"G.o.d in heaven!" exclaimed Bowie, in a hushed whisper, at the upper end of the cave. "I"ve heard of it! I"ve read of it! That"s an idol.
They are offering human sacrifices. It"s awful, and I can"t do one thing for "em. There went the last of "em, as far as I can see. Red Wolf, keep close by me. I"m going to see this thing clean through.
There goes Tetzcatl."
"Ugh!" was all the reply of Red Wolf, but he was apparently quite ready to charge forward, lance in hand, if such were his orders from his white chief.
Bowie had drawn his knife and had taken a heavy belt-pistol in his left hand, c.o.c.king it. He had not halted for an instant, and he was now half-way down the cavern. Here, however, he almost lay down, with Red Wolf at his side, in so deep a shadow that there was little danger of their presence being speedily discovered. At that moment, moreover, the cave-dwellers were giving all their attention to Tetzcatl, as he stood haranguing them at the highest pitch of his sepulchral voice. If he were giving them an account of his journey into Texas, only those who understood his dialect could tell, and before long he turned and walked away toward the lower end of the cave, still talking and gesticulating fiercely. All the others moved when he did, and they were dragging with them the lifeless forms of the victims that had been slain in front of the altar.
"This is a terrible piece of work," muttered Bowie to himself. "I"d like to kill every one of those fellows. I knew they were still doing this kind of thing in Africa, wholesale and retail, thousands on thousands, all the while, but I"d reckoned it was long ago played out on this continent. There are loads of things that we don"t know.
Anyhow, this must be about the last of it."
Not even Africa itself exceeded some parts of America in the b.l.o.o.d.y nature of their old-time idol-worship. There could be, moreover, no sound reason for supposing that altogether unreclaimed heathen, here or there, would change their ways or cease from observing their rites merely because other men had become civilized.
Tetzcatl and his companions reached the level at the brink of the chasm, and the booming sound came loudly up.
"What can it be?" thought Bowie. "I"ll see what they"re going to do, cost what it may. There isn"t a shooting-iron among "em. Some of "em are stark naked. If it"s got to be a fight, I believe I could wipe out the whole crowd, but I don"t mean to run any risks. What I want is to learn all I can this trip and get out alive."
Red Wolf went forward at his side, lance in hand, with the crouching, springing step of a young panther rather than the gliding of a wolf.
"Big Knife strike!" he said. "Heap kill. Ugh! Red Wolf! Son of Castro!"
The chanting began again, and Tetzcatl seemed to be leading it, gesticulating furiously, while body after body was lifted from the floor and hurled into the chasm to go down to the G.o.ds. As the last offering disappeared, he turned and pointed at the planks. In an instant these were raised and slipped across the chasm.
"Bridge," muttered Bowie. "I"ve been in caves before, but this is a pretty big one. There"s more of it, I suppose, away in yonder. Best kind of hiding-place. Now, what are they going to do?"
Up to this moment Tetzcatl had exhibited the strength of the hot fever which was consuming him. Now, however, he tottered and reeled as he walked out to the middle of the bridge. Standing here, staggering back and forth, he shouted a few words in his own tongue and then plunged down, head foremost.
"That"s the last of him!" exclaimed Bowie.
"Ugh!" whispered Red Wolf. "Heap look!"
The chanting began again, as if a sacrifice had been offered. One after another the withered guardians of the cave of Huitzilopochtli walked slowly across the bridge, and their torches speedily disappeared in a vast and vaulted gloom upon the other side.
"Now!" exclaimed Bowie.
He sprang to the altar and s.n.a.t.c.hed from it a branch of blazing pine.
Red Wolf did the same, and they were without other company when they stood together at the brink of the chasm.
"We won"t go across," said Bowie; "but what"s this? G.o.d in heaven!
It"s the treasure!"
There they lay, the stacks of ingots and the heaps of nuggets. He could not even roughly estimate their value, but he exclaimed,--
"Enough to pay the entire debt of Texas; equip an army; build a navy; buy out Mexico from all the land, west, to the Pacific."
It was the golden dream of a new empire, and he stood as still as a statue for a half-minute, dreaming it, while Red Wolf lifted his torch and peered into the yawning gulf and across the bridge.
"Just as old Tetzcatl said," remarked Bowie, when his thoughtful fit ended. "But we can"t take it now. There may be a hundred men in yonder. What"s more, if we tried it on we might be caught in the pa.s.s by a swarm of "em. It won"t do. There are not enough of us this time.
We"ll have to come again. I"ll take along some samples, but gold is heavy."
He began at once to cut off long strips from the serape which Tetzcatl had thrown upon the floor. They answered for straps with which to tie up for himself and Red Wolf as many gold bars as they could conveniently carry. They worked rapidly, for time might be precious.
Not merely for the present matter of their own life or death, but that no returning idol-worshipper might know that the secret of the cavern had been discovered.
"Out now," said Bowie. "This is all we can do this time, but I don"t want to see any more high old Mexican religion."
"Ugh!" said Red Wolf. "Tetzcatl gone. Heap fool jump!"
"Well," replied Bowie, coolly, "the old rascal was about dead anyhow."
After that he was silent and so was his companion, while they hurried out of the cave. They hardly uttered a word until they stood among their comrades in the pa.s.s.
"Hurrah!" shouted Jim Cheyne. "We"ve been up and we"ve been down huntin" ye. What kept ye so long, colonel?"
The f.a.gots of golden bars were held up before the astonished eyes of the rangers, and they crowded around to see and to feel the wonderful yellow metal.
"Colonel," gasped Joe, "I don"t believe a word of it, but just tell us what it is."
"The Montezuma treasure!" shouted Bowie. "Heaps on heaps of it in the cave."
"We"ll go right in," responded voice after voice, in feverish eagerness.
"Not to-day, we won"t," he said, and then, while they listened in awe-struck silence, he told them all there was to tell and what he intended doing.
"Your head"s level," said Jim, at the conclusion of it. "We mustn"t go in. We"d be followed by an army of "em all the way to the Rio. Not one of us "d git thar."
"Just so," said the colonel. "Now I"ll swear you all in to keep the secret, and then we must be moving. We can come back with three hundred men, and even then n.o.body must know we"re coming till the job"s done clean."
Every man was ready to be sworn to secrecy, but the Texan patriot made them swear to one thing more. One full half of all that might be recovered from the cave, over and above the expenses of an expedition to obtain it, was to go into the treasury of Texas, to be spent in fighting for its freedom. They were of one accord as to that, without a dissenting voice, but Bowie was a liberal man as well as patriotic and prudent, and as soon as the future was duly cared for, he saw that it was right and wise to provide them with a sufficient reward for their services in the present expedition.
"You"ve done well this first time," had come from Jim Cheyne.
"Well," said the colonel, "these things are near of a size. We"ll divide "em, share and share alike, every fellow to tote his own winnings. It "ll be the best four weeks" work any of you were ever paid for----"
"Half to Texas anyhow!" shouted Jim, as he handled the bars that fell to his lot. "The republic can have my whole pile if I"m knocked on the head. Hurrah! Now for home! We"ve done enough!"
As for Red Wolf, he hardly knew what to do with three long, heavy, dingy sticks of metal that were a.s.signed to him. He fastened them behind the saddle which now adorned his mustang, but he did so out of respect for Big Knife. The saddle itself was a kind of paleface emc.u.mbrance, but he had won it at the hacienda, and he rode in it for the sake of glory, as a prize of war.
As for regarding a gold bar as a silver dollar, he had not yet climbed as high as that. The nearest he came to an understanding was when Joe held up one of his own bars and shouted,--
"I say, colonel, just what we"ve got here would buy another eighteen-pounder as big as the one in the Alamo."
"Two of "em," replied Bowie, "and a dozen rounds apiece of powder and ball. That"s what we want,--powder and ball. Boys! One more secret!
I"m going to take you right thar! We"ll go home with cash enough to put the Alamo in first-rate order, rations, rifles, and all. Forward, march!"
On they went, down the mountain, carrying with them the secret of the treasures of the Montezumas.