The Boy Fortune Hunters in Yucatan by L. Frank Baum

Without doubt our presence on the mountain and our declared intention of visiting the hidden city was by this time known to the Tcha. Our best policy would be to appear among them at once, rather than wait for them to formulate a plan to prevent our purpose.

"They can't be very fierce people, if the others are like the sample we've seen," remarked Archie. "He wasn't at all a bad looking fellow."

"I believe I would rather face the Tcha than tackle the Itzaex again," added Ned Britton. "We know how to deal with white folks."

"I do not forget that the Tcha killed my father's followers without mercy," said Chaka. "But that need not discourage us. We made the journey to gain this hidden city, and my brother Paul's plan to fly over the mountain seems to me to be wise."

Our thoughts were none too cheerful as we sat there hour after hour and discussed the forlorn hope, perhaps imagining more terrors than actually existed. It was a big mountain. We could realize that, now we had reached it and were perched like birds upon a narrow ledge of rock, with a dangerous precipice at our feet. There was room for a pretty big city inside the grim walls of this barrier, if it really was hollow and a city of living people existed within it.

We brewed some coffee over an alcohol stove and Paul made enough extra to fill his thermos bottles. In the supply chest-one of the four we carried-was a quantity of food in very condensed form. By boiling water brought from the spring we made some very excellent soup from a small tablet, and a tin of beef, with a biscuit apiece, enabled us to feast in a very satisfactory manner.

All our operations had to be conducted on a shelf of rock not two feet wide, and the place was so littered with the carcasses of the vipers we had killed that the only way to sit or lie down was by perching upon the chests.

Gradually the sun sank and twilight fell. Nearly all of us were impatient to start as soon as possible, but Allerton restrained us.

"We have waited long and endured much to gain this position," said he. "It would be reckless folly to spoil our prospects now by acting prematurely."

So we waited, hour after hour, until the patience of even our staid blacks was well-nigh exhausted. Archie grumbled and growled continually, while Joe whistled softly to himself. Pedro fell asleep and only escaped falling into the precipice by Ned's quick grasp on his arm as he was rolling off a chest.

Finally Allerton looked at his watch for the twentieth time.

"Midnight," he announced. "I think we may risk it now."

We were getting used to the trick of inflating our gas-jackets. In a few moments each man was a miniature balloon, with wings ready to direct his flight. We expanded the coverings of the chests until they floated gently, and were about the same weight as the air itself. Then we examined our electrites, to which we all attached fresh storage belts, saw that guns and revolvers were loaded and in working order, and then were prepared to undertake the most important phase of our adventure.

The moon was up again and the stars bright and gleaming. While we might have preferred darkness, if allowed a choice, we were obliged to make the best of a night that seemed alive and thrilling with heavenly radiance. We could see what we were doing, anyway, and since we were exploring an unknown country that fact was comforting to a degree.

Once more we looped ourselves together by means of the cord, and then at Allerton's command we turned on the gas until we began to float gently upward.

Using our wings, which were becoming less awkward to us, we guided ourselves toward the center of the mountain top. Within a quarter of an hour we were poised directly over it.

And now, indeed, we not only recognized the truth of Chaka's report, derived from his father, but were filled with amazement at what we beheld.

Within the walls of the great mountain lay a deep cup, or valley, the surrounding peaks forming its bulwark or wall of defense, and effectually shutting out the outside world. And in the valley, as it was disclosed to our eyes under the moonlight, were trees, rivers and fields of verdure and of grain.

But in a great circle following the oblong shape of the valley and extending from the walls of the mountain a quarter of a mile or so toward the center, was the city we had sought, brilliant with thousands of electric lights. The buildings were constructed of white, highly polished marble, not being flat or square as were the dwellings of Itza, but having towers, gables, and minarets, and presenting many novel and beautiful designs of architecture. The streets-both the circular ones extending around the valley and the cross streets-were broad and smooth as our American boulevards, and were lined with splendid shade trees.

It was an impressive sight from our bird's-eye position, this handsome city, and quaint enough to rank with any European town of ancient date. But it was altogether more fantastic than even the Chinese towns I had visited, and being built like a belt, following the outlines of the enclosing mountain, it certainly presented a most unique appearance.