Chapter XIX: An Ape-Like Band

Johnny spent the remainder of that night in the most curious place he had yet seen in Haiti--at the mouth of a cave. How far back the cave extended into the mountain he had no notion. He did know that the night air at this high altitude was crisp and cool, that his thick bed of mats was comfortable and the home-woven blankets ample for warmth. This, however, did not at once induce sleep. The day had been too full of adventure and fresh revelation for that.

When he realized that their every act at the Citadel had been watched through the "magic telescope" it gave him a peculiar feeling.

"And yet," he told himself, "we have done nothing but look about. We have not removed a stone from its place in the ancient walls.

"Well enough that we didn't," he mused. "That little man told me that the 'Rope of Gold' has never been at the Citadel. Wonder how he knows."

The natural answer to this question came to him as something of a shock. "If a man knows for sure that a thing is not in a certain place and never has been there, he needs must know where it has been and where it is now," he told himself. "And if only he would tell me," he added. "But that, of course, is not to be expected."

There were other problems to be studied out. He had been brought to this spot for a purpose. What could that purpose be? Were these bronze men afraid that he and Curlie would chance upon some of the ancient treasure? Did they propose to break up their search by holding him prisoner? If so, where did this strange white man come in? To this question he could form no answer, so still puzzling over it he fell asleep.

* * * * * * * *

As you know, when Curlie Carson, with his heavily laden donkeys, took the trail in search of Johnny Thompson, he left his laboratory stripped of all contents. It was well that he did, for only two hours after he left, a band of blacks, some fifty in number, came scrambling up the trail that leads to the Citadel. They were led by a black man with a face of such fierce ugliness as one seldom sees on land or sea.

Arrived at the Citadel, they scattered as if in search of someone. When two of them came upon Curlie's abandoned laboratory they let out a cry and at once the entire band swarmed around them.

Finding the place deserted, they wrecked it, tearing up tables and shelves, even wrenching the door from its hinges.

When one member, keener eyed than the others, discovered Curlie's trail leading away into the hills, the whole band, like a pack of hounds in full cry, went yelling and roaring away after the boy and his donkeys.

What a strange and terrible horde they were. Leaning far forward as they ran they seemed more like a pack of gigantic baboons than men. But woe unto any human being who might fall into their clutches.

As for Curlie Carson, he plodded doggedly on before his burros, picking out the trail leading the way, steadily and surely, toward Johnny's cave.

* * * * * * * *

On the day that Curlie left the chateau to go in search of Johnny, Doris and Dot started on an expedition all their own. With imagination fired by dreams of the ancient black queen's treasure, still dreaming of seeing again that monkey with the diamond ring on his wrist, they proposed to visit the ruins of the black emperor's palace.

"We'll take Mona," Dot said. "Now that the revolution has been brought to an end there is no danger."

Doris thought of the ugly black foe that Dot and Curlie had seen at the top of the cliff after the explosion, and experienced a moment of uneasiness. But so eager was she to begin the search that she was able at once to cast fears aside.

"It will be a race," she said with a little wild skipping, "a race between the boys and ourselves to see who first discovers treasure."

"Yes," laughed Dot, "a race that is likely to end with a draw. Everybody loses." Despite this dire prophecy, they departed in high spirits and ere twilight came found themselves camping within the shadows of the impressive stone steps that had once led to a palace of such magnificence and grandeur as no other black ruler has known.

"To think," Doris told herself as two hours later she lay beneath the blankets awaiting sleep, "that up those steps in days long gone by one passed gorgeously attired dukes and earls with their women all aglitter with jewels. And now here we are, just two girls and one old black woman, all alone with all the ruined magnificence. Here we are and to-morrow--Oh, you glorious to-morrow!"

To-morrow they would explore the mysterious pile of brick and stone that had once been a king's palace.

"Treasure," she whispered. "That magic word treasure. There was treasure aplenty here in those all but forgotten days. Who knows but it lies hidden away here still? Who knows--"

Her thoughts broke short off. There had come a faint scratching sound from the palm fronds above her.

"Blackbird. Some old blackbird," she told herself. She was not quite satisfied with this. A tropical blackbird, she remembered, was always talking to himself and fluttering in and out among the branches. The thing troubled her. It was night and the jungle was new to her. She thought of snakes. Snakes, she remembered, glided about in trees. She had seen a picture of a huge one hanging over a limb.

"But everyone says there are no dangerous creatures in the Haitian jungle, not even snakes," she reassured herself. She settled back in her place. The rustling for the time had ceased. "Just some bird," she told herself once more.

Her right hand went to her left wrist. There something gave forth a jingling sound. Doris was not given to wearing jewelry. Notwithstanding this, before starting on this trip she had surprised her companions by putting on her three bracelets and even borrowing two others from Dot. Dot hadn't asked why she wanted to wear them, but she had wondered about it. They were on her wrist still.

"Seems sort of foolish," she told herself. "I'm glad I brought them though, for you really never can tell. They say that monkeys travel far. And if we found him it really might work. And if--Why! What was that?" Something had hit her hand.

"It was thrown or dropped," she told herself, now quite genuinely alarmed. "Who could have done that?"

"Perhaps," she thought as her heart gave a leap, "there are natives about these ruins." She thought of the black face the others had seen at the top of the cliff by Deception Bay. With an unsteady hand she drew a flashlight from her pocket. Having snapped it on, she set its circle of light searching for the thing that had struck her hand. A half minute of this, then she gave forth a low chuckle.

"Only some creature shucking a cocoanut up there," she told herself.

The next instant her face was quite serious. "If it were the monkey; if it only could be the jeweled monkey." Her heart raced.

Directing the ray of light upward she was just in time to catch sight of a pair of small eyes peering down at her. The next instant they were gone.

"It _was_ a monkey!" she told herself with a quick intake of breath. "It was! It was!"

"But then," she told herself more soberly, "there may be many tame monkeys in the hills who have turned wild. I have heard of three."

For a long time she kept the light playing upon the fronds of the palm, but all to no purpose. She saw nothing more of the creature who had showered her with cocoanut shucks. At last, as her rebellious eyelids grew heavy, she crept up to a place beside her pal and fell asleep. But even in her sleep she dreamed of palatial halls, soft carpets, gleaming chandeliers and of diamonds worn by black ladies dressed for state.