Roy Norton

“ It began to seem that the great treasure of the Mayas consisted solely of gold and silver, all of which, under the circumstances, was about as useless to me as so much lead. We made the entire round without finding other than similar services in the caskets. We examined the walls of the chamber, seeking other doors, and convinced ourselves there was none. Finally we returned to the other chamber, or temple, and I stood staring upward at the sole jewels we had discovered, those in the eyes and on the breast, of the image.
“It seems a pity,” said the doctor as if he had read my thoughts. ”

“ Doctor Morgano laid beseeching hands oh our arms and implored us to give him one more chance.
“It is desecration!” he declared. “It is, in its way, a sacrilege! Don’t do it—yet! It mustn’t be done until all other measures have failed. Let me try again. I am positive that there is another chamber somewhere. The glyphs told me so. I tell you that there is something here that hurts at the thought of your proposed action!” And he thumped his heart with both hands as if to emphasize his appeal.
It all seemed very foolish, but both Wardy and I, after one interchanged look, acceded to Morgano’s wish. ”

“ The doctor rushed to one of these, stopped, flashed his light, and shouted, almost exultantly: “These are sarcophagi! The tombs of generations of dynasties and in the very burial chamber of those who ruled for thousands and thousands of years. The discoveries in Egypt are nothing at all by comparison. I know it! Each one has his tablet telling the history of his reign, I am fairly certain.”
In an ecstasy of discovery he dropped his torch from his trembling fingers and its glass trinkled in fragments on that ancient floor. ”

“ I added hopelessly. “The biggest store of gold in the world, and quite useless to us! Is that another doorway through there?”
I had discovered that down at the far end of this treasure vault was another narrow, black slit.
We moved toward it, still for some unaccountable reason keeping close together as if for mutual protection against that golden god outside whom we were defying. We entered a smaller chamber where again were great slabs of metal which we inspected.
“This is silver, I think,” said Wardy, after scratching one with his penknife. ”

“ None of us was expert in jewels, but any of us had sufficient knowledge to know that the unmounted gems alone represented a fortune, measured by even modern standards of wealth.
“Those,” said the doctor, pointing at the unmounted stones, “we can, of course, take; but it is an outrage if these others are ever broken up. Such destruction of incomparable specimens of ancient handiwork would be nothing less than abominable!”
“In any event we must hurry out of this!” exclaimed Wardy. “The lantern is beginning to flicker. ”

“ If civilization advanced eastward instead of westward, now we may know. If the fabled Garden of Eden, where the human race began to lift its intelligence above that of mere beasts, ever was, here we may find proof of its location. ”

“ What matters it if we find nothing more than that and——”
Wardy looked at me and shrugged his huge shoulders.
“Well, if you wish to make notes, I think you should begin quickly. The oil in the lantern won’t last forever, and in addition we shall probably exhaust our batteries before we reach camp again. I doubt if we have more than half an hour to spare for further notes. Let’s get at it!”
And then with a shout that echoed and reëchoed throughout those grimly silent chambers, Doctor Morgano began running forward toward the rear wall of the inner vault. ”

“ You are right! It is!” he exclaimed, and, brushing us aside, stepped onto the pavement and began to move his feet over the pattern. He hesitated, and then soliloquized: “The ixton sign was one we stepped on, and the lower sector of the Acona and“” He bent over and closely studied the pavement, and then muttered: “Ah, here they are! Not quite in the same positions as those in the Great Temple. We will try them.”
Both Wardy and I leaned forward in a state bordering on suspense as the savant carefully planted his feet on two marks and rested his weight on them. ”