an idolator to whom it could mean nothing other than witchcraft and wizardry? Then Mr. Hampton had an idea.
“In these South American forests,” said he, “particularly in that jungle land beyond the mountains whence came your ancestors, Prince Huaca, the Indian tribesmen have a method of communicating to each other without the use of runners. They place along the bank of a river a hollow log, upon which they tap certain tappings with a hammer. Miles away, with his ear to another hollow log upon the river bank, a man hears that message.”
“Of this I have heard something,” said Prince Huaca.
“The sound,” said Mr. Hampton, “travels along the water. But this device before you is for the purpose of sending sound through the air, as if a man had a voice which could be heard from here to ancient Cusco, thousands of miles distant. This is only one of the many wonders known to the world outside your mountains today.”
He stopped, unwilling to venture upon a detailed explanation that could not be understood, fearful that, perhaps, he already had said too much, that Prince Huaca would consider him either a great liar or a great wizard, and would act accordingly.
The prince, however, did not change expression.
“Could you call men from beyond the mountains to Cuso Hurrin?”
“To what place?”
“That is the name of our city.”
Mr. Hampton struggled with himself. If he admitted the power that the radio outfit put at his command, doubtless Prince Huaca would take it from him, and their chances of bringing rescuers, if that proved necessary, would vanish. Nevertheless, he was a truthful man.
“Yes,” said he, simply. “It could be done.”
Prince Huaca was silent.
“And who among you understands this best?”
Once more Mr. Hampton hesitated. Perhaps the prince planned to slay whichever member of the party he considered was the operative.
“I mean you no harm,” said Prince Huaca, rightly interpreting his hesitancy. “I would but learn more of this marvel.”
“These boys,” said Mr. Hampton, indicating Jack, Frank and Bob. “They are familiar with this marvel and even have added to it by little improvements.”
“Then,” said the prince, “I shall ask them to come to my quarters here and teach me. Perhaps we shall employ your marvel. I would learn about it. It may be useful. I shall keep it here. Meantime, do you go to your apartment while I go to the Council. And hold yourselves in readiness for my summons.”
The balance of that day was one filled with foreboding. Mr. Hampton and Don Ernesto, an hour or so after their dismissal by Prince Huaca, were summoned by a servant again to his apartments with the understanding that they were to be escorted thence to appear before the Inca’s Council. Left to themselves, the four boys chatted together at first about their strange interview; but, as the hours passed with no word from the older men, they grew more and more to feel as if some evil impended, and lapsed at length into a gloomy silence.
Bob flung himself on a couch in a doze, Ferdinand stood at a loophole, gazing out upon the great square where the merriment continued unabated. It would last eight days, Prince Huaca had said. Jack and Frank tried to find oblivion in books among their belongings, but with ill success. As for the two huachos, Pedro and Carlos, they took the matter philosophically, and continued their endless game of cards.
“This is driving me mad,” said Jack, at length, tossing aside his book. “The afternoon is going fast, and it will soon be night. Already the square is in shadow below, and it is too dim to read. Where can they be? What can have detained them?”
An interruption came in the form of the servants, who had brought their food previously, and who now again entered, cleared the table, and set out food once more. For a moment, the wild idea of attempting to overcome them and make a bolt for Prince Huaca’s apartments, in search of his father came to Jack. But he quickly put it aside, for in the outer corridor he glimpsed the armed guards who had accompanied the servants.
“Thank goodness, they brought a light,” he ejaculated, after the servants had departed, leaving behind, beside the food, a gold vessel filled with oil in which burned a wick that gave a clear, bright flame. “Well, you fellows that are hungry, fall to. I couldn’t eat a bite.”
Frank went up to him and put an arm over his shoulders.
“Come on, old man,” he said. “I know how you feel. But it is foolish to worry. Your Dad has just been spinning so many fairy tales about the modern world that he has these old boys sitting there with their eyes popping out, and they won’t let him go; they want him to tell them some more yarns. He’ll be back, all right, presently, and the Inca probably will be coming along with him to see what we look like. ‘The Young Wizards, hey?’ he’ll say. ‘Pleased to meet you. Trot out a few tricks for us.’ And you want to have a full stomach, then, or how can you perform well? Come on, come on.”
And, laughing and jollying, Frank pushed Jack to the table, and in similar fashion rounded up Ferdinand, then tumbled the snoring Bob to the floor, whereat Pedro and Carlos chuckled, and under the spell of his geniality, a measure of confidence and cheer was restored to the group.
As they were in the midst of eating, the key once more grated in the lock and Jack, with an eager cry, sprang toward the door, Ferdinand a close second. Nor were they disappointed, for Mr. Hampton and Don Ernesto were ushered in by the guard.
“Well boys, did you think we were never going to return?” asked Mr. Hampton, cheerfully. A glance at Jack had revealed to him the worry in his son’s face.
A chorus of replies answered.
“Jack would have it that the pair of you were cut up in mince meat to be fed to the Inca,” said Frank, after the chorus had died down. “But I told him the Inca was probably feeding out of your hand.”
“Not quite that,” said Mr. Hampton. “But we are hungry. Let us have a minute’s chance to eat a bit, and then we’ll tell you what happened.”
The boys were eager to hear, but forebore until it appeared Mr. Hampton and Don Ernesto had satisfied their appetites. Then the dishes were pushed to one end of the table and, standing about the other end, upon which reposed the lamp, or leaning upon it, for there were no chairs in the apartment, they began to ply the two older men with questions.
“What was it like?”
“Could they all speak Spanish?”
“What did they ask you?”
“Did you tell them about the modern inventions?”
“Anything said about radio?”
Mr. Hampton and Don Ernesto threw up their hands.
“One at a time, one at a time,” protested Mr. Hampton. “And, perhaps, you had better let us tell this in our own way. No, Jack, there was nothing about radio. Prince Huaca cautioned us not to speak of it. I don’t know—but I think he wants to hold that back for some purpose of his own. And I, for one, am perfectly willing to abet him. For, after what we learned today, it looks as if we would need a friend.”
“That is right,” agreed Don Ernesto.
“Why, Dad,” asked Jack, anxiously, “What do you mean?”
“Well, it looks as if there were two parties at court. In fact, really three.”
“What, Dad? What are they?”
“Well, first I must tell you we did not see the Inca, but only the Council. Two parties are for starting out of this isolation and conquering a lot of land, in order to make room for the growing population, which, despite all efforts of the State—such as keeping many young women from raising families by putting them in the Convent of the Vestal Virgins—is becoming a problem. One of these parties is blindly confident the world has not advanced and that the Inca’s armies can assert their power. The other recalls the history of the coming of the Spaniards to old Cusco, which caused their forefathers to flee thither, and believes it must arm itself with white man’s knowledge first. This we learned from Prince Huaca.”
“But what is the danger to us in that? We know how foolish either project would be?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Hampton gravely, turning to Frank who had asked the question, “but the party which is blindly confident of the Inca’s ability to sweep all before him, would prefer to make a beginning with us. They would like to sacrifice us to the Sun God before setting forth. And what happened to the Incas after that would not matter very much to us.”
“Whew,” said Bob, “the bloody rascals.”
“And the third party, Dad?”
“Prince Huaca heads the third party,” Mr. Hampton said. “That is the party which, like the others, believes the centuries-old isolation of Cusco Hurrin must be broken up, in order that the inhabitants may have more territory in which to grow. But it is against attempting to use force of arms, believing my words that the outside world is too powerful to be overcome. It is inclined to discuss the possibility of sending ambassadors to the surrounding nations and opening relations, provided it can be assured that such a course will not be merely to invite destruction as was the case in old Cusco when the Inca Atahualpa opened his country to Pizarro, only to be destroyed treacherously by the Spaniards.”
“And they told you all this?”
“Oh, no, Jack,” Mr. Hampton said. “There were ten men in the Council, all of Incarial blood, the highest nobles of the country. Prince Huaca is a nephew of the present Inca, who is childless, and thus is his heir. He is the Captain of the Fortress, holder of the Tunnel Way. But I can see he has bitter enemies, and some of them have the ear of the Inca, chief among them being the High Priest, Cinto. Much that I have told you was not brought out directly at the Council, but was told us later by Prince Huaca, with whom we have been alone a second time since leaving the Council, and for a considerable period.”
“Did they question you about the outside world? And what did you tell them?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Hampton, “it was that of which we spoke. We told them in a general way of cannon, airplanes, steamships, automobiles and so on. But we did not speak of the telegraph or of radio.”
“Because Prince Huaca asked you not to?”
“That was the reason, yes. You see, he is a remarkable man. With no previous knowledge of the wonders of the world, he has accepted without question what we have told him. At once, apparently, after our first interview, the one which you boys attended, his mind busied itself with some plan or other, of which I haven’t the least idea, to use radio for his own purposes. And he wants any hint of it kept secret from the other members of the Council.”
“I wonder what he has in mind,” said Jack.
“I cannot guess,” replied his father. “Father,” said Ferdinand, “what is your opinion of Prince Huaca?”
Thus appealed to, Don Ernesto, who had kept silence, permitting Mr. Hampton to act as spokesman, smiled a little.
“He is a very wonderful man,” said he. “As my friend, Senor Hampton, says, he has accepted as true and natural whatever we have told him. Members of the Council were inclined to scout our words, to believe us liars. Their minds were not big enough to compass the wonders of which we spoke. But it is not so with Prince Huaca. There is a man of great native intelligence, one who with education would be a genius. He seems to me born to rule, a natural leader of man, with a dominant personality.”
To this estimate, Mr. Hampton gave emphatic assent.
“As he told you boys,” he added, “archaic Spanish is handed down in the Incarial families. The ten members of the Council speak and understand it in a measure. But none so well as he. He frequently acted as our interpreter. And not only does he know Spanish, but Latin, for the priests of de Arguello’s expedition were learned men and had with them some textbooks which, written on parchment, have been preserved. From these he has educated himself, and, though his pronunciation of Latin is not the best in the world, he has done surprisingly well. He showed us an ancient Latin dictionary, and a Caesar’s Gallic Wars.”
Bob groaned.
“And he has read ‘Caesar’?”
“Yes.”
“All I can say is he’s a better man than I am,” said Bob, who had entered Yale with a condition in Latin.
Frank and Jack laughed. In the momentary silence that followed, the shouts and laughter of the great crowd in the square below came up to them.
“Listen to that, will you?” said Bob. “And they’ll be keeping that up all night, too, I expect.”
“For eight days,” said Mr. Hampton.
“Look,” said Frank, who had approached a loophole. “See that fellow with a wreath of golden leaves around his head, holding up the wine cup. Gold it is, too. He’s reciting. See them all laugh and applaud. What a scene, that ring around him, the firelight on them! He must be a poet or minstrel. Golly, how I wish I could be down there, dressed in a tunic and sandals, and mixing around in that crowd. Say, but wouldn’t that be an experience for you?”
“Surely would,” said Jack, looking over his shoulder. “Listen, though, somebody coming.”
The key turned in the lock of the great door.
All swung about. It was their jailer, a pleasant-faced fellow, who, like all within the fortress, Prince Huaca had assured Mr. Hampton, was loyal to his commander. He indicated by signs that the boys and the two older men were to follow. Don Ernesto turned to Pedro and Carlos.
“Do not fear,” said he. “I expect that Prince Huaca wants to see us. We shall return.”
“We would go with you,” said Pedro.
When they started to do so, however, the jailer waved them back.
Pedro shrugged.
“It is fate,” said he. “We shall sleep.”
“Fear not,” Don Ernesto reassured him. “I shall look after you.”
As they moved along the corridor, it became apparent from the direction that their destination was, as Don Ernesto had surmised, Prince Huaca’s apartment. But what could he want with them? Had anything untoward occurred in the Inca’s Council? Were his enemies on the move against him? These questions occurred to all.
“It is unexpected, his sending for us,” Mr. Hampton said. “He gave no indication, when dismissing us the last time, that he would send for us again so soon.”
The jailer bore a torch which flickered and smoked as they passed loopholes at turns in the corridor, making the silent passageways, with their walls of stone, where none but themselves moved, seem even more ghastly and far from civilization than otherwise would have been the case. There was little conversation. Unlike their first trip over this route, the boys kept silent. What they had been told of the Council meeting had sobered their spirits. From these stone hallways within that vast fortress, standing in the heart of the Enchanted City, for so they still termed Cusco Hurrin among themselves, it was a far cry to New York or even Santiago. To more than one it seemed as if the possibility that they would ever return to the outside world was in the gravest doubt.
Instead of taking them through the anteroom into Prince Huaca’s apartment, the guide turned aside before the guards were reached, pressed a stone in the wall of the corridor, which swung back, revealing the entrance to a narrow secret passage and then stepped in and beckoned the others reassuringly to follow. Once all had entered, he swung the stone back into place. Then he led the way a short distance to another stone which he also swung aside. They stepped through the doorway and found themselves in the prince’s inner chamber, alone.
With a nod, the guide bade them be seated, and disappeared the way he had come. The stone swung back into place.
Before they had time for conjecture, Prince Huaca appeared from the antechamber.
“Ah, Senores,” said he, as they rose at this entrance, “I have sent for you. Be seated.”
He sat down by the table and was silent for a space, staring keenly from one to the other.
“Tonight,” said he suddenly, “affairs have come to a crisis in Cusco Hurrin. The Inca is old. The High Priest, Cinto, who has his ear, fears me. He has made capital of my appearance today with you before the Council. To the Inca who, like an old man, clings with love to life and finds it sweeter as it grows to an end, he has said that I am in league with devils and that you are evil spirits, and not men from the outside world, who spoke as you did in order to aid my plans to seize the supreme power and slay the Inca.
“Tomorrow I am to be asked again to bring you before the Council, and then we shall be seized and slain.
“But palaces have ears, and all that was said by this evil man, Cinto, has reached me. And I would forestall him.”
He paused. Mr. Hampton looked puzzled.
“But, Prince Huaca,” he objected, “must you not obey the Inca’s command and appear with us, or place yourself in rebellion?”
“It is so,” agreed the prince. “Nor do I wish to rebel. Yet if I am slain, my people will be destroyed, for there will be only foolish men to guide them.”
“Then you will rebel?”
“The fortress troops are loyal to me,” said Prince Huaca. “And I hold the Tunnel Way, without which food from the country district cannot reach the city. That is why they would seize me by stratagem and treachery. Open attack upon me here by the palace guard which Cinto’s nephew Guascar commands would be folly. Long have my enemies plotted to compass my downfall, but insidious though they were, the Inca had not reached that stage of suspicion of me that he could be asked to cause my death.
“Now, however,” he added, “Cinto has taken my championship of the truth of what reports you bring from the outside world to work upon the Inca’s credulous mind.
“No, I do not wish to rebel, and cause bloodshed among my people. I do not desire power for itself alone, but in order that I may help my people, not enslave them.”
He was silent, thinking, and Mr. Hampton and the others respected his silence.
“Too long,” he resumed, “have we lived cut off from the world. These marvels of which you have told me, these advantages shared by common men, I want them for my people.”
“And if you are killed,” said Mr. Hampton, “what will happen?”
“Ruin,” said the prince. He arose. “But it shall not be,” he added, with energy. “I shall not be slain. And, on the contrary, I shall lead my people out of ignorance, aye, out from the ignorance of bondage.” He strode up and down. “And you,” he added, halting suddenly before the others, “you shall help me.”
“Willingly, Prince Huaca,” said Mr. Hampton. “But in what way?”
“You say the peoples surrounding us are peace-loving?”
“Yes.”
“If their leaders knew of Cusco Hurrin, they would not seek to conquer and enslave us as did the Conquerors to ancient Cusco and Inca Atahualpa?”
Mr. Hampton looked at Don Ernesto and bowed.
“Prince Huaca,” said the latter, “I have not told you. But I am the brother-in-law of the President of Chile. That is the nation within whose boundaries lies Cusco Hurrin. The President is the ruler. He rules not by force of arms, not by divine right, but because the people have selected him to administer affairs of State for them. I can assure you that no conquest of Cusco Hurrin will be attempted, if you seek in peace to break from your isolation.”
“But, Father,” objected Ferdinand, quickly, “it would take a long time to send a message to Uncle, and meanwhile there would be civil war here.”
Ferdinand spoke so rapidly that Prince Huaca was unable to follow him.
“What says the young man?” he asked.
Don Ernesto repeated. Prince Huaca pointed to the radio outfit, still on his table.
“But, cannot the voice-through-the-air carry your message?”
So it was something like this which Prince Huaca had in mind? This, then, was the reason for his interest in the subject of radio? This was why he had asked them not to speak of radio before the Council? Mr. Hampton looked dubious.
“It cannot carry the message far enough,” said he, slowly.
Over Prince Huaca’s face came a shadow of despair. He sat down suddenly, leaned his elbows on the table, and buried his face in his hands. He was like a man famished for water, to whose lips a cup had been held, only to be withdrawn as he was about to drink. Jack felt immensely sorry. He wanted to be of help. At the same time, his brain was revolving an idea.
“But, Father,” he began.
Ere he could complete his sentence, however, Prince Huaca interrupted. He jumped to his feet and stood with his hands firmly gripping the table.
“I will not let myself be overcome,” he said. “If the voice-through-the-air cannot carry the message, then you, Senor de Avilar, must go to your brother-in-law and tell him what I desire, that he shall come in peace but with an army sufficient to overawe Cinto.
“Ah,” he cried, “I can trust you? They will not come to loot Cusco Hurrin and slay my people, but to make friends and teach them?”
“Only so will they come,” said Don Ernesto, deeply moved at the other’s sincerity and earnestness. “I promise.”
“It will be long,” said Prince Huaca. “But,” he added, resolutely, “I shall defend the fortress and, if there be bloodshed, yet will it be less than if Cinto had his way.”
As he ceased speaking, Jack found his opportunity.
“But, Prince Huaca,” he said excitedly, “the voice-through-the-air can be made to carry your message.”
“What?”
Prince Huaca whirled to face this new speaker. It was a habit of his to stare steadily and searchingly into the eyes of whomever he conversed with.
“Yes, it can be done,” said Jack.
“But how?”
It was Don Ernesto who asked.
“Very simply,” said Jack. “Let me explain so that Prince Huaca can comprehend. This outfit, sir”—and, rising and walking to the table, Jack indicated the radio outfit reposing there—“can receive messages sent from very far away, but it cannot send messages except for a comparatively short distance, 150 miles at most. It was that which my father had in mind.
“However, at the Andine Monastery of the Cross of the Snows, Don Ernesto, you will remember that we built a sending station by utilizing the water power in the falls and the turbines of the power plant. I cannot explain more clearly to you, Prince Huaca,” he added, addressing the latter, “without going into too great detail. But this will make it clearer to you. We can send the voice-through-the-air to another station, which in turn, will send it farther, just as one runner carries a message which he transfers to another.”
Prince Huaca nodded, his eyes bright and expectant.
“And from the monastery, Jack?” suggested his father.
“Why, Father, you yourself told me that La Prensa, the great newspaper of Buenos Ayres, doubtless had established a radio station at its branch office in Santiago, the Chilian capital. Although when we were in Santiago,” added Jack, “we were so busy with other matters I did not hear of it, or go to investigate.”
“True, Jack,” said Mr. Hampton. “Don Ernesto has told me La Prensa had installed a radio station at Santiago. Of course, too, there is a commercial station at Valparaiso.”
“But the one at Santiago can reach the President more quickly,” said Jack.
So it was decided to set up the field radio and attempt to raise the monastery. Prince Huaca had had the party brought to his room by way of the secret passage, in order to avoid having them appear among the young nobles in waiting in his anteroom. As the boys would have to be taken to the roof to set up the aerial, he first dismissed those in the anteroom, then called servants to carry the outfit to the battlements.
Don Ernesto, however, begged permission that Pedro and Carlos be summoned to assist, instead of servants who could not understand them. Prince Huaca acquiesced, and sent the jailer for the two faithful huachos.
He, himself, was eager to observe every preparatory step. Self-contained though he was, and despite his matter-of-fact acceptance of the phenomenon of radio, yet it was plain to be seen that he was highly excited over the matter. Everything had to be explained to him.
For his field outfit, Mr. Hampton carried both batteries and a quarter-kilowatt generator, such as is in use in army operations. In fact, the outfit paralleled an army field outfit in a number of respects, including the umbrella type of aerial. This consisted of only one pole of hollow steel, and constructed in collapsible sections that made transportation an easy matter. From the top of the pole, the wires of the aerial were carried to the ground at some distance from the base, where they were attached to porcelain insulators. Thus, the wires served the double function of aerial and guy wires.
While the boys busied themselves erecting the aerial, a difficult matter because the battlement was all of stone and at first glance there appeared to be nothing to which the insulators could be fastened, Mr. Hampton conversed with Prince Huaca, explaining this, that and the other about the outfit and about the reasons for doing certain things.
The prince pointed to what Jack and Frank were doing, and asked the reason for it. The boys were forcing wedge-shaped wooden blocks or pegs, to which insulators were fastened, into cracks between stones of the turret floor. Originally, these pegs were so made to be driven into the ground, thus affording anchorage for the aerial-guy wires. Had it not been for the cracks, they would have been unable to erect the aerial, as all about them was stone.
When this work was completed, the boys, working furiously, set up the generator on a pair of legs sufficiently high to give clearance for the handles by which it was to be turned. Wires were then run to the transformer, tuner attached, the headphone wired on, and the aerial and ground connections made.
Part of the outfit was not yet in use, and Prince Huaca pointed to the box and batteries questioningly.
“Are these objects not employed?” he said.
Mr. Hampton explained he had brought both batteries and generator to serve as sources of energy. They had been packed separately upon mules, so that in case one was lost the other might still remain. When the batteries were used, it was necessary also to use the tube transformer, he said, indicating the oblong box in which the tubes were mounted on springs. But when the generator was used, only the transformer and key were necessary.
“And why is this used rather than the other?” Prince Huaca wanted to know.
“The generator supplies more power,” said Mr. Hampton, simplifying his explanation as much as possible. “It is a little man with a big voice that carries far, while the batteries represent a big man with only a medium voice.”
Fast though the boys went about their preparations, in the light of torches held by servants, the time sped by more rapidly than they had expected. All the time there came up to them the shouts and laughter of those in the great square far below, where the festivities of the Feast of Raymi continued unabated.
Several times one or the other would wander to the parapet and stare at the scene below, where great fires burned, casting grotesque dancing shadows on the fronts of the Temple and the palaces surrounding the square, with the merry-making crowds surrounding poets and singers here and there, or dancing to the music of the minstrels who played queer stringed instruments.
As big Bob turned away from the parapet on one of these trips, to rejoin his comrades, he believed he discerned the shadowy form of a skulker in a nearby embrasure. He could not be certain, however, because his eyes were dazzled from staring at the scene below. All about him was starlit darkness, the moon had not yet risen. His friends, surrounded by the ring of torchlights, were some distance off.
What could a skulker be doing here? That was the question that leaped to mind. No sentries were posted, at least none had been seen so far. Nor was any other member of the party absent, as he could see in a quick glance to estimate their number.
The perilous situation in which Prince Huaca was placed recurred to his mind. Perhaps, after all, the prince was over-optimistic when he said that all within the fortress were loyal to him. Perhaps, in the loosening of the restraints of discipline, bound to come with the advent of the festival season, the soldiers below had permitted, altogether unawares, of course, some assassin intent on taking Prince Huaca’s life, to enter the fortress, to slip by them unseen.
Bob stood, pressed against the parapet, his eyes on the spot, some yards distant, where he believed he had seen the skulking form. He was thinking. Not a sign of movement. Could he have been mistaken? Should he investigate? If someone lurked there, with evil intentions against Prince Huaca’s life, he would be armed. Bob was without weapons. On the other hand, he realized he would not have to face firearms, but only a knife thrust or sword. And he was confident in his ability to take care of himself in a rough or tumble combat, a confidence bred of victories in the past, not only in school and college, but against ruffians in the surprising adventures into which they seemed fated perpetually to fall.
“I’ll have a look,” he muttered to himself. “No harm in making sure.”
Stealthily, he removed his shoes, set them against the parapet where they could easily be found later, and began creeping noiselessly along the low wall toward the embrasure.
With beating heart, and muscles taut and ready for a spring, he reached the spot. Should he peer around the edge or get on top of the parapet and stare down? Either way held danger, supposing the embrasure occupied. Then he had an idea. As he had stolen along the parapet he had come across a broken lance butt, some two feet in length, discarded by a sentry. This he had carried with him as a club. Now he took off his cap, put it on the end of the stick, and cautiously thrust it ahead of him around the edge of the embrasure.
Nothing happened. Bob was disappointed. Could it be he was mistaken? Had his eyes played him tricks? No, he felt certain he had seen a dark form skulking there. Perhaps he had the wrong embrasure. No, he felt certain this was the one. Casting caution aside, he thrust his head forward and took a quick look at the interior. It was empty.
As he stood, staring, uncomprehending, something soft and thick descended over him, a club came down on his head, a body fell upon him from above, and strong hands gripped his throat to prevent outcry. Like a flash of lightning, the truth was borne in upon him. He had not been mistaken. He had seen a form skulking there. And this man, seeing him come spying, had slipped to the top of the parapet and had leaped upon him.
Bob’s first thought was to cry out; but a fold of the enveloping bag was in his mouth, and he felt certain the muffled sound he made could not be heard. He realized, as in a flash, that whoever had attacked him, here in the center of Prince Huaca’s stronghold, would be intent on silencing his lips and would have no mercy on him.
These thoughts sped through Bob’s mind with lightning speed. The big fellow, on the other hand, reacted physically to the attack. He began fighting at once, and in a way that must have been totally unexpected by his antagonist. Instead of plucking at the other’s hands, which were clutched about his throat, he crumpled up as if overcome and sank to the stones.
The other retained his grip on Bob’s throat, a cruel pressure that set the blood to pounding in the boy’s temples. Nevertheless, he was thrown off his balance, his body followed Bob’s, bent above him.
The moment he touched the stones, Bob sank to the ground, drew up his legs with a convulsive effort, and then shot his feet upward with a tremendous thrust. He felt his bare feet strike a lightly-clad body. There was a grunt. Then the hands about Bob’s throat were torn loose from their grip, and the attacker went hurtling backward.
There was a thud, a dull groan, as the other struck against the parapet. Bob was tearing frantically at the covering over his head, which was a thick woolen sack. Meantime, he was emitting roar after roar of purest rage.
“Bob, Bob. What is it? Oh.”