“Hadn’t we better block the bird?” Bob suggested, but there were neither logs nor rocks available.
“I’ll raise the wheels and let her rest on the floats. They clutch the surface like a tire and if it should blow up much we’ll have to get away quickly,” Jim decided. Presently that was accomplished, then Carlos led them cautiously along the narrow S until at last they were near the further end where they paused again.
“Gee, look at these sentinels. Don’t they look like something built up here,” Bob exclaimed as he saw a giant rim of smooth stones which rose like a wall close by them.
“They were brought here, but no one knows how,” Carlos told them.
“How do you know they were brought here?” Bob demanded.
“When you examine them you can see that the rock is much different from any around this part of the country, and also you can see that they were set in, like a foundation. There is a story that the conquerors who came here found an unfinished temple. The stones are fine quality, such as the ancient temples to the Sun God were made of, but these were so firmly planted and high up, that they could not be hauled down or destroyed. Where they could, the conquerors wrecked the temples and used the stones in their own buildings but some of the walls of the temple of Lake Titicaca are still standing. There isn’t a crack in them where they were joined,” Carlos replied.
“Must be a great piece of work,” Bob remarked.
“It is and no one knows how it was done. So many of the Indians were killed that their amazing skill was lost in a few years.”
“Some of them were fine jewelers—they knew a lot of things—I’ve read about Lake Titicaca and the temple there,” Jim said quietly.
“There is a difference of opinion as to whether that was the emerald temple, or this place here. Once when I was a little fellow I came up with some other boys, but we didn’t hang around very long. We had to do some dangerous climbing, throw ropes ahead and haul ourselves that way. The land hereabouts belongs to what is left of one of the tribes and cannot be taken away from them, but as far as I have ever heard, only one very old Indian woman is ever around. A funny thing happened the time I came, I was scared out of my wits, and I went along that wall pressed as close as I could get because I was sure that I’d fall. I felt one of the stones move and it slid open. When I reached my companions I told them about it and we all came back but I couldn’t find the place. They laughed at me, of course, but just the same I’m positive it moved.”