They saw the niches cut in the rock walls, niches that held the countless bones of those who had died many, many years before. It was a vast Indian grave.
"Doubtless a wealth of material of historic interest here," said Professor b.u.mper, flashing his torch on the skeletons. "But it will keep. Where is the city you spoke of, Goosal?"
"Farther on, Senor. Follow me."
Past the stone graves they went, deeper and deeper into the great cave.
Their footsteps echoed and re-echoed. Suddenly Tom, who with Ned had gone a little ahead, came to a sudden halt and said:
"Well, this may be a burial place sure enough, but I think I see something alive all right--if it isn"t a ghost."
He pointed ahead. Surely those were lights flickering and moving about, and, yes, there were men carrying them. The b.u.mper party came to a surprised halt. The other lights advanced, and then, to the great astonishment of Professor b.u.mper and his friends, there confronted them in the cave several scientists of Professor Beecher"s party and a score or more of Indians. Professor Hylop, who was known to Professor b.u.mper, stepped forward and asked sharply:
"What are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same thing," was the retort.
"You might, but you would not be answered," came sharply. "We have a right here, having discovered this cavern, and we claim it under a concession of the Honduras Government. I shall have to ask you to withdraw."
"Do you mean leave here?" asked Mr Damon.
"That is it, exactly. We first discovered this cave. We have been conducting explorations in it for several days, and we wish no outsiders."
"Are you speaking for Professor Beecher?" asked Tom.
"I am. But he is here in the cave, and will speak for himself if you desire it. But I represent him, and I order you to leave. If you do not go peaceably we will use force. We have plenty of it," and he glanced back at the Indians grouped behind him--scowling savage Indians.
"We have no wish to intrude," observed Professor b.u.mper, "and I fully recognize the right of prior discovery. But one member of our party (he did not say which one) was in this cave many years ago. He led us to it."
"Ours is a government concession!" exclaimed Professor Hylop harshly.
"We want no intruders! Go!" and he pointed toward the direction whence Tom"s party had come.
"Drive them out!" he ordered the Indians in Spanish, and with muttered threats the dark-skinned men advanced toward Tom and the others.
"You need not use force," said Professor b.u.mper.
He and Professor Hylop had quarreled bitterly years before on some scientific matter, and the matter was afterward found to be wrong.
Perhaps this made him vindictive.
Tom stepped forward and started to protest, but Professor b.u.mper interposed.
"I guess there is no help for it but to go. It seems to be theirs by right of discovery and government concession," he said, in disappointed tone. "Come friends"; and dejectedly they retraced their steps.
Followed by the threatening Indians, the b.u.mper party made its way back to the entrance. They had hoped for great things, but if the cavern gave access to the buried city--the ancient city of Kurzon on the chief altar of which stood the golden idol, Quitzel--it looked as though they were never to enter it.
"We"ll have to get our Indians and drive those fellows out!" declared Tom. "I"m not going to be beaten this way--and by Beecher!"
"It is galling," declared Professor b.u.mper. "Still he has right on his side, and I must give in to priority, as I would expect him to. It is the unwritten law."
"Then we"ve failed!" cried Tom bitterly.
"Not yet," said Professor b.u.mper. "If I can not unearth that buried city I may find another in this wonderland. I shall not give up."
"Hark! What"s that noise?" asked Tom, as they approached the entrance to the cave.
"Sounds like a great wind blowing," commented Ned.
It was. As they stood in the entrance they looked out to find a fierce storm raging. The wind was sweeping down the rocky trail, the rain was falling in veritable bucketfuls from the overhanging cliff, and deafening thunder and blinding lightning roared and flashed.
"Surely you would not drive us out in this storm," said Professor b.u.mper to his former rival.
"You can not stay in the cave! You must get out!" was the answer, as a louder crash of thunder than usual seemed to shake the very mountain.
CHAPTER XXIII
ENTOMBED ALIVE
For an instant Tom and his friends paused at the entrance to the wonderful cavern, and looked at the raging storm. It seemed madness to venture out into it, yet they had been driven from the cave by those who had every right of discovery to say who, and who should not, partake of its hospitality.
"We can"t go out into that blow!" cried Ned. "It"s enough to loosen the very mountains!"
"Let"s stay here and defy them!" murmured Tom. "If the--if what we seek--is here we have as good a right to it as they have."
"We must go out," said Professor b.u.mper simply. "I recognize the right of my rival to dispossess us."
"He may have the right, but it isn"t human," said Mr. Damon. "Bless my overshoes! If Beecher himself were here he wouldn"t have the heart to send us out in this storm."
"I would not give him the satisfaction of appealing to him," remarked Professor b.u.mper. "Come, we will go out. We have our ponchos, and we are not fair-weather explorers. If we can"t get to the lost city one way we will another. Come my friends."
And despite the downpour, the deafening thunder and the lightning that seemed ready to sear one"s eyes, he walked out of the cave entrance, followed by Tom and the others.
"Come on!" cried Tom, in a voice he tried to render confident, as they went out into the terrible storm. "We"ll beat "em yet!"
The rain fell harder than ever. Small torrents were now rushing down the trail, and it was only a question of a few minutes before the place where they stood would be a raging river, so quickly does the rain collect in the mountains and speed toward the valleys.
"We must take to the forest!" cried Tom. "There"ll be some shelter there, and I don"t like the way the geography of this place is behaving. There may be a landslide at any moment."
As he spoke he motioned upward through the mist of the rain to the sloping side of the mountain towering above them. Loose stones were beginning to roll down, accompanied by patches of earth loosened by the water. Some of the patches carried with them bunches of gra.s.s and small bushes.
"Yes, it will be best to move into the jungle," said the professor.
"Goosal, you had better take the lead."
It was wonderful to see how well the aged Indian bore up in spite of his years, and walked on ahead. They had left their mules tethered some distance back, in a sheltering clump of trees, and they hoped the animals would be safe.
The guide found a place where they could leave the trail, though going down a dangerous slope, and take to the forest. As carefully as possible they descended this, the rain continuing to fall, the wind to blow, the lightning to sizzle all about them and the thunder to boom in their ears.