Part 6 (1/2)
It was while we were thus engaged that Pablo begged that I would step aside with him for a moment that he might speak to my ear alone. I saw that there were tears upon his cheeks, and as he spoke he scarcely could restrain his sobs.
”Senor,” he said, ”you know El Sabio?”
”Surely, Pablo.”
”You know, senor, that he is a very small a.s.s.”
”It is true.”
”And you know--you know, senor, how very tenderly we love each other.
Since I came away from my father and my mother, in Guadalajara, and from my little brother and sister there, El Sabio is everything in the world to me, senor. I--I cannot leave him, senor. I should die if we were parted; and El Sabio would die also. And you say that you have perceived that he is a very small a.s.s. Do not ask me to leave him, senor.”
”But we cannot take him with us, Pablo. What would you have?”
”That is it, senor; truly, I think that we can take him with us. You see, he is so little; and it is quite wonderful through how small a place El Sabio can crawl. He can creep like a kitten, senor, and he can make himself into a very little bunch. And so I think that he can--if we help him, you know, senor--and speak to him so that he will not be alarmed, and will try to do his very best to make a small bunch of himself--I think that we can get him down through the hole, and so take him with us. But if we cannot, senor, then--you must forgive me, senor--I love him so very dearly, you know--then I will stay with him here. It would be better so than that El Sabio should think I no longer loved him. And he would think that, senor, were I to go with you and leave him here among these dreadful dead gentlemen alone.”
It had not occurred to any of us that El Sabio might be condensed sufficiently to go through the narrow way; but if he truly were the collapsable donkey that Pablo declared him to be, we had a good deal to be thankful for. He was a st.u.r.dy little creature, and his small back could bear easily twice as much as any two of ours. With his a.s.sistance we certainly would be able to carry with us all of our ammunition and arms--of which defensive stuff we could not well afford to spare the smallest part.
And El Sabio, after Pablo had made a long explanation of the case to him, and had told him precisely what we expected him to do--to all of which he listened gravely and with an astonis.h.i.+ng air of comprehending what was said to him--seemed to enter into the spirit of the situation, and to try his very best to meet its requirements. It is a puzzle to me to this day how El Sabio managed to shrink himself so that we got him through that narrow hole; but he certainly did manage it--and then went down the stone stair-way backward, as though he had been trained to be a trick donkey from his youth up. When the feat was accomplished, and he stood safely out in the canon, the expressions of love, and of congratulation upon his cleverness, which Pablo lavished upon him were enough to have turned completely a less serious-minded donkey's head.
Such of our stores as we were compelled to leave behind us, including our saddles, and the pack-saddles, and all the heavier portion of our camp equipage, we heaped in one corner of the cave and piled rocks over; and then we turned our poor horses and the mules loose in the canon, feeling certain that their instinct would lead them out to the valley in search of food. It went to our hearts to know that these good beasts of ours were doomed to hard service under Indian masters to the end of their days.
All being thus in readiness for our advance, we went down the stair-way beneath the swinging statue, and from beneath pulled out the piece of rock which propped up the great ma.s.s of stone. With a heavy jar it fell and closed the pa.s.sage-way, and we prepared to start. Just then Fray Antonio remembered that he had left on a ledge in the cave--that we had used as a shelf for the storage of various small matters during our sojourn there--a little volume that he dearly loved: the _Meditations of Thomas a Kempis_. He was full of remorse for his forgetfulness, and did not ask that we should turn back to get his book for him; yet his distress over the loss of it was so evident that we had not the heart to go on.
”It will take only ten minutes to go back,” said Rayburn, and as he spoke he ran up the stair-way and set his shoulders to sway up the stone. In a moment he called: ”Just come here, Young, and help, will you? It don't work as easily from this side.” But even with Young's help the stone did not move. Then the rest of us joined these two, and all five of us together pushed with all our strength--and the stone did not yield by so much as the breadth of a hair! And then rather a queer look came into Rayburn's face, and he said: ”I think that I understand what is the matter. The point of leverage falls beyond the edge of the hole.
From where we have a chance to push, we are working against the whole weight of the stone. We might as well try to lift the mountain itself!”
And then he added, ”I guess we'd better give this thing up and start.”
Very curious feelings were in our b.r.e.a.s.t.s as we picked up our packs and set off along the canon; for we knew that by that way only could we go, and that, no matter what was ahead of us, our retreat was cut off.
XI.
THE SUBMERGED CITY.
A sweet, warm wind blew in our faces as we set off along the canon; the sun shone joyously upon us, and there was that fresh, tingling quality in the air that is peculiar to regions high above the level of the sea.
In spite of the fact that the way behind us was irrevocably barred, and that no matter what dangers were ahead of us we had no option but to face them, our spirits were strong within us, and we went blithely on our way. Young, who was in advance, began to whistle ”Yankee Doodle”; and presently, from the rear of our procession, where Pablo walked beside the heavily laden El Sabio, there broke forth a mouth-organ accompaniment to this spirited melody.
The bed of the canon, through which a little stream ran, fell away before us along a slight down grade; which descent, since we found also a good foot-way beside the stream, made walking comparatively easy notwithstanding our heavy back-loads. Now and then our way would be barred by ma.s.ses of rock fallen from above, and by whole trees blown down from their insecure roothold on the rocky cliffs; and twice we came to steep descents which would have given us trouble had we not brought along the ropes wherewith our packs had been bound. s.h.i.+fting El Sabio down these places was our hardest task; but with the ropes, and the intelligent part that he took in the performance, we managed it successfully.
So we went on for half a dozen miles or more through the windings of the canon, but keeping all the while a sharp lookout ahead--for in the mouth of this end of the canon, supposing it to open as at the other end upon a gra.s.sy valley, we well enough might come upon an Indian camp. And that we had come upon such a camp we felt quite sure when, late in the afternoon, Rayburn signalled us from his advanced position--he having gone to the head of the line in Young's place--to stand still until he should reconnoitre a little. Being thus halted, we unslung our rifles and loosed our pistols in their holsters, so that we might be ready in case fighting suddenly should begin; and Rayburn went on around a turn in the canon, and for a while we lost sight of him.
Presently he returned and signalled us to join him, but to move cautiously. When we came up with him he led us to the bend in the canon, and there a broad view opened to us; for the canon suddenly widened into a great valley, that was everywhere, so far as we could see, surrounded by walls of rock almost perpendicular and vastly high. In the bottom of the valley was a broad expanse of delectably green meadow-land, broken here and there by groves of trees; and in the valley's middle part, reaching from side to side of it, was a lovely lake, whereof the blue was flecked by white reflections of certain little idly drifting clouds: the sight of all which greenness and fair water and broad range of sky--after being for so long a season pent up in rocky fastnesses and wandering over brown, sun-baked plains--fairly brought tears into my eyes because of its fresh and open loveliness. And in the tender feeling that thus stirred my heart, as I could see in the quick glance that he gave me, Fray Antonio also keenly sympathized; for his nature was very open at all times to such gentle influences.
But Rayburn and Young, as was evident from their anxious looks, were thinking only of the dangers which this lovely valley might hold in store for us; for the sh.o.r.e of the lake nearest to us had many houses built upon it, and we could see faintly, for the width of the lake was nearly two miles, that there were other houses upon its farther sh.o.r.e.
Standing hidden behind a rock, Rayburn examined the valley carefully through a field-gla.s.s for a long while.