The Border Boys with the Mexican Rangers

CHAPTER XXIII
THE HEART OF THE MYSTERY

“Sounds more to me as if Mrs. Nature had a tummy ache,” said the unromantic Coyote Pete.

But nobody laughed at this remark. The sounds were too awe-inspiring. Suddenly they ceased as abruptly as they had begun, the rumblings dying out like a sharp clap of thunder.

“Is there any danger?” inquired Jack.

“I don’t think so,” rejoined the professor, “this must have been going on for centuries, and, as we know, the force of a volcano wanes instead of waxing stronger as the centuries pass by.”

“Hope so, I’m sure,” put in Walt, “I can tell you, I’ve had quite enough excitement for one day.”

“Well, I guess that is the case with all of us,” was the rejoinder, “but amid all these natural wonders and alarms we must not forget that we came here on a definite mission, – namely to carry back with us what we can of the reputed treasure.”

“That’s right,” agreed Coyote, “and so far as I’m concerned, I’m for pushing on.”

That seemed to be in accordance with the wishes of the entire little company, so, forward it was.

They plunged into the passage that the professor had indicated and traversed it for some distance before they struck anything out of the ordinary.

It was perhaps half an hour before they began to notice that the tunnel was beginning to be irradiated by a light far stronger than that thrown by their torches, a bright piercing glare that seemed to burn like white fire. It grew very much warmer, too, and the perspiration streamed down all their faces.

“We are approaching the subterranean fires,” said the professor, “in all probability some titanic flame of natural gas. By the roaring sound I hear, I believe that to be a correct statement of the facts.”

“Sounds like a blast furnace in full swing,” said Ralph.

Suddenly the passage widened and a dazzling scene broke upon their gaze. In the midst of a rock chamber even larger, as well as they could judge, than the cave of the lake, there arose a great flame of an almost white hue. It was blue at the base like an ordinary gas flame and roared straight up with terrific force as if fed by great reservoirs of natural gas.

“In all probability it was ignited at the time that the volcano was active and has burned ever since,” opined the professor. “Young men, if we found nothing else within this cavern we have already experienced more than falls to the lot of even exceptional men in their lifetime. Such sights as these we shall never forget.”

“It’s a Flower of Flame!” exclaimed Jack poetically.

“If you could corner that light and sell it, there’d be a pile of money in it,” said the practical Ralph.

“Well, as time is precious, let us be pressing on,” said the professor, “for, speaking of money, we must recollect that we have, as yet, found no trace of the treasure.”

After converging upon the chamber of the Flower of Flame, the passage once more plunged into the innermost regions of the mountain. For a space it twisted and turned, and then, without the slightest warning, the adventurers experienced a sharp shock. They faced a blank wall.

“Well, here’s the finish,” announced Walt, holding up his torch.

“Looks like it,” agreed Jack, “yet it seems odd that those old tribes would have gone to all the trouble to drill that passage if it ends right here.”

“Just what I think, my boy,” said the professor, “and by the same token, look here!”

He indicated a big ring of some yellowish metal that hung directly in the center of the seeming blank wall.

“I’ll experiment,” he said, giving it a twist.

But nothing occurred.

Then he tried tugging it. Again no result followed.

“Look,” cried Ralph suddenly, “there’s a metal plate under your feet, professor. Perhaps if you stand on that and then tug you will have some results.”

“That sounds reasonable,” said Professor Wintergreen, doing as the boy had indicated.

This time, amid a cheer from the boys, something did happen. The door slowly swung on invisible hinges and beyond it their torch-lights fell on a scene of almost overwhelming grandeur.

It was a chamber, seemingly of gleaming white marble. Around the walls, at regular intervals, were ranged the figures of what appeared to be idols, but which they presently discovered were perfectly embalmed bodies of past rulers of the mountain dwellers. At one end of the chamber on a raised dais was a hideous figure which they readily guessed to be the deity of the forgotten race.

The face of this image was spread into a monstrous expression of malignant cruelty. But it was the eyes that startled them. They blazed in the torch-lights like two balls of fire.

“They are rubies!” cried the professor, rushing forward. As he did so, his eye fell upon a heap of golden ornaments and jeweled vessels at the foot of the huge statue. Evidently they had been left there as offerings on the day of the mysterious occurrence that had wiped out the tribe.

But as the man of science made his dart toward the pile, a strange thing happened. The gaping mouth of the statue opened wide, and from it there poured a puff of gas so baleful in odor that the boys reeled back. But the professor, upon whom the full force of the blast had concentrated itself, gave a few staggering footsteps and then plunged to the marble floor in a senseless condition.

“So that is the way those old fellows protected their treasure,” snorted Pete. “Wall, it was a good one, too, and no mistake. Come on, boys, and drag the professor out of that.”

“Isn’t there danger of our being poisoned by that gas, too?” asked Walt, still shaken by his previous experience in danger.

“Even if there was, it ’ud be our duty ter get the professor out of that,” said Pete severely, “but I noticed that the professor stepped on a particular stone as he reached for them treasures. I guess it is only that stone, behind which the stuff is piled, that works the gas consarn.”

And so it proved. By carefully avoiding the stone which was of a dark blood-color, they dragged the professor to a place of safety, and with water from the canteen and some of his own stimulant, they soon had him on his feet again.

“I should have been upon the lookout,” he said, “I ought to have known that the priests of the tribe would have taken some precautions to protect the offerings from marauders.”

“But the gas only works when you step on that particular stone,” objected Jack.

“I suppose with the ignorant folk with whom they had to deal, one lesson of that sort was quite sufficient. That is the logical stone to step upon, and having once tested it, nobody was likely to try again,” rejoined the professor.

“And now to gather up the treasure, or what we can of it,” said Jack.

Pete produced a big roll of sacking which, on being distributed, proved to consist of burlap bags, one for each member of the party.

 
“Here we are, on Tom Tiddler’s ground,
Picking up gold and silver!”
 

So sang the boys, as sacks in hand they rushed forward.

“This girdle for me!” cried Jack, holding up a belt of golden coins with great, rough rubies encrusting it.

“This goblet takes my eye,” quoth Ralph, stowing a golden vessel, likewise jewel-encrusted, into his receptacle.

Besides the wrought gold there were ingots of gold in the rough, silver articles of all sorts, and all gem-studded. The heap blazed and flashed with a hundred fires as the torches gleamed upon it. They all worked like beavers and before long the sacks were full with a burden that was quite heavy enough for any of the party to wish to carry.

“Well, this will be all for this trip,” decided the professor when their task was completed, “and now for the open air.”

With the scientist leading the way, his long legs fairly sagging under his burden, they began to retrace their footsteps, fingering the thread as they went.

“What should you estimate the value of this haul at?” Ralph asked, as they once more passed the portal.

“At a rough guess at least $500,000, apart from the value of the collection as antiquities,” said the professor. “It is without doubt the most valuable archeological collection ever stumbled upon.”

Past the Flower of Flame and past the lake of the blind, monstrous eels they retraced their steps, their hearts beating triumphantly at the magnificent conclusion of their long and adventurous quest.

But as they reached the Cave of the Stalactites the subterranean chambers were filled with a sudden terrifying sound. It seemed to drive the ear drums in with its fierce impact. The adventurers felt themselves lifted from their feet and then violently hurled to the ground again. A rush of nauseous smelling gas enveloped them, splitting their heads with its pungent fumes.

The earth shook and trembled and a reverberating roar as of the explosion of a powder magazine filled the whole atmosphere.

Some terrific catastrophe had occurred within the confines of the caves in the heart of the Trembling Mountain. Following the explosion there came a sound like that of a landslide.

CHAPTER XXIV
THE DEATH TRAP

“What can have happened?”

It was Jack who spoke some ten minutes later.

“In my opinion some cataclysm has occurred,” said the professor.

“Meaning by that, that there’s bin a most almighty bust-up?” inquired Pete.

“In colloquial language that was the idea I intended to convey,” said the professor, with dignity.

“Well, what do you think this catty – what-you-may-call-’em has done?” asked Jack.

“Sealed forever the treasure caves,” said the professor promptly. “That explosion we heard was either the ignition of gas from the mouth of the idol or it marked the birth of a new Flower of Flame. In any event the roar and tremble which followed was pretty good evidence that there had been subsidence of the rock in that neighborhood, which, of course, means that the passageways must have caved in.

“Well, we got our share out of it,” said Ralph philosophically.

“Yet it is a great pity that such a thing has occurred,” said the professor sorrowfully, “I had been in hopes of making this cave the Mecca of scientists the world over. This explosion has blasted my dreams of such a thing.”

“Wall, don’t feel too bad about it, professor,” comforted Pete, “we got enough stuff to start a show of our own with, anyhow.”

As there was nothing to be gained by remaining in the cave, they decided to get out to the open air as soon as possible. As they went Jack spoke up suddenly:

“Has it occurred to you fellows that we are carrying a bait that might tempt less dangerous fellows than that band of Ramon’s to plunder us?”

“That’s right,” agreed Pete, “but I guess we won’t be bothered. Nobody but Ramon had wind of our mission, and I don’t imagine that after the lesson the Rangers gave him that he’ll come back in a hurry.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” said Jack, “from what I know of him he’s not the sort of man to let go of a good thing if he can help it, and he’d certainly have a good thing in us, providing he could get the treasure away from us.”

“Always provided,” said Ralph, “but I’ll bet we’d give him a sharp tussle for it.”

“Let us hope nothing of the kind occurs,” said the professor, “we have had difficulties enough on our mission, and now that it is over let us hope we can bring it to a peaceful conclusion.”

“Amen to that,” agreed Pete, “but in time of peace prepare for war, you know. Have you any plans for the return home?”

“Yes,” said the man of science, “the city of Hermosillo on the Mexican West Coast Railroad is not many miles from where we now are. My idea is to make for that and take the train back home.”

“Hooray for the good old U. S. A.!” shouted the Border Boys in chorus.

Conversing cheerily in this manner they reached the mouth of the passage and were about to step out into the starlight, when Pete, who was in advance, held up his hand in a signal that they all had no difficulty in interpreting.

“Stop!”

The keen eyes of the cow-puncher had detected several dark forms skulking in the shadows of the grove about the portal of the cave. From their manner of pacing about, Pete immediately guessed that they were sentries posted there by somebody, whom he concluded could be no other than Ramon.

Retreating down the passage, Pete told the others of his suspicions and a council of war at once followed.

“We’re hemmed in beyond a doubt,” said Jack finally.

“And the question is, how to get out,” put in the professor, as solemnly as if some question had been raised about the matter.

“Wall, if we don’t git out afore long, we’re gone coons,” was Pete’s gloomy contribution.

Suddenly Jack spoke up.

“Do you think the sentries saw or heard us, Pete?”

“No, I don’t. If they had, we’d uv heard of it by now. My idea of the situation is this: Ramon outwitted the Rangers and back tracked on us. Arriving at our camp and finding it deserted, he guessed we’d gone arter the treasure. The rascal thinks to himself that we will make fine cat’s-paws to draw his chestnuts out of the fire, and so, knowing he has us bottled up, he sets those sentries on duty arter he’s tracked us up the mountain side.”

“I guess that’s about it,” rejoined the boy; “the question is, what are we to do?”

“Wait till I go and look the land over a bit,” said Coyote. “In the meantime, put out those torches. If one of those greasers should come snooping into the passage, he might see the glow and nose us out.”

So they waited in total darkness while Coyote departed on his scouting errand. It was a long time before he came back. When he did he was chuckling to himself.

“They’re the worst scared bunch you ever saw,” he said, “I laid behind a rock and listened to ther talk. They think that at any moment some spirits or ghosts is likely to pop out of this hole. They likewise opine that we shall never be seen again because the bogies in the mountain have gobbled us up.”

“But what good does that do us?” asked Jack.

“I dunno,” admitted Pete, “except that it sounded funny to hyar a bunch of grown men so scared of spooks.”

“Light up a torch, Ralph,” said Jack the next minute, “it makes me feel creepy to sit here in the dark.”

Ralph reached into his pocket for the bundle of sulphur matches. As he drew his hand out, his fingers, moistened with perspiration, gleamed greenly with the phosphorus which had adhered to them.

“Gee, look at that stuff blaze!” he exclaimed, “you’d think I was on fire!”

But Jack was on his feet doing a sudden ecstatic war dance.

“Hooray! Hooray! I’ve got it!” he cried.

“The extinguisher?” inquired Walt anxiously.

“No, a plan. A great plan! Those greasers outside are all half frightened out of their lives already. We’ll finish the job!”

“How?” the question came in chorus.

“We’ll smear our faces with that phosphorus from the matches, and then rush out looking like a lot of green ghosts. If that won’t stampede them, we’ll have to fight. We can’t stay mewed up in here.”

“By hookey, boy, you’ve got it all right!” cried Pete in a voice vibrant with excitement. “We’ll try it. As you say, we can’t stop hyar and starve, and that’s what it amounts to if we don’t git out.”

“So it’s scare them or fight them,” said Ralph.

“That is, with the odds in favor of the former,” laughed Jack.

Each of the party wet his face with water from the canteen, and then rubbed the matches over his features till they glared greenly in the darkness with a truly terrifying expression. Then they gave their hands similar treatment.

“Gee, I’ll bet I’d be scared of myself if I could see myself,” laughed Ralph, “you fellows look hideous enough to frighten a pack of brass monkeys.”

“Now to see if it will work on those other monkeys outside,” said Jack.

In single file, Pete first, Jack second, and the others coming behind, they softly approached the end of the passage. In the starlight they could see the dark forms of the sentries huddled pretty close together, for companionship doubtless.

“Now!” whispered Pete suddenly, “and the more hoorendously you yell, the better it will be!”

With a series of the most unearthly screeches, the Border Boys and their companions dashed from the cave mouth. Truly they must have been a terrifying spectacle with their glaring green faces and hands, emerging as they did from a cave which the superstitious Mexicans firmly believed to be haunted.

As the first shrill cries rang out, the sentries gave an answering series of yells. Only their cries, instead of being menacing and uncanny like our adventurers’, were shrill screams of terror.

“Caramba! The ghosts of the caves!” they shrieked.

“Santa Maria! They are after us!”

“Run for your lives, hombres!”

Without stopping to collect their rifles, which they had carelessly piled against the trees, the Mexicans dashed off at top speed, stumbling and then struggling to their feet again and dashing on in their wild panic.

The adventurers at once possessed themselves of the rifles and then came to a halt. But Pete addressed them:

“We must foller up our advantage. We have ’em on the run. Foller ’em while we’ve got ’em going!” he cried.

Once more off dashed the green ghosts, hotly pursuing the fleeing Mexicans, whose yells resounded everywhere. In the camp was Ramon himself. He was suddenly aroused as his terrified band came stumbling in, imploring aid from all the saints in the calendar.

“What is this, you dogs!” he bawled, “what does this mean?”

“Oh, the ghosts! The ghosts with the green faces that burn, and the fiery hands!” screamed the panic-stricken Mexicans.

The shrewd outlaw at once guessed what had occurred. But even his iron nerve was shaken as he saw the green-faced spectres sweeping down the mountain side toward him. He stood his ground, however, and by his side stood Canfield, the red-headed American. But the two, unsupported by the band, were no match for the well-armed Border Boys and their companions, and they knew it.

“Surrender or be shot down like a dog!” cried Coyote Pete in Spanish, as they rushed into the camp. In the distance could be heard the yells of the scared Mexicans as they leaped to their horses and dashed off, deserting their leaders.

Ramon’s reply was to fire point blank at the cow-puncher. The bullet grazed his cheek and caused a temporary halt. In that brief instant Ramon and Canfield turned and dashed away at top speed. They scrambled upon their horses bareback, and in a jiffy the thunder of hoofs told that they, too, were off.

The adventurers instantly saddled their own stock and set off in pursuit. They had no intention of losing such an advantage as they now possessed. But their animals were no match for the fleet black, and daylight found them far to the rear of the chase.

But in the meantime Destiny, which had overtaken Ramon at last, had arranged a fitting finale for his tempestuous career. The Rangers, true to their promise, were on their way to meet our party at the place agreed upon, and at daybreak Ramon and Canfield, white faced, dust covered and desperate, encountered the rough and ready cavalry in a narrow defile. Ramon at once swung his black and dashed off like the wind, leaving Canfield on his exhausted beast to fall an easy prey to the Rangers. Leaving a file of men to guard the prisoner, the captain of the Rangers dashed off in hot pursuit of Ramon and his fleet steed. But the great horse easily outdistanced his followers, and had it not been for the hands of Destiny, Ramon might once more have escaped his end.

But as he shot out of the defile he spied, coming toward him, the Border Boys. The rascal was fairly trapped. Behind him were the Rangers, in front the Border Boys. As he hesitated, Coyote Pete cried in a loud voice:

“Do you surrender?”

The Mexican’s reply was to dash back once more. Perhaps he hoped to ride and trample his way through the Rangers. But what desperate thoughts raced through his mind in those last moments we shall never know, for presently, as the Rangers approached, a volley came whizzing about the cornered desperado.

One chance of escape only, had he. On the opposite side of the defile lay a narrow ledge running to the top of the sheer cliff. Could he gain that he might stand a chance of escape. Before they realized what he was about to do, Ramon saw the desperate loophole and gathered his horse for the impossible leap across the chasm.

The gallant black, true as steel to his unworthy master to the last, never faltered. Straight out into the air he shot, while the Border Boys and the Rangers alike sat spellbound by the scene.

The horse’s forefeet touched the opposite ledge, but the hold was too weak. With a shrill whinny of terror, with which mingled a terrible scream from Ramon, the beautiful and gallant animal went crashing backward, down, down into the depths of the abyss, – while the horror-stricken onlookers sat paralyzed in their saddles!

✱ ✱ ✱ ✱ ✱ ✱

The next day a happy party set out from the region of the mystic caves, carrying a freight of treasure and escorted by the Mexican Rangers, who, by Don Alverado’s wish, were to offer them all the protection possible.

An examination of the caves had shown that the professor’s guess that they had been sealed for all time by the explosion of the natural gases was correct. Beyond the first great chamber the foot of man would never more penetrate.

At evening on the second day of their journey, the roofs of Hermosillo came in sight. And then the captain of the Rangers turned to our party.

“Our duty is done, senors,” he said, saluting, “yonder is the end of your journey.”

“One moment,” said Jack, reddening a little and lowering his voice, “here are two letters I will ask you to deliver when you reach Santa Anita once more. And a packet,” he added, handing the officer the articles.

“I shall see that they reach their destination safely,” said the officer, taking them and thrusting them into the bosom of his coat. “And now, adios!”

“Adios!” The cry was caught up by the Rangers and went echoing out along the mountain side.

At the same instant, as though moved by a common impulse, the Mexicans swung their wiry ponies and dashed off toward the East. The Border Boys stood watching them till in a cloud of dust they vanished from their sight forever. Then turning in silence they rode down into Hermosillo. Here telegrams were despatched telling of the success of their quest, and the next day they boarded the train for home. The ponies traveled less luxuriously than their masters, in a stock car, while in the express coach, guarded by shotgun messengers, were the precious trophies of the cave.

“Say, Jack, if I’m not too curious, what was in that package that you handed the officer yesterday?”

The question came from Ralph.

“A present of gems for himself and his men,” was the rejoinder. “I knew you would think I did right in giving it to them. In fact, I had the professor’s permission to do so.”

“And the letters?” asked Ralph.

“Well,” said Jack, “one was to Don Alverado thanking him for all he had done, and bidding him good-bye. The other was to – somebody else.”

For a time the boy sat silent, gazing from the windows at the flying landscape, – and seeing nothing of its details!

But the past was behind them, and Jack was not the boy to waste time on moonshiny thoughts. In fact, while all the party lingered long in memory among the strangely varied scenes of their recent experiences, life was full of a new zest, and the future beckoned them.

Ere long, to share with you our prophetic knowledge, the keenest faculties of the Border Boys were to be called into action. In Texas, the Lone Star State, some work, play and adventure lay in front of them, and those who have hitherto followed our Border Boys through their careers of incident and excitement, may find more about them in another volume, which will be called “The Border Boys With The Texas Rangers.”

The End