The Romance of Golden Star ...Griffith, George Chetwynd
Science
The Romance of Golden Star ...
Griffith, George Chetwynd
Fantasy fiction
'Yes, willingly,' said the professor, glad to get back again on to the
familiar ground of his own experiences. 'I found it almost by accident
in a little valley about four days' ride to the westward of Cuzco. I was
on my way to Abancay across the Apurimac. My mule had fallen lame, and
so I got belated. Night came on, and somehow we got off the track
crossing one of the Punas--those elevated tablelands, you know, up among
the mountains--and when the mule could go no farther we camped, and the
next morning I found myself in an almost circular valley, completely
walled in by enormous mountains, save for the narrow, crooked gorge
through which we had stumbled by the purest accident. The bottom of this
valley was filled by a little lake, and while I was exploring the shores
of this I saw, hidden underneath an overhanging ledge of rock, a couple
of courses of that wonderful mortarless masonry which the Incas alone
seemed to know how to build. I had no sooner seen it than all desire of
getting to Abancay or anywhere else had left me. I made my arriero turn
the animals loose for the day, and then I sent him back to a village we
had passed through the day before to buy more provisions and bring them
to me.
'As soon as he had got out of sight I set to work to get some of the
stones out and see what there was behind them. I knew there must be
something, for the Incas never wasted labour. It was hard work, for the
stones were fitted together as perfectly as the pieces of a Chinese
puzzle; but at last I got one out and then the rest was easy. Behind the
stones I found a little chamber hollowed out of the rock, perfectly
clean and dry, and on the floor of this I found, without any other
covering than what you see there, the mummy of His Highness lying on
what had once been a bed of soft Vicuna skins, as perfect and as
lifelike as though he had only crept in there twelve hours before, and
had laid down for a good night's rest.
'You may imagine how delighted I was at such a find. I hardly knew how
to contain myself until my man came back. I put the stones back into
their places as well as I could, and when Patricio returned the next day
I had the animals saddled up, and started off in a hurry to Cuzco. There
I had this case made, bought two extra mules, brought them to the
valley, packed up my mummy, took it back to Cuzco, and from there to the
railway terminus at Sicuani and took it down by train to Arequipa, where
I left it in safe keeping until I had finished the rest of my
exploration. Then I went back, took it down to Mollendo, got it on board
the steamer, and here it is.'
'And you didn't find any traces of other treasure-places, I suppose, in
the valley?' said Djama, who had listened with the most perfect
attention to the professor's story.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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