Sword in Sheath (11 page)

Sam groaned and stooped to feel gingerly of the calves of his legs. “I charge time-and-a-half for gymnastics,” he warned. “And have you thought, my fine feathered friend, that we shall have to come down again after we get up? All right, all right” He took the rope the Samoan was holding out. “I can see the darn thing. I hope I'm good at knots — if I swing out over that gulf I want to be pulled back again — by your strong and willing arms — ”

“Trustful little squirt, isn't he?” Kane asked Fortnight. “Keep your feet where they belong, Sam. I don't intend to do any pulling at all — my arms aren't what they used to be — say about an hour ago. Next time we make one of
these expeditions I shall be the one to mooch around on the sand looking for pearl beds — not a mountain taming hero. Allez-oop, Fortnight!”

The Samoan hung the plaited lanyard of his bolo around his neck and began to climb. The first hundred feet were comparatively easy. But after that Kane gritted his teeth, forcing himself to keep eyes only on the stone before him and move up according to the holds Fortnight called out as he changed his own. Through a cotton-dry mouth he managed to grunt out the same instructions to Sam. The strap of the Reising cut into his shoulders with a file edge, and he hesitated between each shift of holds to make sure it was properly balanced. How long it took them to creep up that bad stretch he never knew — it seemed to pass as a week of sun-filled days.

But it could not last forever, and they worked again into a piece of porous, weathered rock where holds were many and easy.

“Wait!” Fortnight's voice was hoarse with strain. “I'm going to circle left now. I think that I can see the edge of a plateau over there — ”

So they crawled crabwise left, and Kane suddenly felt the tug of his waist rope.

“Come ahead — good footing here.”

They were up, all three of them, and before them was a gentle slope leading down into what had once been the fiery core of a volcano. On one side, to their right, a large section of the core wall had broken away, perhaps in that same earthquake which had shorn off the old road. So now what lay below was a saucer of which about a quarter was missing.

There was some vegetation, brilliantly green. But the dense mat which formed the jungle on the slopes was missing. And here and there, among the trees and bushes, were tumbled heaps of stone which somehow appeared too regular to be the debris of nature.

Sam took the binoculars from their case and slowly swept the outer rim of this sky valley.

“There's the city.” Fortnight pointed to the stone heaps.

“City! Up here?”

“Your city is here all right,” Sam confrimed the Samaon's guess. “And across there is something very, very interesting. A temple, I think, and one still in good working order by the looks of the altar down front. Take a squint for yourself, fella” He pushed the glasses into Kane's hand.

11

SIVA'S FOURTH FACE

Kane swung the glasses in a short arc. Out of a spur of the cone wall, almost straight across the crater valley from where they stood, there leaped into full and lavish detail what was most certainly the entrance to a temple carved out of the rock of the mountain itself. Grotesque masks of forgotten gods and demons leered and frowned over the desolation they had once ruled. But years had weathered their elaborate headdresses and chipped their bold features.

From the wry-faced god at the apex of the dark doorway Kane's gaze traveled downward until — Beneath the sticky envelope of his shirt he knew again the familiar crawl of aroused nerves.

There was a fait stone block before that doorway. And on that block was heaped a mound of bright-skinned fruit and brilliant flowers. Both offerings were arranged in a pattern. The American passed the binoculars to Fortnight and unslung his Reising.

“Shall we go in from the left?” Sam was already edging
in that direction. “More cover over there.”

Kane evaluated the crater's cover with that searching care which had been so laboriously drilled into his mind and body. “Left it is. But they've probably sighted us already — ”

“The flowers are withering. They have been there sometime — perhaps hours.” The Samoan returned the glasses to Sam. “Yes, to the left is best, sir. And it would be prudent, I think, to move as much undercover as possible.”

“You don't think there is still a settlement
here
then?”

“No, sir. This may be a holy place, but I do not think that anyone lives in the cone.”

They began their progress around the outer edge of the valley next to the swell of the cone wall. There was cover enough in the ragged growth of brush and the stone piles of the lost city to conceal a regiment, and as long as they exercised reasonable care, Kane thought that they might remain hidden from any worshiper or worshipers who had climbed to sacrifice at that temple in the sky.

It could not have been a large place, this stronghold of the crater valley, even in the days of its greatest glory. But it had been the center of a rather high degree of civilization. The intricate carving which patterned most of the larger stones had been designed and executed by artists. And the immense piles of such blocks suggested that they were the remains of quite large buildings.

“Do you suppose this was all one temple? There's a place in Java where a single one covers a whole mountain.” Kane had paused to wet tongue and mouth with a sparing taste from his canteen.

Sam hunkered down before a block and ran his forefinger lightly over the bas-relief appearing there. “It's allied with Hindu stuff anyway. Look at this jolly old girl with all the fangs and the necklace of skulls. She's Kali—
I’ll bet a fiver on it!”

“Kali!” Kane studied the open-mouthed female monster who was apparently screaming in insane fury at the moment when the unknown artist had chosen to immortalize her. “Isn’t she the one who is the patron of those necktie boys — the Thugs? I don't think that I care to have her turn up here.”

Sam's puzzled frown grew deeper. “I never heard of her being worshiped in the islands. She's not a very nice old lady — nursed smallpox germs and indulged in heart-eating and other quaint pastimes of a like nature. Maybe this was the headquarters of a devil cult — like those in Tibet where they do a regular business in black magic. Here” — over Kali's horrible grin he pulled a piece of vine — “let her be veiled — permanently.”

“We can leave her to the lizards.” Kane got up. “Time to move on, soldier.”

It was a very short while later that they caught sight of the bottom step of a wide stairway which led directly up to the cave-entrance of the temple. As they stood for a moment behind a half-dead bush they heard the sounds of a scuffle from the shadows above. A small stone rolled down from step to step. Kane caught the faint click of Sam's gun coming into readiness. His own fingers tightened.

A muscular arm covered with grayish-black fur arose over the edge of the altar stone long enough for black fingers to close about a fruit and jerk it away from the pile. As the rest of the fruit tumbled out of the pyramid arrangement to roll off the altar, more hands appeared to grasp and grab. There came a banshee shriek of outrage and fury and two plump bodies popped into view, one in wild pursuit of the other.

Kane began to laugh helplessly as the apes tore twice around the altar, then disappeared into the interior of the temple. Fortnight stepped into the open and the
Americans followed him.

“Those boys wouldn't be playing around so free and easy if there was anyone here.” Sam stated the obvious as he began to mount the stairs.

But at the door of the temple all three hesitated. In the first place, the sunlight of the crater world did not penetrate far into the cavern, and there was something about its dark silence which was not healthy. Kane investigated the carvings of the lintel Here were demons in plenty — no pleasant faces at all. Sam's supposition might be true — this could be a temple dedicated only to the dark gods.

The silence was strong, a wall closing in upon them. Even the racketing apes had been swallowed up. There was not so much as an insect's buzz to disturb the brooding of the older gods. Earth and dust made a carpet within the door, marked only by the tracks of the fruit stealers. Apparently the worshiper who had brought the offerings had not entered the sanctuary.

“We ought to have a flash to go in there.” Sam shifted from one foot to the other. “It rather smacks of booby traps and such — ”

“Wait — “ Fortnight ran lightly down the stairs and into the brush below.

“D'you suppose he's going back to the
Sumba
for a flashlight?” demanded the Nisei

“Not to the
Sumba
but he's probably going to get a substitute. Wonder where in thunder those apes went. They haven't come out, and we'd still hear them if they were doing half-mile laps around the place — ”

“Of course, there might be another entrance — on the other side of the mountain, say. Dutch, do you know who that is over the door — there?”

“The cheerful gentleman with three faces? No, I’m sorry, but my education has been neglected; he's a total stranger as far as I’m concerned.”

“To be really correct he ought to have four faces, one
on each side of his head. That's Siva, and the face he has turned out to the crater is the face of Siva the Destroyer — which is his worst personality. I don't think this city ws a very nice place in its heyday — not a nice place at all!”

Kane, after glancing at several scenes pictured in lurid detail on the nearest wall, was inclined to agree with him. But the art studies were interrupted as Fortnight came back, a bundle of dry twigs and twisted grasses in his hand. He struck a match to his improvised torch as he joined the Americans on the top step, and holding it above shoulder level, he went into the darkness.

The place was much larger than the size of the doorway suggested. On either side they could catch only glimpses of the distant walls where, in paint and stone, devils sported gruesomely. There were double rows of pillars carved, like the walls, out of native stone, which led straight ahead. And between these the explorers walked.

Kane found himself tiptoeing to keep his boot heels from ringing on the pavement Here and there in the dust were ape prints, and twice the wavering spoor of a snake wrote a curved message under their feet But nowhere was there any proof that man had walked here since the sky city had been deserted. And always the silence hemmed them in — almost menacingly.

The avenue of pillars brought them to the foot of a dais or platform which had been fashioned of one huge block of stone. And on this was planted a gigantic figure which might have appeared in a nightmare. Not that it had a grotesque demon face, a skull necklace, or a severed human head in its outstretched hands, as had some of the other idols they had seen.

Instead it was of semi-human form with only the normal number of arms, legs and head. It was standing, one foot slightly advanced as if about to step down from its place, and it gazed serenely from large gleaming eyes
down the length of the pillared corridor to the square of sunlight which was the opening to the outer world.

But the face —

“Devil!” breathed Sam softly.

The torch in Fortnight's hand wavered as the big man's grip shook, then steadied.

Kane looked from the face several feet above his head to the painting on the wall behind it. There was a difference, a great difference. The god before whom they stood had been made in a different age, by other hands than those which had carved this temple and embellished it with their own vile imaginings. He was older — and more evil There was nothing of the beast in that calm, smooth-planed countenance. Siva and Kali were but the nightmares of backward children compared to this.

“No Hindu made that!” Kane spoke his thought aloud.

Fortnight raised the torch higher. The details of the body were plain, as were the folds of the cloak which half hid its nakedness. As the torch moved the eyes glistened as if the thing were alive and — watching!

“Rock crystal set in the sockets.” Sam's voice was almost too firm.

“But where did it come from? Who put it here?”

“There were old ones in these lands before my people came,” Fortnight answered Kane's demand, “and that was long and long ago. We found cities long deserted, statues of men or gods of whom living men knew nothing. These are old seas, far older than we can reckon I think that this was found here by those who built the crater city. In it they recognized a more powerful representation of what they, too, worshiped, so they gave it due honor. But it is old — just as that for which it stands is very old — ”

“I don't like it! It's not decent A stick of dynamite under it would make the world cleaner. It has too much
power — “ Sam's voice rose.

“Why not — it is Power.” Kane stepped back “You can blow it up, if you want to. Me, I’d rather not touch the thing. And I don't want to look at it any longer either. There's something about those eyes — ”

Sam's words became singsong. “Yes, they look into you, and all the little meannesses and small evils which are there are counted and made important and — right.” He turned away from the dais abruptly.” Come away! It's not for us!”

Without answering they followed him to the left, away from the giant. And here on the floor the pattern of the ape's tracks was thicker, as if the animals had beaten a regular path in that direction for some reason. Mechanically at first, then with real interest they followed that web of tracks. And so they came into a corridor which must have once been a fault in the rock, enlarged by the work of man.

It led for a few feet straight ahead, then turned at a sharp angle to come out on a broad ledge hanging above the other half of the island. No b better vantage point could have been found. Sam took out the glasses as Fortnight pinched out the torch.

Here the jungle did not seem so binding. To the left, at some distance, there was a wide sweep of grassland, almost like an open meadow. Then, at the edge of a stream, the heavier vegetation began again.

“Caves!” The Samoan pointed eagerly to a series of dark openings, most of which were to the right and on a much lower level than the ledge where they now perched.

And there were marks against the mountain wall below those dark doorways, marks which could be seen even without the aid of the glasses. Some of the caves, if not all, were in use.

Not that they sighted any of the inhabitants. Perhaps they had taken to cover, which argued that the arrival of
the
Sumba
was known and that the explorations ashore had not gone unmarked. The three kept close to the entrance of the tunnel at their backs, but it was rather like posing as targets in a shooting gallery.

“If we come around here” — Sam motioned toward the open land — “it will be easy going. Somehow I don't fancy storming up this mountain again — especially if there should be a hostile reception committee waiting somewhere along the way. They wouldn't even have to waste ammunition on us — there were several places back there where a couple of well-aimed rocks would do the business nicely. Well, do you think you will know this place again?”

Kane was searching the floor of the ledge for something which most certainly should have been there but was not — at least as far as he could see.

“Where did the apes go? There are no traces of them here, and yet we found plenty of tracks at the beginning of that tunnel — it looked as if it were one of their regular roads.”

“We can look along the passage; there may be another opening that we missed.” Fortnight touched a match to his improvised torch.

This time they scrutinized the walls carefully as they passed. And it was Kane who first sighted a pocket of shadow which betrayed the entrance to a sort of burrow. From it came a whiff of rank odor — like the scent which had clung to Hornhoven's animal pens. There were tufts of hair caught in the rough stone proclaiming it a passage in much use. But neither Kane nor Fortnight could attempt that door. Sam might possibly wriggle through, but since none of them knew conditions beyond, they decided against the risk.

“Torch is going.” Fortnight held his concoction in both hands. “We'd better leave while it still burns — ”

So their shuffle became a trot, past the dais of the Unknown,
and it was there, almost as if a puff from between those stone lips had extinguished it, that the light went out. Running, they broke out on the steps.

All the fruit was gone from the altar now, save for a couple of badly squashed globes, the fleshy pulp of which made a feast for insects. But the old problem of who had placed it there held the three. Surely there must be some easier path up the mountain than the one they had found.

“Shall we swing around the other way?” asked Kane.

But there their luck was no better. Unless the worshiper had used the ape-hole, he must have appeared at the temple by magic. The ancient earthquake which had cut away the western wall of the cone had carried with it perhaps a quarter of the ruins, and there was only a straight drop down. After half an hour they found themselves back at their original point of arrival, having found no other path of descent