The Motor Rangers' Cloud Cruiser

There came a sudden voice at their elbows.

“L-l-l-looks like C-C-C-C-Coney I-I-Island.”

It was the incorrigible Ding-dong, who had taken advantage of the excitement to slip out of his place of involuntary confinement.

But, in the general interest in all that was occurring, no attention was paid to him. In the midst of the eager talk, and still more eager scrutiny of the island, old Matco, who had come out upon the deck and had stood silently gazing at the lost city, uttered a sharp cry.

Then, raising his hands above his head and fixing his eyes upon the sun, he began muttering what seemed to be a prayer.

This done, he turned to the professor and poured out a rapid flood of eager, emphatic words in his corrupt Spanish. So fast did he speak that the professor had difficulty in following him. But by paying close attention he managed to make out the old man’s meaning.

“What does he say?” asked Mr. Tubbs, as the old Indian ceased his torrent of words, and leaned back, looking quite exhausted.

“Why, it’s like fiction,” said the professor. “The old man says that we are fulfilling a tradition of his race which says that one day winged men from the sky would discover the city.”

“Well, that’s a good omen,” said Nat.

“W-w-w-whatever that may be,” sputtered Ding-dong. “Guess you mean n-n-no men.”

But the professor paid no attention to the irrepressible youth. Instead, he assumed rather a grave look.

“Why, I’m not quite so sure that it is a good augury,” he said slowly. “The old man says that the prophecy or tradition goes on to say that the wrath of the long-dead Incas shall be visited on the violators of their hidden city, and that a terrible end will overtake the sky men who invade it.”

As the professor talked the old Indian fixed his eyes on him as if he realized what he was saying. As the man of science concluded, he nodded solemnly, as if indorsing all that had been told.

“Oh, well,” said Nat, “we are not going to turn back for the sake of an old Indian ghost story.”

“Of course not,” said the professor; “but I thought if any of you are superstitiously inclined, I would warn you.”

“I guess it would take more than talk like that to turn us back now,” said Joe. “I’d face a legion of spooks to investigate that place.”

The others agreed with him. Indeed, as the Discoverer grew nearer, the marvels of the lost city grew more and more awe-inspiring.

What had appeared in the distance to be a mere huddle of terraced buildings, were now seen to be stately palaces, some of them with trees still growing amidst them. The buildings rose in this form till they reached their climax at the great gold-plated dome that capped the summit of the wonderful isle.

The walls, so far as could be seen, were white, but profusely ornamented with barbaric magnificence.

Not a little of the mystic effect of the island was gained from the precipitous and rugged cliffs of the mountains that walled the lake.

“However do you suppose a lake came to be in such a situation?” wondered Nat, addressing the professor.

“In my opinion,” said the scientist, “that lake is what was once the crater of a volcano, more enormous than any yet known.”

“And what we thought were separate mountains were once only part of the summit of that volcano?” asked Nat wonderingly.

“I think we would be correct in assuming so. In many parts of the world the craters of extinct volcanoes are found to be filled with water, just as this one is.”

“The water must be of immense depth,” said Joe.

“In some cases it has been impossible to touch bottom, even with the longest lines and the most perfect sounding apparatus,” was the astonishing reply.

“But how does an island come to be in the middle of such a deep lake?” was what Mr. Tubbs wanted to know.

“What we call an island is probably the summit of another peak of the crater,” said the professor, “or it may have been formed, like those volcanic islands of which we have such a keen recollection, by the action of earth’s internal fires.”

The dirigible dropped lower. It was now almost directly above the lost city. It could be seen that surrounding the golden dome was a vast, semi-circular platform or courtyard of stone, with other stones set up perpendicularly around it.

“It is precisely like the arrangement of the Temple of the Sun in Peru,” said the professor.

“It will make a good place to land,” spoke the practical Joe.

“Doesn’t it seem almost like a sacrilege to bring a modern dirigible to earth in the very courtyard where the rites of ancient religion were practiced?” spoke Nat, who was an imaginative lad.

“Not at all,” said the professor, “and as for that ancient religion, if we had lived in the days when it flourished, I fancy we wouldn’t have liked it much. Like most ancient religions, it was a creed of bloodshed and violence. Human sacrifices may have been indulged in on those very stones we see beneath us.”

The boys agreed that this put quite another light on the matter, and the descent was made without further comment. The dirigible came to rest in the lost city of the Bolivian Andes at three o’clock in the afternoon. Mr. Tubbs was left to guard the Discoverer with old Matco, who refused to move one step through the silent, long-deserted streets. But the boys and the professor set out on a tour of exploration.

The streets, they found, were like those of mountainous cities in Europe, and consisted mostly of steps. It was one of the most uncanny feelings that any of them had ever experienced, this walking through a city of the dead. For, although the ancient places were mostly in ruins, from earthquakes the professor judged, the city yet seemed lifelike enough for some of the vanished race to turn a corner at any instant.

For some reason, the boys kept very close to each other and to the professor, showing no disposition to wander. They found that, as they approached the lake, the buildings grew poorer in character and were not carved or decorated like those closer to the temple. The remains of a splendid wharf remained, however, which set the boys to wondering what had become of the boats that must have once plied between the city and the shore.

This, in turn, suggested ruminations upon the means employed by the vanished race of reaching the lake, for to climb over the mountains was obviously impossible. The professor opined that, at some time, a tunnel must have existed. This set the boys crazy to try to find it, but the man of science declared that, in all probability, the tunnel, if it had ever existed, had been ruined by earthquakes long since.

They stood by the lake side for a time looking into its dark blue depths, and then began a return up the street, climbing the steps cut in the rock.

“Where’s all the treasure we were going to find?” asked Joe, as they climbed the steep causeway worn by the feet of a race long since passed out of existence.

“I don’t imagine we are likely to find much that is valuable,” said the professor. “My belief now is, that when the Spaniards came the inhabitants of this city concealed everything valuable in it in some place known only to themselves.”

“Maybe the lake bottom,” suggested Joe.

“That is not improbable. At any rate, I think we shall have to content ourselves with the glory of having discovered this wonderful place. It is far more perfect than the ruins of Peru are described as being.”

“What about taking that gold plating off the sacred dome?” said the practical-minded Joe.

“Not with my consent,” said the professor. “I would wish this city to be the Mecca of antiquarians from all over the world.”

“I agree with you,” said Nat. “It would be vandalism of the worst sort to strip that rock.”

“Oh, I was only joking,” said Joe, with a rather red face.

“Here’s a peculiar-looking building,” went on Joe, a few moments later, as they passed a tower-like structure, higher than the other buildings, and without windows.

“Let us survey it,” said the professor. “See, here is a door. It has fallen in, it is true, but I imagine we can squeeze through.”

By dint of getting on their hands and knees they managed to crawl under the richly carved and broken portal, Nat pausing to notice that the carvings seemed to be of various astronomical bodies.

Within the tower they found themselves standing at the bottom of a tall, narrow, perpendicular shaft. It was, in fact, like looking up a circular chimney. At the top was something which at first sight seemed to be a big glass lens; but the professor pronounced it to be pure crystal.

“This is the most amazing find yet!” he exclaimed with enthusiasm. “I believe that this tower formed a sort of rude telescope, through which different observations were carried on.”

He clasped his hands in scientific fervor. Indeed, they had seen enough that afternoon to turn the brain of the least imaginative man of science!

Nat informed the professor of the carvings he had noticed.

“That settles the matter,” said the professor enthusiastically. “Good heavens, what a find! It has long been a controversy between various scientific men as to whether or no the ancient races understood astronomy in the true sense. The finding of this rude telescope will go far toward – Gracious! what was that?”

“What?” cried Nat, considerably startled.

“Why, a hand reached out and grasped my hat and – ”

Before the professor could conclude his sentence the boys saw a small brown paw project from a ledge above him and whisk his unlucky hat from his head.

“It’s a monkey!” cried Nat.

“A lot of them!” exclaimed Joe.

“T-t-t-there they go,” cried Ding-dong, as a dozen or more apes of the prehensile tailed type rushed off amidst the ruins, chattering and squealing and tearing and clawing at the professor’s unlucky headgear.

“Just to think,” sighed the man of science with resignation, “that I came all this way, and we have made all these discoveries, and yet my ill-fortune with hats pursues me still.”

“I’d give several dozen hats to have seen what we’ve seen,” Nat reminded him.

“That is so! that is so!” Professor Grigg agreed; “but – ”

“Look out!” cried Joe, behind him, suddenly.

The professor leaped back just as an ugly flat head, with a pair of malicious leaden eyes, protruded itself at his elbow from between the crevices. It was the head of an immense snake.

Without more ado the explorers made haste to get out of the astronomical tower.

“Exploring is certainly strenuous work,” commented Joe as they gained the open air.

“Yes; I don’t wish to do any more without a rifle,” agreed Nat.

CHAPTER XXV.

A STRANGE ADVENTURE

Early the next day the explorers, boys and adults, resumed their investigation of the Lost City. The professor estimated that it would take some time before they had completed their work and collected relics, records and films of the various features of absorbing scientific interest to be found there.

Joe and Nat struck out in one direction, while the Professor, Ding-dong and Mr. Tubbs assumed another line of investigation. The path taken by the two boys led them down one of the crumbling streets to the lake front of the Lost City. On the way they entered several of the houses and collected some small relics and Joe, who had some talent that way, busied himself in making rough sketches of the buildings they examined.

At last, thoroughly tired out, the two lads sat themselves down on a raised pile of carefully fitted stones in the courtyard of a splendid white building with a pyramid-like cupola. They had brought some sandwiches and a flask of water with them and made a light meal while they rested.

“Seems like a sort of sacrilege to be eating corned beef sandwiches in what may have been a temple,” said Nat as he ate.

Joe laughed.

“From what we know of the folks that used to live here they used to make corned beef out of anyone they didn’t like, so don’t worry about that end of it, old fellow.”

“That’s so,” agreed Nat. “I wonder, for instance, if this business we’re sitting on at this moment isn’t an old altar of some kind. Looks as if it might have been.”

“It does that,” agreed Joe, “and see here, Nat, here’s a metal ring right here in this slab of stone. I wonder if they used to tie their poor victims to it?”

He indicated a big ring of dull, greenish metal which they had not noticed before. It was countersunk in one of the slabs of stone that formed the top of the altar.

Nat examined it.

“I guess more likely it was used to raise this stone,” he said. “Maybe the altar is hollow inside and contains relics of some sort.”

“Cracky! I’d like to raise it,” declared Joe; but, although he tugged and pulled till his ruddy face was redder than usual, Joe could make no impression on the stone.

“Let me try,” suggested Nat.

With what idea, he could not exactly say, the boy gave the ring a gentle twisting motion instead of tugging at it. Then an astonishing thing happened. The entire top of the altar tipped downward and the boys were shot, scrambling and struggling, into the interior of the altar, if such it had been. Before they knew just what had occurred they found themselves in total darkness, for, having tipped them off, the stone had swung into place again.

A thrill of fear crept icily through Nat’s veins as he realized that they were prisoners. But he put all the heart he could into his reply when Joe in a frightened voice gasped out:

“What on earth happened, Nat?”

“Why, just this,” was the reply. “That altar top was counterbalanced. Our weight was on one end of it. In some way, when I twisted that ring, a spring or catch must have been loosened and – and – we’re in the interior of the altar.”

“Can we get out again, do you think?”

“That’s just what we’ve got to find out, and quickly, too, Joe,” was the response. “Got any matches?”

“Yes; luckily I brought some. I’ve got a pocket lantern here, too, with a candle in it. Shall I light up?”

“Yes, do so as soon as you can,” rejoined Nat.

The next minute the interior of the altar was illumined by a yellow light. But so perfectly had the swinging top of the altar been fitted that not a crevice appeared and as for any lever or handle by which it might have been opened, none was revealed by the light.

But it was some minutes before the boys found out this fact. When they did, however, it came with a sense of stunning bitterness. If they could not find a means of egress from the altar, they were, in all human probability, doomed to die in that gloomy prison.

Although they both realized their situation, neither lad voiced his fears. There still remained one end of the altar to be examined, and Nat lost no time in proceeding to investigate the hitherto neglected portion of their prison. But its masonry appeared to be as solidly constructed as was the case in every other part of the altar. Nat, almost in despair, was turning away when Joe, who had been at his side, gave a sudden cry.

“Nat! Nat! There’s a stone loose here. I can move it with my foot. When I press down on it – Great-jumping-horned-toads!”

Joe’s exclamation was caused by the fact that as he pressed down on the loose stone a small door opened out before them in the end of the altar. It was impossible to say, however, whither it led, as beyond lay total darkness.

“What do you say, shall we try it?” asked Joe in a rather tremulous voice, for the darkness looked singularly mysterious and forbidding.

“We’ve got to try it,” said Nat gloomily. “It’s our only alternative, unless we want to stay here and starve to death.”

Joe had to agree that this was a true statement of the facts of the case, and not without quickened pulses the two lads made the plunge into the darkness beyond the door. The portal was square and so low that they had to bend to get through it. The rays of Joe’s candle-lantern showed the two youths that they were in a low-roofed passage, or tunnel, just wide enough for them to proceed in single file.

“You go first,” said Joe in a rather quivery tone, which showed better than anything else that the adventure was having its effect upon him, the usually unperturbed.

“All right, give me the lantern.”

“I wonder where this passage can lead to?”

“Haven’t the least idea. I think we are going south, but I’m not sure.”

“I’m all twisted up, too. I wish we’d left that old ring alone.”

“Maybe I don’t, too. If we ever get out of this place, I’ll leave all such devices severely to themselves in future.”

“Have you any idea of the purpose of this passage?”

“Not I. Maybe it was used as a means of escape. In that case – ”

“In that case we will get out to daylight again,” Joe concluded.

“On the other hand, it may have been designed as a means of executing their criminals or enemies. I’ve heard of such things.”

Joe fairly shuddered.

“Oh, talk of something pleasant,” he said, with a groan.

No more was said for a time. The circumstances didn’t make the boys feel much inclined for conversation.

All at once they emerged into a vaulted chamber, seemingly cut out of the living rock. At the top of its arched roof was set a huge crystal, very like the one they had seen in the “telescope tower,” only much larger. Through this lens light was streaming into the place, the walls of which were painted and carved with all manner of strange-looking inscriptions and designs. Nat was so intent on gazing at these that he did not look as carefully where he was going as he had in his progress down the passage.

Suddenly his feet slipped from under him and he found himself falling downward. Joe uttered a cry as he saw his comrade vanish. He leaped forward, checking himself just in time to avoid sharing Nat’s plight. He found himself on the brink of a sort of well about ten feet deep. At the bottom of this was Nat. Joe uttered a cry of relief as Nat hailed him and assured him that, by a miracle, he was not hurt.

“But how are you going to get out of there?” demanded Joe the next instant.

How, indeed? The question certainly was a poser. The walls of the well were as smooth as glass almost and Joe noticed a peculiar feature. From its “curb” radiated long lines extending over the floor of the rocky chamber. These lines were cut in the rock and reminded Joe of lines he had seen cut on a sun dial.

But he gave little thought to this at the moment. His mind was centered on finding a means to get Nat out of his predicament. But, though he thought and thought, no solution of the problem occurred to him.

Joe was still wrapped in thought at the edge of the well when he felt a sudden blast of fearful heat on his back. He looked hastily round. His first thought was that some hidden fire must suddenly have burst into life behind him.

But, no, what he had felt had been the rays of the sun pouring through the crystal at the top of the cavern and striking down with tremendously magnified force upon him.

“Phew! That felt like an oven!” exclaimed Joe, moving away.

It was a moment later that he observed something that filled him with a vague sense of alarm, which swiftly crystallized into a sharp, livid pang of fear.

The sun was now striking down into the well. Like a thunderbolt the purpose of the pit and the reason of the crystal lens burst upon Joe.

The ancient dwellers of the Lost City had been Sun Worshippers. This chamber was a sacrificial one and the priests of the vanished race had offered up their victims’ lives by literally dedicating them to the Sun gods. As this alarming truth broke upon Joe a faint cry came from Nat, down in the pit.

“Joe, for gracious sake, do something to get me out of here! The sun is striking down into the pit. It is fearfully hot. If you don’t get me out soon I’ll be baked alive.”

Poor Joe cast his eyes about him despairingly. The sun was streaming through the lens at an angle now. What would happen when its direct rays poured down into the narrow well he could not bear to think.

CHAPTER XXVI.

SAVED FROM THE SUN GODS

Suddenly a thought struck him. Perhaps by joining his belt and Nat’s together and then leaning over the edge of the pit he could haul his unfortunate chum up to safety. It was worth trying, anyway.

Going to the edge of the pit and leaning over, Joe communicated his idea to Nat. By this time the sun was streaming dazzlingly into the pit and only by crouching in one corner could Nat escape its ardent rays. Acting on Joe’s instructions, Nat took off his belt and threw it upward. After one or two trials Joe managed to catch it. Then, taking off his own, he joined the two together. Then he extended himself at the edge of the well, and, reaching out his arm to the utmost, lowered the two joined belts down to Nat. They were about a foot too short for Nat to reach them even with the utmost endeavor of which Joe was capable!

Things began to look black, indeed. Momentarily the sun was nearing the zenith, and the place into which Nat had fallen was so designed that when the luminary reached its highest point in the skies the excavation would be filled with its rays, magnified many times by the crystal lens. The lens, in fact, was nothing more nor less than an immense burning-glass designed to shrivel up the victims of the ancient priesthood. How little those who invented such a cruelly ingenious device could have imagined that a boy of the twentieth century would ever be in danger of losing his life by it! Yet such was the case and neither Nat nor Joe could conceal the fact from themselves an instant longer.

“Can’t you think of anything? Don’t you think you could climb up just a foot or two?” asked Joe, despairingly.

“The walls are smooth as glass. I don’t believe a fly could get a hold on them,” was the rejoinder. “Joe, the heat is getting awful!” gasped out poor Nat in conclusion.

“Gracious! What am I to do?” cried Joe to himself. He rose to his feet and gazed about him. Suddenly a thought struck him. If the priests, as seemed only too probable, really roasted people to death in that well, they must have had some means of getting the bodies out. How did they do it? It must have been by a chain or rope, or something of the sort, was the thought that struck Joe after a minute’s reflection. In that case the chain, or whatever they used for the purpose of extricating their victims, must be somewhere in the chamber.

“I’ll find it, if it’s anywhere within reach,” determined Joe.

Then he hailed Nat in as cheerful a voice as he could muster. He told him what he was going to do and begged him to keep up his courage. Nat replied bravely that he could hold out a while longer; but the weakness of his voice made it painfully evident that if help was to be furnished him it would have to come quickly or be too late.

Joe noticed, now that his sight was quickened by the need of hasty action, that off at one side of the chamber was a recess cut in the rocks. He hastened over to it and found that within it was an ancient chest of some sort of sweet-smelling wood. This was so dry-rotted with the ages that a vigorous kick of the lad’s foot smashed the moldering lock off and Joe hastily threw the lid open.

He could not refrain from uttering a cry of joy as his eyes noted its contents, some spears, axes, of stone or flint – whose former purpose seemed only too evident – and, best of all, a coil of chain, forged of the same peculiar greenish metal as the ring had been.

“Hurray!” shouted Joe as he dragged out the chain, “this is what we wanted. Now I’ll have Nat out in no time.”

Hastening back to the lip of the well with the chain, he dangled its end, which terminated in a hook, over the edge. As he did so he gasped at the hot fumes which arose from the cylindrical pit. Joe was only just in time. Nat had barely strength enough to fasten the chain under his armpits and begin scrambling up as Joe hauled with all his might.

But if the hole had not been small enough in circumference for Nat to brace his legs against one side of it and help work himself up in this way, Joe would never have got him out. As it was, the task almost exhausted the strength of both boys, and when it was completed they lay gasping at the edge of the well for some moments, utterly unable to command their limbs.

Joe was the first to recover. The sun had now reached the zenith, and through the mammoth burning-glass was pouring hotly into the well. A sudden idea struck Joe. He tore a bit of paper off an old envelope he happened to have in his pocket and let it flutter into the pit.