Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 130: what you’re looking at

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

BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL. shielding cliff above it, though walled in by impenetrable thicknesses of ice. The priests of Cay, evidently fanatic to the last, had seen no chance Of es- cape. They had stored away their gold- en vessels, swept and garnished their sanctuary, and then laid down in grim hopelessness to die at the feet of their god. Swiftly numbed by the overpowering cold, without provision or proper cloth- ing, they had passed away in silent sub- mission to the decrees of fate, and prob- ably without much feeling or pain. Lessaution surmised that the lone corpse Parsons and I had stumbled up- on in the other dwelling was the re- mains of some unfortunate wretch who had been longer fortihMed by food and raiment, and had fought the cold with full knowledge of the ultimate issue. So in solitude and great fear he had met his death. - I pondered these ideas of the pro- fessor’s while we collected the vessels of the sanctuary. We roped them up in heaps, and transported them to the foot of the ice hill. | Then we signaled to Rafferty, whom we had left above in charge of half a dozen of the sailors, and had the pleas- ure of seeing our trove whiz up into the sunshine, to be bestowed finally in the lockers of the ship, there to await the possibilities of our ultimate rescue. As the last sheaf of spits disappeared into the gloom of the roof, we turned for further explorations. Lessaution held—and we felt that there might be something in it—that by following the course of the ice stream that tinkled into the channel at the extreme end of the cave, we might chance upon other remains of the Mayan village, or at any rate find more relics of their com- munity. Not wishing to leave any chance un- tried of discovering all we could of this strange people’s habitation, we lit dips, took one aptece, and crawled into the mouth of the waterway. -It was low roofed and narrow, and I2I we groped and splashed along it like rats in a sewer. The light played and spangled on the ice walls, and the guregte of the ripples and our splashings reéchoed hollow and gloomily. A draft sang back into our faces, making the candles sputter noisily. We thought that we must be approaching an outer entrance, though no light came through the ice. We wondered if by any chance we were in any communi- cating by way of the cavern that Par- sons and [ had first explored. Suddenly the ice faded from about us, and with the falling splash of a smail cascade the rivulet ran into an opening ma rock wall which faced us. This we took to be without doubt the overhanging side of the mountain which backed the basin in which lay our ship. We peered down the tunnel, and seeing the fall to be but a foot or two, ventured in. For the .irst fifty yards the way was straight enough, but then it began to turn and twist deviously, narrowing, though it grew higher. We easily un- derstood that the water had worn a way through the granite by eating out a lode of softer mineral. We were enabled to walk erect, though I heard Lessaution grunt com- plainingly behind me as he squeezed through the narrows, where the sides reached out to one another sharply. A couple of hundred yards more, and a turn—sharper than any we had yet passed—whipped ws round almost in our tracks. Before I could realize it we were striding out into a great hall in the granite, and the stream was almost lost in the sandy floor. With the disappearance of the reflect- ing walls the darkness seemed to swal- low the thin light of our candles utterly. A heavy effluvia-like smell hung in the air. In the act of wheeling round to speak to my companions I tripped. [ plunged forwa-d, grasping the elusive sand, and plowing a groove in it with my chin. My candle went owas) cunclkoite eo