All-Story Weekly, Vol. 112, No. 1 — page 79: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

LAND OF THE SHADOW PEOPLE. “I’m afraid that you will have to excuse me. Next time we stop long enough in one place, I'll be glad to go fishin’ with you, though.” ‘“‘ Nambe, want to take a walk?” called Jim. “By dam! yes, sar,” responded the islander promptly, and he ran to fetch the rifle with which the Martian had persuaded his grand vizier to replace his bow and- arrows. | Arnold then asked Tomas if he would go along also; but the big Aymara, when he learned of the proposed destination, shook his head decidedly. “No, senor—and I advised the young caballero that he not go. Do not enter there, caballero,’ he added. earnestly. ‘‘ Some evil befalls those who enter there.”’ With a grin at the guperstitious warming of the Indian, Jim touched a match to his brier and strolled on across the valley. A couple of minutes later Nambe trotted eut to join him. Tomas looked gravely after them, shak- ing his head and muttering an incantation to ward off the evil influence of the pistacos or demons. Twenty minutes of walking and climbing took Jim and his companion to the foot of the hill. more Arnold marveled at the strength of the place. With water and provisions, it seemed as if a half-score of men might have defended their stronghold indefinitely against any attacking force. From the upper slope of the valley the hill rose almost sheer to its summit, and it stood apart, divided from its lesser sisters in the chain by chasms too wide and deep to have been bridged by primitive engineers in the face of opposition. In only one spet, on the valley front, was the acclivity sus- ceptible to scaling, and there only by a path which was throughout most of its course hardly wider than a goat-run. At the very bottom of their adamantine pile -the archaic builders had begum their fortifications: They had hacked notches in the rocky spine of the narrow pethway and set slabs of hewn stone therein, thus span- ning the steep with a tremendous stairway of more than three hundred steps, which ' The nearer he approached it, the - 69 grew ever narrower and more abrupt as if approached the summit. Half-way up their giant staircase the artisans had constructed a land-platform or sentry-box, strongly walled with masonry, in which was pierced a narrow postern. Above, at the brink of the precipice stood another section of wall with its trapezoidal portal, characteristic of the Inca architec- ture, defending for a number of feet each side of the last steep stair. Aided by nature, the Indian craftsmen had achieved a masterpiece of military des fense. “Some place—eh, Nambe?” asked Ara nold, gazing up the precipitous staircase, from the bottom of which he could no longer see the towers. ‘Ho, yes, sar. Indians tell-um ghosts of grandaddies make-um heap years long time ’go,” informed Nambe, looking doubt- fully from the stairway to Arnold. “Well, here goes.” Jim set foot on the granite steps and began to climb. As they ascended he noticed that Nambe’s enthu- siasm was oozing rapidly, and he was lagging. ‘“‘ Getting cold feet?” inquired Jim with a grin. ‘““No, sar; my shoes plenty warm,”’ the islander replied innocently. They reached the landing-place half-way up the acclivity, clambered through its postern and stopped to rest. Nambe was breathing much more heavily than his exer- tions seemed to warrant. “ S’pose-um we go back camp—come try him to-morrow?” he suggested ingenuously. ‘““'Why, we've lots of time! You’re not afraid, Nambe?”’ ‘Ho, no, sar. Jus’ t’ink Tamal Kellea might want-um something. Huh! Wha’ dat?” Clack! A hard object struck sharply on one of the topmost steps of the assent. Clack-clack! Clickety-clack! Clack!— Clack!—Clack/ each time lower and nearer. Whatever it was, it was descending the stairs in widening leaps, striking, bounding, and striking again, and setting dry echoes rattling across the cliffside. Jim, peering upward, caught one glimpse of a whitish sphere as it flashed through a cCoOmiclbooks 10)