CHAPTER IV

It was with Naida at his side and the other girls grouped about them,

that they started their journey to the "caciques," whoever they might

be, "to have it over with," whatever that might mean. As they strode

along in silence, Kirby did what he could to straighten out in his mind

the many curious things which had happened since he sat testing his rope

in the upper world this morning.

In final analysis, it seemed to him that, extraordinary as his

experience had been, there was nothing so much out of the way about it,

after all. The only unusual thing was the existence of this inhabited

pocket in the earth. For the rest, the strange colors to which he could

not put a name, were simply some manifestation of infra-reds and

ultra-violets. And then the startling effect of his single shot at the

ape-men--that was simply the old story of savage creatures running from

a new weapon and a new enemy; naturally the shot had sounded loud in

this enclosed cavern. Lastly, the pull of gravity down here seemed upset

somehow. But why should it not seem so, at this distance within the

earth? The American was no scientist; the conclusions he reached seemed

very reasonable to him.

All told, the last thing Kirby found he needed to do was pinch himself

to see if he was awake.

A place of indefinite extent, the cavern seemed to be exactly what he

had already judged it--a giant pocket within the earth. The ceiling, or

the sky, was of some kind of natural glass--no doubt the same kind which

was crackling on his clothes now--and from it emanated the brilliant,

many colored glow which lighted the cavern. Radium? Perhaps it was that.

Perhaps the rays were cast off from some other element even less

understood than mysterious radium. As for the plant and animal life with

which the cavern teemed, it was amazing.

* * * * *

But Kirby did not give himself up to silent observation any longer.

"Will you finish telling me," he asked of Naida, "about the task I am to

perform for you here?"

Naida, walking with lithe strides along a path jungle-hemmed on both

sides, smiled at him.

"You are to be our leader."

"Yes?"

Now both Naida and the other girls became sober.

"You will lead us in a revolt."

"Ah!" Kirby whistled softly.

"In a revolt against the caciques--the wise men--whose kind have

governed the People of the Temple since the beginning."

Her statement was received with acclaim by the whole troop, who crowded

close around, the while they smiled at Kirby.

"You mean I am to lead a revolt," he asked, "against these same caciques

whom we are going now to face?"

Naida nodded emphatically.

"Yes, if revolt proves necessary. And it probably will."

"Hum." Kirby scratched behind his ear. "You'd better tell me what you

can about it."

* * * * *

Then, as they hurried on, Naida spoke rapidly.

The situation before the People of the Temple was that for a long time

now, the only children to be born had been girls. Worse still, not even

a girl had been born during a period equal to sixteen upper-world years.

The only remaining members of a race which had flourished in this

underground land for countless thousands of years, consisted of the

caciques, a handful of aged people, and the thirty-four girls, including

Naida, who accompanied Kirby now.

On one hand was promised extinction through lack of reproduction. On the

other, even swifter and more terrible extinction at the hands of the

ape-men, whom Naida called the Worshippers of Xlotli, the Rabbit God,

the God of all bestiality and drunkenness.

It was the menace of the ape-men, rather than the less appalling one of

lack of reproduction, which was making the most trouble now. Ages ago,

when the People of the Temple had flourished as a race, they had been

untroubled by the Worshippers of Xlotli. But now the ape-men were by far

the stronger; and they desired the girls who had been born as the last

generation of an ancient race. The battle of this morning had been only

one of many.

Dissension between the caciques, who ruled the People of the Temple, and

their girl subjects, had arisen on the subject of the best way of

dealing with the ape-man menace.

* * * * *

Some time ago, Naida, heading a council of all the girls, had proposed

to the caciques that support be sought amongst the people of the upper

world. This would be done judiciously, by bringing to the lower realm a

few men who were wise and strong, men who would make good husbands, and

who could fight the ape-men.

This proposal the priests had promptly quashed. They would never

receive, they said, any members of the teeming outer races from whom the

People of the Temple had so long been hidden. Those few who had

blundered into the Valley of the Geyser during the centuries, and who

had never escaped, were enough. Better, said the caciques, that a

compromise be arranged with the subjects of the Rabbit God.

Flatly then, the priests had proposed that some of the girls, the number

to be specified later, should be given to the ape-men, and peace won.

During the time of reprieve which would thus be afforded, prayers and

sacrifices could be offered the Lords of the Sun and Moon, and to

Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. In answer to these prayers, the

Gods would surely send the aged people who alone were left as

prospective parents, a generation of sons.

Once the priests' program of giving up some of the girls to the ape-men

had been made definite, it had not taken Naida and the others long to

decide that they would never submit. And then, while matters were at an

acute stage, a tall, blond white man had come to the Valley of the

Geyser--Kirby.

* * * * *

As Naida had finished her story, Kirby mustered a smile despite the

soberness which had come upon him.

"So the white man came," he repeated after her, "and all of you decided

forthwith to stage your revolt."

"Why not?" Naida answered. "We observed you until we were sure you

possessed the qualities of leadership we wanted. After that, we did what

we could to coax you to come here."

Kirby grinned at that.

"Now," Naida ended simply, "we will go to the caciques. If they accept

you, and grant our requests to them, there will be peace. If they rage,

it will be war."

Suddenly she drew closer to Kirby as they swung along, and slipped her

hand into his, looking up at him in silent entreaty.

"How much farther," he asked in a voice which became sharp, "until we

reach the headquarters of these caciques?"

"They live in a castle which our ancestors built ages ago on a protected

plateau," Naida answered tensely. "It is a good distance still, but we

will cover it soon enough."

They crossed now one edge of a shadow-filled forest composed principally

of immense, pallid palmlike trees. Farther on, the path wound through a

belt of swampy land covered by gigantic reeds which rustled above their

heads with a glassy sound, and by things which looked like the cat-tails

of the upper world, but were a hundred times larger. Everywhere hovered

odd little creatures like birds, but with teeth in their long snouts and

small frondlike growths on each side of their tails. About some swamp

plants with very large blooms resembling passion flowers, flitted dragon

flies of jeweled hues and enormous size, and under the flowers hopped

strange toadlike creatures equipped with two pair of gauzy wings.

* * * * *

Finally, through a tunnel composed of ferns a hundred feet high, they

emerged to a still densely overgrown but higher country which Naida said

was a part of the Rorroh forest.

In the forest, Kirby gained a hazy impression of bronzy, immense cycads

and what appeared to be tree chrysophilums with gorgeous blossoms. Then

he received a much clearer impression of other trees with blossoms of

bright orange yellow and very thick petals, each tipped with a glassy

sharp point. The disconcerting thing about the tree was that, as they

approached, the scaly limbs began to tremble and wave, and suddenly

lashed out as though making a human effort to snatch at the bright

travelers.

Naida and all the others hurried along without offering comment, and

Kirby asked no questions.

Once he thought he saw a group of gorilla creatures parallelling their

course back amongst the forest growth, but if Naida observed the

animals, she paid no attention. The one thing which had any effect upon

the company was the appearance, presently, of two vast, birdlike

creatures. As these things approached, Naida signaled to all to crouch

beneath the shelter of a tall rock beside the path.

Enormous, the birds had bat wings, and carried with them, as they

approached, the stink of putrid flesh. The long beaks were overfull of

sharp teeth. The heads, set upon bodies of glistening white-grey, were

black. Reddish grey eyes searched the jungle as the creatures flapped

along. But, the Pterodactyls--if they were that--passed above Naida's

band without offering attack, and presently Naida gave the command to

advance again.

* * * * *

In time, they came to a chasmlike gorge across which was suspended

a slender long thread of a bridge. Not far above the bridge, a

considerable river emptied itself into the gorge in a mirrorlike

ribbon. Kirby could not hear the torrent fall--or rather could not

hear it strike any solid bottom. But from somewhere in the unlighted,

unfathomed depths of the abyss rose strange bubbling and whistling

sounds.

At the bridge, Naida paused and pointed to the land across the river.

And as Kirby looked in the direction indicated, he beheld a rocky

eminence rising for several hundred feet straight up from the expanse of

a level, tree and grass covered plain. Atop of the plateau, glimmered

the complex towers and turrets, the crenellated walls of a castle which,

in its grey antiquity, seemed as old as the race of men.

"It is behind those walls that the caciques dwell," Naida said quickly.

"It is behind the castle, in a series of separate houses, that the older

members of the race dwell. We shall go and look upon them presently. But

first we will force an interview with the caciques."

In silence Kirby took her hand, and, with the others following, they

moved out upon the swaying, perilous causeway which hung above the

chasm. After that, the trip across the plain to the foot of the plateau

cliffs was quickly accomplished.

Here, however, Kirby thought they must face trouble, for he found that

the great walls, of a sparkling, almost glassy smoothness, shot up to a

height of at least three hundred feet, and that no path of any sort was

visible.

"We're here," he said, "but how can we get up?"

* * * * *

But understanding began to dawn as Naida laughed, and produced from the

pouch at the side of her gauzy dress four pliable discs of a substance

which resembled rubber.

"You are very strong, are you not?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Then you will have no trouble in following us up the cliff. Our Serpent

God, Quetzalcoatl, taught us how to climb long ago."

With that she handed Kirby the set of vacuum discs, and producing

another for herself, moistened them in a pool of water close at hand.

Then, as all of the girls followed her action, she strapped them to her

hands and feet, and in a moment they had begun the ascent.

"Why," Kirby said presently, "with these things you could hang by your

feet and walk on a smooth ceiling!"

Naida laughed, and they worked their way upward.

When the climb was accomplished and the discs were put away, Kirby found

himself standing on the outer edge of a mediaeval paradise, of a

magnificent plateau partly fortified by nature, partly by the hand of

man.

"Ah!" he cried in deep admiration, then followed Naida.

The building--the castle--in the near distance, resembled a castle of

Spain, save that there was greater beauty and subtlety of architecture.

Turreted on all four corners, constructed of material which looked like

blocks of natural glass, the fairylike structure was crowned by a

gigantic tower of something which resembled obsidian. Up and up this

tower soared until its gleaming black tip seemed almost to touch the

glassy-radiant sky of the cavern.

No people showed themselves, and Kirby saw that the bronze-studded

portals set in the front of the castle were closed.

Admiringly, he glanced at the surrounding land laid out in checkerboard

patches of gardens and orchards where grew a bewildering variety of

unknown fruits and blooms. Butterflies drifted past, and the air was

freighted with the scent of flowers. Inside a walled enclosure, Kirby

saw a good-sized plot heavily grown with the plant on which he had been

subsisting. As they passed this ground, each of the girls, Naida

leading, made a strange little bowing, gliding genuflection, and Kirby

wondered.

* * * * *

Now, however, new sights distracted him as they crossed a port

drawbridge above a deep moat which was a fairyland of aquatic plants.

Although not a sound had come from the castle, the great entrance doors

were swinging back.

"Be ready," Naida whispered, "for almost anything. The doors are being

opened by some of the palace guard. I have little doubt that word was

long ago rushed to the caciques that we are come to them with an

upper-world man!"

Kirby answered with a nod. Then they passed the outer doors, passed

inside, and Kirby blinked at what he saw.

In a long hall decorated bewilderingly with a carven frieze in which

appeared all of the symbols common to early Mexican religions, and many

new ones, stood a row of bright suits of armor of the Sixteenth Century.

From each suit peered the glassy face and shovel beard of a dead

Conquistadore.

So this was what happened to intruders from the upper world! The

Conquistadore who kept his long watch beside the geyser was not the only

one! Kirby felt an involuntary chill prickle up his back. But he was not

given long to think before Naida, ignoring the gruesome array, clasped

his arm.

"Look! Behold!"

And Kirby saw that with almost magical silence the whole wall at the end

of the corridor was sliding back to reveal an enormous amphitheatre in

the center of which stood a vast circular table. Ranged in a semicircle

about that table, stood fifteen incredibly ancient men clad in long,

glistening grey robes. Blanched beards trailed down the front of the

garments until they all but touched the floor.

The caciques!

Kirby, on the threshold of the amphitheatre, squared his shoulders and

held his head high. Then with Naida on his right, his own eyes boring

unyieldingly into the smouldering, narrowed eyes which stared at him, he

advanced.

But in front of him the priests moved suddenly. From Naida burst a

shriek. In the radiant glare of the council room flashed the long, thin,

cruel blade of a sacrificial knife.

The cacique who had whipped it from his robe flew at Kirby with a condor

swoop, talon-hands outstretched, his wrinkled, bearded face contorted

with fury.