“We’ve been up to the top and have seen all you saw. It was no dream, old man, but simple reality. But don’t let the Indians hear anything about it, or they would stampede straight away.”
Jack stared in mute surprise, scarce knowing what to think, whether to be most pleased to have it established that he was not ‘a dreamer of dreams,’ or astonished at the almost incredible fact it conveyed—that the top of the mountain was, in very truth, inhabited.
“And the puma?” he asked.
“Is still with us. You had better go in and have a rest and take charge of her, while we see to the unloading.”
This Jack was glad to do, and, on entering the cavern, he was welcomed by the animal with every demonstration of gladness at his return.
“Ah! you have not forgotten me then, old girl,” he said, and he patted and stroked the creature. “You’re not so very fickle, then, after all. Now come along with me for a while—I’m going to have a wash.”
When all the fresh stores had been placed inside, and the Indians were engaged upon their evening meal, and Monella and the two young men were seated at theirs, Jack asked for further details of the wonderful news Leonard had briefly spoken of.
“It is substantially a repetition of what you told us,” said Elwood, “save that we managed a little better in the morning than you did. That is to say, we did not go the wrong way into the wood, as I suppose you did; and thus, at sunrise, sure enough, we saw the wonderful city, which Monella avers can be no other than Manoa—or, as the Spaniards called it, El Dorado! We saw its palaces, and towers, and spires, glistening and glittering in the sun—a marvellous sight! So, Jack, old boy, you can be at ease; you are not yet ‘a dreamer of dreams.’”
“But your intelligence, all the same, makes me feel quite dazed,” answered Jack. “Are you really sure about it? Are you certain—do you feel confident that—er—well, that it won’t all have melted into thin air by the time we get up there?”
“Scarcely. It is too substantial for that.”