Chapter VIII: In Stone

Abner shared my enthusiasm to some extent, and we soon dispatched breakfast and began our day’s work by providing ourselves with a quantity of fagots for torches, and filling our pockets with matches and arming ourselves with pick and shovel, we made our way to the entrance of the kitchen, admiring the fitness of its arrangement in relation to the garden, which opened from it very conveniently to serve its plainly intended use of a kitchen garden. Pursuing the plan of action we had fixed upon, we paid no further heed, for the present, to the upper chamber with its winding staircase, but followed the horizontal gallery toward the heart of the bluffs, proceeding cautiously in the darkness by the little gleam of light from our torch, fearful that we might tumble into some pitfall, or become entangled in a maze of diverging passages; for, as we proceeded, a number of rooms opened to the right and left, but so far as we could observe from a hasty inspection there was nothing of interest in them. A hundred yards from the starting point our gallery began to descend rapidly, soon dipping at an angle of about thirty degrees, making it difficult to keep our footing on the slippery rock floor. The slant passage was about thirty-five yards in length, and came to a sudden end against the solid wall.

We held our torches aloft and scanned the walls for any trace of a doorway, but there was none. We sounded it with our picks but it gave no hint of any opening beyond. But our minute examination resulted in our discovering some more picture writings on the wall; figures of men in every respect similar to those I had found on the previous day which pointed toward the floor. Beside one of the figures was the representation of something like a well from which a hand had removed a covering, while another index finger pointed into its depths. Searching the floor with our light, we found a circular block of stone which seemed to be fitted into the surrounding rock so perfectly as to offer not the least chance to fasten upon it, so as to lift it from its bed.

Presently we found, close to the circle described, another and much smaller one, and within it another not more than six inches in diameter, and on one side of the stone was a notch large enough to admit a finger. We succeeded in loosening this small one, and lifted it from its place, disclosing a strong ring of brass, fastened to the larger circle by a staple as a means of lifting this cover. Together we were able easily to move it from its place, and the opening revealed a cedar beam which seemed to be as sound as on the day on which it had been taken from the tree.

Here was another mystery over which we puzzled a long time, trying to raise the beam aloft, but it resisted all our attempts, and finally we were about to give up, breathless, and in despair, when I sat down upon the stone floor to rest and dangled my feet in the opening, and finally rested them upon the beam which seemed to sink away from them, and at the same time Abner, who was standing on the larger circle stepped from it as though disturbed by some new difficulty, exclaiming: “Jerusalem, lad, the floor’s arisin’ up!” The removal of his weight made one part of it rise all the more easily, and to my astonishment, as the beam settled away from my feet, the circular block of stone in the center of the passage that we found first, rose, and letting myself down by my arms into the small opening beneath me, I pushed the lever down with my feet, and the ponderous cover of the mysterious well rose till it was higher than Abner’s head but refused to go any farther. It was hoisted and supported by three cedar poles working in grooves cut into the side of the well and covered religiously with the beam, forming a system of compound leverage. The passage, as it proved to be, was a spiral staircase, again, which stood invitingly open to us. The cover was a perfect circle whose edges were beveled off, and the mouth of the passage was countersunk to receive it, the whole fitting together most admirably, indicating that workmanship skilled in the highest degree had been employed upon it.

Neither of us seemed over-anxious to take the lead in our descent into what might easily prove to be our sepulcher. I suggesting that my knight of the red shirt should be the pillar of fire to go before me to this promised land, but Abner said: “No, no, my unsophistical lad with the tender foot, you’re the capting-general of this here branch of the expedition, you go ahead laddie, and I promise you I’ll be a close second whatever has to come of this goin’ down into Egypt.”

Leaving our cumbrous tools here, and each of us bearing a lighted torch, we proceeded to feel our way down this extraordinary stairway. It seemed tenfold more strange to us than the ascent of a similar one the day before, but this was going down, down toward the bowels of earth and every step seemed to deepen the mystery.

The steps were fully a foot in depth each, and winding slowly around the huge center pillar, and downward we counted one hundred steps before we encountered any change in the plan or direction; then a sound caught our ear which caused us to pause suddenly and listen. It was the sound of running water! A few steps more and it was rippling at our feet. Not a feeble spring or little brook, but a placid, gentle river flowing on its way to the sea, at least a hundred feet below the level of the Colorado.

Again our journey seemed to be ended, but we had been tricked too often in these intricate passages and hidden chambers to believe that all this vast amount of labor had been expended merely to reach water. While we were considering this proposition, we noticed all at once that our light wavered and flickered as if in a current of air, and now that our attention was directed that way, we could distinctly feel the cool air rising from the water and stooping down and looking in the direction that the river was flowing, we could perceive a dim appearance of daylight in the distance, and that the cavern through which the river flowed was considerably higher and wider than the bed of the stream which was itself about twenty yards wide and seemed to be quite deep. A natural shelf ran along the side of the cave and stooping low, we found we could manage to walk along in a cramped position, coming at times dangerously near to the brink of the river, but able by great care to find passage.

The light from without grew more distinct as we proceeded, and when we had traversed perhaps five hundred yards, we were able to dispense with our torches, and in another hundred we emerged into open air and daylight and liberty. The caldron of the Colorado was frustrated of its purpose to entomb us in its ungentle depths. We stood once more at large in the known and outer dominions of The Latter Day Saints. There were still plenty of hills around us, but they were not so stupendous in height or precipitous in form. The river whose privacy we had so rudely broken in upon seemed to be but little ruffled in her temper by our lapse of courtesy, but flowed down another deep canyon gradually wheeling into line parallel with the Colorado. But it was as mild mannered and gentle in current as the Colorado was the reverse, and the banks rose in a gradual slope so that it was approachable at any point within range of our vision. But now that we had regained our liberty, what should we do with it? We decided to go back to voluntary durance for a few days yet at least, and further explore the galleries and chambers we had barely noticed while on our way here. So we retraced our steps to the foot of the spiral staircase, slowly climbed up to the level of the kitchen, and threaded the labyrinth of passages between the mouth of the well-staircase, and the kitchen, and passing through its sacred precincts stood again in our little grove of luscious fruits and fragrant blossoms, hungry and tired, but not begrudging the efforts we had made to get knowledge from the voiceless rocks and wisdom from the echoless past; ready for dinner, and after that for another peep into the subterranean curiosity shop. Callaway would not have been a true prospector if this work had not been of almost as much interest to him as poking about on the mountain, scenting out “float” here, or striking a “lead” there. The pleasant excitement born of being always just on the eve of discovering something comes to be an every day necessity with his kith; it is more that feature of the work that lures them on, year after year, than mere love of money, for Abner was far from being one of those who were influenced entirely by mercenary motives. In fact the money instinct in him was not strong, and I am quite sure that to his class of mind the pleasure of pursuit is fully as great as that of possession, and he was beginning to be as enthusiastic an antiquarian as myself.

As we cooked and ate our frugal meal we discussed the situation. “Look here, sonnie,” said Abner, “do you believe for a holy minute that that ’ere measley well we clattered down was the very way them fellows had of gettin’ into this place? I don’t for one, by a large majority, and I’ll bet my interest in the Mountain Spring Mine (my blessings on them Piutes), that there’s a straight passage leadin’ from where we started down the well. That might have been very useful to them once in time of danger, and I noticed there had once been a door between the bottom of the well and the river path, but to start out on the supposition that they lugged themselves and all their stores up and down such a gopher trap as that, is like starting on a lonesome journey with a lame nag.”

“I have been thinking dimly on that line myself, pard,” said I, “but you penetrated the question first; and another thing, I have been thinking that we have not really found the secret rooms of that dwelling yet, and that when we do find them we shall find plenty of clews as to what sort of folks they were, and what holiday freak ever sent them this way to spend their lives in such profound solitude.”

Preparing more fagots and having refreshed ourselves, we went enthusiastically to work to utilize the knowledge already gained in getting more.

We followed out every side passage from the main gallery, sounded every suspicious wall, and fumbled about the floors of every rude chamber in the row. But it seemed as if we had reached the limit of our powers to ferret out mysteries and unlock hidden doors.

All the afternoon we raged up and down the dark corridors, or haunted the rooms to which they formed the entrance. We came back at last to the outer room, which we have named the kitchen, in despair of any further success, when Abner’s eyes were attracted by a peculiar marking on the rear wall of the room, which had escaped us before. Upon shining our lights fully upon it we discovered that it was undoubtedly a system of hieroglyphics more ample than anything in that line we had yet discovered, and intended to express in connected form some idea or ideas. The first was a flaming censer in the hand of a priest before an altar, with a representation, beyond, of another room separated from it by a curtain which was partly drawn aside, revealing within the appointments of a place of sacred worship; and near this altar, on which was a smoking sacrifice, was a carefully draped stand or table from which projected four staves or handles, and, hovering over all, the figure of an angel. This seemed to complete the first representation. A line was drawn underneath, and an entirely different series of symbols formed a second reading.

A figure of a man with some sort of a tool distinctly resembling a miner’s pick, was toiling in the mountain, and in the next he was leaning over his tool casting something from his hand into a vessel beside him. Above the vessel were cut three delicate rings, and in close juxtaposition, as if to receive the rings, were the delicate fingers of what was, no doubt, intended for a feminine hand. Then came the figure of a woman beating some musical instrument like a tambourine, next a fox or similar animal with cunning expressed in every outline, bearing a vessel in his mouth like that which the laborer had been filling in the first figure, and making toward a cavern in the rocks. Following it was a stairway and passage, and a door to the right at the end of the passage, opening into a large room from which others opened in the rear.

The last figure represented a man in the act of spreading some kind of plaster or cement upon a wall. Four feet to the right of the point where these picture writings ended, was another inscription entirely distinct in character from either of the other lines. It was indeed a written language and--Holy Mother Mary! if my brain was not on fire, or my senses running wild it was in Hebrew.

Yes, my labors in this elective study of my curriculum was of no service to me if this was not a Hebrew inscription; but though I could read it tolerably well when legibly printed on good paper, to cope with this by a feeble flickering torchlight was a distinctly different matter, and besides, my excitement ran too high to allow any rational examination of it, or to allow me to tell whether the first letter in the Hebrew were A or Beelzebub.

Abner spoke: “Come away, lad, come away, you’ll be as crazy as a loon before a week at this rate; let the goose-tracks rest till morning, and you’ll be in better trim to scent ’em out after you’ve slept over it.” The fact that it was already night and our last torch was almost consumed, compelled me to take his wholesome advice, and we went into camp once more, without having our curiosity satisfied, though it had been ground to a keen edge by the discoveries of the day.

We talked long and earnestly around the embers of our campfire among the orange and apple trees, and theorized upon the information we had unearthed and speculated as to the interpretations of the hieroglyphics. Abner’s lack of a classical education was made up largely by his wide experience in many States and territories of the union; he having been in New Mexico and California, seen something of such picture writings, so that he had much better general ideas of the art of picture writing than I. He gave it as his opinion that the first line was intended to symbolize the form of worship of which those people were the votaries, and perhaps to convey the intelligence to people of their own nation who might come after them that a temple where these rites might be practiced was to be found near at hand, by those who could understand this language.

As to the second series, we were agreed that without doubt it was meant to indicate the finding of treasure and the rejoicings it called forth, and to hint that it was hidden in some of these grottoes, the record of the fact being written there as a matter of precaution among themselves as we would not think of banking large sums of money without an accurate account of it. What the last figure of the man and trowel meant we could not even conjecture, but concluded to rest the question here till another day. But to assume the posture of repose, and to enjoy the repose were two propositions! Though Abner soon snored peacefully beside me, I could not sleep, and images of sanctimonious priests and humble penitents doing religious acts in this somber place haunted me. And the Hebrew writing; what could it mean? What untoward circumstances could have brought people of that far-away race here? For surely to infer for a moment that they came in the exercise of volition was too preposterous an idea to be entertained for a moment. Then, too, if Hebrews, why should they record part of their story, or warning, or bank account, in semi-barbarous characters when they could as well have been recorded in a classical language? So my mind ran up and down the scale of thought in great perplexity. I could not down the oft-recurring problem of the varied language, but, all at once, the thought occurred to me, that perhaps, even though they were all Hebrews and could as easily have made plain their meaning as to obscure it by symbols, they might not have wished to make it plain to others than themselves. It might have been intended to suppress rather than convey intelligence to any but the initiated. Why not? Were not the Hebrews long in bondage to the Egyptians, who were the best known examples of picture writers? In fact it is well known that Moses was acquainted with the form of hieroglyphics in use in Egypt, and it is natural to suppose that the Israelites brought away with them the knowledge of this as well as of the other arts of their captors.

So I wrestled with the mighty problem till nature kindly interposed, relieving my tired nerves, and I slept fitfully till morning.