“Hadn’t we better rescue these poor people first?” suggested Jim Nestor, “and let the lizards go?”
“Of course we’ll make the rescue first,” agreed the scientist, “but I’m not going to leave this valley until I have one of those valuable insects. No, not if I have to enter the temple alone and defy all the Indians in it.”
“I’ll help you,” said Mr. Bell, who had formed a liking for the professor. “But suppose your cousin tells us his story.”
“It is soon told,” answered Mr. Deering. “As I said, the Indians are preparing for a great feast, in connection with the annual changing of the flying lizard. Every year they take one lizard from the temple, and either kill it or let it fly away to the woods, and substitute a new one. There are strange ceremonies connected with this, and a great feast. At such times they relax their vigilance over us, but not sufficiently to permit us to escape. I took advantage to-day of the fact that most of the Indians are preparing for the feast, and slipped away. I wanted to be alone and think. You can imagine my surprise when I saw this great airship here. I thought I had suddenly gone insane.”
“And you say there are only eight of you left?” asked Jerry. “How can we best rescue them, for we are determined to take you and them away?”
“It will be a difficult task, I fear,” answered Mr. Deering, “but if you attempt it, the best time will be two nights hence, when they are at the lizard feast. Then we captives are allowed to be together and are not guarded, though at other times we are virtually slaves. I will tell my friends that you are here, and we will be in readiness.”
Mr. Deering then related, in brief, the story of how he and his comrades, years before, had been enticed into the valley by the Indians. The story is already known to my readers, so I will not again go over it. Sufficient to say that the aged man gave more details and told of the numerous times they had tried to escape, and how most of their number had gradually died. The Indians were not specially cruel to them, he added, but kept them close prisoners. There was but one way out of the valley, and this was known only to the Indians, though Loftus had managed to find a path that served him. This, however, was now closed.
The valley was a fertile one, and most of the things needed could be raised in it. Occasionally parties of the Indians would go out, and then those who stayed behind, to guard the captives, would light signal fires to show their companions the way back. It was these lights our friends had seen.
Aside from the worship of the flying lizard, the traits of the Indians were not greatly different from others of their kind. They had all the redman’s failings and savagery.
“The feast of the lizard and the ceremonies connected with it, take place in a large temple, or council house, in the middle of the village,” explained Mr. Deering. “There, two nights hence, will be gathered all the savages.”