Chapter XX: The Chest of Secrets

All that night, Curlie Carson plodded doggedly on before his three burros. Had he known of his pal's safety, he must surely have camped beside the trail and slept. As it was he did not pause for rest.

As the black horde on Curlie's trail traveled light, with no donkeys to be urged forward, they made hourly gains on the lone plodder. In the beginning Curlie had a start of ten miles. Two hours had not passed before this lead was cut to eight miles. Midnight found them but four miles behind. As dawn broke, had the trail been straight and broad instead of crooked and narrow, they must surely have caught sight of Curlie's lagging donkeys. And then--

But fate was with the lone traveler. They did not see; they could not know how near they were to the one on whom they hoped to wreak vengeance. And as the sun came out hot on the jungle trail, they began, animal-like, to drop beside the trail to rest.

At last with half his force missing, the revengeful leader angrily called a halt and made rude camp for the day. In this he missed his opportunity, for Curlie, after a brief pause to allow his donkeys to browse on the tree leaves and wiry grass, pressed tirelessly on through the long hot day. Only as evening fell did he tether his beasts and lie him down to close his weary eyes in sleep.

* * * * * * * *

Meanwhile Doris and Dot were not without their exciting hours.

"Look! There! There he is!" It was Doris who spoke. She danced up and down in wild excitement.

"Where? Where?" Dot asked in great bewilderment. Night had passed. Morning had dawned with vivid clearness over the ruins of the ancient castle. Breakfast was over and the girls for three hours past had been exploring the ruins. On tiptoes they had ascended the massive moss-grown stairs that in the distant past had led to stately halls. They had come upon great heaps of stone and brick mantled by clinging bush and creeping vine.

"It is as if nature would hide it all." Doris had said, a touch of sadness in her tone.

"Yes," said Dot. "And why not? The man who built the castle turned tyrant. He sold his splendid birthright for power and gold. Had he proven a kind and just ruler his castle might have been standing to this day."

They were wandering still among the ruins when the great moment had arrived. Doris did not answer her companion's excited questions. She only pointed at the top of a jagged pile of rock and Dot saw for herself.

"The monkey!" exclaimed Dot.

"The jeweled monkey," Doris answered.

"And see!" she said, gripping at her heart to still its wild beating. "There are now three rings on his arm!"

It was true. From the small creature's arm there gleamed three jewels, two white stones and a red one.

"Two diamonds and a ruby," whispered Dot. "If only we can get them."

"If only we can find the hiding place from which they come," said Doris.

Dot was thinking hard. Of all the exciting moments in her young life, this was the wildest, yet she knew that few things were accomplished in moments of wild excitement.

"We must be calm," she said.

She closed her eyes for a moment that her wild spirits might be stilled.

Doris too was thinking and as she thought she put her hand to her bracelets. She wondered, as she did so, whether her finely laid plan would work.

Moving one step nearer to the motionless monkey she squatted down in the identical posture he had assumed, then having removed one bracelet from her wrist she placed it on the rock before her. This done she removed another and yet another until the five bracelets lay on the rocks before her.

She then replaced all the bracelets upon her wrist; waited a moment only to repeat the operation. When she had removed the bracelets six times, she left them lying on the rock to turn her back and walk away motioning her companion to follow her.

"Why! What in the world?" Dot whispered as they hid behind a clump of bushes.

Doris held up a hand for silence. It was indeed a bold game she was playing. She prized her bracelets because they came from very dear friends. And if she lost Dot's? She dared not think of it.

That the monkey would do one of two things she felt quite certain. "If he should take a fancy to the bracelets," she drew in a quick breath at the thought.

But no! As they peered through the bushes they saw that the monkey was acting true to form. He was imitating the girl's action. Having removed the three rings from his arm he placed them on a flat rock. This done he placed them again on his arm.

"But will he go away and leave them?" Doris asked herself.

Three tense moments followed, moments in which the monkey followed out the girl's pantomime to the last detail.

Then to Doris' intense delight, he went scampering away.

Twenty seconds later Doris' hand was closing over the three precious stones.

"It is a shame to do it," she said. "But these stones will do us much more good than they could possibly do any monkey."

"Let me see them," said Dot eagerly stretching out a hand.

She took one of the white stone rings from her open palm. Then having taken a small mirror from her pocket, she drew the corner of the stone across it.

"Hurrah!" she shouted. "It's real. It cuts glass. It's a diamond."

"Be still!" said Doris gripping her arm. "You'll frighten the monkey away. I'm afraid that we have killed the goose that lays the golden egg."

"Killed what?" Dot stared at her in surprise.

"Don't you see," said Doris, "what we might have done? If our monkey friend has found two rings in the last few days, who can say how many more treasures there are hidden where these rings were found?"

"Who indeed?"

"If only we could have followed him to the source of his treasure."

"We can! We can!" exclaimed Dot, springing up. "There he goes now!"

The next instant they were following on the trail of the fleet-footed monkey. In no time at all Dot, surer of foot and more accustomed to rough travel in the tropics, was far in the lead of her cousin.

"We--we'll lose him!" she panted.

"But look," said Doris, trying her best to keep up. "He is leaving the ruins and taking to the forest." Her tone showed her disappointment. "He's not going to his treasure-house. He's trying to escape us."

"You never can tell," said Dot. "Anyway we must follow him."

So once more in the stifling heat of a Haitian day they took up the wild race that led on to victory or defeat, to treasure or disappointment.

A half hour of exciting struggle through brush, bush and tangled vines and then, just as hope was waning, they came to an open space to discover there a heap of broken masonry. And atop the pile, Oh, joy of joys! was the jeweled monkey.

One moment he blinked at them, the next he disappeared into the ruins.

"Oh, Dot!" said Doris. "What if this should prove to be the place of the queen's treasure!"

"That," said Dot, after a moment of rest and thought, "is what we are about to find out."

Together, hand in hand, feeling like Twin Alices in Wonderland, they marched to the ruins.

"This," said Dot, "is the ruins of the black emperor's hunting lodge. I have heard of it, but no one I know has ever seen it. Look," she said as she mounted the pile. "The monkey went down through that small hole to the cavity beneath that large rock."

"We must roll the stone away," said Doris excitedly. "There must be a chest down there, a huge copper chest filled with jewels and gold."

Instantly all save the treasure was forgotten. The heat, approaching night, the trouble and labor that had been theirs, all was forgotten in their one desire to roll away the stone.

For a time all went well. A dozen smaller stones were sent tumbling down the sloping pile. The monkey, who had left his retreat, chattered encouragement from a nearby treetop. When at last they came to the key stone they found, to their consternation, that their combined strength could not move it. Three times they attempted it. Then panting and perspiring, with sore hands and heavy hearts, they sat down to think.

"If only we had brought old Pompee with us," said Dot.

"I am so hungry I could eat anything," said Doris.

"Tell you what," said Dot, who was a hard loser. "We'll have one more try at that big stone. There's a stout lignumvitae pole over there. It's dreadfully heavy, heaviest wood in the world, but we can handle it. We'll get one end under the stone, then use it as a pry."

Wearily the girls climbed down to tug away at the pole. Up it went and into place. Then presto! Down it came and up came the stone.

"Grand!" said Dot. "Now you sit on the end of the pole and I'll have a look."

"Hurrah!" she shouted a moment later. "Here is a hole, a regular grotto, and I see something shining down there. We've found the chest of gold. You just sit tight where you are on the pole and I'll go down. Don't move though or you might drop the stone on me."

Down she went. The place she entered was not over three feet across. It had jagged edges and led down to what had once been a solid floor, some eight feet below.

"Fine! I'm down!" Doris heard her say. "And here's a chest of secrets!"

The chest she spoke of was a rather small affair; little more than a lady's jewel box.

The earthquake which had wrecked the walls of the ancient lodge had crushed the chest as well. One hinge was gone, the lock was broken, and it lay half on its side with its contents spilled over the rocks.

That the objects the box had contained were of considerable value Dot knew. She set herself to the task of gathering them together. Darting her flashlight about she discovered here a diamond brooch, there a ruby set shoe buckle and here its mate, here a curious ring set with a more curious stone and there a belt buckle set with a spray of small diamonds.

She had righted the box, had replaced the contents and was darting her light about for a last look when, of a sudden, a terrible thing happened.

No one knew just how it came about. To sit on a smooth pole for a considerable length of time is a trying and difficult task. When one is weary it is worse. Perhaps Doris moved a trifle to ease a benumbed muscle. Perhaps she fell half asleep and moved unconsciously. Whatever it might be, the pole suddenly swung to the right, there came a sickening grind and the great rock fell into place, sealing Dot up beneath the rock as effectively as if it had been a tomb.

Could anything be worse? Their treasure hunt had ended in disaster. Doris sat down upon the ruins to cover her aching eyes with her hands and to try to think calmly.

Night was coming on. Already the shadows were falling. There was an ominous muttering from off in the east.

"It may rain. She may be drowned in that horrible well of a place." For the first time she found herself hating the jeweled monkey. To make matters worse the graceful creature sat on a low hanging limb and chuckled as in high glee.

"It's all right," Doris called to Dot at last in the most cheerful tone she could command. "I will go to our camp for Mona. The two of us can roll the stone away."

"The camp," Dot answered, "is miles away. Besides, Mona is old. She has no strength. You two could not roll the stone away."

"Then," said Doris, "I must go for someone else. You can't remain there forever."

"No, I can't. You'd better go."

"All right. I'm going." Something akin to a sob followed Doris' words "Good bye."

"Good bye."

She was gone. Night settled down swiftly as nights will in the tropics. Dot was left to herself and the ancient treasure that had in its day witnessed so much of glory and honor, so much of baseness and defeat. As she sat there in the little dark hole it seemed to her that the long-lost jewels spoke to her telling her how all that is bright, rich and glorious must fade and pass away.

"If ever I get out of this alive," she told herself, "my share of jewels shall be used in a way that will make a few people in this old world happier and better."

Strangely enough, this resolve brought to her a peace she had not known before. It was as if some great spirit, kinder and more noble than she could ever hope to be, had whispered a solemn "Amen."