Part 10 (1/2)
”He's giving them the old fable with a new twist,” Mike told Biff. ”How the ancient Aztecs found a speaking statue of Mexitli in a mountain cave-this cave, no less-and how it guided them to a place where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak.”
Biff nodded. That was the famous legend of how the Aztecs built their great capital of Tenocht.i.tlan, which later became the site of modern Mexico City.
”But listen to this,” continued Mike, as Tizoc paused. ”This faker is telling them how hundreds of years ago, he came here, as Emperor of the Aztecs, wearing this same mask and robe, to represent Huit-zilopochtli, or Mexitli, as he prefers to call him.”
”Which the real Tizoc probably did,” reminded Biff, ”so he is telling them a pretty solid story.”
”But he's overdoing it,” insisted Mike. ”He claims that he brought the talking idol of Mexitli with him and that after all these years, it will speak to them as it did to him, so they can live for centuries as Tizoc has. Now, how can he hope to get away with that?”
Mike's question was promptly answered. Tizoc wasn't banking on mere hope. He had some real tricks up the sleeves of his golden robe. He waved his arms with a spreading motion, and the Eagle Knights moved wide apart. Then Tizoc himself stepped backward and slightly to one side. In the manner of a master show- 136 .
man, he gestured to the innermost portion of the cavern.
Perched on a rocky pedestal was the stone statue that Tizoc had mentioned. As he approached it, the likeness between the stone figure of Mexitli and Tizoc, the masquerader, proved striking indeed. The stone body, though small and rough-hewn, resembled a robed figure, which was sufficient. The important part was the face. Of natural size, perfectly proportioned, its features were identical with Tizoc's mask.
Automatically, Biff phrased it: ”Tizoc to a T!”
”Or the other way about,” declared Mike. ”The mask that Tizoc is wearing looks as though it was pressed from the statue's face. The mask came from Aztec times; maybe the statue is authentic, too!”
Further whispers were drowned by a booming voice that literally filled the cavern with its heavy tone. It seemed actually to come from the statue of Mexitli as Tizoc stood complacently by. Biff caught the meaning of those thunderous words. The voice of Mexitli was saying: ”I, Mexitli, order you to follow Tizoc!”
As the echoes died, the villagers babbled their willingness to obey. Now, Tizoc was giving orders of his own and sombreros bobbed above nodding heads, Mike grabbed BifFs arm and urged him to the outer cavern.
”Tizoc is telling them to go and meet the pack TRAPPED! 137.
train,” Mike explained. ”They are to bring some of the mules here and help unload them. We had better wait here.”
Mike drew Biff into a darkened patch, away from a high fissure where daylight trickled through. By then, Tizoc's new followers were thronging out from the inner cavern.
”Let them go ahead,” advised Mike. ”Give them a good start to the trail, then we can move along.”
The plan was perfect. After the villagers had moved out to the narrow mountain ledge, Biff and Mike kept watching the opening from the inner cavern in case Tizoc should appear there. But there was no sign of the masquerader nor any of his armored knights.
”It's clear now,” decided Biff. ”Let's go.”
They went, but not far. Before they were halfway to the outer opening, figures grew from the rough floor of the fissured cabin and closed in with long, leaping strides. More Eagle Knights, a half a dozen of them, who had been lurking here all this time, watching all persons who came in and out!
The bird-helmeted attackers flung aside their war clubs and their spears and swarmed over Biff and Mike in an overwhelming force, suppressing the astonished, outmatched boys in swift, bare-handed style.
From the opening of the inner cavern came a harsh, metallic chuckle. That tone was Tizoc's.
CHAPTER XVI.
Over the Brink TIZOC presented a truly formidable figure as he again stood beside the squatty statue of Mexitli, studying the prisoners who had been dragged before him.
The Eagle Knights had done a swift, capable job of binding Mike and Biff hand and foot, with their arms trussed behind them. They were so tightly tied that it was impossible to move a muscle without pain.
The boys could never hope to slip those intricate knots that Tizoc's followers had tied with all the craft and skill that they had inherited through many generations.
From the faces of the bird-helmeted crew, Biff was sure that all were villagers or natives from surrounding areas who had been hand-picked and sworn to secrecy in Tizoc's service. Biff and Mike themselves had seen exactly how it worked; that was why they were here and in this predicament. 138 OVER THE BRINK 139.
These Eagle Knights must have been among the first to join up with Tizoc. As such, they had earned promotion to their present status. Now they stood by approvingly, almost expectantly, as Tizoc drew the obsidian knife from beneath his golden costume and brandished the red-bladed weapon toward the prisoners.
It was like the scene at Judge Arista's, but here Tizoc was in his own domain. There, he had been forced to fight his way clear. Here, he could bide his time where knife strokes were concerned. But as Tizoc poised the blade, Biff felt sure that he meant to follow through with a brutal downward slash. Biff closed his eyes, wondering whether he or Mike would be the first victim.
A buzz came from the Eagle Knights. Biff opened his eyes and saw Tizoc lowering the knife with a careless gesture, indicating that he did not intend to strike. Next, he made a pretence of cutting Biff's bonds, after which he turned to Mike and went through the same pantomime.
Biff recalled crude pictures that he had seen portraying helpless prisoners trying to fight off Eagle Knights. Often, the Aztec warriors had played that cat-and-mouse game with their victims. Now, Tizoc was going through the pretence of turning over the prisoners to the Eagle Knights, who raised their spiked war clubs in approval.
Then, as a final gesture, Tizoc raised the knife again 140 .
and stretched it toward the Mexitli statue. He brought his hand downward, slid the knife beneath his robe, as if replacing a sword in its scabbard. The act was over, and its significance was plain.
Tizoc intended to let the prisoners live until he had a.s.sembled all his followers, rather than just these few. Biff and Mike already knew how long that would be; until late afternoon, when they returned with the loaded mules from the incoming pack train. That decision made, Tizoc delegated two of the Eagle Knights to watch the prisoners. He then strode off into a side cavern, followed by the remaining knights.
The guarding pair dumped Biff at one side of the domed cavern and Mike at the other. That left the prisoners facing each other, some fifty feet apart, with the Mexitli statue at the rear wall, halfway between. In the dim, uncertain light, the statue's partly open mouth seemed at times to form an ugly, downward leer, as though enjoying the plight of the prisoners.
And a hopeless plight it was, considering the tightness of their bonds and the fact that two armed Eagle Knights were pacing in between, keeping almost constant watch. An hour or more pa.s.sed; then, the two guards held a conference and decided that only one was needed to keep watch. One left the domed cavern; the other took up a station at the entrance, where he sat facing the statue and could eye the prisoners by simply turning his head either way.
By the end of another hour, Biff's arms, legs, and OVER THE BRINK 141.
body had become so numb that they no longer hurt. From Mike's fixed position, he evidently felt the same. Then came the first break in the monotony, a low, distant buzzing sound that rose to a steady drone.
It struck Biff that this was another of Tizoc's tricks, having to do with the fact that Huitzilopochtli had originally been the hummingbird wizard, before becoming the Aztec War G.o.d. Oddly, the sound did seem to come from the Mexitli statue, but as it faded, Biff realized that it was an outside noise that had come through from the outer cavern.
That meant it must be the plane coming in from Mexico City, probably bringing Mr. Brewster with it. Now, Biff wished grimly that he had left a note as he originally intended. The only other chance was that Professor Bortha would come up to his room at the Hotel Pico and find the torn slips that Biff had left with the recording machine; but that was most unlikely.
Soon afterward, one Eagle Knight returned to relieve the other, but there was no relief for Biff or Mike. They just sat and suffered in silence, with no way of guessing how long, until Biff noticed that the new guard was beginning to nod as he sat at his post in the doorway.
It was after siesta time, and even in this cool cavern, the man was becoming drowsy from mere habit. Several times, Biff watched him try to rouse himself from his nap. Then, with a glance at the prisoners, 142 .
the Eagle Knight gave a shrug and settled back to sleep, quite positive that the victims could not escape.
Biff tugged at the ropes only to bring pain to his already numbed muscles. Half aloud, he muttered: ”It's now or never.” Then, hopelessly he decided it would be never. He leaned his head back against the rough wall and a whisper crept into his ears: ”Was that you, Biff?”
It could only be Mike, but Biff stared incredulously. Maybe the long ordeal was making him hear things. Then he whispered back, ”Yes, can you hear me?” The result was another response from Mike. Then they were talking back and forth in the lowest of tones, even though they were so far apart.
Their whispers were carrying up the curved dome and down the other wall. The cavern was actually a ”whispering gallery” and something of an echo chamber. That explained the vast voice that had seemingly come from the Mexitli statue. Tizoc had supplied it by standing alongside and speaking in a heavy, booming tone that had been magnified still further. He hadn't needed to be a good ventriloquist; the mask had hidden his moving lips.
”We've got to get out of here, while we still have time, Mike,” Biff whispered urgently.
”Yes, but how?” Mike whispered back. ”I'm tied so tight, I can't even move-ouch!”