Airplane Boys in the Black Woods

by E. J. Craine

“Thank you, sir. As well as these matters, I have learned much about my own race, its traditions, history before the conquest and the destruction of the Empire. All of these things are fairly well known to you, so I shall go to the story of the temple ruin the boys visited earlier this morning. It was an ancient city long before the Spaniards visited these shores, had a large population, while many of its leading men knew of the Ynca Empire to the south. The tribes frequently traded with each other, and it was the ambition of our race to extend the northern section of the development to meet that of the Yncas which ended, at the time of the conquest, at Quito, which was the last great station on the Royal Road,” he paused, and Jim nodded.

“We’ve seen some of the ruins,” Jim said.

“No doubt, the land is full of them. In the temple were men and women, the best of the tribes, who recorded the traditions and history in sculpturing, carving, weaving and the knotted twines which are still found in certain localities. The range of the Andes mountains which separated us from the southern empires was, and still is, a great barrier. There were no horses, wagons or other means of building, but construction was going on constantly. Then our ancient prophets who foretold many things with great accuracy, and read the signs in the skies, the rocks, and the mountains, grew very sober. They foretold that the Empire to the south would be annihilated almost entirely and a new race would take complete possession of the whole country.”

“Those prophets surely knew their onions,” Bob remarked, and Donald nodded.

“They met with the great men of the land, and for the next hundred years they ceased to build in the sections of the Black Woods. They devoted themselves to planting great forests, to cutting ways through the mountains which are still undiscovered by the white men, and quietly started a community far from the coast, and so distant from other tribes that their existence in the new community was unknown. Each new generation studied the signs, and although many of the people were discontented because of the activities carried on, which were in opposition to their own desires, the younger prophets continued to verify the findings of the old men, so that no change was made in the plan. The people who did not believe that it was possible for a strange race to come here and survive, separated themselves from the others and resolved to remain where they were. However, they did assist in the construction of hiding-houses and passages to which they could flee if the threatened danger ever came. The southern empire was growing both north and south and our people, some of them, were sure the others lacked what you now call a progressive spirit.” He smiled at the Flying Buddies.

“Great old spirit,” Bob remarked.

“Over a hundred years from the time of the first prophecy, tribes coming from the northern islands began to tell strange tales of a race which came out of the sea in winged boats, spit fire from sticks, and threw red hot stones which caused everything they struck to crumble and fall. They dressed in a shiny metal and mounted themselves on strange animals they called horses, whose hoofs trampled men, women and children. They spoke of their king, made amazing promises to the natives, stole gold and jewels by the boat-load, and forced the tribes to work for them and pay them tribute.”

“Generous little habit those middle-agers had,” said Jim.

“The people of our land heard these stories and most of them withdrew to the fastness they had prepared for themselves, but the others refused to credit the strange stories and could not conceive of any race making slaves of them. They built themselves more hiding places, buried their treasures, made circuitous passages through the thick forests and filled them with spiked traps, deadly snakes, vipers, and treacherous bridges which would fall as soon as any weight was put upon them. They deserted their city and temple, and stripped it of its wealth. In the course of a few years the white men appeared in their boats, threw their hot stones, or bullets, fired their guns, and marched into the land. They found, here in the north, a few wild tribes besides all that was left of our people who had remained behind.”

“Reckon they wished they had gone when the going was good,” said Jim.