“Then it means this—that the mountain is inhabited after all,” said the puzzled Jack. “If so, what sort of a reception are they likely to give us?”
“Well, that of course remains to be seen. But, meantime, it is certain that all your clever theories about the place ‘not having been peopled for hundreds of years’ are fallacious.”
Jack presently asked Monella what he purposed doing next.
“We must put away our stores,” was the reply, “and then arrange our plans for making our presence known to the inhabitants, whoever they may be, of the mountain.”
“Yes, and then, if they speak the same language that you have been teaching me,” Leonard put in, “Jack will have reason to be sorry he has not stuck to it a little more, I fancy.”
Of late, Jack had practically dropped all efforts in this direction, particularly during the last fortnight; while Elwood had neglected no opportunity for using it in his converse with Monella. Elwood had, in consequence, got so far as to be able to speak it fairly well; but Jack was much behind him.
“By Jupiter! But I begin to think there is wisdom in what you say,” was Jack’s response. “I must do my best to make up for lost time.”
The night passed without incident. The Indians stayed on through the following day, and Matava even yielded so far as to enter the dreaded cavern, and take a look into the canyon. Elwood managed to persuade him to do thus much, that he might take back to his friends at Georgetown a description of the scene. Matava was rather afraid of the puma, but the animal was quite friendly. The Indian evidently believed that Elwood and his friends were going to their destruction, and would never again be seen by mortal eyes. However, at Monella’s suggestion, he made for them during the day a more substantial ladder, which the nails and tools brought with the stores enabled him easily to do. He also made some poles or struts to form bars to close the stone from within, and, with much perseverance, cut slots in the rock and in the stone to receive them. When completed, and the struts put in their places, the stone was firmly fixed and could not be moved from the outside.
Then Monella made another suggestion. He arranged with Matava a few simple signals that might be made from the mountain-top by flashing small quantities of powder at night, and that Matava could, in turn, answer from the plain beyond the forest, or, indeed, from ‘Monella Lodge’. These signals were simply—“All well,” “Coming down,” “Not coming down.” It was deemed best not to risk more than these, Matava’s intelligence in such directions being limited; and, since he could not read, to write them down would have been useless.
When, on the last morning, the leave-taking came, the scene was an affecting one. The Indians were well pleased with the rewards given them for their services; but they were, one and all, in genuine distress at the thought of leaving the three adventurers to what they thoroughly believed would be a terrible fate. They even besought them to alter their minds and “come away from the accursed place”; needless to say in vain.